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British Columbia History
British Columbia Historical Federation
Vol. 32, No. 1
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$4.00 Volume 32, NO. 1 Winter 1998 - 99 ISSN 1195-8294 Historical News Journal of the B.C. Historical Federation wt£inn d' c5JteWfV." MEMBER SOCIETIES Member Societies and their Secretaries are responsible for seeing that the correct address for their society is up to date. Please send any change to both the Treasurer and the Editor at the addresses inside the back cover. The Annual Return as at October 31 should include telephone numbers for contact. MEMBERS' DUES for the current year were paid by the following Societies: Box 284, Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M7 3190 - 271 St. Aldergrove, B.C. V4W 3H7 Box 40, D'Arcy, B.C. VON 1L0 RR#1, Site 1C, Comp 27, Nakusp, B.C. VOG 1R0 Box-111, Atlin, B.C. VOW 1A0 Box 580, Grand Forks, B.C. VOH 1H0 Box 97, Bowen Island, B.C. VON 1G0 6501 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby, B.C. V5G 3T6 Box 172, Chemainus, B.C. VOR 1K0 P.O. Box 1014, Duncan, B.C. V9L 3Y2 Box 1452, Parksville, B.C. V9P 2H4 P.O. Box 74, Cranbrook, B.C. V1C 4H6 c/o A. Loveridge, S.22, C.11, RR#1, Galiano. VON 1P0 Box 218, Hedley, B.C. VOX 1K0 207 Seymour Street, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 2E7 5203 Trans Canada Highway, Koksilah, B.C. VOR 2C0 402 Anderson Street, Nelson, B.C. V1L 3Y3 c/o Box 274, Lantzville, B.C. VOR 2H0 P.O. Box 933, Station A, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5N2 P.O. Box 1262, Merritt, B.C. V1K 1B8 1541 Merlynn Crescent, North Vancouver, B.C. V7J 2X9 Box 317, Celista, B.C. VOE 1L0 Box 281, Princeton, B.C. VOX 1W0 587 Beach Road, Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1K7 129 McPhillips Avenue, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2T6 10840 Innwood Rd. North Saanich, B.C. V8L 5H9 Box 301, New Denver, B.C. VOG 1S0 Box 34003 17790 #10 Hwy, Surrey, B.C. V3S 8C4 Box 122, Van Anda, B.C. VON 3K0 P.O. Box 405, Trail, B.C. V1R 4L7 P.O. Box 3071, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X6 P.O. Box 43035, Victoria North, Victoria, B.C. V8X 3G2 Alberni District Historical Society Alder Grove Heritage Society Anderson Lake Historical Society Arrow Lakes Historical Society Atlin Historical Society Boundary Historical Society Bowen Island Historians Burnaby Historical Society Chemainus Valley Historical Society Cowichan Historical Society District 69 Historical Society East Kootenay Historical Association Gulf Islands Branch, BCHF Hedley Heritage Society Kamloops Museum Association Koksilah School Historical Society Kootenay Museum & Historical Society Lantzville Historical Society Nanaimo Historical Society Nicola Valley Musuem & Archives North Shore Historical Society North Shuswap Historical Society Princeton & District Museum & Archives Qualicum Beach Historical & Museum Society Salt Spring Island Historical Society Sidney & North Saanich Historical Society Silvery Slocan Historical Society Surrey Historical Society Texada Island Historical Society Trail Historical Society Vancouver Historical Society Victoria Historical Society AFFILIATED GROUPS Kootenay Lake Historical Society Lasqueti Island Historical Society Nanaimo and District Museum Society Okanagan Historical Society SUBSCRIPTIONS / BACK ISSUES Published winter, spring, summer and fall by British Columbia Historical Federation P.O. Box 5254, Station B Victoria, B.C. V8R 6N4 A Charitable Society recognized under the Income Tax Act. Subscriptions $12 per year For addresses outside Canada, add $6 per year Back issues of the British Columbia Historical News are available in microform from Micromedia Limited, 20 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2N8, phone (416) 362-5211, fax (416) 362-6161, toll free 1-800-387-2689. This publication is indexed in the Canadian Index published by Micromedia. Indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index. Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 1245716. Financially assisted by Box 537, Kaslo, B.C. VOG 1M0 c/o P. Forbes, Lasqueti Island, B.C. VOR 2J0 100 Cameron Road, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2X1 Box 313, Vernon, B.C. V1T 6M3 Historical News Journal of the B.C. Historical Federation Volume 32, No. 1 Winter 1998 -99 EDITORIAL Dear Readers, This issue marks the end of an era. Your editor has enjoyed ten years of processing a wide variety of writings on many aspects of local and provincial history. I have met, or become "pen pals" with citizens living in places like Fort Nelson, Atlin, Hosmer, Telkwa, Tofino, as well as established historians in major centres, plus staff and students at universities and colleges. We have benefitted tremendously with an influx of student essays thanks to Anne Yandle who upgraded the requirements for applications for our $500 scholarship by asking for an essay or term paper. The judges promise that the winner's essay will be published; they also forward several more entries to the editor. Your editor and her husband have carried the responsibility of mailing this magazine - feeling somewhat pressured by the frequently changing guidelines. Canada Post announced early in 1998 that, in their opinion, we did not exist. Our permit of twenty years standing, #4447, was not on a computer in Vancouver or Ottawa because Cranbrook Post Office (a Forwarding Centre for the whole East Kootenay) was loo small" to be on computer. Having said that, no one sent our re-registration forms until we contacted them a second and then a third time. Those frustrations plus other factors prompted us to seek a replacement editor. Commencing in January 1999 Fred Braches of Whonnock becomes Editor. We welcome him to the roster of volunteers working to preserve history & heritage. See News & Notes for an introduction of this enthusiastic gentleman. I will be contributing in a small way with News & Notes plus B.C. Historical Federation reports or notices. Naomi Miller COVER CREDIT Writing lessons were a regular part of schooling when we were children. In British Columbia MacLean method was taught, Shirley Cuthbertson tells us, from 1921 to 1996. The illustrations from several of the work books appear on the cover. The General Movement Exercise is from Compendium No. 4 for Grades IV & V, 1921. The Position of Arms and Paper is from the MacLean Method Teacher's Manual, 1921. (Left handers were acknowledged later.) CONTENTS FEATURES Lowery PO'd 2 by Ron Welwood H.B. MacLean's Method of Writing 6 by Shirley Cuthbertson Walter Moberly: A Forgotten Pathfinder 11 by Barry Cotton The Retribution of D.G.F. Macdonald C.E 14 by Barry Cotton Lytton Alfalfa 17 by V.C Brink Unapologetically Jewish: Unapologetically Canadian 18 by Carrie SchLtppner Capilano Love Story 24 by Patricia Koretcbuk My Dearest Harriet from Robert Burnaby 29 Fort Victoria and H.B. Co. Doctors 30 by Dr. Joyce Clearihue NEWS and NOTES 35 BOOKSHELF Peetz; AReel for All Time 28 Review by Kelsey McLeod Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs 36 Review by Kenneth Mackenzie From Summit to Sea 36 Review by Robert Turner Beloved Dissident Eve Smith 37 Review by Linda Hale Hope and Forty Acres 37 The Forgotten Side ofthe Border 38 Reviews by E.L. Affleck The First Nations of British Columbia 38 Review by Jos Dyck Pioneer Legacy; Chronicles ofthe Lower Skeena 39 Mighty River: A Portrait ofthe Fraser 39 Reviews by George Newell No Better Land: Diaries of Bishop Hills 40 Review by Phyllis Reeve Manuscripts and correspondence to the editor are to be sent to Fred Braches, RO. Box 130, Whonnock, B.C. V2W 1V9 or Email: braches@netcom.ca. Correspondence regarding subscriptions is to be directed to the Subscription Secretary (see inside back cover). Printed in Canada by Kootenay Kwik Print Ltd. Lowery POyd1 by Ron Welwood During Canada's formative years postal service was provided through decentralized cooperative arrangements. This service was later formalized with the creation of the post office department, one of the first departments formed by the federal government after Confederation (the government took over postal service on 1 April 1868 — a rather interesting day selection). The mail service grew along with the development ofthe railways and by 1857 there were specially equipped cars called railway post offices. By 1863 the trial period for these travelling post offices was over and an order-in-council established standards for their use. Thus as the Canadian Pacific Railway stretched across Canada in the 1880s, national mail service eventually became more reliable as well as more readily available from sea to sea. Railway post offices made it possible to carry mail quickly over long distances and, at the same time, to be sorted en route. In British Columbia the mountainous terrain inhibited a vast network of interconnecting rail lines, so lake steamers often provided the best and most economical links. In some instances, they were the only links between communities. RPOs in the southeastern section of the province were located on the southern route ofthe CPR through Crowsnest Pass and the Kootenays to the Okanagan as well as on the short rail runs and the connecting steamers of the Kootenay, Arrow and Okanagan Lakes.2 Thus RT. Lowery, who had sporadic altercations with both the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Post Office Department, jeopardized the distribution of his newspapers when he criticized these two very large corporations. Robert Thornton Lowery (12 April 1859 - 20 May 1921), frequendy referred to as "Colonel" Bob3, was an eccentric Kootenay newspaper editor, publisher and financier whose acid pen frequendy got him into trouble. His penchant to attack the establishment became legendary and in Lowery's Claim4 his biting sarcasm, particularly against politicians and organized religion, eventually lead to a series of conflicts with the postal authorities. Although he had a Christian upbringing, Colonel Bob was not a churchgoer. However, he did have a humanistic concept of religion which was graphically described in The Ledge (New Denver): "I have my own ideas in regard to religion, but I ask no one to accept them. I believe that every mind should be free to act according to the light within or without. I have located a short trail over the divide to the great beyond but unlike creed trails, heaven is along mine at every step, and it is not necessary to die in order to get some of it. Other trails, said to lead where Peter takes the tickets, have all kinds of tolls and restrictions. In fact some of them keep a man partially broke all the while. "All drummers for creed routes will tell you that every one is born loaded to the eyes with sin, and bound to be damned if it is not eradicated with creed sarsaparilla . . . The travellers along my trail each carry a pass that entitles them to all privileges at the end ofthe journey None of them believe that the Creator is a fool or a demon.. .My trail has plenty ofthe sunshine of love, mercy gentleness, kindness and other rays of light that bless and sweeten those who travel it. None of the pilgrims believe that God runs for the elect an eternal picnic of song honey and harps on a golden floor upstairs, while in the basement a heavenly Cape Nome is in operation, where the ice never clinks in the glass, and everybody has teeth, while the sulphur smokes eternally They could not believe that God represented as being all-powerful, would be so wicked as to keep untold millions in torment when a wave of his hand would close up hell forever. Only man, poor, weak, cowardly unregenerate man could ever have created such a place. Poor man! what a sucker he is sometimes. "Along my trail there are no costly churches built by people who live in poverty and whose children often suffer for food let alone education, while bishop and lesser clerical lights live on the tenderloin steaks the of land None of my pilgrims wear their pantaloons out at the knees praying for God to change his program to suit their ideas or desires.. . . It is a pleasant road that I have built, with others, to that great territory from whence no prospector has ever returned .. (9 August 1900) This creed was rephrased and published in The Ledge three years later "Our Creed In order to satisfy those who are anxious to know our creed we give it herewith: Fear and superstition is not religion. Belief without proof is not religion. Faith without fact is not religion. What is religion? To love justice, to long for the right, to lave mercy to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits — to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty and fight slavery of every kind; to make a happy home, to love the beauty of art and nature, to cultivate the mind to be familiar with the mighty thoughts expressed by genius, the noble deeds of all the world; to cultivate courage and cheerfulness and make others happy to fill lift with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words; to discard error, destroy prejudice, to cultivate hope, to do the best that can be done, and then to be resigned — This is the religion of reason, the creed of science, and satisfies the heart and brain. We believe in this creed even if occasionally our feet stray from the trail and . strike the rocks out in the brush." (27 August 1903) In June 1901, Lowery launched his monthly publication, Lowery's Claim, in New Denver. Although Number One is no longer available for perusal, the next issue (July) stated "LOWERY'S CLAIM, my latest journalistic baby met with a warm reception. . . has caused all kinds of remarks.. . A few have been cruel enough to say that it is not legitimate, while. . . its coming B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Volume X. Nimimr Sfi. NKW UICNVER, B C, JUNK 4. 1003. I'jiktc ?2.00 Year, At,v?»- means the destruction of much that is evil in state, church and society It is growing rapidly and never cries for government pap.. . .It has a cast-iron constitution, and expects as it comes down the pike of age to fight many a battle with the foes of truth. If it should fall and be buried beneath the heavy sod of public opinion its papa will not weep but keep a-going." Evidendy Lowery fully expected criticism and opposition. This journal was devoted to Truth and Humor5 and "Many tenderfeet, both east and west, have been shocked by reading the first issue of this journal If they will take the treatment regularly their minds will soon be freed from the cobwebs of fear and the pollywobbles of slavish customs". Almost every page of this issue contained what some might have considered offensive articles as the following sample of bylines indicates: "To Kill a Woman's Love" (a cynical view of marriage), "Creed Slaves", "Sexual Starvation" (remember this is the era of Victorian civility), "Protection from Priests" and "Grandma Warns Us" (a satire from "Grandma Gumption" warning that "People are bound to read the CLAIM, Thornton. The very ones who make the biggest fuss, about its vulgarity will read it first to gratify their purient curiosity about the things they think are shameful. . .but I warn you Thornton, you can't publish a paper like that an not git yourself talked about") Each issue continued to mock "creed promoters", "gospel mills" and the "amen corner" ("When a man prays he gently insinuates that God does not know his own business, or else has a short memory " March 1902). It appeared that Lowery was deliberately asking for trouble by this constant goading6; and a piqued Bella Chadwick wrote to the editor of the Nelson Daily Miner "It is a pity there are not enough respectable women to get together, and give the editor of that low, paltry filthy monthly paper published lately a sound whipping in public for his insults. (I might suggest they wear gloves during the process). . . the thing that edits it... having such a mean, beastial puny little mind " (4 August 1901) Around December 1901 the Canadian Pacific Railway began its boycott of Lowery's Claim by not allowing the journal to be sold on its trains.7 One year later the Post Office Departments attention ". . . was called to the contents of this publication by different people in British Columbia, and that an examination ofthe paper made at that time showed it to contain articles offending against decency and good morals, in consequence of which it was, on 13 January 1903, prohibited from transmission by post. '* Since Lowery was also publishing his weekly newspaper, The Ledge (New Denver), it was easy to use this alternative vehicle to thwart the Post Office Department and vent his anger "The mailed hand has struck a blow at freedom and pushed Lowery's Claim sub rosa... The mission of Lowery's Claim is largely with a view to showing up the false system under which we live. . . .For being this kind of a paper the mailed hand has struck it a blow like a cold blast from Russia ...It is the most truthful journal in Canada, and has been endorsed by thousands of people, some of whom are Ministers. It has been condemned by thousands who are too bigoted to appreciate it, too ignorant to understand it, or too crooked to read it without trembling. To wrong thinking people its every issue has been like senna with wormwood as a chaser." (29 January 1903) Lowery also publicly scorned the Post-Master General, Sir William Mulock', even while appealing the department's decision. His arguments and promise to be of no further trouble were successful and Lowery's Claim was reinstated with mailing privileges within a matter of weeks.10 During these trying times Lowery received regional as well as international support"; and, although victorious, only four more issues of Lowery's Claim were published (March - June 190312) It then was voluntarily suspended for a litde over two years. Perhaps Colonel Bob needed a rest from the turmoil. He made a trip to the "cent belt" (Ontario) to visit his mother and old acquaintances and, also, Lowery's other ventures required his attention - between 1903 and 1905, he started publications in Nelson, Poplar, and Fernie. "Lowery's Claim has risen from the dead, and for the second time spreads its wings over the earth. Refreshed after a sleep of 23 months. . . .it will proceed to toast the evils of church, state and society in the flames of satire, sarcasm and ridicule... It tips its hat to no man merely because he wears a white cravat, hammers a pulpit with rhythmic precision and bellows to Jesus like a Missourian calling the hired help to supper. It respects all B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 ^a, monthly'journal that yon do not mwt ov«ry day. Tte home Urn tbe W«t, Iaf(rum tbetmokeof crowded cttfca and U»e hum of grinding com- moreo. High up in the mountain^, Rnr- rounded by (scenery that would drive fiftmo (irtistfl mad h il]i joy, if* editor nita done to heaven aod drawn inspiration from tbe ricids **¥*'******« tiOWtui's Ct-aiw i» principally derated to Troth mid Hamar. it luut hoefci of fritwriA jwmI Hiti'QitM- IV it* hated o*nl lorod jii*t aannrdiiijr to how It ftrtkra Hit* human inhut. It prvwL'H tho IImil btwv (4ni« mitt ttJwjiyn ih>*.ls d-oni thr toji. lt ho«u to no creed, <-iiugC3 lo no gotl or dovil, and feat* uottiirig, ont even lh« ahrrilT. It in » nltam crusher, unil nhita. hi U-ar the maul: Intm evorjthiug tfanr ie evil. Tt is the atotit independent magavJiie ic the. world Mid pnnthTS to noi:l»!U>, party, »eot, crted, color, HiAfr 01- fat srfviTtiser. lt nan [*y ore always in ni|-Iit, and every shift ahotva that If- ia increasing. lt- has tout-bed a chord iu tltts human heart that vibrato with it* mn«lc wherwer tho EnglMi laiig- Oftgo brrmka the oajn« ******** If you want to got in lino with it, get in txuiy as the circulation » limited to a million. No i*uiple Mipita are sent to anyone, but it in fumlehed firo to alt people who are one hundred youm old. INwanga ftroc Id any tart of this wicked earth * * * * * «#%t^M^^t^t%#M4 mmmhus ail Lnrrons LOWERY 0 rM24VEB.».C thoroughly honest parsons, even though they be insane, but has nothing but green paint for those self-important heaven brokers who are in the business for the long green and chicken pie, and who exist upon the fears and superstitions ofthe human family instead of mucking for their ham and eggs. It is a safe bet that such theological parasites have no use for this journal and their hammers will soon be pounding from ocean to ocean."'(October 1905) Colonel Bob Lowery was back and his cynical writing seemed to he bolder than ever. Each number of Lowery's Claim covered a variety of topics, but his obsessive, vitriolic articles against organized religion were beginning to become tiresome and far too spiteful. The religious faction became impatient with his frequent pillorying and an outraged clergy petitioned Ottawa. Once again the Post Office Department evaluated this journal and declared that "Lowery's Claim, No. 35, dated July 1906, has been found to be filled with articles of a low order, most of them being indecent and obscene, and therefore it has been debarred the privileges ofthe mails. "I3 This time Lowery's appeals to the Post Office Department's bureaucrats, including the Postmaster General of Canada, Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, fell on deaf ears. Ironically, Lowery had written an explosive editorial against the PO prior to this latest mail boycott. An American socialist paper, Appeal to Reason14, had been banned from the use of Canada's mail service and this provided the opportunity for Colonel Bob to vent his anger against "A Postal Evil" "The officials behind the stamps at Ottawa are carried away with the mad desire to make the post office pay dividends just as though it was a grocery store or a pawnbroker's skinnery In order to do this they pay miserable wages to many ofthe employees; sell stamps printed on inferior and almost rotten paper; restrict the spread of intelligence by a high postal rate upon literature; and in many other ways cripple an institution that should be operated solely in the interest ofthe people, and not for the making of records by a few grasping politicians. "As an instance ofthe tortose [sic] movement of the red-taped money-in-stamps postal administration look at the mail service between Phoenix and Greenwood As a slow thing it has the millenium [sic] backed clear over the dump. The distance between the towns is scarcely five miles (8 km) yet it takes letters so long to pass between these copper cities that the stamps are mildewed by the time a letter reaches its destination unless a preservative spit is used in their attachment. Such a snail-like method of handling mail. . . could be remedied in a day if the proper kind of gray matter rested within the upper stope of those who think they know how to operate a post office department. ". . . the ordinary government officials . . are so dense, dull-witted incompetent and disobliging as a rule that nothing but continental prodding will wake them up to a sense of duty and justice. Fallen into a rut of routine, flanked on one side by red tape and upon the other by politics the public can roast in brimstone until they are ready If people in the vicinity will kick often enough the mail service. . . will eventually be remedied .. Everything comes to those who rustle while they wait." (Greenwood Ledge, 17 May 1906) Although this editorial was written prior to his monthly journal being banned from postal service, a defiant Colonel Bob was not silenced even after the post office shut out his publication. The very next issue of Lowery's Claim boldly declared that "The post office department of Canada has grown afraid of Lowery's Claim and strikes it a blow much the same as a sandbagger hits you with a lead pipe when you are not looking. The department notified us last week that our journal would not be permitted to circulate through the mails, owing to the objectionable character ofthe reading contained B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 therein. Oh dear!. . . why has the Laurier government undertaken to cause its editor financial loss by denying him the privilege that any little French rag has in Quebec. Because we are British, live in the west and dare to speak the truth must we be hounded by slavish minions of pope and parson who chance to have a say in the post office? Is there no freedom of speech or thought in Canada? ... The withdrawal of the mailing privileges will not cause the Claim to suspendpublication."'(August 1906)15 Tough talk is cheap. Publishing can become onerous particularly when subscription sales and advertising decrease and bills cannot be paid16 so cessation of this publication was inevitable. The last number of Lowery's Claim, issued in September 1906, was delivered "Among the Angels. . . for the second time deposited in the tomb from which it may never arise. . . This journal has lived too soon to be generally popular, for the class of work it contained does not appeal to those sunk in the stagnant pond of creed custom, superstition and mental ossification . . . Like some parsons who say that they have a call to preach the gospel I also thought I had a call when I turned my Claim loose to reform the world ... The parsons say that I will be damned if I keep on; the post office has switched me onto a sidetrack, and the physicians say that I have a 'flat wheel' concealed within my internal anatomy. . . With these few remarks the shroud is folded over a journal that perhaps has been too intensely human . . . Au- men! Although Lowery's Claim was no longer published, Bob never stopped trying to distribute his own gospel through the sale of back issues. An advertisement in his Similkameen Star (Princeton) declared: "During the 37 months that Lowery's Claim was on earth it did business all over the world It was the most unique, independent and fearless journal ever produced in Canada. Political and theological enemies pursued it with the venom of a rattlesnake until the government shut it out ofthe mails, and its editor ceased to publish it partly on account of a lazy liver and partly because it takes a pile of money to run a paper that is outlawed There are still 20 different editions of this condemned journal in print. Send 10 cents and get one or $2 and get the bunch. R T. Lowery Greenwood B.C."(21 July 1914) During the life of his monthly journal, RT. Lowery, Editor and Financier, proclaimed that ". . . a method will yet be discovered that will smelt all evil out of the world and leave nothing but gold in the heart of man . . . so that we can keep the press running until a process is discovered that will jar all misery from this universe and annex it to the flower gardens in the New Jerusalem" It seems Colonel Bob was convinced that it was his public duty (destiny?) to denounce the duplicity of commercial, political or religious bureaucrats and their organizations. This conviction and his creed of being "devoted to Truth, Humor and Justice" was printed in each issue of Lowery's Claim. Unfortunately bravado and his almost paranoiac pillorying of Christian traditions became too much for the influential bureaucrats, particularly in the Post Office. After the collapse of Lowery's Claim, the once feisty newspaperman's passion and involvement with a variety of publishing endeavours diminished. Following its demise he only published and edited one newspaper, The Ledge, in Greenwood17; and Colonel Bob remained a resident of that community almost to the end of his days. However, his legacy of descriptive prose lives on in the microfilmed copies of his various publications. FOOTNOTES 1. Pun intended. Lowery's two dashes with the Canadian Post Office Department definitely had him po'd (a World War II armed forces slang term tor being angry, profoundly annoyed, indignant or "pissed off") The British Columbia Historical News has been registered for bulk mailing with Canada Post for over twenty years. However, in eariy 1998 the editor was informed that "Permit Number 4447 did not exist"; and according to the regulations the News must be registered with the Canadian Heritage Department in order to be eligible for subsidized postal service. Ironically, the registration papers were mailed, but received too late; so there has been a flurry of both oral and written communications with the post office bureaucracy to resolve this dilemma. Was the editor also po'd? It seems that almost every Canadian has a post office horror story; and this article reveals rhe "postal evil" as viewed by R.T. Loweiy. 2. R. Thurfow Fraser, "Railway Post Offices" in George H. Melvin, The Post Offices of British Colombia, 1858-1970. Vernon, B.C.: Wayside Press, 1972. 181-185. 3- For biographical information sec Ron Welwood, "The Wit and Wisdom of'Colonel' Bob Lowery" to be published in [Boundary History: Report ofthe Boundary Historical Society] {No. 14, 1999?) and/or Branson A Litde, "Robert T. Lowery: Editor, Publisher & Printer" British Columbia Historical News 31.2 (Spring 1998): 18- 23. 4. Lowefys Claim. Monthly. New Denver. #1, June 1901 - #23, April 1903 Vancouver. #24, May 1903 - #25, June 1903 (suspended July 1903 -Sept. 1905) Nelson. #26, Oct, 1905 - #37, Sept. 1906 For a bibliographic listing of Lowery's publications, 1879 - 1920, see Ron Welwood s "The Wit and Wisdom of'Colonel* Bob Lowery". 5. The editorial masthead proudly proclaimed that "LOWERY'S CLAIM... is devoted to Truth and Humor. It... a sent free to aU persons over 100 years of age. It is a Sham Crusher, and will fight all frauds to a red finale. It costs $1 a year in any part ofthe world but lark of mail facilities prevents it being mailed to Mars, Hades and other out-of-the-way places... Ifyou desire this journal do not depend upon your neighbor, but send in your white or green dollar before the thought grows cold.'(July 1901) 6. George T. Moir's Sinners and Saints (Victoria, BC: 1947?) refers to Lowery as "a humorous writer, but with a smutty style. He had good literary talent and might have got somewhere except for his dirty, biting sarcasm against all preachers and reUgion in general" Moir felt that one particular issue denouncing the Baptists was "all degrading and untrue. .. I went over, bought the whole edition and burned it in the jftw*."(109) Perhaps the unmicrofilmed copies of Lowery's Claim (#17. Oct. 1902 - #23, April 1903) contained some of Bob Lowery's hotter copies and were destroyed in a similar manner. 7. "This journal is the most truthful in Canada and has to apparently suffer occasionally. TheCPR has boycotted it, and will not allow the news agents 0 sell it on the trains." (July 1902). "Eighteen months ago the CPR. struck against it being sold on the trains, and this strike is still on...." (May 1903) 8. Letter from AB. Agfesworth, Ottawa, to RT. Loweiy, Ndson, 12 November 1906. R.T. Lowery fends. BC Archives and Records Service (BCARS) Record No. S/F/L95. It seems that Agksworth (status unknown) was assigned to write a letter to Lowery, although it appears he was not affiliated with the Post Office Department CI made appUcation to the Post office Department to ascertain the facts ofthe case.") Boycotted by the CP.R. and "Denied the math, Lowery, like T. Eaton & Co.. uses the express companies to distribute his small packages of merchandise" (Nelson Tribune, 4 April 1903) 9. "Mubck should issue a code of instructions to editors. Innocent publishers are liable to be ruined at any time by not knowing the love our press censor has for prudes." "Lowery's Claim is notdeadsimplybecause Canada's post office officials in Ottawa are tainted with prejudice and bigotry The poorfellows cannot help it andare to be pitied.''(Ledge, 5 February 1903) 10. Telegram sent to the New Denver postmaster. "Ottawa, Ont Feb. 17. 1903. Lowerys Claim removed from list of prohibited publications. Inform publisher. AW.Throop, Acting Secretary'(Ledge, 19 February 1903) 11. The April 1903 edition of Lowerys Claim printed a selection of letters received through the mail (the style of writing appears to be suspiciously familar): "Manchester, England-... it appears the brightest, smartest and most interesting reading I have come across for some time...". "Dawson, Yukon.- For the time you seem to have retiredin favor ofthe sword, judging from the trouble you have had with Mubck However. lam with you and stiU bet that the butcher will kill the sheep." "Philadelphia, Pa.- Infernal outrage yourbeing boycottedand badgered this way, and you have my sympathy I see nothing objectionable in your CLAIM, just the reverse." "Boston, Mass. -lam pleased to know that you have won out re the CLAIM. Keep right on telling the truth. "Kootenay Lake Historical Society Archives (Kaslo) KLA 988.215 Box 16 File 7. 12. In the June 1903 issue, an unrepentant Lowery wrote an article entitled "Pulpit and Pounders* where he stated that "Ifoil to see how churches encourage a truer or nobler life. The noblest people have no use for areas although many of them have not the moral courage to declare themselves against what the world thinks.... This journal has been hounded and its editor persecuted by a class of holy Willies whose little, rotten souls are incapable of being good in spite ofthe fact that they send wind messages to Jehovah every night of their miserable Uves.... Give us churches filled with love, life and truth. Banish gloom and make all sermons breezy, frill of wit, humor, reason and common sense, without any silly twaddle about God and every gospel mill in the land will have standing room only..." 13. Letter from Wm. Smith, Secretary, Post Office Department, Ottawa, to R.T. Lowery, Esq.. Publisher "Lowery's Claim", Nelson, 3 August 1906. R.T. Lowery fends. BC Archives and Records Service (BCARS) Record No. S/F/L95. The fonds only contains PO correspondence outward and not correspondence inward (from Lowery to the PO). In Ottawa, the author checked the massive PO Register at the National Archives (RG3 Vol.3428,1905-1911 - this tome is over 2.5cm thick) and although □Sere were Loweiy entries, the original correspondence no longer exists. The Hies of "Objectionable Literature" were also checked without success (RG3 Vol.2188). 14. See "They Protest", The Ledge (Greenwood), 17 May 1906 and also, Canada. House of Commons. Debates. 20 June 1906: 5615- 5616. 15. In his newspaper. The Ledge (Greenwood), an unrepentant Lowery declared "The freedom ofthe press is a question which concerns every citizen of a free country If a postmaster general can refitse carrying privileges through the mails to a newspaper, the minister of justice may deprive a citizen of'free speech... If the post master general thinks that he is the only person capable of judging between right and wrong, he must be an egotistical imbecile." (9 August 1906) 16. In order to maintain a constant cash flow, Lowery often printed variations ofthe following messages in his publications: "A blue mark here indicates that your subscription is due, and that the editor would like to see your money." or "One ofthe noblest works of creation is the man who ah/ays pays the printer." 17. Alrhough R.T. Lowery was the editor and financier of The Ledge (1906-1920), The Oldest Mining Camp Newspaper in British Columbia", he was also the propietor and financier of another newspaper. The Similkameen Star (Princeton), between 1914-1918. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 . B. MacLean's Method of Writing by Shirley Cuthbertson George fay School, Spring planting, individual plots, If you attended elementary school in British Columbia between 1921 and 1965, your handwriting was influenced, if not permanendy formed, by Mr. H.B. MacLean. His student compendiums and teacher's manual were on the authorized lists all that time - the longest-serving textbooks in the province's education system. Did you learn to make ovals, loops and lines on a slant, and to be careful to hold your arm and hand so that your fingers could glide on the paper? Henry Bovyer MacLean was born in Mount Herbert, Prince Edward Island, in 1884. He attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and began teaching at the age of 17 in a one-room rural school. After further study at the MacDonald Institute of Ontario, he returned to RE.I. to teach manual training, nature studies, home gardening and French at MacDonald Consolidated School, where he was vice-principal and later principal, from 1905 to 1909. "Wages and opportunities for advancement were greater in British Columbia", he recollects, "and many people from the maritime provinces left the east coast to Victoria, B.C c. 1914.. Principal H.B. MacLean. Ptioto courtesy of MacLean Family Archives. find new homes in the western province."1 In 1908/9, he came to British Columbia, taught at South Park elementary in Victoria and in 1910 was the first Principal of George Jay, which became famous for its school gardens. In 1915 he joined the staff of the Normal School in Victoria In 1916 Mr. MacLean joined the staff of the Vancouver Normal School. He taught grammar, school law, and penmanship. MacLean's father had "always emphasized good writing" 2, and his son took an even greater interest. Over the next few years, teachers marking high school entrance examinations were among others who complained about the standard of writing among B.C. schoolchildren. In 1919 H.B. MacLean was asked to be chairman of the committee appointed by the Superintendent of Education, Dr. S.J. Willis, to survey textbooks and recommend a good writing manual for pupils in the elementary grades. According to his daughter Jean, the committee gathered books from most English-speaking countries. The committee was willing to recommend an outstanding American system, but they wanted a few changes made. When the author did not want to make the changes, MacLean offered (in 1921) to write not only a teachers manual, but the compendium for each of the grades. The superintendent gave his approval - if he could do the texts by September, 1921. MacLean asked his brother-in-law Rowan Mackenzie to assist him, and the two spent the summer at the double-pedestal desk MacLean had made for the job. Jean remembers vividly that "every flat surface in the house was covered with sheets of paper - the two men did all the exercises for every booklet - each one had to be done perfecdy". May, Henrys wife did all the typing from hand written notes by H.B., (she did not have any training), and helped with proofreading. Fortunately for the success ofthe endeavour, they found the publisher, Clarke & Stuart, very cooperative. British Columbia authorized Gage's Copy Books from 1884-1901; Gage's Copy Books "Natural Slant" from 1906- 1912. The set of manuals authorized by rhe Department prior to the MacLean Method was New Method Writing (1912-1920). These were copy-books in the traditional style: a line of writing at the top was copied a number of times down the page, then the pupil went on to the next page. Hie training method was repetition, based on the assumption that fine muscle control would develop with practice of letters and sentences. "Muscular movement writing" was popular from the turn ofthe century, but where some authors recommended using only the muscles of the forearm, others recommended using the muscles of the upper arm and swinging the hand while keeping the fingers still. MacLean combined the two for the early years.and laid B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 the foundation for later forearm method "without forcing both pupils and teachers through a wearisome, tedious, difficult attempt to have the child develop the penmanship methods ofthe adult."3 "The so- called muscular motion method of handwriting has been in use in many schools for a number of years, . . .but was found wanting in many ways. There was a certain stiffness and inefficiency about it, and it remained for a teacher in rhe Normal School of Victoria to take to pieces the accepted method and reconstruct it on more fluent lines."4 The McLean Method of Muscular Movement Writing drew on contemporary ideas expressed in the texts surveyed by the committee, but the original tide of the manual as well as the content soon began to be revised. The first edition is extremely detailed and includes pages 17 to 112 of the Senior Manual. This detail would be somewhat redundant to the teachers MacLean taught at Normal School, but would be valuable to teachers doing rhe correspondence course. The teacher's manual sets out the principles of "The MacLean Method Course": ".. .correct posture, penholding and paper placing, and the use of a free, rhythmic, gliding movement at a reasonable rate of speed. The fingers will assist in the detail of letter formation, but the hand should glide on the fingernails, while progressing across the page. Although this is not an exclusive arm movement, yet cramped finger movement should be avoided. This type of writing might well be called "combined movement," a fusion of arm movement and relaxed finger movement."5 The name "MacLean Method" was suggested by Superintendent S.J. Willis, because MacLean was well known in British Columbia. The most commonly used handwriting texts at the time usually had the author's name - the Palmer method, the Zaner method, etc. These were published in the United States, and used extensively in Canada - Palmer's Business Writing, the revised Canadian edition, was copyrighted in Canada in 1908. Ontario authorized the use ofthe teachers' manual developed by J.J. Bailey, but many Ontario teachers used MacLean's. Dr. Willis' approval was expressed in a letter: "The whole system is one of which you have every reason to be proud. . . .(It) is being received by teachers with much enthusiasm and it has already demonstrated in many schools that excellent work can be achieved by following the instructions given in your books."6 The first MacLean Teachers' Complete Manual was copyrighted in 1921 by Clarke & Stuart in Vancouver, and the last in 1966, (last printing 1996) by WJ. Gage Limited, Toronto. In a paper prepared in the early 60s, MacLean states that the cost for individual compendiums for each pupil during the first six grades is less than twenty cents per year. From the MacLean home, diagnostic and remedial reports were given free of charge the only writing system that provided this service. The Correspondence Course was available to teachers free of charge, and a graded series of lessons was submitted by teachers and returned with helpful comments and suggestions - free. Certificates were issued at a nominal charge - 75 <f for the teacher's certificate in 1921. Correspondence indicates that Langford Elementary school spent $20.50 to cover rhe cost of writing certificates and postage in 1978. 1997 was the first year that no teachers sent in for certificates for pupils - some older teachers continued teaching the MacLean Method until 1996. After he retired from the Normal School, he "advertised" services related to The MacLean Method - he gave presentations at teachers' conferences, went to schools on invitation ... letters of thanks indicate that services were given free. Comparing the first and later teacher's manuals, MacLean's wording and tech- H.B. MacLean, ca. 1921, showing the correct position for good writing. Photo courtesy of MacLean Family Archives. niques developed to fit in with contemporary methods; in fact, he revised and edited his manual even after 1966. This, as is the case with many school textbooks, can be disconcerting, as revisions are not noted on the tide page, and although the editions are numbered, the copyright date is "1921", until 1966. His expressions may have been refined and updated, but the principles remained consistent. Revisions probably came from MacLean's teaching experience, but he also took Sprott's Business Writing at Normal School in 1920, correspondence courses from the American Penman, Zaner s and Palmer's "Muscular Movement" method (his certificate reads "for Superior Ability",) and went to a summer institute in New York to get his teacher's certificate in Palmer's method in 1923. Ball point pens were introduced in 1961. MacLean suggested using a desk-top style because "it has a large base and is well-balanced". B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 THE MacLEAN METHOD ALPHABETS AND FIGURES. -^sCf-—■J^^^^-^PeS^CS The smaller ones are hard for younger pupils to hold properly because "they have a small, slippery base". They skip over soiled spots (oils from hands). He stipulates a ". . . free-flowing, non-smudging ink" to allow for "a light touch and freedom of movement".7 MacLean was sensitive to students' future need to have a good handwriting for success in business. J.H. Beatty, President ofthe Sprott-Shaw School of Commerce, wrote to MacLean in 1963 that "Your letter and figure forms, as shown in MacLean Method Writing Books are simplified and modernized Spencerian. These forms are most suitable for business purposes." In the 60s MacLean described the revival in British schools of the Italic script, and rejected its adoption. He concluded that the requirement for steel pens with a square edge may be satisfactory for artists but is not practical for school and business writing. The script would cause the loss of the "fluent, easy and effective movement" of the cursive writing style which had been developed in North America.8 The MacLean's style of writing is based on the three s's of writing: slant, spacing and size. Legibility required attention to alignment as well as the formation of letters. At the same time, he repeats in almost every edition: "The pupil's enjoyment of his writing should not be hampered by undue emphasis upon the mechanics." The exercises in the compendiums are designed to reinforce rhythm. Teachers were encouraged to use rhythm to help chil dren to write fluendy - songs, verses, even a metronome could be used to demonstrate. He recommended that children start by writing on the blackboard, and that the teachers make a game of it or use their imagination to make it interesting. "The teacher should want to teach writing. Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm."9 Although MacLean's manual and compendiums deal with the practicalities of writing, they contain a great many suggestions that are simply good principles for teaching: #63 from "A Hundred Helpful Hints" (35th ed.) 'Writing "lines" should never be given as a punishment. The association of ideas discourages interest in handwriting." #47 "Do not talk too much in the Writing lesson. . . .Pupils learn to write by writing, rather than by listening to the teacher telling them how to write." #67 "The honest attempt of pupils, no matter how crude, should never be ridiculed." #74 "Instructions should be positive, not negative: "Write carefully" not "Don't scribble." MacLean's objective was legible, rapid, fluent writing, with reasonable uniformity. "Printing" is called "manuscript" in the first edition, and the first compendium is simply a printed alphabet and a few simple words and sentences. In year 2, MacLean gives clear instructions on when and how to make the transition to cursive writing. Although the primary grades emphasize learning the "correct" formation of letters, the senior and advanced levels offer alternative forms and the teacher's manual expressly allows for individual styles. 8 Students in senior grades are to strive for "Legibility, simplicity and beauty in standard and optional letter forms". Teachers should stress "The courtesy, social and economic value of good handwriting." "Seniors in grade five especially may be encouraged to develop an attractive signature - legible and artistic." (35th ed.) perhaps this is why so many old textbooks have their owner's name in many places! (Teacher's Manual, 35th ed.) and (Teacher's Manual, 1966) "Left-handed- ness" is dealt with in the chapter on "Special Problems in the Teaching of Writing". "The problems to be considered are: (1) Is left-handedness a disadvantage socially or economically? (2) If so, can the handedness of a child be changed without causing stammering or other disorders? (3) What are the best techniques to use in making the change? (4) If a child is dom- inandy left-handed, should he be forced to use the right hand in writing or in other manual activities? (5) What are the best techniques to use in teaching left-handed pupils to write with the left hand?" MacLean's suggestions are "By means of tests... .try to discover the native handedness of any pupil who seems to prefer to use his left hand. ..." (He refers teachers to pages 418 to 420 of the Thirty-Fourth Yearbook of the Society for the Study of Education, 1935 for copies of such tests.) "If the child has developed the habit . . .but is not dominandy left-handed, explain to him and to his parents the possible disadvantages . . . Try to enlist their co-operation. ... Be patient and sympathetic. Decrease the amount of written wok to be done. . .. If however, the child or the parent insists upon a continuance of lefhandedness, do not compel the change but give the child the utmost assistance in developing the greatest possible efficiency in the use ofthe left hand." (35th ed.) He repeats this general principle and offers suggestions for the position of the feet, arms and hand and for placing the paper, at each compendium level. During the 33 years that MacLean taught at Vancouver Normal School, he carried a full teaching load, organized and led many ofthe "extracurricular activities", travelled and gave lectures and presentations from coast to coast, and organized B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 and maintained a family business. (His daughter Jean says "he could get by on five hours sleep a night.") As well as teaching British Columbia teachers, he had started in the 30s to send out a correspondence course (free) to teachers in other provinces who used the MacLean textbooks. Teachers sent pupils' handwriting pieces to him each year for grading, and he (and later Jean as well), worked on the papers, wrote letters and coded the batches, while his wife May filled and packed each batch, sent bills (including postage) and kept the records. "The Postal Service was wonderful - they brought the big parcels early." (Jean) This letter from Comox Airport Rural School District is typical of many in the family archives: "I feel your personal comments on their writing are of great value and it seems that after each evaluation in the past 3 years I have noted a rise in the quality of writing. Not only are the comments helpful, but coming from the author of the course, they speak with much greater authority than any comment I can make." Another teacher mentions "kindly criticisms" which "inspired one to fresh effort". When the marking load became too heavy, teachers used the compendium standards to judge the lower levels, and if they thought the pupils had made progress, sent in for certificates. They continued to send some work to him for personal diagnosis and comments. Mr. MacLean judged the "senior" and "advanced" students' progress ("improvement" and "proficiency" appear on the certificates sent out.) Elementary pupils and teachers alike placed great value on these certificates - framed copies and sets of teachers' certificates are prominent among papers saved in family collections, and donated to archives and museums. The busiest time of year in the MacLean household was "certificate time": April, May and June, but through the year remedial work was prepared for some children and ordering and payment correspondence came and went. MacLean's publisher, Clarke & Smart, had straight pens made to a design which made the finger grip easier, "MacLean's" pen nibs, and also had "MacLean's Best Ever" pencils that were bigger and softer so they were easier for small children - "this helps prevent gripping". Before the compendiums were available to all, the company also carried lined scribblers for practice. These were purchased by schools or by Parent Teacher Associations. MacLean's daughter Jean married, and while she and her husband lived in Halifax, Jean took over the Maritimes section, sending out teacher correspondence course materials to Normal schools in the four Maritime provinces, as well as student materials. She sent senior and advanced student papers to MacLean for grading. Later, on her return to Vancouver in 1957, she worked in his home office every day, taking over the record-keeping from her mother in I960. The office furnishings, materials and files which were her father's were set up in her basement when he moved. Between 1921 and 1964, the MacLean Method of Writing was officially adopted by education departments in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, English-speaking Catholic schools in Quebec, Manitoba (not universal), as well as British Columbia. Many years after he retired he still held the copyright on the method, and kept revising or supervising any changes that were introduced. When MacLean retired from the Normal School in 1949, a letter from Dr. Harold L. Campbell (retired Deputy Minister and Superintendent of Education for British Columbia) stated: "You have done a won derful job in evolving, developing, maintaining, servicing and promoting The MacLean System and I suppose it does not have an equal in any part of the World."'0 A reporter writes quoting MacLean: "a. . fringe benefit (of legible writing) . . . it's difficult to forge a really good penman."" MacLean had worked with the police, banks, lawyers and all levels of government on "questioned documents" for many years, and after retirement, he made it his other business, with a business card and a sheet listing his credentials. He mentions teaching at all levels, grading thousands of student and teacher writing samples annually, as well as lecturing at the training school for the British Columbia Provincial Police. He was involved with a number of court cases involving wills, anonymous letters, forgery and forensic evidence. Mr. MacLean travelled back east annually to give lectures in the teachers colleges in Truro, Memorial, Fredericton and Charlottetown. He also lectured in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. He combined instruction with promotion in a presentation that won many young teachers - and when he gave presentations to clubs or to public audiences, won critical praise from tough journalists. He was one of those teachers who was loved by his students, both elementary and college-age. As a teacher, he also had a secret weapon - he was an accomplished magician. He ". . . .frequendy entertains PROPER POSITION FOR ARMS AND COMPENDIUM FOR LEFT-HANDED PERSONS Xn& Jt&LS-&fi> c^J^^JL4c/cU^ B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 This picture of a display in the Royal B.C Museum shows a student's workbook, MacLean pen with replaceable nib, an ink bottle, box of nibs, ruler, scribbler and blotters. bers of the editorial staff, which ended: "Here was a man who when he died this week in Vancouver at 91 had truly left his mark - in the handwriting of millions of Canadians who for more than half a century in Canadian schools learned penmanship the MacLean's way. Toward the end of his life the Method fell into some disuse, criticized for being too regimented, too opposed to individualism. Perhaps. But it was the work of a man who wanted us to communicate better with each other. No small ideal."15 Photo courtesy of S. Cuthbertson. the crippled children and also gives a show for the inmates of British Columbia prisons."12 A 1955 advertisement includes old time fiddling, step dancing and the Island potato exhibition and championships, at the Prince of Wales College, EE.I. MacLean is on the bill as "Henry B. MacLean, Magician - A short demonstration of Blackboard Writing and One Hour of Comedy Magic".13 Whether the talk was on penmanship with a litde magic, or a magic presentation with a bit on penmanship, people were happily entertained and instructed. He was a life member of the Vancouver Magic Circle, and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. After his retirement, he gave presentations in schools, seniors homes, as well as to service clubs (he was president ofVancouver Kiwanis in 1930). Jean says "he was out a lot in the evenings". Not everyone appreciated MacLean's method of handwriting: Mamie Maloney, columnist for The Vancouver Sun Nov. 30, 1944, described "The method: devised by an obviously Gestapo-minded creature called MacLean,. ... as "... .a regimented, clear hand with no more individual characteristics than a fly spot." In another column, she said that the method "... was supposed to guarantee good penmanship in the schools of my day, but, like most educational tools, was bound to produce some conspicuous failures." To which MacLean replied (privately): "Don't you think it was perhaps a litde unkind for you to blame your poor handwriting on the MacLean Method?." Quoting from the Teacher's Manual (p. 49 in the 35th edition): "Legibility is the most important characteristic of handwriting . .Individuality which interferes with legibility is undesirable." Our advice is to teach simple forms in the lower grades - forms that are easy to read and easy to write. Since our pupils and teachers move from one school to another, we think that one form should be taught at first so that pupils do not have to learn different forms as they.. .move. "Optional forms may be presented to advanced classes where individuality consistent with legibility will be developed." In MacLeans' own words, from the Teacher's Manual: "There is a certain amount of uniformity in all good writing, just as there is in good spelling, language and arithmetic. But no two persons write alike any more than they walk or talk alike." (35th ed.) In British Columbia, the Royal Commission headed by Dr. Chant received criticisms of the "regimentation" of handwriting teaching. This was only one of the areas to undergo profound changes in the 1960s because of the Chant Report.14 Years later, when MacLean died, The Vancouver Sun editorial page carried a handwritten tribute written by the mem- ***** The author was a schoolteacher who became a historian on staff at the Royal B.C Museum. Shirley is a dedicated volunteer with the B.C. Historical Federation. FOOTNOTES 1. (Colonist Aug. 5. 1962 "Originator of Handwriting Training Makes his Home Here on Saanich Peninsula in Retirement") 2. Jean Dodswotth (H.B. MacLean's daughter), personal interviews. 3. MacLean, H.B. The MacLean Method of Muscular Movement TOiting, Teachers' Complete Manual The daritefc Stuart Co. Ltd.. Vancouver 1921, p. 13. 4. ("System of Writing Originates in City" July 21, 1926, Saapbooic, MacLean Family archives) 5. MacLeans Method of Writing - Teachers Manual 35th ed. Clarke & Swart Co. Ltd.. Vancouver c 1921 (ca. 1936) (light green cover). 6. Correspondence: Willis to MacLean, (Family Archives) 7. Personal correspondence, J.H. Beatty to H.B. MacLean ca. 1944. 8. MacLean. H.B. unpublished paper ca. 1964. MacLean Family Archives. 9. The MacLean Method of Writing, Teachers' Complete Manual, 35th ed. (Helpful Hints *78) 10. Dr. Harold L. Campbell, correspondence to H.B. MacLean (Family Archives) 11. Province, Friday, November 7 1969. 12. nd. Halifax paper. 13. Guardian, Chariottetown, PEI October 31,1955. 14. Chant. S.N.F.: Liersch, J.E.: WMrod, R.P.: Report ofthe Royal Commission on Education, Province of British Columbia. 1960. 15. The \&nconver Sun, editorial July 1976, quoted in the issue dedicated to Henry Bovycr MacLean of The fenmeas News Letter, international Association of Master Penmen. July 1976. OTHER SOURCES: Writing manuals and texbooks: Historical Collections. Royal B.C. Museum. B.C Archives & Records Service. Gippings, documents and manuscripts, MacLean Family Archives (scrapbook and documents) 10 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Walter Moberly: A Forgotten Pathfinder by H. Barry Cotton "Moberly was a born explorer, it was in his blood". So said contemporary Henry J. Cambie, apdy describing the driving force behind the man's turbulent life. Many years later, Pierre Berton was to describe him as "a better surveyor than a business man". Both remarks are valid, as will be seen. Moberly, however, never did set out to be a business man. He was one ofthe great builders, a blazer ofthe trails that evolved into the Province's present road and rail network; in fact, many of his explorations were undertaken at his own expense, and he died comparatively poor, remembered only by the school in Vancouver named after him, and a whisde-stop on the C.PRly., near the approach to the Howse Pass, which he was convinced was the proper route for the transcontinental railway. Eariy Years Walter Moberly was born in Steeple- Ashton, Oxfordshire, England in 1832. His father was a captain in the Royal Navy, who had fought in the Napoleonic wars; his mother a lady of Polish descent. He had three brothers, one of whom (Harry) became a Hudson's Bay Co. trader. In 1834 the family emigrated to the Province of Quebec, and later to Barrie, Ont., where Walter went to school and spent much of his youth. In Barrie he went to school with a girl called Susan Agnes Bernard, who later became the wife of John A. Macdonald, a friendship that would be significant to Walter in later years. After leaving Barrie Grammar School, he went to Toronto where he studied engineering with the firm of Cumberland and Storm, and worked on the Northern Railway as the former's assistant. Later he worked on the Ontario, Simcoe and Union Railroad, where he became an associate of Sandford Fleming, another connection that would be useful to him in later life. During this time Walter Moberly F*hoto courtesy of B.C. Centennial 71 collection. Wdter engaged in some early exploring west of Lake Simcoe, and acquired some 1500 sq. miles of timber limits. However, news from the west in 1857-8, particularly of Capt. Palliser's ventures in the approaches to the Rockies, persuaded him that his future lay in the still unknown country that was British Columbia. He sold his timber limits, travelled to New York, then around the Horn to San Francisco, and thence to Victoria, Vancouver Island. At age 26, Walter Moberly was a man of great physical power and stamina. Resourceful and tireless in the bush, he was a superb axeman - even at 70 years of age. He is said to have killed bears with a pistol, and many were the stories told of his prowess in the wilderness. In January 1872, after falling through the ice on Shuswap Lake, he was able to climb out by using snowshoes on his hands as supports. He knew how to relax when in civilized society too, could dance the night away, and drink whisky with the best when the occasion warranted. He was also egotistical and opinionated, and as will be seen, found it difficult to get along with anyone with whom he disagreed. But to the project in hand he was always loyal, and as an employer was particularly considerate of those who depended on him. British Columbia This was the man who, armed with a letter of introduction from Sir Geotge Simpson, presented himself to Governor Douglas late in the fall of 1858; he declined an offer of employment by rhe Colonial Government, but agreed to report on the feasibility of the Harrison Lake/Lillooet route to the goldfields. He did this early in 1859, after travelling the route as far as Pavilion, and noting improvements to be made. He also made a side trip to Pitt Lake. Later at his expepse, he made another expedition to examine the Fraser Canyon between Yale and Lytton. April 1859 had brought the main body of the Royal Engineers to B.C., and on Moberly's return to the lower mainland he was employed by Col. RC. Moody on the planning and layout of the new capital city, Queensborough, which was in the process of being carved out of the dense forest. It would soon be renamed New Westminster by Queen Victoria (hence the "Royal City"). Whilst in New Westminster he had a look at Burrard Inlet, and with Robert Burnaby (the Governor's secretary) examined the reported outcroppings in Coal Harbour. At the end of 1859, Moberly returned to Victoria, where he met Capt. John Palliser and Dr. James Hector, who had reported unfavorably on the possibility of a link between the Fraser and Columbia River systems. Moberly, whose compelling motivation since leaving the east had been to find a transcontinental road/rail route, was not in the least convinced. In fact he would spend much effort (and much of his own money) over the next few years in proving them wrong. 11 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 He was "swom-in" as a land surveyor for B.C. in 1861, his surety being Edgar Dewdney, another engineer from eastern Canada. He carried out several local surveys in I860, around English Bay and Burrard Inlet for Col. Moody's Lands & Works Dept. In July of that year he bid on a pack-trail connecting Hope and Princeton, earlier explored by Lt. Palmer, but he was edged out by Edgar Dewdney, who got the contract, but took Moberly on as a working partner. This was the first part of the Dewdney Trail, and working on it earned Moberly money, but the years 1862/3 were going to prove especially expensive for him. The Cariboo Road and Further He was, of course, one ofthe chief proponents ofthe Cariboo Road, contending that it would be essential for the future development of the country. Costs of building it, however, depended on obtaining a subsidy from the Colonial Office. Douglas, feeling that such a subsidy would be forthcoming, granted a charter to Moberly, Charles Oppenheimer and T.B. Lewis, to build by far the longest stretch of road - from Lytton along the Thompson River to Cook's Ferry (today's Spence's Bridge), thence to Cache Creek and northward. Moberly was the engi- neer-in-charge, Lewis the bookkeeper. Oppenheimer looked after the supplies. They would have the right to collect tolls when finished. Political skulduggery was, of course, possible even in those pioneer days, and although the monumental work of constructing that first road through the lower canyons of rhe Fraser and Thompson Rivers was satisfactorily carried out, what happened next can only be described as a disaster for Moberly himself. One can certainly sympathize with him in the tale of woe which follows, as told in his "History of the Cariboo Wagon Road." Much of Moberly's manpower was stranded at Yale, without money, food or clothing. So before starting them to work at Lytton, he had to advance money for wages and subsistence before getting to the start point. Many of these men would later desert the project when news of gold strikes filtered through. He established camps at Lytton, Nicomen and Cook's Ferry, and when no government certificates were issued, Moberly borrowed money for payroll. When Lewis voted to stop the work, Moberly bought out his interests. Eventually, Moberly travelled to New Westminster, where he found out that the Imperial Government had refused the subsidy, whereupon Governor Douglas had been forced to borrow $50,000 from the Bank of British Columbia. With $6000 in his pocket, Moberly hastened back to Lytton to pay his workers (who had hardly expected him back!), and continue the work. A few days later he received a letter, stating that the $44,000 was to be withheld, and - in his words: "As I was the one to whom the largest amount would have to be paid it was decided to sacrifice me and carry the other contractors through . . . which was a very convenient and profitable thing for them, but it was a disgraceful and dishonest transaction on their part". With debts mounting, Oppenheimer left for the USA, leaving Moberly to face the music In the end, Moberly signed over all his charter rights and supplies to Capt. Grant RE., who had been appointed to "deal" with him; Moberly then agreed to carry on with the work as an employee of the Government. The wages were eventually all paid in full but - again in Moberly's words: ". . . .the country had gained a large and most expensive portion of the Cariboo Wagon Road built, which cost them nothing, but it left me a ruined man with heavy personal liabilities, which took all the money I could make during eight subsequent years to finaUy pay off". The year 1864 would bring change. This was the year Governor Douglas, who had been governor of both colonies, retired. J.D. Pemberton also retired. Col. RC. Moody had already departed. The new authority was going to be J.W Trutch, currendy Surveyor/General and Commissioner of Lands and Works for the Mainland Government. Walter Moberly, after having spent 1863 working on the Cariboo Road as superintendent for William Hood's contract above Spence's Bridge, took on the job of engineer under Trutch. He still continued with construction of the Cariboo Road, from Fort Alexandria to Richfield, and located several other roads in the vicinity of Quesnelmouth, Lightning Creek and Williams Lake. At the end of the year he resigned his position, stood for election, as the member for the Cariboo West Riding, and was elected. He undertook management of the Lands & Works Dept. in Trutch's absence, but did not stay long in office. He resigned his seat at the end of the session, and was appointed assistant Surveyor/General in March 1865. Moberly states that as soon as Trutch returned to the colony, he handed over the Lands & Works Dept. to him. However, he held on to the job of Assistant Surveyor/General, which gave him his long-wished opportunity to explore the Gold (Monashee), Selkirk and Rocky Mountains for a line suitable for an overland road/railway link. The Columbia River Explorations With the new gold strikes at the Big Bend, and those already existing at Wild Horse Creek in rhe Kootenays, there were a lot of exploratory surveys being undertaken at this time. George Turner's map of Jan. 5, 1865 shows rhe new trail from Seymour Arm of Shuswap Lake to the new diggings. Also - it is relevant to mention a forgotten explorer of 1864, one J. Jenkins, who surveyed around the Big Bend, making precise notes of several Indian trails across the Selkirks. In particular, Jenkins' map shows a trail starting from the upper Columbia called GIL-CES-CHE-SIN, and a distance of "about 65 miles across the great bend". He notes that "Iproposed to cross the great bend ofthe Columbia here with 1 Indian, intending that the other should go round with the canoe, but they objected . . ." (as well they might'). The start of this trail was, in fact, the outflow of the Beaver River, and had Jenkins done what he intended, his name would definitely not now be forgotten. Moberly's plot ofthe Columbia at the time shows a latitude of 51 31' 30" for this location. The distance of 65 miles is uncannily accurate. Most of the exploratory surveys in 1865-6 were done under Moberly's direction, with J. Turnbull and Ashdown 12 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Green working between Shuswap Lake, Okanagan Lake and the Rockies. On Sept. 10th Moberly reported his discovery of Eagle Pass, after observing the route taken by flying eagles in the mountains from Sicamous in the direction of the Columbia Big Eddy, and later that same year he received J. Turnbull's estimate of $10,950 to put through a trail from Sicamous to the Columbia at the Big Eddy through Eagle Pass. The Big Eddy was where the City of Revelstoke now stands, and this line (through the Three Valley Gap) would prove to be a fateful link joining the east and west surveys of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and would eventually carry both railway and Trans- Canada Highway In the official reports of the Columbia River Exploration, both Moberly and Trutch in their letters mention the necessity of exploring a route through the Selkirks, to shorten the distance around the Big Bend of the Columbia. But it is a fact that Moberly's journal entry for Fri, July 13th, 1865, (an ominous date!) shows one such an investigation made, but not completed: ". . . .Perry returned from his trip up the E.fork ofthe iUeciUewaet River. He did not reach the divide, but reported a low wide valley as far as he went. His exploration has not settled the point whether it would be possible to get through the mountains by this valley, but I fear not. He ought to have got on the divide, and his failure is a great disappointment to me. .. By this journal entry, it would seem that Moberly admitted to not having found the pass through the Selkirks that would later be the key link for the transcontinental road and railroad and indeed he seems to have concluded that the Big Bend offered the only practicable route. As will be seen later, he did have another chance (from rhe easterly end), but circumstances again conspired against him. It is, of course, unlikely that this pass would remain untrampled by human foot for the next fifteen years, but it would await official recognition by the hard- swearing, tobacco-chewing Rogers, who duly "discovered" it in 1881. 1867 has been described as a year of unprecedented depression. It was also the year in which Moberly had a momentous disagreement with Governor Seymour. He left British Columbia, and went south. He spent the next four years wandering in Utah, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. He met Brigham Young and the Mormons. He wrote a long letter to Trutch in May 1868, giving details of possible road or rail routes across British Columbia, his preferred one being from New Westminster, following the Cariboo Road, then Eagle Pass, the Big Bend, Howse Pass and following the North Saskatchewan River and Carlton Trail all the way to Winnipeg. (This is the same route that had been recommended inde- pendendy by J.W McKay ofthe H.B.Co. to the Hon. H.R Crease, Att/Gen. of B.C. in July 1867). Moberly also did some mining in Ophir City, near Salt Lake City, and it was here that he received Trutch's telegram that caused him to return to Canada. The Canadian Pacific Survey Two points are relevant when writing of Moberly's involvement in the C.P.R. Surveys of 1871-3. The first is that the normal way for travelling across the North-West Territories at the time was still the time-honored Hudson's Bay Company route from Winnipeg to Edmonton, and this was the route followed for his proposed transcontinental railway by Engineer-in-Chief Sandford Fleming. This was a painstaking, deliberate and very experienced engineer, probably the exact opposite of Moberly in temperament. It seems logical that he would choose the lowest pass to enter British Columbia - the Yellowhead. The second concerns Walter Moberly himself, who knew perhaps too well the area in which he was to woric One need look no further than his detailed plot, made probably in 1866, with latitude observations taken every few miles. He was convinced that the Howse Pass should prevail. On his return to Canada in 1871, Moberly sought an audience with his old friend John A. Macdonald, and as a result found himself in charge of the Columbia surveys in B.C. under Sandford Fleming. Moberly had several parties out - John Trutch between Burrard Inlet and Kamloops, Edward Mohun at Eagle Pass, Roderick McLennan on the North Thompson, E.C. Gillette and Ashdown Green in the East Kootenays. Moberly himself spent most of his time with the latter party, where he could personally attend to problems in the Rockies and Selkirks. Moberly started in July 1871, travelling by way of Kamloops in order to get his various parties going, and thence by trail to Wild Horse Creek. Gillette's party spent the rest of the year in cutting trail and bringing up supplies from the Columbia source to the Blaeberry River, where they went into winter quarters, but not before Moberly had made a preliminary investigation of the Howse Pass. On Dec. 4, Moberly left for Victoria. His diary, with its specimens of pressed wildflowers is still intact in B.C.'s Archives, and there is much to be learned from it: "Nov. 16 - propose to explore die Selkirk Range by a valley I discovered in 1866, when exploring for the Govt, of B.C., but which I never had the opportunity to examine thoroughly This valley I then named the Valley ofthe Three Pyramids . . .the lat ofthe easterly side of this valley where it joins the Columbia is 51 44'. There is also a valley which joins the Columbia River in lat 51 31' 06", that I discovered at the same time which might be favorable for a pass". Moberly proceeded to Victoria by way ofthe pass at 51 44' - he had a hard time of it, and wrote that he was convinced this pass never would answer as a line for a railway. As for the valley at 51 31' 06" - Jenkins' trail - it seems that again Moberly had missed the future Rogers' Pass, this time from the easterly side; and the events that followed put any further probing of the Selkirks out ofthe question. What happened next to Moberly is so well described in Pierre Berton's book, the National Dream, that I will only set down an oudine. In Victoria, Moberly received authority from the Engineer-in- Chief to run a trail line over the Howse Pass, which, in view of his already rigid opinion of its merits, he interpreted as sanction for arranging a detailed location survey. He made plans for 1872 season with this in mind. In April, on the eve of his departure for the field, he received an- 13 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 other telegram from Sandford Fleming stating that the Yellowhead Pass had been chosen as the official route. In retrospect, there is something downright strange about these events. What Chief Engineer would wait until April - after expensive and complicated arrangements would necessarily have been already made for the parties in the field - to inform his deputy ofthe main objective for the field season? Obviously the antipathy was already there, and it had led to the lack of communication. Moberly was forced to make hurried last minute cancellations - which were expensive - and after abandoning much of his accumulated stores at the Blaeberry River, started moving his men up the Columbia valley, opening up pack-trail all the way to Boat Encampment. By November he had brought them through the Athabasca Pass, and made a depot for winter quarters near the site of old Henry House. In September, Moberly met Sandford Fleming in the Yellowhead Pass, having taken all season to move his men to the new location. It is not recorded whether the meeting was stormy, but it could hardly have been otherwise. Both men, in later recollections, blamed each other for the situation. When Fleming left to proceed to Victoria, Moberly kept his parties at work till December, surveying to the Fiddle River, then went into winter quarters. Shortly afterwards Marcus Smith was ap pointed to take over from him, and after doing some work in the Tete Jaune Cache area, Moberly travelled south to Kamloops, where he handed over to Smith. He left B.C. shortly after this, spent several months in Ottawa, where he claimed that Sandford Fleming held up payment of his accounts, then moved to Winnipeg. Here he contracted and built the City's first sewer system, and for the following few years he was involved in the engineering of various Manitoba railroads, and for a line to Hudson's Bay. He was, with some reason, an embittered man, and not one to suffer in silence. His dictated biography is remarkably accurate, considering that he was 82 at the time of publication and though he stops short of actually claiming that he discovered the Rogers Pass, it is obvious that he felt cheated in this respect. He not only rails against the treatment he received from Fleming, but also against the final constructed route of the C.PR through the Kicking Horse and Rogers Passes. In those early years he had a point. The grades down the Big Hill of the Kicking Horse were a whopping 4.5% with runaway trains frequent; and in 1910 successive avalanches from both sides of the Rogers Pass killed 62 railway workers. These concerns would, of course, be addressed by the engineering masterpiece of the Spiral Tunnels, and the Connaught Tunnel - the latter completed the year after Moberly died. In fact with the main line approaching from Calgary, it is hard to see what other routes could be chosen (certainly not the Howse Pass). He returned to British Columbia in 1897. His name is mentioned in prospects for two B.C. railroads - the Vancouver Northern & Yukon Rly, and the Vancouver and Northern Rly, neither of which materialized, both ending up in the Defunct Railways Act of 1926/7. The old explorer lived his later years in retirement in Vancouver. He was often in demand as an after dinner speaker, and was an honorary member of the Vancouver Canadian Club. His friends would sometimes visit him at his address on Hornby Street, and play a few hands of rummy before he retired to bed with a glass of grog; and - perhaps - he would remark wryly to his cronies how poorly it compared with the Hudson's Bay mm of the good old days. He passed away in the Vancouver General Hospital on May 12th 1915, the same year as his nemesis Sandford Fleming. Walter Moberly was the author of "The Rocks and Rivers of British Columbia" - London 1885, and several publications pertaining to exploration in B.C. He was unmarried. SOURCES RA. B.C. Howie & Scholefield, Vol. 111-1914. Men At Meridians, Vol. II - Don W. Thomson. 1967. B.C Chronicles - Akrigg, Discovery Press 1977. Pioneer Surveyors in the Ftaser Valley -W.N. Draper B.C.LS. P.&E. Rly to the North - Bruce Ramsay, Mitchell Press 1962. The National Dream - Pierre Berton, McLellan & Stewart 1970. Surveyor-General's Records. Victoria. The Retribution ofD. G.F. Macdonald C.E. by H. Barry Cotton Two books about British Columbia were published in 1862. Macdonald's British Columbia and Vancouver's Island followed on the heels of Capt. Mayne's "Four years in British Columbia". But reading after a time-lapse of 136 years, any errors later uncovered being duly discounted, the same is not true of Macdonald's book. This book was plainly written with an ulterior motive, rather than simply to in form. It is studded with gross errors, and the author did not hesitate to distort the truth in his purpose to portray the future Province in the worst possible light. The reader may well wonder why, especially considering that the author spent a mere 12 months in the country. Macdonald has been described as a Scottish Engineer. That he was Scottish is undeniable, and as an engineer he was one of the first to be employed (as a civilian 14 surveyor) by Col. Moody, in laying out the city blocks of Queensborough (City of New Westminster). He was also a journalist, and had written several books, one of which - "What the farmers may do with their land"- was advertised in the Victoria Gazette Feb. 26, 1859, soon after his arrival in B.C., and also on July 23, 1859. On Feb. 28, 1859, Macdonald made tender for surveying under Col. Moody, and on March 20th accepted an engage- B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 ment to lay out town lots in Queensborough. He spent from April 2nd till July 11th on this work. From a study of Macdonald's over twenty-five letters written during this time, all couched in the quasi-polite verbiage of official correspondence, it would seem that he was a decidedly "prickly" employee; indeed, he soon constituted a fairly large thorn in the side of Col. Moody. His complaints were at first about small matters - accommodation, time-off, objections to administrative methods; also about a lot in Queensborough that he purchased in June by auction, and for which he later refused payment; but his charges culminated in a long letter to Col. Moody dated July 2nd (with copy to Governor Douglas) in which Col. Moody was blundy accused of incompetence, using "make-shift" methods, and was even further to blame for having ignored Macdonald's own freely given advice. Governor Douglas' order of July 7, 1859, requiring that all civilian surveyors be discharged, soon put an end to Macdonald's contract, and he handed in his stores on July 11th. However, his disputations regarding pay and other financial matters went on for several months. It is interesting to note that, regardless of the Governor's edict, J.W Trutch who was also a civilian surveyor, entered into a contract with the Lands & Works Dept. on July 25th. Macdonald, however, was not rehired. In the summer of 1859, it so happened that Lt. Richard Roche, a naval officer and member of the British Boundary Commission working on the 49th parallel, was recalled to his ship. He had been engaged in running the section between Chilliwack Lake and the Skagit River. Macdonald applied for this vacancy, and was given a civilian contract to carry on with the work. Several of Macdonald's letters, written from the 49th parallel are extant. One, which also appeared as a public notice in rhe Colonist Oct. 15, 1859, solicits statements of facts to be used for a report on B.C. and Vancouver Island "for an official quarter at home". It is not known what replies he got from this obvious incite ment to air grievances, but it is logical to assume that the ideas would be used in his forthcoming book. He also made a second application to Col. Moody for 1000 acres of land on the Fraser River near the Pitt River junction. He was "ready on behalf of one or two of my constituents to purchase the land". With the application was to go an exclusive right of fishing. This application was referred by Moody to Governor Douglas, who noted that Macdonald could either pre-empt or purchase land, but "no exceptional case can be made in his favour"; and turned thumbs down on the fishing rights. Col. Moody forthwith (and correcdy) refused the application. On Nov. 7th, 1859, Macdonald applied to have his claims heard by a third party and on Nov. 15th he published his July 2nd letter to Col. Moody, word for word, in the New Westminster Tunes. Thus far he had done litde to recommend himself to the administration (who were the principal employers of civil engineers), and his contribution to the growing colonies had been slight. Strangely enough, Feb. 20th, CD *•*• -WW ••• PMMMN f.MgW.—«*. ■ y«f •■—V. * ■ u : s s a- f>»W4r»«UU.U Royal Engineers' Plan for New Westminster 15 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 1860, saw two letters - to Col. Moody and to Capt. Parsons, requesting a "letter of recommendation". It is not known whether he obtained one; it does seem unlikely. But a worse blot was about to descend on his copybook. When Col. Hawkins, the British Commissioner, returned from London, England, in March I860, he was greeted with the news that the section of the line recendy done by Macdonald was so inaccurate as to be valueless. (It would be redone later by Lt. Samuel Anderson). By this time, it is assumed, Macdonald had left the country. And - if the probable opinion ofthe administration can only be guessed at - not a moment too soon! Of. Hf. Hf. Hf. 3b: Macdonald's book (524 pages) was published in London, England in 1862. It was entided: British Columbia and Vancouver's Island comprising a description of these dependencies: their physical character, climate, capabilities, population, trade, natural history, geology, ethnology, gold-fields, and future prospects, also an account ofthe manners and customs of the native Indians. Author Duncan George Forbes Macdonald C.E., was mentioned as "late ofthe Government survey staff of B.C., and ofthe International Boundary line of North America", and as author of three previous books. A copy of Arrowsmith's 1862 map was included. Shortly afterwards (March 27, 1863), Macdonald delivered a lecture at the Royal United Service Institute. He now sported several more letters after his name - after C.E. came F.R.G.S., M.RS.L.,andJ.P Here are some examples of Macdonald's combination of distorted half-truths and virulent prose, which so raised the hackles of British Columbians: ". . . .in British Columbia, where it would be vain to attempt to describe the hardships endured by the poor, half-clad struggling people . . . poor creatures; even now the scenes of misery which I have witnessed in that dependency rise before me - men, women and children famishing for want of a crust of bread... where charity has no existence, and where the most exaggerated tales of wretchedness and crime, fall far short of what the newly arrived colonist feels and witnesses..." "Believe me, hopeful immigrant, when I warn you that if you cast yourself a penniless wanderer upon the wild territory of British Columbia, even the sky over your head will rack you with bitter winds and pitiless tempest, you will almost cease to be a man and will find yourself worse off than the brute. . "British Columbia is a miserable country neither adapted for cattle nor suited for cereals . . . The unproductive qualities of British Columbia agriculturally are entirely beyond doubt; and he who goes thither to pursue this art will return, if he ever should return, a disappointed and ruined man... " Macdonald's disdain was not simply confined to the land. It extended to native people also, viz: "... Murder is no crime amongst these ferocious beings, who stab, shoot, scalp and eat their enemies with the voracity of their companion wolves. . . .they are revengeful, deceitful and unrestrained liars; and to crown all, get rid ofthe sick and aged by burning them alive. . . As for outright "boners", here are two of the worst: "In that portion (ofB.C.) which lies north ofthe 49th parallel there is no harbour with the exception of Burrard's Inlet, about 12 miles up the coast from the mouth of the Fraser". "Vancouver's Island has an area of about 1670 sq. miles.. . All of the above leads me to an unavoidable comment. It is not surprising that the distinction of Fellow ofthe Royal Geographical Society was held in such low esteem at the time (as was the case), when a man could get himself elected a Fellow by publishing such inaccurate rubbish. ***** News of publication of this compendium of misinformation burst upon the colonies by means of a leading article (it took up nearly all of page 1) in the Colonist Nov. 6, 1862, and needless to say it created considerable furor. The article ended by saying: "probably a greater collection of lies was never put together". Page 3 ofthe Colonist on Nov. 29, 1862 bore the headline "Macdonald suffering from the horrors". Letters to the Colonist and to the London Times about Macdonald were still being written by outraged citizens until 1866. Unfortunately for the two budding colonies, Macdonald's book went into three editions, and received excellent reviews from leading newspapers and magazines. In Britain, at any rate, he was rated as an expert on the subject of British Columbia. As late as 1878 - now as Dr. D.G.F. Macdonald - he was still actively writing to decry the Province. If this was war - and it certainly was a war of words - it was plain who was winning. It wasn't until 1872 that British Columbia found a champion. Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, the first Agent-General for B.C., opened an office in London, England, in August of that year. Less than a month later he ran into Macdonald's baleful influence. In his letter of Sept. 3, 1872 to the Provincial Secretary, Sproat mentions Macdonald thus: "... I hope my recollection is not wrong in recording that for some ungentlemanly conduct he was kicked down the stairs of a club or hotel in Victoria, or it was (so) proposed ". If such had been the case, it would undoubtedly have been the highlight in Macdonald's short, Pacific North-West ca reer! However, it certainly was time that the record was set straight, and with the advent of the Agent-General's office, men such as Gilbert M. Sproat were at least able to counteract the trash that had been peddled by Macdonald, and give the Province the boost which its people deserved. Retired Land Surveyor Cotton works with a team which is compiling biographies of pioneer surveyors in British Columbia. He notes that this particular study of Macdonald is the only one which presented evidence of a totally negative nature. SOURCES P.A.B.C. Mapping the Frontier. G.F.G. Stanley. Macmillan, Toronto, 1970. Pioneer Surveys in rhe Fraser Valley. W.N. Draper. B.C. Hist. Q. Vol. V.*3, 1940. British Columbia & Abncouvers Island. D.G.F Maodonald. Longman Green & Co. London 1862. 16 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Lytton Alfalfa by VC. Brink In the 1920's for a few years the little town of Lytton, B.C. was famous in North American agriculture - famous for its alfalfa seed and famous for a controversy the seed engendered. It may be hard to realize today but in the early 1920s alfalfa was not the important crop it is today over most of our continent and over the world. In much of Canada today we see it in fields, seeding naturally on roadsides and natural grasslands. In the first decade of this century, alfalfa cultivation was almost entirely confined to the Southwestern States and Mexico. There non winter-hardy narrow- crowned Spanish type alfalfa was grown. In a very few places and on very limited acreages in Ontario, New York and Virginia somewhat more winter-hardy strains mainly of German origin had been established. Then in the years immediately before and during the 1914-18 war, the virtues of German type alfalfa - its perenniality, its high yields and nitrogen - fixing capabilities were recognized and extolled by men such as Lyman in Minnesota (sponsoring Grimm type alfalfa) and Zavitz at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph (sponsoring the Ontario Variegated strain). The demand for seed rose rapidly. The rising demand and high prices for alfalfa seed drew the attention of alfalfa growers in and around Lytton and in the Nicola Valley where Spanish type alfalfas had been grown for most of a century. Men coming from the California gold rush of 1849-1855 to the Cariboo gold rush of 1859-1865 had seeded alfalfa of California origin to feed horses, camels and other domesticated animals on the terraces of the Fraser, Thompson and Nicola rivers. Lytton alfalfa seed sold readily in the middle western states. At the %■$ On Terraces such as this above the Fraser and Thompson rivers near Lytton, B.C, Spanish type alfalfa were seeded to meet the needs of beasts of burden during the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1858-1865. Subsequently in tbe 1920's, seed from these alfalfa strains was widely used in die Middle Western States and Eastern Canada. same time shiploads of dusty, weed and disease laden plants of alfalfa came to West Coast ports from Asia. In rhe last century individual plants would live for decades, some perhaps for 50 years until the introduction in the 1940's of diseases such as bacterial and verticillium wilt. Unfortunately, much of the seed exported from Lytton and elsewhere produced plants which were not usually able to survive the winters ofthe Central States and Ontario. Lytton seed was roundly condemned by agronomists such as "Alfalfa" Graber of Wisconsin and demand for it dropped. There was a good result nonetheless. Legislation was passed in Canada and in the USA to certify seeds as to country of origin and breeding programs were started to develop winter hardy strains. Hardy strains came from areas such as Ladak in the Himalayas of Northern India and from species of alfalfa native to Russia and Siberia. One breeding program initiated by LS. Klinck, Dean of Agriculture, and later President of the youthful University of B.C. hybridized winter hardy plants from the Don Valley of Russia with Ontario Variegated German type plants; winter hardy "Rhizoma" type plants produced by G.G. Moe & others associated with this program became widely used by other breeding programs in many parts of the world. New disease-resistant winter-hardy alfalfa varieties steadily replace the old but in the Dry Interior of B.C. one can still see some plants in the alfalfas of roadside, grassland and field with characteristics of form, flower, colour and seed which made the Spanish type alfalfa of Lytton in the 1920s and 1930's quite famous. Dr. VC Brink was a professor of Plant Science at tbe University of British Columbia. In his youth he worked waii G.G. Moe, and did some research in die Lytton area with anthropologist Wayne Suttles. EDITORS NOTE: Since reading this article we have observed scattered self-seeded alfalfa with blooms of deep purple, light purple, yellow and white here in die East Kootenay. 17 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Unapologetically Jewish: Unapologetically Canadian Vancouver, British Columbia, is a city inhabited by a diversity of ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has achieved varying degrees of assimilation1 with the "dominant society"2, either by choice or through pressure from the resident community. It would seem logical to assume that small groups would assimilate more readily and be less likely to maintain their distinctive culture in their new surroundings. In the case ofVancouver one small ethnic group, the Jewish community3, has achieved a balance between blending into the dominant society while at the same time preserving its unique identity as a cohesive group. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Vancouvers Jewish community has developed and maintained this balance. It does so by examining the life experiences of one couple, Minnie and "Pucky" Pelman (both born and raised in Vancouver). History of Vancouver's Jewish Community IMMIGRATION Christine Wisenthal identifies two major waves of Jewish immigration to British Columbia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries: The first wave, composed largely of Jews of German and West European origin, came to British Columbia during the gold-rush period 1858-1871. The second wave, composed for the most part of East European Jews, settled in the province between 1886 andm^. By 1910, the Jewish population in Vancouver rose to two hundred families, which then grew to six hundred families by the 1930s5. After the Second World War, Vancouver experienced another significant wave of immigration when Holocaust survivors from all over Europe arrived along with second and third generation Jews from Central Canada and the Prairie provinces.6 Between 1941-1951, by Carrie Schlappner the Jewish population grew from 2,812 to 4,0297 The first wave of Jewish immigration to Vancouver began with many Jews already living in Victoria since 1858. Up until this time most Jewish migrants to British Columbia were able to blend into the dominant society with ease. Originating largely from the United States and British Empire, these people spoke English and had already been integrated into the way of life and relative affluence of Anglo- Saxon society.8 By the 1880s, several coinciding events changed the direction and class of migration to Canada: the Russian pogroms9 forced many Jews to abandon their homes to escape violent persecution, Canadian immigration actively recruited East Europeans,10 the completion of the transcontinental railway to the Pacific Coast contributed to Vancouver's economic growth, and the Canadian government's policy to fill up empty lands ofthe West,11 opened to settlement by the railways, all encouraged migration.12 Having to overcome language, cultural and economic barriers, East European Jews found the adjustment to Vancouver society difficult. Their integration into North American life took place through a combination of self-initiative and community support. Jean Gerber comments that after the Second World War, the Canadian government showed little understanding of the actual situation of displaced persons (including Holocaust survivors). For example, they rejected the adjustment of regulations to accommodate large numbers of immigrants.13 "The reluctance of the Canadian government to develop a comprehensive immigration and citizenship policy during the critical years 1945- 1952 forced Jews to rely on their co-religionists for integration into Canadian society, and in so doing further impeded the process which it claimed it wanted: quick 18 assimilation of immigrants to some uniform "Canadian" identity".14 Had it not been for the persistent efforts of Holocaust survivors ("survivors") and the Canadian Jewish community to rescue the displaced throughout the post-war period, the significant growth of the Jewish population in Vancouver as well as the rest of Canada might not have occurred. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF RESIDENCES AND INSTITUTIONS In the eady decades of this century, most of Vancouver's Jewish people lived in simple working-class houses. . .in the East End of town, within walking distance of their shops on Cordova and Water Streets and ofthe Synagogue at Pender Street and Heatley Avenue.'5 From the late nineteenth-century to 1920s, more than half of Vancouver's Jewish community of 250 families lived in the East End Strathcona district, between Gore and Raymur Avenues and between Cordova and Prior Streets, part of present- day "Chinatown".16 A synagogue was built in 1911-1912 by the Orthodox congregation of B'nai Yedudah (Sons of Isreal), on the corner of Pender Street and Headey Avenue, and the Reform congregation held services in rented premises17. In 1917 the Orthodox congregation and synagogue were renamed Schara Tzedeck (Gates of Righteousness), which was rebuilt in 1921 to accommodate a larger congregation. At this time, the afternoon Hebrew school for children (which developed into the Talmud Torah) moved from a house at 514 Headey Avenue, to a room in the new Schara Tzedeck.18 Other services in the Strathcona neighbourhood catered to the Jewish community, including Jewish publications, Talmud Torah Hall, Zionist hall, Neighborhood House, schools, kosher butcher shops, groceries, confectioneries, doctors' offices and drug stores.19 By the 1930s, those Jews beginning to B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 ascend the economic and social ladders were establishing residences south of False Creek, beginning with roughly thirty upper middle class families (established merchants and landowners), who lived in the affluent West End neighbourhoods of Mount Pleasant, Fairview and Shaughnessy.20 Soon after the residential community began its trek westward, the first Jewish Community Centre was built at Oak and 11th Streets in the district of Fairview. In the 1940s, Jewish institutions and services followed the geographical shift of people into their new neighbourhoods. A new Orthodox Congregation called Beth Hamidrosh B'nai Jacob was founded in 1943 at Heather Street and 16th Avenue.21 In 1946, the Louis Brier Home and Extended-Care Hospital for the aged was established at 41st Avenue and Oak Street.221948 saw the opening of the Conservative congregation, Beth Israel (House of Israel), at Oak Street and 27th Avenue, the Talmud Torah opened a day- school in a separate building across the street, while the Schara Tzedeck relocated to Fairview at 19th Avenue and Oak Street.23 The kosher food markets moved into the area around Broadway and Oak Streets.2" By the end of World War Two, the Jewish community had completely deserted the East End. Vancouver's Jewish community established a distinct residential pattern in Fairview, Shaughnessy, and Mount Pleasant. Rather than recapitulating die residential experience of earlier Jewish setdement on the East Side, where rents were cheap and other immigrant populations continued to enter, the Holocaust survivors moved quickly into proximity to the host community.25 The host community assisted with this trend by providing financial assistance and employment opportunities to the new arrivals. With increasing affluence and the opening of new residential districts in the 1960s and 1970s, the population continued its shift southward and westward, into the additional districts of Oakridge, Kerrisdale and South Cambie. However, the concentration of people and institutions remained at Oak Street between 15th and 57th Avenues, making it what Leonoff calls the "Jewish main street".26 New services continued to concentrate in these areas: a revitalized Jewish Community Centre was built on 41st Avenue and Oak Street in 1962, while the Reform Congregation, Temple Shalom, was relocated in the late 1980s to 57th Avenue and Oak Street. Unlike suburban trends in most North American cities, the majority of the Jewish population of Vancouver settled in the central city rather than migrate to the suburbs. "Nevertheless, rapid growth of adjoining municipalities has resulted in the establishment of sizable Jewish populations in Richmond-Delta, the North Shore and Burquest, who have organized their own Jewish community life".27 The 1991 census indicates a concentration of Jewish residences along the "Jewish main street", as well as a continuing trend of movement westward. Approximately 41% of Jewish population lived between Main Street and Granville Street, and 45% of the Jewish population lived West of Granville Street. With the average percentage of the Jewish population to the overall population of Vancouver being 1.45%, Jewish concentrations of 4% or more in some neighbourhoods is significant. Concentrations of the Jewish population are still found in the traditional Fairview, Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, Oakridge, and South Cambie areas, but there are now high concentrations of the Jewish population scattered further West. Thus we can see a trend of movement into a variety of affluent areas, with only minor representation in the lower-income areas ofthe East side (7%) ofVancouver. SHARED CULTURAL VALUES AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS No ethnic group is completely homogeneous. Within the Jewish community there are a variety of religious affiliations including orthodox, conservative, reform, and secular. Country of origin prior to immigration can influence the cultural traits of individuals, as can economic background, education, and life experiences. However, some cultural traits are held in common by a preponderant number who are not linked to religious affiliation alone. In the early twentieth-century, the number of East European immigrants grew within a short period of time, and by 19 the end of World War One they had become the predominant influence in the Jewish community ofVancouver.28 This group brought with them several characteristics nurtured in the ghettos of Europe: Orthodox Hebrew religion and customs; Jewish nationalism (as manifest in Zionism); a penchant for democracy; a passion for education; a clannishness of family and community life; an aggressiveness of acumen in trade conditioned from generations of "hand-to-mouth" living; and the tzedaka - the practice of charity and justice. These members ofthe community never regarded their citizenship in Canada as antithetical to their Jewish religion, culture or support of Jewish nationalism.29 For these East European refugees life was hard. Canadian ways were alien to them, including the English language. Many were destitute, having been forced to leave everything they owned behind in order to escape persecution in Europe and Russia. This group became one of the leading forces behind Vancouver's organized Jewish community, forming groups to assist new immigrants and the existing population (discussed below). Some authors such as Christine Wisenthal30 and Freda Walhouse31 emphasize the divisions that existed in the early twentieth-century between the German- Jewish merchants, who were largely reform and assimilationist, and the Eastern Europeans who arrived later and were largely orthodox. Walhouse comments that the Jewish community's influence on Vancouver as a whole was diminished "because of a major split dividing the community on religious grounds".32 However, despite any initial tensions within Jewish society, between 1910-1930 the Jewish community was firmly established and had founded most of the basic organizations that form the core ofthe community to this day. Among [the organizations] were: B'nai B'rith (1910), Hebrew Aid and Immigrant Society (1910), Zionist and Social Society (1913), Hebrew Free Loan Association (1915), Hadassah (1920), Council of Jewish Women (1924), Jewish Community Chest (1924), Hebrew Athletic Club (1925), B'nai B'rith Women (1927), Jewish Administrative B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Minnie (nee hen) and Solomon ("Pucky") Pebnan ■ Council (1932), Jewish Congress (1934), Jewish Family Service Agency (1936). In 1926 the Council of Jewish Women opened a Neighbourhood House in Strathcona, which was superseded in 1928 by a Jewish community Centre in Fairview.33 Many of these associations were a direct reflection ofthe Jewish culture and its priorities. For instance, the Hebrew Aid and Immigrant Society is a reflection of the principle of tzedaka, or "taking care of their own". As Cyril Leonoff describes. This society was one ofthe earliest institutions in Vancouver, assisting the needy immigrants passing through the port or arriving to stay in the community with money food clothes, and shelter. It also provided services to local homes, old folks' homes, hospitals, orphanages, and to inmates of asylums and penitentiaries. The welfare work of this society eventually amalgamated with later organizations, such as the Jewish community Chest and the Jewish Welfare Bureau.34 The Jewish Community Chest is also an example of how the Jewish community contributed to and influenced the dominant society: as the first central fund- raising body for the Jewish community established in 1924, it became a model for the city-wide Vancouver Community Chest when it was established in 1931. The community as a whole knew that they could depend on each other for assistance and work opportunities, and they supported Jewish businesses and stores with ardor. The Jewish community's Engagement photo c. 1937. Photo courtesy of the Pelmans. strong work ethic and determination to succeed are both legacies of their experiences and have become ingrained in their culture. This tradition of "taking care of their own" continued after the Second World War when community associations were active in the rescue and setdement of Holocaust survivors in Vancouver. The leadership of these groups mobilized behind the effort to integrate the survivor immigrants, while the host community provided occupational opportunities, special educational programs, residential areas accessible and desirable to the newcomers, and institutions which accommodated them.35 By using the existing facilities to integrate into society, by choosing residential areas where concentrations of Jews already lived, and by entering occupations which placed them on economic parity with the host community, the survivors contributed to the maintenance of a homogeneous group identity in Vancouver.36 In this way, "conflict between the two groups was minimized and chances for the receiving community to learn about the unique survivor experience was maximized".37 In fact, the well-performed setdement of the newcomers entered into the mythology of the community,38 and contributed to its cohesive nature. While there had been fundraising activities in support of Zionism and the population of Palestine since the 1920s,35 some sectors of the Jewish community have rallied around organizing support for the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948*111115 Zionism has been another source of collective identity in addition to the myth of setdement of newcomers. While there has been an increasing trend towards the secularization of Jewish life in the late twentieth-century, and religious motivations are no longer a prime factor in dictating residential preferences, residential concentrations, as mentioned above, continue to characterize urban Jewish life and may become the principal bond that holds the community together.'" "Residence has continued to have a major impact on other factors such as social affiliations and information networks of friends, business acquaintances, children and family"42. OCCUPATIONS From the 1880s on, Jewish immigrants were mainly poor, working-class or lower middle-class from Russia and Poland who started out in business with a horse and wagon as junk pedlars. Others became second-hand storekeepers or artisans such as tailors and shoemakers, located along the main business streets of Vancouvers early days: Water, Cordova, and Westminster (Main) Streets, within walking distance of their homes and synagogue.43 Eventually with hard work and through mutual assistance, members of the Jewish community graduated to better livelihoods.44 In the 1920s and 1930s, many became small-store owners, specializing in retail merchandise establishments along Hastings Street, then on Granville Street, which became rhe primary retail streets in Vancouver.45 The Jewish community included some prominent businessmen in the first days ofVancouver, most importandy David Oppenheimer and his family of grocery wholesalers. Oppenheimer was the second mayor of Vancouver (1888-91), and during that time he helped organize some ofthe city's infrastructure, including the water supply and sidewalks, and was active in the procurement of Stanley Park from rhe federal government.46 The tradition of active community involvement continued in the late twentieth-century, with Dave Barrett, leader ofthe New Democratic Party, being the first Jew to hold the office of Premier in British Columbia from 1972-1975. 20 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Historically, the Jewish community has been concentrated not only in residential areas, but also in certain sectors of the economy. Occupational concentrations have ranged from the junk pedlars and shopkeepers ofthe late nineteenth-century to the wholesale and retail trades in the 1930s (47.2% in 1931).47 By the time of the 1951 census, it was evident that the Jewish population was concentrated in white collar occupations in British Columbia such as the categories of proprietors / managers (40.4%), commercial / sales (14.1%), professionals (12.9%), and clerical jobs (10.8%).48 Furthermore, die community's fundraising structure reflected its occupational configuration, with prominent businessmen and professionals dominating the leadership of major Jewish organizations.49 This concentration in professional and white collar occupations can be attributed in part to the priority placed on higher education. As Leonoff describes, Regardless of their financial situation . . .Jewish families retained the characteristic respect for formal education. . . The parents and older children labored to make a good education possible for the younger children. In typical Jewish fashion, every family dreamed of having at least one doctor or lawyer.50 ' By the late 1920s-1930s, Jewish children were enrolling in universities and entering the professions, eventually becoming the new leaders of the Jewish community.51 In fact, by the 1970s, "occupations have become more diversified, involving participation in virtually all fields".52 Holocaust survivors reinforced this trend by quickly achieving economic parity with the resident Jewish community through moving from low-skilled jobs into entrepreneurial or skilled occupations with assistance from the host community and their own initiative. A CASE STUDY - THE PELMANS Minnie Pelman(nee Izen) and Solomon ("Pucky") Pelman have been married for over sixty years. Both have lived in Vancouver since they were born, in 1916 and 1915 respectively. Theirs is a unique story of a lifetime commitment to each other and to the Jewish community in Vancouver. Their story also reflects the many trends that thread through the history of Vancouver's Jewish community. Both Pucky's parents, Harry and Sarah Rose (nee Rothstein) Pelman, and Minnie's parents, William and Mary (nee Fisher) Izen, moved to Vancouver in search of better opportunities. The Pelmans were married in their hometown of Minsk, Russia, and went to New York to escape the pogroms. They proceeded to Vancouver in 1911 to join some of Sarah's relatives, including her brothers. Minnie's parents came from different parts of Eastern Europe: Mary Fisher immigrated to Vancouver from Lithuania in 1915 to join her aunt, while William Izen left Warsaw, Poland, with his brother and sister, arriving in British Columbia in 1911. In their early years as Vancouver residents, Minnie's family lived on East Georgia Street and Pucky's family lived on Keefer Street, which were located across the lane from each other in Vancouver's Downtown East Side, or as Pucky calls it, "the ghetto".53 This "ghetto" consisted of several new immigrant groups, which tended to be segregated along ethnic lines. As Minnie explains, On Union Street the next block over, there were the Italians, [South of us]. On our side, we had two blocks, I'd say of the Jewish people. Towards the False Creek, about three blocks over, then the Chinese started and they went all the way to Carrall Street, and to the Creek.54 The Izens and Pelmans were family friends, and as children Minnie and Pucky attended the local Orthodox synagogue, Schara Tzedeck, as well as Seymour Elementary School and Talmud Torah Hebrew school. Being a year younger, Minnie often spent more time with Pucky's brother, Norman. Until she was twelve, that is. As Minnie recounts, One day I was twelve years old, and his younger brother was visiting me, and he [Pucky] comes over and he says to Norman. . . "You can go home now, I'm here", and that was it, from the time we were twelve.55 And so this was the beginning of Minnie and Pucky's life together, attending Templeton Junior High, then Britannia High School,56 and spending time with friends. While living in the East 21 End, their network of friends was pre- dominandy Jewish, which expanded to include a variety of ethnic groups once they reached high school. As adults, they met non-Jews and maintained close friendships with them for many years. Yet it seems that their strongest relationships have been with people from the Jewish community. As Minnie said, "the people we grew up with were our friends for life".57 Pucky continued, It's an amazing thing actually since you mention that. Two other couples grew up down in the East End there, got married within a year, the three of us, three couples, we celebrated our anniversaries for forty years and they're still alive, and we [just] celebrated our sixtieth. . 5e As teens, Minnie and Pucky participated in youth organizations and sports within the Jewish community. Pucky belonged to the Young Judaeans, Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA), and he played sports with the Young Judaea Softball Team. Minnie was a member of the women's branch of the Young Judaeans and, as she jokes, "we spent the time watching the boys play baseball then going and leaving with dates."59 In 1933, the Izens and Pelmans moved out of the East end to the new districts opening in south-west Vancouver. The Izens settled at 14th Avenue and Oak, while the Pelmans were located at 10th Avenue and Columbia, both areas containing high concentrations of Jews. When asked if a conscious decision was At their 60th Wedding Anniversary, Minnie & Solomon ("Pucky") Pebnan, 1997. Photo courtesy of C Schlappner. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 made to live near other Jews, Minnie commented that after moving out of the ghetto, "then we [the Jewish community] spread out according to what each person could afford. [The background of people in their new neighbourhood was] all mixed."60 This remark reflects the strong correlation in the Jewish community between occupational concentration, degree of affluence and residential geographic location (discussed earlier). Similarities in economic status reinforced the tendency of people in the Jewish community to remain geographically concentrated. Once married in 1937, Minnie and Pucky moved several times, yet always remained close to the "Jewish main street", described above.61 Minnie and Pucky became members ofthe Beth Israel conservative synagogue on Oak Street at 27th Avenue, attending with their children every Friday night before the family's Sabbath dinner (until the kids reached their teens and became "too busy"62). Their children, Neil, Barbara, Gayle, and Stephen,63 all attended Hebrew school at Beth Israel three times a week. The synagogue has been and remains a central feature in Minnie and Pucky's lives. In fact, Pucky was a committed member of the choir and became the conductor in 1973, a position which he held until this year. His sense of obligation was so strong that he sacrificed attending events in his children's lives in order to fulfill his duty to the choir. Pucky solemnly observed, Now I start thinking about the times that I told the children, when they were having school plays or graduations on a Friday night, when the choir sang, and I didn't go to any of them, I went to the choir, and they didn't say anything... I'm sure they wished that I was there, but I wasn't. The children have all distanced themselves from strong religious affiliation, and both daughters have married gentiles (one in a second marriage). While religion has been an important touchstone for Minnie and Pucky, they are supportive of their daughters' choice of partners. It is clear that their children's happiness is their priority. The fathers of both Pucky and Minnie, Harry Pelman and William Izen, had initially made their livings in Vancouver as junk pedlars, riding their horse-drawn wagons around the East End district. It was a difficult life at first, but before long, both men graduated into store-front businesses. Minnie remembers, He started out in a horse and wagon, went around the lanes, you know, calling out for anyone that had anything to sell, you know, rags to sell. . . when he had enough, he opened a store on Keefer and Main.... a second-hand store. . . and he bought three little stores. One was his and the others he rented out. He used to rent the corner store out to the gypsies, whenever they'd come to town.64 Harry Pelman had a more varied work history. Pucky recounts, My Dad also started going out peddling. Then . . . from there he and a friend of his opened up a pawn shop, BC collateral which is still in existence. . . They sold out and my Dad used to make a living any which way One ofthe things he did. . . he was a rum-runner.... my uncle used to pick up liquor here and run it down to Los Angeles in their old Cadillac. . . the hairy stories he told us about running away from the police, gosh . . . My mother . . . I was told, she used to sell liquor here during the prohibition. She would get a call at eleven o'clock at night for a bottle from one of her customers, put me in the buggy, I was maybe two years old or so at the time, . . . and go and deliver it.. . just to make a living.65 Pucky started contributing to the family income at age twelve, selling bags of peanuts at the Ballpark at the Powell Street Grounds in the early evening. Minnie often helped him put peanuts in the bags after school. Pucky remembers, We had a nice little business going. What I got for doing all of that was on Saturday I would get fifteen cents to buy . . . a milkshake and a donut. That was my "pay". . . the rest went to the family66 Through his adult life, Pucky worked for a variety of Jewish-owned businesses, such as Alberta Meats, Silvers Menswear (which his brother-in-law owned), and Mother Hubbard Bakery. In 1942, Minnie and Pucky used the money they were saving to buy a house to purchase Sam's Shirt Shop from his cousin, located Downtown at 621/2 West Hastings Street, kitty-corner from Woodwards. Pucky used profits from his business to sponsor five bowling teams (he played on one), all of which had players from outside the Jewish Community. Close friendships were formed with these gentile teammates and employees, some of which lasted a lifetime.67 In 1972, they sold Sam's Shirt Shop and Pucky went to work for the Jewish-owned Finn's Clothing store on West Broadway near MacDonald Avenue.68 Pucky is still working hard for the Finn brothers, with no sign of slowing down. When asked if he had tried to obtain jobs outside of the Jewish community, Pucky remarked, "I didn't even try. I knew these people."69 Minnie also worked before she and Pucky married. Her first job was at a Jewish-owned "five and ten cent store" downtown at Davie and Granville, called Blank's. After that she went to a business school and got a job as a secretary at City Hall. Since it was widely considered unacceptable for married women to work during the Great Depression, Minnie left City Hall in 1937. Once her children were grown, she worked as a volunteer at Vancouver General Hospital, Centennial Hospital and the Louis Breir Home. When asked if she suffered discrimination in the workplace, Minnie commented. When I applied at City Hall I was taken on my merits. There was only one other Jewish girl there. But we knew it was hard for a Jewish person to get in any place else, outside of a Jewish place.... The Jewish boys couldn't get a job except somebody they knew that.. . .already had a business.70 This comment brings up an interesting point about Minnie and Pucky's experiences: they repeatedly assert that they had "no problems" growing up, and while they acknowledge subtle forms of anti- Semitism like the one mentioned above, they express very litde bitterness about it: they seem to accept, "that's just the way it was". One other story that highlights the insidious discrimination experienced by Jews in Vancouver. It involves the Gleneagles Golf and Country Club,71 which Pucky describes this way: Most of us used to golf at Langara. And it was like bribery to get a [tee-off] time. This fellow [a friend of Pucky's] who made up the times used to slip him [the Langara em il B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 ployee] a couple of extra bucks in order to get on the course. And finally it came to the point where... he was really taking advantage. So they72 started to look around to get a course of their own. That's when they bought Gleneagles. I remember... We could buy the course for $65,000. So what we needed was just enough people to pledge so all I had to put down was $50, but I had to pledge to pay off. And it was $500 a person and they got it and they formed their own Gleneagles Golf Club. (Minnie interjected, referring to the Langara Golf Course) - You know what time? The boys would have to get up at five in the morning to get there in order to get them on... That was sort of subtle anti- Semitism.73 CONCLUSION The life experiences of Minnie and Pucky Pelman echo several themes present in the history of Vancouvers Jewish community. Their parents immigrated to Vancouver from Russia and Eastern Europe at a time when they were under persecution in their homelands and they were being welcomed into Canada. The Pelmans have lived in areas where the Jewish population is concentrated and have been active members of organizations such as youth groups and their synagogue, as adults. Occupationally, their fathers worked in areas that were dominated by Jews and Pucky has been consistendy employed by members of his community. All of these factors contribute to their sense of ethnic identity. Yet this strong sense of identity has not hindered their ability to achieve economic parity with the dominant society, a significant component of assimilation. They have developed lifelong friendships with gentiles and are supportive of their children's marriages to non-Jews. While aware of subde anti- Semitic feelings in the dominant society, Minnie and Pucky have had very few personal encounters with discrimination. Given the choice, there is, as Minnie says, "no place in the world like Vancouver".74 Minnie and Pucky remain unapologetically Jewish, and unapologetically Canadian. This essay was written by a student from Victoria attending UBC Carrie was at or near the top of die class in History 404 under Dr. RAJ. McDonald She completed her BA and is now enrolled in the Education program. n. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. FOOTNOTES To assimilate is to absorb into the cultural rradidon of a populadon or group. {Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary, (Springfield: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976), p. 53). The success achieved by Vancouver's Jewish Community in economic and occupational mobility and participation in business, political/public life ate considered here as major indicators of assimilation. Being a society that receives a high degree of immigration from the rest of Canada and the test of the world, one could aigue thar rhe definition of Vancouver's "dominant society" has changed over rime. In this paper, the definition ofthe "dominant society" refers to the British European customs and values and English language that have shaped the laws and government institutions ofVancouver and Canada, and consequendy the society as a whole The erhnic nature of Vancouver's Jewish community is best described in terms of this definition: [an ethnic group is] a collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry, memories of a shared historical past and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their peopUhood Examples of such symbolic elements are: kinship patterns, physical contiguity (as in localism or sectionalism), religious affiliation, or any combination of these. A necessary accompaniment is some consciousness of kind among members of the group. (RA Schermcrhom, as quoted in Jean Getter, "Immigration and Integration in Post-\0ar Canada: A Case Study of Holocaust Survivors in Vancouver 1947-1970", unpublished MA Thesis. University of British Columbia, 1989, p. 5-6.) These structural factors also apply: Ethnicity, defined in terms of frequent patterns of association and identification with common origins, is crystallized under conditions of 'residential stability and segregation; common occupational position, and dependence on local institutions and services which reinforce the maintenance of kinship and friendship ties. (Will iam Yanoey, Eugene Ericksen, and Ridiard Juliani.) as quoted in Jean Gerber. Ibid., p. 8-9.) Christine Boas Wisenthal, "Insiders and Outsiders: Two ^waves of Jewish Setdement in British Columbia, 1858-1914", unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia, April, 1987, p. it Cyril Edd Leonoff, Pioneers, Pedlars and Prajvr Shawls: The Jewish Communities in British Columbia and the Yukon , (Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1978). p. 86. Cyril Edd Leonoff, "Cenrennial ofVancouver Jewish Life: 1886-1986", (Vancouver Jewish Western Bulletin. Augusr 14, and October 2. 1986). p. 18. Freda Walhouse, "The Influence of Minority Ethnic Groups on the Cultural Geography ofVancouver", unpublished MA Thesis, University of Brirish Columbia, September 1961. Ibid., p. 83. The Russian government sanctioned the massacre of Jews during the pogroms (1881-1882). Deborah H. Gemer, One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict Over Palatine. (Boulder Westview Press Inc, 1994), p. 12. Clifford Sifton, Canada's minister ofthe Interior in Laurier's adminisrration, implemented an immigration policy which promoted the arrival of East Europeans between 1896-1905: 58,000 immigrants from Austria-Hungary. 32,000 from Russia and 8,000 from Italy. Granatstein, J.L et al.. Nation: Canada Since Confederation, Third Edition, (Toronto: MtGraw-Hill Ryeison Ltd., 1990), p. 105, 107. This was also part of Sifton's immigtarion policy. Ibid., 106. Leonoff. Op Cit., 1978, p. 84. Jean Gerber, "Immigration and Integration in Posr-War Canada: A Case Study of Holocaust Survivors in Vancouver 1947-1970", unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989, p. 21. Ibid., p. 21. Leonoff, Op. Cit, 1978, p. 123. Ibid., p. 85. Leonoff. Op. Cir., 1986, p. 10. Leonoff, Op. Ck, 1978, p. 150. Leonoff, Op. Cit.. 1986, p. 11. Ibid., p. 10-11,17. Leonoff. Op. Cit., 1978, p. 142. Leonoff, Op. Cit., 1986, p. 13. Freda Walhouse, "The Influence of Minority Groups on the Cultural Geography ofVancouver", unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia. September, 1961, p. 160. Gerber, Op Cit., 1989. p. 44. "Host community" refers to the established Jewish community in Vancouver prior to the survivors' arrival. Ibid., p. 52. Leonoff, Op Cit.. 1978, p. 19. Leonoff, Op Cit., 1986, p. 22. Ibid., p. 85. Ibid., p. 85. Wisenthal. Op Cit... 1987. Walhouse, Op Cir., 1961, p. 162. Ibid., p. 162. Leonoff, Op Cit., 1986, p. 12. Ibid., p. 99. Gerber. Op Cit., 1989, p. 49. Ibid., p. 52. Ibid., p. 52. Ibid., p. 49. Gerber explains that "in every subsequent community account of post-war activities, resettlement ofthe survivors was cited as being of paramount impottance, both fbt the survivors' wd!-being and as an indication ofthe strength and cohesiveness of Vancouver's Jewish networks and institutions". 23 39. Walhouse, Op Cit.. 1961, p. 161-162. The Hadassah was organized by Jewish women in Vancouver in 1920 for this purpose. 40. Ibid., p. 162. 41. Gerber, Op Cir., 1989, p. 54, Source Calvin Goldscheider and Alan Zuckerman. The Transformation of die Jews, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984) pp. 224-227. 42. Ibid., p. 54.. Source: Francis Kobrin and Calvin Goldscheider, Ethnic Factors in Family Structure and Mobility, (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Press, 1978). 43. Ibid., p. 85. 44. Gerber, Op Gt., 1989. p. 85. 45. Ibid., p. 85. 46. Ibid., p. 85. 47. Ibid., p. 44. 48. Ibid., p. 45. Source: Canada Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1951 Census, Vol. IV, Labour Force: Occuparions and Industries, 49. Ibid., p. 45. 50. Ibid., p. 85. 51. Ibid., p. 85. 52. Leonoff", Op Cit., 1986, p. 19. 53. Pelman, Minnie and Pucky, Personal Interview, March 18,1998. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid.. Pucky Graduated in 1932 and Minnie graduated in 1933- 57. Ibid. 58. Ibid. 59. Ibid. 60. Ibid. 61. Ibid. Their first apartment was on 19th Ave. and Oak St., and other houses consisted of 3832 Willow Street at 16th Ave. and the house which became their family home for 25 years at 419 20th Ave. at Yukon St. Today rhey live in Arbutus Village. 62. Ibid. 63. Ibid. The children were bom as follows: Neil - August 13, 1939. Barbara - October 14,1943, Gayle - March 15, 1948, Stephen - May 5, 1951. 64. Ibid. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid. 67. Ibid. The Pdmans mention thar one employee in particular, Guy, was very dose to them. He would come over to their bouse for Hanukkah and they would visit him at Christmas. 68. There is another Finn's store located in Kerrisdale. 69. Pelman, Personal Interview, Op. Cir., 1998. 70. Ibid. 71. Gleneagles was opened in 1952 and was sold in July 1958 ro become a municipal golf course. Leonoff, Op Cit., 1978, p. 193. 72. "They" would refer ro rhe committee of Cedarcrest who located the property near the mouth of Howe Sound and organized fundraising to buy and develop the land. Ibid., p. 193. 73. Pelman, Personal Interview, Op Cit., 1998. 74. Ibid. BIBLIOGRAPHY Edmund, Gordon M., Political and Legal Aspects of Jewish History ia Canada, (Montreal, 1959). Gerber, Jean,"Immigrarion and Integrarion in Post-War Canada: A Case Study of Holocaust Survivors in Vancouver, 1947-1970", unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989. Gemer, Deborah. H., One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict Over Palestine, (Boulder Westview Press Inc, 1994). Granastein, J.L et al.. Nation: Canada Since Confederation, Third Edition, (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., 1990). Hier, Mariene, F, "Ethnicity and residenrial location", unpublished MA Thesis, University of Brirish Columbia, 1973- Kent. Rozanne Fddman, Educating Vancouver's Jewish Children - The Vancouver Talmud Torah, 1913-1959 and Beyond, (Vancouver Dachcr Printing Ltd., 1995). Leonoff. Cyril Edd, Pioneers, Pedlars and Prayer Shawls: The Jewish Communities in British Columbia and the Yukon, (Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1978). Leonoff, Cyril Edd, Centennial of Vancomw Jewish Life 1886-1986, (Vancouver. The Jewish Historical Society of BC and the Jewish Western Bulletin, 1986). Poner, Richard Philip Robinson, "Vancouver - role of Ethnic Origin Population Distribution", unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia. 1965. Rhinewine, Abraham, Looking Back A Century: On the Centennial of Jewish Political Equality in Canada, (Toronto: The Kraft Press, 1932). Sack, B.G. (translated by Ralph Novek), History of the Jews in Canada, (Montreal: Harvest House, 1965). Tulchinsky, Gerald, Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community, (Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1992). Walhouse. Freda, "Influence of Minority Ethnic Groups on the Cultural Geography of Vancouver", unpublished MA Thesis, University of Brirish Columbia, 1961. Weinfdd, M„ W. Shaffir, and I. Colter, The Canadian Jewish Mosaic, {Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 1981). Wisenthal, Christine Boas, "Insiders and Outsiders: Two Waves of Jewish Setriemenr in British Columbia, 1858-1914)". unpublished MA Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. 1991 Census, Census Profiles CD-Rom, Statistics Canada, Ottawa. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 A Capilano Love Story by Patricia Koretcbuk For many years, most who knew her didn't realise her beauty and easy laughter masked pain and sadness at the core of her being. Margaret Kelly Thompson's large brown eyes, wavy auburn hair, slender figure and ready laughter were noticed first. There was an endearing Irish lilt colouring her speech. She was young, eighteen when she arrived in Vancouver, and vulnerable. She was probably only nineteen when she moved to Capilano. Even those closest to her were unaware ofthe extent and duration of the violence that shaped her life. As her daughter, I find my memories becoming more meaningful as my own understanding matures. Fascinating missing details slowly sift from conversations with rela- Margaret tives and old friends. When Margaret left Belfast, a city as fear filled in 1920 as it is now, she buried within her the personal scars of her life there. Her stories were told as adventures, filled with humour and admiration for others. Her father had been a first mate on a sailing ship that transported cargo to San Francisco. (There was no Panama Canal then.) Unable to return home until she was three years old, she said, "He wore a gold ear ring in his left ear, which signalled to others he'd sailed around Cape Horn," the Southern tip of South America. Born the middle child of a large family, she believed her birth - October 15th, 1902 - signalled the end of his sailing career. Her father wasn't happy living ashore. She told of many times watching as he ". . . paced the floor, back and forth, back and forth, longing to return to the sea." She described her father as a "brave black Irishman," with black, curly hair and eyes with almost black irises, possibly a descendant ofthe shipwrecked sailors of the Spanish Armada.1 He became "a Kelly Thompson, 18 years old, taken before leaving for foreman in Harland and Wolff Shipyard," almost certainly one of the people who built the Titanic, the 'unsinkable' luxury liner felled by an iceberg. Like many members of the Orange Lodge, her father marched in parades celebrating "King Billy's victory in the Batde of the Boyne" . . . parades where the Orangemen (her father included) were prepared to use their swords to "run through anyone who tried to break their ranks." She said they could be "... mean, and you didn't dare challenge them." Like her father, Margaret could be brave. She travelled alone to Vancouver because, "I always wanted to travel the world, like him. Wanderlust is in our blood." Ofthe city of Belfast, she told of being small, walking with a friend, asking a man if it was safe to cross a bridge. The man said it was safe, but part way across she and her friend had to "... jump through the open archway of a passing streetcar, and lie on our bellies on the floor, as the bullets whizzed 'round our heads'." 24 She said her family lived in a "mixed neighbourhood," meaning both Protestants and Catholics lived there. "Mixed neighbourhoods were the most dangerous." Her brother's friend, a Catholic, was taken "out of his house to the corner under a street light, where 'they' riddled him with bullets, threw a sack over him, then left him lying there on the sidewalk in a pool of blood." Her father's champion German shepherd was kidnapped, used as bait with the hope of luring her father to his death. Young Margaret was equally fearful of black robed priests and the "Black and Tan,3" though the Black and Tan were enforcers, supposedly sent by the British to pro- tea Protestants and British invest- Canada. ments. Civil war was as confusing and violent then as it is today. Yet, within wars people survive as Margaret did, with work and humour and hope. Religion is also supposed to help, but for Margaret, religion's comfort never occurred. In the Irish Anglican Church she was told: "If anyone ever asks, "What's the difference between the Anglican church and the Roman Catholic church . . . you tell them there's only a paper division between them, but that paper division is the Bible!" This church taught prejudice rather than love, causing Margaret to seek solace elsewhere. She wanted to be a nurse, but her father denied that option. He was angry because he felt he had wasted money on an older sister who had quit part way through nurses training. At fourteen Margaret began work in "a linen factory, where work was hard and conditions dreadful." She worked hard at home too, polishing the many brass trims - stair rods holding carpet in place, door knobs, fireplace accessories. All the while, she secredy nurtured her dream of "seeing the world" as her father had done. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Of Margaret's mother - my grandmother - I know only, "She favoured the boys. They never had to do any work around the house." She served "Champ" (potatoes mashed with chopped green onions cooked in the milk used for mashing), and scones "with a big pat o'butter slathered on." Other than this, Margaret rarely spoke of her. It was Margaret's irascible grandmother, who came alive in the stories. She chased and beat a teacher with a broom, for caning Margaret's brother's hands because he was late for school. She helped as Margaret sewed ballroom gowns secredy by hand, to escape the ire of her censuring father. Margaret wore them when she slipped out at night to formal ballroom dances - "on floors that would spring as we danced." wearing white gloves, carrying a dainty beaded purse. She had many beaux, but deeply loved no one. When her family began pressuring her to accept a proposal of marriage, she bought a ticket for Canada. In some desperation, her family arranged for her to stay temporarily with an Uncle who lived in Vancouver. They must not have realised he was a lecherous old drunkard who "chased" her around the house when others were out. She escaped her peril, as many Irish girls did in the 1920s, by hiring into private service ". . . with a family that had two very spoiled children, who wouldn't even empty their own pee pots." Then she nursed a woman who was dying of cancer. . ." Very hush, hush. Nobody spoke of it. Nobody even told me what it was. I found out because of the blood on the pads and the bandages." Frightened, she left and found a job waitressing in Vancouver. In contrast, she loved the waitressing job. She was popular because she remembered customer's names and how they liked their food prepared. Years later, she would cut toast, or serve tossed salad and say, "This is the way we served it when I was waitressing." She was flattered by the tips and sometimes by the gifts (one was a pearl necklace) given her by the lonely men visiting Vancouver from the logging camps. She was very proud of her memory of orders and her ability to add the bills in her head, a facility with math she later used to coach her family for school. As a waitress she felt her hard work was appreciated, perhaps for the first time in her life. Then, she met . . . him. He was a smooth talking, debonair Scot who worked in North Vancouver's Burrard Drydock Shipyard and drove a big, green Willys3 car. He was the man who brought her to Lower Capilano, to a house in a beautiful location that she loved. A shipyard worker . .. .like her father . . .handsome, with black, curly hair... .like her father, also unhappy and meaner than her father. Recendy, her neighbour from Capilano - Tom Meglaughlin - revealed how much this Scot physically abused Margaret. Tom told of her black eyes and tears being soothed many times in his mother's kitchen. Tom remembers his family's puzzlement. "They couldn't understand how this attractive and nice woman could be with this thoroughly nasty character." When I checked this statement with my now 93 year old Uncle, Albert Blaney (who also lived near Margaret), his voice hardened as he said, "That Scotchman was a mean bugger." Margaret lost two babies while living with this man. One was the victim of toxemia, aborted at seven months. The other died within a few hours of being born, "because of a 'film' on the baby's lungs."4 Margaret was devastated. Somewhere in this pain filled period, religion again entered her life. She attended a Pentecostal Church for a time, learning about being "possessed of devils" and of "tarrying for tongues." She learned to think of herself as a "sinner," increasing the weight of guilt carried by her already troubled soul. For years I assumed her lost babies were my father's children. Much later, during a severe illness, she let it slip that there had been another man. But never once did she tell about the beatings, and neither did my father. I'm not certain how Stanley Eric Blaney became her protector. He was an Englishman just 5'8" tall, but tough, wiry, strong from manual labour and from training as an amateur boxer, and from earlier military training in the 42nd Black Watch Regiment, in Montreal. Also, Stan's brother Albert provided back up, living nearby. Stan could be gende, creative, and he knew how to "hesitate" and "do the dip" when they waltzed. He had no money, no car, no house, but he was good looking, another man with dark, thick wavy hair. Together, Margaret and Stan hiked, picked blueberries, and laughed with friends on Grouse Mountain, building strength from the natural environment. Mischievous bears stole their buckets of freshly picked blueberries. Salmon filled the Capilano river, "so thick you could almost cross the water on their backs." They ate venison taken from the mountain, along with honey and vegetables from my uncle and aunt's garden. Both loved the clean outdoor air, the golden sunsets. Respectful, but unafraid of cougars or other wild animals, they used "bugs" to light their way after dark (A bug was a candle in a can.) When they hiked, Maigaret was a prankster. She once substituted malt vinegar for the whiskey in the shot glass of a German friend named "Helwick." He "downed it in one gulp" - as was his habit - then he gasped, went red in the face and chased her. Stan, Helwick's wife and other friends On the left, Stanley Eric Blaney with brother Albert James Blaney, when serving in the 42nd Black Watch Highlanders, in Montreal in the 1920's. 25 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 joined the laughter. The "Great Depression" was in full force, so Stan and Margaret's first home was a converted chicken coop at the back of Albert's property on Edgebaston Road. Though they must have wished it otherwise - social censure heaped disgrace on those who "lived together" - they postponed a marriage ceremony until 1940. During these hard times, many young couples could not afford to marry.5 My mother and father were no exception. In 1933, in Capilano they had plenty of food, but no way to earn any money and become independent. By this time, Margaret was thirty-one years old, Stan was twenty-nine, so becoming independent was important. They heard Toronto had jobs available, so - though Albert discouraged them - they decided to seek work there. Their decision was a mistake, but they didn't know that yet. Their most challenging question was, "How do we get to Toronto when we have no money?" The answer required bravery, daring, and a dash of fbolhardiness. They decided to "hop the freights" and use "shank's mare" ... for 3000 miles across the snowy mountains and arid Prairies of Canada. It seems impossible today, but it is common knowledge that many men travelled this way during the Great Depression.6 However, it was unusual for a woman .. . but then my mother was an unusual woman. For safety she dressed as a man, but - at 5'2" - she probably looked more like a boy. She cut her hair very short, wore a vest and long pants, with a woolen jacket. She donned heavy leather work boots and pulled a peaked cap low, over her eyebrows. With some dried food, a blanket, a ground sheet, and each other, Margaret and Stan set off. They must have gotten through BC and the Rockies without incident, at least none worth mentioning. But then they hit the heat and the hunger of the prairies. Fortunately, there were kindly people who helped them on their way. My mother said she would never forget the young girl, perhaps only twelve, whose own mother had died. She had to raise her younger brothers and sisters basically alone, while her father searched for work and tended their farm. Yet, in spite of her own desperate situation, she invited Margaret and Stan inside and baked them cornmeal "Johnny cake." They slept under the stars or in hay barns on rainy nights, and loved it.. .but they didn't love the grasshoppers or the dust. They told of watching trains slow and stop, wheels spinning uselessly on tracks made slippery by millions of dead insects.7 They spoke of grasshoppers flying so thick the sky was black, devouring any growth of grass or grain in the fields. They told of choking dust storms, relentlessly filtering into any shelter they could find. And all the while hunger stalked them, and waited. Back on a freight train nearing Toronto, word was passed around, "there was trouble coming up." The railroad police were not kind to the unemployed, and my father heard there were some escaped criminals on board. He had hidden my mother behind him, in a corner of the box car for most of this part of the trip. Wisely, as the train slowed, they jumped and rolled, landing safely at the side ofthe tracks. Gunshots were heard and they later discovered many ofthe people in the box car had been killed. A lucky escape?. . . yes. A good omen for life in Toronto? Not really. This was 1933, in the depth of the Great Depression. As it was in Capilano, "hoped for" work was non existent. But unlike Capilano, in this big city there was no forest to provide food. To their horror they discovered people starving to death on the streets. At first Stan's sister Elizabeth and her husband Harry Welch took them in . . . but they were having problems of their own. They had three small children, Joan, Lewis, and Eileen to feed. Harry had a weak heart. Bess was forced to work, cleaning banks and houses to make ends meet - that is, when she could find work. By this time Margaret was pregnant... with me. (Perhaps I was conceived in a box car?) When Aunt Bess discovered the pregnancy and somehow learned Stan and Margaret weren't married, she threw them both out on the street. I don't judge her to be cruel. Bess was a soloist, choir participant and staunch member of the United Church. She couldn't risk the loss of support that would follow having her help interpreted by the church as "condoning" Margaret and Stan "living in sin" . . . not with her own family barely eking an existence. Bess mellowed and became a loving aunt in later years, but her actions were harsh in Toronto in the 1930's. Stan and Margaret survived through the kindness of others and because Stan worked at anything available. He told me the Jewish families paid the best for odd jobs. Eventually, they had to take welfare, commonly called "the pogey." They had to work for three days, then they were paid with a bag of food and vouchers, no money. The pogey also paid the first month's rent, nothing more. This was the reason they acquired a used English wicker Pram, as did many others "on relief" They used the pram each month as their makeshift "moving van," transporting their meagre belongings from one address to the next, wherever the pogey would again pay the first month's rent. Margaret said, "All over Toronto at the end of the month you'd see people pushing their prams. They kept nothing more than could be moved this way." Margaret told of giving birth to me "in a pogey hospital," attended by a doctor she had never seen, until he was called by her frantic nurse, just before midnight. This same nurse had slapped Margaret whenever she cried out during her long labour. Stan wasn't there to stop her because husbands weren't allowed. The doctor was very angry with the nurse for waiting so long to call him. He said, "There's no way this baby could arrive without help!" At a few minutes past midnight on April 23rd, 1934, he used forceps to extract me - a healthy ten pound two ounce baby girl - from Margarets tiny body Margaret sighed with relief when she saw the nurse holding me and chanting "A George's baby, a George's baby," because it was Saint George's Day. Bess wanted me named "Georgina" . . .but Margaret set- ded on "Patricia." I have only two brief memories of 26 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 places in Toronto where the three of us lived before I was four. In one I see my father and a friend, carrying a red velvet Victorian sofa up to our apartment, lifting it through a squeaky trap door. I'm delighted when my father says, "squeaky fun fun poy joy Java lapoyka," mocking the squeaks. He said this whenever anything squeaked.8 The acquisition of the red sofa must have been an important event, considering how litde furniture we had. My second memory is of a landlady, a Mrs. Brownlee, handing me her walking cane as I stood on her stairs. Then Margaret nudging me into singing a song for her, called "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane." Margaret and Stan made Toronto their home for eleven years. They progressed from unemployment, monthly moving and literal starvation, to having steady employment and a relatively comfortable rental home with a vegetable garden and an "outhouse" for a toilet. To help with finances, a boarder was "taken in" for several years. In the sometimes forty degree below zero winters, Margaret and Stan often told family and friends of their longing for the bounteous outdoors of Capilano. Grouse Mountain's ruggedness was revealed in bedtime stories told to myself, my foster brother Harold Porter and my foster sister, Jane. In 1945, at the end of World War II, Margaret and Stan returned to British Columbia, reluctandy leaving my two foster siblings with their parents. The need for work and the proffered help of former Capilano friends Frank and Emily Johnson, took us first to Bainbridge, then to Port Alberni for four years. A young neighbour from Toronto, Muriel Sheridan, had travelled with us and lived in our first BC rental house on Upper Crescent until she married. Once again, with humour and hard work, Margaret and Stan slowly collected a few material possessions. At Margaret's insistence, they moved to another house on 3rd Avenue, because rent was cheaper. Another boarder was "taken in", to help with finances. But the cumulative violence of Ireland, 1976, Stan 28th Street, turned to of her first partner, ofthe loss of her babies, and the violent stress of years of poverty now took its toll. Not wanting to burden Stan or her family with her sadness, she kept it to herself, turning it into self-blame. She thought of herself as "a sinner" and returned to the practices ofthe Pentecostal Church, rolling on rhe kitchen floor, asking God to remove the "demons" from her body. But God must have been busy elsewhere. A letter telling Margaret of my Irish grandmother's death deepened her depression, long before psychology knew how to help. At times she was paranoid, losing touch with reality. In 1949, in desperation Stan quit his job as a "boom man" in the MacMillan Bloedel plywood plant, sold their possessions and returned to North Vancouver, where he knew Margaret wanted to be. He hoped returning would work the needed miracle, but this was not to be. .. and they were still moving. They moved six more times on the North Shore, upgrading from staying with family, then with friends, to renting a partitioned room with hot plate, to an attic "flat," to a rented house - that's six times not counting the police assisted move Margaret made to what was then the "mental hospital," Crease Clinic in Coquidam.9 In response to a complaint filed by our landlady (on Church Road), who said Margaret had "threatened her with a knife," two huge policemen and Dr. Graham (a well known local doctor who didn't know us) suddenly climbed through the trap door covering the stairs leading to our attic "flat." They nodded at me, but told me nothing. I stared dumbfounded at the uniformed backs screening my mother and father from me, crowded under the sloped ceiling of our tiny kitchen. Voices explained, Stan had the choice of either signing the committal papers to the newly established Crease Clinic, or giving up all rights and having my mother committed by court order, possibly to the and Margaret in their own back yard at 221 West in North Vancouver. From here, they frequently re- •alk tbe trails of Capilano Canyon. Photo courtesy of the author. dreaded long term facility, Essondale. With my mother clearly delusional, and no way to disprove the landlady's allegation, Stan signed. Then, for a long time after the intruders left... he cried. I comforted him, but at fifteen years old, I was afraid. I had never before seen my father cry. For the next five months, Stan either rode his bicycle or took me with him on rhe bus to visit Margaret every weekend . . .all the way from Lynn Valley to Crease Clinic and back - a long trip, before freeways cut time and distance. Margaret's illness was diagnosed as "depression related to menopause" . . . such a trivial and inadequate description of her suffering. After "thirty electroshock therapy treatments"10 she was released. Stan brought her home to a rental arrangement - two bedrooms with shared bathroom and kitchen - in a house on Dempsey Road in Lynn Valley It was not surprising, her memory had been seriously damaged by the violence of the intrusive and extensive "therapy." She could no longer remember orders or add bills reliably in the restaurant at Lynn Valley Centre, where she tried to work. She lost her job, but by now Stan had steady work with the City of North Vancouver. (At his age, he felt lucky and glad to work outdoors.) 27 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Then Stan rented a whole house on Underwood Road, where Margaret slowly and determinedly healed herself and took care of us. The house was old and had been rented many times, but we cleaned, papered, painted, and created another home for ourselves. My parents repeated the phrases that helped us cope: "It isn't the house that makes the home, it's the people that live there" and "money doesn't buy happiness." In 1950, no public health nurse called to check on Margaret, or offer assistance. Mental health support groups didn't exist. Margaret and Stan had neither trust nor money for psychiatrists. There was no medical follow-up at all, in spite of the severity of her depression. Yet she survived. Eventually, she recovered most of her memory loss. Except for occasional bouts of withdrawal and paranoia, for the most part she became a supportive mother and wife, teaching me to "Charleston" in our kitchen, giving me vitamins, encouraging me to graduate from North Vancouver High School, then enter the Miss North Vancouver contest, giving me a white wedding on June 20, 1953. In the late 50's, Stan and Margaret finally purchased their own litde home at 221 West 28th Avenue, in North Vancouver. Life became calmer in this house with its comforting view of Grouse Mountain. Though increasing land values meant they could no longer afford to live in Capilano, in the 1960s and early 70s they frequendy returned to walk the Capilano Canyon trails. Eventually they took their grandchildren with them as they cared for them, helping me to become a teacher, after my divorce in 1965. At bedtimes, Margaret and Stan again told their stories of mischievous bears who stole blueberries, of the cougars, the salmon, and the friends they shared in Capilano, long ago in the 1920s and '30's. Then, on August 5, 1977, after an eight month illness, Margaret died of cancer. Ten months later, Stan's heart suddenly stopped beating. His grandchildren believe his grief broke it. Today the ashes of these two Capilano lovers lie nesded at the base of a tree on top of Grouse Mountain. Their descendants are reminded of Stan's gende teasing and Margaret's easy laughter whenever they ski, climb the "Grouse Grind," or raise their eyes to this mountain of strength. * * * *» The author is a recently retired teacher living in White Rock. FOOTNOTES 1. Spanish Armada:... 130 ships .. .the Spanish fleet thar rried unsuccessfully to invade England in 1588. In the English Channd, after a series of battles with raster, more heavily armed British ships: The crippled Armada fled ro the North Sea. lt then returned to Spain by sailing northward around the British Isles. Heavy winds wrecked many ofthe ships off the coast of Ireland, and only 67 reached Spain. Condensed from Woridbook Encyclopedia. 1978 ed.. Worldbook-Childcraft International, Inc. Vol. 1 A678. 2. The Black and Ian:.. .a British auxiliary police force of mosdy jobless former soldiers. They engaged in fierce reprisals, induding "Bloody Sunday," afternoon when 12 Dublin football match spectators were killed and 60 wounded in revenge for a morning attack by the IRA which killed 11 British. Condensed from the Encyclopedia Britanica, Inc 15th ed. Hden Hemingway Benton Publisher, Chicago, U.SA Vol 2:252 lb. 3. Willys -an American cat produced in the 1920's and 30's by John North Willys, owner ofthe Willys-Overiand Company. Condensed from World Book Encyclopedia. 1978 ed.. Vol. 22 W265. 4. "film on the baby's lungs": according to the Wldte Rock's Peace Arch Hospital maternity ward, one of several possible conditions induded in the term "respiratory syndrome." 5- marriage delay: "The national marriage rare decreased annually in the eariy years ofthe Depression - from 77,000 in 1929 to 62,000 in 1932. Marrying was a hazardous business for those with no resources * Berton, Pierre, The Gnat Depression 1929-1939, Toronto: McCldland & Stewarr Inc., 1990, p. 183. 6. hopping the freights in 1930's: "Between seventy thousand and one hundred thousand men, almost all young and single, were riding ... rhe railway. .. . Although it was technically illegal to ride the freights, rhe railway companies took a lenient view until the summer of 1932 ... RCMP began to block harvest workers... .," Ibid, p. 149. 7. Grasshoppers: The grasshoppers hatched sometimes in May or eady June. In 1933, "... they had destroyed all the coarse grain in Saskatchewan .. .executing twenty-foot jumps on their springboard legs... There were so many grasshoppers there was not room enough for all of them on the ground at the same time. And they ate everything. Thdr mandibles were strong enough to strip rhe bark from trees.'1 Ibid, p. 245. 8. Sqneeky run fun poy joy Java la poyksu according to my 92 year old Unde Albert Blaney, my rather teamed this habit at Rock Bay, in the 1920s, lt was my dad's version of a phrase said in jest by Norwegian loggers. 9. The Crease dink: opened Nov. 16, 1949 to cure people before they became chronic and ro play a vital role in reducing the number of patients in rhe main provincial hospital, Essondale. Condensed from notes stored in the Provincial Archives, Victoria. 10. Etectroshock Therapy, a.lt.a. dectroconvulsion treatment (or ECT) "A form of somatic treatment for certain psychiatric conditions in which dectrical current is applied to the brain through two decrrodes placed on the temporal areas of the skull. ... Complications are rare, the most frequent one being bone fractures due to muscular contraction. Intravenous muscle relaxants... are frequendy used to prevent this complication. Respiratory and cardiovascular complications may occur.. .The probability of fatal incidents docs not exceed 0.06% of cases. ECT is indicated in ... depressions. ECT gives an 80 to 100% remission rate ... .in agitated depressions, bat it does not ward off episodic recurrences. All types of depression react favourably to ECT after some four sessions. .. .The paranoid type of involutional psychosis usually requires 20 sessions... .psychotherapy, in addition to somatic therapy, is usually indicated in order to bring more lasting benefit. Summarised from: Campbdl, Robert J. Psychiatric Dictionary, 5th ed. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford. 1981. p. 648. Bookshelf Peetz; a Reel for All Time. Douglas EW FbUard. Surrey, Heritage House, 1997. 127 p., illus., paperback. $11.95 This book is mainly the story of the development of the Fteetz fishing reel for sports fishermen, but contains many interesting sidelights. It can be read on several levels: That of a gifted immigrant's success story; information on the evolution of West Coast angling gear, a chronicle of same coast's recreational fishing; an overall study of same from an international aspect; sadly, an epic that records the gradual depletion of our fish stocks to today's sorry state. Bom in Russia, Boris Cecil Fteetz arrived in Victoria in 1911. A trained silversmith, he turned his craftmanship to jewelery repair, and within a couple of years he had established his own business in jewelery repair and manufacture. A friend introduced him to sports fishing in Saanich Inlet, and the idea of the Peetz reel was bom, the first being made in 1923. Sports fishing as such began on the West Coast early in the century, but most of its adherents were visitors. Growing up on the upper Sunshine coast I can vouch for this. Even well into the 30s we did not sports fish; we fished for food. Our tackle was not fancy rods and reels - it was a board wound round with line, and likely the spoons and sinkers were home-made. We never played a fish, it struck, we hauled it in hand-over-hand as swiftly as possible, lifted it in an arc to land with a thud on the planks of the rowboat, reached for the hefty chunk of driftwood chosen for the purpose and ended its struggle quickly. However, the Campbell River Tyee Club was founded in 1924, and the Victoria-Saanich Inlet Anglers' Assoc, was established in 1932. The latter issued trophy buttons made by Birks Jewelers, and the individual who played to death the largest fish of the year had a diamond in his button. While the Fteetz reels were widely used in the Victoria area, they never caught on to a great extent elsewhere, a fact that makes for curiosity as to the writing of this book. There is no doubt that Peetz was amazingly inventive. - For instance, he invented the sliding lead weight which he patented in 1947. - Twenty-ton deliveries of pig lead from the Trail smelter were delivered regularly . . The amount of detail in this volume is well- nigh incredible; every aspect of manufacture is given exhaustive attention. Fteetz died in 1954, and his business was first taken over by his family, and finally sold in 1977 and renamed Fteetz Manufacturing (1977) Co. This company developed, among other things, the reel clock. There are countless illustrations and photos, and the book ends with, among other things, an appendix on Maintenance and Renovation. From today's point of view, perhaps the book's most interesting aspect is the rise and proliferation of sports fishing. From the standpoint of the conservationist it gives explicit information and dates on the dwindling of the fish stocks. Thus, choose your particular angle of interest and read Fteetz, A Reel For All Time. Kelsey McLeod Kelsey \a a member of the Mwcouuer Historical Society. 28 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 My Dearest Harriet. . . from Robert February 28, 1860 This is the second of the recently discovered and previously unpublished letters written from Victoria, B.C. by Robert Burnaby, 1859-61. The first letter was published in the Spring 1998 issue of the B.C. Historical News. The other two letters will appear in future issues. My Dearest Harriet I owe you one in answer to your last long letter and must rub and scrub up all the odds and ends of news that I can muster in order to make up a budget from this fag end ofthe Earth. After die first novelty is over however, we subside into a chronic state of rocks, pine trees and natives, and anything but a wooden street with plank sidewalks, and vast seas of mud beyond, a population with Yankee cut and Hebrew phiz, and resdess mass of Miners always talking and thinking about diggings and nuggets, rockers and sluices, would now appear to us quite beside the order of things. We had a small excitement the other night though; just in the middle of a rubber we heard a row amongst the Indians, & on going out found their village (on the other side of the Harbour) in flames. Across the Bridge we went to be sure, and you cannot fancy a stranger sight: these houses are all cedar wood: thoroughly dry from having constant fires and no chimney, they are mere uprights with boards against them thus (here Burnaby penned a small illustration) - and of course once in flames impossible to put out: to see the poor wretches streaming out with their Blankets, pots & pans and other property and crawling about the roof of the next Lodge ready to give the alarm on rhe least symptom of danger: others pouring pans of water down the sides which were smoking with the heat, talking and chattering to themselves all the while: and looking with amazement when the Hook and Ladder Company (of which more anon) came up, and cut off the communication by at once demolishing the next Lodge. The old women, such hags all wrinkles and dirt, stood by wringing their hands and constandy repeating "clar how yer" - "clar how yer"." which means "How dyr do" - as a token of their gratitude. The Hook and Ladder Co: is a volunteer Fire Brigade: a custom borrowed from our neighbours in the States. In San Francisco the city was several times utterly consumed, and people prosperous before were ruined in an hour. So they combined & formed these Fire Companies: Have handsome houses for their Engines ie, reading rooms and so forth; and every member is bound to attend, or be fined, whenever the Bell of the Engine house warns him. The Hook is for pulling down houses to prevent the Fire from spreading: & the Ladder for mounting: the uniform of the Co: Black pants, a leathern belt - red shirt & Blue cap -; along the hook are running rings for ropes and when the foreman hooks hold of a beam the whole force try & tug at the rope till the piece comes down and so on to another. We have not an Engine yet: but rhe Company, as it is, is very useful in a tinder-box like this, where we might all be combusted before we could wink twice. We had a fire in my chimney not long since and the H&L Co. turned out in style - but it was soon quenched with a dose of cold water down its back Capt. Palliser the explorer ofthe Rocky Mountains is here and will shortly leave for home, he is Irish and will be much in Dublin. He will call on you: and tell you all about this and more. You will find him one of the kindest hearted eccentric, but most perfect "ladies' man" you could meet. A good musician & capital story teller - It is so strange to see him devoted to "the sex" so gallandy, after the rough time he has had for the last three years. Collingwood (Harriet's husband) will like him very much and will find him a man of great attainments and practical knowl- 19 edge. You will wonder to hear what our prospects here are and may be. We are jogging on, and always hoping for better times - it is always so in gold country. - Where, there is more or less of the gambling spirit constandy at work. I am living as comfortably as man could wish and certainly, so far, not losing money, and having a fair chance in view of making it - But though plenty of the precious stuff is to be found, & will be taken out of the country, things do not progress as they might. Fancy my paying a boy to come and clean my boots, make my bed, sweep out the office (occupies him one hour every morning) at rhe rate of £50 per ann. and cannot get a clerk for mere office work under about £200 - . We have no coin here less than Gd and are not likely tohave yet a while. I am now "doing business": sit at home & sell Blankets and other matters day after day: It is not so pleasant as roaming about & prospecting the country, and variety is out ofthe question. But it promises to pay in the end, and will. I do not at all regret the change, and as to health and so forth never was better: only now and then come longing thoughts of Home and all there which it is impossible to repress. Our Gov't is anything but popular. Old Douglas is a selfish, scheming fellow, who has not even the polish and external show of a gentleman to hide his true character. Consequendy amidst a Yankee population, who have no respect for dignities his position carries no weight & he himself quite the reverse, and so we lose the advantage of a head. - Talking of Yankee respect for dignities did I ever send you the story of an English Noble in a train in the States: and a genuine Yankee asking him several rude questions - At last "Do you know fellow that I'm Lord ? "Its B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 nothing to me stranger if you're Lord G- D" was the reply. It is impossible to crowd into a small space dear Harry, all I want to say and tell. You will gather that I am well, and contented, hoping for good times and not yet down on my luck. You must not only take your full share of Love but extend it to the whole family and to the good folks at South'ton, New Forest and "elsewhere"-. When the Mail comes in I may have time for a line in reply to letters I hope to get-. Isn't Aleck growing a big and fine fellow. Give him my very best love - & kiss Godson for me. and Believe me, my ever dear sister. Your fondly affh Bro R. Burnaby. Erratum: In Robert Burnaby's February 28, 1859 letter, published in the Spring 1998 issue ofthe B.C. Historical News, reference was made to "Elwyn" (page 35, second column, second line from the bottom ofthe page). That name should be changed to "Hugo". Robert's brother, Hugo held a commission in the Royal Navy. Letter transcribed by Meg Kennedy Shaw and Pixie McGeachie Fort Victoria & H.B. Co. Doctors I wish to salute the Hudson's Bay Company who created the city of Victoria in 1843 and I also salute the Hudson's Bay Company doctors who played important roles in planning and witnessing the birth of Fort Victoria, nurtured her growth and health and shaped her future. The Hudson's Bay Fur Trading Company, formed in 1670, held from the British Crown, "complete lordship, legislative, judicial and executive power, as well as commercial monopoly over all the country whose rivers and tributaries drained into the Hudson Bay." By 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company had also "absorbed the Northwest Fur Company based in Montreal." The HBC Governor George Simpson sent the Canadian surgeon, Dr. John McLoughlin in 1824 to Astoria on the Columbia River, to administer as Chief Factor for over twenty years, the District of Columbia consisting of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. With his family, trading staff and the new fort physician and surgeon, Dr. Forbes Barclay, he travelled the long for brigade trail from Lake-of-the-Woods in Ontario to Astoria. By March 19, 1825, Dr. McLoughlin had moved the Hudson's Bay Company headquarters 90 miles upriver on the Columbia River to establish Fort Vancouver. Soon a network of HBC for trading posts had been built from California to Alaska including Yerba Buena (San Francisco, 1840), Fort George in 1813, at Astoria (Columbia River), Fort by Dr. Joyce Clearihue Vancouver (Columbia River, 1825), Nisqually (Puget Sound, 1833), Langley (Fraser River, 1827), Fort Victoria in 1843, Fort Hope and Fort Yale, both in 1849, Fort Rupert (Vancouver Island, May 11, 1849), Fort McLoughlin (Bella Bella, 1833), Fort Simpson (Nass River, 1831), Fort Stikine (1839) and Fort Taku (Alaska, 1840). Earlier, interior fur brigade forts had been established by the "Northwesters" at Fort St. James (1806), Fort George (Prince George, 1807), Fort Fraser (1806) and Fort Alexandria (1821), as well as other sites. Dr. John McLoughlin was in command as a "benign despot", well regarded as the "Father of Oregon" who administered "sound justice, wise and humane treatment". The "Great White Eagle" was an imposing and big-framed figure of 6'3" with a sudden growth of a white plume of hair following a near drowning in Canada. He was born on October 22, 1784 of Sottish-Irish immigrant parents at Riviere de Loup, downstream from Quebec City. He and his brother, David, both took medical studies at Edinburgh with David establishing a practice as a physician in Paris and "Dr. John casting his lot with his maternal uncle, Malcolm Fraser, one of the founders ofthe Northwest Company." Dr. John "rose in charge of all company business in Rupert's Land with headquarters at Fort William." Here he married "his second wife, Marguerite Wadin McKay, half blood Chippewan widow of Northwest Company trader, Alexander McKay." You may remember that Alexander McKay had been killed by Indians at Nootka eight years previously during rhe "Tonquin" Massacre. They had four children, John Junior, Eliza, Eloise, and David. "Sons David and John were sent to Montreal and later to Paris to join their Uncle David." Son David, an engineer with the British Army Engineers, returned to Columbia at his fathers request and was "posted to Fort Victoria as an apprentice clerk to learn the for trade under James Douglas," but later established "McLoughlin's Ferry" on the Kootenay Flats. Eliza married a Mr. Rae who in 1845 committed suicide at HBC Yerba Buena. To add to the doctor's sorrow in April, 1842 his son, John McLoughlin Jr. who was reputed to have qualified as a physician, was murdered while left in charge of Fort Stikine. "He was a reckless and unreliable young man who had fallen in a drunken fray, by the hand of one of his own men", said Governor Simpson who "apprehended the suspected murderer and turned him over to the Russian authorities" with his verdict of "justifiable homicide". "Dr. McLoughlin never forgave Simpson his callousness and reconciliation was impossible." That same year, 1842, was when Governor Simpson ordered Dr. McLoughlin to "take steps" to form and establish an HBC depot at the south end ofVancouver Island when it became apparent that there might be a divi- 30 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 sion between the U.S.A. and Canada at the 49th parallel (established June 15, 1846, but signed into law by the Oregon Treaty of 1860). Already in 1837, Captain W.H. McNeill had reported favourably on Victoria's harbour and Dr. McLoughlin in 1839 and Simpson in 1840 briefly inspected the area as well. In the summer of 1842, Chief Factor, James Douglas (Dr. McLoughlin's assistant) landed and chose the Port of Camosack for the new post - "a perfect Eden". Then, on March 1, 1843, James Douglas again left Fort Vancouver on the HBC Beaver, a barque converted to the first steamship on the coast, and he arrived off Clover Point on March 13, 1843 to select the precise site for Fort Victoria, first called Fort Camosun. Fort Victoria was the official name selected a few weeks later. Construction of the Fort started immediately under 26 year old Roderick Finlayson's direction. By October 1843, workers had enclosed a quadrangle 300 feet long and 330 feet wide to accommodate eight buildings of hewn logs, posts and sills, each sixty feet long. The Songhee Indians were paid with one 2 1/2 point HBC blanket for every forty cedar pickets cut to make an encircling 18 foot high palisade. The southwest bastion was situated at present day Wharf and Broughton Streets and perimeters of the Fort stretched along Wharf Street with a central west gate, up through present Bastion Square to the corner of View and Government Streets where the northwest bastion was constructed later (and it was once used as a jail). The palisades extended along present day Government Street with a back east gate looking up Fort Street, and finally down Broughton Street to Wharf and the southwest bastion. Four years later, in 1847, the "stockade was extended north by 135 feet, two new storehouses were completed, and a warehouse, a 100 feet long was erected on the stone piles on the harbour." By then, outside the stockade, further buildings had gradually been built to include the Governor's (Blanshard's) official residence, bakery, dairy, further men's quarters, stables, and workmen's house on the cultivated HBC gardens, and one of the free settlers' homes, Captain Cooper's. The other free setder, was Captain Grant at that time. "Four deep wells dug at Fort Victoria railed to provide an adequate supply of water and another well had to be dug at some distance." The old graveyard was near the southwest corner of Douglas and Johnson Streets and was later removed to the Quadra Street Cemetery in 1859 by the prison chain gang. Of interest in the Fort Victoria letters of 1851, was the report that the Hudson's Bay Company servants had built a "small hospital building Early model of Fort Victoria. BCARS HP 1129 photo. near the Fort in case of sickness in emigrants per the Tory or any further ship from England". This was seven years before the ill Mr. Braithwaite was left on a mattress inside Reverend Cridge's parsonage gate, forcing the use (rent free) of the first cottage hospital rented from Mr. Blinkhorn, and this was situated at the corner of Broad and Yates in 1858. On the other side of the smelly James Bay mud flats (now filled in with the Empress Hotel) and on the site ofthe present Royal B.C. Museum, Governor and Mrs. James Douglas' home, and son-in- law, Dr. J.S. and Mrs. Cecelia Helmcken's homes were built beside the House of Assembly, called the Bird Cages, which was built in 1859. Members ofthe House of Assembly included the Hudson's Bay Company Doctors Tolmie, Kennedy and Helmcken. Life inside Fort Victoria is well described in the HBC "Fort Victoria" letters and diaries. Looking toward the harbour and facing the central front west gate on Fort and Wharf Street from the inside of the Fort were clockwise on the right, Mr. Roderick Finlayson's residence (Chief Trader, 1850, Chief Factor 1859 and Mayor of Victoria, 1878), the general HBC store with the powder magazine behind it, and two warehouses plus 3 employees' houses. The Mess Hall included Chief Factor James Douglas' residence and quarters for junior clerks, and then the back east gate (on Government Street), and the bachelors' quarters, which also included the doctor's combined bedroom and surgery, plus the Reverend and Mrs. Staines quarters and their school room, as well as school dormitories on the second floor. Then on the side of the Bachelors' quarters, there was another warehouse, the men's quarters, the blacksmith's and on the left side ofthe west gate, a small two-room cottage which was a colonial post office until 1859 and afterwards it was the registrar's office, (which was often used as a courthouse), and finally it was used as Dr. J.S. Helmcken's medical office. Eighty Fort residents included HBC indentured English officers and their wives, clerks, labourers, French Canadians, Kanakas (Hawaiians) and one or two Iroquois. Life was regimented and colourful. With vis- 31 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 James Douglas' Residence 3 employee houses Bachelors Hall- Doctor's surgery Rev. Staines quarters & School North East Bastion 2 warehouses for *furs- n/arehouse used as barracks for new arrivals •flBCo Men's quarters Storehouse (Fish ii Oil) Blacksmith Shop Southwest Bastion N«- VV Chief Trader- Cottage-Colonial Post Office -R. Findlayson Residence Later Dr. Helmcken's Office INNER HARBOUR MODEL OF FORT VICTORIA BCARS Photo A-00509 iting ships there was an exchange of fired rockets and nine pound cannons, and ships' officers would be invited and summoned to wine and dine in the Mess Hall. In the middle ofthe courtyard, the belfry stood and "its bell tolled for meals, for deaths, for weddings, for church service, for fires and sometimes for warnings. Ar mealtime it was assisted by a chorus of curs. These curs assembled under the bell at every meal and looking up at it howled, the howling being taken up by some dogs in the Indian opposite village." The courtyard was muddy and the sidewalk to the whitewashed and Spanish-brown painted stores consisted of two or three slippery poles. "The Mess Room served every purpose — church services, baptisms, marriages, funerals, councils, dances, theatrical and other amusements." It "was more than 30 feet long by 20 feet long with a large open fireplace at one end." Further furniture included a "clock on the wall, a long table in the middle covered with spodess linen, the knives and forks dean, decanters bright and containing wine and so forth." More than twenty people could sit at the wooden Windsor chairs. Then the dinner would be served to indude: soup, salmon, meats (venison and duck), and then "pies and so forth." Afterwards all the men would be entertained in the Bachdors' Hall and sometimes interrupted by the commissioned officers' boarding school children pouring water down through the ceiling cracks from their dormitories above. On holidays and Sundays, the HBC flag would be hoisted on the 75 foot central flagpole and in the Mess Room the young women (without musical accompaniment) would lead the hymns for church services, which were 32 conducted by the cranky and unpopular Reverend Robert John Staines. He married Cecelia Douglas and Dr. J.S. Helmcken in the Fort's Mess Hall on December 27, 1852. Another man ofthe doth and teacher, the Oblate priest, Father Lempfrit, boarded with the HBC and established a priest's school for the wives and children of the Company's servants, as well as ministering to the Indians. The main reason for establishing Fort Victoria was, of course, to trade fors using the "new for trade route via the Fraser River to the New Caledonia country as a substitute for the Columbia River." Beaver, marten, land and sea otter all were hung in the storehouses. As the for trade declined, the HBC found markets for agricultural produce, salmon, whaling, timber, spars and shingles, and in 1852, the Queen Charlotte's gold and B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Nanaimo's coal. Again, the Indians were paid one 2 1/2 point HBC blanket for every two tons of coal collected. Outside the Fort many Indians were camped and in general were peaceful, except for one occasion when they peppered the palisade with musket balls and another, when a fire threatened the Fort. At this point they were persuaded to move across the harbour to the present Songhees site. These scenes were captured by the visiting artist, Paul Kane in 1847. Two thirds of the Fort inhabitants fell ill during the measles epidemic of 1848 and, unfortunately, the epidemic spread north killing 250 of the 2,500 Fort Simpson Indians and others. Equally devastating were smallpox epidemics which first hit the west coast in the 1770's and, over a 100 year span, smallpox wiped out about 80% of North America's indigenous population. The 1862 smallpox epidemic in Victoria reduced the native population in B.C. from 60,000 to 40,000. Due to emigrant ships being compelled by Act of Parliament to carry surgeons, HBC appointed Alfred Robson Benson, surgeon and derk, for five years and he was the first medical officer at Fort Victoria in 1849. Graduating at Guys Hospital he had also received a complete nautical education. A very casual dresser, Dr. Benson was also described as "a great character, never seen without a pipe in his mouth and his rooms in Bachelors' Hall crowded with Indian curiosities, bird skins, geological specimens, books and tobacco in the most inextricable confusion." In addition to Dr. Benson having to attend to inquests and to coroner's duties, Dr. Hdmcken remembers him reducing a two year old recurrent dislocation of the humerus with pulleys, and treating lead poisoning in a Kanakan who had mistaken a ball of putty for a ball of dough which he had eaten. Benson was transferred to Fort Vancouver and then to Nanaimo where he later became a colliery surgeon from 1857 to 1861. The doctor often had to work without pay and in 1862 in his filed letter, he dedined to act as coroner without remuneration. On December 19, I860, Dr. Benson married Miss Ellen Philips, who was Mrs. Langford's sister. Before Dr. Benson left Fort Victoria, his college chum at Guys Hospital, Dr. John Sebastian Hdmcken, sailed into Victoria first on March 24, 1850, and again from Fort Rupert in December 1850, to be Fort Victoria's second medical officer and in his own words, "the leading physician from San Francisco to the North Pole, and from Asia to the Red River". The HBC doctor, George Johnston, sailed in the Tory to Victoria in May 1851 to replace Dr. Helmcken at Fort Rupert. Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken was born June 25, 1825 in London and was apprenticed to Dr. Robert Graves of thyroid fame, where he learned to make up pills, and gained a licence from the Apothecaries Society. By March, 1848 he had graduated in medicine from Guys Hospital where he also saw ether given for the first time by Dr. Gull. He had extensive shipboard experience sailing on the HBC ship, Prince Rupert to Hudson Bay and return, when Dr. John Rae of Sir John Franklin's fame, was a passenger. Later he sailed on the Malacca to Bombay, China, Singapore and Ceylon, etc., and then on a five month trip from England to Fort Victoria arriving on the HBC ship, Norman Morison on March 24, 1850. Here the ship was quarantined for three weeks as he had had to treat six cases of smallpox at sea. The one unvaccinated man died at sea. For this hazardous and adventurous life, Dr. John Helmcken had to sign on with the HBC for five years in 1849 as a surgeon and clerk at a salary of £100 sterling per annum. This incuded board and room, instruments, and a free passage home. Later James Douglas was able to give him a further £100 sterling per annum from the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. The ship's seamen got only £4 sterling per month. And what a sad litde room the doctor was assigned to in Fort Victoria - off the main Bachelors' Hall - to also serve as his surgery. "It contained a gun case and a few shelves with drugs in botdes or in paper in every direction. The tin lining of a "packing case" served for a counter. There was a cot slung to the ceiling" for Dr. Helmcken's personal use. It was here that Dr. Benson welcomed Dr. Helmcken. Within two months, in May 1850, Dr. Helmcken had been shipped off on the HBC steamer, Beaver to Fort Rupert on the northern end ofVancouver Island as the physician-magistrate. However, he found the job very distasteful, while trying to apprehend three seamen who had deserted their ship and later, the Indians, who had murdered the seamen in self-defence. He was glad to be returned, in December 1850, to Victoria, in haste, in an Indian canoe to attend to Governor Blanshard's painful "tic douloureux". Later he turned the litde cottage in the Fort into his medical offices, and he was allowed to have a private practice. Not until April 28, 1852 did James Douglas open the first session of the Legislative Council in the Bachelors' Hall and the Fort served as the site of the future government. This council was replaced in 1856 by an elected assembly which induded Doctors J.S. Helmcken (speaker) and Dr. J.F. Kennedy among its six members, and, by 1859, they had moved to the House of Assembly, called the "Bird Cages". At this date, Dr. James Trimble, a naval surgeon in Victoria, was dected, as well as the HBC Doctor W.F. Tolmie who was elected to two terms on March 1, 1859. These two other HBC doctors, Dr. WE Tolmie and Dr. Kennedy played important roles in nurturing the growth, health and future of early Victoria. Dr. William Fraser Tolmie, born in Inverness, February 3,1812 and a medical graduate of Glasgow University in 1832, arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1833 via Cape Horn and an eight month passage. He served at Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound and Fort McLoughlin (now Bella Bella in B.C.) and, due to Russian opposition, assisted in moving Fort Simpson on the Nass River to Port Simpson. He was also a botanist, a naturalist, ethnologist and "an authority on Indian affairs and their dialects and languages." A "trader, an agriculturalist and a legislator", this dour and deeply religious Scot was "one of rhe first resident doctors to practice in B.C. by reason of his time at Fort McLoughlin" (now Bella Bella). He noted in his diary, after arriving December 28, 1833, that he prescribed for two children in the Fort McLoughlin and saw "several of the men who were ill, and "dressed the wounded 33 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 arms of two Indians — the wounds are on the dorsal aspect of forearms — are several square inches in extent, and have been produced by the bite ofthe chief to whom the men are attached and who does them the favour of removing a few inches of cutis and cellular substance from the arm, when requested " The HBC "medical men attended the health of Indian tribesmen with reluctance or not at all, if there appeared to be danger through retaliation through superstition." The doctors were instructed to treat HBC servants which included the "Mtkis, traders, derks, artisans and their native born womenfolk." Illness to be treated induded "contagious fevers, bones to be set, scurvy, wounds to be dressed, infections countered, carbundes lanced, aching teeth to be drawn and men to be bled for a presumed oversupply of blood distressing the venous system." By our present medical standards the treatments and medicines available in those days were woefully inadequate. However, the diaries of Dr. Tolmie and Dr. Helmcken suggest that they had highly qualified medical and pharmaceutical training and undertook detailed patients' histories and examinations. After his years as Chief Trader at Fort Nisqually where he was a director of the Puget Sound Agricultural arm of the HBC, Dr. Tolmie was transferred to Victoria in 1859 during the Fraser River Gold Rush and here he continued as their agent in managing the Fort Victoria HBC farms. At the same time in Victoria he served as a member of the local legislature for two terms, member ofthe board of education, member ofthe medical profession to a few former U.S.A. patients who visited Victoria, as a stock breeder on his 1,100 acre farm called "Cloverdale", and as the head of his large family consisting of his wife Jane Work Tolmie, five daughters and seven sons, one of whom was Dr. Simon Fraser Tolmie, a veterinary surgeon and B.C. premier from 1928 to 1933. In 1870, the physician Tolmie, retired to his fifteen room house of stone and California redwood called "Cloverdale". He died on December 8, 1886 at the age of 74. Another early B.C. and HBC surgeon was our own J.F. Kennedy first stationed at Fort Simpson on the Nass River in 1832. Dr. John Frederick Kennedy, a Meus, was born in 1805, the eldest son of Chief Factor, Alexander Kennedy. Following his medical degree from Edinburgh, this "careful and attentive" man was paid only £60 sterling per annum by HBC, to serve as a surgeon, trader, storekeeper and accountant. Appointed Chief Trader in 1847 he was over twenty years in the HBC also serving at Fort Nisqually, Fort Rupert, and finally as Nanaimo's member of the first House of Assembly in Victoria along with Dr. J.S. Helmcken. Being a Metis and marrying "Fanny", the daughter of a Tsimpsean chief, he "knew the Indian customs and jargons" and had their confidence as an interpreter for making treaties, and while hunting for the reported gold discovery at Mitchell Harbour, Queen Charlotte Islands in 1852. There again in 1853 he was an Indian advisor on HMS Virago whose ship surgeon was Dr. Henry Trevan. Retiring in 1856 he was in Victoria and still working while he hdped Dr. Helmcken pick gunshot from "a buttocks that looked like a plum pudding". Like Dr. McLoughlin, Dr. Kennedy also lost a son-in-law, J.D.B. Ogilvy, who was murdered by a prisoner. Dr. Kennedy died in 1859. Diaries and informative artides about these HBC doctors, and in particular Dr. Helmcken's casebooks, make interesting reading in the provincial archives. Dr. Heal-My-Skin, as Dr. Helmcken was known as, had to mix and match powders, tinctures, leaves, seeds, plasters, acids, oils, roots, extracts, wines, aloes with myrrh, burgundy pitch, senna, sassafras shavings and even creosote. These had to be rolled into pills and offered to the unwary and to distant HBC forts, as Dr. Helmcken "wit- tedly referred to as, "so many purges, so many dozen pukes and so many dozen of quinine and calomel, etc"." He was indeed, a man of Lord Lister's time, for Lister had graduated in medicine at the University of London in 1852, only four years after Helmcken graduated. In 1865, Lister announced the antiseptic treatment of wounds and Dr. Helmcken already had access to carbolic acid and creosote. Pasteur had not yet demonstrated that septic properties depended on the presence of minute organisms. Much later 34 (on September 13, 1897) Dr. Helmcken's son, was to have the honour to escort Lord Lister when he visited Victoria. By 1858 the face of Victoria, and its Fort were changing forever when over 20,000 gold seekers flooded into Vancouver Island on their way to the Lower Fraser River gold fields. Miner's grey cotton tents surrounded the Fort, four Catholic sisters arrived and the small cottage hospital at Broad and Yates Streets preceded the 1859 Royal Hospital on the Songhees. The colony of B.C. was also formed in 1858. My grandfather, Joseph Clearihue, a goldseeker, arrived in Victoria on the S.S. Forwood on June 18, 1859 and he would have seen the old Fort Victoria buildings and the Fort's wooden palisades before the last picket was torn down in 1861. By the Union Act of 1866, Vancouver Island was "annexed" to B.C. and by 1867, legally all the HBC exdusive privileges on Vancouver Island, first granted January 13, 1849, had reverted to the Crown. B.C. joined Confederation in 1871, and as the last ofthe old Fort buildings crumbled in the early 1880's, Fort Victoria and the legacy left by the Hudson's Bay Company doctors became but a memory. Dr. foyce Clearihue prepared this as a talk far the Victoria Medical Society. She recently retired from practice (dermatology) and has devoted considerable volunteer time to heritage matters and the Royal B.C. Museum. Note: Recently the perimeters of Fort Victoria were traced and marked with colored bricks in downtown Victoria. BIBUOGRAPHY Akrigg G.PV. & Hdcn B. Akrigg. "British Columbia / 1778-1849 Chronicle "Adventures by Sea and Land". Discovety Press 1975. 'HMS Virago in the Pacific 1851-1855 To The Queen Charlottes and Beyond" Sono Nis Press, Victoria, 1992. Bowsfidd, H. ed.. Fon Victoria Letters 1846-1851 .. .With an Introduction by M. A. Onnsby. Winnipeg, Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1979. Gregson. Harry. A History of Victoria 1842-1970. Tlie Victoria Obsetvet Publishing Co. Ltd. 1970. Hdmcken. John Sebastian. BCARS add. MSS505 Family Papers, Vol. 1 folder 2 (Benson); folder 17 (Tolmie). Vol. 2 F27 Vol. 3 Drug and Medical Supplies Account Books 1857-1860; Case Book 1876-1879 - Microfilm A810. Volume 4-JSH Medical Notebooks, Sept. 24, 1845. Jones, Carle. "The David McLoughlin Story" B.C. Historical News, Vol. 28, No. 1. 1994-95. Munro. Dr. AS. "The Medical History Story of B.C Series VoL 25. 1931: Vol. 26/1932 CMAJ. Nesbitt. J.K. "John Frederick Kennedy" The Daily Colonist BCARS Red 74 Frame 0079. Ormsby, M.A. "British Columbia: a History" The MacMillans in Canada 1958. Pediick. Derek. "Victoria: The Fort" Mitchdl Press Ltd., Vancouvet 1968 Ruggles, Richard 1. "A Country so Interesting. The HBC and Two Centuries of Mapping 1670-1870, Ruperts' Land Record Society Series" McGill-Queens U. Press 1991. Smith, D. Blakey, ed., "The Reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken". University of B.C. Press 1975. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 NEWS & NOTES Introducing our New Editor Fred Braches of Whonnock comes to us well recommended. He and his wife Helmi are active members of the Archaeological Society of British Columbia. In 1995 Fred retired from a career in international shipping which brought him from Holland to Latin America, the Far East, and 25 years ago, to British Columbia. Throughout his career he travelled extensively. He is no stranger to publication. Prior to his retirement he published, with Professor Richard Shutler of Simon Fraser University, a series of articles on the Pleistocene fauna of his native Indonesia. Fred has become deeply interested in the past of our province with a special interest in the history of his home community of Whonnock. Since his retirement he has added to an assembly of documentation and information under the patronage of the Whonnock Community Association. (See BCH NEWS Vol. 31 No. 1, "Some Notes on Whonnock" by E.L. Affleck.) His efforts to retrace the past have made him aware of the value and fragility of personal recollection and records. Fred is producer, editor and publisher of a series of occasional papers, WHONNOCK NOTES, DEALING WITH SELECTED TOPICS OF Whonnock's past. Fred also produces and distributes The MIDDEN (of which he is Assistant Editor) the quarterly newsletter of the Archaeological Society. To contact Fred, see address on the inside back cover. BCMA 42nd Annual Conference Our British Columbia Historical Association / Federation was created in 1922 to preserve, mark, or record anything of value to the heritage of our province. When collections of artifacts were being amassed and displayed in communities other than Vancouver and Victoria, the Historical Association decided that groups sponsoring museums and individual curators would be better served by an organization of their own. The BCHA sponsored the formation of the B.C. Museums Association in 1956. In the early years the provincial government offered the services of a Provincial Museums Advisor. The good gentleman in that office distributed information, gave practical advice and great dollops of encouragement (but no money.) About 1982 the Museums Association allowed Art Galleries to become members. Cranbrook hosted delegates from the B.C. Museums Association from October 1st to 4th, 1998. The Canadian Museum of Rail Travel, Fort Steele Heritage Town and the St. Eugene Mission & Tribal Centre gave tours described as "Workshops on the Move." Guest Speakers dealt with Educational Perceptions, Tourism, Public Sector Services, Internet Marketing, and Community Partnerships. The Canrdian Council for Rail Heritage held its business meeting concurrently with the Annual General Meeting of the BCMA. President of the BCMA is Kirsten Clausen of the Langley Centennial Museum and National Exhibition Centre. Ihe Art of Storytelling in Procter Hall Procter sits on the point where the West Arm of the Kootenay Lake begins. It had orchards, and wharves for lake steamers very early in the settlement years. When the railway finally went through in the 1930s its importance as a transfer point for freight and passengers vanished. But ft had no road access until the Harrop Ferry was put into service. How does a tiny community save its heritage community hall? Their major fundraiser was a Storytelling Festival held on October 5. History Through Storytelling is a theme which delighted the audience and will be tried again next year on July 3rd & 4th. Anyone wishing further details can contact Barry Gray at RR#3 S20 C 45, Nelson, B.C. V1L 5P6 or Phone (250) 229-4671. LABELS: Expiration Date Your address label should have a number/number in the upper right corner. Compare this with the notation on the top left comer of the front cover. This issue is Vol. 32 No. 1. So, if your address label says 32/1 this could be your last issue UNLESS YOU RENEW. If you have been subscribing through your local Historical Society, please pay your renewal to your Treasurer. Otherwise mail your renewal cheque to: The Subscription Secretary, Joel Vinge, RR#2 S13 C60, Cranbrook, B.C. V1C4H3. Commencing in January 1999 the annual subscription is $12 for everyone. This is to comply with guidelines from Canada Heritage in conjunction with Canada Post. fitanic's Final Supper The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club recreated the seven course dinner, with accompanying wines, of the last dinner on the Titanic. Guests appeared in luxurious period costume, some replications, but Doris Winterbottom wore an heirloom black lace dress from 1911. James Delgado of the Maritime Museum became Captain of the ship for the evening. Leonard McCann was a special guest for the evening, wearing a white tie and tails. Profits from this gala event on June 29th were donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum. "Red" McLeod Remembered Norman McLeod was a young, impetuous citizen of Fort Steele in the late 1880's. Because of his flaming red hair he was constantly called "Red," a name that he hated. One day, in a bar, he broke a bottle over a tormentor's head, left him lying prostrate, then saddled his horse and headed out of town. The local policeman was sent after McLeod, who was found cooking supper beside a creek. McLeod brashly invited the constable to join him for a plate of beans. When the pursuer relaxed, McLeod grabbed his gun, his horse then left waving, "Ta Ta". The Creek, and community, thereafter was known as TaTa Creek. McLeod spent a short time south of the 49th, then settled in Argenta. There he lived a life of 35 stealing from the rich and aiding the poor. In his declining years he sought help to contact (he was illiterate) his sister who lived in Detroit, and paid her fare to travel to Kaslo to visit him. McLeod died at 82 in the Nelson Hospital and was buried in Kaslo on August 23,1948 in an unmarked grave. This summer (1998) Dorothy Sawczuk and two friends raised sufficient funds to pay for a tombstone. This marker is red sandstone, carved by a current resident of TaTa Creek, and it was set in place fifty years after his death. News Sought Please keep sending items of interest, notices, society newsletters and obituaries to Naomi Miller, Box 105, Wasa, B.C. VOB 2K0. Naomi will be compiling News & Notes and Federation reports to assist the incoming editor. Merritt Conference 1999 The theme of the BCHF Conference 1999 is "Exploring the Nicola Valley." On the evening of Thursday, April 29, a wine and cheese social at the Senior Citizens Centre gives delegates the opportunity to greet old friends and meet new ones. The Nicola Valley Museum & Archives shares this building at 2202 Jackson Avenue, so visitors can browse through the display area. Friday the Conference moves to the Merritt Convention & Civic Centre. After lunch a bus tour will take participants to the Highland Valley Copper Mine, one of the largest open pit mines in North America. There will be varied entertainment in the evening. On Saturday another bus tour is planned to historic Nicola Ranch (located just a few country miles outside of Merritt.) The bus then continues on to Quilchena where there are authentic examples of what ranching and life in the Nicola Valley was 100 years ago. Special guest, Wendy Wickwire, will speak on Saturday evening on the Native history of the area. A pancake breakfast Sunday morning, May 2, 1999 will close the Conference. Winston A. Shilvock 1918-1998 This gentleman from Kelowna introduced himself to novice editor Naomi in 1988, volunteering to advise and assist with the B.C. Historical News. He prepared the Spring 1990 issue (Vol. 23/2) with many stories on the Okanagan. During his career in business he published many articles on economics and salesmanship. Then when he retired he devoted himself to history, calculating recently that 254 of his articles have appeared in print. He passed away in September, shortly before his 90th birthday. B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Bookshelf Books for review and book reviews should be sent directly to the Book Review Editor: Anny Yandle, 3450 West 20th Avenue, Cancouver, B.C. V6S 1E4 Robert D. Turner, Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Pacific Railway's British Columbia Lake and River Service, Sono Nis Press, 1998. Photos, maps, routes, timetables & drawings, 302 p. softcover, $39.95 ISBN 1-55039-089-9 My son and his family recently dropped off at our place en route to their home after a vacation in B.C.'s interior. When he walked in the door he spied my review copy of Bob Turner's book Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs - and promptly asked to borrow it when 1 was finished. He wanted to read it. As this is a person who has so far made it his life's endeavour to read as few books as possible, I was momentarily struck dumb. When I had recovered and asked why, I was struck by his answer. He and his family had visited the restored Moyie, and they had been enormously struck by the vessel on which so many people had spent so many hours to bring back to her original state. To heap further coals on my ignominy he had also brought me some reading material about the ship, for he knew I had not much knowledge of this part of Canada's seafaring heritage. He in turn wanted to read more. Well, he could do no better than to read Turner's book. A reprint of the first edition that appeared in 1984, this soft-covered version has the added inducement of a new section high-lighting the restoration of the Moyie, and another sternwheeler, S.S. Sicamous. As the fly-leaf to the book states, the building of these increasingly more marvellous 'inland canoes' was necessitated by the contorted topography of inland British Columbia. With numerous long and narrow lakes, and many rivers to conquer, unless one was willing to be diverted periodically north or south to skirt these obstacles, the only solution to the area's early settlers was to build shallow- draught, manoeuverable craft to cut off these large meanders. Turner details their proceedings, both people and ships, with loving care. The ships were destined for relatively short lives - and not just because of the hazards of navigation, which they faced with great aplomb. As the numbers of settlers established on the land increased, so did the feasibility of building railways and doing away with the wa- tercraft. In fact, Turner's subjects had a heyday that lasted only about forty years, from the 1890s until the 1930s, when the fateful hand of railway progress rendered them obsolete. Turner covers this exciting period in B.C. 's history with informative text, maps and highly- evocative photographs. Three hundred and twenty in all, and all in glorious black and white (except for a few colour in the 2nd edi tion "Addenda") they depict all aspects of the trade. The photographs and their accompanying captions alone are worth the cost of the book. When one thinks of Canada's marine heritage one all too often forgets these shortlived vessels. In doing so one misses a large part of our national efforts to move passengers and freight over water. If there was one unexpected aspect to this fascinating book to myself, steeped in the lore of ocean shipping, it is the apparent ease with which shipyards sprang up to build these incredible ships. Nothing in the book is more evocative of this than the photograph on page 168, showing Sicamous just before she was launched. There are a couple of houses in the picture, some people milling about, a railway spur line to the side of the ship, and a series of timber skids leading her way to the water. It all looks so easy, compared to the way ocean ships were built! Likewise, Turner's skill with his text gives an impression of easiness, an impression not allayed until one realises just how much information he imparts with such skill. It was a Canadian National Railways president who most cogently explained the phrase the 'interdependence of wheel and keel', referring to the way in which the two modes worked together. Traditionally, however, it was the CPR that put action to words - hence the main concentration of this book on the CPR's B.C. Lake and River Service. A few pages creep in about the CN competition, towards the end of the main period under discussion, but otherwise this is a CPR story from beginning to end. I cannot wait to hear what my son thinks of it, when he has finished such a readable book. Kenneth S. Mackenzie Transportation Historian, Salt Spring Island, BC From Summit to Sea; Illustrated History of Railroads in British Columbia and Alberta. George H. Buck. Calgary, Fifth House Ltd., 1997. 202 p. Hard cover. $29.95. Available from Fifth House Ltd., #9 - 6125 11th St. S.E., Calgary, AB T2H 2L6 From Summit to Sea is a well illustrated survey of the development of British Columbia's and Alberta's railway systems from the 1880s to 1939. This covers the major periods of railway construction and consolidation in both provinces. By 1939 nearly all of the major railways, with the exception of the Pacific Great Eastern (later the British Columbia Railway) had been expanded to their maximum extent. After the War, vast changes were on the horizon in cluding increased competition from trucking and airlines, dieselization and the elimination of most passenger travel by train. The cut off of 1939 also represents about the mid-point of the history of railways in British Columbia and Alberta. The book covers a wide range of topics that are all part of the complex story of railway development and expansion in Western Canada which is the theme of the volume. As the author points out very correctly, it was people who imagined, built, operated and used the railways, and people feature importantly throughout the book. From Summit to Sea begins with the construction of the Canadian Ffeicific Railway in the 1880s, operations and improvements to the railway, the development of the CPR's tourism and hotel business, the Grand Trunk Ffeicific's expansion across northern Alberta through the Yellowhead Pass to Prince Rupert, the Canadian Northern's often parallel construction through the Yellowhead and westward to the Pacific at Fbrt Mann on the Fraser River, improvements to the CPR including major engineering works and expanded hotels and resorts, smaller railways such as the Alberta Central, the Alberta & Great Waterways, the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia, the Pacific Great Eastern, the Canadian Ffeiciflc's Kettle Valley and some others. The final major section called "The Battle of the Giants," which brings the story up to 1939, discusses the railways through Depression and the competition between the government owned Canadian National and the privately owned but government subsidized Canadian Pacific. Nearly 150 black and white photos are reproduced in the book along with four maps showing the extent of the railway system during different periods. The photos are well chosen, evocative and diverse, showing a range of people, equipment, places, buildings, bridges and trestles and landscapes. Some are familiar but most will be new to the majority of readers. Reproduction of the photographs is excellent. The book is nicely printed in good quality coated book stock and it has a sturdy binding. The book also includes a lengthy appendix of railway charters which indicates whether the charters were dominion or provincial and where the lines were to be built. Most of course, were never built and were "paper railroads" chartered in speculative efforts to occupy the legal ground in case there ever was a good reason to build the routes outlined in the charters. Charters could become valuable assets if major companies 36 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 became interested in the routes. Seven pages of end notes provide citations and further information including many references to trade journals and other early articles and papers. Five pages of bibliography provide readers with additional published works that may be helpful for more reading or research. The book concludes with a thorough index that will make the text and illustrations readily accessible. I was particularly pleased to see that the book provides a good balance between the story of the Canadian Pacific, which has dominated the railway network of southern British Columbia and Alberta, and the less well known story of the Canadian National Railways and its predecessors, in particular the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific railways. Canadian National has had a very significant impact on both provinces and its interesting and important story is full of dreams, personal and financial difficulties, engineering successes and the uneasy balance of being a government owned enterprise. Its major routes, which converge in Yellowhead Pass west of Edmonton, form a giant V shape across British Columbia with one leg extending to Prince Rupert and the other to Vancouver. In Alberta, the CNR dominated the railways of the northern prairies. Edmonton has been to the CNR what Calgary has been to the Canadian Pacific. The book focuses on common carrier passenger and freight railways and does not include logging and mining railways or other industrial operations, the electric street railways in the major urban centres or the British Columbia Electric's interurban system. The BCE's interurbans, in particular, would have been a useful addition because the Fraser Valley lines operated as a passenger and freight railway that connected with the steam railways and was very important to the region. The book includes only passing references to the extensive coastal steamship services operated by both the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National in conjunction with their railways. Similarly, the CPR's B.C. Lake and River Service, which really was an integral part of the railway system in the southern interior, is not included. More information on the Great Northern's important connections out of Vancouver to Seattle also would have been valuable because of its importance as an international connection. This book is well written and has a nontechnical tone that will make it very useful as a general reference. This is a broad topic to cover in a fairly small volume and the author has done an admirable job of condensing a politically and technologically complex topic into a very readable and informative presentation. I hope it will be widely available in school and regional libraries. This is a good book and a valuable reference on an important part of our history. Robert D. Turner Curator Emeritus, Royal B.C. Museums Beloved Dissident Eve Smith, 1904-1988. Cathers, Arthur. Blyth, Ont, Drumadravy Books, 1997. ISBN 0-920390-05-6. Paperback, illus., $22.95. Available from Drumadravy Books, Blyth, Ont. NOM 1H0 For people familiar with Eve Smith, or sympathetic to any of the numerous causes she championed in her long life of social activism, this biography will be of interest. Cathers' style is a very approachable one. He quickly pulls his reader into the narrative by building effective word pictures of her family's pioneer experiences and Eve's childhood in the Gulf Islands, town life in Esquimalt, schooling and adventures with her sister Constance. Cathers' tone is always upbeat. Even the horrors of tuberculosis and Eve's quarantine at Tranquille for several years in her early adulthood are treated with a light touch. Cathers offers a very sympathetic portrait of a high spirited and vivacious woman who was devoted to the well-being of her birth family and ultimately to a much wider community through her involvement in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and environmental groups. It is in the political chapters of the book that Cathers really finds his stride and broadens his audience to include political buffs. Eve's life was closely intertwined with the CCF. In fact, at times the biography reads like a Who's Who of early British Columbia social democrats, with the names of prominent participants scattered throughout. Through her activities in the party Eve met her husband, learned to handle a public platform, and to write on political issues. At the request of Ernie Winch, Eve wrote political articles, commentaries and book reviews for The Federationist, the party voice. Cathers handles Eve's stormy relationship with some members of the national CCF hierarchy from her insider's view (and his) and reveals the tensions which racked it. Walter Young's well- known characterization of the CCF as a political organization torn between the movement/ideology faction and the political party/pragmatic faction was well reflected in the Smith household. Eve belonged to the first camp, her husband Don, to the second. Don, 1930s political candidate, editor of The Federationist and sports reporter for the Vancouver Sun argued for political expediency as the road to office and change. Eve and brother-in-law John favoured ideology over electoral success. Eventually Eve also preferred John over Don. For students of British Columbia history, the book inadvertently offers evidence of the interconnectedness of elements of British Columbia society in the opening decades of this century. Particularly, the British segment of British Columbia society centred in the Gulf Islands and on Vancouver Island. Eve fits the pattern well with aristocratic and prominent political connections through her father, Ralph Grey. Ralph's branch of the family produced the famous British prime minister whose government introduced the First Reform Bill of 1832 (Eve's great grandfather), a Canadian Governor-General and the British foreign secretary during World War I. On the distaff side, her aunt was married to Eve's beloved "Uncle Monnie", Martin Allerdale Grainger, lumberman, author of Woodsmen of the West, and Chief Forester of British Columbia. This biography is a celebration of the life of the author's friend, political colleague and coworker. Cather's approach is essentially narrative, a type of gossipy romp rather than scholarly. The choice fits both author and subject Linda L. Hale Department of History, Political Science and Latin Langara College Hope and Forty Acres. Kamloops, Plateau Press, 1997. 72 p. illus. paperback. $12.95 The first decade of the 20th century was the decade of the orchard development boom around Kootenay Lake, as settlers were lured in from Britain and Eastern Canada to tame the wild wooded slopes. Willow Point, the orchard settlement closest to the distribution centre of Nelson, B.C., harboured a full complement of these plucky and idiosyncratic settlers who participated in a losing battle to wrest a good living from growing tree fruits. Prominent among these settlers was the Dawson family. Following a 1904 lecture tour in the U.S.A., William James Dawson in midlife gave up his pastorate of a large Congregational Church in London and moved his entire family of wife and six children to the U.S.A. where he became pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Newark, N.J. Dawson's eldest son Coningsby, a writer and itinerant lecturer, embarked in 1906 on a tour of the west. Con fell in love with the Kootenay District and persuaded his youthful younger brother Reginald to abandon his studies at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph in order to amass a quick fortune by taking up "orchard development" land on Kootenay Lake. After Reg had devoted several years to vigorous rustication, William J. Dawson saw fit to build a comfortable house near his son's lakeside property and each summer thereafter escaped with members of his family from the heat and humidity of the Atlantic Seaboard to his Willow Point retreat. Members of the Dawson family possessed the gift of eloquence. W.J. and Con Dawson were both prolific writers of fiction and non- fiction. After World War I, W.J. Dawson wrote a novel entitled War Eagle which was a thinly disguised portrayal of a number of Willow Point's idiosyncratic residents. During the depression-ridden days of the 1930s, one well- 37 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 thumbed copy of this novel passed up and down the cash-strapped settlement In Hope and Forty Acres, Reginald Dawson displays similar writing skill in his engrossing retrospect of his rank greenhorn struggles to tame his forty Willow Fbint acres. Reg. Dawson's memoirs, written in later life and left unpublished for forty years until brought to light by the diligent editorial work of Julie Dawson, a relative, unfortunately make up a decidedly slim volume. It is to be regretted that Reg did not during his lifetime encounter a sympathetic editor who might have persuaded him to expand his humourous and insightful accounts of his earlier life. For example, a more detailed sketch of the gentlemanly Willow Fbint storekeeper and postmaster Charles W West, reputed to have been driven to insolvency by his wife's propensity in serving tea and cake to all who called in for the mail would have enhanced the interest. Readers whose forebears participated in the pre-World War I boom in orchard development will find Hope and Forty Acres highly engrossing, while the quality of the prose may also engage the attention of the more casual reader. The lay-out of Hope and Forty Acres is generally attractive. However, the c. 1925 picture of the gargantuan CPR. sternwheeler Nasookin calling in at the imposing Willow Fbint wharf is eye-filling but misleading. The "West's Landing" of Reg. Dawson's earlier Willow Fbint days, devoid of vehicles and highways, did not boast such a Federal Government wharf capable of handling vehicular traffic. The modest little shallow-draft sternwheelers of the early days simply nudged a prow on to a stretch of friendly undeveloped shore in order to make a landing. Edward L. Affleck. The Forgotten Side of the Border. Wayne Norton & Naomi Miller, eds. Kamloops, Plateau Press, 1997. 238 p., map, illus., index, paperback. $19.95 Available from Plateau Press, Box 283, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5K6 The extreme southeast corner of British Columbia, encompassing the southwestern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, is drained by two river systems: (a) the Elk, which rises in the crest of the Rockies and flows south and west to join the man-made Lake Koocanusa, and expansion of the Upper Kootenay River, southwest of Elko, and (b) the north fork of the Flathead River, which flows east and south to link up in Montana with the south fork and debouch into Montana's Flathead Lake. Crows Nest Pass, in the upper reaches of the Elk River system, provides relatively low-level access to the Alberta side of the Rockies. The country in this southeastern pocket has a rugged beauty, at least in those spots relatively untouched by the hand of man. In winter, the snowfall is fairly heavy and the days tend to be short as the sun disappears in midaftemoon over the mountains hemming in the narrow canyons. In addition to the lure of the Wilds, the region to-day attracts ski enthusiasts and even golfers. Coal mining has been the dominant industry in this area. Few of the companies engaged in the industry served as model employers. The economics ups and downs of the mining industry tend to make for turbulent times in mining settlements under the best of circumstances, and such circumstances seldom obtained in the Elk Valley settlements. Particularly distressing were the number of heartrending mining disasters which occurred. Twenty-three writers, subscribing to the view that to date the published history of this pocket of B.C. remains relatively meagre, have produced a variety of retrospects on the area. We are greatly indebted to this group and to their editors for this compilation. The quality of the writing is generally good so that the reader can bank on some lively and informative browsing. At least two of the articles are indeed outstanding. One finishes the volume with a respect for the plucky, polyglot settlers who wrestled for a living in the Elk Valley's coal mining industry earlier in the 20th century. One fervently seconds the desire of the writers that the book will heighten the awareness of the part which the Elk Valley has played in the development of the Province. Perhaps we shall be fortunate enough to have the editors press on with a second informative volume. The format of the book is utilitarian, in keeping with the modest selling price. Given that the volume is in the nature of an anthology, adhering neither to a time nor geographical sequence, one regrets the absence of an introductory chronology summarizing the major events in the area since the arrival of the white man. The one map provided does not provide much assistance in "placing" the various mining communities. Two maps, one illustrating the features of the area prior to World War I, when the railways provided the dominant links, and the other illustrating the present-day set up, would greatly assist the reader, particularly in identifying vanished settlements in the Elk Valley and that part of the Upper Kootenay Valley now drowned in Lake Koocanusa. One final regret involves the absence of an article on the valley of the North Fork of the Flathead River, surely the true terra incognita of Southern British Columbia. I'll look for such an article in a realization of Volume II! Edward L. Affleck Ted Affleck is the author of Sternwheelers, Sandbars and Switchbacks (1973). The First Nations of British Columbia: an Anthropological Survey. Robert J. Muckle. Vancouver, University of B.C. Press, 1998. 146 p., illus., map. $19.99 The First Nations of British Columbia is a pedagogical presentation of knowledge generated by anthropologists about B.C. native people. Written in lean and accessible language, this book was intended by the author to convey general knowledge about the characteristics of native cultures, as well as the manner and milieu in which such knowledge has been collected. Muckle's narrative is a fairly elementary introduction to the subject, but those who are well acquainted with native issues may find some of the appendices, particularly the lists of B.C. First Nations and major ethnic groups, to be handy reference tools. The book is well organized, beginning with a discussion of what constitutes a First Nation, followed by reviews of the techniques and findings of archaeology (study of prehistoric cultures) and ethology (study of native cultures in historic times), including a discussion of cultural change among First Nations since the time of initial contact with Europeans. To supplement his explanations, Muckle uses a helpful array of maps and photographs. Muckle's discussion of what constitutes a First Nation sheds light on the definition of various terms. As many are aware, the term "Indian" is a misnomer based on Christopher Columbus's mistaken initial belief that he had arrived in India. Less well known are the meanings of some other terms. As Muckle reveals, "First Nation" has been used to refer to 38 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 Indian bands, groups of bands, communities or other groupings. His description of "status" Indians as those people listed in a register maintained by the Federal Government is accurate, but some discussion of the Indian Act and Natives' past legal status as "wards of the Crown" would have provided a more complete context for explaining their distinct legal and constitutional status. The section concerning native prehistory begins with the interesting juxtaposition of native peoples' creation myths and archaeological investigation. As Muckle notes, these myths generally indicate that natives have been in their respective territories since "time immemorial" and were placed there and given relatively immutable values, customs and languages by a supernatural creator. Archaeologists, on the other hand, believe that the native people of North, South and Central America are the descendants of ancient hunters who migrated from Asia across the Beringia land bridge some time between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago. I found that Muckle's descriptions of significant sites in B.C. were a helpful and interesting way to demonstrate variety and change among prehistoric cultures. In the ethnology section, Muckle reviews the history of ethnology in B.C., indicating how prominent early ethnologists collected information by examining natives' oral histories and music, as well as Europeans' paintings and photographs. In discussing this work, Muckle pays particular attention to the significant contributions of Franz Boas. Following this is a general overview of the ethnological classifications of native cultural groups, and ethnological findings regarding linguistic diversity, seasonal migration and diet, and social organization and cultural practices relating to spirituality, health, art ceremony, trade and warfare. Muckle uses the term "traditional life- ways" frequently in the ethnology section. I could not find a definition for the term in the book and was left to assume that it refers to baseline cultural practices developed by natives prior to the arrival of Europeans. In his final section, Muckle attempts to examine the impact of European fur traders, gold seekers, religious orders, settlers, and government on native peoples. Much of this section appears to rely upon theories developed by prominent B.C. historians and political scientists. There is very little discussion of work by ethnologists/anthropologists regarding cultural change. Although this would have been the section to discuss the impacts of racism and the Indian Act on native cultures, Muckle gives both subjects short shrift However, he does provide a solid overview of the impacts of residential schools as well as native peoples' assertion of aboriginal rights over the years. In conclusion, Muckle's book provides a fairly engaging review of the history of the practices and findings of archaeology and early ethnology in B.C. in relation to native peoples. The first sections are stronger than the final section which attempts to analyse cultural change among natives. In it, Muckle leaves the impression that little work has been done to study cultural change and native life- ways in recent times, and I suspect that this is probably not the case. Overall, this book is a handy reference for those interested in general information about the study of natives in prehistoric and early historic times. Jos Dyck, Treasurer, Vancouver Historical Society. Pioneer Legacy: Chronicles of the Lower Skeena: Vol. 1; Compiled by Norma V. Bennett. Terrace, B.C., Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation, 1997. 240 p., illus. hard cover, $30.00. Available from the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation, 4720 Haugland Ave., Terrace, B.C. V8G2W7 Pioneer Legacy is a compilation of articles and reminiscences, both first-hand and secondary, brought together from an extensive collection which Ms. Bennett accumulated over a long number of years. For this book, Bennett notes, "I tried to select what might be of local interest and to arrange it in a somewhat chronological order so that it would not seem so much a disjointed collection as a continuous record of development" No attempt is made, however, to be all-embracing; there are, for example, no articles devoted to the religious settlement at Meanskinisht, and that community is mentioned only in passing. The items are of uneven lengths, and while many were written by participants in the early non- native exploration and settlement of the river, some are of recent vintage. The sources for the material included are listed in an appendix, and this will be of value to those wishing to pursue any particular subject The book's contents are arranged into a number of major divisions. These include one of the "lower" Skeena, that stretch from Hazelton (the "Forks"), where the Bulkley joins the main river, to its mouth about 180 miles away; several on the "Transportation" eras, when canoes and sternwheelers provided the principal means of travel; and others for the various settlements which were established during the nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth. These were at Port Simpson, Port Essington, Kitselas, and Hazelton. While some distance from the river's mouth, Port Simpson, as the major Hudson's Bay Company's distribution center on the north Pacific Coast, was for some years the terminal for transportation to and from the Skeena. Few articles are devoted to Hazelton because, as Bennett points out, that village has been written up in several other publications. It is one of the positives of this book that Port Essington and Kitselas have been allotted large sections. These were important communities, and both faded when the completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway through the valley changed the transportation situation. There is a surprising continuity to Pioneer Legacy despite the diversity in form in the writings included. This may be in part due to the unity provided by the river itself since the Skeena remains central at all times. The index is uncommonly complete and includes not only places, people, and river boats, but also a number of subject headings. This adds considerably to the usefulness of the book. There are four maps. Of these the most helpful are the frontispiece - of the area covered by the book - and one showing the locations of the various fish canneries. The photographs (more than 80) give a good sense of the geography of the river's lower stretches, and of the settlements and their residents. George Newell Victoria Mighty River: A Portrait of the Fraser. Richard C. Bocking. Vancouver / Toronto, Douglas & Mclntyre, 1997. 294 p., maps, hard cover. $35.00 Mighty River is an ambitious book. 39 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 The subject is grand, and the challenges for both the author and the publisher cor- resondingly demanding. In his "Preface", the author writes, "It seemed time for a new book that would celebrate the natural history of the Fraser and portray the extraordinary human drama along its spectacular journey from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean." Mighty River, he suggests, "is a journey through centuries as well as kilometers, through astonishing landscapes and a rich tapestry of life. Following the Fraser River is also a search for the human spirit, because much of the drama that has characterized British Columbia's story has been concentrated on the banks of this river." The form taken in this drama has been, and is, in Bocking's opinion, war. "When Europeans settlement began in the mid-1800s. . . a war with the river began that has endured for more than a century." It is a war brought on because "The Europeans who replaced Native people on the land brought with them the ideals of the Industrial Revolution, and they set about changing the landscape to accommodate their values. . . The system changed from consumption at levels well below nature's productivity to consumption with no real limits." This war has continued with the fortunes of war: there are defeats and there are victories. The victories tend to be isolated, and are not necessarily permanent Here, for example, is his view of the situation at Tete Jaune Cache: "Fortunately for the flora and fauna of the region, the dreams of the boomers collapsed soon after railway construction moved on. The rich, biological mother lode at Tete Jaune Cache Islands could not have survived urban development on any appreciable scale. The townsite of railroad construction days was washed away by Fraser River floodwaters, and the settlement moved to higher ground. Today only a general store and a few houses survive. But natural life in the delta prospers. With so many different habitats compressed into a small space, the level of bio-diversity here is four times greater than that of surrounding areas." Unfortunately this happy state is not without its drawbacks. "This concentration of wildlife. . . is not only a miracle of nature. It is also a death trap for animals with no defence against their greatest predator: a person with a gun." Despite the defeats, and the imperma- nence of the victories, Bocking sees hope. The epigraphs for the final two chapters give a good indication of where he wants the book to point, and history to go. That for Chapter 11 reads, "By becoming the first urban region in the world to combine economic vitality with the highest standards of livability and environmental quality, Greater Vancouver can represent in history what Athens is to democracy or Vienna is to music." And, for Chapter 12, "The 'realists' have had their time, and we see the fruits of their work. It is time now for visionaries." Bocking thanks his editor, Nancy Pollak, by noting that her "contribution to the structure as well as the detail of the manuscript was invaluable." I suspect this is not overstatement There are excellent maps. The listing of sources is divided by chapter and will be of great help to anyone pursuing any particular area of interest There is a well-compiled index With good reason the book has received several prizes. It is capably conceived, the writing is clear, direct, controlled. Altogether a solid piece of work. George Newell Victoria No Better Land; the 1860 Diaries of the Anglican Colonial Bishop George Hills, edited by Roberta L. Bagshaw. Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1996. 307 p., indexed, bibliography, illus. $21.95 On February 28, 1860, George Hills, first Anglican bishop in British Columbia, came upon two shirt-sleeved men chopping wood. He recorded the incident in his journal under the title "Limbs of the Law": "On approaching I found they were Chief Justice Begbie and Captain Brew, Judge of Small Debts Court They were procuring firewood for themselves. They live in one room and have no servant I took the axe from the Chief Justice and cut a log in two. It was harder work than I thought" These diaries, one year from Hills' thirty-three- year private record, abound with such incidents, humanizing a man often perceived as austere, and who judged his own performance as "sadly cold and unimpressive". They also go far towards redressing the neglect and misrepresentation accorded the place of church and clergy in British Columbia history. This "colonial bishop" consulted frankly with first nations people, conversed easily with people of various creeds and cultures, and forbade racial discrimination in his churches. On March 25 "a respectable coloured person, Mrs. Washington" called on him; and the following day he was visited "by Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Francis, two coloured gentlemen." On both occasions, he engaged his guests in earnest analysis of the prejudice they suffered. Any study of Bishop Hills reminds me of former Anglican archivist Cyril Williams and his years of perusing and annotating the Bishop's papers. His enthusiasm for his own subject carried over into enthusiastic assistance for other researchers. In the end, his work on Hills gave way before the announcements of more 'scholarly' approaches to the topic, and his name does not appear in Bagshaw's Acknowledgements or notes. This book is not yet the scholarly work Hills merits, but it is a significant preview. When Bagshaw prepares, as I hope she will, a more complete edition of the diaries, she should provide detailed maps to accompant the Bishop's journeys, and fuller explanatory notes. And she should make the extra scholarly effort to recognize, for example, that the 'wide awake' on page 184 is most likely a noun, denoting a type of hat, and not an adjective. But, for the time being, we can gratefully savour such moments as this from June 13: I walked today with Mr. Crickmer in search of a burial ground. We selected a spot westward near two streams. Our ramble was pleasant amidst beautiful scenery and flowers in wondrous profusion. We gathered strawberries. Phyllis Reeve Phyllis Reeve is an avid reader of other people's diaries. A five year Index of the B.C. Historical News will be printed in January, Readers wishing to order this Index please send a cheque for $5.00 to the B.C. Historical News c/o Box 130 Whonnock, B.C. V2W 1V9 40 B.C. HISTORICAL NEWS - Winter 1998 - 99 THE BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL FEDERATION - Organized October 31,1922 Web Address: http://www.selkirk.bc.ca/bchf/main1.htm HONORARY PATRON His Honour, the Honorable Garde B. Gardom Q.C. HONORARY PRESIDENT OFFICERS President First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Recording Secretary Treasurer Members at Large Past President COMMITTEE OFFICERS Archivist B.C. Historical News Publishing Committee Book Review Editor Editor (1988-1998) Editor (1999) Membership Secretary Subscription Secretary Historical Trails and Markers Publications Assistance (not involved with B.C. Historical News) Scholarship Committee Writing Competition (Lieutenant Governor's Award) Leonard McCann Ron Welwood Wayne Desrochers Melva Dwyer Arnold Ranneris R. George Thomson Ronald Greene Roy J.V. Pallant Robert J. Cathro Alice Glanville Margaret Stoneberg Tony Farr Anne Yandle Naomi Miller Fred Braches Nancy Peter Joel Vinge John Spittle c/o Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden Ave. Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1A3 RR #1, S22 C1, Nelson, B.C. V1L 5P4 #2 - 6712 Baker Road, Delta, B.C. V4E 2V3 2976 McBride Ave., Surrey, B.C. V4A 3G6 1898 Quamichan Street, Victoria, B.C. V8S 2B9 (604) 257-8306 FX (604) 737-2621 (250) .825-4743 welwood @ netidea.com (604) 599-4206 Fax (604) 507-4202 (604) 535-3041 (250) 598-3035 #19, 141 East 5th Ave., Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1N5 (250) 752-8861 P.O. Box 1351 Victoria, B.C. V8W 2W7 pdgreene @ pinc.com (250)598-1835 FX (250) 598-5539 1541 Merlynn Crescent, North Vancouver, B.C. V7J 2X9 (604) 986-8969 RR#1 Box U-39, Bowen Island, B.C. VON 1G0 Box 746, Grand Forks, B.C. V0H 1H0 Box 687, Princeton, B.C. VOX 1W0 (604) 947-0038 (250) 442-3865 aglanvil@powertink.com (250) 295-3362 125 Castle Cross Rd, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2G1 (250) 537-1123 3450 West 20th Ave, Vancouver, B.C. V6S 1E4 (604) 733-6484 yandle® interchange.ubc.ca Box 105, Wasa, B.C. VOB 2K0 P.O. Box 130, Whonnock, B.C. V2W 1V9 #7 - 5400 Patterson Avenue, Burnaby, B.C. V5H 2M5 RR#2 S13 C60, Cranbrook, B.C. V1C 4H3 (250) 422-3594 FX (250) 422-3244 (604) 462-8942 braches @ netcom.ca (604)437-6115 (250) 489-2490 nisse@bc.sympatico.ca 1241 Mount Crown Rd, North Vancouver, B.C. V7R 1R9 (604) 988-4565 Nancy Stuart-Stubbs 2651 York Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6K 1E6 (604) 738-5132 Contact Nancy for advice and details to apply for a loan toward the cost of publishing. Frances Gundry Shirley Cuthbertson 255 Niagara Street, Victoria, B.C. V8V 1G4 (250) 385-6353 fgundry@zeus.gs.gov.bc.ca #306 - 225 Belleville St. Victoria, B.C. V8V 4T9 (250) 382-0288 FX (250) 387-5360 The British Columbia Historical News P.O. Box 5254, Stn. B Victoria, B.C. V8R 6N4 Canadian Publications Mail : Product Sales Agr~ No. bc historical Federation WRITING COMPETITION The British Columbia Historical Federation invites submissions of books for the seventeenth annual Competition for Writers of B.C. History. Any book presenting any facet of B.C. history, published in 1999, is eligible. This may be a community history, biography, record of a project or an organization, or personal recollections giving a glimpse of the past. Names, dates and places, with relevant maps or pictures, turn a story into "history." The judges are looking for quality presentations, especially if fresh material is included, with appropriate illustrations, careful proofreading, an adequate index, table of contents and bibliography, from first-time writers as well as established authors. NOTE; Reprints or revisions of books are not eligible. The Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing will be awarded to an individual writer whose book contributes significantly to the recorded history of British Columbia. Other awards will be made as recommended by the judges to valuable books prepared by groups or individuals. All entries receive considerable publicity. Winners will receive a Certificate of Merit, a monetary award and an invitation to the BCHF annual conference to be held in Port Alberni in May 2000. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: All books must have been published in 1999 and should be submitted as soon as possible after publication. Two copies of each book should be submitted. Books entered become property ofthe B.C. Historical Federation. Please state name, address and telephone number of sender, the selling price of all editions of the book, and the address from which it may be purchased, if the reader has to shop by maiL If by mail, please include shipping and handling costs if applicable. SEND TO: B.C. Historical Writing Competition c/o Shirley Cuthbertson #306 - 225 Belleville Street, Victoria, B.C. V8V 4T9 DEADLINE: December 31,1999. There is also an award for the Best Article published each year in the B.C. Historical News magazine. This is directed to amateur historians or students. Articles should be no more than 3,500words, typed double, spaced, accompanied by photographs if available, and substantiated with footnotes where applicable. (Photographs should be accompanied with infdrmation re: the source, permission to publish, archival number if available, and a brief caption. Photos will be returned to the writer.) Manuscripts and correspondence should be sent directly to the Editor. Submissions may be made by email to braches@netcom.ca or by mail with a diskettem, PC or Mac formatted in any format used by the author. Mail to: Fred Braches, P.O. Box 130, Whonnock, B.C. V2W 1V9. ' ■: HiilLrf.^V»
Titled "British Columbia Historical Association Report and Proceedings" from 1923-1929; "British Columbia Historical Quarterly" from 1937-1957; "BC Historical News" from 1968-2004; and "British Columbia History" from 2005 onward.
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