16GladysKing.mp3

manual - unknown person

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no

Interviewee: Gladys Margaret King

Interviewer:no detail except interviewed by Salt Spring Historical Society

June 14/77
4061:2

Interviewer:It is approximately 10:30 in the morning and Mrs. King is going to help us relive the history of the King family. We arc fortunate. She has a great deal of information for us.

King:Grandpa was born in _______ which was a Greek colony at that time. His family was an important exporting family. Grandpa went to school with the priests. He was very knowledgable and he spoke Greek, Latin, Arabic, and but not English.

Interviewer:His family was into shipping.

King:They were into importing, exporting, shipping all over the world. My uncle was the captain of a ship. My father wanted more than anything to go to sea but Grandpa said he must be a doctor or a lawyer. So my father stowed away on my uncle's ship. He popped his head out when they were well out into the Agean Sea and my uncle reassured my father that it would be no joyride. He was a cabin boy, a seaman and whatever it took - he loved it. These trips took several years. I believe it was on this trip but I'm not sure it may have been a later one but I believe it was this one they went to England. While they were in England he left the ship and stayed in England for some lime. He learned English, taught himself to read and write. Then he earned his way over on another sailing ship going to the States. While lie was there he fought in the American Civil War. I don't know which side he fought on but he fought, (this was about 1850) I would think he must have been about 20 probably. Anyway, then it was over they found gold in California. He thought this would be a marvelous thing. He was going to make a fortune and go back and show all these people back in Spema how smart he was. He didn't have to be a lawyer or anything else. So he got on another sailing ship and he went around the horn and up to California. In San Francisco they did an awful lot of shanghaing at that time. He and another fellow got hauled oft and put on a ship. They weren't allowed out on deck when then they were in port when the ship stopped for provisions. They were going to go, I am not sure where - it happened that it was around the time, I guess after the time that Victoria had got gas lights so of course it showed up the town quite well. The light reflected. He was on watch and he said to the officer that was there "what are those lights over there?" He said "mats Victoria". He said "oh, is that in Washington Territory or Oregon Territory?" "Oh no, that is in the British Colony." They were at least 3 miles offshore as they were going by. It was night and he got off watch and he went down below deck and he said to this fellow, Portugeuse fellow "I'm leaving, if you want to come, if you can swim you can come." He put his clothes in a duffel bag, jumped overboard and swam ashore. He wasn't a tall man, quite stocky, very broad shoulders and so the other man came with him and he helped him get ashore and they got to Victoria where they spent some time. They were opening up Sallspring Island for settlement so they had a look at it and he liked it so he got some land. Being a man from the Agean, when everyone else was choosing inland territory he chose something on the water. He had a boat and he used to pick things up - he would pick up things for the farmer in the islands. He would go to Nanaimo and get bags of coal for people if anyone could afford to have a bag of coal. One time when he was delivering some grain - now at thai time grain was in 200 Ib bags and his mother tells me they referred to them at peas. But if it was fodder crop it may have been peas. He was climbing up the rocky beach up to the farm and he slipped and fell and broke his back. From that time on he was bent at the waist. He managed to get back down out to his boat and sail back home. How he did it I don't know, it is a wonder lie didn't die. All the rest of his life he used to have these white linen clothes that needed to be changed several times a day because with his pain he would perspire a great deal.

Interviewer:There was no doctor on the island.

King:I don't suppose so, no. And so tie married and it seems to me he was married at that time. And he quit going and doing so much of this and he...

Interviewer:He married Mrs. Emily Murphy. King: Yes. She was from the Saanich Reserve. Interviewer She was Indian?

King:He was a great fan for trees and plants and he - this up here was his nursery where he did his grafting and all this sort of thing. And those trees over there, the ones you can see over in the far orchard, they arc not in flower now but you can see bare trees over there, those trees are 100 years old.

Interviewer:And he had to clear all this land?

King:Yes, with oxen and what have you. And up here, this particular piece up here which was a cedar block here is loaded with rocks because when he was doing this he would tell the boys to pick rocks and the boys brought them up as far as here and dumped them.

Interviewer:So when you say the boys you are talking about his children then?

King:Yes, this was Alexander and Constantine and Leon.

Interviewer:And maybe we better say approximately what time these boys were bom.

King:Well, Leon's father would be about 104 nghi now and the other two were older than that.

Interviewer:Constantine was the first boy born?

King:I believe so.

Interviewer:And then Alexander?

King:I believe so. Leon was the youngest. And he would be 104 now.

Interviewer:He died 1958?

King:Yes.

Interviewer:And there was a real tragedy...

King:They must have died in about 1904 or 1905.

Interviewer:Tell us a bit about that.

King:The Victoria Seed Company had a number of ships, sloops that went to Japan and up in the ________ Islands and a number of the boys from Salt Spring Island were on the __________. Constanline and Alexander were on and also Dick Purser who was an uncle of my husband. A storm came up and being close to Russian they pulled into Mermantz, not Mennantz what is up the Pacific. Oh I don't know, they used to go into Russia because they would stop there and gel provisions in Russia. Of course Alaska belonged to Russia at that time so they stopped in there and they stopped in Japan and different places to get provisions. Because they were gone for a long time. But anyway it had provisioned and gone out again and there was a hurricane and it went down with all hands and nobody was heard from again. It was one of the real tragedies of our time because there were so many young men particularly from the Island here who had gone down. It was one of the belter paying ones because they did very well, so they did better. Although their wages were very poor as you can see. $10.00 and $12.00 sent to the father.

Interviewer:We have the pleasure to have the original receipts of the monies paid to them. Its true that it didn't seem like much money but I suppose they managed. Now the third son was Leon.

King:Yes.

Interviewer:We are skipping around a bit but he was married to Sophie Purser in approximately 1900. King: Yes. Now her father was a magistrate at one time. It was at this end of the Island. Interviewer: This is not Dick Purser, because that was her brother.

King:No, I believe his name was Dick too but I am not sure. And Mr. King had told her that when he was a little boy they referred to Mr. Purser as that "long stalky Englishman", because he wore the plus four type pants, you know these knickers. So they referred to him as that "long stalky Englishman". Mr. Purser and Mr. King and another couple of fellows built the Roman Catholic church. Both of their wives were Roman Catholic and although Mr. King was Greek Orthodox.

Interviewer:Now we are talking about Joseph King and the father of Sophia Purser.

King:Now you see Mr. Purser and Mr. King both worked on this church Mr King was Greek Orthodox but his wife was Roman Catholic and the Pursers were Roman Catholic so they worked on it.

Interviewer:Mrs. Purser was the daughter of a Cowichan chief.

King:And she was married to him ....

Interviewer:What was her first name, do you remember?

King:Mrs. King always referred to her as mother. Mrs. King never did say who she was.

Interviewer:We have done a bit of skipping around. I interrupted your story about moving stones. You were referring to his boys and T wanted people to know who his boys were. Can you go back to the moving of the stones?

King:Oh yes. He would tell them to take the stones and of course the boys didn't take them too far and just dumped them up here in this ________. And so of course we have got all the stones from down there and all the stones from here. They had a log house down there originally and now I have -1 gave to my husband's cousin's daughter and stone that grampa had carved and I still have one here. I gave her a metal fish that was a rounded slotted or a - with a hole and a handle that you took fish out of when you were poaching it. But I still have one of the wooden spoons that he made. Now I don't just know when Gramma King died because I don't think she was here when Sophie and Leon were married.

Interviewer:Now this is the original Mrs. Murphy that you are referring to? Emily.

King:Yes. And I don't think - she cither had died or died shortly after they had been married. Because Leon and Sophie were married here.

Interviewer:She is buried here? King: Yes.

Interviewer:OK, now lets see, then Leon and Sophie Purser were married about 1900 and they in turn had...

King:Yes, they had all these children. Interviewer: OK can you tell us their names and approximate dates of birth.

King:Yes, there was Hazel and she was born in 1902 and then there was Vera and she was born in 1904 and then there was Bernard and he was born in .... oh, Kenneth was before Bernard wasn't he. Kenneth was in 1907 and then Bernard in 1909, Evelyne in 1911 and Leon in 1914.

Interviewer:And Leon was your husband?

King:Yes. Seven days - a week before Leon was born his grandfather died. The family just had the new house built. They had a log house that Grampa had built and they lived in the log house that Grampa had built.

Interviewer:This is the old house that was originally down on - closer to the waterfront.

King:They look the log house down but the other house is still there. They were all ready to move in and the grampa died. Grampa had, by this time been bothered very much with this back and he had hurt his leg. He felt that...He said to us learn to swim so he taught us how to swim. He taught us aU the things that...

Interviewer:This is Sophie we are talking about.

King:Yes. And this is grampa at the end of grampa's lifetime. He had...she would go out and fish. She loved to go out fishing and grampa looked after the children a great deal. She was a great one for anyone that was sick, she would go and look after them and help them. Sometimes she would go to the doctor and grampa looked after the children. He spoilt them terribly. He put jam on anything they wanted. He didn't care what it was he put jam on it. The children loved him and he used to give them rides. Even with his bad back, his bent back he used to ride them around on his hack. And he and a couple of other fellow built this school up here because the children had to go to school. Then he felt when got working - he wasn't well and he must not be in the house with the children. So he had a little shed that they fixed up for him and he had a bed ...and Leon's mother looked after him.

Interviewer:Did he have his leg removed then?

King:Well I don't know if he couldn't have or didn't wish to or what. I don't know. Of course they were getting quite scared because here was his daughter looking after him and she was expecting Leon but anyway then he died just before - the doctor wouldn't let her go to the funeral because it was too close .

Interviewer:He died approximately when?

King:In 1914 in December.

Interviewer:He also was a member of the catholid church.

King:Yes. He was.

King:When grampa first came here there wasn't any way of getting things in and out unless you went by either canoe or sailing ship so he had a ship so he went to Nanaimo, to Victoria, to Vancouver, Bellingham, anywhere where there were goods that had to brought to the island or things that were taken there to sell. At one time Salt Spring Island was the fruit basket of British Columbia. The apple trees, plum trees, pear trees were very prolific and he used to take the fruit and produce all other to sell for the farmers and anybody who wanted to go somewhere got him to take them and they went. He was a small shipping company in himself. He just had the one boat and did it all himself. A lot of the business that people did was in Bellingham in those days. People would row over to Bellingham - they would row and they would have a little sail up and off they would go and they would shop over in Bellingham because they could get things there that they couldn't get or thai were more expensive to get. You sec if they went to Victoria they had to go over there they had to get the E & N Railway from Sydney in Victoria and back out and this sort of thing or they could go and when it got to be night you just stopped at an island and caught fish on the way. When you got where you were ready to eat you would make your tea and get out your bread and butter and cook your fish and have your supper and lay down in the boat and cover yourself all up in the comforters that you had taken, your down quilts and things and then continue on the next day and it was like a little holiday to go over to Bellingham to buy the things that you couldn't buy here.

Interviewer:You didn't have to go through immigration or customs.

King:Oh no, no, no. You just went and did it. And of course he used to go with his sloop, you see and do a lot of business over there as well. And then he had his orchard and he had his wife I would imagine would have chickens and this sort of thing and at that lime you could just go down to a beach and spear rock cod when Lee was a boy he used to spear rock cod down there. And salmon you just went out with your line and trolled along and got salmon. Deer were very plentiful so you shot a deer - really you were quite self-sufficient and with his doing his business all over the country with his sloop and this sort of thing why he had a very comfortable life and there were Greeks over on the mainland over around Delta and he would go over there and see them and they would come over here. And so they would come over here and go to church in Nanaimo and have great old times. And of course with him being such a well-educated man any business that they needed doing and this sort of thing, translations and all this sort of thing they got him to do. And we have here a handmade trunk. It was always referred to as _______ truck. And it is made out of camphor wood and it is from Greece. And some old Greek came and left it with grampa. He was going to go somewhere and he didn't want to take it. So he left it with grampa and nobody every saw ______ again. So, 1 still have _______'s trunk made from camphor wood. You always here about the holy land and camphor wood and this sort of thing so I think well there, at least I may never get to see the place but at least I've got some camphor wood. So grampa was a man many parts. He was well-educated and yet he was a man of the people. The Indians, if they had any fights or squabbles or anything else, they would come to him. Because he knew - they would tell him both sides and they would say which was right and they would go away quite happy because he had settled it. He would call in - all the Indians along the coast knew him because he would call in and do all sorts of things for them. They would come and see him here.

(over to side two)

King:...he said the Indians would come in their canoes and they would herd them all up and they would shoot them and they would maybe get 500 of these divers and they would take them home for a big potlatch. If you asked them they would let you have the feathers. So you could make down pillows or down comforters, down comforters or down anything. Not only did you have the ones that you shot yourself and did but they would just give you ihe down. Lee said that when he was a small boy it was just like a bunch of cowboys, they'd herd them up. Then they'd take them and have a potlatch.

Interviewer:We are going to talk about Sophia Purser now.

King:Well she has quite a story to her life also. Sophie was born in 1880. The land at _____ lake belonged to Sophie. She had...her father had been a magistrate and her mother had been married to a Mr. Fisher at one time and he had died. Now they owned I believe it was Pier Island, yes it was Pier Island. But in the custom of the Cowichan when the chief dies all Ins possessions were burned. So she burned the title to Pier Island. There should have been records of it in the Land Title Office. All of the sudden Pier Island belonged to someone else. But they had owned it, I'm sure it was Pier Island. And so they lived at Stoney Lake, when she married Mr. Purser and they farmed there. And he is buried there. On the Byron property. And for years there was a little white picket fence around his grave. Sophie was about 2 when he died. So her mother had children and she had an older son who was about 18 or so, George Fisher by her first husband and then she had 3 girls and 1 think a couple of boys.

Interviewer:So this was by Mr. Fisher?

King:No, by Mr. Purser. The first was Mr. Fisher, George Fisher was by Mr. Fisher and then she had 3 girls and 2 or 3 boys by Mr. Purser and she had to make a living. Now George Fisher had been educated. He had been sent over to Duncan and he was educated by the priest. He was going to become a priest himself but he changed his mind. But Mrs. Fisher had to raise her children so she went to work for Mr. Eiker at his inn. And she would do anything thai was necessary around and in his store.

Interviewer:It was called "Journey's Rest" wasn't it?

King:Yes, thats it. So she would carry Sophie down there. Sophie may have been a little younger than 2 -she may have been not quite 2 at the time. And they would spoil her, men who came to the place. They just absolutely spoiled her to death. And they would give her a cup of tea and let her put as much sugar in as she liked. She became quite fond of sugar. So when she was around 3 her brother George realized that she was gelling tar too spoiled. Something would have to be done about it. He went to the school, the catholic school that was taken care of by nuns and he asked if they would take his sister. Sophie was only 3 and the nuns said they weren't a babysitting outfit they were a school. But he thought she needed to be there. But they couldn't afford to pay. Because lie had been educated by the priests he knew there must be some way that it must be possible. They said they were building an enormous big bam. If he would cut all the shakes for this barn then they would take Sophie. So George said I'll do it. But George didn't know how to cut shakes. So George went to the _____ and asked them how. And they knew how to cut shakes and they showed him and helped him cut the shakes. And he cut all the shakes for this big bam. And they took his sister. So at 3 Sophie went to the catholic school. She used to tell me this and she used to laugh and laugh. She told me about having her lunch and how they gave her some tea and she said "Sugar me tea, sugar me tea". And she wanted about 4 spoonfuls of sugar in and they wouldn't give her 4 spoonfuls of sugar. But this was her swansong, every time she got tea she would yell "sugar me tea, sugar me tea". And so they called her sugar. All the time that she was there they called her sugar. And she had quite a time there. One of the stories she told me was one time she went fishing. She loved to go down to the dock at Duncan. She was fishing and she got a fish hook in her hand. So she came in crying. The priest said you must be a big brave girl and not cry. If you don't cry I'll give you something. She said what will you give me. He reached into his pocket and he had a quarter. So he said I'll give you the quarter if you don't cry. So she said alright, I won't cry. So he took a razor and cut her finger and took the hook out and then they tied it up. She said it was terribly painful but I wanted the quarter more. As soon as they did it she said I'll have my quarter please. Mother Superior said Sophie you don't ask for money. She said I'm not asking for it, he has already given it to me so it is mine. I didn't cry. So he gave her a quarter. She saved it and then she got a little red toque. It was such a beautiful red toque she didn't want to wear and get it dirty. She said one night there was a ringing at the door and when they looked there was a baby in a basket. So they brought the baby in and the sisters looked after this baby. And she said do you know what and 1 said, no, what? She said they look my toque and gave it to that baby. She said I never liked that baby because it had my red toque. Sophie found it very very difficult to say I'm sorry if she did something. She found it very difficult to say I'm sorry- So she got into a lot of trouble and was spanked quite regularly. She was very aggravating to the sisters because she wouldn't cry. There is nothing more aggravating than spanking a child that won't cry. But anytime they ever wanted anybody to run an errand and do things quickly they got Sophie because she could run so fast and they never knew why she could run faster than anybody else.

Interviewer:Was she a very small woman, always?

King:No, she was...until the day she died, she was 95 when she died. She was about 5'4" I would think, or maybe 5". She had been plumper when she was having her children although not a great lot. I would think maybe about 145 or something like that. For all that she didn't appear to be she was a large boned woman, a very strong person. When Lee and I were married she was 87 and I had told somebody that Lee's mother was 87 and they said "My goodness, is she coming to the wedding?" and I said "yes" and they said "how will she get there" and I said "she'll come with her family" and they said "well she won't be able to be around at that age" and 1 said "but she doesn't look that age". So then at the wedding somebody said to me "I thought you said Lee's mother was going to be here" and I said "she is" and they said "where" and I said "over there" and they said "but you said she is 87, that woman isn't 65". I said "oh yes she is, she is 87". But she was very youthful, she had a serenity about her. She was one of those kinds of people that if something didn't sit well with her then she ignored the fact that it was there. She just was able to put it away and ignore it. But she was there at the convent until she was 16 and then her sister had gone to work where the bishop's palace. I don't know why they called it the bishop's palace, but thats where he lived. So she sent to see her there once and her sister she had gotten ________ because her mother had bought her a lace shawl for her ....her confirmation or something. And the ________ told her that she should give it to the Virgin Mary. And so she gave it to the Virgin Mary and this had rather an effect. And then a later time when I believe she was told that her shawl had been given to someone. That did quite hurt her. She lost her...she had apparently been quite a religious girl. Sophie all her life was a staunch Roman Catholic but she knew that they took your toques and they took your shawls. So they were human. It sort of gave her a little insight. Yes she - as much as she was a very devout Roman Catholic she knew that if the ocassion arose they would take your lace shawl or whatever for some reason. That probably made her able to cope with a lot of things through life because she realized even churchs would do these things. So when she came out of the convent she went to work in Victoria. She worked for a lady there and she went to stay with her brother Ed in Sooke because he logged he had a logging show. And then she went to work for a lady who was going to - she was looking after the children. The man had gone to Japan or China - somewhere in the Orient. So she was going to go as the nanny with the lady to the Orient and they went to Seattle and when they got there somebody stole the lady's purse and she was waiting to hear from her husband and she hadn't heard from him yet and oh she was in such a state. So Sophie said, she went to a man in the hotel and said that she would work as a chambermaid to pay their way. Anyway they were there, I don't know how long they were there, a couple ol' months I guess. She worked at this hotel as a chambermaid so they could stay there and who does this nowadays for an employer. But anyways then they came back. The lady heard from her husband and she was to go at a later time. Then she came over to Sallspring and met Leon and she stayed at...

Interviewer:Wasn't her mother still on the island at this time? King: Yes. And she was living with George and his wife. Interviewer: This is her elder brother.

King:Yes, her halfbrother. And George had managed, when MR. Purser she had almost done the same thing with that as she had done with the other stuff. But she managed but Ford managed to somehow get...So they did have it yet. So ...oh folk tell us about her riding to the doctor and the knight on horseback and she's smiling on this horse that she used to ride and go to get the doctor when somebody was sick and this sort of thing.

Interviewer:Where would the doctor be at that time. The Central at that time?

King:I think so.

Interviewer:Because Ganges wasn't much of a town.

King:Nn And then she married Leon and he was about 3 years older than she was.

Interviewer:So they were about how old when they were married.

King:She was about 20 or 21,1 think she was 21 and he was 24 or 25. And he logged and he fished, he had a fishing boat. He would troll the Fraser and fish.

Interviewer:Did they stay here.

King:Yes, they stayed here at the house with Grampa and he taught Sophie how to cook because she had never learned how to cook at the convent. She could cook some stuff but he taught her all this Greek cooking and making pilaf. He taught her how to fish.

Interviewer:It was easy, all she had to do was run out in the front yard more or less.

King:And then there was a sickness, somebody had died over on Wexler Island. She and a couple of other ladies had went over there in a canoe. She was expecting Hazel, this girl. And so off they went in this canoe. She was wearing, because she was pregnant a large long cape that went down to the ground. And of course a long dress that came down to the ground and boots that came up above her ankles and a wind came up. They tipped the canoe over and she almost drowned because she couldn't swim. So Grampa said you are not going out in a canoe until you have had that baby and as soon as you have had that baby you are going to learn how to swim. You are not going to go out again until you have learned how to swim. He was a very good swimmer so he taught her how to swim. So he not only taught her how to cook and catch fish he taught her how to swim. And they spent a great deal of time together because Papa was away quite a bit of the time, Leon was away quite a bit of the time, fishing and this sort of thing. So she and grampa - and he looked after the children quite a bit for her, managed the farm and they had chickens and they had different things and they had pigs at that time and this pig kept getting out and so Sophie always referred to Lcon. her husband, as Pa. So Papa would get this pig back in again. Papa got so put out with this pig one day that he went and shot it. So she thought at least we are going to have some ham and bacon and pork and all this. She was all prepared to get water boiling for doing this pig. And he was digging a hole. She said "what are you doing". He said "I'm going to bury the pig". She said "but Papa. we will eat it." He said "I wouldn't eat that pig -1 hate that pig, that pig has made my life so miserable for so long that 1 won't cat the pig. So, she said, he buried it. That was the end of that pig. She said really, they didn't have any meat at that time. We needed that pig. But Papa was so cross and once he had made his mind up to something there was no changing it. As a rule he was a very amiable person, very happy type person. But if he got very put out with something and made up his mind nothing in this world would change it. So that was the end of the pig. But they logged. This property here has been logged off about 3 times. They had Hindus in here once that...

Interviewer:Approximately what time would that be?

King:Oh in the early on up to about 1920 or so. One time when they were logging it off. Lee was a little boy. He must have been about 2. He had curl dark hair, it hung down in ringlets. Apparently he was quite the one for finding a soft lap to sit on. He was always going around looking where people were sitting and then he would find the one that was most comfortable and climb up. He was a very cute kid with curly hair but he wasn't supposed to be around where they were logging because this was horse logging and they had these big teams of horses and they would take them down to the landing down there and dump them into the ocean. And so lie was, every chance he got. out there. Of course with these horses dragging these logs it got to be - this is black, black soil. It gels when its dry a very powdery powdery stuff. So there Lee would be plodding along behind these logs with all this stuff. Then his sister Haydra, this was her summer holidays when she wasn't at school. She would take him home, bath him, change his clothes and put him out in the yard again. Then she would wash his clothes and put them out on the line. And it kept her busy all day because as soon as they would get dry she would madly iron them because she knew that in another hour she was going to have to find him again and bring him in again. Because he, with his bare feet and legs plodding back and forth behind horses. His mother said all you could see were the whites of his eyes. The rest of him was just a browny blacky blob and the whites of these eyes - having brown eyes, all you could see were the whites of his eyes or if he stuck his tongue out, his pink tongue. He was the funniest looking little thing. And his sister spent all summer with him in a tub of water. They had - Mr. King worked over at Cusheon Cove. They were logging over at Cusheon Cove. And all the...

Interviewer:You mean Sophie's husband.

King:Sophie's husband. Papa. The lumber for this house was milled at Cusheon Cove. They brought it around and they rebuilt the house and the barn. The barn was built in 1908. You can see it down there. Because Papa was busy normally and Evelyne was always here for Dad and when you came out of the house Papa was up on the roof and so was Evelyne - she was 2. Sophie had a fit, she was fit to be tied that they would take this baby up on the roof. But she cooked for them because she said they would butcher a cow and then she would can it, the meal. Over at Cusheon Cove, over at the mill there. He fished, too, he was away a lot of the time. So she and grampa spent a lot of time together.

16_Gladys_King.mp3

otter.ai

18.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Sitting here we are at this is Gladys King's home on a glorious morning sunshine for a bit of a change. It's approximately 1030 in the morning. And Mrs. King is going to help us relive the history of the Qing family. She's fortunate, she has a great deal of information for us. And we'll listen to her story. You know.

Unknown Speaker 0:30
Grandpa was born in Smyrna, which was a big problem at that time, his father's family was an important exporting family. The uncle was the keeper on the flagship, his father looked after the business at home. And grandpa went to school with the priests.

Unknown Speaker 0:53
He was very well educated man who spoke Greek,

Unknown Speaker 0:57
Latin, Arabic. But not in

Unknown Speaker 1:06
a family with the shipping.

Unknown Speaker 1:08
They were in the shipping, importing, exporting shipping, whatever, all over the world.

Unknown Speaker 1:15
And here we been the boys who didn't have to go to help download chips or as little boys, they stopped the war. And he always got back into it.

Unknown Speaker 1:30
Okay, if you want to wanted to go to see but his father said no, you will either be a lawyer or a minority.

Unknown Speaker 1:38
So he came home for the holiday. And then he was going to go and really study hard for whichever control. So zankel was just about ready to leave.

Unknown Speaker 1:53
So he got a stowaway and have a little trip.

Unknown Speaker 1:57
Well, of course, being sailing ship. They left with the tide. And you didn't come back for any reason. So the kids got well, I was interviewed again, he popped out and said Hello, uncle. Uncle said, if you think for one minute that he's come to have a joyride, he's got another same time. You are going to work

Unknown Speaker 2:26
in teams.

Unknown Speaker 2:30
He was a cabin boy, and he was a seaman. And we were whatever we had to do, and he loved it. Now, these trips, took several years is an investigation in one year. But I believe it was on this trip, but I'm not sure it may have been at a later time they went to England, in the process of this. And while they were in England, he left. And

Unknown Speaker 3:03
then for some time

Unknown Speaker 3:03
out what he did when he was there, I don't know. But he didn't speak English. He learned it taught himself to read and write. And then he worked his way over on a nother sailing ship to the states. And while he was there, of course, the American Civil War and he fought in the Civil War. Now I don't know which side is brought on by the philosopher. This is about 1850 now and at about this time, well, I would

Unknown Speaker 3:45
think you must have been around.

Unknown Speaker 3:52
Anyway, then, when this was over, they found gold in California. So he thought it would be a marvelous thing. He was going to make a fortune and go back and show all the people back in spirit, how smart he was, didn't have to be a lawyer or anything else he was making. So he got on another sailing ship and worked his way on that and they went around the horn and up to California. In San Francisco, they did an awful lot of change at that time. And he and another fellow were extremely human beings and that were walking along the street and got knocked on the head and hauled

Unknown Speaker 4:43
off onto this thing.

Unknown Speaker 4:49
And they weren't allowed out on that. When the ship was in any court because they had to come in up the coast. You know they stopped for wood Uh, for the provisions, water and different things on the way up. So they were going to go it was

Unknown Speaker 5:12
getting more aware I'm not sure what that is it was a series of one of them.

Unknown Speaker 5:18
Um, that it happened that it was around the time I didn't get to ask for the time that Victoria had got gaslight so of course it showed up the town quite well. And they were, he was on watch. And he said to the officer that

Unknown Speaker 5:42
what are those lights over there? And he said that Victoria. So he said, Oh, is that in Washington territory or Oregon Territory or all weekend that

Unknown Speaker 5:55
is vancouver island that was event, a colony, British colony,

Unknown Speaker 6:02
and the British colony.

Unknown Speaker 6:04
So we should all were there with it. And he said, Yes. He said that British colony will they were all about three miles 50 miles offshore when they were going by. And throughout the night, he was off his watch and went down. And he said to this fellow Portuguese fellow, I'm eating. He said if you want him if you can swim, why? You can go with me. He took his clothes,

Unknown Speaker 6:38
that's the mini sample bag.

Unknown Speaker 6:41
And he picked up the bag in himself and jumped overboard. Wow. Duffel Bag. Yeah. He was. He wasn't a big tall man. He was a sort. stocky man, like, really on very broad shoulders. And so he, the other man who's with them, and he helped him. And they got Victoria, where we spent some time around Victoria. And then they were opening up toll free island

Unknown Speaker 7:20
for seven

Unknown Speaker 7:25
days to have a

Unknown Speaker 7:26
look at it. And he did and he liked it. So he took land here. And of course, being a man from the warm Indian coastline. He chose that water. When everybody else was seen in the island in the central part of the island. He chose a southern slope on the water. And he had a group

Unknown Speaker 7:58
and he was to

Unknown Speaker 8:01
pick up things and

Unknown Speaker 8:03
find things and take them.

Unknown Speaker 8:06
And he would pick up things for the farmers in the island. And he got Nanaimo and get back to coal for people if they you know, anybody can afford to have to do that. We call it the brainer. And one time when he was delivering in green. Now, at that time, Green was a 200 pound bag. And leave mother tells me they referred to them as p it didn't necessarily mean that it was key impact. But if it was fodder crop type thing, you know, it may have been key, but the 200 pound bag of beef, and he was climbing that rocky up to this farm and he slipped and fell and broke his back literally broken because from that time on he would dance for here when he bent at the waist because he came up like that. You know because he he managed to get that down in his gifts out to

Unknown Speaker 9:15
his boat

Unknown Speaker 9:17
and sail home. How he did it? I don't know I just wondered why he didn't die because I really couldn't when leave mother telling me that to be broken his back and came home and and it's the field I really couldn't comprehend but it was so but he had a fat like that. And all the rest of his life. He always had to have lemon white lemon claws that he used to have clean every day several times a day to put it in there because the perspiring it that would make it quite sore because we've always been like reading blogs.

Unknown Speaker 9:54
And there was no doctor on

Unknown Speaker 9:56
collider like both so no

Unknown Speaker 9:59
no And so he,

Unknown Speaker 10:04
he married and he, I assume he was married at that time in the children. And then he quit going doing so much of this and he had remarried.

Unknown Speaker 10:19
Emily's McGovern.

Unknown Speaker 10:24
And she was

Unknown Speaker 10:28
from the Senate

Unknown Speaker 10:36
I believe 2000

Unknown Speaker 10:42
No offense, oh, center. Center. As he had, he was a great man for things in the Caribbean. And he, this was up here with his nursery where it can be helpful in getting grafting and all those sorts of things. And those trees over there, the ones you can see over in the far orchard where they're not in flower now that you can see their trees over

Unknown Speaker 11:12
there we're looking towards that would be the EEG with those

Unknown Speaker 11:17
dreams are 100 years old. Or more about 100.

Unknown Speaker 11:25
And he had to clear all of this land with

Unknown Speaker 11:28
less oxygen in my patio.

Unknown Speaker 11:32
And up here, this particular piece up

Unknown Speaker 11:35
here, which was repeated often on here, is loaded

Unknown Speaker 11:39
with rock. When he was doing it, he would tell the boy to drop, and the boy brought them up as far as your hands down.

Unknown Speaker 11:51
And when you say tell the boys we're talking about his children that yes,

Unknown Speaker 11:54
yes. With Alexander

Unknown Speaker 11:56
and Constantine and.

Unknown Speaker 12:00
And made we better say approximately what time these boys were born. Well,

Unknown Speaker 12:09
the father Leon would be about 104 now. And the other two were older than that.

Unknown Speaker 12:21
Constantine was the first boy born, I believe so and then Alexander,

Unknown Speaker 12:27
I believe. So I go then Leon, after the Armageddon, and he will be 104 now.

Unknown Speaker 12:33
And he died in 1958. Here. And there was a real tragedy with friends now.

Unknown Speaker 12:40
They might have died and about four or five when the science.

Unknown Speaker 12:46
Tell us a bit about that.

Unknown Speaker 12:49
Yes, well, the victorious feeling company had a number of chips that were suited for whatever tumors that went to Japan, and up in the Pribilof Island. And a member of the boys consults in Ireland, we're on the client, Constantine and Alexander we're on and also the cursor

Unknown Speaker 13:20
was

Unknown Speaker 13:23
an uncle. And a storm came up. And

Unknown Speaker 13:34
that will be with Russia. Going to prove it my mouth. My mouth, what is the one up in the West Pacific relations with Russia. And we're

Unknown Speaker 13:51
going to Russia very read that one.

Unknown Speaker 13:54
Because they would stop there and get provision

Unknown Speaker 13:58
in Russia.

Unknown Speaker 14:00
And, of course, Alaska belongs to Russia. So, but they start getting me

Unknown Speaker 14:07
into different places get provisions because they were gone for

Unknown Speaker 14:14
years, about the wrong way. But anyway, it it has provisioned and gone again and there was a

Unknown Speaker 14:24
hurricane

Unknown Speaker 14:26
storm and went down at all him. And none of them were ever heard from again was nobody safe. And

Unknown Speaker 14:37
it was one of the real tragedies of

Unknown Speaker 14:40
the time because there were so many young men,

Unknown Speaker 14:43
particularly from the islands here who had

Unknown Speaker 14:48
gone down and the trial was one of the

Unknown Speaker 14:53
better paying ones because they did very well and that was one of the

Unknown Speaker 14:59
top One thing

Unknown Speaker 15:03
so the

Unknown Speaker 15:08
although their wages were very poor, as you can see by those papers, $10 and $12. And what have you sent to the father at a time if we

Unknown Speaker 15:15
have the pleasure to have the original receipts, the money paid to the men to it didn't seem like much money, but I suppose they managed. Now the third son

Unknown Speaker 15:36
was Leah. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 15:39
And we're skipping around here a bit, but he

Unknown Speaker 15:42
was married to Sophie,

Unknown Speaker 15:47
in approximately 1900.

Unknown Speaker 15:51
Now, her father was he was mad fisherman, and at one time, it was the epicenter of the island.

Unknown Speaker 16:03
This is not disperser that was your brother.

Unknown Speaker 16:05
I believe his name was too but I'm not sure.

Unknown Speaker 16:13
And

Unknown Speaker 16:16
listen, came

Unknown Speaker 16:17
back and told me that Mr. Clean her husband had told her that when he was a little boy, they referred to

Unknown Speaker 16:28
Mr. Crusher as

Unknown Speaker 16:30
that long stopping because he wore the plus four tight pants

Unknown Speaker 16:43
they referred him as that Longstocking.

Unknown Speaker 16:47
And next year, person when you're 16, and I know what that was, you know, the Roman Catholic Church. Both of their wives were Roman Catholic.

Unknown Speaker 17:07
And although Mr. King was Greek

Unknown Speaker 17:11
Orthodox, and we're talking about

Unknown Speaker 17:12
Joseph, yeah. And the father of Sophia

Unknown Speaker 17:18
Dickerson, and you can Mr. Kirchner and Mr. Kane both work on the church, Mr. Mr. King, like Greek Orthodox, but his wife is Catholic, and the purchasers were Roman Catholic. So

Unknown Speaker 17:33
Mrs.

Unknown Speaker 17:35
pircher was the daughter of account

Unknown Speaker 17:43
and she was married to men

Unknown Speaker 17:52
and they, what was your first name

Unknown Speaker 18:02
we all

Unknown Speaker 18:03
always referred to her as muddy and

Unknown Speaker 18:07
never ever been seen by her name.

Unknown Speaker 18:11
Now we've got a bit of skipping around I interrupted your story. We were talking about moving stones. And I wanted you referring to his boys and I wanted people to know who we believed were Can we go back to the moving of the stone? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 18:26
This is why this place has so many because he would tell the boys to take the stones and of course boys didn't take them too far. And they didn't dump them up here at the bottom

Unknown Speaker 18:37
up.

Unknown Speaker 18:39
And so of course we've got to all the stones from down there and all the stones from here. They have a long host down there originally.

Unknown Speaker 18:49
And now I have

Unknown Speaker 18:54
I gave to

Unknown Speaker 18:59
my husband cousin's daughter with the spoon that

Unknown Speaker 19:03
grandpa had car and I still have one here one of the wooden spoon for the car for heavy use and I gave her a metal fish that was a round flop as a whole and the handle that you took fish out of when you were poaching it

Unknown Speaker 19:26
and

Unknown Speaker 19:27
but I still have one of the wooden spoons back now I don't just know when the grammar King died because she

Unknown Speaker 19:42
was I don't know if she was here still when I don't

Unknown Speaker 19:45
think she was here when

Unknown Speaker 19:47
Sophia me on her now. Now. This

Unknown Speaker 19:49
is the original Mrs.

Unknown Speaker 19:50
Murphy. Yes, we are referring to Emily and I don't think that she is she was either had died or died shortly after they We're married. Because we honor Sophie, we're married here.

Unknown Speaker 20:07
And

Unknown Speaker 20:09
she's very here of the senior.

Unknown Speaker 20:11
Yes. Yeah. Well, now

Unknown Speaker 20:18
let's see them. Leon and Sophie Purser were married about 1900. And they in turn had,

Unknown Speaker 20:26
yes. They had all these children. Okay. And

Unknown Speaker 20:32
can you tell us just a few their names and approximate dates?

Unknown Speaker 20:39
Yes, there was Hazel.

Unknown Speaker 20:45
And she was born and might be true.

Unknown Speaker 20:49
And then there was the era

Unknown Speaker 20:51
when she was born.

Unknown Speaker 20:55
And then was Bernard. Thank you. You have

Unknown Speaker 21:03
no

Unknown Speaker 21:04
tennislink Kanak was the barber negligently? Yes, you can afford. them. Yeah. And then Bernard in 99. everlean in 1911. And beyond that's

Unknown Speaker 21:22
important.

Unknown Speaker 21:24
And Leon is your husband.

Unknown Speaker 21:25
And seven days

Unknown Speaker 21:36
before

Unknown Speaker 21:38
Leon was born, his grandfather died. And the family were just had the new house built. Because they had a large house that grandpa had built and they lived in your grandma.

Unknown Speaker 21:53
And this is the older that was originally down on the waterfront.

Unknown Speaker 21:57
They took the lug house down, but the other house is still there. And

Unknown Speaker 22:08
they moved in that they were all ready to move in and Grandpa died. And grandpa, of course, at this time had been bothered very, very much with that. And he had heard the plague and it's a true story. So he felt that he taught these mother how to cook

Unknown Speaker 22:32
and her kids and how to swim. They could almost go overboard into respecting one of her babies.

Unknown Speaker 22:40
And those are thinking with your swim.

Unknown Speaker 22:44
And he taught her all the things that

Unknown Speaker 22:48
she didn't learn anything about new content.

Unknown Speaker 22:50
Yes, no, this is this is Sophie.

Unknown Speaker 22:53
This is this is ramp at the end of grandpa's lifetime from had she would go out and fish she loves to go fishing and boating, fishing, grab the look after the children as they feel. And she was a great one for anybody that was sick. She would go and look after themselves from the surgeon. Sometimes you go to the doctor to help people. And grandpa looked at an oil jam on anything they wanted. It didn't make any difference what it was he put down on. The children loved him and he used to give them rides even with his dad back and was bent back. He just ride them around on his back. And he and a couple of other cells built this school up here because his children had to go through this is the leader tool.

Unknown Speaker 23:56
And

Unknown Speaker 23:59
so

Unknown Speaker 24:00
and then he felt when he got where he wasn't well, that must not be in the house withdrawal. So he had a little back story,

Unknown Speaker 24:16
the checks are

Unknown Speaker 24:18
the building except for one. And he had his bed and then it

Unknown Speaker 24:23
was broken and that's where he was.

Unknown Speaker 24:25
And Leon's mother looked after him. He could have

Unknown Speaker 24:29
this leg removed them. Well.

Unknown Speaker 24:33
I don't whether he couldn't have wished to or why I don't know. Or and of course everybody was quite perturbed because here was his mother looking after him on suspecting but anyway, she's speaking again again. Then he died and he or she couldn't have asked for the medical procedure because

Unknown Speaker 24:56
it was to go off to the side

Unknown Speaker 25:00
He said he died

Unknown Speaker 25:03
in 1914, December of 1914.

Unknown Speaker 25:08
And he also was the

Unknown Speaker 25:12
temperature Yes. No, yes, he is yes, he is.

Unknown Speaker 25:19
Now know, when. When grandpa first came here, there wasn't any way of getting things in and out and what she meant by either funny or sailing ships. So he had a place and he went to Nanaimo, to Victoria, to Vancouver, Bellingham, anywhere where they were good to tend to be brought to the island or things that were taken there to fail at one time. So Spring Island was the fruit basket of British Columbia. The apple trees

Unknown Speaker 26:01
and pear trees, some

Unknown Speaker 26:03
people are very prolific, and this is ready to take the fruit in the produce

Unknown Speaker 26:10
over to sell for the farmers and anybody who wanted to go somewhere, Boston to take them and they won't do this was a small shipping company and he himself existed, he just had the one open did it all himself. And a lot of the business people did in Bellingham in those days,

Unknown Speaker 26:34
people would roll over

Unknown Speaker 26:36
downtown, and they would have a rowboat, and they would have loved sail up. And off, they would go and they would shop over in Bellingham because they could get things over there that they couldn't get or that were more expensive to go up. If they left to Victoria, they had to go over there, they had to get the human railway since Sydney and Victoria and back out and this sort of thing where they could go and when you wouldn't want to be nice to just dressed up in an island and conversation the way you think you attach your face when you got to where you were ready to make up and get out your bread and butter and cook your fish and have your supper and lay down in the mall. Cover yourself all up with your comforter to pay for your down quilt. And then continue on the next day and it was like a holiday to go over to Bellingham and Biden

Unknown Speaker 27:39
you didn't have to go through Immigration Customs

Unknown Speaker 27:44
went out and did it. And so of course we

Unknown Speaker 27:48
go into TV and do a lot of business over

Unknown Speaker 27:50
there as well. And then he had his orchard and he had his wife I would imagine would have chickens in this sort of thing. And at that time, you could just go down to the beach and spear

Unknown Speaker 28:05
rock cod when he was a boy outside

Unknown Speaker 28:11
and salmon you just

Unknown Speaker 28:12
went open up your line and all along and dropping salmon

Unknown Speaker 28:16
and deer were very plentiful so you saw for the year was really quite self sufficient. And with him doing his business all over the country flew the Mr. thing like you had a very comfortable life and there were really

Unknown Speaker 28:43
over on the

Unknown Speaker 28:44
mainland over around Delta. Yeah, it was a rough day people and he would go over there and see them and they would come over here he apparently had a beautiful team and so they would come over here in the wintertime or you know when they weren't working and have great holes happen of course it can be such a well educated man. Any business that they need to hearing and this sort of thing translations and all this are things I came to do and that we have here handmade truck and it's always referred to as Fourcade and it is made from D and some is came and left with Rafa he was going to go somewhere and he wasn't going to be able to take his trunk. So he left it was grandpa and nobody ever saw him for me again. So I I still have 40 Transnet with canceled. And I always sort of feel, you know, you always hear about the Holy Land and camphor wood and this sort of thing. So I think we'll play or at least I mean ever get the seat plate but

Unknown Speaker 30:19
piece of the Holy Land.

Unknown Speaker 30:22
I've always been fascinated by that part of the world.

Unknown Speaker 30:25
So grandpa was a man of many parts,

Unknown Speaker 30:37
was well educated, and yet he was a man of the people, the Indians, if they had any fights or squabbles, or anything else would come to him.

Unknown Speaker 30:55
Because he knew,

Unknown Speaker 30:58
and they would tell him both sides and he would say, which was great. And they would go away quite happy because he had the settlement. And he would call him up and see them all along the coast. All the Indians all along, folks knew him because he would call in and do all sorts of things for him. They would come and see him here around the boat,

Unknown Speaker 31:25
and these divers

Unknown Speaker 31:30
fly, swim around, and he said the Indians would come and they would in their canoes and they would hurt them. Oh. And they would maybe get 500 Yeah, so these divers and then they would take them home for and have a big Potlatch and this is what the habits of Potlatch and he said if you ask them they would like to have so you could move down hills and down mattresses and down comforters down everything yeah, not only did you have the ones that you shot yourself and did but that they would give you the down

Unknown Speaker 32:18
that it was a he was a smuggler

Unknown Speaker 32:22
circling them up he said they were just like a bunch of cowboys

Unknown Speaker 32:29
and then maybe

Unknown Speaker 32:40
well, they're over here is that as an Indian reserve that nobody ever uses during their sleep

Unknown Speaker 32:53
now

Unknown Speaker 32:56
we're going to talk about Sophia Purser here now is quite a mystery to her life also.

Unknown Speaker 33:09
Sophie was born in 1880. We land at Gold Lake belongs to purchase. At she had her father was had been a magistrate. And her mother had been married to Mr. Fisher at one time, and he had died. Now they I believe it was Pierre IMGs. He had

Unknown Speaker 33:44
but in the custom

Unknown Speaker 33:49
palette when the sheep die

Unknown Speaker 33:57
all his possessions were burned.

Unknown Speaker 34:04
Or so she

Unknown Speaker 34:07
burned the table to appear Island.

Unknown Speaker 34:13
And they there should have been records of it in the land title. But all of a sudden pier islands it belongs to somebody that they had owned it that I'm sure it was pier Island. And so they lived so late at when she married Mr. Crusher and they farm there and he is buried there on the Veyron. And there's one for years there was a little white picket fence I never thought but they found a white picket fence around it

Unknown Speaker 34:59
and As he was from England, Sophie was about to die.

Unknown Speaker 35:08
And so her mother had children. And she had a son, an older son, who was about eight George Fisher by her first husband. And then she had

Unknown Speaker 35:31
three girls.

Unknown Speaker 35:35
And I think a couple of

Unknown Speaker 35:40
boys. So this is by Mr. Fisher.

Unknown Speaker 35:42
No, this is by Mr. First

Unknown Speaker 35:44
Person. The first, Mr. Fisher,

Unknown Speaker 35:47
George Fisher was by Mr. Fisher. And then she has three girls and two or three boys, by Mr. Foster. And she had to make a living. Now, George Fisher had been educated. He'd been sent over to Duncan, and he was educated by the priest. And he was going to become a priest himself. But he changed his mind and but the mother

Unknown Speaker 36:27
used to push your head to raise your children. So she went to

Unknown Speaker 36:30
work for three coming in. And she would do anything if necessary around

Unknown Speaker 36:42
the world, your your need to rescue people.

Unknown Speaker 36:50
So she would take carrier Sophie down there, and

Unknown Speaker 36:56
Sophie may have been a little younger than to she is not

Unknown Speaker 37:01
because her mother used to take her. And people would spoil her man who came here to the place, get that 34 Elder today. And they would give her a cup of tea. Let her put as much sugar in as she likes. And she has been quite fond of sugar. So when she was round three, her brother George realized that she was getting far far away. And that something would have to be done about it. So he went to respondent.

Unknown Speaker 37:42
Look at about a month

Unknown Speaker 37:45
in Duncan, and he asked if they would take his district

Unknown Speaker 37:50
1am optimistic

Unknown Speaker 37:54
and procedure free.

Unknown Speaker 37:56
So they said well, Sophie, this young lady, baby,

Unknown Speaker 38:01
they weren't a babysitting outfit. They were cool. Well, he thought he needed to be there. So but he couldn't afford to pay. But since he's been educated by the previous, this sort of thing, I knew there must be some way that it was possible. And so they said, well, they were building bonds. And they said if he would collect all the shapes for this farm

Unknown Speaker 38:42
George said no, George didn't know how to cut Jake. So George went to the

Unknown Speaker 38:56
media and ask them how and they knew how to cut rates. And they showed them and they helped him cut the shape. And he kept all the shapes and they took his community. So at three

Unknown Speaker 39:11
though, he went to the conference nickname.

Unknown Speaker 39:16
And so she used to tell me this nice VAF laughing

Unknown Speaker 39:24
she was having her lunch

Unknown Speaker 39:29
and a cup of tea.

Unknown Speaker 39:32
And so they sent

Unknown Speaker 39:33
me sugar. Sugar

Unknown Speaker 39:39
and he wanted about 14 for sugar in and they wouldn't give him food for sure that this was her swans on every time she had a cup of tea. She would do sugar baby sugar me. And so they call her sugar. And all the time she was in the phone, they call her sugar and he had quite a quite a time where

Unknown Speaker 40:03
she taught them one of the stories she told me that she had gone

Unknown Speaker 40:10
down to go down to

Unknown Speaker 40:14
Duncan

Unknown Speaker 40:15
Duncan, and

Unknown Speaker 40:19
she was fishing. And she got a fish. So she can, like cry, and so they could have got to get it out. So Chris said, now you must be a big brave girl and not cry

Unknown Speaker 40:37
if you don't cry

Unknown Speaker 40:44
what will you get?

Unknown Speaker 40:47
So he reached in his pocket.

Unknown Speaker 40:52
So he's good there it is important. Okay. Which is always

Unknown Speaker 40:59
as we took a razor

Unknown Speaker 41:02
and cut her fingers and put them inside it up. And she said, It was terribly painful. And I wanted to cry, but I wanted to pour her more. So she said, as soon as they gummed up, I held out my hand and I said, I've had my quarter please. And Mother's superiors said, Sophie, don't ask for money. And she said, I'm not asking for

Unknown Speaker 41:31
it. She said he's already given it to me.

Unknown Speaker 41:36
So at mine, I didn't cry. So he gave it a Corker. And she saved it. And then she bought a little red was such a beautiful little truth, that you didn't want to wear it and get it dirty. And she said, one night,

Unknown Speaker 42:02
there was a door.

Unknown Speaker 42:04
And when they went, there was a baby in the bath.

Unknown Speaker 42:10
So they brought the baby.

Unknown Speaker 42:11
And one of the sisters looked at it

Unknown Speaker 42:15
and said, you know why? And like said know what? She was

Unknown Speaker 42:22
that they took my kids, David, for that baby. He said, I never liked that baby. I never liked it, because it had my ribs. And of course, she wasn't very good. Five.

Unknown Speaker 42:42
But he was

Unknown Speaker 42:45
told he found it very, very difficult

Unknown Speaker 42:46
to say I'm sorry. If she did something. And she knew that she should be sorry, sounds very difficult to say. I'm sorry. And

Unknown Speaker 42:59
so of course,

Unknown Speaker 43:00
she got into a lot of trouble. And got spanked quite regularly and was very aggravating to the sisters. Because she wouldn't cry. And there's nothing more aggravating the second child won't cry. So that was made it worse. But anytime they ever wanted for anybody to run an errand, and do things quickly, they got salty, because she could run so fast. And they never could. They never knew why she could run faster than anybody else. But she said of course once I was out of sight, I took my shoes off and ran without my shoes.

Unknown Speaker 43:42
We're seeing a very small woman.

Unknown Speaker 43:46
No she was

Unknown Speaker 43:50
until the day she died. She was 95 and she dies and she's

Unknown Speaker 43:55
great. She

Unknown Speaker 43:59
never was never walked in

Unknown Speaker 44:01
or anything like that. She was about five foot

Unknown Speaker 44:05
four, I would say

Unknown Speaker 44:06
for maybe five when she was younger.

Unknown Speaker 44:10
She had been plumper I believe in her

Unknown Speaker 44:15
time when she was having her children, although

Unknown Speaker 44:17
not a great lot, I would think maybe about 145 or something like that. But she

Unknown Speaker 44:23
was a girl but she didn't appear to be she was a large boned woman

Unknown Speaker 44:28
very heavy bone. A strong, very strong person.

Unknown Speaker 44:37
And

Unknown Speaker 44:39
when Leah and I were married, she was 87. And I had told somebody that his mother was 87. And that they said my goodness, is she coming to the wedding? And I said yes. They said How will she get there? I said, Oh, she'll come with her family. And Lisa will she won't be and will tend to be around at that age. But she doesn't look that age. So then at the wedding, somebody said,

Unknown Speaker 45:06
I thought you said Leah's mother was going

Unknown Speaker 45:09
to be here. I said she is. And they said were like it over there. And they said, but you said she was 87. That woman isn't 65.

Unknown Speaker 45:21
I still Yes, she is. But she was very useful. She was very, she had a serenity about her that she was one of those kind of people that had something didn't sit well with her. When she ignored the fact that it was there, she just was able to put it away and ignore it. But she was there at the convent until she was 16. And then her sister had gone to work for the

Unknown Speaker 46:07
bishops power of choice, which was I don't know why they call the bishops Palace, but I guess that's where you live.

Unknown Speaker 46:16
And so

Unknown Speaker 46:19
she went to see her there once.

Unknown Speaker 46:22
And

Unknown Speaker 46:26
her sister was

Unknown Speaker 46:31
happy. Her mother had thought at least for her

Unknown Speaker 46:46
community combination.

Unknown Speaker 46:50
And

Unknown Speaker 46:52
the nuns had told her that she should give it to legionnaires.

Unknown Speaker 46:59
And so she gave it to the Virgin Mary. And this had yada and then and later turn when she was I believe

Unknown Speaker 47:14
that her shawl had been given. And that that can be quite harmful to her she

Unknown Speaker 47:23
sort of locked for because she apparently didn't play that

Unknown Speaker 47:28
religious girl. So of course, Sophie, she

Unknown Speaker 47:31
all her life was a very staunch Roman Catholic, but she knew that they took your two

Unknown Speaker 47:39
year shawl, and arcmin and things like that. So lever human. That sort of

Unknown Speaker 47:47
gave her a little.

Unknown Speaker 47:51
Yeah, yeah. She

Unknown Speaker 47:54
was lucky. She was a very devout Roman Catholic,

Unknown Speaker 47:58
she knew that.

Unknown Speaker 48:00
If the occasion arose,

Unknown Speaker 48:02
they would take your tube, or they would take your

Unknown Speaker 48:06
lace shawl or whatever, for some reason. And

Unknown Speaker 48:11
that probably

Unknown Speaker 48:14
Nadir able to

Unknown Speaker 48:16
cope with a lot of things through life because she realized that

Unknown Speaker 48:19
even even churches could

Unknown Speaker 48:24
not always gifts for the Virgin Mary. Yes, it wasn't always gifts to the Virgin.

Unknown Speaker 48:31
And so when she yet came out of

Unknown Speaker 48:35
the combat, she went to work in Victoria.

Unknown Speaker 48:39
And she worked for a lady there. And then she went

Unknown Speaker 48:49
to stay with her brother,

Unknown Speaker 48:50
for sure that he loves

Unknown Speaker 48:53
cataloging shows,

Unknown Speaker 48:56
we call it in no time in suits. And that's meant to work for a lady who

Unknown Speaker 49:03
was going to she was looking after the children. And the man had gone to

Unknown Speaker 49:16
were in New Orleans.

Unknown Speaker 49:19
And CO she was going to go as the city's nurse with the lady to care. And they went to Seattle.

Unknown Speaker 49:29
And when they got there

Unknown Speaker 49:35
somebody saw Lady Bird.

Unknown Speaker 49:40
And so

Unknown Speaker 49:44
the end she was waiting to get here from her husband and she hadn't heard from him yet. And oh, she was in such a state. And so Sophie said to a man in a hotel and she yes she would work as a chamber to pay there because somebody had stolen the lady's money and they had to wait until the husband sent money. So anyway, we

Unknown Speaker 50:20
were there for how long we were there several months. I guess

Unknown Speaker 50:25
she worked in this hotel was okay. But he really would have could stay there.

Unknown Speaker 50:31
And

Unknown Speaker 50:33
which is something I mean, he does that for employers. Now.

Unknown Speaker 50:37
Look after the employer. But anyway, then we

Unknown Speaker 50:43
move on to

Unknown Speaker 50:46
the man sent money making back later, he wasn't going to whether he couldn't find accommodation, or one I don't know where she was to go at a later time. So Sophie didn't go.

Unknown Speaker 50:58
And then she

Unknown Speaker 51:01
came over to salt spray,

Unknown Speaker 51:04
or does it and met Leon and went around the room. She stayed at her, her

Unknown Speaker 51:19
what's her mother's still living on the island? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 51:23
And she was living with George and his wife.

Unknown Speaker 51:29
This is her older brother.

Unknown Speaker 51:32
Yes or half that is

Unknown Speaker 51:34
so late.

Unknown Speaker 51:37
And George had managed when when Mr. Purser died she had almost done the same thing with that as she's done with the other stuff. But he managed or she didn't do it or something. But George managed somehow to get the

Unknown Speaker 51:55
Yeah. So they did still have a

Unknown Speaker 52:00
and

Unknown Speaker 52:02
so all sorts of shells of light into the doctor in the nighttime for fat to keep Fly like the wind damage horses

Unknown Speaker 52:11
used to ride and go to

Unknown Speaker 52:13
the doctor when somebody was sick. Daughter,

Unknown Speaker 52:16
what would the doctor be on the island? Central?

Unknown Speaker 52:20
I think so. I believe

Unknown Speaker 52:22
the Ganges wasn't much of a town. No, no.

Unknown Speaker 52:27
And then she married Leon. And

Unknown Speaker 52:36
they were about the same age that he visits. He was three years old.

Unknown Speaker 52:43
So they were the feedback house

Unknown Speaker 52:44
for me when

Unknown Speaker 52:46
she was the about 20 and 21 when she was 21.