Innholdsfortegnelse for 51.3 | Fall 2018 i British Columbia History

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Letters from Readers

Pender Islands Museum Having just seen the latest copy of your British Columbia History magazine and the subject of school histories in BC, I thought you might find our new satellite group to the Pender Islands Museum Facebook group of interest. The group is called Pender Islands Old School and with the goal to draw out past alumni and their stories. Here is a link to the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PenderIslandsOldSchool/ Regards, John Mackenzie Spring 2018 I just received the Spring 2018 — British Columbia History (magazine) — which I am enjoying it — as I have the others in my collection. Don Connors Charles A. Bayley’s Birth Date Solved Dear Andrea: The “eagle-eyed reader” who noted the error about Charles A. Bayley being age 18 when he arrived in Victoria in…

1 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

AN EYE FOR A GOOD PICTURE The legacy of John Aitken

The camera work of amateur photographer John Aitken provides rare glimpses of early settlement on Mayne Island as well as other parts of the southern Gulf Islands, and even includes one or two relating to the Klondike gold rush. Aitken’s images are skillfully composed and beautifully executed—all done by an amateur photographer with a 4x5 camera in his hands and a good eye for his surroundings. Born in Scotland on November 4th, 1873,1 John Aitken took his place as the fourth child and second2 son of Alexander and Janet Aitken (née Chalmers).3 John’s destiny, along with that of his family, was bound up with the economic circumstances of the time, which saw a large exodus of Scotland’s population in the mid-1880s—due in large part to increasing urbanization and industrialization in…

9 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Endnotes

1. District of West Vancouver, Municipal Council, October 6, 1975. 2. Don Lanskail, “Remarks to West Vancouver Museum and Historical Society, West Vancouver’s Seawalk and Other Municipal Treasures,” May 27, 1993. Lanskail (1917–1996) was councillor from 1963 to 1982, mayor from 1987 to 1990, and made Freeman of the City in 1982. For details, see his papers in the West Vancouver Archives. 3. “Inflation Calculator,” Bank of Canada, accessed June 11, 2018. 4. “Inflation Calculator,” Bank of Canada, accessed June 22, 2018, http:// www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/. 5. Vancouver Sun, January 11, 1967. 6. Founded in 1967 as the West Vancouver Preservation and Conservation Society, it was renamed Citizens Planning Forum in 1969 and continued into the early 1980s. 7. Vancouver Sun, May 27, 1969. 8. Citizens Planning Forum, Position Paper, November 1970,…

4 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Endnotes

1. Indian Reserve Commission Decision Minutes (June 20, 1879), Library and Archives Canada, rg 10, vol 11028, file SRR2, 324. Note: This paper represents the views of the author only, and does not speak on behalf of the Stó:lō Tribal Council, Skwah First Nation, or Kwa-kwa-a-plit First Nation. 2. “Sam Greer,” (April 7, 1925), British Columbia Archives, vertical file 1637. 3. United States, Naval Enlistment Rendezvous, 1855-1891. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. “Samuel Greer of Greer’s Beach,” City of Vancouver Archives AM54 S23, file 01888. 4. “The Late Sam Greer Lived in Chilliwack”, Chilliwack Progress, April 8, 1925, 4; Register, Christchurch Cathedral de Montreal 1864, Fo. 15 (Drouin Collection, accessed at http://ancestry.com, May 25 2015). 5. Keith Carlson, The Power of Place, the Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and…

3 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre

A dry, gravel riverbed meanders near greying cedar huts at the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre. Ornamental maples, boxwoods, rocks, and a boardwalk instantly invoke meditative calm. This is the Heiwa Teien or Peace Garden, created by Roy Tomomichi Sumi, a former World War II camp internee at nearby Rosebery, who later supervised the renowned Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia. His garden of “Past, Present and Future” was his final project, a gift to the memory of Japanese Canadians who were interned at camps like this one at New Denver. Overt racism existed long before the war, but fear and panic gripped BC following the surprise-bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Canada declared war on the Empire of Japan the next day. More than 23,000 Japanese…

4 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Phil Gaglardi at 78 rpm

To describe Phil Gaglardi as colourful is to repeat what may be the only description with which both his supporters and his critics could agree. During his 20 years as MLA for Kamloops, Gaglardi—nicknamed Flyin’ Phil for a scandal involving an airplane and his reputation for driving at excessive speeds—was not exactly known as a consensus politician. Within his own constituency, throughout the province, and even within his own Social Credit Party, he was both revered and reviled. However, beyond the political arena, he possessed one skill that no one should dismiss. The man could sing. In the early 1990s, I was looking into the history of the Kamloops region and was also actively pursuing my fascination with record collecting. In a bizarre coincidence, the two came together in Phil…

2 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Editorial Calendar

British Columbia History is a quarterly magazine chronicling British Columbia’s unique story through the words and images of community writers, archivists, museum professionals, academic historians and more. THEMES British Columbia History publishes one theme issue per year. Spring 2019—Our special issue of 2019 will focus on the law. Historic legal cases that shaped British Columbia. SUBMISSIONS Submissions to British Columbia History are reviewed three times a year (Winter, Spring, Fall) by the magazine Readers’ Panel, which assists the Editor in selecting articles that are a good fit for the magazine. Our editorial team makes every effort to respond to all submission enquiries; however, our magazine operates with a small part-time staff and it may take some time for us to get back…

1 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Endnotes

1. Nellie Aitken Georgeson, “Some Mayne Island Personalities,” A Gulf Islands Patchwork: Some Early Events on the Islands of Galiano, Mayne, Saturna, North and South Pender (Gulf Islands Branch, BC Historical Association, December 1991). Also confirmed in Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950, FHL Film 6035516. Retrieved from Ancestry.com. 2. The 1871 Scotland Census indicates that Alex and Janet Aitken had a 3-year son, Alexander, and a 1-year old daughter, Marion. 3. Ian McInnes remembers that “my grandmother’s parents, Alexander Telfor Aitken and Janet Chalmers Aitken, had thirteen children. Two boys, David and Richard, died as children in Scotland, the rest all came to Canada.... Alex, Marion, Maggie and John came in 1888. Their parents came in 1902, along with George, Willie, Bob, Jessie, Jimmy and Rachel. Tom appears to…

4 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Number 3 Company (The Saanich Rangers) of the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers

My neighbour, John Bosher, PhD, recently showed me a brassard (an armband) and a cap badge from the Saanich Rangers, a small military unit that links a number of prominent British Columbians from the Second World War. This piqued my curiosity. In 1942 war fears were growing and the unit was formed as part of the preparations for a guerilla campaign were enemy troops to invade British Columbia. Japanese forces were advancing on many fronts, making British Columbians nervous. Many citizens did not feel that the Canadian government was allocating enough protection to the West Coast and the Yukon. To meet this challenge men began to organize informal military units in preparation for what they assumed would be an invasion. Public demand for a visible military force caused the Army…

5 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

The Great War and the Home Front Reportage from the Ladysmith Chronicle

The seemingly distant Great War profoundly altered life at home in the small, new-immigrant community of Ladysmith, BC. Articles, editorials, letters, and even ads published in the twice-weekly Ladysmith Chronicle newspaper (still published every week), show the extent of the First World War’s impact on every facet of life. Citizens shaped many of their day-to-day decisions by considering how they would influence the war effort. Ladysmith before the War Incorporated in 1904, Ladysmith, 24 km south of Nanaimo and 97 km north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, was “an instant town” established by coal baron James Dunsmuir. He moved workers at his Extension mine to the planned town he was building at Oyster Harbour, where coal shipping facilities were already in place. Houses, stores, churches, and even opera houses and…

15 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

NORTHERN BC RAIL TRANSPORTATION From backlog to foreground

Most archives have at least one long-standing “backlog” project that has been sitting on the back burner for far too long. This serves as a source of constant frustration for archivists as they struggle to care for incredible treasure troves of information that remain so inaccessible they might as well be stored in a hidden grotto. The Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum Collection was one such project for the Northern BC Archives (NBCA) at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). This tremendous collection of records documenting the rail history of the northern half of the province remained untouched for almost two decades. However, thanks to some innovative grant-writing skills, and the support of the Canadian National Railways, resources were finally obtained to process the materials—and now these hidden…

4 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Fort Langley CN Station

The station was built for the Canadian Northern Railway in 1915 as agriculture expanded and new settlement drew people into the Fraser Valley. Absorbed by the Canadian National Railway in 1918, its life as a passenger station spanned the steam through diesel eras until 1980. Built to a standard 3rd Class Type design, this is one of the few remaining stations like it in western Canada, and the only surviving station from this era in the Langley region. The building is owned by the Township of Langley, maintained and operated by the Langley Heritage Society through an innovative partnership. Originally located 300 metres to the west, the station was moved by Langley Heritage Society volunteers after the building was declared a Municipal Heritage Site in 1983. This station was restored…

1 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Legacies

History is often told through the official photographers, the staged studio portraits, the parades, the newspaper shots. But what about the photos taken by the newspapers that did not make it to the press or images taken by the amateur photographers? I grew up with an ever-present camera wielded by my dad. Road trips were punctuated by stops for photo opportunities. Now, my brother, husband, and daughter have taken up the role of photographer—if you attended the recent BCHF annual conference, you would have heard the click-click of my husband Darren’s camera. Photographers can get a little obsessed with getting the perfect shot—we almost left Darren behind in Sandon because he was so intent on his subject. Today, everyone with a cell phone is telling their own story through selfies…

2 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

WATERFRONT ACQUISITION IN WEST VANCOUVER Ambitious, controversial, and forward-thinking

In October 1975, the West Vancouver Municipal Council decided to construct a continuous public walk from Dundarave Park to the Cleveland Dam, a distance of about 10 kilometres. Full public access would mean gradually buying up the 32 houses and the commercial properties occupying the waterfront from Ambleside Park to John Lawson Park (13th to 18th streets) so that when all the projects were completed, the public could walk from the Cleveland Dam to Ambleside Park, then along the waterfront from 13th to 18th, and finally take the Centennial Seawalk to Dundarave Park.1 The plan to purchase these properties—as they became available—was ambitious and controversial, requiring a long-term and potentially expensive commitment from consecutive councils. The purchase of the properties from 1975 to the present was closely linked to the…

18 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Sam Greer and “the Old Reserve” at Chilliwack Landing 1

On Sam Greer’s passing, the April 8, 1925 Chilliwack Progress declared that the hostile relationship between the Stó:lo and Chilliwack Landing’s first sheriff had “compelled Mr. Greer to move to Kitsilano before the arrival of the railway.” Greer lived in the Chilliwack, BC area for less than twenty years, but his land exploits as a squatter and claim jumper are etched into the geography of modern-day Chilliwack, visible in the rectangle of territory that he ripped from the block of Stó:lo reserve lands.2 Sam Greer was born in Ireland in about 1844. He arrived in North America and enlisted in the United States Navy to support the Union side in the American Civil War.3 In 1864, Greer married Sara Friar in Montreal and afterwards was “attracted by the gold discovery…

11 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Endnotes

Much of research upon which this article is based was done by volunteers at the Ladysmith and District Historical Society Archives, including Brian Bornhold, Terry Carson, Isabelle Ouelette, Bonnie and Ray Peerens, Ann Rogers, and John Sharp. 1. For histories of Ladysmith see, for example, Richard Goodacre, Dunsmuir’s Dream: Ladysmith, the First Fifty Years (Ladysmith: Town of Ladysmith, 1991); Viola Cull, Chronicle of Ladysmith and District (Ladysmith: Ladysmith Historical Society, 1980); and Viola Cull, Ladysmith’s Colourful History, (Ladysmith: Ladysmith Historical Society, 1985). 2. A. Ross McCormack, Reformers, Rebels and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 9. 3. See the account in John Hinde, When Coal Was King: Ladysmith and the Coal-Mining Industry on Vancouver Island (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003), 91122. 4. Lynn Bowen,…

2 min

British Columbia History|51.3 | Fall 2018

Looking Forward

II am pleased to introduce Aimee Greenaway, our newest addition to British Columbia History magazine. Aimee hails from Nanaimo, and will be taking over the reins as Book Review Editor in coming months. I asked her in this column to tell us a little about herself and about the new books she keeps close by. From Vancouver Island to the Kootenay, books reviewed in this issue touch on places that matter, introduce people we should know, and capture change and reinvention across time. Returning to our pages is our longtime reviewer Janet Nicol of Vancouver as well as the Sunshine Coast’s own Vern Giesbrecht. We know they will remain part of our family of book reviewers as we move forward under Aimee’s guidance. K. Jane Watt Hooked on History Previously…

12 min