Thomas and John Pappenburger came to Salt Spring Island in the 1880s. Their father, an immigrant from Bavaria, settled in Victoria in 1857 where he married a Cowichan woman.

Thomas arrived on Salt Spring in 1886. He married Emma Purser and together they had a son. He went off sealing almost immediately after they were married and drowned in 1904 without every really settling on Salt Spring.

John pre-empted land southwest of the Ruckle’s farm. In 1889, he married Mary Ann Pielle, of the Penelakut Tribe of Kuper Island and they raised eight children. John was the first mail carrier at Beaver Point and later picked up milk for the Ganges Creamery.