Salt Spring Island Archives
Samuel Beddis, his wife Emily, their five children and brother-in-law, Raffles Purdy, left San Francisco in 1884 in search of a home in Canada. They purchased a sloop in Victoria, B.C. but an unfortunate storm created havoc for them. They found themselves doing repairs in North Saanich and, in the company of a Mr. Henry Ruckle, a farmer from Salt Spring Island.
Mr. Ruckle raved about the fine farming land to be found on Salt Spring Island and the Beddis family decided to take a look. They sailed into the little bay off what is now known as Beddis Road, liked what they saw and filed a claim for 140 acres of land. Using foresight, they had brought fruit tree seeds with them and set about planting an orchard. By 1890, this orchard was flourishing.
Today, descendants of the Beddis family still farm the land that Samuel and Emily first homesteaded.
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Emily Adeline Beddis
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Samuel Beddis, his wife Emily, their five children
Accession number: 002
Born Emily Adelaide Purdy, in the United Kingdom in 1852. she was courted and married in the county of Gloucester by Samuel John Beddis in 1871. In company with Samuel's two sisters, Ada and Tirza, the couple embarked by ship from Bristol across the Atlantic Ocean to North America in 1872. They traveled then by train to the new state of Nebraska and settled near Nebraska City to farm. Emily bore five children there, three sons, and two daughters who both died in infancy. The family moved north up the Missouri near the town of Omaha where in 1880, another son was born. Emily's brother, Raffles Purdy, gave up a teaching job in London, England to join the young family in 1882, and in 1883 a daughter was born to Emily. Samuel's sisters met and married suitors in Nebraska and the family, with Emily's brother, decided to move further west and north.
Emily and Samuel, their children and Raffles Purdy traveled by train to San Francisco where they embarked by steamship north up the Pacific Ocean to Victoria at the southern end of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia where they purchased a sloop and loaded their household goods on board for the final leg of their journey.
They pre-empted a quarter-section of arable land on the south-east side of Saltspring Island and began to build a cabin and barn, clear the land and plant a garden in 1884. They traveled by boat to get supplies and mail or to visit neighbors. Their children went to school at Beaver Point in the school built by Samuel and their oldest son, eleven year old Charles in 1885 and in that year Emily's brother left the family to take a teaching job at the Vesuvius (Central) school. They adopted another daughter in 1890 and just a month before their last son was born in 1893. Samuel died, leaving the widowed forty-one year old Emily to care for seven children and a farm, appropriately named “The Wilderness.” Her four older sons built a more adequate house for the family in 1900, and as they grew up and left home, Emily provided an early guest house for visitors to the island. She was much in demand as a skilled midwife and passed her skills on to her daughter Boadecia. She lived to enjoy her grandchildren's visits and to mourn the death of her son, John, in 1906. Emily Adelaide Beddis, honoured by her family and the community in which she lived, died at the Wilderness. Saltspring Island, in British Columbia in 1919, at the age of seventy-five.
WPJ 1/10/98
Accession number: 003EmilyAdelineBeddis1
Collection: Beddis
Location: SSIA
Source: Clive Justice
Extent and Physical Description: Calotype portrait wide wood frame
Date: Aug 2007
Raffles Purdy
Accession number: 004
Raffles Purdy
Accession number: 005
Raffles Augustus Purdy, teacher at Central School for many years, brother to Emily Beddis, and father to Mary Inglin, Margaret Cunningham, and the youngest, Helen.
Collection: Bullock Collection
Location: SSIA
Responsibility: H Bullock
Extent and Physical Properties: glass negatives
Accession number: A-1022
Emily Beddis
Accession number: 007
Accession number: 008
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Emily Beddis (seated), daughter Boadecia Beddis and Jack Beddis
prior to 1907 (year of Jack’s Death)
Collection: Bullock Collection
Location: SSIA
Responsibility: H Bullock
Date: [prior 1907]
Extent and Physical Properties: glass negatives
Accession number: B-2068
Accession number: 010
Accession number: 011
Decie Beddis
Collection: Bullock Collection
Location: SSIA
Responsibility: H Bullock
Extent and Physical Properties: glass negatives
Accession number: B-2071
Wedding of Charles and Hilda Beddis
Accession number: 014
Wedding of Charles and Hilda Beddis
Accession number: 015
Accession number: 020
Accession number: 021
The Beddis Home
Accession number: 022
Accession number: 023
Accession number: 024
Accession number: 025
Accession number: 027
Gulf Islands Rangers
Accession number: 030
Myrtle and George Roe
Accession number: 033
Lionel and Ruth Beddis
Accession number: 32
