British Columbia Historical Federation

BRITISH COLUMBIA

HISTORICAL NEWSJournal of the British Columbia Historical Federation

Volume 35, No. 2Spring 2002

$5.00ISSN 1195-8294

Jane (Fisher) Huscroft, ca. 1897, with her eleventh grandchild, William RodgerHuscroft Long. After a brief attempt in 1891 to settle on Baillie-Grohman’s KootenayFlats, the Huscrofts settled near Creston. R.G. Harvey’s article starting on page 2.

Acts of Kindness

Big Bend

From Utah to Kootenay Flats

Business in the Lardeau: 1901

Bees in BC

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This issue includes a registration form for aday of free workshops in Revelstoke inconjunction with the annual conference ofthe British Columbia Historical Federation.

Our Web site, HTTP://WWW.BCHF.BC.CA, is hosted by Selkirk College in Castlegar, BC

British Columbia Historical FederationPO Box 5254, Station B., Victoria BC V8R 6N4

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BRITISH COLUMBIA

HISTORICAL NEWSJournal of the British Columbia Histor ical Federation

Volume 35, No. 2Spring 2002

$5.00ISSN 1195-8294

1BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2002

“Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past.”W. Kaye Lamb, 1937

2 The Trek of the Huscrofts in 1891by R.G. Harvey

8 “Individual Acts of Kindness” and PoliticalInfluence: Alice Parke’s Experience with theVernon Women’s Councilby Kimberly Boehr

18 The Big Bend Gold Rush of 1865

by Edward L. Affleck

26 Transporting Bees by Stagecoachby Ted Kay

28 TOKEN HISTORY by Ronald GreeneW. Cowan, Revelstoke BC

30 BOOK REVIEWS

36 REPORTS

— Restoration of Interurban Car on Track by Pixie McGeachie

— Celebrating Education: “A Miserable, Cold, and Draughty

School” by Fred Braches

— Situation at BC Archives by Gary A. Mitchell

38 WEB SITE FORAYS by Gwen Szychter

39 ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVISTS The South Peace HistoricalSociety Archives: A Brief History by Gerry Clare

40 NEWS AND NOTES

42 FAMILY HISTORY by Brenda L. Smith

44 FEDERATION NEWS

What Are We Doing on the Net?

BC Historical News may be the onlymagazine dedicated to the history ofBritish Columbia, but on the Internetthere are many sites of organizations andindividuals reaching out and promotinginterest in all facets of the history of BC.

The Internet has a large and diverseaudience, and while wanting to continuepublishing BC Historical News as a paperjournal, the British Columbia HistoricalFederation recognizes the opportunitiesoffered by the Internet to reach out tosocieties and people, and the need toextend publicity through this medium.

Hosted by Selkirk College in Castlegar theBCHF runs a simple Web site infomingvisitors about the BCHF and its activities.Member societies and their mailingaddresses are shown. Member societieswith own sites or pages can now be easilyreached through “links,” but Eileen Mak,our Web site editor, would like to addinformation on our Web site aboutmember societies who don’t have a Website of their own. At the RevelstokeConference she would like to listen to whatyou think should be on the BCHF siteabout your organization.

Since last summer Eileen has kept workingat the BCHF site. Photographs of eventsadd colour to the pages. Visitors to our Website can now download BC Historical Newsindexes for the years 1993 to 2001, andeven a sample copy of BC Historical News:a digital version of a recent issue.

Thanks to Eileen for her work buildingon the site and keeping it fresh andexciting, to Barbara for doing that technicalstuff, and of course to Selkirk Colege, ourgracious host.

the editor

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 35 NO. 22

WHEN William Rodger Huscroft mar-ried Jane Fisher in Provo, Utah Territory, in 1856, Jane was fifteen years

of age. William was twenty-six. They were bothquite recent immigrants to America, who hadarrived a few years earlier from England, Jane withher parents, and William, an orphan, unaccom-panied. Both had been recruited to the MormonChurch, otherwise known as the Church of theLatter-day Saints, by Brigham Young in his mis-sion to England to increase membership inAmerica. Huscroft had rejected polygamy in theyears prior to his marriage, and he continued thisnon-conformance, which probably led to his leav-ing the church. In the midst of having and rais-ing their eleven children, he retreated with hiswife and children to Missouri.

Around 1876 they came back to Utah to benear to Jane’s parents, but William’s discontentwith Mormonism resurfaced fourteen years later,after reading the brochure distributed by Baillie-Grohman, praising the virtues of the KootenayRiver valley some 900 miles north in BritishColumbia, Canada. Despite being over sixty yearsof age at that time, Huscroft decided to up stakesand move north, to enjoy the benevolence of theKootenay flats and live under the Union Jack.

The Huscrofts planned their migration at theirhome at Jensen by the Green River in Utah, andit is there that we join them. To make the trip,they decided first on the make-up of the party.Emma, their eldest girl, was married to JohnArrowsmith, and in 1891 they had two daugh-ters, eight and four years old, two sons, two andsix years of age, and a baby coming. TheArrowsmiths travelled north with the Huscrofts,

but not all the way initially. Mary Elizabeth,William’s second daughter, born in 1864, stayedbehind in Utah and married there. She died ofcancer in 1896, and never saw her parents againafter they left. The eldest surviving son (theirfirstborn son died young) George JosephHuscroft, aged 24 in 1891, married an Irish girlnamed Mary McKinney and a year later followedhis parents to British Columbia. In 1893, on theirway north, their first child, Vera Marie, was bornin Bonners Ferry.

The Huscrofts’ unmarried offspring were threeboys and four girls: James, 22; John, 13; Charles,9; Effie, 19; Sophy, 15; Sarah, 11; and Maud, 5. Tocarry this company as well as their two parentsand their worldly possessions, they decided ontwo heavy wagons for the Huscrofts, and a heavywagon and a light one for the Arrowsmiths andtheir four young children. Therefore, in May of1891, when they left Jensen on the Green River,there were three heavy wagons and one lightwagon. There were also twenty or more head ofcattle and forty spare horses according to the sons’recollections. Quite a train. James must be giventhe credit for this livestock coming with them.He had earned the money to purchase them byherding cattle in Wyoming in the months before.His experience at this would be well used on thetrip.1

William, the father, would have driven one ofthe heavy wagons, James, his eldest son, anotherand his son-in-law John Arrowsmith, the third.The light wagon would have been driven eitherby son John, or else by one of the older daugh-ters Effie or Sophy. Driving the spare horses andthe herd of cattle were two young men, namesnever mentioned, whom they took with them

R.G. Harvey is theauthor of two volumeson the development ofhighways, railways, andsteamboat routesthough the southernmountains, central andnorthern BritishColumbia: Carving theWestern Pass. For hisbook The Coast Connec-tion he received in1995 a British Colum-bia Historical Federa-tion award for histori-cal writing.Last summer, at aconvention in Victoria,the Canadian Societyfor Civil Engineeringpresented R.G. Harveywith the W. GordonPlewes Award for “hismany contributions tothe preservation of thehistory of transporta-tion in British Colum-bia.” Bob Harvey gave awell-received after-dinner talk titled“Making an Author outof an Engineer.”R.G. Harvey marriedEva, daughter ofCharles Leroy Huscroft,the youngest son ofWilliam RodgerHuscroft

The Trek of the Huscrofts in 1891by R.G. Harvey

In the 1880s William Adolph Baillie-Grohman conceived a perfectly feasible scheme wherebysome of the water of the upper Kootenay River would be diverted into the Columbia Riverwhere the Kootenay—already about fifty miles along its course—came close to the Columbiaheadwaters. He calculated that the consequent reduction in the maximum flow of the Kootenaythrough the flats at the head of Kootenay Lake would enable a huge area of rich alluvial plainin the Creston area to be reclaimed from annual flooding by a minimum of dyking. By 1887 hehad built a canal between the rivers at a place called Canal Flats near Columbia Lake. At thattime he put out a widely-circulated brochure praising the wonderful Kootenay flats.

1. Apart from those keptfor farming, the balanceof the horses was latersold to miningcompanies in the SlocanDistrict of BritishColumbia.


from Jensen. The two men might have been as-sisted by John from time to time, and even byone or more of the daughters. Charles, nine yearsold, was too young for any responsibility, but couldhelp out. They would have been glad that theyhad the two men from Jensen accompanyingthem. These two left them at Kalispell to takework building a railway.

The travellers reportedly visited Provo en routenorth, visiting Jane’s mother, Emma BurrowsFisher, who stayed there (she died in 1905), andson George. It is also said that they went throughWyoming, so they probably went back up theold trail to Fort Bridger and then by the oldOregon Trail north. Beyond Fort Hall they prob-ably followed roads built by the Mormons andthen they would soon come upon a number ofmining roads built in the Montana mining boomof the 1880s. They saw the lights and heard thenight-time noises of Missoula, Montana, as theypassed, but they did not call in—it was a wildtown. Beyond Missoula the family left the min-ing road network and struck off northwardsthrough the huge Flathead Indian Reserve, of-ten, as John says, rolling along through thesagebrush without the benefit of a road. Theythen travelled along the east shore of FlatheadLake and from there onwards north to Kalispell,Montana, where they stopped and paused for awhile. John Arrowsmith and his family stayed towinter in that outpost, but the Huscrofts did not.

After a reconnaissance ahead by William andJohn, they hit the road again, and fifteen milesnorth of Kalispell they met the Great NorthernRailway right-of-way along the Kootenay River,with the grade complete but without tracks, andmostly without bridges. It would be opened forits full length two years later. Here the rains came,and as they struggled along the muddy railwaygrade and laboriously struggled down and upagain to cross the creeks for which there were nobridges, they did some damage to the fills andslopes. Finally, after they had covered nearly ahundred miles on the grade the contractorsstopped them and said, “Go no further.”

Relenting, the railwaymen consented to a com-promise. The women and children would pro-ceed in the light wagon, but the heavier vehicles,with the great majority of their possessions, wouldnot be allowed to continue this way. James wouldguide the women and girls, and Charles wouldgo along with them. All the horses and the cattlewould go with them as well.

John, the teenager, would remain with his dad,to assist him moving the large wagons and theirfreight. William and John got the idea of build-ing a raft to take the larger wagons down theKootenay River to the Canadian border. Williamhad questioned the contractors, and he learnedthat at that point they had progressed far enoughto be past the Kootenay Falls, the main interrup-tion to navigation within the loop of theKootenay River in the United States. There weresome rapids between them and Bonners Ferry,but they were not too bad, or so the railwaymensaid, and best of all, their destination lay in thedirection the current was flowing.

So they set to work, felling and trimming trees

Above: Map tracing theroute taken by theHuscrofts to reach theKootenay Lake flats andfuture Creston.

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by the river. Soon they had a raft built, fourteenfeet wide by forty feet long, just large enough tocarry the two wagons. John Arrowsmith had keptone wagon in Kalispell. Working together, theyunloaded and dismantled the wagons and loadedtheir contents and the wagon parts aboard theraft. At this point, just before William and thir-teen-year-old John set off on the river to BonnersFerry, and before the others had left to travel tothe same destination along the railway grade inthe light wagon, they had a change of plans. Alongthe right-of-way came a young man with apacksack—one of the multitudes of wanderersthrough the bush of these years. Finding outwhere they were bound he asked for a ride, andWilliam took him up immediately and promptlydemoted son John to the wagon, a safer means oflocomotion. William and his new helper pushedoff and the others also got under way.

According to John’s memoirs, the raft partywere going fifteen miles an hour down theKootenay River when he last saw them, and hecould only wish them luck. The land party wenton its way, but then, after travelling about a mile,they were puzzled to see a figure standing on thecleared right-of-way ahead of them, a person wholooked very much like their dad. It was, and whenthey reached him he told the story. The ride hadbeen rough—they hit boulders constantly, andwhen the captain of the craft finally steered it tothe shore, the mate and sole crew member muti-nied and left without a word. John was immedi-ately reinstalled as mate, and all started again.

Although very likely they either sold or leftsome of the cattle in Kalispell with JohnArrowsmith, they did take most of the animalson to Bonners Ferry, and herding them wouldhave been a problem. James probably did it withthe girls, while the mother drove the light wagon.

John says that on the river things did not getbetter. Ahead of them they saw a canyon, and asheer cliff with a sharp turn of the stream beforeit and a whirlpool. The raft struck the rock, tilted,and almost sank. With the stern four feet underwater, John, who was at the rear, climbed up onthe stacked wagon wheels as the raft spun, righteditself, and resumed its trip down the river, backto front. John was now the pilot, and somehow,using the rough paddle they had made, they car-ried on to Bonners Ferry.

At Bonners Ferry the others joined the raft,and in a much more placid current, the now moreheavily laden and populated craft gently floated

down towards Canada. That it did so in stately ifnot speedy fashion is attested to by John’s ac-count that it took them seven days to cover thethirty-five miles to a place immediately south ofthe border which is now called Porthill, thenknown as Okinook. They had reached their goal:the flats of the Kootenay River in Canada werein sight before them. Jim Huscroft says that theycrossed the border on 1 September 1891. , but itis not certain whether the Huscroft family spentthat winter in BC or Idaho. In any case, as soonas the sloughs became frozen they could ridecross-country to Bonners Ferry for supplies,which they did on two occasions, and they sentout news of their progress to mother Emma Fisherand son George in Provo, and to John Arrowsmithin Kalispell. On these trips they would bring theirhorses and cattle from Bonners Ferry where theywould have had to leave them before rafting toPorthill. The Arrowsmiths joined them early in1892, and George, his wife, and new-born daugh-ter joined them in 1894. But before describingtheir first adventures in their new country, it isnecessary to describe what was going on in thatpart of British Columbia.

Southern British Columbia had just enteredthe most exciting period of its history, and ifWilliam Rodger Huscroft anticipated findingunspoiled wilderness there he was out of luck.The opening of the Canadian Pacific Railwaymain line in 1886 started up a general interest inthe western province, but the finding of lead, zinc,and silver in substantial quantities in many placesalong and close to the international boundary,from the Okanagan Valley to the Rocky Moun-tains, had really put things in high gear, attractingmigration mainly from the United States. Smallnumbers of these American immigrants were pio-neers interested in tilling the land like theHuscrofts, but the overwhelming majority wereprospectors and miners and of course they wereaccompanied by the promoters and manipula-tors associated with that industry. There were alsopioneer railway builders plying their trade, and atthe start they also came from the United States.

This mining frenzy had started south of theborder when an old pick-and-pan prospectorfound colour in 1883 in the Coeur d’AleneRange about a hundred miles south of the linein Idaho Territory, causing a gold rush. This findwas followed by larger finds of other minerals,and those discovering them soon turned theirfootsteps north. In 1887 the Hall brothers claimed

2. It is reported thatBaillie-Grohman firstsaw the Kootenay flatsfrom the top of ArrowMountain whilst huntingwith TheodoreRoosevelt. In 1883 hesigned a ten-year leasewith the BC governmentfor 47,000 acres to bereclaimed on the flats.He did not personallyretain one acre, leavingthe area for the last timein 1891. Information onW.A. Baillie-Grohman isfound in the ColumbiaRiver Chronicles.

3. John C. Rykert’s wifeElla was the daughter ofHenry Wells, a pioneer ofAmerican transportation.He was one of theorganizers of the WellsFargo Company, whichserved the Californiagold rush and ranstagecoach lines fromSacramento to Salt LakeCity and to Portland,Oregon.

4. Baillie-Grohmanpurchased the Midgefrom a friend in England,after canvassing sourcesin the west for boat-building and findingthem too expensive. TheMidge was a pleasure boatfrom Norway made ofteak. It was originally theMidget according to somereports, and this was amore suitable name as itwas the smalleststeamboat on record. The“t” got missed outsomewhere betweenEngland and Canada. Enroute from Europe it raninto customs trouble inMontreal due to acrackdown on out-of-Canada steamships. Afriendly customs officeragreed to classify it asagricultural machinerybecause Baillie-Grohmansaid he would use it tocultivate land—landunder water! It tookthree weeks of hardlabour to haul it onrollers for 40 miles fromPend O’Reille toBonners Ferry, and the


outcrops of copper and silver on Toad Mountainsome nine miles from Nelson, BC, resulting inthe Silver King Mine, and this was followed byhugely valuable silver and lead discoveries atAinsworth alongside Kootenay Lake in 1889, atRossland near Trail in 1890, and in the Slocanarea in 1891. The Payne Mine in that districtquickly became the greatest dividend paying op-eration in the province.

When the Huscrofts arrived Baillie-Grohman’sgrand-scale project was over, and he was gone.2

The diversion project was scuttled by the farm-ers of the Columbia valley at Golden. They wereassisted by the CPR, which was concerned aboutthe effect of the project on its track. Without thisflood prevention assistance, a reclaimed area ofmuch lesser acreage than originally intended wasachieved at Creston, with dyking hoped to besufficient.

The Huscroft family presented itself at the cus-toms house just inside Canada where the

Kootenay River flows in northbound at a placenamed after the officer there, one John C. Rykert.Rykert was a customs officer, an immigrationinspector and gold commissioner’s agent. In thisplace he was also the registrar of shipping. Hewas obviously a man who could greatly help theHuscrofts and he also became a friend of the fam-ily.3

Suitably admitted, the family proceeded tobuild a log cabin across the river, presumablywithin the purview, and the dyking, of what wascalled The English Reclamation Company. TheHuscroft men were grateful to find employmentwith the company. Rykert was the first whitesettler in the area and the Huscrofts were the firstwhite family to settle in the Kootenay Valley southof the lake. They carried out all the essentials ofpioneer living, building a cabin, cultivating veg-etables, growing hay for the animals, and so on.

Some years earlier Baillie-Grohman hadbrought the Midge, a steam launch, on a wagon

Left: The Midge wasreportedly the firststeamboat on KootenayLake. The tiny teak-hulledvessel, originally calledMidget, was built inNorway as a pleasure craft.Baillie-Grohman acquiredher in England. TheMidge was operated by aman called Charlie Davis,perhaps the person sittingon the shore. The photowas taken by Baillie-Grohman himself.

owner described the costof transport as“unconscionable.”(Thanks for thisinformation are due tothe Creston ValleyAdvance).

5. It seems fitting that aremnant from WilliamAdolf Baillie-Grohman’svision, the steam launchMidge, saved the dreamsof William RodgerHuscroft, because it wasBaillie-Grohman’swriting which hadoriginally triggeredHuscroft’s move. TheHuscroft family historyrecords that in the high-water period of 1894there were several violentwind- and rain-storms.One of these coincidedwith their move from theflats to the bench and it

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road recently built from the Northern Pacificrailhead at Pend O’Reille to Bonners Ferry. Thereit was launched to serve the dyking project onthe Kootenay River. The Midge was operated bya man called Charlie Davis.4 The Midge also ob-tained mail and supplies for the Huscrofts fromBonners Ferry because the vessel also ran a sup-ply service to the miners at the recently openedBluebell Mine at Riondel, located halfway upKootenay Lake from Bonners Ferry. By that timea more elegant vessel was plying the KootenayRiver and Lake. The SS Nelson, a sternwheeler offine lines and rather exceptional horsepower, fromtime to time was towing barges loaded with ga-lena, the heaviest of ore, (a mixture of lead, zinc,and silver), shovelled out of the ground at thePayne Mine and other mining properties nearSandon in the Slocan district. The Nelson wastowing the barges upstream to Bonners Ferry,where its load would be transferred to the GreatNorthern Railway, when it started operation,whose right-of-way the Huscrofts had traversedin 1891.

John Arrowsmith and his family took up landadjoining the flats further upstream close to thesite of the future township that a neighbouringsettler, a fellow American named Fred Little,would nostalgically name Creston, after his home-town in Iowa. George Huscroft and family, whohad stayed behind in Provo, came north in 1893,and after a stay in Bonners Ferry settled first inKaslo. Later they also moved to the Creston area.

All proceeded quite nicely throughout 1892and 1893, but with more snow than normal, thewinter of 1893/1894 was a severe one. What af-fected our pioneering family much more waswhat happened when the snow left. One morn-ing in the spring of 1894, as they sat down tobreakfast in their roughly built log cabin besidethe river, water appeared on the floor. It flowedin rapidly and unceasingly. Their neighbours re-sponded. One of these was Charlie Davis, withthe sturdy steam launch Midge. He arrived at theirwaterlogged doorstep towing a reclamation com-pany barge.5 Gratefully they loaded everythingtransportable in the cabin onto the barge, includ-ing the still-dismantled wagons, and they weretowed to high water mark, and then to high wa-ter mark again, and again, until the Kootenay fi-nally stopped rising, in what was to be the worstsnow-melt flood in British Columbia’s history. Itis said that at Creston that spring the river roseto a point eight feet above any height that it had

ever reached before, and far above Baillie-Grohman’s dykes, which suffered seriously.

The Huscrofts had to find a new place to buildagain, and they found it in an area southeast ofCreston that eventually became known as Lister.Some of it was also known as Huscroft. It is on abench of relatively flat land three to four mileswide and one to two hundred feet above the river.The bench was quite heavily wooded in parts,but once the trees were removed, almost all of itcould be very satisfactorily cultivated in orchardsin the north and alfalfa in the south, as time wouldtell. The family built a road up to this bench, atthe south end, and settled there. They and theroad are still there.

Now that they were established on dry land itremained to them to put their hands to it, andthey certainly did. In two generations they be-came land-clearing and stump-blasting experts,loggers, sawyers, hay farmers, wheat growers,orchardists, cattle ranchers, and dairy farmers.They built houses, barns, sheds and workshops,fences, roads, water systems, and drainage ditchesand even irrigation ditches, which John learnedabout in Utah.

From horsemen and teamsters they becametruck drivers, and tractor and bulldozer and com-bine operators. To maintain their equipment theybecame blacksmiths, welders, mechanics, wood-workers, plumbers, and electricians. They raisedhorses, cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, and tur-keys. To care for and deal with their animals andland they became part-time and non-professionalveterinarians, pest and vermin exterminators,butchers, agriculturists, and weather forecasters,and much more.

In the beginning they had no running waternor indoor toilets, sometimes a very long way tocarry water, primitive lighting and heating, andvery little in laundry facilities and cooking uten-sils. There were many mouths to feed and clothesto wash, and babies and young ones to care forand cherish. They bound up their wounds andtreated their aches, colds, measles, and whoopingcough. Blessedly there was no cholera or suchlike, but there were blood poisoning and pneu-monia, bone fractures and head injuries—con-stant threats to men working with sharp toolsand primitive machines in rough and hard con-ditions and weather. The women knew about allthis and did their share and more and beside allof this they sewed, knitted, taught their offspringthe golden rule, canned and bottled fruit and

almost achieved what theflooding firstthreatened—the loss oftheir possessions. Anothersuch storm later on wasless forgiving to theMidge: it sank. Both thelaunch and Charlie Davisdisappeared. JohnHuscroft, William’s son,eventually spotted theMidge lying on thebottom of the KootenayRiver near the BonnersFerry dock, fully coveredin silt. Davis did notdrown with her, he justleft. The silt preservedthe launch, and thefaithful craft wasresurrected some yearslater, re-floated, andrather unkindly renamedthe Mud Hen. It did notlast long as that, however,and quite soon it met apermanent watery graveon the bottom of thesame river close to theWest Creston ferry.

6. At this reunion a draft ofthe book William RodgerHuscroft, Jane (Fisher)Huscroft Family Historywas reviewed. It is a 494-page volume, producedby Dawn (Huscroft)Sommerfeld and JohnA.I. Young ( Emma’sgrandson), organized byRoots III genealogysoftware, and desktop-published by John Young.


vegetables, baked, cooked, and celebrated Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving,and gave their spouses love and encouragement!

Thus a pioneer family in British Columbia was established—a large one.All the eight offspring who stayed in or around Lister had families, of anaverage size of six and a half. They produced 52 grandchildren, who in turnproduced 120 great grandchildren. Between 2 and 4 August 1991, almostexactly one hundred years from the day the family ended their floating tripdown the river from Bonners Ferry, the Huscrofts held a reunion. Therewere around three hundred attendants. They had built a small-scale replicaof the raft, made of slightly smaller logs and bereft of cargo, but with hand-rails and an outboard motor attached. They launched it in a side slough tothe Kootenay, which had not quite got over its summer high water, and tothe amazement of American tourists on the nearby highway that day, byemulation a succession of Huscrofts paid their respects to William Rodgerand to John Henry, his son.6

William and Jane lived out their lives quietly after their sons and daugh-ters married and moved away from them. Most of them stayed nearby. Janedied in 1918 when she was 77, and William in 1922, aged 92. Son John saidthat if only the old man had found a substantial interest or a cause to fightfor he would have lived to be a hundred.�

Above: The Huscroft homestead was built in the mid orlate 1890s. The house is of adzed logs chinked with aprimitive mortar. The addition behind was new when thisphotograph was taken in 1909. The solitary figurestanding on the right is 79-year-old William RodgerHuscroft, and on his right is Charles Leroy Huscroft, hisyoungest son. The man in the doorway is his secondyoungest son, John Henry Huscroft and John Henry’s wife,Monna, née Wigen. Finally there are Maud IsabellaHuscroft, youngest daughter, with Ernest Ennerson, Jr.,aged 5 years, the son of Sarah Etta, William and Jane’ssecond youngest daughter. She died in childbirth. He waslooked after by his grandmother Jane, which simply meantthat she raised twelve children instead of eleven. The dog’sname is unknown.

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“Individual Acts of Kindness”and PoliticalInfluence: Alice Parke’s Experience withthe Vernon Women’s Councilby Kimberly Boehr

This winning essay in the 2001 W. Kaye LambScholarship Competition was recommended by Dr.Duane Thompson, Okanagan University Collegewith the words: “an excellent interpretation ofwomen’s roles in Vernon at the turn of the century.”

This spring KimberlyBoehr graduates fromOkanagan UniversityCollege with a majorin history and a minorin English. She plans toacquire an MA inhistory at the Univer-sity of Western Ontario.

Although KimberlyBoehr consulted andquoted from Jo FraserJones’s transcriptions ofAlice Parke’s diaries, atthe Vernon Museum andArchives, she had noaccess to Jo Fraser Jone’srecently published book:Hobnobbing with aCountess and OtherOkanagan Adventures:The Diaries of AliceBarrett Parke 1891–1900.

In 1891 Alice Parke, the daughter of a cus-toms officer, left her home in Port Dover,Ontario, in order to help with domestic

chores on her uncle’s ranch in the Okanagan Val-ley.1 She was an educated woman, an avid reader,and an active participant in the political issues ofher day. One of the issues challenging Parke andother women was the emergence of a new modelin social welfare practice. In 1893 Lady Aberdeen2

brought the National Council of Women ofCanada (NCWC)3 to the community of Vernon,British Columbia.4 Parke’s diary, which spans anine-year period from March 1891 to February1900, reveals that Parke and many other womenin the community were not enthusiastic partici-pants in the NCWC. The women who settled inVernon were a diverse group in terms of eco-nomic condition, social class, educational level,and religious affiliation. Parke is distinguishablefrom many of the other female pioneers of Vernon,as she came from a wealthy upper-class familythat had secured an education for her.5 These fac-tors would seemingly make Parke an ideal candi-date to lead the NCWC locally; however, shedeclined a leadership role for a variety of reasons.Parke thought that within a highly differentiatedcommunity, her method of bestowing “individualacts of kindness” would be both a more practicaland appropriate way of exercising her politicalinfluence than the approach recommended by theNCWC. Parke’s experience with the NCWC al-lows us to examine the interaction of class, gen-der, and religion in the developing town of Vernon,a diverse community within which various vi-sions of women’s roles were discussed and pro-moted.

At the turn of the nineteenth century the viewsof the time dictated that a woman was responsi-

ble for the welfare of her family, including herhusband and the children, and thus, the future ofthe nation. Though a woman’s place was gener-ally believed to be in the home, a widespread de-bate existed as to how a woman could best carryout her responsibilities.6 Lady Aberdeen advanceda new role for women and thought that a wom-an’s influence should be extended beyond do-mestic concerns. She argued that women shouldunderstand “how the laws of the Dominion andthe Provinces affect themselves and be able tohelp others to make laws.”7 Therefore the respon-sibility laid upon women did “not rest simply withlooking after and caring for their own familiesand homes,” but rather, involved “mothering” theentire community.8 Lady Aberdeen believed that:

…special training has been given to the womenof this country, enabling them to think of others,to contrive for others, to live for others—a train-ing which prepares them when the time comesand the settlement grows bigger, to take the leadin those works of charity and benevolence andhelpfulness which tend to build up all the higherlife of any district. Thus it must be to the womenof this country that we must look when any en-terprise of charity or benevolence has to be un-dertaken. The men are so largely engrossed withnecessary business, with the interests of providingfor their dear ones, that they have not the time togive to these needs.9

Lady Aberdeen argued that women should be“in touch with the wider aspects of life” in orderto best serve their husbands and children.10

According to Lady Aberdeen, women whowere “in touch with the wider aspects of life”had a duty to organize their community. On Oc-tober 10th 1895 the Vernon News provided a de-tailed account of Lady Aberdeen’s speech to thewomen of Vernon in which she described herefforts to generate interest in establishing a localbranch of the NCWC. Lady Aberdeen anticipatedresistance from the residents of Vernon as evi-denced in both her speeches to the women ofthe community and her own diary entries. Al-though the scheme of promoting community


Left: Alice Parke, 1895. “In Alice, a brand new Canadianwriter of great merit has been discovered....Her diaries areindeed a stunning document” (Jo Fraser Jones in an e-mail to the editor.)

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values through secularinstitutions was rela-tively new, according toLady Aberdeen, somepeople believed thatthe organizations inexistence were suffi-cient, even excessive innumber:

It is only within thelast 20 years that wehave seen these institu-tions and associationsfor the good of thecommunity growingup, and many of us areno doubt inclined tothink that there areenough of these or-ganizations, as appealscome in for one objectand another.11

Lady Aberdeen thentook it upon herself to

address those individuals who thought that organizations were unnecessaryor that Vernon was “still too little,” arguing:

Just because this place is still in its infancy furnishes a very good reason whythe women of the place should try to help one another to fulfill their mission.We hope for a great future for this district—nay we believe that there is to bea great future for it, but that future will be what you make it now, what youmake the tone of this place will be the heritage of your children.12

She enthusiastically claimed that the Council was an organization capa-ble of bringing many subjects “before the consideration of the public.”13

Lady Aberdeen was quite hopeful that the Vernon Council would be suc-cessful if it was able “to win the support of all sections.”14

Lady Aberdeen further argued that the usefulness of the Council lay notprimarily in its ability to obtain funds for community projects, but rather inits ability to bring women of different religious groups together in order toovercome differences. The women began each Council meeting in silentprayer, as this was deemed the best method because the Council repre-sented “so many different [religious] views.”15 In her speech, Lady Aber-deen argued that while the members might have known what was beingdone in their own church, they might have had “many prejudices againstothers” pursuing endeavors in God’s name.16 She also stressed that womencould “learn from those with whom we thought we had but few points ofagreement.”17 The general policy of the Council was briefly outlined stat-ing that the NCWC was to be “organized in the interest of no one propa-ganda.”18 Lady Aberdeen encouraged participation in the Council by assur-ing that any group entering the NCWC would be “left free as far as itsinternal regulations” were concerned.19 Furthermore, Lady Aberdeen con-tended that by not interfering with the “working of any Council or Guild,”a variety of societies and institutions were eligible to join.20 Once the Councilwas established, a pleased Lady Aberdeen addressed the fledging Vernon

1 “The History of the Barrett Family” by Harry BemisterBarrett, Greater Vernon Museum and Archives, 1997.

2 Lady Aberdeen, wife of the governor-general of Canada,was an ardent social reformer. She established TheNational Council of Women in Canada in 1894 and theVictorian Order of Nurses in 1897. For moreinformation about her life and work see: Doris French,Ishbel and the Empire: A Biography of Lady Aberdeen(Toronto: Oxford Press, 1988).

3 According to Alice Parke, The National Council ofWomen Canada was a secular organization designed “topromote greater unity of feeling between women of allsects and denominations by affording a platform ofcommon interests upon which they may meet and confertogether—and to awaken and strengthen patriotism bymaking women in all parts of the Dominion cognizant of,and interested in, the good works in which the differentprovinces are concerned.” Though Parke later changedher mind about her willingness to participate in theorganization, she did describe quite accurately the natureof the Council. (“The Okanagan Journals of Alice ButlerBarrett Parke,” 1891-1900. Transcribed from the originalby Jo Jones 1996-1997. Greater Vernon Museum andArchives, 6 October 1895). For a more detailed discussionof the Women’s Council see: Veronica Strong-Boag, TheParliament of Women: The National Council of Women ofCanada 1893-1929 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,1976).

4 For the early history of Vernon, British Columbia see:Edna Oram, The History of Vernon: 1867-1937 (Vernon:Wayside Press Ltd., 1985).

5 Alice Parke was a descendant of prosperous Irishancestors. In 1928 her brother inherited the QuintinDick Estate. This estate, in addition to other assets,included a large library, lands near Marble Arch inLondon, England and Tuam, Ireland as well as investmentstotaling two million dollars. Harry Bemsister Barrett.

6 Vernon News, 14 February 1895. There was concern aboutwhether a woman’s participation in organizational workcontributed to building a healthy home environment ortook away from it. For instance, there is reference to theMethodists of Vernon having had a debate over whether awoman’s place was in the home or on the publicplatform.

7 Vernon News, 10 October 18958 Ibid. 9 Ibid.,10 Vernon News, 31 October 1895.11 Ibid.12 Vernon News, 10 October 1895.13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid.19 Ibid. 20 Ibid.21 Vernon News, 12 November 1896.22 R. M. Middleton, ed. The Journals of Lady Aberdeen

(Victoria: Morriss Publishing Ltd., 1986), 80-81.23 Vernon News, 10 October 1895.24 Frances E. Willard was leader of the Women’s Christian

Temperance Union from 1879 until 1898 and was alsothe first president of the Women’s Council in the UnitedStates. For more information see: Judith Papachristou,Women Together: A History of Documents of the Women’sMovement in the United States (New York: Alfred A Knopf,


NCWC and claimed that the branch “had amplyjustified its existence.” She argued that theNCWC “had been a center around which ladiesof all sections and churches had clustered….”21

She was proved correct when women joined theCouncil from various local associations, includ-ing the Methodist Ladies’ Aid Society, the Eng-lish Church Guild and the Presbyterian Ladies’Aid Society. Lady Aberdeen then assessed theprogress achieved by the Council:

I think we may claim that the experiment ofstarting a Council in this small place has beensuccessful. Like all little towns it is full of bicker-ing and gossip and little cliques in opposition toone another. The Council has been the means ofthe leading ladies of the different churches meet-ing one another and working together at some-thing and also has led them to take an interest inmatters going on in other parts of the country.22

Lady Aberdeen acknowledged the fact thatwomen might be hesitant to join an organizationsuch as the NCWC, for fear that they might seemto be associated with a particular religious move-ment or certain political associations. For this rea-son Lady Aberdeen took measures to avoid es-tablishing any link between the NCWC and theWomen’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).A perceived link between these organizationscould easily have deterred participation in theNCWC because many women did not approveof the excesses to which the WCTU went in itscrusade against alcohol. The editor of the VernonNews was careful to assure the public that theNCWC was “not in any sense a political organi-zation, nor a church society, but [it] embracedwithin its limits a large number of philanthropicschemes, in which all classes could engage har-moniously.”23 Regardless of these assurances, someindividuals perceived a link between the NCWCand the female temperance movement. Lady Ab-erdeen herself noted that because Frances Willard24

was the first president of the NCWC, the or-ganization was assumed to be committed to theso-called “Temperance Cause.”25 Thus, in herspeech directed at the community of Vernon, LadyAberdeen appealed to the interest of “all serious-minded women,” rather than women with a mis-sion.26 The address given by Lady Aberdeen as-serted that the members of the Women’s Coun-cil were often “the most earnest-minded womenin the District, and therefore likely to know agood deal about the needs of the people.”27

Lady Aberdeen also realized that many women

were hesitant to join because they did not wishto deviate from traditional gender roles and inresponse, she advocated the inclusion of men inthe NCWC. By encouraging men to attend meet-ings of the Council Lady Aberdeen hoped to as-sure Vernon’s female population that the NCWCwas not a radical movement. Lady Aberdeenclaimed that the men of the community shouldknow not feel as though they were “being keptin the dark about [the NCWC].”28 She deemedmale support to be valuable and upon noticingseveral men in the audience, she congratulatedthe newly formed organization on securing “thehearty cooperation of the gentlemen of the city.”29

Lady Aberdeen’s remarks reveal her attempts toaddress male concerns. She was correct to assumethat men in the community found her influenceintrusive and threatening. An early resident ofnearby Kelowna remarked that Lady Aberdeenought not to “teach [the] women to prefer cack-ling on platforms” and instead should encouragethem to stay “at home attending to their domes-tic affairs.”30

While some men found Lady Aberdeen’s pur-suits threatening, many men of Vernon took anactive role in propagating the Council—the lo-cal newspaper and political and religious leadersin the area urged women to join the NCWC.31

The town of Vernon, in its initial stages of devel-opment, lacked significant community infrastruc-ture and these men recognized that a woman’sorganization could contribute by securing essen-tial services such as medical care. The Vernon News,in particular, encouraged cooperation, praised thework of the Women’s Council32 and supportedthe NCWC’s efforts to establish a hospital.33 TheVernon News urged community activism, refer-ring to the proposed hospital as a “much-neededinstitution” and a “commendable cause.”34 TheVernon News also promoted the project by ap-pealing for funds,35 while frequently applaudingcontributions and deploring any lack of interestin the hospital.36 This enthusiasm is not surpris-ing since the owner of the Vernon News was PriceEllison who, besides being the MLA, was a largelandowner and property developer and thus hadan interest in expanding the services available inVernon. The political and religious leaders in thecommunity also urged cooperation from theVernon citizens. At the close of Lady Aberdeen’saddress to the women of Vernon, her husbandthe Governor-General suggested “that a few ofthe leading and representative gentlemen of the

1976), 91.25 Excerpt from the

Journals of LadyAberdeen, 3 March 1895.John T. Saywell, ed., TheCanadian Journals of LadyAberdeen (Toronto: TheChamplain Society,1960),205. 10 Ibid., 10October 1895.

26 Vernon News, 10 October1895.

27 Ibid. 28 Ibid.29 Vernon News, 31 October

1895.30 Charles Mair to George

T. Denison 17 August1895, Kelowna. DenisonPapers, Public ArchivesCanada. Transcriptprepared by DuaneThomson, OkanaganUniversity College.

31 “Okanagan Journals.”Reverend Wilsonapproached Parke aboutjoining the Council on19 September 1895 andReverend Outerbridgeconvinced her to attendthe first meeting on 6October 1895.

32 Vernon News, 20 January1898. The editor praisedthe Council claiming thatthere was “perhaps nolocal organization orsociety whose efforts forthe public good [were]more appreciated by ourtownspeople than thelocal branch of theWomen’s NationalCouncil.”

33 Vernon News, 16 February1893. The editor urgedthe residents of Vernon toconsider the importanceof the proposed hospitalscheme arguing that: “[Itwas] high time that ourcitizens were [waking] upto the importance of thisquestion.” He wasconcerned that with onlya few months remainingin which to takeadvantage of agovernment grant,“prompt measures shouldbe taken to bring mattersto a head.”

34 Vernon News, 24December 1896.

35 Vernon News, 31 July1902.


city...give their opinions on the matter.”37 Hence,Vernon’s judge, mayor, MLA and three clergy-men proceeded to voice their approval of theCouncil. The newspaper repeatedly commentedon those in attendance at the Women’s Councilmeetings and while women composed the ma-jority, the records often mention “a sprinkling ofmen also being in the audience.”38 Therefore themedia assisted Lady Aberdeen’s initiative to le-gitimize the organization, through its acknowl-edgement of the male support for the NCWC.

The Vernon News also displayed its support forthe Council by publishing various papers writ-ten by women about the female obligation tocontribute to the community. For example, onepaper was written by a visitor to Vernon affiliatedwith the WCTU, identified only as Mrs. Alcockfrom Vancouver. This paper outlined the impor-tance of God, home, and country in a Christianwoman’s life. Alcock argued that the “best andmost effective Christian work may be accom-plished within the limits of the home.”39 Accord-ing to her, “a cheerful room, well warmed andlighted, bright with pleasant talk, and attractivewith games or music, [was] one of the deadliestfoes the saloon [had] to contend against.”40 Also,in a paper written for the Women’s Council andprinted in the Vernon News, a Mrs. Stodders simi-larly asserted that mothers were “guardians of thehome” and were responsible that “everything per-taining to a healthy, happy life be encouraged,and all that would mar its purity be banished.”41

Stodders encouraged women to exert their in-fluence indirectly because they had “no right atpresent to exercise the franchise.”42 Stodders calledupon women to ensure that the “law respectinggambling and houses of ill-fame be enforced...and see that all men appointed to public officesbe honest and trustworthy.”43 Both Alcock andStodders thought that a woman’s role was essen-tially in the home, but also believed that womencontributed indirectly to the well-being of theircommunity and country by ensuring that the menin their surroundings possessed “high ideals andnoble motives.”44

The Vernon News also reproduced a paper writ-ten by Sophie Ellison, Vernon’s first schoolteacherand the wife of Price Ellison. Similarly to Alcockand Stodders, Ellison discussed a woman’s obli-gation to contribute to the community indirectlyby providing a healthful home environment;moreover, Ellison’s argument directly promotedparticipation in the Council. In her paper Ellison

outlined the issues that plagued the Council inthe form of rhetorical questions:

When the National Council of Women was firstorganized, these questions were constantly asked:1.-Will it be of any use? 2.-Will it not encroachupon men’s work, and assume that women can doit better than they can? 3.- Will it not takewomen out of their sphere, and rob the home andfamily of their just and natural rights? When wewere asked to form a local council, the samequestions were asked; and even now, after six yearsof effective work, they are still being asked.45

Ellison continued by providing answers to thesequestions. The first question she responded witha counter question, “[c]an a large band of earnest,consecrated and intelligent women put forthunited effort for the good of their homes, theircountry and humanity without being of someuse?” To the second question posed, she answeredthat “men have not the time...or the tendernessof mind and heart which would induce them towork with the unsparing efforts of women.” Inanswer to the third question Ellison argued that awoman should not be too “much engrossed inher own house to lend a helping hand.”46 ThusEllison, similar to her husband and his male peers,directly supported the local branch of the NCWC.

This enthusiasm for the NCWC, however, wasnot universal in Vernon, as Alice Parke’s diary re-veals. In contrast to the Ellisons and others, Parkewas opposed to the formation of a Women’sCouncil in Vernon from the beginning. She be-lieved that Vernon was not in need of an organi-zation such as the NCWC: in her opinion, theworld was “organized to death.”47 Parke, skepticalof the NCWC capabilities, wrote that she wasnot “very hopeful of any great results from thisVernon Branch….”48 Her skepticism stemmedfrom the assumption that Vernon was too sparselypopulated to be able to raise enough money tomake a significant difference. Parke held seriousreservations about the Council’s ability to solicitmoney and in regards to the plan to start a hospi-tal, she thought that “it would be worse than fool-ish to begin…without a good guarantee offunds.”49 She was also concerned about theschisms apparent within the community; an enor-mous influx of people came to Vernon betweenthe years 1891 and 1907.50 Listed amongst Parke’sinitial objections for participating in the NCWCwas her feeling that “it would puzzle a Napoleonto manage this town….”51 Furthermore, she statedher doubt as to whether a “…Napoleon could

36 Vernon News, 4 December1902.

37 Vernon News, 10 October1895.

38 Vernon News, 10 October1895

39 Vernon News, 16November 1898. Alcock’spaper: “The Home as aFactor in Our Work”

40 Ibid.41 Vernon News, 14 February

1901. Stodder’s paper.42 Ibid. 43 Ibid.44 Vernon News, 16

November 1898.45 Vernon News, 14 February

1901 Sophie Ellison’spaper.

46 Ibid.47 “Okanagan Journals,” 19

September 1895.48 “Okanagan Journals,” 8

October 1895.49 “Okanagan Journals,” 23

October 1895.50 The population of Vernon

experienced rapid growthbetween 1891 and 1907with fluctuationsoccurring during theconstruction of therailways in the early1890s. The movement ofworkers in and out ofVernon explains why theCanada census data for1891 affirmed the town’spopulation to be 739,while a report publishedin the local newspaperjust two years laterclaimed the population ofVernon to be 400 (VernonNews, 26 November1902). According to theCanada Censusinformation for 1901(Microfilm OkanaganUniversity College),Vernon had a populationof 797. However by 1907,the Vernon News reportedthat the population hadclimbed to 2,400. (VernonNews, 24 December1907).

51 “Okanagan Journals,” 19September 1895.

52 Ibid. 53 Ibid.54 Ibid. Parke wrote: “My

year as secretary will beup in October and I willthen resign.”

55 Women’s Councilminutes, 22 October


have led the united Vernonites against a commonenemy.”52 She also expressed her belief that “thereare so many clashing interests here that unity [is]almost impossible.”53

Although Parke was eventually persuaded tojoin the NCWC, the efforts to keep her com-mitted to this cause proved to be in vain and lessthan a year later, Parke stated in her journal herintention to resign her position of correspond-ing secretary.54 She submitted her wish to resignfrom the Council on 22 October 1896.55 Fourdays later Parke received an unannounced visitfrom Lady Aberdeen. In her diary Parke wrote:“Her Excellency talked Woman’s [sic] Council tome.”56 Although Parke’s diary entry is very brief,it can be inferred that the extremely intimidatingLady Aberdeen strove to persuade Parke to re-voke her resignation from the Council. Further-more, Lady Aberdeen’s ploy to visit Parke’s homecompletely unexpectedly prevented Parke fromrefusing a meeting with her and enabled LadyAberdeen to catch Parke with her guard down.Despite Lady Aberdeen’s attempts, Parke formallyresigned her office on 10 November 1896.

Parke was not the only member reluctant toremain committed; numerous references to poorattendance at meetings of the Women’s Council,both in Parke’s diary and the minutes of theCouncil’s meetings, attest to this.57 It appears thatvery few of the women in the community sharedLady Aberdeen’s ardent enthusiasm. In a descrip-tion of a Council meeting, Parke wrote that theentire day was taken up by it and she expressedher hope that once the Council had settled downto regularity, the meetings would not be as lengthy.She also wrote, “of course, when Lady Aberdeenis here no one can suggest breaking up the con-ference until she is ready to do so.”58 Despite ef-forts to secure a larger turnout, many women lostinterest in the Council and as a result, the NCWCresorted to a media advertisement in hopes ofgenerating enthusiasm. For example, a memberof the Council, referred to only as Miss MacIntyre,placed a notice in the newspaper inviting all in-dividuals who were willing to help, to attend ameeting. In her journal, Parke expressed her sur-prise because “despite expectations for a fair sizedmeeting—we had four! Mrs. Cochrane, Mrs.Latimer, Miss MacIntyre and myself.59 In addi-tion to the Council members, even the presidentof the Council lost interest in the organization’sendeavours. Parke made a reference in her jour-nal to Cochrane (the president of the Council) as

having said, “we’d better all stay in office for theyear, and just keep as quiet as possible and do aslittle as possible and then we can all refuse re-election.”60 Evidently, this trend continued, as sev-eral years later an entry in the Women’s Councilminute book described the president’s reactionto poor attendance.

[She] addressed those present, deploring the greatwant of interest shown by the women of the citygenerally in the Local Council, and urged thePresidents of the different societies present to tryand arouse some enthusiasm amongst the mem-bers.61

Conversation ensued respecting the best meansto be taken to elicit interest in the local Council.In November 1906 the members of the Wom-en’s Council who were frustrated with disinter-est and poor attendance, agreed to “cease sendingcards of notice of meeting to members who failto attend three meetings.”62 Furthermore, despitethe early efforts of Lady Aberdeen to bring to-gether women of all religious affiliations, theVernon branch of the Women’s Council receiveda letter from Cora O’Keefe in 1907 stating thatthe Roman Catholics “would not affiliate withthe Local Council for the year.”63 Although thisstatement was not elaborated upon, it would seemthat religious intolerance played a role in theRoman Catholics’ decision to leave the Council.Hence, between the efforts to elicit support, theobvious lack of interest, and the threats and exas-peration, it seems that the Women’s Council wasan undesirable pursuit for the majority of Vernon’sfemale population.

Parke rejected the approach recommended bythe NCWC and preferred her own model of so-cial welfare practice. This model, which entailedher own ideas about a woman’s role, communityservice, and political influence, allowed her to fo-cus her efforts in ways that she deemed practicaland appropriate. For Parke, the home was defi-nitely a woman’s first priority and her diary re-veals in no uncertain terms her idea of woman-hood and the responsibilities it entailed:

There is no doubt in my mind that woman’ssphere is, as a rule, in the house. Of course, geniusmay force her out of it, or dire necessity drive herforth to soar—or to struggle in higher flights orharder paths, but the quality of a house maker isessentially woman’s, and perhaps if she did herwork better in this line, men might be strongerand nobler.64

Thus, it was the responsibility of women to be“strong in character, gentle in words and ways, to

1896. “Minutes of theVernon and DistrictCouncil of WomenMeetings,” GreaterVernon Museum andArchives.

56 “Okanagan Journals,” 26October, 1896.

57 “Okanagan Journals,” 9July 1896. Parke revealedthat the Women’s Councilmeeting was “not a fullmeeting” and there arerepeated references in thenewspaper and theWomen’s Council minutebook to there being “onlya few members present.”

58 “Okanagan Journals,” 23October 1895.

59 “Okanagan Journals,” 8September 1896. For thearticle Parke referred to,see Vernon News, 3September 1896.

60 “Okanagan Journals,” 19February 1896.

61 “Women’s Councilminutes,” 8 October1903. It was decided that“the presidents of thelocal societies wouldimpress upon theirmembers the necessity oftheir attending publicmeetings.” In additionabstracts would be readfrom various letterswritten by LadyAberdeen and othermembers of the NationalCouncil. Furthermore, itwas stated that “peopleshould be made clearly tounderstand that the termof office for President,Vice President, etc. iselected yearly, expiring atthe end of twelvemonths.” (“Women’sCouncil minutes,” 13November 1903).

62 “Women’s Councilminutes,” 28 November1906.

63 “Women’s Councilminutes,” 8 March 1907

64 “Okanagan Journals,” 22March 1891.


February 1897.67 “Okanagan Journals,” 8

December 1895.68 “Okanagan Journals,” 23

February 1897.


Left: Lady Aberdeen. AliceParke wrote in her journal“It really [was] a pleasureand a privilege to beassociated with a womanlike [Lady Aberdeen], butoh! She is large! I felt likea pigmy beside her.” 25October 1895:

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soften while they strengthen the rougher man-ners of the men.”65

Parke also thought that a woman was respon-sible for the welfare of others and had an obliga-tion to contribute to the community. Despite sig-nificant social pressure, Parke remained convincedthat organizational work was not the best way tocontribute one’s efforts. She thought that theWomen’s Council was “not strong enough to domuch” as most of the schemes were “too imprac-ticable.”66 Parke had concerns that the approachrecommended by the NCWC was wasteful ofher time. She did not want to spare an hour thatwas not “positively needed” in order to attend ameeting of the Women’s Council.67 Parke thoughtthat her individual contributions were more valu-able and would make a greater impact than anyof the proposed activities of the Council, as theorganization possessed an element of superficial-ity. She thought that people “talked too much”without effecting any tangible change. Parke wasshocked to hear Cochrane make the commentthat in her opinion it was Alice Parke, out of allthe women, since joining the Council who had“improved the most in appearance.” In response,a somewhat insulted Parke wrote in her diarythat she did not “suppose any thanks is due to theCouncil for that—it wasn’t to improve our looks

that we joined it. I wonder if the change is anymore than skin deep!!”68 Among her reasons fornot wanting to take any part in the NCWC washer perception that she did not have the “time togive [to] public working.” Parke had her “houseto look after, a frequent neighborly kindness todo, many little calls” on her time which she didnot “think it would be right to neglect.”69

Parke’s individual acts of kindness included avariety of activities. She brought food to thosewho were in need, whether due to poverty, sick-ness, or loneliness. She visited the elderly and gavemusic and reading lessons to members of the com-munity. She also devoted a significant amount ofher time and energy to educating youths and theChinese in the community; she frequently taughtSunday school and volunteered at the Chineseschool. Additionally, Parke brought bread and soupto those in mourning and even made clothes forthe neighbourhood children. Thus, Parke’smethod proved to be highly beneficial to Vernonas she reached out to numerous individuals and awide range of people in the community.

Often women’s actions are represented as hav-ing served people not ideas.70 Parke’s actions evi-dently served both people and ideas. She not onlyaided community members, but also injected herwell-informed perspectives into the political dis-cussions at the turn of the century in Vernon.Though she would not have identified herself assuch, she was a political woman71 who partici-pated in the debates of her time and undoubt-edly influenced the opinions of others aroundher. For instance, Parke vehemently opposed theproposed hospital scheme and her opinions likelyhad some effect on the slow progress to build theinstitution. The degree to which she asserted herbeliefs is acknowledged in the Vernon News. Theeditor wrote: “Mrs. Parke was decidedly in favorof dropping the scheme at once, and she urgedthat as far as the council was concerned theyshould give up the responsibility of such a move-ment.”72

While Parke contended that outside interestswere important,73 she insisted that a woman’s placewas in the home. For Parke the morning’s activi-ties always consisted of various domestic duties.Her diary contains numerous references to pre-serving jam, jelly and marmalade as well as bak-ing pies, cookies and breads. Many householdchores consumed her time: washing clothes anddishes, sweeping, weeding, sewing, and embroi-dering.


70 Dorinda Outram, TheBody and the FrenchRevolution: Sex, Class, andPolitical Culture. (YaleUniversity Press: NewHaven and London,1989), 85.

71 Nancy Fraser definessomeone as political ifthey are able toparticipate on a par withothers in dialogue. NancyFraser, Unruly Practices:Power, Discourse, andGender in ContemporarySocial Theory. (Universityof Minnesota Press:Minneapolis, 1989) 126.

72 Vernon News, 23 January1896.

73 In her journals Parkeconfessed, “I know quitewell I am not what wouldbe called a goodhousekeeper—but Halsays I satisfy him—and Iknow if I never neglectedmy house I’d have toneglect all outsideinterests.”( “OkanaganJournals,” 11 April 1894).

74 Fraser, Nancy. UnrulyPractices: Power, Discourse,and Gender inContemporary Social Theory.University of MinnesotaPress, Minneapolis, 1989.11. Fraser argues thathistorians should avoidsimplistic conceptions of“public” and “private”spheres. She wishes tobroaden conceptions of“public” to includesubjects usually defined asdomestic and personal.She notes that boundariesbetween the presumablyincompatible spheres of“public” and “private” arenever fixed at any giventime.


To assume that women identified solely withprivate life and domesticity, and men with theexternal public world74 is inaccurate if the situa-tion in Vernon is examined. A fluidity existed be-tween traditional gender roles as evidenced byParke’s diary entries and letters between SophieEllison and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Johnson.Parke frequently mentions that both her brotherand her husband helped with numerous “domes-tic” chores in the home. Furthermore, in a letterfrom Johnson to Ellison a concerned sister-in-law writes: “I don’t see how you can let yourhusband make [bread] that is not his sphere, andit’s yours.”75 Thus, in Vernon, men took part in“private” activities, just as Parke enjoyed “public”activities.

Parke’s ideas concerning gender roles necessi-tated that she avoided any association with the“New Woman’s Movement”76 of the 1890s. Inher diary, Parke commented on the arrival of aMrs. Craven to Vernon, a woman described byParke as a “radical suffragist” and “a specimen ofthe New Woman.” Parke further stated: “while Irecognize the honesty of her intentions I hardlyadmire her methods.”77 Parke evidently thoughtthat the New Woman’s behavior was inappropri-ate and she did not want to be associated withthe movement. After attending Lady Aberdeen’smeeting that discussed the creation of a localbranch of the Women’s Council, Parke, with asense of relief, remarked that the Council did not“encourage the new woman in the very slight-est.”78

Parke’s model of social welfare practice alsonecessitated that women act within their owninterest and competency. She made a firm dis-tinction between being a woman who contrib-uted to her community as a business endeavorand a woman who contributed because it was avolunteer activity, the latter being her preference:

I really believe I was meant to be [a] ‘societywoman,’ for I do enjoy a gathering of human kind- but only when it is for pleasure—a businessmeeting is pain and vexation of spirit for me, andI really cannot work well with others, though I en-joy thoroughly having companions in play time.79

Parke, acting only in areas that interested her,was concerned about the plight of the Chinesein her community and thus made an effort toimprove the conditions of these immigrant resi-dents. In reference to Vernon’s Chinatown, shewrote:

It seems dreadful to think there is a class of hea-

then slaves in our midst and we grow utterly cal-lous to it. I confess, while at first it was a troubleto me, latterly I am getting used to it, and say/[have said] like all the others, “What can we do?”and there it ends.80

However, for Parke, it did not end there, as shelater volunteered to teach at the Chinese school.The feelings of helplessness and uncertainty as tohow to improve the conditions of the Chinese inVernon were overcome and though Parke claimsto have been against organizations she was sup-portive of this endeavor.81 By her decision torefuse affiliation with the Women’s Council, whileparticipating in efforts to educate the Chinese,Parke demonstrated her desire to participate onlyin areas in which she felt interested and compe-tent.

A woman’s competence, which was regardedas largely a reflection of her education and socialstanding, was a crucial element in judging herfitness to assume a public role. In her diary Parkementioned having read “some very good articlesin a California paper... [concerning] the NewWoman Question.”82 Upon examination of thesearticles, which were published a few weeks priorto her entry, it becomes apparent that they stronglycoincided with her own views about a woman’sright to speak her mind publicly. Parke agreedwith the sentiments expressed in the Argonaut ar-ticles, mainly that the New Woman had no rightto assume a public role if she had nothing to of-fer. One such article described the New Womanas “a subject fitter for medical treatment ratherthan as a person to be admired applauded andencouraged.”83 The newspaper further representedthe New Woman as an abnormal, “…repellent,and an apocryphal being.”84 In the Argonaut theNew Woman is deplored for her perceived in-competence:

It is not the woman of genius [or] the woman oftalent that the Argonaut expresses distaste for —not the woman who accomplishes anything wor-thy, small or great, but the female who, with theability to accomplish nothing, yet pushes her bar-ren personality noisily to the front. It is this ‘NewWoman,’ this uneasy, voluble, incompetent who,dissatisfied herself because of her impotence toachieve, is spreading unrest among other women,who, but for her disturbing influence, would becontent to do their duty as wives and mothersobscurely and in modesty.85

These articles articulate and exemplify someof the opinions held by Parke. While she believedthat women were just as “wise and as good as

75 Elizabeth Johnson toSophie Ellison, 26 July1885. Provided courtesyof Kenneth Ellison

76 According to historianGertrude Himmilfarb, theterm “New Woman,”adopted in the 1880s and1890s, applied in “thebroadest sense to womenwho wore bloomers, rodebicycles, played golf andtennis, smoked in publicand shocked their eldersby conversing about ‘freelove,’ before settling downto marriage, home andchildren.” Unlikefeminists —who werewomen with a cause, orseveral causes, newwomen had “noparticular cause, only thelarger, more general causeof social and sexualliberation.” See GertrudeHimmilfarb, The De-moralization of Society(New York: Alfred AKnopf, 1995), 189.

77 “Okanagan Journals,” 20June 1896.


79 “Okanagan Journals,” 10December 1896.

80 “Okanagan Journals,” 6February 1894..

81 Ibid., Parke taughtgroups of three or fourChinese men once aweek.

82 “Okanagan Journals,” 5December 1895.

83 “The New Woman VeryOld,” Argonaut, 14October 1895.

84 “The Genuine NewWoman,” Argonaut, 28October 1895.

85 “‘New Women,’ ‘ClubWomen’ and Women,”Argonaut, 18 November1895.

86 “Okanagan Journals,” 15May 1896. Parke wroteabout her viewspertaining to the questionof whether or notwomen should vote,“even granted thatwomen are as wise andgood as men in publicmatters they are certainlynot more able or far-seeing and it will simplybe multiplying the


men in public matters,”86 she did not think thatjust anyone (man or woman) was in the positionto proclaim abilities that he or she did not pos-sess. Parke knew where her contributions wouldbe most effective and thus readily agreed withthe Argonaut’s claim that:

Every woman who is true to herself and lives inhonesty and modesty, is quite safe from the sort ofcriticism which gives distress to those unhappy fe-males who, either in ignorance or defiance ofwhat nature has written in their bodies and brains,attempt to pass limitations that are impassable. It isopen to any New Woman to be a George Eliot, ifshe can; but when her abilities are of an order thatsuit her better for the functions of a house-maidthan for those of an author, a statesman, or a socialphilosopher, she is not to be dealt with too deli-cately if she obtrudes on public notice.87

Parke thought that certain members of her owncommunity were “obtruding on public notice,”as she believed that the aspirations of the mem-bers involved in group activities were overly am-bitious. She expressed disdain for those who, whilepossessing grand ideas, failed to exhibit practical-ity in their endeavors. The grand ideas Parke re-ferred to included the excitement over establish-ing both a reading room and a hospital in Vernon.In her diary, she expressed the opinion that thecommittee members did not know “exactly whatthey want, and they talk too much with no defi-nite idea to work upon.”88 Parke desired a morecautious approach and doubted the capacity ofVernon citizens to cooperate with one another.In reference to the proposed hospital, Parke statedthat she did not like the idea “of the Councilattempting any work just yet. It seems... that weneed to know each other better before we canhope to work together.”89 She approached theCouncil with the presumption that little couldbe accomplished unless the residents of Vernoncould work together toward practical objectives.

Parke’s concern that co-operation was essen-tial in securing organizational efforts was presci-ent, as divisions among the Vernon populationrelating to class, gender, ethnicity, and religionmade joint action difficult. Parke herself frequentlyexpressed her inability to get along with others,which was undoubtedly due in large part to herargumentative disposition and her class-conscious-ness. Throughout her diary, she expressed disdainfor those lacking in manners, speech, and intelli-gence. A few members of the Women’s Councilsuch as Mary Ann O’Keefe and Elizabeth

Greenhow, in addition to being Roman Catho-lic, were the nouveaux riches and, in Parke’s opin-ion, these women possessed “wealth and influ-ence” but not ladies’ “manners and speech.”90

Parke evidently preferred the conversation ofthose who were well-educated, wealthy, and up-per class.91 She stated: “I think there is somethingin the air out here which makes one less indus-trious—men and women all seem ready to wasteso much time.” She also thought that the timewould not be so wasted “if the conversation wereatall [sic] edifying, but it isn’t very often.”92

Furthermore, she expressed the concern that hersurroundings would have a negative impact onher character and she says: “I suppose it takes avery adamantine character not to be influencedby circumstances and companions.”93 Parke evi-dently found the residents of Vernon to be less“amusing and pleasant” than those she was ac-customed to in Port Dover: “The real, the useful,the necessary, these occupy one here, rather thanthe amusing and pleasant.” However she noted,“not that the latter elements are quite lackinghere, but they are accidental, not the business oflife.”94

Parke thought that by becoming a member ofthe Council she would be conceding some ofthe individuality and independence that separatedher from the lower classes. According to Parke,one of her reasons for desiring not to affiliatewith the NCWC was her assertion that she didnot “whole heartedly approve of Associations andSocieties.” She justified her views in this state-ment:

Little is done now by individual effort—no doubtunity is strength but there is the other side too.Supposing something does break down the union,the scattered remnants have no individualstrength. It’s hard to know what to do. I supposethe trend of the world is towards amalgamation,but I think enough of the old fashion is left to lastmy life in spite of co-operative kitchens. I am stillable to cook my own dinner—in spite of clubsand societies and lodges we spend our evenings inour own home—in spite of kindergartens, if I hadany children they’d be brought up as an individualand not by wholesale on a system.95

According to Parke, participation in an organi-zation like the NCWC was restraining. Parke tookpride in her ability to assert her independence;she had a tendency to argue and she refused tobe led by others. In reference to her participationin the Council she wrote, “I can’t and won’t keep

number of advisorswithout improving thequality of advice.”

87 “‘New Women,’ ‘ClubWomen’ and Women,”Argonaut, 18 November1895.




91 “Okanagan Journals,” 25April 1892. For exampleParke mentioned in herdiary a pleasantconversation she had witha Mrs. Evans in Vernonwho is described as beingintelligent and well read.

92 “Okanagan Journals,” 7August 1891.



September 1895.96 “Okanagan Journals,” 25



April 1898. She enjoyedtalking politics with menincluding Mr. Ellison..



101 In his book, The Valley ofYouth, Charles W. Hollidayrefers to a man by thename of Samuel Gibbswho lived in Enderby andit is probable that this isthe man Parke referred toin her Journals as Mr.Gibbs. See: Charles W.Holliday, The Valley ofYouth (Caldwell, Idaho:The Caxton Printers, Ltd,1948), 143.


103 “Okanagan Journals,” 19November 1893.According to the CollinsEnglish Dictionarytransubstantiation is the“doctrine that substanceof bread and winechanges into substance ofChrist’s body whenconsecrated in Eucharist.”

104 “Okanagan Journals,” 23February 1892.


still and let people do things I think foolish andill-advised without at least uttering a protest.”96

She enjoyed a “wordy scrimmage,” but found thather opposing views offended others. When Parkedisapproved of most of the impractical schemesproposed by the Women’s Council she found that,rather than being able to change the opinions ofthe other members, she ended up offending herfriends.97 Her diary entries reveal her strong-willand forthright character; not only did she speakher mind in the presence of women but also infront of men. She enjoyed political and contro-versial conversations98 and did not hesitate to voiceher opinions even when they countered those ofothers. In reference to her discussions with herbrother Harry Barrett and her future husband HalParke, she wrote, “I am afraid I argue too much—there are so few things we all agree on—andsometimes I believe they just talk to set me go-ing.”99 Although the two males who were closestto Parke seemed to enjoy a heated discussion,other individuals were taken aback by her frank-ness of spirit. She noted after one social occasion:“I am afraid I shocked Mrs. Lawes by some of theviews I advanced.”100 While her bold manner ap-peared to amuse or shock people, Mr. Gibbs, themanager of Rithet’s flour mill in Enderby andthe owner of the largest residence there,101 thoughther to be the “only Canadian lady he had metwho he did not feel called upon to talk nonsenseto.”102 Moreover, Parke refused to adopt the viewsof others. For example, the local pastor, Rever-end Outerbridge, failed to convince Parke on thedoctrine of transubstantiation.103 Parke showeddisdain for those who accepted the opinions ofothers without questioning them and with a noteof condescension she wrote that Sophie Ellison“seems to agree with all her husband says anddoes.”104 Although Parke held traditional beliefswhereby she expressed affection for “well-beatenpaths and established conventionalities,” she“would not like to be a slave to them and neverbe able to get over the fence of custom.”105 Sheabhorred restrictions of any sort and expressedher opinion that at socials, people “should be al-lowed to arrange themselves into little circlesrather than attempt a general mixture.”106 Parkedid not desire “a general mixture”’ as she wishedto associate with individuals of her own choos-ing.

She was apparently not alone in her desire toremain distinct from other residents of Vernon; alocal schoolteacher, Lizzie Harding, also expressed

distaste for anyone not of the upper class. Ac-cording to Parke’s diary, “Lizzie is not cordial toanyone not of the ‘upper 10’ class - and as nearlyall the parents of her pupils come under that head-ing, she is not very popular.”107 In Vernon, peoplewere held in contempt for putting up a class dis-tinction. According to historian Jean Barman, aVernon resident in the 1890s reported that:

Social life in Vernon…had been very free and easyand unspoiled by any sense of ‘class,’ but as Eng-lish people from the so-called upper classes beganto come in with their families, many of themseemed unable or unwilling to shed their preju-dices; they formed a distinct ‘social set’ amongthemselves, people who for some obscure reasonthought they were superior to mere ‘colonials.’ 108

Tension exhibited itself within the NCWC,the members often had difficulty reaching agree-ment about how to best pursue communityprojects.109Arguments also surfaced because ofgender differences; for instance, an article in theVernon News mentioned a sexist comment andthe small quarrel that resulted from it at a councilmeeting.110 Prejudices arose not only from dif-ferences in class and gender but ethnicity as well.For example, in a letter to her mother SophieEllison mentioned that “her Chinaman [sic]... wasvery satisfactory for one of his kind.”111 The stere-otyping employed by Ellison implied that she didnot think very highly of the Chinese residents.

In addition to these clashing interests, religiousdifferences exhibited the greatest challenge tounity among the members of the NCWC inVernon. A competitive spirit between religiousaffiliations was evident at the turn of the centuryas the Roman Catholic population in Vernon wasparticularly singled out as a threat to other de-nominations.112 After attending a Roman Catholicsermon, Parke commented on her surprise at thepriest’s claim that Catholicism received one thou-sand converts from other religious bodies eachyear in England.113 Throughout her diary, Parkerepeatedly expressed her distaste for Roman Ca-tholicism,114 and she was particularly upset to learnthat not one of Vernon’s clergymen would attendLuc Girouard’s funeral. The events surroundingthe funeral of Girouard and the resulting displeas-ure expressed by Parke and her husband Hal Parke,provide further evidence of the division betweenthe Roman Catholics and the other religious de-nominations. According to Parke, Girouard, for-merly a Roman Catholic, was the first perma-nent settler in the area, “much loved” and “not a

105 “Okanagan Journals,” 25April 1892.

106 “Okanagan Journals,” 27August 1898.

107 “Okanagan Journals,” 18March 1898.

108 Jean Barman, “BritishColumbia’s GentlemenFarmers,” History Today 34(April 1984) :9-15.

109 The members of theWomen’s Council couldnot agree whether or notto abandon the hospitalscheme. See Vernon News23 January 1896. Formore informationregarding the earlyhistory of the Vernonhospital see DaphneThuillier, A Case ofCaring: 1897-1997(Vernon: Mission HillPrinters, 1997).

110 Vernon News, 23 January1899.

111 Sophie to her mother, 13February 1890, Vernon.Provided courtesy ofKenneth Ellison.

112 A significant number ofVernon’s early residentswere of Roman Catholicfaith (In 1891 out of apopulation of 739 therewere 341 RomanCatholics in Vernon).Canada Department ofAgriculture, CanadaCensus, 1891, BritishColumbia, Yale District,Priest Valley Subdistrict.


114 Parke was shocked todiscover her brother’s lovefor a Catholic woman.“Okanagan Journals,” 3November 1891. She wasalso displeased to hearthat a Roman Catholicchurch was to be erectedin Vernon.“OkanaganJournals,” 17 February1894.

115 “Okanagan Journals,” 27January 1894.

116 For more informationabout Luc Girouard seeThe History of Vernon, 54.



119 “Okanagan Journals,” 28July 1891.


BCHF Revelstoke Conference �� 9 – 11 May 2002Hosted by Revelstoke & District Historical Association

Conference Coordinator Cathy English can be reached at Revelstoke Museum & Archives.Phone: 250.837.3067; Fax: 250.837.3094; E-mail: [email protected].

Venues: Revelstoke Museum and Archives: 325 First Street.Revelstoke Community Centre: 600 Campbell Street.Revelstoke Railway Museum: 719 Track Street West.

THURSDAY, 9 MAY 2002

Revelstoke Community Centre8:30 A.M.-5 P.M. Workshops (see insert this issue for details)

2–5 P.M. Book fair and early registration.

3:30–5 P.M. BCHF council meetingRevelstoke Museum and Archives

7– 9 P.M. Opening Reception

FRIDAY, 10 MAY 2002Revelstoke Community Centre

8:30 A.M. Registration

8:30 A.M. –1 P.M. Book fair9–10:30 A.M. Plenary session: “History & Heritage –Revelstoke as

a Heritage and Cultural Tourism Destination.”

10:30 A.M. Coffee Break

10:45–12 A.M. Cathy English, curator of Revelstoke Museum & Archives,will present a lively history of Revelstoke.

12 A.M. Bag lunch or your own choice. Snack and waterwill be provided for all tours

Tours and alternatives.

1 P.M. Tour options are:A: Bus Tour of Revelstoke:

B: Revelstoke Dam and B.C. Interior Forestry Museum:

C: Guided Heritage Walking ToursD: Roger’s Pass (leaves at 12:30 P.M.)

1-5 P.M. Revelstoke Museum and Archives and Revelstoke RailwayMuseum are open for visits

7 P.M. Tour of Revelstoke Railway Museum

SATURDAY, 11 MAY 2002Revelstoke Community Centre

8–9 A.M. Continental Breakfast

8:30 A.M.–3 P.M. Book fair

9–12 A.M. Annual general meeting of the British ColumbiaHistorical Federation

12 A.M.–1 P.M. Soup-and-sandwich lunch

Tours and alternatives

1 P.M. Tour options are A, B, & C, as FridayD: Mount Revelstoke Ski Jump Site –

1–5 P.M. Revelstoke Museum & Archives and Revelstoke RailwayMuseum are open for visits.

BCHF AWARDS BANQUETRevelstoke Community Centre

6– 6:30 P.M. No-host bar

6:30 P.M. Awards presentation

7 P.M. Dinner with local entertainment to follow

SUNDAY, 12 MAY 2002

Regent Inn

8:30 – 9:30 A.M. BCHF council meeting

Optional events and self-guided suggestions for those staying an extra day. For moreinformation on any of these options, please contact the Conference Coordinator.

Godless man.” He was further described as “a manwho had never wronged his neighbors.” Hal Parkeattended the funeral and thought that “the affairwas full of prejudice on all sides.”115 It was rathersurprising to Alice Parke that a man so reveredby his community should have had no clergy-men present at his funeral.116 Thus a considerableamount of animosity existed between Protestantsand Catholics and for this reason Parke thoughtit best to work within one’s own religious group.

Certain individuals, both from within and fromoutside Vernon, recognized that the Vernon com-munity was diverse in terms of economic condi-tion, social class, educational level, and religiousaffiliation, and as a result they aimed to establish amore egalitarian society. However, amidst this het-erogeneity, the women of Vernon were not en-thusiastic about pursuing Lady Aberdeen’s modelof social welfare practice, in part because theywere unwilling to relinquish class and religiousaffiliations. In Vernon, various visions of women’sroles were discussed and promoted as the womenwere encouraged directly and indirectly to con-tribute their efforts to the NCWC. Yet despitethe urgings of women in the area and the town’smale leadership, concerns about the NCWC’spotential to overstep gender boundaries contin-ued to deter participation in the Council. Al-though Alice Parke was not concerned that theWomen’s Council would “usurp any of men’sduties,”117 the NCWC was not an organizationin which she desired “any leading part, for a goodmany reasons.”118 She believed that the creationof a local branch of the NCWC was unnecessaryand that its work would prove to be ineffective.Parke also had concerns that organizational workwould encroach on her homemaking, her com-munity work, and the personal freedom she en-joyed. She enjoyed the conversations with politi-cal influential and well-educated individuals ofVernon, many of whom were male. These con-versations, which took place in her home andoutside of it, as well as her method of bestowing“individual acts of kindness” allowed her to exerther political influence in Vernon without wast-ing time or associating with women whom sheperceived to be inferior to her. Parke, who didnot see “a companionable woman once a week,”119

chose to identify herself in terms of class, ratherthan gender, and therefore refused to assume aleadership role within the NCWC.�


THE Big Bend of the Columbia gold rushof 1865 was one of the echoes of theCalifornia Gold Rush of 1849. The Cali-

fornia Gold Rush was a long time dying. It drewto the west coast of North America hordes ofmen from many parts of the globe, all driven bythe desire to find that one lucky strike that wouldlift them from a mundane life of toil to a selectspot on easy street. As prospects in Californiadimmed, men fanned over the Pacific North-west, both north and south of the 49th parallel,in a relentless search for that elusive prospect. Thesucceeding decades were host to a number ofgold rushes. The shallow-draught steamboat wasa great ally to the prospector in that it offeredrelatively cheap and rapid transit to a number ofplacer fields. Prospecting activity in the LowerFraser River in 1858, the Stikine in 1862, Omineca(Skeena) in 1869 owes a largely unacknowledgeddebt to this almost forgotten form of economicinvasion craft. The same can be said of the goldbooms in the Snake/Clearwater area of CentralIdaho and of Baker County in NortheasternOregon.

The situation was different in the upper reachesof the Columbia River. Boatmen from the earli-est days of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Wash-ington Territory were well aware that the Co-

lumbia River offered many hazards to naviga-tion for all types of craft as it worried its sinuousway downstream from the great Kettle Falls nearthe 49th parallel to its confluence with the Snake.Considerable capital outlay would be requiredto open up the river to navigation, while breach-ing the awesome Kettle Falls themselves wouldrequire outlay of major proportions. It would bethe 1880s before sternwheelers began to invadethe middle Columbia River above the mouth ofthe Snake. Prospectors seeking out placer pros-pects on the Columbia River above Kettle Fallsin the early 1850s therefore had to arm them-selves with a considerable grubstake to enablethem to work up the Columbia by a man-pro-pelled vessel, or to travel on foot or on horse-back over the trails that led overland from thenavigable reaches of the Columbia below themouth of the Snake to the Hudson’s Bay Com-pany Fort Colville near Kettle Falls. Throughoutthe 1850s an agricultural hinterland was devel-oping in the Colville Valley adjacent to the Fort,thus easing the need of the traveller to bring evengreater amounts of foodstuffs with him to sur-vive for a period in an heretofore remote area.

The transportation picture at Kettle Falls alsochanged radically in the late 1850s. Skirmisheswith the Indians awakened the US Federal Gov-

The Big Bend Gold Rush of 1865by Edward L. Affleck

Right: Because no pictureof the doughty littlesternwheeler Forty-nine isextant, we are publishing apicture of her successor, thesternwheeler Revelstokebucking the ColumbiaRiver.

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Edward Affleck, a vocalhistorian, wonders ifduring the RevelstokeConference sufficientnotice will be given tothe Big Bend gold rushand the hard-rockmining efforts in theRevelstoke area.He regrets that theprogram does notinclude an excursion tothe old Big Bend placersites.


ernment to the need to construct wagon roads fanning out fromthe navigable reaches of the Columbia River in the Walla Wallaarea to various strategic points in Northern Washington Territoryand Idaho and to establish military installations at such points. Thepoint of interest to the Big Bend of the Columbia was the Colvillearea, which by 1858 boasted a wagon road link with the WallaWalla area as well as a US Military Fort Colville. Eager prospectorspossessing the wherewithal could now travel up the Lower Co-lumbia River to Wallula on the Oregon Steam Navigationsternwheelers, and then look to the horse drawn stagecoach orfreight wagon to take them north to Colville. When members ofthe British Boundary Commission survey party reached the HBCFort Colville in 1860, they found the Columbia River upstreamfrom the Fort peopled with placer miners, with a particular con-centration around the mouth of the Pend d’Oreille River, an areathat the Boundary Commission surveys were to determine lay justabove the 49th parallel in British territory.

In placer gold mining, high grade beds near the surface enablemen to make their pay with minimum equipment, but eventuallymore elusive deeper deposits have to be scoured out with heavy-duty hydraulic equipment. It was such heavy-duty equipment thatgreatly extended the life of the Klondike beds. Lacking the capitalfor hydraulic equipment and a feasible means to transport it, pros-pectors, as the high grade beds around the mouth of the Pendd’Oreille River began to play out, started to work their way eastup the Pend d’Oreille and north up the Columbia. The Lakes In-dians, who had enjoyed a friendly, neighbourly relationship withthe HBC Fort Colville staff, did not welcome this Yankee incur-sion of miners into these upper reaches, but the lure of gold couldnot be withstood. In 1862, prospectors began working up to theBig Bend of the Columbia area in boats and canoes. The mainbody of the Columbia River above the Arrow Lakes, however, wasa vast turbulent body of water, not particularly suited for placerdiggings. It was not until prospectors got into the side streams in1863–1864 that really promising prospects opened up. Workingupstream from the Arrow Lakes to Carnes Creek, Downie Creek,and the Goldstream River basin, prospectors began to encounterparticularly promising results. Two side streams of the Goldstream,McCulloch Creek and French Creek, proved most enticing, al-though it was recognized early on that hydraulic equipment wouldbe required to get down to bedrock. The mouths of Carnes Creekand Downie Creek lay below the head of steamboat navigation atDeath Rapids, while that of the Goldstream lay about twelve milesupstream. All these waters had their source in the mighty glaciersof the Selkirk Mountains to the east. What became known as Gaffney(Kirbyville) Creek, flowing from the west, joined the Columbianear the mouth of the Goldstream. A pass in the Monashee Moun-tains linked the headwaters of the Gaffney with those of the SeymourRiver system flowing into Shuswap Lake, but unfortunately thisroute, which would have brought the traveller from the west to theColumbia River near the Goldstream, was not the route used forthe pack trail built at the instigation of BC merchants on the coastfrom the head of Seymour Arm on Shuswap Lake. The route cho-

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sen branched from the Seymour River east upRatchford Creek, then over a lower pass toPettipiece (Seymour) Creek and emerged on theColumbia seven miles downstream from La Porte.A long hike on this route left travellers and liveryless close to the Goldstream fields than if theyhad worked by boat up the Columbia from theColville area.

It was reported at Colville in the spring of1865 that the Columbia River looked like theLower Fraser did in 1858, so many boats, canoes,and even raft scows were being launched to workup to the Big Bend diggings. When the newsseeped down to the coast, merchants in the Brit-ish colonies were aroused. Aggressive Yankee trad-ers had snagged the Wild Horse Creek trade inEast Kootenay a year earlier, but surely the BigBend trade must fall into the hands of the Brit-ish? A customs establishment which had lan-guished at Fort Shepherd on the Columbia, op-posite the mouth of the Pend d’Oreille Riverwas reactivated, as much, one conjectures, to dis-courage traffic working north up the ColumbiaRiver from the Colville area, as to swell the Brit-ish Columbia coffers. With commendable celer-ity the BC government commissioned a wagonroad spur to be built from Cache Creek on theCariboo Wagon Road to the ferry at Savona’s atthe foot of Kamloops Lake. The Hudson’s BayCompany was persuaded, presumably by thepromise of an operating subsidy, to commission

the building of a small sternwheeler, the Marten,to work east from Savona’s to its Ogden Citypost (later Seymour City) at the head of SeymourArm on Shuswap Lake. The rough trail previ-ously mentioned was extended from SeymourCity over the Monashee Mountains to La Portebelow Death Rapids on the Columbia.

Alas, the efforts initiated at New Westminsterwere too little, too late. After the British Bound-ary Commission had abandoned its barracksabove Fort Colville on the Columbia River in1862, they had been purchased by an astute Yan-kee merchant, Marcus Oppenheimer, who hadcome west with two brothers over the OregonTrail. Nearby was a sawmill. It was on this site,now named Marcus, that not only a flotilla ofman-propelled boats was constructed through-out 1865, but also a sternwheeler, to be chris-tened Forty-nine. Machinery for the steamboat,stripped from John C. Ainsworth’s pioneer Port-land sternwheeler Jennie Clark, was shipped uptogether with a boiler in ox-carts over the mili-tary wagon road from the Lower Columbia River.Publication of the correspondence of Ainsworth,president of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com-pany of Portland, many years later confirmed thatthe OSN was a silent partner in the enterprise.The hero of the day was Captain Leonard White,who superintended the construction of the boatand piloted her on her maiden voyage in verycold December weather up the Columbia, only

Right: RevelstokeCanyon, now drownedunder the waters of LakeRevelstoke, behind theRevelstoke Dam.

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to be stopped by ice in the narrows abovethe head of Lower Arrow Lake. She be-gan regular service upstream from LittleDalles, the new terminus of the Colvillewagon road, on 10 April 1866, antici-pating the maiden voyage of the HBCsternwheeler Marten on Shuswap Lakeby six weeks. The short trail upstreamfrom La Porte below Death Rapids tothe confluence of the Goldstream andthe Columbia proved infinitely more in-viting to traffic disembarking from theForty-nine than it did to those who hadalready toiled on the pack trail over theMonashee Mountains from SeymourCity. Furthermore, good freight forward-ing services were already well in placein the Colville area. The BC coast mer-chants lost out again to the pesky Yan-kees? Nothing but a prohibitive tariffcould have conquered steam on the openColumbia River. What transportationpolicy the Marten followed is not known,but Captain Leonard White of the Forty-nine from the outset resolutely refusedto carry upstream any man who couldnot lay his fare and had no grubstake,but took downstream, gratis, every mangoing out “broke” from the camp. At thepeak of activity in the summer of 1866,it is unlikely that the numbers of minersmatched those found in the Wild HorseCreek camp in East Kootenay. Aboutthree-fourths of those leaving Big Bendin November 1866 could not pay theirfares to Little Dalles. This situation tellsthe story of the Big Bend Camp; therewere indeed some very rich placers, butin most cases hydraulic equipment wasrequired to get down to the richer orenear bedrock. The chief centres of theBig Bend in the 1860s were La Porte atthe head of steam navigation on the Co-lumbia below Death Rapids, Kirbyvillenear the mouth of the Goldstream, andFrench Creek at the mouth of FrenchCreek. This latter held on to a post of-fice from 1866 to 1871, but it wasKirbyville that had a sawmill and saloonsetc., while La Porte had the warehousesand other forwarding services. Howmany big winners were there in the BigBend gold rush? At least four of the boat-

loads of prospectors leaving Marcus forthe Big Bend in the spring of 1865 struckit rich. Among the lucky ones wereWilliam Downie, Hy Carnes, and NetsDemars. They first struck gold on CarnesCreek, but later in the season Dan Mc-Culloch discovered gold on McCullochCreek where he mined successfully forone or two seasons. The rival ClemensCompany, however, had better luck onthis stream and extracted from twelve tothirty-five ounces of gold per day be-fore the winter freeze-up.

After 1866, mining activity in the BigBend continued at a reduced pace, butone hundred men were said to have spentthe winter of 1866–1867 on French andMcCulloch Creeks. After the fall of 1867a few persistent operators continued inthe field. Among them was Capt. A.L.Pingstone, the original mate on theForty-nine, and successor to Capt. White.The “‘49 Company,” Pingstone’s syndi-cate of steamboat employees, not onlyworked properties on Fortynine Creekopposite Carnes Creek, but financed thedevelopment in 1867 of the FortnineCreek workings several miles west ofNelson. By 1871, however, men work-ing in the Big Bend area were chieflyChinese.

It was the great financial panic of 1873that brought mining in the Big Bend toa virtual standstill. The Northern PacificRailroad, which had commenced build-ing west from Duluth, Minnesota, to theMontana mines and the Inland Empireof the Columbia, failed in this panic andconstruction came to a stop. The Or-egon Steam Navigation Co. put expan-sion of its routes on hold. The Hudson’sBay Company also faded from theKootenay District picture. In 1870, Hud-son’s Bay Factor Finlayson recom-mended that Fort Shepherd be closedfor lack of trade. All supplies were re-moved and the fort was abandoned. In1872 the HBC buildings on the siteburned to the ground, leaving only thesmall customs house standing on the site.In 1871 the HBC Fort Colville, whichhad operated continuously since 1825,was closed. In 1911 the old Fort Colville

bastion burned down and in 1941 thearea was flooded by the reservoir behindthe Grand Coulee Dam. CaptainPingstone continued to work the Forty-nine between Little Dalles and hisFortynine Creek camp until she was dis-mantled in 1874, the boiler and fittingsbeing sent back down the military wagonroad to the Lower Columbia. Well be-fore 1874, one deduces, the white manhad stopped wintering in the Big Bendor in fact anywhere in West Kootenay.Some persistent diggers in the Big Bendarea might choose to winter down atPete Ellison’s hotel at Little Dalles, oth-ers might winter at Colville, while thosewith a bit more ready cash might strikeout for Spokane.

Mining activity in the Big Bend neverdied out completely, but it took the con-struction of the Canadian Pacific Rail-way in 1885 to provide some real impe-tus. As men in the Revelstoke area werelaid off from construction they began towork the Columbia River side streamsfor gold. Winter employment shovellingsnow in Rogers Pass provided the nec-essary grubstake for such men. The Pro-vincial Government began in 1887 toexpend small amounts on developing arudimentary trail north from Revelstoketo the Big Bend diggings, but no heavyduty hauling could be undertaken on thistrail. A major step forward occurred in1897, when hydraulic equipment beganto be brought in to the Big Bend, utiliz-ing a sternwheeler upstream from therailway hub at Revelstoke to La Porte,and a wagon road for the remainder ofthe journey to the Goldstream Basin. Inthe post-Revelstoke-Dam era, whilesome of the former diggings are now“drowned,” it is still possible to reachmany of the old Goldstream Basin campsby means of an unimproved road, whichbranches east off Highway 23 south ofthe mouth of the Goldstream River. Atthe present time mining in the Big Bendis not a brisk industry, but it never paysto write a mining area off completely.The Big Bend may yet in the future yieldup further rewards to persistent mem-bers of the mining community.�


[Kootenay Mail, 2 August 1901]Revelstoke is naturally the main business

point for commercial transactions with theLardeau, and with a fair railway tariff, thiscity should today have been the mainwholesale supply for the Kootenays. TheC.P.R. with their usual speculative vagar-ies, however chose Nelson for their favors,and the want of wisdom shown in that se-lection has just been evidenced by the ac-tion of the Turner-Beeton Company in clos-ing their Nelson warehouse. Had Revelstokebeen chosen for tariff favors bestowed onNelson we should have seen Revelstoketoday a city with as large a population asNelson. As it is, however, Revelstoke is bank-ing point for the Lardeau, and merchantsand manufacturers in this city do a consid-erable business with Lardeau points.

Leaving Revelstoke, the railway followsthe Columbia River to Arrowhead—oneof the beauty spots of the province. The busi-ness portion of Arrowhead consists of twohotels and a store. The hotels are theLakeview, and the Arrowhead. The formeris conducted by J.J. Foley and is one of thebest appointed hotels to be found on theroad. The Arrowhead is owned by E.J. Kerr,and though not such a pretentious hostelryas the Lakeview, it is a well-conducted house.The store and post office are in the handsof G.T. Newman. Arrowhead is essentiallya railway centre, being the point of transferfrom the A. & K. railway to the C.P.R. boatswhich carry traffic into the heart ofKootenay. Slips are laid to suit the variousstages of high and low water. The FredRobinson Lumber Company’s steamers alsoconnect Arrowhead with points on thenorth-east arm of the lake, the Archer this

ellers have a good time picking berries. Mr.Needham’s garden is a favorite spot, and oneof the best and most prolific in the districtin the way of small fruits. J. Tobin conductsa blacksmith and horseshoeing business here.

A good wagon road connects Thomson’sLanding with Trout Lake, twelve miles dis-tant. The road follows Thomson Creekthrough a deep canyon, affording magnifi-cent scenery. Four and a half miles outFulmer’s ranch, which is a favorite stoppingplace with travellers, is reached, and at thisseason of the year the ranch is celebratedfor its strawberries and cream.

The road skirts two pretty lakes, oneknown as Armstrong Lake, four miles out,and forming the headwaters of ThomsonCreek. The other is Stauber Lake, a muchlarger sheet of water, and Fulmer’s ranch isbetween the two. From Stauber Lake toTrout Lake City several ranches dot thevalley, and appear to be doing well, dairyingand hay being the principal resources.

It is along this valley, close to the road,that the railway to connect Revelstoke withthe Lardeau railway will be built, via Ar-rowhead, Comaplix and Thomson’s Land-ing.

The next stopping place is the Park Ho-tel, situated at the junction of the roads toFerguson and Trout Lake, and within a mileof Trout Lake City. This hotel is conductedby W. Baty, who is sanguine as to the futureof the district and firmly believes that theold-timers who have stayed with it are aboutto have their reward. He is interested in theCopper King, on the North Fork, near Cir-cle City, and the Justin and North Star inthe Johnston Basin. The Copper King is oneof the few copper prospects in the districtand Mr. Baty informs us assays have run$85 in copper values. Quite a bit of workhas been done on it and the trail runsthrough the property. Mr. Baty has a nicegarden, with good crops of potatoes, etc.,and has one of the best poultry yards in thedistrict.

A charming site for a town, nestling inthe valley, and between the mouth of theLardo river and Trout Lake, is the charac-teristic of Trout Lake City. The town has

Following is the text of an article (withoutits numerous paragraph headings) publishedover several issues of the Kootenay Mailof Revelstoke. The unsigned article presum-ably is the work of E.A. Haggan who tookover the newspaper early in 1901. It givesan excellent glimpse of the country as itwas a century ago.

RONALD GREENE

The LardeauA Country Bustling with Towns, Ranches, and Mines

season being under command of Capt.Johnston.

Comaplix is the site of the FredRobinson Lumber Company’s mill,Kootenay Lumber Company’s store, and themining recorder’s office for this section ofthe Lardeau. Mr. Sumner is mining recorderand provincial constable. He has had a busytime of late owing to the rush in the FishCreek camp. There are two good hotels, theQueen’s, conducted by D. Cameron, and theLardeau, conducted by R. McLeod. A pub-lic school has also been provided here, MissGibbons being the present mistress.Comaplix is also a point of arrival from anddeparture to Fish Creek.

J.W. Thomson, after whom this impor-tant point on the Arm was named, was thepioneer store and hotel-keeper in[Thomson’s Landing], but [he] retired frombusiness some years ago and has a prettyhome on the shore of the lake. Thomson’sLanding is the point of transfer of passen-gers and freight for Trout Lake and Ferguson.Considering the size of the place, a largeamount of business is done here. Messrs.Craig & Hillman have splendidly equippedstables which supply pack and saddle horsesfor miners, prospectors, experts and all sortsand conditions of men for thirty milesaround. Forty pack and saddle horses ofgood stamp are kept, and Mr. Craig has justgone out to purchase another lot, speciallywith a view to packing out ore from someof the outlying camps. The firm also runs astage thrice weekly each way betweenThomson’s Landing and Ferguson and have[sic] four teams continuously on the roadhauling freight from Thomson’s Landing toTrout Lake and Ferguson. There are twohotels here—the Prospector’s Exchange, alarge building conducted by T.W. Graham,and the Pioneer, of which Isaac Bate is thelandlord. Excellent accommodation is af-forded by both houses. The post office isconducted by Andy Craig, and A.G. Fraserhas a well-stocked store which he openedabout a year ago. Mr. Fraser is agent for thetelephone exchange.

Thomson’s Landing is a celebrated placefor fruit at this season of the year, and trav-


grown considerably of late and gives everypromise of becoming an important busi-ness centre and railway point. Four goodhotels afford accommodation for travellers,and the stores are well stocked with all therequirements of a mining camp. There arealso a mining recorder’s office, assay office,schoolhouse, and Trout Lake City is head-quarters of Capt. Davey and other well-known mining men. Mrs. Jowett runs theTrout Lake City Hotel, the pioneer houseof the town; D.R. McLennan owns theWindsor; Messrs. Abrahamson Bros. theQueens; and Messrs Madden and Levequeare conducting the Lakeview, N. Lay, theformer landlord, devoting most of his timeto his mining properties. C.B. Hume & Co.have here a finer store than their Revelstokepremises, and overhead is a public hall whichis used for dances, socials, meetings, and an-swers the purposes of a local church. Messrs.Hume & Co. opened here in 1896, and H.L.Godsoe is in charge of this branch of thefirm’s business. Masterson & Griffith openedtwo years ago in the general store businessand have a well-stocked establishment, andJ.H. Currie, formerly manager for Hume &Co., conducts the post office, general store,and the telephone agency.

J.O. Piper, who is one of the owners ofthe townsite, conducts a gents furnishingand general house furniture warehouse aswell. The city boasts a weekly newspaper,“the Topic,” very creditably conducted byJ.J. Langstall.

D.L. Clink’s sawmill keeps the city folksup to time, the mill whistle blowing withpunctuality of those well known timekeep-ers in Revelstoke, and the C.P.R. shop andthe Fred Robinson Lumber Company’s millwhistles. The mill is of the Waterous makeand has a capacity of 15,000 feet a day. Themotive power is supplied by a boiler of 35h.p. and an engine of 30 h.p. The plant in-cludes planing and moulding machinery, andis well arranged for economical working.As building is slack just now the mill is notworked to anything like its capacity. Thelogs are cut on the Lardo river and floateddown to the boom.

There are three traffic boats on TroutLake—the Victoria, a large transfer boatowned by Menhinick Bros. and Capt. Ro-man, and the Idler, which the same firm pur-chased from Capt. Troup, and which wasthat gentleman’s private launch at Nelson;also a gasoline boat owned by W. Schmock.The Idler makes a daily trip to and from

Selkirk and is a smart little launch.A government school is provided, but a

teacher has not yet been appointed to suc-ceed Dr. Wilson.

Constable Snell looks after the good be-haviour of the people of Ferguson and TroutLake alike.

A new trail has been opened direct fromthe city to the Silver Cup mountain andeffects a great saving of time in reaching anumber of claims.

F.C. Campbell is mining recorder, clerkof the county court, and deputy recorderfor the Duncan section of the Kaslo dis-trict. He is at present loaded up with enoughoffice work for two men, owing to the greatactivity in the Trout Lake division. Mr.Campbell is the owner of the Badshot, inpartnership with J. Black and W. Johnston,of Thompson’s Landing. He is also inter-ested in the Mollymac, two miles above TenMile and which is said to be a large body oflow grade ore, and in the Noon-day, a galenaproperty on the Little Duncan.F.T. Abey, formerly of Revelstoke, carrieson business as chemist and druggist, andsince the departure of Dr. Wilson he isalso responsible for the good health of theneighborhood. Mr. Abey has a well-

LARDEAU refers to the mountainous

country northeast of upper Arrow Lake in the

West Kootenay, encompassing Trout Lake

and the Lardeau, Duncan and Incomappleux

rivers. It was the site of a silver mining boom

in the 1890s, when several small mining

towns appeared: Thomson’s Landing (later

Beaton), Trout Lake City and Ferguson.

Camborne flourished briefly as a gold mining

centre. At the height of the boom in 1902

there were about 100 silver mines, the Nettie-

L being the most productive. Logging was

also important; large sawmills at Comaplix

and Arrowhead exported lumber to the

prairies. By WW l most of the mines and mills

had closed. There was a brief mining revival

in the 1930s, but most of the pioneer

communities have become ghost towns. The

town of Lardeau, pop 59 (formerly spelled

Lardo), once a terminus for the Arrowhead &

Kootenay Rwy, is a tiny logging community

on the shores of Kootenay Lake.

Encyclopedia of British ColumbiaHarbour Publishing, 2000C

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stock[ed] drug store and takes an activeinterest in matters pertaining to the wel-fare of Trout Lake. The enterprising firmof Craig & Hillman have a branch of theirlivery stables here. The owners of thetownsite are F.B. Wells, Abrahamson Bros.,J.F. Hume, J.O. Piper, T. Kilpatrick andOle Sundberg.

[Kootenay Mail, 30 August 1901]W. Abrahamson has cut into lots and

placed on the market 30 acres betweenBroad Street and the river. The land is highand dry and should make good residentialsites. A goodly number of lots have alreadybeen sold by the energetic agent, H.N.Coursier. This land is part of Mr.Abrahamson’s block of 100 acres, and Park,Hume and Broad streets have been projectedthrough the extension.

Trout Lake City is an ideal spot for atownsite and reflects great credit on thejudgment of the locator, G.B. Nagle, whoalso located the townsites of Duchesnay andLardeau. If the government would cut outthe jam in the Lardeau river, and so lowerthe level of the lake, it would be a greatimprovement to the present lower lying por-tions of the townsite fronting on the lake,and not only so would but make availablequite an area of ranching lands which arenow so wet as to be comparatively value-less. Trout Lake has some valuable mineralproperties at hand, abundance of timber andthe completion of the railway should makeit an important point of transportation.

Returning to the Park Junction, a run offour miles over a good road takes the visi-tor into Ferguson whose interests areguarded by the Eagle in its watches andscreeches as Editor Pettipiece grinds out hiscomplaints of some neglected interest, orannounces the discovery of some of thoserich mineral strikes which have made theLardeau famous. As the traveller wends hisway along he passes the canyon throughwhich pours the Lardeau river, and an oc-casional reminiscence is seen of the busydays of placer mining when quite a lot ofgold was taken out of the bed of this rush-ing torrent which drains such a large areaof country.

Ferguson occupies a position at the junc-tion of the north and south forks of theLardeau river. The site is on a river terrace,high above the river, thus affording first-class drainage, while water is supplied fromthe mountain rising above the terrace. The

townsite is a good selection of the Messrs.Ferguson, but is large, comprising 640 acres.The owners have now sold a good manylots, and the main street is well kept, andmany fine buildings now adorn the townsite– hotels, stores and private residences. Busi-ness premises are so far confined to the mainstreet. The mine-owners around purchasepractically all their supplies from theFerguson merchants, and this has madeFerguson a good supply point, the managerof the Silver Cup, Mr. Didisheim, inform-ing us that he can be as well supplied atFerguson both in quality of goods and pricesas in any neighbouring town. This is a hightribute to the business abilities of Fergusonmerchants, who have hitherto had to con-tend with such exceptional difficulties inthe way of freighting in supplies.

Ferguson has four good hotels, the Wind-sor, kept by Mrs. O’Connor, and which isthe first hotel entering the town; the HotelFerguson, kept by D. Ferguson; the Balmoral,kept by Andy Cummings, and the Kings,built this season by Jas. Cummings. TheHotel Ferguson has just been enlarged andthe former portion thoroughly renovated.The bar room is one of the best to be seenin the province, and is attractively fitted upwith show cases containing birds and ani-mals tastefully mounted by Doc. Young onwhose skill and patience the work reflectsthe highest credit. Andy Cummings, thelandlord of the Balmoral, built the first ho-tel in the town and opened it in 1897. Heleft for a time, however, for the Crows Nestto take advantage of the railway construc-tion there, and returned to Ferguson lastfall doubling the accommodation of the Bal-moral, which is supplied with a luncheoncounter as well as good hotel accommoda-tion for about 80 guests. The house is mostcreditably fitted up. The Kings Hotel, builtand opened this season, by Jas. Cummingsis provided with 24 bedrooms. It will thusbe seen that the hotel accommodation ofFerguson is well in advance of the townand capable of supplying all requirementsof the travelling public for some time tocome.

[Kootenay Mail, 4 October 1901]The Lardeau Hotel, kept by J. Laughton,

formerly of Revelstoke, is another goodhouse of 17 rooms, and completes the listof Ferguson hotels—a list which would docredit to a much larger town.

Business Firms: Alec Cummins is one ofthe most enterprising merchants of theLardeau. He started business in Ferguson in1896, and has also a branch store at Ten Mile.Owing to increasing requirements, he ex-tended the accommodation of his Fergusonstore this season by an addition of 24 x 34feet. Mr. Cummins is also agent for the tel-ephone company. G. Batho conducts a gen-eral store, and also has charge of the postoffice which he conducts with much satis-faction to the public. Messrs. McKinnon &Sutherland have a well-stock[ed] generalstore. P.L. Cummings, C.E., P.L.S., formerlygold commissioner for East Kootenay, hasmade Ferguson his headquarters. Craig &Hillman have good livery stables here. W.Schnell, of Trout Lake, has a barbers shop inthe town. The Great Western and DoubleEagle Company have built imposing offices,portion of which is occupied by A.H.Holdich, the well-known assayer, who is alsosecretary to the Great Western.

S. Shannon also conducts an assay officeand represents quite a number of easterninvestors in the camp. Among others he hasbeen managing the White Warrior and theComstock, above Circle City. D. Ferguson hasestablished a sawmill which has been runfor some months by R. Davis, now of theRevelstoke Lumber Company. R.P.Pettipiece and the Eagle are an integral partof the town and district.

Ferguson is surrounded by rich mineraldiscoveries. On the Horne Payne creek, inthe townsite, J.C. Kirkpatrick got a speci-men which went $276 gold with small sil-ver values.

There is [placer] gold in the Lardeau riverand tributaries but of course the difficultyis to extract it. Still, occasionally rich strikesare made. J. Cague made a good strike thisseason on Ten Mile, at a point six miles abovethe junction with the south fork, and tookout quite a bit of gold, in coarse nuggets,running up to as high as $30 each in value.The strike paid him about $12 a day whileit lasted. The gold was taken out by groundsluicing. Cague is an old-timer, having beenhere since 1892. He thinks there is muchgood ground for placer mining in the dis-trict though it is not a Klondike by anymeans, but considers that parties providingample capital in careful hands could reapgood returns. It is stated that $3000 of placergold was taken out of the Lardeau someyears ago, and Walter Jennings and Alex.


Biggar are known to have taken out $600two years ago.

Few towns have such promising minesin close proximity. The Nettie L., the SilverCup, the Triune, are properties which havemade considerable shipments of high gradeore, and there are many neighboring prop-erties which look as if they were withinreach of adding to the shipping list. The oresof the country surrounding Ferguson havethe advantage that they are very high grade,and while the ore-bodies may not be verylarge, their exceptionally high average valuemake them possible producers of greatwealth. A remarkable feature of the silver-lead ores of this section is their persistentgold values, while the development workdone on the Nettie L. and Silver Cup haveproved their ore-bodies to increase in vol-ume and value with depth. What has beenproved in these properties may reasonablybe expected to prove the rule of the camp.

Another promising property is theCromwell, locally known as the “sky-scraper.”This is the property of E. Morgan and J.Grant. A peculiarity of the ore here is thatcarbonates predominate, with high silvervalues—about $200 a ton. Another prop-erty that is well spoken of is the Kootenays,owned by Carter, Thompson, Kirkpatrickand Shannon. This property is only two anda half miles from Ferguson, north-east ofthe south fork wagon road. A tunnel hasbeen run for 70 feet, and there is a niceshowing of ore, resembling in character thatof the Nettie L.

The Comstock is reported to have beenshowing up well under development. Theore is different from that usually found inthe district, consisting of copper pyrites, withvalues of about $10 to $12 in gold, and 30to 40 ozs. silver per ton. Messrs. Welch andWestlake, of London, Ont., and Mr.Richards, of Cleveland, president of thecompany, visited the property and weremuch pleased with the prospects.

Another company which started opera-tions in the Lardeau this season was the WhiteWarrior Mining Company. The capital wasfixed at $150,000. The promoters were Prof.P.A. Cowgill, superintendent of public in-struction, of Michigan City, D.G. Holland,jeweller, of Lapeer, Mich., and L.A.Lockwood of the same place. They took upthe White Warrior property on Gainer creek.The work this season was carried on underdirection of S. Shannon, who shut it down

as the results were not satisfactory. The com-pany had also two prospectors out but wehave not heard with what results.

A property that has attracted a good dealof attention is the Mountain Lion. This prop-erty consists of three claims, the MountainLion, the Black Scott and Black Scott No. 2. Itis situated on McDonald creek, a tributaryof the Duncan, and was recently taken overby M.C. Miller, of Minneapolis, on behalfof a company which he had formed in thatcity known as the Mountain Lion MiningCompany. The company is registered un-der the laws of this province, and has a capi-talisation of $1,500,000 of which $500,000is in the treasury. The company has a strongdirectorate, consisting of Dr. Eugene May,of Washington, president; L.C. Flournoy,treasurer of the Flour City Logging andLumber Company, vice-president; GeorgeE. Maxwell, formerly cashier of the FlowerCity National and Union National Banks,treasurer; J. Grier, principal of the centralhigh school of Minneapolis, Dr. E.W.Gifford, manager of the Great Republic mine,and E.J. Lee, of Valley City, and one of thedirectors of the Cheyenne National Bank.Capt. Davey is engineer for the company.

Entering Ferguson, the pretty home ofJ.C. Kirkpatrick, one of the best-knownprospectors in the Lardeau, is the first pri-vate residence met with. Mrs. Kirkpatrickcan talk mining as well as her husband, and

Above: Trout Lake City, 1904: “C.B. Hume& Co. have here a finer store than theirRevelstoke premises, and overhead is a publichall which is used for dances, socials, meetings,and answers the purposes of a local church.Messrs. Hume & Co. opened here in 1896.”

knows what it is to scale the mountain insearch of hidden treasure. Among otherproperties in which Mr. Kirkpatrick is in-terested is the Little Robert group at the headof the north fork, and adjoining the Hornproperty. The width of the vein on this prop-erty is two feet and it carries a paystreak ofsix inches. Several open cuts and a tunnelhave been run. A ton and a half of ore hasbeen taken out. The ore is of the class whichhas made the Lardeau famous carrying highsilver values with lead, gold and copper. Thevalues have run about $200 a ton, of whichthe gold runs about $11 and the copper islow—about 2 per cent. The formation isgraphitic schist and lime dykes. The BlackDiamond was another of Mr. Kirkpatrick’sproperties but has been disposed of to theSilver Tip Mining Company, of Spokane.200 feet of tunnel has been run in this prop-erty, but Mr. Kirkpatrick estimates the workhas not gone far enough to cut the lead.Eight assays gave an average of $264.�

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Transporting Bees by Stagecoachby Ted Kay

The Beginnings of the Honeybee Industry in BC

ALPHONSE Gautier was the driver of thestage when it tipped over. Bees werein the freight, one stung a horse, and

over went the stagecoach. This happened op-posite the Globe Hotel on the main street ofLytton where Alphonse had grown up. Hemust still have been a young, inexperiencedman, since usually the BX drivers soon learneda trick or two about handling delicate cargo.This event is not dated in my source but it islikely that it happened in the later 1880s.

It is not clear when Wing Kee and his fel-low beekeepers started to ship bees to the in-terior but it cannot have been long after com-pletion of the railway. Alphonse must havetaken the bees off the train and his coach wason its way to Lillooet. The bees were to bedropped at the Botanie Valley junction for Mr.Loring, but there lay the stage, across the mainstreet of Lytton. Mr. Loring was sent for butnothing could be done in daylight. Everyonesheltered in the Globe bar until darknesscaused the loose bees to cluster in their hive.Then Mr. Loring was able to take them totheir new home, and business cautiously re-sumed in Lytton.

Honeybees did not occur in the New Worlduntil European settlers brought them. The beesadapted well to their new home and oftentravelled ahead of settlement across the east-ern part of the continent. When the Hudson’sBay Company reorganized its Western head-quarters to Vancouver Island a fur trader calledJ.B.D. Ogilvie bought land on the Gorge forhis retirement. In May 1858 the Victoria Ga-zette told its readers that a shipment of twohives of bees from W.H. Hoy of San Jose toMr. Ogilvie was in the care of Mr. Thain ofYates Street. The paper urged its readers to seethe first bees in the colony before the ownertook them to his farm. The town was seeth-ing with prospectors, speculators, and hang-ers-on of every kind, and this unlikely mixlined up to see the bees. Ogilvie importedtwo more hives in 1860 from Oregon and onJune 14 the British Colonist reported that hehad gathered ten pounds of honey. The craftof beekeeping was launched in British Co-lumbia.

In 1865 John Buchanan DrummondOgilvie died while trading near Bella Bella.Wilhelm Schwartz bought the bees from hisestate. A strip of sand and gravel along theshore of Crescent Beach is still called “BlackieSpit,”not after the regrettable habit of the earlydays, but, according to the beekeeping frater-nity, because Schwartz translates as “black” toEnglish.1 There the scows and other variouscraft arrived on the mainland after crossingGeorgia Strait. Wilhelm Schwartz built a lodg-ing house there known as “Blackie’s” andhelped the optimists on their way, over to FortLangley and the interior gold. To lodging,guiding, freighting, and logging “Blackie”added beekeeping, and he is the first recordedsuccessful beekeeper on the mainland. FatherPandosy had brought bees to his Mission ear-lier but they died from lack of nectar sources.Blackie’s bees found themselves in paradise.As the loggers moved up the inlets, falling andburning the dense forest, nectar and pollenproducing plants grew in profusion behindthem. The new beekeeper was usually busywith other things so his bees swarmed abun-dantly and followed these food sources up thevalley. There they found fireweed, cascara,maples, various prunus, rubus, and vaccinium spe-cies, and apparently a small climatic optimum.

Over the next twenty years, logging andclearing spread, leaving hollow and decayingtrees which the bees soon occupied. Some ofthese trees were found—there is a report of800 pounds of honey harvested from a treeon Point Grey, but not until completion ofthe railway was exploitation organized. Oneof the few jobs allowed the released Chineserailway labourers was shingle-bolt cutting.Shingle bolts are most easily made from hol-low cedar shells. The cutters soon came acrossthe bees, hived them in tea chests and stump-ing powder boxes, and took them back to theircamps. This was necessary as bears had adaptedto honey as readily as the bees had adapted toBC. This was the beginning of honey pro-duction on a commercial scale. Among many,the only Chinese beekeeper we have a recordof is Wing Kee, who produced honey and beeson Westham Island until his retirement in1919.

Chinese miners in the interior soon heardof this other golden bonanza, and Long Shue’sstore in Ashcroft became the transfer pointfor bees from the train to the BX and on tothe Cariboo. The railway from Vancouver toAshcroft seems to have handled this item suc-cessfully but, as we have seen, the stagecoachwas not so kindly. The tea chest was preferredas a portable beehive. It was light, the rightsize, and readily available, but a little frail forall those miles of rocky roads. Steve Tingleyand other senior drivers soon delegated loadscontaining bees to junior drivers. The driverslearned to put the hives on the trunk shelf atthe back with a quick release rope leading tothe driver’s seat. When the warning cry arosefrom the outside passengers the driver pulledthe rope, releasing the bees, and the coachsurged ahead. This method, developed to dealwith leaks, spread bees along the road and soonstopping houses were serving honey. How-ever, enough bees survived the journey andarrived at their destination that a Chinese cabinin the camps and gullies could be identifiedby the tea chest full of bees on the roof.

Some years later another aspect of the in-dustry was developing in the lower valleysinland. By the turn of the century bright youngmiddle-class families in England were answer-ing advertisements by developers selling or-chard-growing land. They came to Walachin,Seymour Arm, Salmon Arm, and, most suc-cessfully, the Okanagan. After Lord and LadyAberdeen bought the Coldstream Ranch atVernon, plantations became extensive andoutstripped the ability of native pollinators toset good fruit. A group of men between Vernonand Mara began to supply the need of honey-bees and the pollination industry began.

James Emeny took bees to his homesteadat Spring Bend north of Enderby in the 1890s.He was joined by Charles Little and A.E.Moore. In 1909 Leonard Harris arrived inEnderby. Customs agents and various travelofficials along the way must have been coolerpeople then and the problems with agricul-tural imports had not been recognized. Harris,a furniture maker in London before he emi-grated, had kept bees at High Wycombe anddecided to take them with him. Many bee-keepers have since said that they would like


1 The origin of the name follows W.H. Turnbull’s bookOne Hundred Years of Beekeeping in British Columbia.We may one day be reluctantly persuaded by theexcellent work of the Akriggs and agree that BlackieSpit owes its name to Walter Blackie who boughtthe spit in 1875, and not to Wilhelm Schwartz whosettled there ten years earlier.

Above: Stagecoach on Cariboo Road, 1890s.

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to have seen the portable hives a high-classfurniture maker designed. He carried twocolonies with him as hand baggage, on theship from England to Quebec, the train fromQuebec to Sicamous, then to Enderby. Hejoined the group of bee producers and even-tually became a provincial bee inspector.

Beekeeping is a craft that attracts interest-ing adherents. One of these was Joseph Murray,originally from Louisiana, whom a varied ca-reer took to the end of a foot trail nine milesinto the bush off the road between Vanderhoofand Fort St. James. In winter he trapped andin summer was a meticulous beekeeper, sup-plying farmers along the Bulkley Valley withreplacement stock. A photographer found himin the early 1950s at his cabin. Joe was slightlynettled that the photo had to be taken withhim in his old pants beside a “log gum,” whenthere was a row of perfect white beehivesnearby. A “log gum” or “bee gum” is a termfrom the American southeast for a section ofhollow log serving as a beehive. At the timethe picture was taken he had stopped sellingbees. On turning ninety he found it tiring tocarry a beehive the nine miles to theVanderhoof road.

George Turner arrived at Bella Coola in1903, found it too crowded, and moved on toa meadow on the Kliniklini River a day’s walkdown from the Kleena Kleene Ranch. Therehe found bees that may have moved up fromtidewater. They were sometimes carried onthe rafts that Scandinavian loggers used asmobile living quarters. George also trapped,made hives from sections of hollow cedar, andplanted apple trees, which are still there. Thepresent owner of the land says the bees arestill there as well. In the 1930s George movedto a cabin on the Kleena Kleene Ranch butfloated between there, Nimpo, and Anahim.He was used as a threat to recalcitrant chil-dren by mothers of the area: “If you … Georgewill get you!” Having been a beekeeper, hecould not have been all that bad. It is likely hewas one of the Dalton Gang, the Missouritrain robbers.

Those are some of the highlights of bee-keeping history in the province. It is likelyother importations were made, particularly byAmerican settlers, at various times. Perhapssome HBC posts had bees even before 1858.There is a report of bees in the Revelstokearea when the railway was being built. Evenmy dramatic opening may be misdated, as itis possible that Alphonse had carried the beesfrom Yale before the railway was started andthey were not from the shingle bolt cutters. I

admit to favouring the idea that the Chineseinitiated the honey industry. I would be pleasedto hear from anyone who can bring more pre-cise knowledge to light.

The material in this article was originallyassembled as an amusement to relieve bee-keepers’ business meetings. The main sourceis One Hundred Years of Beekeeping in BritishColumbia–1858 to 1958 by W.H. Turnbull.Confirmation and expansion was gathered an-ecdotally during my 29 years as a provincialbee inspector from ranchers of the Caribooand Chilcotin, Okanagan and Kootenayorchardists, a descendant of James Emeny (alsocalled James Emeny and still at Spring Bend),

former Provincial Apiarist John Corner, andformer Provincial Police Constable RobertTurnbull, son of W.H. But mostly the antique,some now long gone, beekeepers all over theprovince who were always willing, in fragranthoney house or humming bee yard, to talkyour ear off.�


WHEN P.N. Breton wrote his IllustratedHistory of Coins and Tokens relating toCanada, which appeared in 1894, he

listed the Government of British Columbia $10 and$20 patterns and four merchant tokens—three tradeand one advertising. I don’t believe that it is anycoincidence that the three trade tokens were fromRevelstoke. Sitting on the main line of the Cana-dian Pacific Railway (CPR), the town would havebeen about the first town in British Columbia tobe visited by travelling salesmen from the east afterthe railway was completed in 1885 and passengerservice started the following June. Furthermorethese pioneer Revelstoke tokens were issued byhotels: two of the tokens carry the name of theCentral Hotel, and the third reads W. Cowan, whoran the Victoria Hotel. Mr. Breton did not providemuch information about the Cowan piece: an il-lustration and the following text, “Issue 200. still inuse. R.1”

The name of Revelstoke was bestowed by theCPR on its station, named after Edward Baring,first Lord Revelstoke, a prominent London bankerwho had been one of the financiers backing therailway, but the establishment of the town was alittle more complicated. A government surveyor,Arthur Stanhope Farwell had surveyed the EaglePass and had worked for the CPR. When he heardthat the CPR would follow the Rogers Pass routehe proceeded to Second Crossing and pre-empted175 acres where he thought the railway would crossthe Columbia. On 20 October 1883, he appliedfor a provincial grant of an extra 1,000 acres. Justover a year later, on 13 January 1885, the provincialgovernment issued him a crown grant for the re-quested 1,175 acres. This grant, however, contra-vened the terms of the agreement to build the rail-way, under which the CPR was entitled to a belt ofland twenty miles (32 kilometres) either side of theright-of-way. The government of British Colum-bia refused to rescind the grant. Meanwhile the fed-eral government had given grants to others, believ-ing that the site was within the railway belt. It wasnot until 1894 when the case was decided in theSupreme Court of Canada that people could ob-tain title to their property. Earlier Farwell had wanteda high price for his townsite, which the CPR re-fused to pay. They had no choice when it came tobuying the right-of-way; but that was all they bought

from him. Farwell had hoped that the CPR wouldbuild its shops, etc., on his land, but they refused tohave further dealings with him.1 Of course, Farwell’stownsite was named Farwell. The CPR arrangedfor a townsite on some higher ground a little to theeast of Farwell’s where they laid out the railwayyards, station, hotel, streets, and lots. They then askedthe federal government to change the name fromFarwell to Revelstoke which was done in June 1886.For many years the Farwell townsite was known asLower Town and the station townsite was knownas Upper Town. Revelstoke was first listed in theBritish Columbia Directory for 1887 and Mr.Cowan’s name was one of only four to appear onthat occasion.

William Cowan was born in 1855 in CountyHuron, Ontario, the second of nine children. Hecame to Revelstoke in 18852 and in June of thatyear built the Victoria Hotel, sometimes referred toas the Hotel Victoria, which was the first of his manyventures in Revelstoke. The hotel was situated atthe corner of Front Street and Wright Avenue.which was located in Lower Town. It survived untilApril 1924 when it was destroyed by fire.3

Mr. Cowan seems to have been a man of greatenergy and became Revelstoke’s premier entrepre-neur. In 1888, in partnership with J. Fred Humeand Robert Sanderson he formed the ColumbiaTransportation Company. The company launchedthe steamers Despatch in 1888 and Lytton in 1890.Later three more men, all prominent, became part-ners: John Mara, Frank Barnard, and John Irving,and the company was incorporated as the Colum-bia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company on21 December 1889. Mr. Cowan sold out of thisenterprise fairly early on.4 The company was soldto the CPR in 1897 and formed the basis of theirinland steamer service. In November 1890 Cowanopened the first public telephone system inRevelstoke, which later, in 1897, was incorporatedas the Revelstoke, Trout Lake and Big Bend Tel-ephone Company, Limited by Act of the ProvincialLegislature.5 His partners at the time of the incor-poration were Charles Holten and Thomas Downswith whom he had other dealings. At the same timeas the telephone company incorporation, with part-ners John Abrahamson,6 William M. Brown, andThomas Downs, Cowan obtained an incorporationof the Revelstoke Water, Light and Power Com-

Token History: W. Cowan, Revelstoke, BCby Ronald Greene

1 Ruby M. Nobbs,Revelstoke History &Heritage, 1998, pp. 24-25,p 112. This is one of thebest local histories I haveencountered, andcertainly the most usefulas it mentions severaltoken issuers.

2 Edward Mallandaine,publisher, The BritishColumbia Directory…1887, Victoria, BC p. xiii

3 Revelstoke Review, 2 April1924, the article aboutthe fire said the hotel hadopened 5 August 1885.

4 Revelstoke Review, 14April 1926.

5 Statutes of BritishColumbia, Chapter 69,1897

6 John Abrahamson wasone of the owners of theCentral Hotel, issuers ofBreton 936 and 937.

7 Statutes of BritishColumbia, Chapter 70,1897. The act specifiedthe creeks where thecompany could takewater.

8 Kootenay Mail, 14 April1894.

9 Kootenay Mail, 5December 1896. Thiswas the first ad for theCowan-Holten-Downspartnership.

10 Kootenay Mail, 8 May1897.

11 Kootenay Mail, 15January 1898 and 12February 1898.

12 But we haven’t foundwhen the hotel was soldto him. There areconflicting reports.

The token is Brass:Round: 24½ mm


pany, Limited to supply electrical light and powerto the town of Revelstoke and within a ten-mileradius.7 Revelstoke enjoyed its first electric light inFebruary 1898. Cowan also started the first horse-drawn street car service between the Upper andLower towns.

Mr. Cowan doesn’t seem to have relished thethought of being a hotel proprietor for long, as heleased out the hotel as early as April 1894 whenCapt. C. Edwards took over the management ofthe hotel.8 At this time Cowan opened the first li-censed bonded liquor warehouse, an enterprise inwhich he was joined, in 1896, by Messrs. Holtenand Downs.9 The three men also were involved inthe formation of the Enterprise Brewery, whichopened in 1897 although Mr. Cowan seems to havebeen less involved in that project and more of aninvestor. Capt. Edwards died suddenly in mid 1897.10

Cowan subsequently leased the hotel to CharlesHolten in January 1898, and the liquor licence wastransferred to Holten shortly afterwards.11 CharlesHolten engaged his brother-in-law, J. Edwards, tomanage the hotel. R. Laughton, the last owner ofthe hotel, started advertising the hotel as “undernew management” in January 1906.12 By then,Cowan seems to have settled into running his tel-ephone company, which he ran until his death.

William Cowan married Bertha Beatrice Kingof Revelstoke in 1903. They had one son, Patrick.Unfortunately Mrs. Cowan died from appendicitisin 1906. For all his public spirit, Cowan dislikedpolitics and only served as an alderman for 1910and 1911. In 1926 he went to the Mayo Clinic inRochester, Minnesota for treatment, but died therein April 1926.�

Top: The Victoria Hotel, Revelstoke, ca. 1904. Bottom: William Cowan.

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Ruby M. NobbsRevelstoke: Heritage and History,reviewed by Edward L. Affleck.

Ruby NobbsRail Tales from Revelstoke,reviewed by Edward L. Affleck.

Fred Thirkell and Bob ScullionVancouver and Beyond:Pictures and Stories from the PostcardEra 1900–1914,reviewed by Sheryl Salloum.

Mildred Valley ThorntonBuffalo People:Portraits of a Vanishing Peoplereviewed by Shirley Sutherland.

Joy ParrDomestic Goods: The Material, theMoral, and the Economic in PostwarYears,reviewed by Laurenda Daniells.

T.W. PatersonCapital Characters:A Celebration of Victorian Eccentrics,reviewed by Arnold Ranneris.

Edward L. AffleckHigh Grade & Hot Springs:A History of the Ainsworth Camp,reviewed by R.J (Ron) Welwood.

Quest Library of XYZ PressFive Canadian historical biographiesreviewed by Jaqueline Gresko

Lisa ChristensenA Hiker’s Guide to the Rocky MountainArt of Lawren Harris,reviewed by Melva Dwyer

Mark LeierRebel Life:The Life and Times of Robert GosdenRevolutionary, Mystic. Labour Spy,reviewed by Duff Sutherland.

Book ReviewsBooks for review and book reviews should be sent to:Anne Yandle, Book Review Editor BC Historical News, 3450 West 20th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6S 1E4

Revelstoke: History and HeritageRuby M. Nobbs. Revelstoke: RevelstokeMuseum and Archives, 1998. 303 pp. Illus.$30 hardcover. Available from RevelstokeMuseum, Box 1908, Revelstoke, BC VOE2SO

REVIEWED BY EDWARD L. AFFLECK.

Ruby (Rutherford) Nobbs was born inRevelstoke on 20 March 1907 and died thereon 4 April 2001. Save for the years spent atVictoria Normal School and in teaching at aone-room school down the Columbia River,she lived her entire life in Revelstoke, whereshe and her husband operated a truckingbusiness and a bowling alley. In retirementshe became a zealous worker in the cause ofRevelstoke’s heritage and began to publishhistor ical articles in the local weeklynewspaper. By the time she began thecompilation of Revelstoke: History and Heritageher eyesight was failing. The final portions ofthe work had to be dictated to an amanuensis,as a blind Ruby did not take kindly to adictating machine. The Revelstoke CreditUnion provided some financial support forpublication, so Mrs. Nobbs was able to spendher final months secure in the knowledgethat her research labours were not in vain.

Revelstoke: History and Heritage is printedin substantial Friesen Corporation format.Mrs. Nobbs has worked diligently on themajor and minor themes in Revelstoke’s past.The major themes include placer mining upin the Big Bend of the Columbia River, lodemining in the sur rounding SelkirkMountains, skiing and hiking on thoseawesome peaks, and railroading. This lasttheme rightfully dominates the book, asRevelstoke since 1885 has been a CPR town.The browser will find a copious supply ofpictures, mini-biographies of early residents,and railroading anecdotes while the serioushistorian will find much of substance as well.

A few rough edges reveal the lack of adeft editing hand. An absence of maps of earlyand modern Revelstoke City and of thesurrounding mining areas, railway routes, andparklands constitutes a major flaw in thiswork. One wishes also that Mrs. Nobbs haddealt in more detail with the classic case of

Rail Tales from the RevelstokeDivisionRuby Nobbs. Revelstoke: RevelstokeRailway Museum, 2000. 96 pp. Illus. $13.95paperback.Available from Revelstoke Railway Museum,719 Track Street West, P.O. Box 3018,Revelstoke BC VOE 2SO.

REVIEWED BY EDWARD L. AFFLECK.

Having completed her monumentalRevelstoke History and Heritage in 1998,Revelstoke’s doughty historian, Ruby Nobbs,found herself with much that was “left over,”including a wealth of detailed anecdotalnarrative, biographical material, and old

The Queen v. Farwell. The CPR, havingdithered in the early 1880s over the route itwould follow east of Kamloops, finally settledon the Eagle Pass, Rogers Pass, and KickingHorse Pass route east. It arrived at the “secondcrossing” of the Columbia River to find thatan astute land surveyor, Arthur S. Farwell, hadalready secured provincial title to over athousand acres at a key point on the east sideof the crossing. The railway promptly locatedits station well east of the town site thatFarwell had surveyed on his property andlobbied the federal government to challengehis right to title, on the basis that the land laywithin the “Railway Belt” over which theFeds held jurisdiction. Sensing a challengeto its powers, the provincial governmentbacked the dogged Farwell in the ensuinglegal fray, which raged on for almost a decadeand during which no purchaser of land inthe disputed area could be sure of securingtitle. This situation was not conducive to therapid development of the settlement. Farwellscored higher than the CPR in the end, buthe never became a local hero, as it was feltthat in fighting for his rights he had createda cloud over the progress of the settlement.

All things considered, Mrs. Nobbs isentitled to rest in peace in the knowledgethat she has conveyed a valuable legacy toRevelstoke residents and the reading publicat large.Reviewer Ted Affleck is an authority onsternwheelers in the Kootenays.


newspaper write-ups pertaining chiefly torailroading, the industry which hasdominated the Revelstoke scene since 1886.Much of this material has been deftly woveninto Rail Tales. Railroading has never been arisk-free enterprise, so one need not besurprised that accounts of railway accidentsand near accidents, the gruesome detailsdelivered in Nobbs’s forthright style, hold aconspicuous place between the covers of thiswork. Railway buffs will be mesmerized bythe contents of this book, while other readerswith a historical bent will also find itrewarding to browse through this potpourri.

Vancouver & Beyond: Pictures andStories from the Postcard Era, 1900–1914Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion.Surrey: Heritage House Publishing Company,2000. 192 pp. Illus. $24.95 paperback

REVIEWED BY SHERYL SALLOUM.

The 160 black-and-white illustrations whichfill Vancouver & Beyond provide a strikingchronicle of Vancouver, the Lower Mainland,the Fraser Canyon, and the Coast. Taken froma collection of picture postcards, 124 of theimages have been reproduced from “realphotograph” cards taken during the “goldenage” of postcards. From 1900 to 1914,collecting and mailing postcards was apopular pastime. The authors estimate thatby 1910, when “BC’s population had reached350,000, over 1.8 million cards passedthrough the mail.” Most were the work ofprofessional photographers and are now rareas they were “printed only in very limitednumbers.” The remaining 36 images are fromnon-postcard paintings, drawings, sketches,and photographs.

Thirkell and Scullion have complementedthe book’s graphics with 50 thoroughlyresearched, well-written, and fascinatingstories. Attention to small details, ironies,intr iguing statistics, connections andinterconnections, and stories-within-storiesmake for intriguing and delightful reading.

Those wishing to locate this book shouldbe aware that the title on the cover(Vancouver and Beyond: During the GoldenAge of Postcards 1900-1914) differs from thaton the title page. That aside, readers shouldalso be forewarned that this captivating bookis one they will peruse again and again.Sheryl Salloum is a Vancouver-based freelancewriter.

Buffalo People: Portraits of aVanishing PeopleMildred Valley Thornton. Surrey, BC:Hancock House, 2000. 207 pp. Illus. $24.95paperback.

REVIEWED BY SHIRLEY SUTHERLAND.

Mildred Valley Thornton (1890–1967),Canadian painter and author, produced manylandscape paintings documenting the beautyof the West, but her fame is rooted in herlifelong passion for preserving and recording,in her journals and paintings, Canada’s Nativecultures. Mildred Valley Thornton’s firstpublication, Indian Lives and Legends, printedin 1966, emphasized personal accounts of hertravels and experiences with the Nativepeople of the west coast of Canada. It isillustrated by twelve colour plates of herpaintings. A companion manuscript of herwork and experiences with the people of thePlains, remained unpublished until the recentrelease of Buffalo People: Portraits of a VanishingNation.

In this publication, the colour reproductionsof Thornton’s bold Plains sketches andpaintings are impressive. There are nearlyseventy included, most of which date fromthe 1930s and 1940s. In addition to a detailedindex, the reference alongside eachreproduction allows the reader to easily linkthe image to text. A biography of the authorprecedes eight chapters describing Thornton’stravels to the homes of the Cree, Saulteaux,Stoney, Sarcee, Sioux, Blackfoot, Blood, andPiegan peoples. Each chapter focuses on thecircumstances surrounding the production ofthe paintings. The book concludes with a smallselection of legends and listing of “colourful”Native names.

In his introductory comments, John M.Thornton, the author’s son, reminds us thatsince the 1960s, when the manuscript wasfirst written, society’s attitudes and views ofNative people and their experiences havechanged dramatically. When preparing themanuscript for publication, John Thorntonendeavoured to keep the writings true to hismother’s original intent and edited only “toclarify and modify the text in keeping withcontemporary usage.” Despite this, thelanguage, at times, is difficult and distracting.

Thornton’s primary mission was to useher portraits of Native people to link to thePrairies’ past. Her subjects include those whoshe had been told had interesting stories.Prominent Native leaders, medicine men,those who had witnessed history in the

making, those whose ancestors hadparticipated in significant events, and thosewho recalled the old traditions wereportrayed. She recorded oral histories of theRiel Rebellion, the signing of treaties, ofbuffalo hunts and of the old ways. Throughouther writings, she is constantly aware of themagnitude of change that her subjects hadseen and were still experiencing. Repeatedly,we are reminded that these people representa vanishing culture. Thornton’s workplace wasthe Plains, a teepee, a cabin, or the groundsof a gathering place such as the CalgaryStampede. She often travelled alone, usingany means available—car, foot, horse, or trainto reach remote locations. Language barriersand cultural differences added to thechallenge.

Buffalo People puts personal stories, as wellas faces, to the dates, names, events and placesof the Prairies. The explanation of a detailwithin a portrait, of the significance of a pipe,a necklace, or a medal adds to our appreciationof the paintings. However, as with the paintingsof Emily Carr and the photographs ofEdward Curtis, one is aware that many ofthese images were created by someone ofanother culture, and often were meant toillustrate a time that already had passed. Whileone wonders how Natives today will viewthis interpretation, it is important toremember that Buffalo People is a record ofan individual’s journey. These are theimpressions, portrayed through pen andpaintbrush, of a twentieth century Canadianwoman who used her creative abilities tochronicle her experiences with the peopleof the Prairies.Reviewer Shirley Sutherland is Curator ofEducation, North Vancouver Museum & Ar-chives.

Domestic Goods: The Material, theMoral, and the Economic in thePostwar YearsJoy Parr, 1999. Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 368 pp. Illus. $21.95 paperback

REVIEWED BY LAURENDA DANIELLS.

Did you, or your mother or yourgrandmother, labour over a wringer washingmachine in the basement years after yourAmerican cousins were using the convenientautomatic washers that were on the marketin the forties? Did you ever wonder why?Joy Parr, professor of history at Simon FraserUniversity, in her introduction to Domestic


Goods describes her book as “about Canadianhomemakers, designers, and manufacturersin the first two decades after the SecondWorld War and the public policy makers whoregulated the relationships between them.”

Her careful research on theinterrelationships between these groupsreveals a surprising number of answers to theabove questions. Canadian homemakers werelong accustomed from the Depression daysfollowed by the Second World War, to“making do” and not discarding theserviceable in favour of the fashionable.Moreover, Canadian government policymakers (chiefly male) were determinedduring the reconstruction period after thewar to re-establish industry in order toproduce materials for sale in an internationalmarket, which they hoped would begoverned by multilateral free trade. Becauseof limited resources, this meant temporarilyat least ignoring the needs of homemakersfor domestic goods. The Liberal government,intent on establishing a social safety net byintroducing in the 1940s and 1950sunemployment insurance, family allowances,old age security, and hospital insurance, didnot encourage the entrepreneur ialmanufactur ing spir it and consumerconsumption which Americans perceived astheir way to prosper ity. Canadianmanufacturers had successfully sold wringerwashers for many years and were content tocontinue manufacturing them, with upgradesto make them more stylish. They werereluctant to retool and produce the fancy newautomatics which they knew would appealonly to a limited number of newhomeowners because of their higher priceand the added costs of upgrading water andelectrical connections before they could beinstalled. A severe financial crisis had hitCanada in the late forties as a consequenceof lending Great Britain $1.25 billion in theconfident expectation that it would be offsetby an increased trade in commodities. Thisdid not happen as Britain chose to tradeelsewhere and Canada was thrown into aninternational exchange crisis that left itscitizens with less money in their pockets tobuy new domestic goods. Credit was veryhard to get and very expensive. And so theultimate trickle-down effect of these manyfactors was to find Canadian women slavingover washing in the basement long after theirAmerican counterparts had been liberatedfrom that particular chore.

The washing machine is but a singleexample of the “domestic goods” exploredby Parr but it is really only one of the manygoods, reaching from diverse forms offurniture, especially maple furniture, to stovesand dryers and other electric utensils,examined by her. The scope of Parr’s work isextensive. In her introduction she explainsthat previous studies of consumption ofmodern and post-modern periods, which,Parr claims, frequently had gender-basedassumptions have often missed the moreuseful opportunity to encounter andassimilate past differences because they havepaid “most attention to the past that is morelike the present.”

She has set out therefore, in her book, toinvestigate consumption in a particular timeand place, the two decades immediatelyfollowing the Second World War in Canada.

Parr’s methodology is intriguing. Not onlydid she examine the literature and aprodigious number of the records in thevarious fields she has covered, she also soughtout and interviewed 18 Canadian andSwedish industrial designers and industryexperts of the 1940s and 1950s. In additionshe and an assistant conducted 23 interviewswith homemakers of the forties and fiftieswho came forward in response to requestsmade in newspaper columns by Frances Bulaand Deborah Pearce in the Vancouver Sun,which resulted in many extremely interestingand quite charming (Parr might reject theadjective) recollections of the period. Also inresponse to the two columns she received anumber of useful letters from homemakersof the period. She therefore had a very largebody of information on which she was ableto base her analysis of the interrelationshipsbetween female homemakers and maledesigners and manufacturers and thereasoning that governed Canadians’relationships to the domestic world of goods.

The task Parr has undertaken is ratherdaunting and frequently the density of herprose style is a challenge to the non-academicreader. She has had to integrate a wide varietyof material and her approach has been todivide the book, which consists of a series ofessays, into three sections. Section one focuseschiefly on the Canadian government’spolitical and economic policies. There is anexploration of two r ival consumerorganizations, the Canadian Association ofConsumers and the Housewives’ ConsumerAssociation and their influence ongovernment, followed by a chapter showing

the philosophical differences between twomajor exhibitions of modern design that wereheld in the mid-forties at the Royal OntarioMuseum and the Toronto Art Gallery. Achapter entitled “Borrowing to Buy” has adetailed discussion of government controlson consumer credit and its relation toconsumption. Section two focuses onindustrial design and consumption, andespecially on why “in postwar Canada, itmakes more sense to say that women remadetheir furnishings, than that their furnishingsremade them.”

Canadian designers were stronglyencouraged to think in terms of theinternational style of high modernism withthe inference that this would makeinternational exports more attractive. Theywere influenced by British designers andSwedish models, which did not always appealto the homemakers who were looking forcomfort rather than the new spare forms.

Section three, which is, in my opinion,the most interesting section of the book,contains a number of case studies of thepurchase choices of women from the lateforties to the early sixties. In using thefollowing excerpt from an interview Parrpoints out that varieties of Mary Kippen’sNew Westminster dilemma were common:

I used to hang my clothes out on a line atthe back of the house and we lived up thehill from the river and down on the riverthere were pulp mills, with burners. And thebeehive burners would deposit all their littlebits of sooty grit all over my baby’s diapers.And in those days, you used flannelette dia-pers, right? And so you would have to bringdiapers in that were almost as dirty as whenyou put them out. So having a dryer made alot of sense...for two reasons, the weatherplus the fallout that we wereexperiencing...I had no say in the matter.This was a gift that my husband gave meand it was an excellent choice that he made.

In this era of increasing anxiety aboutCanadian companies being swallowed up bythe global economy and fear of corporateindustr ial domination of democraticgovernments, this is a book which encouragesus to think about our own habits asconsumers and our relationship with themarket economy. In her introduction Parrasks, “What can and do citizens do when, bygender, class, or nationality, they have littleinfluence over the shape of the material worldin which they live?”

And in her conclusion she partly answersthis question, saying, “If we choose to exercise


prudence and responsibility as users of things,it will be in a material world made for us,and not much of our own making. For allour sakes, and for those who follow, let ushope that, in space the state and the marketcannot readily claim as their own, we toowill make grounds for reasoned and resistinghope.”Reviewer Laurenda Daniells is University Archi-vist Emerita, University of British Columbia.

Capital Characters: A Celebration ofVictorian EccentricsT.W. Paterson.Duncan: Fir Grove Publishing,1998.162 pp. $l6.95 paperback

REVIEWED BY ARNOLD RANNERIS.

The subtitle really explains the content ofthis book of 56 people from Victoria’s past.In the preface, the author notes that “mostCapital Characters chose to march to theirown drummers.” In so doing, some of themachieved greatness, such as Amor de Cosmosand Emily Carr; others like Boon Helm andJohn Laurence Sullivan, would be largelyunknown except for this author’s research andbrief biographies.

A few had a Victorian connection, such asRobert Falcon Scott (of Antarctic explorationfame) through his courtship of KathleenO’Reilly at Point Ellice House. And therewere women eccentrics too, like MadameBendixen, who operated a sophisticatedhouse in downtown Victoria, and AnnaBishop, whose beautiful singing voice packedthe Theatre Royal for ten glittering nights inl873.

Grouped broadly into categories such as“Sad Endings,” “Name Dropping,” “Visitorsfrom Other Worlds,” “Mysteries,” and “WildDays in Court,” this book offers a glimpseinto our province’s shadowy side, and thepeople who inhabited it in unique ways. Itwill be enjoyed by readers who appreciatelearning history through biographicalsketches.Reviewer Arnold Ranneris is secretary of theBritish Columbia Historical Federation.

High Grade & Hot Springs: aHistory of the Ainsworth CampEdward L. Affleck.Ainsworth Hot Springs, BC: Ainsworth HotSprings Historical Society, 2001.128pp. Illus., maps. $21.95 paperback.Available from the Society, PO Box 1339,Ainsworth Hot Springs, BC V0G 1A0($25.00, includes shipping)

REVIEWED BY R.J. (RON) WELWOOD.

The official book launch at Ainsworth onSunday, June 21, was this reviewer’s firstexperience to hear an author literally singabout his book (in a mature, tenor voice). Asan accomplished vocalist and writer, E.L.(Ted) Affleck had a lot to sing about that day.Over the past three decades he has writtenmany articles and monographs, which haveearned him a reputation as a thorough,meticulous researcher and an excellent writer.(His article “Steamboating on the PeaceRiver” was chosen as BC Historical News’ bestarticle for 2000).

Affleck grew up in Nelson, BC and themajority of his writing is either about theKootenay region or paddlewheelers e.g. ACentury of Paddlewheelers in the PacificNorthwest, the Yukon and Alaska, reviewed inBritish Columbia Historical News, Spring 2001.High Grade & Hot Springs can now be addedto that growing list of Kootenay publications.

This is a brief history of the Ainsworthmining camp, the townsite, and Ainsworth’shot springs (the main text is 98 pages). Themining camp, one of the oldest in the WestKootenay district, embraces a 6-mile (11-km)hillside section of Kootenay Lake’s westernshoreline. Unlike many other miningcommunities, this unincorporated townsitehas survived ghost town status primarilybecause of its lakeshore location, the naturalhot springs and the various recreationalactivities available because of these naturalattributes.

be of interest to those with past or presentconnections to Ainsworth (genealogy) as wellas to those curious about mineral explorationand mining in the Kootenays.Reviewer Ron Welwood is Past President of theBritish Columbia Historical Federation

The book’s first chapter covering themining history of the camp, is followed byseven chapters arranged into eras: “AinsworthBefore the 1888 Townsite Development;1888-1896: The Heyday of Ainsworth; 1896-1914: From the Fire to the War; 1914-1929:From the War to the Depression; 1929-1949:The Burns Era; 1949-1959: Yale Lead & Zinc;After 1959”. These chapters are followed bysix appendices containing useful informationon teachers; “People of Our Past” (anincomplete but alphabetical necrology whichincludes useful biographical information); acurious “Summary of Accidental and OtherUnnatural Deaths in Ainsworth MiningCamp;” and a handy “Ainsworth MiningCamp, Table of Production, 1889 to 1964.”The book ends with four pages of captionedphotographs including “Fish Stories.”

Ainsworth, first known as Warm SpringsCamp or Hot Springs Camp, was solelydependent on water-borne traffic until a roadwas constructed north to Kaslo in 1919-1920.By 1926 a wicked stretch of road just southof Ainsworth was completed to link thecommunity with Nelson. But even beforethis road connection, Ainsworth had startedto attract attention as a hot springs resortwhen sternwheeler excursions began in thesummer months of 1909. When an outdoorplunge pool was constructed in 1911,Ainsworth’s prospects as a spa began to takeshape, although it was not until after 1929(“The Burns Era”) that it began to beser iously developed into a successfulcommercial enterprise.

By the author’s own admission, “Ainsworthis a difficult place to write about in terms ofthe people who settled there. The vast numberof mines in the camp, many of them shortlived, resulted in a great many people movingin and out of the settlement as miningopportunities waxed and waned.” However,in spite of this drawback, many peopleconnected to Ainsworth are woven into thefabric of this history. As with all of Friesens’sprinting ventures, this book is an aestheticallypleasing publication that demonstrates howthe printed word and the photograph cancomplement each other—either a map, or oneor more photos appear on every page exceptfor the pages of a comprehensive index.

Although this reviewer would prefer tosee a separate list (bibliography) of thematerials consulted, the in-text references aresufficient to satisfy the curious researcher.High Grade & Hot Springs is an aptly titled,well crafted publication that should prove to


Quest Library, XYZ PressBowen, Lynne: Robert Dunsmuir: Laird of theMines; Margoshes, Dave: Tommy Douglas:Building the New Society; Wyatt, Rachel:Agnes Macphail: Champion of the Underdog;Keller, Betty: Pauline Johnson: FirstAboriginal Voice of Canada; Braid, Kate:Emily Carr: Rebel Artist.Montreal: XYZ Publishing, $16.95 each.Paperback.

REVIEWED BY JACQUELINE GRESKO.

Last year Anne Yandle and I had one of thoseconversations about how in the BritishColumbia of the 2000s, historians need towrite books for the public, not just for eachother. Old Canadians familiar with Englishtell me they are put off by academic jargon.College students, many of whom are newCanadians, tell me they enjoy histories thatmove beyond narrating “the standard stuff,”i.e. theses on race and colonialism, intoexplaining the intriguing “realities” of BritishColumbia history. For the students that meanstopics such as premarital sex and pregnancy,alcohol abuse, generational tensions, picketline violence, career failure, continuity ofAboriginal cultures, and spiritual influences.

So Anne Yandle assigned me to review fiveCanadian historical biographies in the QuestLibrary of XYZ Press. All will be of interestto my students. All benefit from archivalresearch and lively writing. Series editorLynne Bowen adds a chronological table onthe person’s life history and Canadian andWorld History to each volume. She did notrequire end notes from the authors but didhave them provide source lists. These willassist students and help mitigate the Anglo-Canadian, Protestant and Atlantic perspectiveof all the books.

Three of the Quest books have little directdiscussion of British Columbia history, e.g.Macphail’s biography. However, PaulineJohnson the artist and Tommy Douglas thepolitician both spent the last years of theirlives in this province. Their biographies arealso linked in a minor way by discussion ofAboriginal issues in British Columbia,particularly the land question.

The two biographies most directly relatedto this province, Lynne Bowen’s RobertDunsmuir and Kate Braid’s Emily Carr, sharethis linkage. Although Bowen’s Dunsmuir hasless discussion of the Aboriginal context ofhis times, she carefully explains the particulartime and place of the “laird of the mines.”Robert Dunsmuir was a Scots emigrant man

in colonial and early provincial society. Hesaw the world narrowly: Total abstinence forhis coal mine workers, rum for himself; policebrutality for strikers, newspaper columns tohammer political enemies; poor pay andconditions for Chinese immigrants broughtin as strikebreakers, a castle for his own wife.Academic historians have discussed the stern,selfish, capitalist-made-good aspects ofDunsmuir’s life. Bowen narrates its rawbeginnings and Joan’s contributions to hislife achievements. Robert and Joan Dunsmuirmarried when she was nine months pregnant.As young parents they emigrated fromScotland to Vancouver Island. Robert’ssurvival there beyond business failures owedmuch to Joan’s strength of character. And soperhaps did the alcoholism and generationtensions experienced by their numerousoffspring.

Kate Braid’s Emily Carr: Rebel Artistexplores the life of the Victoria-born artistwho remained a spinster. Patriarchal andhierarchical family patterns repressed herpersonal development and fed her perceptionthat her career as an artist was a failure. Braidcarefully explains for modern readers theeconomic and social challenges life in Englandin the 1900s presented for Carr as a young artstudent from “the colonies.” She narrates howCarr returned to British Columbia andstruggled for the rest of her life in her questsfor art, publication and recognition. Carr wasaided by her rebellious spirit but also mentorsand friends. Emily Carr’s own missionary sisterinvited her up coast to sketch, and theAboriginal people led her to their sacredspaces in the forest. There she met the wildwoman of the woods spirit who became oneof the major spiritual influences in her life.

I hope this review encourages LynneBowen and XYZ Press to continue thepublications on the “realities” rather than the“standard stuff ” of British Columbia history.Reviewer Jacqueline Gresko teaches history atDouglas College.

A Hiker’s Guide to the RockyMountain Art of Lawren HarrisLisa Christensen.Calgary: Fifth House, 2000.135 pp. Illus. $29.95 paperback.

REVIEWED BY MELVA DWYER.

The title of this book immediately alerts thereader to the fact that the author, LisaChristensen, has written about two subjectsthat are not usually considered to be very

compatible. This is, however, the second bookon hiking and the arts that Christensen haswritten. In the first: A Hiker’s Guide to the Artof the Canadian Rockies, she described theinspiration that the Canadian RockyMountains have given many of our paintersof this century. This second publication,however, links the same milieu to the art of aspecific artist, Lawren E. Harris. Harris was afounding member of the “Group of Seven,”Canada’s first major art movement. Like somany of Canada’s artists he sought inspirationfor his painting in nature and the worldaround him. Many of his early paintings wereset in the landscape of northern Ontario withits multitude of lakes, rugged landscape andever changing colours. Harris began to visitthe Canadian Rockies from 1924. Here hefound that the mountain scenery from Jaspersouth to Lake Louise and Banff furnished himwith subjects that were more majestic andinspirational than those of northern Ontario.It is many of these works that the author hasdescribed so successfully through quotationsand text. To link the art to her second subject,hiking, she has carefully researched where theartist was located when he painted orsketched. Complete information is given sothat anyone who wishes to do so can enjoythe same vista that was painted years before.All the hiker must do is to follow the cleardirections in the text located in a paneladjacent to the reproduction of the work. Theauthor has also included the difficulty of theexpedition and the approximate timerequired to complete it.

Lawren Harris did not travel alone on hisjourneys to the Rockies but was frequentlyaccompanied by another member of the samegroup of painters, A.Y. Jackson, who hadvisited the Jasper area earlier. Christensen hasincluded much information about Jacksonalong with some of his sketches and paintingsmade at the same time as Harris was workingon his own subjects. The reader, therefore,gains an insight into the lives and work oftwo artists. The book has many colouredreproductions, sketches and photographs ofthe work of both artists. Chronologies of theirlives are included together with a list of theworks illustrated. A bibliography and indexadd to the value of the book for anyone whowishes to do further research on either theart or the sites. Christensen is obviously anavid lover of both art and the outdoors. Shehas written this second book that exploresthe relationship of nature and art focusingon the life and work of one of Canada’s most


NewsworthyBooks listed here may be reviewed at alater date. For further information on anytitle, please consult Book Review EditorAnne Yandle.

Rebel Life: The Life and Times ofRobert Gosden Revolutionary,Mystic, Labour SpyMark Leier.Vancouver: New Star, 1999238 pp. Illus. $19 paperback.

REVIEWED BY DUFF SUTHERLAND.

In Rebel Life, Mark Leier traces the life andtimes of Robert Raglan Gosden, a Wobblyrevolutionary who became a labour spy in1919 during the workers’ revolt. As the RoyalCanadian Mounted Police’s “Agent 10,”Gosden not only reported on the labourmovement in the Canadian west, he alsorecommended that the police “disappear”socialist labour leaders to put down the revolt.In a fascinating narrative, Leier painstakinglydocuments Gosden’s life and spying whilealso trying to explain this despicablebehaviour. In the end, Leier finds no easyexplanation for Gosden’s actions but sees himas the product of the complicated interactionof personality and experience.

Bob Gosden emigrated in 1904 fromEngland to Canada where he entered thebrutal world of the young, transient, maleworker. By 1910, he was a revolutionaryactive in the Industrial Workers of the Worldin Prince Rupert. IWW activities took himto San Diego in 1912 where he spent timein jail for involvement in a free speech fight.Deported back to Vancouver, Gosden activelysupported striking Vancouver Island coalminers and made a famous speech at theVancouver fairgrounds in which he warnedPremier McBride and Attorney-GeneralBowser to guard against poisoning if theydid not release jailed strikers. Considered tooradical and provocative by BC labour leaders,Gosden’s speech effectively ended his careeras a labour agitator. By the outbreak of war,Gosden faced the decline of the IWW andwas alienated from the labour and radicalpolitical movements in BC. Many of hispolitical views “shattered”, unemployed andimpoverished, Gosden acted for the Liberal“machine” during the 1916 Vancouver City

famous painters. As an art historian andresearcher her work is to be admired. In theliterature of both art and hiking this bookand the earlier one are unique. She allows usto see not only the beauty of the art but alsothe majestic beauty of the landscape fromwhich the art has been derived.Reviewer Melva Dwyer is Librarian Emerita,Fine Arts Division, UBC Library.

by-election, and then began his career as anRCMP spy after the war. According to Leier,Gosden spied on the labour movement untilthe early 1920s—about the end of the labourrevolt—and then was dumped by theMounties. For the rest of his life, he appearsto have worked at labouring jobs while oftenkeeping house with a series of women ofindependent means. Always on the marginsof BC society, “Gosden kept to a an odd credothat blended right-wing conspiracy theory,mysticism, and left-wing politics.”

In Rebel Life, Leier tells a credible andcompelling story about the nature and costof being a radical in BC in the early 20thcentury. The transient Gosden was a brightand vain man. He was also a “wage-slave”who lived a tough life and faced roughtreatment when he tried to achieve radicalchange. As Leier suggests, Gosden, bothprincipled and shady, found a natural homein the Wobblies, a union known to attract“the most unselfish and courageous, togetherwith the self-seeking and the semi-criminal.”Gosden lost a lot personally when theWobblies declined before the war. Politicaland personal failure, alienation, andfrustration all appear to have led him todisreputable and “unmanly” behaviourincluding spying on former friends andcomrades.

Leier presents Gosden’s life in aninteresting and thought-provoking manner.In a broad sense, Rebel Life deals with thequestion of “what man does with what ‘one’has done to him.” What Gosden “did” willnot be very inspiring to those interested inthe history of BC’s working people. At thesame time, Rebel Life points to the tremendouspersonal risk involved in challenging “thesystem.” Leier does not provide comparisons,but it would be useful to learn how similarexperiences affected the life courses of otherearly radicals as a way to understand theprovince’s early social development. Rebel Lifeshows that we should know as much aboutthe Bob Gosdens as we know about theRobert Dunsmuirs of BC history.

For those interested in pursuing BC labourhistory, Rebel Life includes an excellentsection on “doing history” and a bibliographyof BC labour history at the end.Reviewer Duff Sutherland teaches history atSelkirk College in Castlegar

Abandoned: the Story of the Greely Arc-tic Expedition, 1881-1884. AldenTodd. Fairbanks, University of AlaskaPress, 2001. $22.95 US paperback.

Beginnings: Stories of Canada’s Past.Ann Walsh, ed. Vancouver, RonsdalePress, 2001. $12.95 paperback.

Flying Under Fire: Canadian Fliers Recallthe Second World War. William J.Wheeler, ed. Calgary, Fifth House,2001. $21.95 paperback.

Frank Gowen’s Vancouver, 1914–1931.Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion. Sur-rey, Heritage House, 2001. $39.95hardcover.

Heavy Horses: An Illustrated History ofthe Draft Horse. Grant MacEwan.Calgary, Fifth House, 2001. $21.95paperback.

Historical Portraits of Trail. Publishedby the Trail City Archives, 1394 PineAve., Trail, BC V1R 4E6. $20.00 paper-back.

If These Walls Could Talk: Victoria’sHouses from the Past. Valerie Green.Victoria, TouchWood, 2001. $24.95paperback.

Merchant Prince: The Story of AlexanderDuncan McRae. Betty O’Keefe andIan Macdonald. Surrey, HeritageHouse, 2001. $18.95 paperback.

Off the Map: Western Travels on RoadsLess Taken. Stephen Hume. MadeiraPark, Harbour, 2001. $32.95 hard-cover

Old Square Toes and His Lady: The Lifeof James and Amelia Douglas. JohnAdams. Victoria, Horsdal andSchubart, 2001. $18.95 paperback.

On the Street Where You Live. Vol. 3:Sailors, Solicitors and Stargazers ofearly Victoria. Danda Humphreys.Surrey, Heritage House, 2001.$34.95 hardcover.

Scandal: 130 Years of Damnable Deedsin Canada’s Lotus Land. WilliamRayner. Surrey, Heritage House,2001. $19.95 paperback.

The Tenth Pupil. Constance Home. Van-couver, Ronsdale Press, 2001. $8.95paperback.

Regular readers will remember labourhistorian Mark Leier’s article on Gosden inBC Historical News 33:3, Summer 2000.


Reports

THANKS to the B.C. Electric RailwayCompany, the City of Burnaby and theBurnaby Historical Society, interurban carnumber 1223, built by the St. Louis CarCompany in 1912, is on the way to beingrestored as a valuable artifact and symbol ofBurnaby’s history.

For over 60 years, car number 1223 ranon the interurban lines through Burnaby.When the interurban services on BC’s LowerMainland were phased out in 1957, many ofthe old tram cars that traveled the lines weresystematically destroyed by burning. Only afew remained intact, symbols of atransportation system that, at one time,revolutionized means of travel by harnessingthe power of electricity.

The first interurban line to be operationalin western Canada was initiated by TheWestminster & Vancouver TramwayCompany, incorporated in 1890. Developedto travel between Vancouver and NewWestminster, the line was opened with aninaugural run in 1891 from New Westminsterthrough the heavily forested area of SouthBurnaby. Subsequently known as CentralPark line, it was the means by which manyof Burnaby’s early settlers came to homesteadin the southern area of the Municipality, nowCity of Burnaby. The Burnaby Lake line,inaugurated in 1911, was built mainly toservice Central Burnaby but the First WorldWar put a halt to anticipated real estatedevelopment which never got off the ground.

When the Burnaby Historical Society wasformed in 1957, one of the first projectsplanned was the acquisition of an interurbancar for display in the community. Applicationto the BC Electric resulted in car number1223, one of the few remaining intact, beingdonated to the Society in 1958. Installed atKingsway and Edmonds in southeastBurnaby, the tram became not only alandmark but also a target for vandals andinclement weather. Unable to keep up withconstant repairs and deterioration, the Societyturned over the tram to the Municipality forone dollar in 1971 so that it could be movedto the recently opened Heritage Village (nowBurnaby Village Museum).

Safe from vandals but not the weather, thetram stood as a display but, since funds werescarce, only minimal maintenance waspossible. In 1999, a group of BHS members,recognizing the importance of preserving thehistor ical tram, formed “Fr iends ofInterurban 1223.” The group proposedfinding volunteers and funds to carry outrestoration. The initial idea was to have a carbarn built in the Burnaby Village Museumso that the public could witness therestoration progress. When that idea provedunfeasible, the City of Burnaby offered a largeCity-owned warehouse free of charge for fiveyears with utilities supplied. This venue isproving to be ideal for the restoration work.The City also paid the $18,000 cost ofmoving the tram from the Village to thewarehouse.

On 14 September 2001, car 1223, separatedinto three pieces (body and two trucks), wascraned onto three large flatbeds and moved,at 4 in the morning, by Nickel Bros., to therestoration site. To date over 70 volunteers, ofvarious trades and interests, have signed upand the first work crew of five spent two dayscleaning up the tram ready for hands-on workto begin.

The restoration is being directed byVillage Curator, Colin Stevens, Conservator,Elizabeth Cerwinski, and consultant AndrewTodd. A detailed documentation system—avital element in restoration work—is beingcompiled by Village staff . “Friends of

Interurban 1223” are in charge of thevolunteers and their activities. A fund-raisingcommittee, looking for cash and gifts-in-kind, is developing strategies and makingcontacts. Several firms and individuals haveshown interest in assisting with services andexpertise. Local TV and communitynewspapers are providing ongoing exposureof the restoration process. The first of aproposed series of newsletters went out tomembers and volunteers in November 2001.

The tram will be restored to 1925appearance to fit in with the era depicted inthe Village. When restoration is complete, itwill be moved to its own car barn which willbe constructed by the City on the BurnabyVillage Museum site where it will be a majorexhibit and teaching resource for school tourgroups.

“Friends of Interurban 1223” are lookingfor sources of funds, gifts-in-kind, anecdotaldata, and information leading to theacquisition of needed parts. Contacts through:fax 604.293.6525; mail: 6501 Deer Lake Ave,Burnaby BC V5G 3T6, or phone PixieMcGeachie, President, at 604.522.2062.

—Pixie McGeachie

Restoration ofInterurban Car on Track

Above: The body of Interurban 1225 loaded ona flatbed, ready to be taken to a site where itwill be restored to its 1925 appearance beforereturning the car to Burnaby Village. Museum.14 September 2001.


Inspired by the writings of Patrick Dunae (“Archivesand Archivist” 35:1) and the adventures of JeanBarman (“Sex and Violence in the BC Archives”34:1), I recently took a few days leave from theeditor’s chores for an expedition to Victoria lookingfor information on the early days of Whonnock’sschool. I concentrated on the thousands of letterswritten between 1882 and 1897 to Dr. S.D. Pope,Superintendent of Education, available on 14 reelsof microfilm (B 2017-B 2030). Even scanningquickly through the letters one catches fascinatingand tantalizing glimpses of human life and humannature during the settler years everywhere in theyoung province—invaluable information for localhistorians and, yes, genealogists. Together with myrich harvest of letters telling unknown stories aboutthe Whonnock and neighbouring schools, I tookhome copies of a handful of letters from the firstyears of schooling in Savona. I have presented thecopies to Edward Villiers, honoured recorder ofSavona’s history, but also want to share the contentswith you, hoping that it may inspire you to go ona similar quest for the unknown in the BC Archives.

IN 1889 Messrs. Leighton, Thomas, and McVicker, “being the parents and guardians ofeight children of school age,” petition theLieutenant Governor to establish a school atSavona, “undertaking to aid in every way tocarry on the work successfully in providingeducation for our children.” James Leightonoffers the use of a suitable building for aschoolhouse free of charge for five years but itneeds some fixing up: “It will require abouteighty dollars to put it in thorough goodcondition.” He also promises to haul anyfirewood required to the schoolhouse. “Thewood is generally bought from Indians anddelivered along lake shore at high water mark.”With the petition goes a list showing eightchildren between 6 and 13 years old and fourchildren under school age.

It seems that this first attempt to have aschool in Savona fails, probably because therewere not enough potential pupils. In January1894 A.B. Ferguson, proprietor of the LakeView Hotel in Savona (“Good Fishing,Hunting, Bathing and Boating”), sendsanother list to Victoria, now showing thenames and ages of 11 children of school age.“There are several [other children] which areclose on school age. So I think if we can onlyget [the school] commenced we will have notrouble in keeping up the number.”

Celebrating Education:“A Miserable, Cold, andDraughty School”

That fall of 1894 formal school educationreaches Savona. In October teacher H. Youngprepares another listing of the children ofschool age (19) and under school age (16).Obviously Miss Young throws her net widerthan Mr. Ferguson. She writes in her letter toSuperintendent Pope in Victoria: “I know thatthere are other children—whites—of schoolage here, but I have not been able to ascertaintheir ages or names.” Among the childrenunder school age the list shows a two-year-old toddler without a given name with thenote “not baptized.”

In spite of this good number of childrenMiss Young and the parents agree that it wouldbe better to postpone the establishment of aregular school for a year or two “till theyounger children are of school age.” A regularschool requires a larger attendance. Miss Younghas her doubts, “Here some of the childrenare young & live a distance, in cold weatherthey cannot attend every day. Others are half-breeds who are not distinguished for theirdevotion to education.” Miss Young’s list showsfour children, three girls and a boy, aged 15years—much needed for chores at home andwith perhaps not more than one school yearleft.

But there are more immediate concerns.“[T]he most serious difficulty is the supply ofstove & fuel. The people are poor. There is nobusiness going on here by which they couldmake a little money. For so far the cost ofproviding & furnishing the school room hasfallen on Mr. Ferguson & myself & so far as Ican judge at present, unless the Dept. helpsthe chief cost of the fuel will fall to me.” JamesLeighton, secretary of the school board, appliesfor “a special grant for a stove for our schoolhere. The cold weather is coming on & can’tmanage without one.” The school receives thegrant and a box stove and pipe are suppliedby Mr. John Jane’s store in Savona. Leightoninforms Victoria, “Our school is going aheadin fine shape.”

Shortly before Christmas 1894, Miss Youngwrites a note to Superintendent Pope, warninghim that a stormy winter could seriously affectthe attendance. Six of her pupils live on theopposite side of the lake and have to “crossthe foot of Kamloops Lake by boat as thebridge was swept away by the high water lastspring.” She adds, “It is very windy here, somuch so that it is not safe for the little ones toventure across every day. For so far the childrenhave attended quite regularly.”

But not only severe winter weather affectsthe attendance. At the end of summer 1895,

Miss Young, who lives “in the same house inwhich the school room is,” has prepared forthe beginning of a new school year and is readyto open school on 12 August, “as prescribedby statute.” However, none of the childrenappear. The trustees agree to defer the openingtill the following week but even then not allthe children are attending. “The heat wasexcessive at the time…,” writes a suffering MissYoung, but that is not the only reason whythe children stay away. “Mostly all the familieshere have small ranches a few miles out fromthis place. At the time school should haveopened the parents had not completed theirhaying & harvesting, and as they are poor, &unable to pay for necessary help, they keptthe children with them, to render any assistancethey could with the work.”

Another letter from Miss Young, written ayear and a half later, early in December 1896,caught my eye. She is now recovering “froman attack of inflammation of the lungs, theresult of teaching in a miserable, cold, draughtyschool.” —“I like my pupils here” she writesbut she would be thankful for a change to“more comfortable circumstances.” She goeson teaching in Savona for another half year,but weakened by the illness Miss Young resignsearly in the summer of 1897. A doctor hasadvised her to take a rest and she asks Dr. Pope,“Now, Sir, will you kindly interest yourself inmy behalf to secure a school for me nextJanuary…I may be strong enough to returnto work with wanted vigour.”

“I am sorry to leave my school,” Miss Youngwrites, and “I can honestly say that I havespared either enthusiasm, labour, or pain tomake my work here successful…my relationswith the parents have been pleasant.” She goeson explaining that during her years of teachingat Savona, the financial burden of running theschool continued to fall on her and Mr.Ferguson. Miss Young herself “expended incash more than one hundred dollars forfurnishings & incidental expenses for twoyears, etc., etc.” Mr. Ferguson “gave the house,desks, seats & one blackboard—a cash valueof a little more than ($80) eighty dollars.” Healso made repairs to the building at no cost tothe department, while Mr. Leightoncontributed part of the wood for two years.

The third trustee at that time is John Jane,the shopkeeper who sold the stove for theschool three years before. He writes toSuperintendent Pope: “Miss Young…was verysuccessful with young children—got them onrapidly—but her health is bad, & she wouldnot service another winter here.” He informs


the superintendent at the same time that heresigns as trustee and “would rather not haveanything to do with the appointing of a newteacher,” claiming that he has no time to spare.He also reports that Mr. Leighton has beenappointed Indian Agent and can not act asschool trustee any longer.

So this story, gleaned from a few letters,ends in the summer of 1897 leaving Mr.Ferguson as the only trustee of thatinhospitable school without a teacher inSavona. What happens next is still out there inthe BC Archives to find out!

—Fred Braches

THE BC ARCHIVES, as all departments andagencies of the BC Government, is affectedby general downsizing of the Public Service.

The BC Archives is required to yield upthree positions next fiscal year in order tomeet our ministry’s targets. Fortunately forthe Archives we have been able to reduce bythree positions without having to lay off anyregular staff members. Potential retirementsand the use of transfers and temporaryassignments to other government officesenabled us to accomplish our target. In fact,the BC Archives has been able to fill threevacancies from the staff of the two ministrylibraries that are closing. Two other vacancieswill be filled through the collective agreementplacement processes. I note that all auxiliariesand personal services contracts will terminateon 29 March and there is little prospect fortheir return next year.

However, with the large number ofdisplaced public servants, there will beimpacts upon the BC Archives’ less-than-three-year employees. Under the provisionsof the collective agreement, these individualscan be “bumped” by more senior publicservants outside of our branch and ministry.Currently, we have five “under-threes” whowill probably be replaced.

With the replacement of five positions,four of which are in support services, andthree new arrivals, there will be impacts inour services as we train our new staff in ourpublic service delivery systems.

I will endeavour to keep you informedas we continue to deal with the general andspecific impacts of the government’s newdirection for public service.

—Gary A. Mitchell

Situation at BC Archives

I’VE BEEN giving a lot of thought toarchives in the early part of this year, notthe least of which is wondering how manywill survive as government funding dis-appears.

One of my absolute favourite sites, aboutwhich I’ve written in a previous review, isthat of the BC Archives. It can be reachedat <http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/index.htm>. There are many features toexplore and the site is well worth the timespent doing some poking and followinglinks. A drawback of the site, which I dis-covered recently, is that old books and un-published manuscripts are not included inthe database and can only be accessed atthe Archives in Victoria. Luckily, I had donesome research in these materials in my pre-Internet days and was aware of their exist-ence and value.

My next favourite site relating to ar-chives is Canadian Archival Resources onthe Internet. Consisting of pages of links,the site is maintained through the Uni-versity of Saskatchewan Archives. TheURL for the page of links for British Co-lumbia is <http://www.usask.ca/ar-chives/car/bcmenu.html>. On this menuthere are a lot of very useful links, and allof the following can be found on that list.

The British Columbia Archival Un-ion List is an essential site to explore,but again, only a jumping-off point forother fascinating Web sites: <http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/bcaul.html>. One of thesites on the Archival Union List that Ihave used and can recommend is theCity of Victoria Archives at <http://www.city.victoria.bc.ca/depts/archives/index.htm> which has some searchabledatabases on-line, a big plus, in my opin-ion. Just recently I discovered there theVictoria Women’s Movement Archives.

City of Vancouver Archives is locatedat <http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ar-chives/index.htm>. Lots to explore here,but so far I’ve mostly looked under “Mapsand Plans,” none of which are availableon-line, of course. You might be surprised

at what you can find at this repository:Vancouver Maps (“over 4,000 maps”), Ar-chitectural Plans (“thousands”), Fire In-surance Plans (including a few that “de-pict other areas of the lower mainland,”and Ships Plans (“over 1000 plans of com-mercial and private vessels...from the late1700s to 1980”). The photographs, by theway, are searchable on-line.

I must include here UBC Library, Spe-cial Collections and University Archivesat <http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/>where I was delighted to find that theGuide to the Fire Insurance Plans of Brit-ish Columbia cities (a wonderful sourceof information) was updated in 2001. Un-fortunately the site map is not especiallyhelpful as to how to find the InsurancePlan information, but this link will getyou there(<http: //www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/fireins/titlepg.htm>). There areother resources here, including photo-graphs.

An archival site with a droll approachto the subject is that of the United ChurchBC Conference Archives <http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/bstewart/index.html>. This is archives with atti-tude! If only it had some informationavailable on-line!

The Archives of the City of Richmondis the last to include in this list of Ar-chives to explore at <http://www.c i t y. r i c hmond . b c. c a / a rch ive s /default.htm>. This is the only one of thecommunity archives that I’ve checked outon-line recently that has a “Friends of theArchives” society, something worth think-ing about. I know the BC Archives hashad such an organization for some time—and it is no doubt needed more than evernow.

These are the major ones—perhaps I’lltake another column to reveal some ofthe smaller community archives. If youhave a favourite that deserves attentionin this column, please contact me [email protected]

Web Site Foraysby Gwen Szychter


It was sometime in the early summer of1996. My friend Walter and I were ledalong narrow hallways, deep insideDawson Creek’s City Hall, wonderingwhat was awaiting us up ahead. Our es-cort stopped outside a dimly lit jail celland pointed through the bars. “In there,”he said quietly, “that’s the Archives.”

A single, bare light bulb hung fromthe ceiling and I was sure I could hearwater dripping into the stained, crackedsink in one corner of the cell. Jammedinto every square inch of the cell—nolonger used by the RCMP—were card-board boxes, filing cabinets, and woodencupboards. It was just barely possible tosqueeze into the area but there was noroom to do any work. Besides, whowould want to work in there? Not me.

Two moves later, a lot of patience, sev-eral adventures, some serious renovations,a couple of great workshops with BillPurver and Patti O’Byrne, a Commu-nity Archives Assistance Program grant,equipment donations from the City—and we were finally able to begin open-ing boxes and cupboards. It was nowMarch 2000, more than three years afterI first offered to help develop the His-torical Society’s archives.

Between Patti O’Byrne’s workshop inmid-March and the end of 2000 we wereable to accession, briefly describe, andcatalogue more than ninety collections,as many as possible to the item level. Dur-ing 2001 another 105 collections wereadded to our holdings—all accessible ina simple but searchable database.

While our collections cover a largenumber of topics and time periods, themost significant focus is on the AlaskaHighway, constructed in 1942–1943 bycivilian contractors and US Army Engi-neers. Dawson Creek is, of course, MileZero on the Alaska Highway. We havethousands of photos of life along the

highway, many donated by men whoworked on the project and who cameback to Dawson Creek for the 50th An-niversary celebrations in 1992. SchoolDistrict 59 (Peace River South) gave ustwo large collections of early school his-tory materials, one from the period1927–1937 and the other from 1946–1960. Other collections include memo-rabilia and administrative records fromsuch diverse sources as the Peace RiverOld Timers’ Association (1933), theGeorge Dawson Centennial Commit-tee (1979), and the Year 2000 Home-coming Committee (2000). A large do-nation of photographs from the PeaceRiver Block Daily News added picturesof many prominent people from the past.We also have bound volumes of the lo-cal newspapers, primarily the PeaceRiver Block News, dating from 1930 to1979.

Funding is, of course, a never-endingproblem for a community archives. OurArchives Committee quickly becameadept at begging for cash and scroung-ing idle office furniture and equipment.Our members spent many hours clean-ing, repairing, and painting. A small an-nual grant from the Historical Society iswelcome but it does not provide enoughfunds to buy all the archival storage ma-terials we need. The CAAP grant wasabsolutely critical to our being able tomove ahead quickly and confidently inthe first years. The advice and supportthat came with the grant kept us on trackand focused, too.

The Lake View Credit Union, ahomegrown financial powerhouse in theSouth Peace, donated the money to buyfour dozen proper newspaper storageboxes for our local newspaper collection.Carpentry students at Northern LightsCollege donated the labour to build cus-tomized storage units for the boxes.

Archives and Archivists

One fund-raiser, which has also gainedpublicity for the Archives, is a weeklycolumn in the local newspaper. TitledFrom the Archives, the column usuallyconsists of two photos from our collec-tion and a 600-word article relating tothe images. To date more than 75 arti-cles have appeared in the paper since thefirst one was published in April of 2000.

Both the City and the Chamber ofCommerce have come to the Archivesfor historical photos to illustrate promo-tional materials and to produce plaquesshowing where historical buildings oncestood. Two mural projects have used theArchives as a starting point for pictureselection. On the textual side of things,a couple of environmental investigatorshave used the Archives to determine landuse on particular sites during the war-time period. A local history group madeextensive use of land ownership recordsin preparing their book, Borderline His-tory.

Soon we will have finished theaccessioning and describing of all thematerials we started with—at least to thecollection and series levels. Next on thelist is probably going to be a new com-puter system so we can make digitalrecords of our photographs. After that,who knows?

A listing of all our archival holdingscan be found on this local history Internetsite: <http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca>.

Look for the link to the South PeaceHistorical Society on the opening page.

The major holdings of our Archivesappear in the BCAUL records. Our e-mail address is [email protected] orwe can be contacted by phone at250.782.4565.

Editor Frances Gundry

The South Peace Historical Society Archives: A Brief History

Gerry Clare is chairman of South Peace His-torical Society Archives.


News and NotesPlease send information to be published in News and Notes to the editor in Whonnock before 15 August, 15 November, 15 February, and 15 May .

MARJEAN SHELBY 1910-2002The East Kootenay Historical Associationlost one of its founding members with thepassing of Margaret Jean (Marjean) McClureNoble Shelby on 20 January 2002. Marjeanand her husband vowed to follow some ofDavid Thompson’s travel routes in our area,doing major hikes such as following HowsePass from near Golden to the Banff-JasperHighway in Alberta. In her teens Marjeanorganized a trip on horseback for eight Kim-berley girls to the Lake of the Hanging Gla-cier. Two of her companions on that trip werethe Dakin sisters described in the Eppardstory (35:1 “Looking for Grass”). Male ob-servers declared it couldn’t be done, but con-gratulated Marjean when it was successfuland happily completed. A photo album ofthat all-girls expedition is in the archives atFort Steele Heritage Town.

—Naomi Miller

THE “DORT BIBLE” FOR SALE?An English clergyman named Giles, banishedas a “non-conformist” in Cromwell’s days, setup a Presbyterian congregation in the Dutchtown of Dort (Dordrecht). His Bible, a sec-ond-edition King James Bible probably pub-lished in 1613, was discovered there whenthe church was torn down in 1743. The word“Dort” was embossed on the cover of thebook. In the mid-1800s a man namedGalbraith brought the Dort Bible to Hamil-ton, ON. Around 1900 the Bible was willedwith some other rare books to Harold Fosterwho lived in Wilmer, north of Invermere. In1923, a few years before his house and hispossessions went up in flames, Foster gave thebook to the Anglican Church in Invermere.The Dort Bible was kept on display in thechurch until 1960, when “a UBC professor”saw it, and worrying about its preservation,arranged to have it stored in the VancouverPublic Library. The book came back toInvermere in 1991 and is kept in a sealed boxin a climate-controlled vault at the Winder-mere Valley Museum. The congregation thinksthat it should not stay there much longer. Theyare facing the question whether to put the

Above: Anne Holt of the Alberni District Historical Society wondered how many pioneers arriving prior to 1871 would have still been around in 1924to respond to the call made by the British Columbia Historical Association for a reunion. (35:1). The answer to this question also surprised the organizersof the reunion. “About 600 names.... From this number, about 300 from all over the Province and outside points attended the Reunion.” On 9 May1924, 250 of those living in the province for fifty-three years and more gathered for a banquet. The oldest lady pioneer attending was Mrs. Lyall, havingarrived in Victoria in 1853. The group photograph shown here was later printed “with a key to the names of the people represented,” and distributed as asouvenir. It seems that the pioneers present filled up personal records forms “indexed and bound in book form by the Archives Department.” (British Co-lumbia Historical Association: Second Annual Report and Proceedings of the Association. For the Year ended October 11th 1924).

SEEKING STORIES OF PIONEER NURSES

Is there a heroine in your community’s his-tory? Was she a nurse?The History of Nursing Group is collectinginformation about nurses in our province.The group is prepared to honour individu-als who made outstanding contributions intheir district. Perhaps it was a matron whokept a hospital operational when there wasno physician available. Or one who rode mileson horseback to tend a new baby or a burnvictim? Or?The group is seeking information on nurses’lives and services. Whether you have just onehighlight or a biography of someone whonursed in BC, please share it with the His-tory of Nursing Archives. Mail your infor-mation to Naomi Miller, Box 105, Wasa, BCV0B 2K0 or Fax: 250.422.3244 or [email protected]. Should you wish to con-sult by phone contact Glennis Zilm (in WhiteRock) at 604-535-3238.

FORT LANGLEY: OUTPOST OF EMPIRE

Note that a conference celebrating the 175th

anniversary of the founding of Fort Langleyis planned to be held 22-24 August 2002 inand around Fort Langley.

Bible on display again or sell it for what isthought to be a sizeable sum of money.Extract from: The Daily Townsman/The DailyBulletin, 7 January 2002 —Naomi Miller


POWER HOUSE

BC Hydro’s Power House at Stave Falls, onthe north shore of the Fraser Valley, is due toopen its door to the public late this spring.The carefully restored plant, with its historicgallery and a science centre, promises to be apopular attraction for visitors of all ages. BCHydro’s attractive book Station Ready—well-crafted by Meg Stanley and Hugh Wilson—tells the story of this interesting site. Enquir-ies at 604.462.1222, Sharon Vallance, SeniorTour Guide.

From 12 to 14 September 2002 the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon FraserUniversity will be holding its third annual conference, this time featuring an in-depth look at the Scots Heritage in British Columbia and the Canadian West.

While the Scots were one of the largest settler groups in British Columbia andwere prominent in the fur trade, government, banking, agriculture, fishing, themilitary, the labour movement, education, and many other areas, their central rolein the history of BC and the Canadian West has not been fully explored.

Speakers at the conference will address these issues in a number of talks. Follow-ing is a provisional list of speakers and topics they will present.

Jean Barman: Scots Ethnicity as Canadian Identity: Nova Scotia’s McQueenSisters in British Columbia.

Keith Bell: The Photographic Representation of Scots on the Prairies.

Alan Bevan: Highland Bagpipe Composers in Western Canada.

Sharron Gunn: Gaelic Speakers in Hudson’s Bay Co.

Marjory Harper: From the Prairies to the Pacific: The Scots in Western Canada.

James Hunter: A Scottish Highlander in the Camp of Sitting Bull.

Clive Justice: From the Hudson Bay Company’s William Fraser Tolmie to UBC’sJohn Davidson: Scots Dominance of Botanical Discoveries andHorticultural Development in the Canadian Pacific Northwest,1792–1992.

Pat Koratchek: Chasing the Comet: David Caldo’s Scottish-Canadian Adventure.

Paul Koroscil: Scottish Heritage Restoration in Fintry, BC.

Richard Mackie: Eric Duncan: Vancouver Island Bard.

David Marshall: Ralph Connor in the West.

Harry McGrath: The Scottish Community in Vancouver and the Janet SmithMurder Case.

Ruth Underhill: Scots Miners in Fort Rupert and Nanaimo.

Michael Vance: Crofters and Canneries: The Interwar Attempt to Introduce Scotsinto the BC Fishing Industry.

Bruce Watson: Scots on the Coast before Alexander Mackenzie.

Along with these presentations, librarians, archivists, and museum curators fromBC and Scotland will review the kinds of source materials that are available tothose who wish to study the role of Scots in BC and the West.The event will also provide an opportunity for people to have experts assess thehistorical value of any letters, books, papers, art works, or other documents thatthey may have in their possession relating to the role of Scots in Canada. It is notthe intention of the Centre to “acquire” the materials, but rather to enable theowners to assess the historical value of the material and, if agreeable, to includethem in an archival data base for use of people interested in the history of BritishColumbia, family histories, or other topics related to Scots in BC.For further information about bringing archival materials to the conference or forgeneral information on the Scottish Centre contact Ron Sutherland [email protected] or 604.988.0479.It is the Scottish Centre’s hope that the materials that individuals, associationsand other groups bring to the conference for assessment and valuation will be asignificant addition to the archival sources concerning the role of Scots.To be added to the Scottish Centre mailing list and receive information about the2002 Conference, contact Wendy Sjolin at [email protected] or 604.291.3689.

Scots Heritage Conference

HEDLEY HAPPY FUNDRAISER

Hedley held a Heritage Fashion Show on 9December 2001, coinciding with ChristmasLight-up Day. Seventeen volunteers fromHedley, Princeton, and Keremeos modelledcostumes and hairstyles of yesteryear. Cos-tumes were from thirty to one hundred yearsold, set off with costume jewellery loanedfor the event. Harry Alton, co-owner of theWild Goat gift shop, looked handsome in anantique tuxedo as he escorted ladies to thestage. Every chair was filled in the hall andmany people watched standing. The Herit-age Society hopes to do it again next Christ-mas. Everyone is invited to Hedley Days inthe last week of August. —Naomi Miller Hedley Heritage & Museum Society Newsletter

EDUCATION ANNIVERSARIES

Amidst all the controversy and rancour overthe teachers’ contract, school district budg-ets, etc. 2002 is still the 150th anniversary ofour public school system. The minister ofeducation has proclaimed “Innovation andImagination” to be the theme of EducationWeek in March and the ministry has putsome “Innovation and Imagination” links onits Web site: <http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/edweek/>.We now have two Web sites aimed at schools.One site—MAKE HISTORY ON THE WEB! —encourages students to write the history oftheir schools and communities: <http://web.mala.bc.ca/dunae/makehistory/>.At the other—LESSONS FROM THE PAST—stu-dents and teachers can engage with a cur-r iculum from the 1890s: <http://www.mala.bc.ca/homeroom/Content/Les-sons/index.htm>.Our History of Education “Homeroom” Website <http://www.mala.bc.ca/homeroom> isalso being revamped and is now chock-fullof all kinds of interesting items, includingsound recordings of 1942 schoolradiobroadcasts. Patrick A. Dunae


Hearsay—A Guide to the PastThe first generation of my Campbell linearrived from Scotland in August 1844.Family folklore tells that Donald and Janeeloped because her family disapproved ofher liaison with the gardener’s son, andthat their first child was born aboard shipon the way to Canada.

For family history researchers, hearsayis where it all begins. Family stories,rumours, the memories of relatives andneighbours, are the colour and texture ofhuman lives. In law, “hearsay” is strictlydefined as evidence given by a witnessbased on information received from others,rather than personal knowledge. In familyhistory research, it may be all we will everhave, but it can be just the beginning ofthe story. By removing the pejorative legalovertone, we are free to use it as a beaconfor our travels through the past.

Hearsay evidence is collected frommemories, and from all other sources ofsecondary proofs. Suppositions, based onthe memoirs of an elderly uncle or acaption inked on the back of a fadingphotograph, can stimulate the questioning

Family History

process that leads the search for suchprimary proofs as a birth certificate or logbook.

For my Campbells, the evidencesuggests a more prosaic story than thatrecorded in the family reunion book.According to the marriage index for theirhome parish, Donald and Jane weremarried in Scotland in June 1843. Clearly,the tale grew with the telling.

As historians, we all bring our personalviewpoints, our emotions, and our beliefsystems to our work. But in order to treatour research subjects fairly, we must setour biases aside, approaching unproveninformation with skepticism. No matterhow much we want to believe theromantic version, we owe it to our owndescendants to counterpoint the mythswith our research findings. In reportingunexamined hearsay to our families andother researchers, we risk increasing itspower to mislead, and we risk engagingin unethical research practice.

As Elizabeth Shown Mills writes inEvidence! Citation and Analysis for the FamilyHistorian, “Are we cynical? No, just

cautious. As researchers, we do notspeculate, we test. We critically observe andcarefully record.”

We rely on hearsay at the risk ofdevoting resources of time, money andemotion to fruitless wandering. But treatedas a springboard, the folklore can lead usto rich sources of more solid information.For example, the obituary of a Campbelldescendant contained six errors. Even so,the item yielded enough shreds ofinformation for me to find his sister andhis wife’s siblings.

The research process is circular. Usinghearsay to discover the supported evidence,we reach back to the next layer of familylegend. There we find the genesis of thenext search.

Suggested further reading:

Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation andAnalysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore:Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997

Tudor, Dean. Finding Answers: The EssentialGuide to Gathering Information in Canada.Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993

by Brenda L. Smith

IN HER ARTICLE “William Bambury: Phoe-nix’s Last Resident” (BC Historical News33:3), Alice Glanville mentioned that HarryM. Bright of Metaline Falls, Wash. intendedto publish some letters he owned, writtenby Bambury, giving details of a 1894 pros-pecting trip through southern BC. Theseletters were written by Bambury to his sis-ter Bertha in England over a five-year pe-riod ending in 1899. At Bambury’s request,a typewritten transcript, including notes andquestions from Bertha, found its way toPhoenix in the 1940s. William Bamburyoriginally planned to publish the content ofhis letters but never did so.After his death in 1951, Bambury’s home atPhoenix was demolished and it was not clearif the transcript of the letters had survived.Optimists in Boundary Country believedthat the letters would eventually turn upagain, as had some of Bambury’s other writ-ings, and they were proven right. Harry

Bright came across the document in theUnited States, in a tavern owner’s deskdrawer, some forty years after they disap-peared. Fascinated by the charm and can-dour of Bambury’s insightful letters to hissister, his lavish descriptions of British Co-lumbia’s natural beauty, and the lively de-scription of his exciting and sometimes lu-dicrous experiences, Bright started prepar-ing the letters for publication, a work of lovethat is now completed. True copies ofBambury’s letters (including Bertha’s notes),fill more than half of the 120 pages of thebook. The remaining pages are filled withan introduction, maps, editor’s notes, a cal-endar, and a 17-page index.Harry Bright is doing his best to ensure thathis self-published book William H. Bambury’sTravels–1894 will be available this summerat visitor-centres and community museumsalong the route Bambury took a century ago.For enquiries please write to Harry M.Bright, PO Box 433, Metaline Falls, WA99153, USA, or e-mail [email protected].

YOUNG BAMBURY’S TRAVELS

Above: An older William Bambury, Phoenix’slast resident.


Adams, John: Old Square-Toes and HisLady: The Life of James and Amelia Doug-las, Horsdal & Shubart Publishers.

Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society: Mem-ories, Agassiz-Harrison Historical Socie-ty (1)

Armitage Doreen: Burrard Inlet: A History,Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd..

Blacklaws, Rick, and Diana French:Ranchland: British Columbia’s CattleCountry, Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.

Blackstock, Michael D.: Faces in the Forest:First Nations Art Created on Living Trees,McGill-Queen’s University Press

Boundary Historical Society: BoundaryHistory: The Fourteenth Report of theBoundary Historical Society, BoundaryHistorical Society (2)

Braches, Helmi, Ed.: Brick by Brick: TheStory of Clayburn, Clayburn VillageCommunity Society (3)

Brown, Wayne F.: Steele’s Scouts: SamuelBenfield Steele and the North-West Rebel-lion, Heritage House Publishing Co.Ltd.

Campbell, Robert A.: Sit Down and DrinkYour Beer: Regulating Vancouver’s Beer Par-lours, 1925-1954, University of TorontoPress

Carlson, Keith Thor, et al, Eds.: A Stolo-Coast Salish Historical Atlas, Douglas &McIntyre Publishing Group

Choate, Chilco: The Fire Still Burns: A Lifeof Trail Talk and Contrary Opinions, Her-itage House Publishing Co. Ltd.

Cole, Jean Murray ed.: This Blessed Wilder-ness: Archibald McDonald’s Letters from theColumbia, 1822-44, UBCPress

Gallaher, Bill: The Promise: Love, Loyalty andthe Lure of Gold, The Story of ‘Cariboo’Cameron, Heritage House PublishingCo. Ltd.

Gilker, Gerry, Jack Lowe, and Geraldine(Dody) Wray: Whispers From TheShedrows: A History of Thoroughbred Rac-ing in Richmond, City of Richmond Ar-chives. (4)

Green, Valerie: If These Walls Could Talk:Victoria’s Houses From the Past, HeritageHouse Publishing Co. Ltd.

Hammond, Dick: A Touch of Strange: Amaz-ing Tales of the Coast, Harbour Publish-ing Co. Ltd.

Candidates for the 19th Competition for Writers of BC History

Harris Douglas C.: Fish, Law, and Colonial-ism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in Brit-ish Columbia, University of TorontoPress

Hayes, Derek: First Crossing: Alexander Mac-kenzie, His Expedition Across North Amer-ica, and the Opening of the Continent,Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group

Hayes, Derek: Historical Atlas of the NorthPacific Ocean: Maps of Discovery and Sci-entific Exploration, 1500–2000, Douglas& McIntyre Publishing Group

Helm, Charles: Tumbler Ridge: Enjoying itsHistory, Trails and Wilderness, MCA Pub-lishing (5)

Henry, Tom: Inside Fighter: Dave Brown’sRemarkable Stories of Canadian Boxing,Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.

Hume, Stephen: Off The Map: Western Trav-els on Roads Less Taken, Harbour Pub-lishing Co. Ltd.

Humphreys, Danda: On The Street WhereYou Live, Volume Three: Sailors, Solicitorsand Stargazers of Early Victoria, HeritageHouse Publishing Co. Ltd.

Jones, Jo Fraser ed: Hobnobbing With ACountess and Other Okanagan AdventuresThe Diaries of Alice Barrett Parke 1891–1900, UBCPress

Knickerbocker, Nancy: No Plaster Saint:The Life of Mildred Osterhout Fahrni,1900–1992, Talonbooks

McCardell, Mike: Chasing the Story God,Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.

McKay, John: The Hudson’s Bay Company’s1835 Steamship Beaver, Vanwell Publish-ing Ltd. (6)

Milne, Courtney: Emily Carr Country,McClelland & Stewart Inc.

O’Keefe, Betty and Ian Macdonald: Mer-chant Prince: The Story of AlexanderDuncan McRae, Heritage House Pub-lishing Co. Ltd.

Overend, Howard: Book Guy: A Librarianin the Peace, Heritage House PublishingCo. Ltd.

Parent, Milton: Circle of Silver, CentennialSeries, Arrow Lakes Historical Society(7)

Perry, Adele: On The Edge of Empire: Gen-der, Race, and the Making of British Co-lumbia, 1849-1871, University of To-ronto Press,

(1) Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society, Box 313,Agassiz, BC VOM IAO Phone 604.796.3545

(2) Boundary Historical Society, PO Box 1687,Grand Forks, BC VOH 1HO

(3) Clayburn Village Community Society c/oCyril Holbrow, 4176 Seldon Road, AbbotsfordBC V2S 7X4 Phone 604.859.4677

(4) City of Richmond Archives, 7700 MinoruGate, Richmond BC V6Y 1R9 Phone:604.231.6430. Fax 604.231,6464

(5) MCA Publishing, Box 1981, Tumbler Ridge,BC VOC 2W0. Phone: 1.888.942.9922. E-mail: http://www.pris.bcxa/wnms/

(6) Vanwell Publishing Limited. PO Box 2131, 1Northrup Crescent, St. Catherines, ON L2R7S2. Phone: 905.937.3100. Fax 905.937.1760or 1-800-661-6136. E-mail:[email protected]

(7) Arrow Lakes Historical Society, Box 819,Nakusp, BC VOG IRO

(8) Times Talk Press, 3645 14th Avenue, VancouverBC V6R 2W2Phone: 604.733.9749.E-mail: [email protected] orders: Vancouver Maritime Museum,1905 Ogden Avenue, Vancouver BCV6J 1A3.

(9) BC Hydro, 6911 South Point Drive, BurnabyBCV3N 4X8.Phone: 604.528.3468

Piddington, Helen: The Inlet: Memoir of aModern Pioneer, Harbour Publishing Co.Ltd.

Rayner, William: Scandal: 130 Years of Dam-nable Deeds in Canada’s Lotus Land,Heritage House Publishing Co. Ltd.

Reksten, Terry: The Illustrated History ofBritish Columbia, Douglas & McIntyrePublishing Group

Rose, Alex: Spirit Dance at Meziadin: JosephGosnell and the Nisga’a Treaty, HarbourPublishing Co. Ltd.

Smith, Lisa: Travels With St. Roch: A Book forKids, Time Talk Press. (8)

Snyders, Tom and Jennifer O’RourkeNamely Vancouver: A Hidden History ofVancouver Place Names, Arsenal PulpPress

Stanley, Meg and Hugh Wilson: StationNormal: The Power of the Stave River,Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd. (9)

Thirkell, Fred and Bob Scullion: FrankGowen’s Vancouver, 1914-1931, HeritageHouse Publishing Co. Ltd.

Turner, Robert D.: Those Beautiful CoastalLiners: The Canadian Pacific Princesses,Sono Nis Press

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Best Article AwardA CERTIFICATE OF MERIT and fifty dollarswill be awarded annually to the author ofthe article, published in BC Historical News,that best enhances knowledge of British Co-lumbia’s history and provides reading en-joyment. Judging will be based on subjectdevelopment, writing skill, freshness of ma-terial, and appeal to a general readership in-terested in all aspects of BC history.

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EssaEssaEssaEssaEssay Scholary Scholary Scholary Scholary ScholarshipsshipsshipsshipsshipsDeadline 15 May 2003

The British Columbia Historical Federationawards two scholarships annually for essayswritten by students at BC colleges oruniversities on a topic relating to BritishColumbia history. One scholarship ($500)is for an essay written by a student in a first-or second-year course; the other ($750) isfor an essay written by a student in a third-or fourth-year course.

To apply for the scholarship, candidatesmust submit (1) a letter of application; (2)an essay of 1,500-3,000 words on a topicrelating to the history of British Columbia;(3) a letter of recommendation from theprofessor for whom the essay was written.

Applications should be submitted before15 May 2003 to: Robert Griffin, Chair BCHistorical Federation Scholarship Commit-tee, PO Box 5254, Station B, Victoria, BCV8R 6N4.

The winning essay submitted by a third-or fourth-year student will be published inBC Historical News. Other submissions maybe published at the editor’s discretion.

MANUSCRIPTS submitted for publication Should be sent to the editor of BC Histor ical News inWhonnock. Submissions should preferably not exceed 3,500 words. Submission by e-mail of themanuscr ipt and illustrations is welcome. Otherwise please send a hard copy and if possible a diskcopy of the manuscript by ordinary mail. All illustrations should have a caption and source infor-mation. It is understood that manuscr ipts published in BC Histor ical News will also appear in anyelectronic version of the journal.

BC HistoryWeb Site Prize

The British Columbia Historical Federa-tion and David Mattison are jointly spon-soring a yearly cash award of $250 to rec-ognize Web sites that contribute to the un-derstanding and appreciation of British Co-lumbia’s past. The award honours individualinitiative in writing and presentation.

Nominations for the BC History WebSite Prize for 2002 must be made to theBritish Columbia Historical Federation,Web Site Prize Committee, prior to 31 De-cember 2002. Web site creators and authorsmay nominate their own sites.

Prize rules and the on-line nominationform can be found on The British Co-lumbia History Web site: <http://www.victoria.tc.ca/resources/bchistory-announcements.htlm>.

Federation News

At a recent luncheon at Government House, The Honourable Iona Campagnolo, PC, CM, OBC,Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, Honorary Patron of the British Columbia HistoricalFederation, shared her commitment to fostering a better public understanding of British Columbia’shistory with her guests. Shown on this photograph taken by Stephanie Desrochers are from left toright: Stephen Hume, Robin Fisher, Jacqueline Eaton, Her Honour, Paul Tenant, Wayne Desrochers,Yvette Guigueno, Susan Mayse, and Terry Glavin.

Revelstoke ConferenceReady for Revelstoke? Yes, we are ready!An insert in the previous (Winter) issue includedconference information and a registration formfor you to complete and mail to Revelstoke.The insert in this issue contains information forregistration for two free BCHF workshops on 9May arranged by Melva Dwyer with a grant fromCanada’s National History Society.On page 17 of this issue is a brief summary of the

Your Web site editor wants your in-putDo you have any news that should get out toother societies? Do you know something thatmembers of other societies might like toknow? Is your society doing anything unu-sual? Has your society accomplished some-thing noteworthy? Does your society have aprogram or schedule you’d like to share? E-mail your information to the Web site editor,Eileen Mak, at [email protected] orcall her at 604.875.8023. Let’s make the Website even more interesting, current, and use-ful.

Open PositionsAre you ready to take a position as a member ofthe council of the British Columbia HistoricalFederation? If you are interested to be involvedin the affairs of the Federation in an excutivepositions, or if you would like to manage or takepart in one of our committees please contact RonWelwood, Past President, in charge ofnomintations.R. Welwood, 1805 Ridgewood Road,Nelson BC V1L 6J9. Phone 250.825.4743.E-mail: [email protected].

attractive program arranged by the conference’shosts, the Revelstoke & District Historical Asso-ciation.If you have questions please call Cathy English atthe Revelstoke Museum and Archives. 250.837.3067or ask executive members mentioned on the insidecover of this issue.See you in Revelstoke!

British Columbia Historical FederationOrganized 31 October 1922

Member Societies

The British ColumbiaHistorical Federation isan umbrella organizationembracing regionalsocieties.

Please keep the editor of BC Historical News informed about corrections to be made to this list.

��

Box 571, Lions Bay BC V0N 2E0London Heritage Farm Society

6511 Dyke Road, Richmond BC V7E 3R3Maple Ridge Historical Society

22520 116th Ave., Maple Ridge, BC V2X 0S4Nanaimo & District Museum Society

100 Cameron Road, Nanaimo BC V9R 2X1Nanaimo Historical Society

PO Box 933, Nanaimo BC V9R 5N2Nelson Museum

402 Anderson Street, Nelson BC V1L 3Y3Nicola Valley Museum Archives Association

PO Box 1262, Merritt BC V1K 1B8North Shore Historical Society

c/o 1541 Merlynn Crescent,North Vancouver BC V7J 2X9

North Shuswap Historical SocietyBox 317, Celista BC V0E 1L0

Okanagan Historical SocietyPO Box 313, Vernon BC V1T 6M3

Princeton & District Museum & ArchivesBox 281, Princeton BC V0X 1W0

Qualicum Beach Historical Society587 Beach Road,Qualicum Beach BC V9K 1K7

Revelstoke & District Historical AssociationBox 1908, Revelstoke BC V0E 2S0

Richmond Museum SocietyMinoru Park Plaza, 7700 Minoru Gate,Richmond BC V6Y 7M7

Salt Spring Island Historical Society129 McPhillips Avenue,Salt Spring Island BC V8K 2T6

Silvery Slocan Historical SocietyBox 301, New Denver BC V0G 1S0

Surrey Historical SocietyBox 34003 17790 #10 Hwy. Surrey BC V3S 8C4

Terrace Regional Historical SocietyPO Box 246, Terrace BC V8G 4A6

Texada Island Heritage SocietyBox 129, Blubber Bay BC V0N 1E0

Trail Historical SocietyPO Box 405, Trail BC V1R 4L7

Union Bay Historical SocietyBox 448, Union Bay, BC V0R 3B0

Vancouver Historical SocietyPO Box 3071, Vancouver BC V6B 3X6

Victoria Historical SocietyPO Box 43035, Victoria NorthVictoria BC V8X 3G2

Yellowhead MuseumBox 1778, RR# 1, Clearwater BC V0E 1N0

Affiliated Groups

Alberni District Historical SocietyPO Box 284, Port Alberni, BC V9Y 7M7

Anderson Lake Historical SocietyPO Box 40, D’Arcy BC V0N 1L0

Arrow Lakes Historical SocietyPO Box 819, Nakusp BC V0G 1R0

Atlin Historical SocietyPO Box 111, Atlin BC V0W lA0

Boundary Historical SocietyPO Box 1687, Grand Forks BC V0H 1H0

Bowen Island HistoriansPO Box 97. Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G0

Bulkley Valley Historical & Museum SocietyBox 2615, Smithers BC V0J 2N0

Burnaby Historical Society6501 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby BC V5G 3T6

Chemainus Valley Historical SocietyPO Box 172, Chemainus BC V0R 1K0

Cowichan Historical SocietyPO Box 1014, Duncan BC V9L 3Y2

District 69 Historical SocietyPO Box 1452, Parksville BC V9P 2H4

East Kootenay Historical AssociationPO Box 74, Cranbrook BC V1C 4H6

Finn Slough Heritage & Wetland Society9480 Dyke Road, Richmond BC V7A 2L5

Fraser Heritage SocietyBox 84, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0

Galiano Museum Society20625 Porlier Pass DriveGaliano Island BC V0N 1P0

Gulf Islands Branch BCHFc/o A. Loveridge S22, C11, RR # 1Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0

Hedley Heritage SocietyPO Box 218, Hedley BC V0X 1K0

Jewish Historical Society of BC206-950 West 41st Avenue,Vancouver BC V5Z 2N7

Kamloops Museum Association207 Seymour Street, Kamloops BC V2C 2E7

Koksilah School Historical Society5213 Trans Canada Highway,Koksilah, BC V0R 2C0

Kootenay Lake Historical SocietyPO Box 1262, Kaslo BC V0G 1M0

Langley Centennial MuseumPO Box 800, Fort Langley BC V1M 2S2

Lantzville Historical Societyc/o Box 274, Lantzville BC V0R 2H0

Local historical societiesare entitled to becomeMember Societies of theBC Historical Federation.All members of theselocal historical societiesshall by that very fact bemembers of the Federa-tion.

Questions aboutmembership should bedirected to:Terry Simpson,Membership Secretary,BC Historical Federation,193 Bird Sanctuary,Nanaimo BC V9R 6G8Phone: [email protected]

Affiliated Groups areorganizations withspecialized interests orobjects of a historicalnature.

Membership fees forboth classes of member-ship are one dollar permember of a MemberSociety or AffiliatedGroup with a minimummembership fee of $25and a maximum of $75.

Archives Association of British ColumbiaBritish Columbia Genealogical Society

CONTACT US:BC Historical News welcomes yourletters and manuscripts on subjectsdealing with the history of BritishColumbia and British Columbians.

Please send stories or essays on anyaspect of the rich past of our prov-ince to the Editor, BC HistoricalNews, Fred Braches, PO Box 130,Whonnock BC, V2W 1V9.Phone: 604.462.8942E-mail: [email protected]

Send books for review and bookreviews directly to the Book Re-view Editor, BC Historical News,Anne Yandle, 3450 West 20thAvenue, Vancouver BC V6S 1E4,Phone: 604.733.6484E-mail: [email protected]

News items for publication in BCHistorical News should be sent to theeditor in Whonnock.

THE BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL FEDERATION

INVITES SUBMISSIONS OF BOOKS FOR THE 20TH ANNUAL

COMPETITION FOR WRITERS OF BC HISTORY.

Any book presenting any facet of BC history, published in2002, is eligible. This may be a community history, biogra-phy, record of a project or an organization, or personal rec-ollections giving a glimpse of the past. Names, dates andplaces, with relevant maps or pictures, turn a story into “his-

tory.” Note that reprints or revisions of books are not eligible.

The judges are looking for quality presentations, especially if fresh material isincluded, with appropriate illustrations, careful proofreading, an adequateindex, table of contents and bibliography, from first-time writers as well asestablished authors.

The Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing will be awarded to anindividual writer whose book contributes significantly to the recorded his-tory of British Columbia. Other awards will be made as recommended bythe judges to valuable books prepared by groups or individuals.

Winners will receive a Certificate of Merit, a monetary award and an invitationto the BCHF annual conference to be held in Prince George, May 2003.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: All books must have been published in 2001 andshould be submitted as soon as possible after publication. Two copies of each bookshould be submitted. Books entered become property of the BC Historical Federa-tion. Please state name, address and telephone number of sender, the selling price ofall editions of the book, and, if the reader has to shop by mail, the address from whichit may be purchased, including applicable shipping and handling costs.

SEND TO: BC Historical Federation Writing CompetitionPO Box 5254, Station B, Victoria BC V8R 6N4

DEADLINE: 31 December 2002

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Return Address:British Columbia Historical NewsJoel Vinge, Subscription Secretary561 Woodland DriveCranbrook, BC V1C 6V2

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40025793Publications Mail Registration No. 09835

Please send correspondence aboutsubscriptions to the SubscriptionSecretary, Joel Vinge561 Woodland DriveCranbrook BC V1C 6V2Phone/Fax: 250.489.2490E-mail: [email protected]

SubscriptionsIndividual $15.00 per yearInstitutional $20.00 per yearFor addresses outside Canada add $6.00

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our mailing costs.

2002