Archives Visit February 28

Hi Group Awesome:

I'm putting up the notes from my visit to the archives today - some PSAC origin stuff and then a lot of materials from the Irvine family fonds. They were a real pioneer family - possibly their first child was the first white person born on VI. Take a look!


Archives feb 28

- A/C/25/P96 – useless – letter from HBC to Douglas re: shares in the Company
- Could not locate A/C/25 P961 or A/B/40 AN3.9

- A/C/25/H86 – sale of Maple Point (Craigflower area) from HBC to “Dunbar James Earl of Selkirk Edward Ellice Andrew Colvile Sir George Simpson and Henry Hulse Berens” may 17 1854 – 213 pounds sterling – about 213 acres!
- Granted land “upon trust nevertheless for the Puget Sound Agricultural Company”
- Victoria District Lot 30 Section 21
- Map included but copying not allowed


EARLY VICTORIA
Reminiscences of Jack “Long Gun” Irvine
Completed – September, 1942
Transcribed by: I.R. Castillo
(preserves grammatical and spelling errors of original manuscript)

“My parents came from the Orkneys…They sailed from the London Docks on the ship Tory Nov 9, 1850 & arrived in Victoria May 10th 1851…They came out as servants of the HBC to the best of my memory the salary was twenty lbs a year & board & as money was pretty scarce in those days I suppose it looked quite a handsome sum. There was an agreement signed that they had to stay a certain number of years, once they arrived there was nothing that they could do, but stay right on the job as there was no place to go, only the HBC fort, nothing but Indians & wilderness & the Indians were none too friendly in those days…after, when there agreement was finished, they were allowed to buy a piece of land & try farming my parents went up to the head of Portage Inlet & that is where I was born. Later they took up one hundred acres in the Cedar Hill district about three miles from the fort & that is where they passed away for myself I have lived here for seventy nine years & my health up to now is one hundred per ct good.

“The farm my parents took up was called Rose Bank farm, & had to be bought, it was about one hundred acres in the first place, but they graudally acquired more acreage, until they had over three hundred acres & all was, what you would call wild land. When they moved out to Rose Bank, there was one baby boy & he was born in the HBC Fort, in fact the first white boy born on Vancouver Island. Billy Irvine now passed on. Then a baby girl Mary Ann was born next Jessie after that your humble servant Jack, then Christina & last Margeret, still living on part of the old farm. In those days there were no schools. & when they boys got about seven or eight years old, a very kind land, Mrs Henery King undertook to teach a few boys for a couple of hours a day”

“When my parents first came to the Cedar Hill district, there was only about three familys & they were about two or three miles apart Henery King, James Tod, & Peter Merriman, but as time went on there were quite a few more families bought small farms. Sam Pollock, Sam Norn M. Finnerty, R. Scott, Jackson, Hoolihan, & others I don’t remember. There was a church built, St Lukes (English) & Bishop Hills had it devided by a curtain in the middle, & allowed it to be used as a school, that was my first experience of school days…the old church school had quite a crowd if there was a dozen kids attending”

“This was about the year 1869, 1870, & by that time I had to be a man & do quite a few jobs on the farm such as milking cows, feeding sheep, cleaning up cow sheds &c I was then about nine years old.”

“in those days there was always a fleet of men of war in Esquimalt harbor & the sailors sure were a lively lot, as there was nothing but Hacks to ride in & that cost quite a bit to hire they would go to a livery stable & hire a horse & they always wanted one with a long back so that three or four could ride at once. This is not fiction. I myself have seen three sailors on one horse, two looking forward & one turned the other way holding the horses tail like he was steering a ship. Those days are gone forever. When I was about twelve years old I was quite a hunter & used an old HBC flint lock gun, sometimes it went off & sometimes it failed to go off, any how I always brought home the bacon, that is in the shape of grouse, duck, Geese & partridges &c. I still have the old gun & if it could talk, well it would tell you a mighty fine story of old times”

13 – “I don’t remember what the people did for matches in those times. I have heard that the fires were never let out. I do remember that there were no matches to be had for quite a long time.”

19 – “I can remember the year 1869. That is about the time when I had to quite playing with the Indian Kids & get to work & do my share of the chores on the farm in the start there was not much land cleared & what crop was put in it was cut with a sickle. That was the start of course there was the potato patch & vegetables. All together not more than two acres. But more was cleared every year when we had quite a few acres cleared, the sickle was discarded, for a scythe. & then came the cradle, in these times if you saw a cradle you would think it is a Chinese puzzle. But along side of a sickle it was a wonderful tool & a good man could cut from two to three acres a day & in cutting grain with this Cradle the grain was all laid out to one side & a man or boy with a handful of straw pulled out of a sheaf. There was quite a knack in doing this, but once you got on to making a bnad there was nothing to it & you could bind up the grain as fast as it was cut.”

35 – “I mentioned wild pigs & at this time there were droves of them, they ranged from Mt Tolmie to the Tod farm at Cordova Bay & they sure did lots of damage to the farmers crops, especially if they got into a field of potatoes. As a rule they did all the damage at night & as they went back to the thick brush at daylight, they were pretty hard to get at to shoot.”

37 – “now for a change let us go back to the Indians it seems that I cant get away from the natives. Any how when I was a kid that is all the play-mates we had & I could talk Chinook like I belonged to the tribe”

38 – “I had the misfortune to get my hand caught in the cogwheels of a chaff cutter & what it did to my hand was not very nice. Two of my fingers were like sausage meat. & it was quite a time before I could be taken to the Drs I think it was about ten or eleven oclock in the morning & the Dr & his good wife were having breakfast when we arrived. my hand was done up in a towel, just to save the pieces. I was nine years old & as that was the first time I had been in a big house I was quite interested. I suppose I forgot all about the mashed fingers.”



From Irvin clippings file

Colonist, March 21, 1907 – “Pioneer resident mourned by many – Funeral of the late Mrs Irvine attended by host of sorrowing friends”
“The longest funeral cortege that has been seen in this city for many years followed the body of Mrs. Jessie Irvine of Cedar Hill to the Ross Bay cemetery yesterday afternoon.
The late Mrs. Irvine was one of the oldest residents of the city, having come here twenty years before British Columbia joined the confederation and when there was but one other white woman in town. She lived at Cedar Hill for 47 years and was known to everybody in the district. She was immensely popular, being known far and wide for the god old-fashioned hospitality which was always the rule at her house. Her death was felt as a personal loss by all residents of the Cedar Hill district and by many people in this city. (etc.)”

Colonist, Sunday, March 29, 1908 – FORTY YEARS AGO – The British Colonist, Monday, March 30, 1868”
Wholesale Slaughter – On Saturday morning Mr. Irvine, a farmer in Victoria district, found 34 heal of his sheep lying dead in the field. The bodies bore evidence of having been torn by Panthers. A hung will be organized. Where are the paper hunters?”

Colonist Feb. 21 1906 – “Pioneer’s Funeral – One of the largest funerals that has taken place for some time was that of the late John Irvine, whose remains were laid to rest yesterday afternoon in the family plot in Ross Bay cemetery.

Bibliography

British Columbia Archives (hereafter BCA). Attorney General. F49 9. Uplands Farm – Letter to Colonial Secretary 27. April 1864.

BCA. Craigflower School – Letter. E.G. Alston. F209 1. September 19, 1870. Fisher, William – Letter to Colonial Secretary. October 15, 1869.

BCA. Colwood Land Company. ADD MSS 1950. Diverse collection, 1865-1970.

BCA. Finlayson, Roderick. F560 A5. Maple Point Establishment [Craigflower] – Supplies. List given July 23, 1855.

BCA. First Victoria Directory – A General Directory of Citizens. 1860.

BCA. Great Britain Foreign Office. DAG79 3. HBC correspondence with Foreign Office – 10 letters. P.R.O.F.O. v. 734.

BCA. Lands and Works Department. F910 22. Letter to Colonial Secretary. 1865.

BCA. ADD MSS 2037. Farm Life Edward Marriner – Cowichan Bay. 1860s.

BCA. Puget’s Sound Agricultural Company [hereafter PSAC]. AB 252. Abstract of valuation of the buildings and other improvements at the PSAC establishments. Undated.

BCA. AC 25 P96. PSAC correspondence outward. 1854, 1856, 1862.

BCA. AC25 M92. PSAC original 7 letters. 1859, 1861.

BCA. AB25. Prospectus, list of shareholders, 1852. General meeting, 1841.

BCA. AC25 P961. PSAC statements. 1857, 1861, 1863.

BCA. ADD MSS 2431. PSAC - McKenzie Family private papers relating to family and Craigflower.

BCA. AE R731 T58. PSAC - W.F. Tolmie Correspondence. 1850.

BCA. AB40 AN3.9. Origin of PSAC. 1865.

BCA. AC25H86. HBC grant of lands in Vancouver Island to PSAC. 1854.

“The Census of Vancouver Island, 1855.” British Columbia Historical Quarterly Vol. 4 No. 1 (January 1940): 51-58.

Mackie, Richard. Colonial Land, Indian Labour, and Company Capital: The Economy of Vancouver Island, 1849-1858.

Mackie, Richard. Wilderness Profound: Victorian Life on the Gulf of Georgia. Victoria, BC: Sono Nis Press, 1995.

Smith, Dwight L, ed. A Tour of Duty in the Pacific Northwest: E. A. Porcher and HMS Sparrowhawk, 1865-1868. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2000.

Taylor, Leona. “An Index to the British Colonist Newspaper, Victoria, B.C.” Victoria’s Victoria, .

“Census [searchable census data, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901].” viHistory,

FROM FEBRUARY 19, 2007
GR 332 Volume 1
Page 128 - 1848 - George Simpson's dispatches concerning farm yield.
Page 243 - PSAC
Page 280 - Sale of land
Page 287 - HBC and PSAC sale of land
Page 299 - 1851 - PSAC land stuff
Page 322 - 1851 - price of supplies, etc
Page 383 - HBC - extent of their lands on Vancouver Island (hereafter V.I)

GR332 Volume 2
Page 35 - 1852 - requesting returns from VI
Page 102 - 1853 - bringing in labourers by purchasing land
Page 318 - Modifications in land regulations
Page 331 - land sale regulations modified

GR332 Volume 3
page 1 - approval of imports
page 38 - concerns the selling of land to foreigners
page 40 - concerns the selling of land to foreigners
page 51 - 1857 - sales of land on V.I.
page 76 - land sales
page 77 - land sales
page 88 - 1857 - price of land on VI
page 126 - 1857 - land sales, expenditures, etc
page 196 - 1858 - request for return of all land sold
page 237 - land price
page 243 - concerning town lots in Victoria
page 244 - inquiry of land on VI
page 245 - response to above inquiry
page 248 - inquiry of sales of public land
page 259 - land in Victoria

GR332 Vol 4
page 84 - quantities of public land sold

GR 332 Vol 5
page 6 - question of public reserves
page 276 - Beckley Farm
page 311 - Scott, you didn't note what this was, but I'm guessing it was important!

GR 332 Vol 6
page 98 - statement of receipt for land sales

"Old Homes and Families" by J K Nesbitt. Appears to be features that ran in the Daily Colonist in the 1940s and 1950s about pioneer families, hotels, houses, etc, etc, etc. Varying degrees of helpful information to be found in these articles.

May 30 1948 - article about Lake Hill, Craigflower and the McKenzies
Sept 5 1948 - Work/Wark family and Hillside Farm
Aug 28 1949 - Tolmie and Cloverdale Farm
Mar 26 1950 - Strommers Farm
Apr 9 1950 - Skinner Farm
Feb 5 1950 - Pemberton/Gonzales
Nov 12 1950 - mention of the Melrose Diary, states that it is to be found in the BC Historical Association Quarterly, but no date or issue number given.
Dec 3 1950 - Deans - reference to McKenzies of Craigflower
Apr 22 1951 - Watsons (m. to Jessie McKenzie, so ref. to that family)
May 6 1951 - Irvines

The "Blue Book of Statistics" can be found on reels B14171-B14173 (formerly reels 625A-627A)

The Melrose Fonds (the famous diary): E/B/M49.1

The Irvine Family Fonds (Cedar Hill farmers): MS-0322

Nichols Fonds (about 1200 photos from around BC dated 1906-1960 and including Beckley Farm - not our period but might be useful to the 'half-way' between the 19th C and now): 98207-86

Some photos (I think these can all be found online):
- F-07393 (Melrose portrait)
- A-01480 (Cloverdale farm)
- A-02978 (Uplands farm)
- B-01462 (Cedar Hill farm)

Diary of Martha Elle 1853-56 - BC Historical Quarterly 13 - April 1949 91-112; Oct 1949 257-270

Brian Ceyles - Puget Sound Agricultural Company - 1847-57 - FC38229 P8C6

Meetings Record

Feb. 14 meeting - BC Archives
In attendance: Dan, Taryn, and Scott

Our first big visit to the archives saw us combing through the catalogues and finding aids to get a preliminary picture of what was available. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the 'blue books' of statistics, and could not get any help since Wednesday is a partial service day. However, we were able to find many promising leads, such as the McKenzie family papers, correspondence regarding HBC farms, and the PSAC. At the end of the meeting, Scott was assigned to type up the bibliography, Dan and Taryn were assigned to look into materials at the UVic library, and Dan was to continue communicating with The Land Conservancy regarding a visit to Craigflower. Subsequently, Dan also wrote the rough draft of our "about the project" blurb on the bibliography, which was then fine-tuned by Scott and Taryn.

SM


Feb. 19 meeting - BC Archives
In attendance: Dan, Taryn, and Scott

We continued gathering citations for evidence to begin looking through at a later date. With the help of an archivist, we were able to find the microfilms of the blue books of the 1860s, which Dan had an introductory look through. Meanwhile, Scott and Taryn worked their way through a finding aid for colonial correspondence and discovered many promising leads referring to land title, prices, sales, etc. Taryn also came across clippings of old families and homes of Victoria from a series in the Colonist in the 1940s and 50s, and she (with some help from Scott) worked through these, noting pages containing useful photos or information. For example, there was a mention of the Melrose Diary, from a resident of Craigflower, which the author insists no student of Victoria history can go without reading. Dan and Scott looked through photos - originals and digitized. Scott also did some searching for materials relating to various farms and came across a few fonds from farming families which will be worth investigating.

At the end of the meeting, Dan was to attempt to finalize a meeting with the Craigflower archives for Wednesday, Scott was going to set up the blog and write this week and last's meeting record (which you are now enjoying), and Taryn was to transfer the preliminary bibliography to the blog, after which all three of us could add to it so that we can keep a running list of what we have looked at and not and the outcomes of those looks. We agreed that following the completion of that list, we would attempt to divide up responsibility for examing the materials therein, hopefully leading to a subject-based specialization for each of us during the coming weeks.

To conclude, this meeting was very productive, despite Dan's continuously running afoul of the archivist with his outrageous behaviour.

SM

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