Accession Number | Interviewer | Ruth Sandwell | |
Date | Januay 8, 1998 | ||
Location | Mayne Island | ||
Media | tape | Audio CD | 61.28 minutes mp3 |
ID |
217_BarryWilks-created-2015.mp3
otter.ai
28.01.2024
no
Unknown Speaker 00:07
Today is January the eighth 1998. And today I'm speaking with Barry Wilks and his wife Sally Mansome. At their home on main island. My name is Ruth Sandra
Unknown Speaker 00:27
Okay, Barry, I wanted to ask you how
Unknown Speaker 00:30
your family first how and when and why your family first came to main islands? And who?
Unknown Speaker 00:38
Well, that's a good question. I was a small child when they came here. Do you remember what year? Yeah. literally moved over here back in back in June of 1945, when the school was before the before VE Day. Why did they come to me? Well, I'm not exactly sure. But the cabling was my aunt and uncle, my aunt on my mother's side, Gladys, and she's still alive, she lives in a normal country. So he has an extremely, very extreme memory problems knows. So they came over at the same time, they both came at the same time together. But we were sort of a close knit family. On my mother's side, the three sisters and we all lived in a little neighborhood on Capitol Hill. In those days, it was it was like, walk next door, their sister and husband and so on. But anyhow, they came over. The story I heard was, in order to escape the rat race, they were probably God knows why. Because there wasn't too many during that time before the war ended. But I sort of categorize them a little bit as original hippies.
Unknown Speaker 02:09
Same reasons to get away from
Unknown Speaker 02:13
although they didn't resemble this, what we commonly call hippies. They were
Unknown Speaker 02:26
my actually, we got here, how we arrived at main island. My uncle Ted, who was my glasses, husband, he was a roofer. And I guess there was a time in a TV sort of work, and he responded to an ad and one of the Vancouver newspapers to put a roof on a hotel on main island. The old Graham's New Lodge, which is still there, that's renamed now it's pretty modern Lodge, but that was, yeah, yeah. So that's, that's sort of how it was discovered.
Unknown Speaker 02:59
Did he come over and work? He came
Unknown Speaker 03:01
over and put a roof on? I guess he stayed. The old lady was Mr. Naylor, that only the hotel and she wasn't running it, but I guess the roof was leaking. And I would imagine he stayed there and put the roof on dried roof and got familiar with what being Ireland look like anyhow.
Unknown Speaker 03:23
So when they when, when they came over here, where do they live?
Unknown Speaker 03:28
Right here in this place? Well, it was quite different. Well, it hasn't changed a huge amount, but it was before the days of electricity and running water. And actually, we had a pretty nice house in North Vancouver. And we came over to this place and it was like we call it My mother didn't like it very much.
Unknown Speaker 03:57
Did. Did it did what did the two sisters come
Unknown Speaker 04:01
up? To? Or sorry? Yeah, LC my mother and Gladys, her sister and her husband, Ted, my uncle Ted and McCarthy father.
Unknown Speaker 04:13
And did they all live on this property? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 04:16
But not for long. They didn't get along with each other. The two males didn't get along with each other. I don't know what the problem was. It wasn't you know, it wasn't a total huge scenario, but they just discovered they couldn't live together. Work together.
Unknown Speaker 04:32
So did did they all stay or did some go back to your
Unknown Speaker 04:38
recollection during correct it was about November of the same year that glassy tech took off my back to North Vancouver. Oh really?
Unknown Speaker 04:49
So that shows the time
Unknown Speaker 04:58
So who did you know who they bought this car? pretty firm. Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 05:01
this is Kimball. Okay, they both sold their homes. And I think they the stories that I used to hear was that they had nothing left over when they bought this place because this was a large place and it was 220 acres and students or students subdivided down, of course.
Unknown Speaker 05:25
So what did they do after
Unknown Speaker 05:26
that? How did they make a living? Well,
Unknown Speaker 05:31
with regard to, I think my uncle Ted went back to roofing for a while and Northland and then he carried on with different things. And my father scrambled to figure out what to do. And he imported another friend of the families and for his life, and that was the Morrisons and after the war was over, there was a lot of greenhouses on main island may or may not have used to be the tomato capital of Canada for a period. But the greenhouses weren't worked, because they were Japanese Canadians at random. They're all over the place here. So they were available to rent. So what they did was rented one, and that Horton Bay down at the end of the road, which is now known as a Dibley place. And they grew tomatoes for a while. And they bought another property. Morrison was a veteran. And those properties were sold under the blnd Act, or whatever it was. So that's natural soldier settlement. And they bought one and they worked that one for a while. And then I guess it Oh, what happened was apparently, according to my father, anyhow, I said that nobody could compete here anymore than it was. Shortly thereafter. There was an incursion of California tomatoes up into DC and keeper to have their lesser product delivered up to Safeway. He was moving into that time and other things. The tomato business pretty well went into the two peer companies down
Unknown Speaker 07:21
at the end of the 40s.
Unknown Speaker 07:26
Yeah, it would be the end of the 40s Maybe just shortly before that, that it happened here. And there were quite a few of them started up and a lot of them became loggers. They just couldn't make a go of it. There's a lot of logging.
Unknown Speaker 07:45
So did your dad do any logging? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 07:48
not at that time. He the next thing he did was he leaves the store and that's been seats torn down. But it was the fairly historical store that doesn't miners Bay at the head of the dock across from what is known as free water law. It was right there. And it had been it was owned by Mr. Naylor, we want to bring water in Grandview life and she rented it out and he ran it and his brothers then again was a returning veteran it took him a while to get back I don't quite know now but he came over local bar but they weren't there together for a while and after that Bob discovered it was easier to go and more profitable to go with logging so he did but my father ran that for quite a few years.
Unknown Speaker 08:51
Did he love your uncleanness did
Unknown Speaker 08:54
he love here on on Main and
Unknown Speaker 08:57
he started out here or mainly went he was once a fairly large as it goes you know logging operation of the day you may not
Unknown Speaker 09:07
know what logging company
Unknown Speaker 09:08
yeah it was what it was known as well it was commonly known here to be an H and H and that was Brawl hall and I don't know who the other H was maybe something employment exploding or something. Next Best Thing to I don't know what you call them rodents or cattle restaurants, maybe hippo loggers. They were all characters. But Bob was an employee. He lived here and it went over to Samuel they love the trunk of Samuel Island.
Unknown Speaker 09:49
Now, yeah, no, it's the same on Saltspring. All of that in the late 40s. Early
Unknown Speaker 09:54
50s. Yeah, there's a lot of people quite good employment. Cool. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Mister created
Unknown Speaker 10:01
quite a boo.
Unknown Speaker 10:03
Well, as I told you when I came to the school here they were 14 and little one little room that had been there since 19 or sooner. And I think it was the second year, it was a second classroom. Yeah, that was a huge influx of younger people, you know, was making a buck. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 10:26
What some?
Unknown Speaker 10:30
Well, I want to ask you about the school a little bit more very soon. We'll just ask you now, you'd come from a school in North Vancouver? Yep.
Unknown Speaker 10:37
So what did you notice about the school with the 14 case? Well,
Unknown Speaker 10:42
I think I told you earlier. I used to be dressed sort of fairly well to go to school every day of the Capitol. I know when when I first went to school in main island when it started when September I can't remember the dates in those days. There were 14 kids there and I was dressed in short pants and that's the last time I ever wore short casts. I could remember kids was one one guy that was there. It's a little bit tragic, but he was 16 years old and grade two several the kids used to say seven years old or so but one always had a poach of organs tobacco in the shirt pocket.
Unknown Speaker 11:25
So to be safe kind of wild to these kids when you first came
Unknown Speaker 11:31
I don't know if that's the right word. Wild is no I think they were sort of earthy. They knew knew more than the ones that were more from a town they knew more about defeat on the ground. I think that's how I could sort of put it No, I mean heck, I was watching how old are they be nine years old though. I didn't I wasn't really out there critically assessing no
Unknown Speaker 12:02
yeah
Unknown Speaker 12:04
well I quite
Unknown Speaker 12:07
here right here we were here we lived in this house for long but I walk from here to school back to school how far
Unknown Speaker 12:24
the roads had well let's put it this way there weren't any wasn't any telephone or hydro here power
Unknown Speaker 12:35
with it there was there were telephones on the island where there was
Unknown Speaker 12:38
there were two when we got here. And one was there was some retired mate BC tell maintenance man and had a phone of his own and and then there was a telephone office at miners bay that was very close. And I can remember we used to go down to make long distance call that was but there was a cable that went across here. I'm not sure when that was set up. But it was the main cable that crossed from point Roberts over to Vancouver island somewhere I'm assuming around Swartz Bay, but incoming Highlander mate. So therefore they had a repeater station here to power it up. And I guess that's why main had a phone then. Otherwise, it wouldn't be. But anyhow, further to walk into school. There weren't any wires. And most of the roads, there wasn't any blacktop and most of the roads had the grass strip down the middle
Unknown Speaker 13:37
that a lot of people have cars now.
Unknown Speaker 13:42
No, not to the extent now. But percentage wise, but the other have quite a few cars.
Unknown Speaker 13:47
Did people use horses at that time in the 40s?
Unknown Speaker 13:50
Yeah. I can remember a little bit of it, but not much old. Billy Deacon, he was called William Deacon. He he died. Not too long after we got here. But he used to see him riding around on a horse. He didn't have a vehicle. That was his ways of getting around. But no, there wasn't really that much of it. There was a little bit but still a few workhorses around lousy things.
Unknown Speaker 14:15
So basically, for for transportation
Unknown Speaker 14:17
on the island, people would use the card and I'll check Yeah, we
Unknown Speaker 14:22
use a card. And there wasn't ever a time when there was anybody that went along in the car and saw somebody walking out. They didn't stop. Pick them up. Period. That was the norm. Without question, and there wasn't any question about taking the ride. You just did it.
Unknown Speaker 14:43
I guess you probably knew who most people were. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 14:51
Do you have any idea how many people left on me when you first 20 120
Unknown Speaker 14:57
That was a really big change for me. If
Unknown Speaker 15:01
you think about it, that's what 880 people that's not that many, much different. So, numbers. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:10
Yeah, right, especially compared,
Unknown Speaker 15:12
although there's a lot of now there's population jumps way up, you know, weekends and holidays of courses 1000s.
Unknown Speaker 15:25
How's the ferry service in those days?
Unknown Speaker 15:28
It was, it came out of downtown Vancouver, it was a CPR. And it ran three or four days a week then. And it took a big, long winded milk group where you could get cake. You know, start starting with Galliano stopped at me and went through the islands and all of the southern islands and made the loop back to Vancouver. If you wanted to go to Vancouver, get there late at night, from here if the bulk left, left around noon, but
Unknown Speaker 16:06
the people travel off the island a lot in those days.
Unknown Speaker 16:11
It was reasonable access. fares were cheap. And the service was great. You know, they had she has service under CPR bullets. And while they're just the facilities were luxury, and their dining facilities were sterling silver and you know, uniform waiters. Oh, yes, it was first class. It was done in the style of the old British luxury liner and all the CPR boats were no good for that. Part of the reason why they went broke, I guess. But it was a treat to do that. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 16:46
So would you go did you do when you found the Alpha Go into Victoria? So
Unknown Speaker 16:50
no, it was very hard to get to Victoria. I think there was one day a weekend and of course, then most of any most people on main island were Vancouver oriented. But there wasn't much Victoria for recall how
Unknown Speaker 17:03
often toxic CPR boats come would be that three times a week because
Unknown Speaker 17:09
all I can remember. Was it Monday. It did a dumb number on Monday. I think it went to Victoria. Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays were mean days and that's when mail came and freight groceries and you name it and the stuff got shipped out and it was quite a lot of stuff shipped out for the summer there was a Sunday sailing of the motor Princess, which used to run between Sydney and Steve steam or Sydney. Yeah, Sydney and Steve sooner I did an odd job over to Bellingham. But there was an app and egress on that one on a Sunday night to see the mainland to it wasn't actually bad transportation service. If you look at sort of dig up some of the old schedules, you'll see what the Princess Mary used to do. It essentially was Gulf Islands and then southern islands. And then at night when it got back into Vancouver, it would load up and take off up to Powell River and and the whole pilot stops. Not the union stops, you know they have their area, and then it went over to Denman and Hornby and union Bay. Your boat was busy for many, many years. I think they they must have made something on it for for a lengthy time.
Unknown Speaker 18:33
Do people have their own boats
Unknown Speaker 18:37
down? There's quite a bit of fishing around here. And there's actually there's a lot of fish boats here. When I first got here, there were four fish camps and you're buying camps and servicing camps in Monterey Bay.
Unknown Speaker 18:48
So how would they work?
Unknown Speaker 18:51
They were on floats like scouse barges, and this slide gas or bought fish and they had supplies and ice for me, so
Unknown Speaker 19:02
they they weren't owned by the Camrys or anything.
Unknown Speaker 19:06
I don't know. You know for sure there. I remember there was one that was a coop. Yeah, there was one that was Canadian fish company that was in Indian Bay just around the side of miner's Bay. Another one called Western fish and I don't know what that was. They may have been sort of offshoot and then the last one I don't remember what it was. Apparently it was an affiliate.
Unknown Speaker 19:28
So there were some some people who fished a
Unknown Speaker 19:30
lot much but they have their own boats. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 19:35
But there's a lot of small boats, you know, people have little mini little icon puppets clinker boats was a little bit more and motoring where they could go to another island or go fishing. Go exploring. Yeah, there's quite a quite a bit of that and then robots people wrote along with them, even that
Unknown Speaker 19:57
was there a lot of communication between these two So the outer Gulf Islands
Unknown Speaker 20:03
I think It dwindled about that time there was some. But I think in the earlier days, there were more when to get, you know, main island was the only one that had the post office in jail. Doctor for a period
Unknown Speaker 20:25
so when you were growing up, was there a doctor on the
Unknown Speaker 20:29
doc Roberts?
Unknown Speaker 20:32
Whatever it was, Sarah gets to help. The health center was putting
Unknown Speaker 20:37
in quite recently.
Unknown Speaker 20:40
That's what I did the school yard. We did that when is that? It must have been 17 years ago. The health center was basically in the vault built voluntarily here. And then it's expanded too soon. But there for a great period, it was a variety of different sort of attempts at community health facilities. Health like a nurse, retired nurse, you would have
Unknown Speaker 21:11
MSP history of that particular thing written down somewhere
Unknown Speaker 21:14
the health center
Unknown Speaker 21:17
itself it didn't seem to have too much about what it had replaced your
Unknown Speaker 21:25
your wills But although she was she worked for years and years in town
Unknown Speaker 21:37
so when you were when you were a child growing up here, you would go to school, obviously. What else? Were you? Did you like to work as well? When you retired? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 21:51
got a few things that I had to do. Well often get firewood for stuff. Feed the sheep.
Unknown Speaker 22:04
Sheep did your family.
Unknown Speaker 22:06
I don't know. My father had sheep everywhere. And I used to just love going out. Come on. Now let's count the sheep in forever counting sheep because they just wandered everywhere. He had a variety of different properties. And what else
Unknown Speaker 22:33
did he What else did he do? He did
Unknown Speaker 22:38
sort of agricultural stuff.
Unknown Speaker 22:41
Oh, well, as I told him the greenhouses on that Bennett paid property. I think for one year I think he blew right. I'm not sure if I'm correct with that. But I think I have any degree to field tomatoes in front of the house.
Unknown Speaker 22:55
When did they get that property?
Unknown Speaker 22:59
Again, I think it was 50 or 51 I'm not exactly sure if you might have found that one that we removed from here. Not I'm not sure maybe came for a year and then he went down to my Hispanic donor. And then they I guess discovered that property was up for sale and my mother really liked it. I don't know how they scrounge did it but they bought it.
Unknown Speaker 23:32
How many kids do they have?
Unknown Speaker 23:34
My sister Sister Tracy Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 23:42
So when they moved there did things change a lot for you and they moved to
Unknown Speaker 23:45
that property. We're talking about
Unknown Speaker 23:56
he did in a different house. You know, speech in front and things like that. It's not very far from minor today. I recall walking there one morning at five in the morning and as fast as I could get you to the dock at miners bein it took 28 minutes so that's not very far. smallworld
Unknown Speaker 24:21
so you tell me cap sheet there. Do
Unknown Speaker 24:24
they have any other livestock?
Unknown Speaker 24:27
Well, when they were here, originally over there,
Unknown Speaker 24:32
well
Unknown Speaker 24:35
no, there was played around here with some pigs and geese and turkeys and chickens. But at Bennett Bay, actually I don't think there was any livestock on the benefi I think that was your time when it when it was determined. The Wilk family was Simply into butchering animals and being vegetarians ever.
Unknown Speaker 25:12
So what else do people do on main island?
Unknown Speaker 25:18
Oh gosh. Who knows pensions has lots of them. Probably the odd remittance one remittance person, shall we call them? Logging sawmilling agriculture, flocks of sheep, cows. Pigs,
Unknown Speaker 25:38
do people export
Unknown Speaker 25:39
any, like off the island? Did they sell any farm projects? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 25:44
Yeah. So I can, I can recall, you know, in the days of the CPR, everybody was at the dock. Except the kids wouldn't get a chance on that one issue because they were in school, but anyhow. It might have been Saturday. So that was I can tell you a little funny one there. Soon. Everybody was on that dock on main island, or practically everybody who was bedridden or something, it was a social event, and getting the mail and there was a lot of tea room when I when I first recall rate of miners that was operating and people would gather in our head or morning. And then there's always an excuse of waiting for the meal. And so it was so I would get cast to see what came off and went on just as everybody else did around here. And there was lots of lots of stuff shipped out of here. Apples off the island and dairy products milk was shipped over to Salzburg. They had what they called a creamery over there made butter out of it. There was wool there were animals, live animals, cows and sheep. Pigs coming and going all the time. Between animals. What about chickens and eggs? Oh, yeah. chickens and eggs. Yeah. Yeah, that's that sort of stuff was shipped out of here, too.
Unknown Speaker 27:24
So what came on right
Unknown Speaker 27:26
here? Blue jeans, groceries. Or there was a canary here then a small Canary called Steel's Canary employed eight people. And they brought they can meat products, mainly. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 27:42
That was in the 40s and 50s.
Unknown Speaker 27:44
Yeah, they were operating when we got here. 45 And I'm not sure when they wound up in the middle 50s is addicting, even got tired. You sold the category out? Can another fella then CPR pulled out of here and that was the editor that things like bed. To heat they imported all their beef. They made Steel's all beef stew Steel's meatballs. Their products were really in demand because they were first class products. And another specialty was plum pudding. Yeah, but you couldn't buy it locally, the product was not available because it was in such demand elsewhere. And it was an acrimonious little building and facilities now would be considered primitively wouldn't permit it. But yeah, that was no regulation wise, but yet the product was probably second to none. That's another one that came here. There was thrown all my time here with a CP boats. It was logging going on. So there was logging stuff coming all the time coming in
Unknown Speaker 28:57
to people so people would buy there. Where exactly did the groceries come from? Do you know where?
Unknown Speaker 29:06
Well my father. That's something I used to have to do is pack them groceries into a truck and unpack them into the store. Another one of my chores, but of course I got an allowance for that two bits a week. But like I said, it's pay as
Unknown Speaker 29:31
they came from Vancouver and I recall the name of Kelly Douglas is one of the largest wholesale, larger wholesalers that ship stuff to my father's store. So
Unknown Speaker 29:40
did most people I
Unknown Speaker 29:42
know on Saltspring a lot of people ordered from Woodward's That's
Unknown Speaker 29:45
right. eton's. Yeah, evens was fruit Boom. That's right, the catalogs. That's true. But most of that stuff came in the mail, I would think are you talking?
Unknown Speaker 29:57
People used to get sold Taylor's sort of Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 30:01
does ring a bell? Well, then there were two stores here. And they had just about you know what, mostly while they supplied what people want
Unknown Speaker 30:14
what do people were there? What would people go into into town into Vancouver to buy?
Unknown Speaker 30:23
I have no idea exactly, you know, you might go and buy a vehicle or something, it's hard to say they, they didn't do like they do now, they didn't travel by vehicle. Now, people go and they load their vehicles up with things they need. Or maybe can't get here. But then you were you packed your own stuff pretty well and checked it in the baggage room. So I don't know if that's hard to say because it was such a mixed bag but?
Unknown Speaker 32:39
I just want to ask you one more question that sort of general question about about that time. And it's about the community on the island? How, how would you describe the community that were? Is everybody the same or different groups? And if they were what made them different from each other?
Unknown Speaker 33:05
The community, it was pretty, pretty close together. I think there may be some historical feuds as I did, I had no idea that when they originated when there was disparaging remarks, said about individuals and so on, but the community I think, was in pretty good shape, in general, and it seemed to work together to do things. Yeah, help each other out. Or it certainly is one of those communities, which I guess all rural communities have the same good qualities, small places is no matter what when somebody needed help, they got it, you know, the house gets burned down or somebody falls in a well or something like that everybody's there to help. So I would say that it's a good community, it was a community of character, there was a lot of character. And I say this thing about the community here today, which is the same thing and that is generally speaking, it's the colored community, everybody was shot out of guns they come from, from different sort of degrees of lifestyle, and they end up on an island and they may not have the same interest totally, but they're tolerant in general with each other. I think it was that way then I find it consistent. That's my feeling my assessment now. My reaction to that is each child has its characteristic to see his interest in rocks. Or the rocks. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 34:41
So you say people with different
Unknown Speaker 34:44
different epic time in the heavens, think about it. If you're lucky or battery radio, gas or gas lamp or something like that, and you know, television to guide us along this wonderful path. So
Unknown Speaker 35:03
when did when did electricity come to mind?
Unknown Speaker 35:07
I think it was 5056 or 57. When basically it was BC Power Commission that was a predecessor, because the height the hydro here, but it was there was a lot of work put together here to get it here. The islands work together with each other. And there was various pressing committees. They got, it took a lot of doing. People had to sign up ahead of time that they take bar for so many such and such lengths of time, and so on.
Unknown Speaker 35:40
So did you have to what do people have to pay for polls to be put up and things? So
Unknown Speaker 35:44
the DC power commission was a branch of province that was that that set up to establish? I guess it's subsidized electrification in rural areas? So no, it didn't cost at all. It took a commitment from people that they would get their places watered, and they would, some didn't, there was a few that were Hester base, and I thought maybe that was my catch fire. From the real old school.
Unknown Speaker 36:16
I guess that's the same way that schools
Unknown Speaker 36:18
were organized to the community would get together and request a school then they could get help from the government without changing the user bits.
Unknown Speaker 36:34
Okay, I'd like to ask you very more specifically about the property. Property. So I'm sorry, I forget you told me who they bought the property from.
Unknown Speaker 36:45
Bertie family. Jim Margaret, and family kids.
Unknown Speaker 36:54
Do you know anything about them? Not much.
Unknown Speaker 36:58
I think they arrived on me. I'm not sure you may be able to dredge that one up if you haven't already. If it's worth it. I think they were around the androids the Second World War, or maybe shortly thereafter, at 47.
Unknown Speaker 37:11
Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker 37:13
they were quite industrious. And they bought it. I believe. How did it work? Okay. They bought the title. That includes the sort of the field area and where the hold houses are there now. From Dave Bennett.
Unknown Speaker 37:39
Okay, Dave Bennett. Is he? What's his relation to Thomas Bennett?
Unknown Speaker 37:45
Yes. Yes. You'd have to sort work that one out. There's so many of them that I don't know who. Who's a father? That's probably it could be either Thomas or Jim. I'm not sure. But I think that's not too hard to find out.
Unknown Speaker 38:01
So they bought it from him. Do you know what they do?
Unknown Speaker 38:03
Do they do stuff with the property? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 38:08
Do built and he had a friend I'm not sure how if he was connected with lander, he was a family friend. But it was hard working. So Fred larger, and they built a halfway out on the inside of the point, they built a marine weighs, you know what, that we were just looking at the on the movie that we're looking at my accent was still there, 9650 to 51 Whenever you do it, what it was is, it's a facility to pull boats out of the water and repair them. And it was they operated it for a while. You could pull a you know, a gill net size boat out of the water repair. I think Jim was a bit of a trick, right. But it was, must have been pretty tough going. As it was, there wasn't any road out to where this thing was and there wasn't any electricity. And yet these things out they had an old gas winch and it was a track that went down into the water and then carry like a wagon, a big one that you put in, put a boat on you. And then tie it on a startup wrench and pull it over water. They did that. And I guess they didn't make ends meet. Sold out. A saint Jim might have tried growing field tomatoes. That's where I'm a little confused. I'm not sure if it was my father or both of them. Maybe Jim did it and then my father did it when they first moved in there. No one my father he couldn't might have done it at night and hopefully he was a workaholic. So he didn't maybe work at the store during the day. Other things you would do when it goes as long as it was delayed?
Unknown Speaker 40:06
Did they What do you know about it
Unknown Speaker 40:09
have any other buildings or structures that the referees?
Unknown Speaker 40:15
Know I don't know what's there? No, I haven't really paid much attention. Is there were there were two houses and then there was a little cabin called Sleepy Hollow. I'm not sure if that got torn down or not. Well, maybe if it is it's awfully derelict. But they built the one house the larger one. Yeah. And then they built the second one. And it was smaller, and it was subsequently added to by my father but it How was Mrs. Adderbury elderly parents and Christie's returning. And then there was sleepy Hall, which was a was to lose. I'm not sure if Fred Larson's. Live there or whether it was just a guest house or what it was for a bit. There's a variety people stayed in that place holiday time Wilkes is where they're not it wasn't rented out. It was just fine. Yeah, there were there were buyers sheds up above the the old house. I think they're still there. Right now. They're sorted. But there wasn't anything very substantial. I built the barn. It was a tin roof on the middle one. What my daughter had her horse over there for quite a while.
Unknown Speaker 41:35
Did you build it for the horse or
Unknown Speaker 41:39
any other buildings? No, no, not. Not only another one, but it's probably not of historic interest is. One day my father says You better come down here and give me a hand. We got to move this house. That guy built a house on the wrong property. So we did we he was quite agreeable. He's really easygoing days. But he's cleared him a spot. But his house on skids a little bit. His own property. That's all I know.
Unknown Speaker 42:14
So, so Thomas balance and David Bennett. I think they got the property in the 20s 1926. I think, Dave, I
Unknown Speaker 42:22
don't know that Dave was one of many. I think he's probably inherited part of the whole, that whole end of main island was sort of the better end. It was the better than the Decon end and
Unknown Speaker 42:35
they bought from William and Margaret Deacon.
Unknown Speaker 42:37
Yeah, well, no, they didn't buy. I tell you that story on suffer. Well, maybe you did. Yeah, maybe. Maybe I didn't. I don't know. But well, William, Billy Deacon hold hardscrabble farm and that was part of his holdings, and of course, all the fields that are still in existence today. And then it went over to the water Campbell bed and Brooklyn Campbell point. Okay. Okay, so you could get a
Unknown Speaker 43:15
big one. Yeah, that'd be great. This isn't a format. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 43:21
Essentially. Quickly, yes. And how it was divvied up? Okay, so
Unknown Speaker 43:29
that point there.
Unknown Speaker 43:30
These are just section wise recorded sections. But anyhow, all of this William moved over to Campbell Bay and were considered to be rocky knobbly. You know, he couldn't raise a cow on it or it was useless. Useless. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 43:56
Came out here
Unknown Speaker 44:04
really, Deacon had a barn, big barn, and he was getting on in years. That subsequently blew over and a big windstorm. But anyhow, it was a big barn and the roofs needed repairing. So add a break put the roof on for him in exchange for the property that rocky knobbly Peninsula and elsewhere that it went up behind the houses included that because my I know my father bought that from one of the subsequent owners that when the road was put through behind the house, the public room but anyhow, land values have inflated a bit since then. Is not many that get purchased for Barton road So, at least this is my this is, shall we say, my oral knowledge? I don't think we'll have to go to court over that to prove that. But it might it might not be. Yeah, that was ahead of her. It may not be correct. I don't know about that. I'm fairly sure. Okay, so Bennett's on the field and a bit behind the house because that was part of the old Bennett land that was practical and useful for grazing sheep. And cows, I
Unknown Speaker 45:32
guess. So the D consulted the balance. No.
Unknown Speaker 45:39
Did you? Okay, all right. Part
Unknown Speaker 45:41
of the quarter of the Amy Bennett Bay Area. I'm
Unknown Speaker 45:45
not exactly sure.
Unknown Speaker 45:52
William, and 1998 to 92. Okay. He got the property. And then very in 1882. Margaret belonged to Margaret Deacon. I don't quite understand that part of it. And then in 1882, Rutherford, sold to Margaret Deacon. The section 10. From the eastern section alone, so I guess, there and the other critical thought from John Wick, John Hughes was actually a marine Eliot told me he was somebody who worked in the light ships in the harbor. Yeah. And he apparently bought it from Margaret and Margaret, dove sorry, James and Matilda jolly, who actually preempted the land in 1876. And he said, according to Tony Elliot, James jolly also worked in the chips on that Lightship. And I can
Unknown Speaker 46:56
understand them getting sick of rocking around on the Lightship for solid. So how do you how do these records are these comes from Land Registry.
Unknown Speaker 47:08
And these ones, these ones are on microfilm. And this is all the titles that are. The early ones are just in those huge old books. But yeah, here it is. James Campbell, sold two part of the property to Thomas. And he managed to so
Unknown Speaker 47:31
he was related
Unknown Speaker 47:32
to the balance, he was an uncaught. So that's what Campbell is named
Unknown Speaker 47:38
after. Anyway. So that's that. So you, you and your sister inherited that property from
Unknown Speaker 47:45
a mother 1880s. Whatever.
Unknown Speaker 47:48
I'm not sure what date it was.
Unknown Speaker 47:55
Yeah. Did your mom have a transaction? That's when your dad got sick? And
Unknown Speaker 48:01
he died a bit later? Did you know?
Unknown Speaker 48:06
Yeah, and then.
Unknown Speaker 48:14
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I was trying to figure out from the lab records, whether it be
Unknown Speaker 48:20
a point that your dad had turned over the lrps to your system. Yeah. Oh, honey before then. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 48:29
So then, did you and your sister
Unknown Speaker 48:31
get together and decide to sell it? Yes. Canada.
Unknown Speaker 48:35
Well, two pieces back together.
Unknown Speaker 48:37
Sort of almost the other way around? Oh, yeah. Because they, they want it both properties. And they didn't want one without the other. They wouldn't be interested. Oh, really the way it worked with them. But I guess I instigated that. I saw the newspaper article. And we had been, we were going to sell the property anyhow. And I saw the article in the newspapers. We had it listed actually. And I phoned realtor and said, do you know about this? Who didn't? But you still found out. So then
Unknown Speaker 49:16
you just use this just tell me.
Unknown Speaker 49:19
Does your sister still live here? Yeah. So she sold the property and then bought another one.
Unknown Speaker 49:27
No, no. We bought a house here.
Unknown Speaker 49:30
Yeah, I haven't. I don't know.
Unknown Speaker 49:31
Know. When you see they were her husband was a late people here. They didn't have a place of their own except for what my sister My father had said would be hers when he passed away. So they lived there for a while. And then they wanted to sell. They decided they didn't like it out there. It wasn't for them. So Guess that's the order of events
Unknown Speaker 50:02
they have for sale and the point was for sale
Unknown Speaker 50:06
we jointly have a point for sale and they put theirs up for sale as well. To my surprise, I didn't know that they were going to do that but they did.
Unknown Speaker 50:16
Because it was such a beautiful piece we thought that they would build a house and that was the original intention was to have that piece and build a house.
Unknown Speaker 50:23
Well they don't try it in his when he retired from the light. They tried to reason cheap. That's what that fence is doing all around. He did it for a little while and we did firstly try to Angus Angus with Highland cow a few of them and then cheap. And I guess he decided that farming wasn't what he wanted to do in his retirement.
Unknown Speaker 50:50
did was he didn't like people here.
Unknown Speaker 50:53
Well, he This was his last job. He's been all over. He was easy. What was the scenery like Cooper on the coast he spent more years out in anybody. And he came back to pass which he called an old man's home and he was well they had one after him now they've just turfed it it's stupid it's short sighted for the amount of the mana cost it's really not to say that it's not it is not not it's a wrong decision that's been made not a one and Dungeon somewhere
Unknown Speaker 51:31
yeah, well you know well I guess when they have the first big loss of life you know when the combs maybe they'll think about it again.
Unknown Speaker 51:37
Yeah, but once it's over it's over. I shouldn't say well I only happen once
Unknown Speaker 51:44
Yeah, I think it's a really bad thing for that for the cost and everybody goes any anyway um Okay, are there any I guess what I like to do is just ask you a couple of questions very more specific questions about the house
Unknown Speaker 52:01
and that property what was the house like?
Unknown Speaker 52:07
Well, it wasn't it was a was a poor man's house it was made like the rafters were poles the a lot of the wood that is structurally was put into it was shipped decade or I guess out of Berhad connection somehow and it didn't have a foundation under it it was it was a you know physically it wasn't a well constructed house but it was a because you know Stacy didn't have any money to do it but but it was the House
Unknown Speaker 52:45
did you have two stories? I
Unknown Speaker 52:46
haven't Yeah, yeah, there's
Unknown Speaker 52:47
some sort of added keys type rooms upstairs two rooms upstairs.
Unknown Speaker 52:52
Did it have plumbing?
Unknown Speaker 52:55
Yeah, when we got there there was guys had plumbing indoor plumbing they had a water well that was dug hand dug down in the field below the house I assume it's covered over now I don't know if it's filled in and they had a gravity system was it called homemade concrete tank up above the house and gas pump and pump the water up the hill and then you know the gravity feed back in it didn't have electricity when we arrived there. But it was a relatively comfortable vibrant house
Unknown Speaker 53:33
for us so Did it have in the on the main floor?
Unknown Speaker 53:36
Was there any bedrooms there was
Unknown Speaker 53:39
one bedroom down below and living room. small kitchen and sort of a small dining area bathroom and a bit of a laundry room
Unknown Speaker 53:52
it's not really that much different. No,
Unknown Speaker 53:54
no it isn't much different. Yeah, let me change some things and close the ceiling in the front room and use a wide open ceiling you know sort of chalet style and it was very cold. It was a drafty place. The first year we first winter we were there was horrendous that not one of those real cold out close winds and it had French doors in front that were drafty and you couldn't keep it warm. It was just terrible. We had an oil stove in the kitchen. I don't know fireplace he just had everything going full tilt blankets over the windows
Unknown Speaker 54:42
I can get so cold. So propane and
Unknown Speaker 54:48
oil soil stove oil. That was fairly common here. You know people finally got sick of cutting stove wood and coal oil. No, it's that simple. little, just a little more refined and diesel, maybe in between diesel and kerosene. And you can just run a stove on it and you had what you call the carburetor behind the stove in your dial and went from one to six. And that allowed to flow into the stove. Matter of fact, that stove that we had was the shortest burger in North Vancouver and my father converted it to an oil. Everybody that in North Vancouver had shot a spring. And he did in the basement, in the basement to come here, but we didn't know. We don't need it. And
Unknown Speaker 55:36
I'll be still there unless someone has taken.
Unknown Speaker 55:38
But that's good. And so that's the one that came over from there.
Unknown Speaker 55:44
That's interesting. And so for lighting What
Unknown Speaker 55:47
did you do we use gas lamps and oil lamps that was usually was a big part of my job. I did.
Unknown Speaker 56:00
Yeah, most not always but quite a lot of Yes, we did. That was called them. They would give it quite a light. They had one Coleman came up with kerosene mantel lantern. Towards the end of our gas lab days, we'll call them and they were safer. They had two baffles which would be will give you a light of 100 watt bulb anyhow. That would you say? Well, gasoline is pretty volatile explosive and kerosene is and I recall lighting a gas lamp really old when we had in that house. There's nobody home and normally unscrew the you get them going with a valve sort of slightly shut down and you get them going and then open the valve wide open for some reason or in the valve came right out. jet fuel, you know, like I just took these two houses 100 and have been there in a hurry. That gas was dangerous. Filling it, you always filled them outside, but gas fumes traveled downhill. And if they you know if you fill them above your door so we say you've got a fire go in a house that can be very dangerous. Or we're still is the old romantic style Linklater, you know, those are, those are kerosene Rikolto. But you're one of those fell over you've got I imagine if he plays it burned down around here because he loves his house burned down the main old farmhouse, which I don't know what the cause of that was. But really, they lost a lot of stuff and you know, really old stuff was 50 some time. Big old farmhouse. We don't know and wondering, you know?
Unknown Speaker 58:06
Is there anything else that you want to say?
Unknown Speaker 58:09
What property?
Unknown Speaker 58:10
Yeah, that the property or you know, generally about? Oh, you know, what I do want to ask you about quickly, tropical minutes, I think. What about the natural vegetation on the island? And on that property?
Unknown Speaker 58:23
natural vegetation?
Unknown Speaker 58:25
Yeah. Was there anything that you used, like anything unique? Or just native to the
Unknown Speaker 58:32
native to there? I mean, what describe what's what I think is there? Well, I mean, if you could
Unknown Speaker 58:40
give me Yeah, tell me some of the plants that would grow there, but I'm not good on
Unknown Speaker 58:44
plants, trees more Juniper for secret Arbutus.
Unknown Speaker 58:53
Like, do they use them for anything like I know some of them native people here would use certain plants.
Unknown Speaker 59:01
I know there's one. The one that my mother used to go out was Mrs. Koyama. She was a Japanese lady that returned here. At a certain time of year they would go out and my mother commented on Mrs. Clay Emma's ability to discover these mushrooms at work that hadn't come through yet. And they were under the needles and she could she my mother was just amazed she said she couldn't brush the needles aside or whatever the just the stuff on the ground. Here reserve pet mushroom which they ate. I'm not sure if that was a pine mushroom or what type of mushroom never get did get. That was out on the point. And all the other one the Japanese returned back here for many years to went out there with trade Norio on the Gulf side of the shoreline. Yeah. Good. Laurie goes out there
Unknown Speaker 1:00:06
which we did it when you're with Kathy
Unknown Speaker 1:00:10
her mother lives in rich or Steve study. But it was a bit of an industry here there were people that lived here and they used to dry it and mail it in and that was in the 50s to try it on mainly in boxes with the Japanese people. Yes. Either Japanese or Japanese Canadians. Mrs. Koyama was Japanese or how did that work? Because her son Dec he returned he was he was a Canadian. He was born here she was born in Japan she went back to Africa and then she came back here I think that's how it worked. What
Unknown Speaker 1:00:50
about animals out there?
Unknown Speaker 1:00:54
What that movie we saw there wasn't chasing a rabbit did you hear about that movie? Oh the yellow
Unknown Speaker 1:01:06
deer we never did. Well, I'm sure people did. But I'm not sure if it was from there. Were everywhere Sure. What about deer deer everywhere you guys used to eat do we have but we've never really I never shot a deer nobody in my family started there but we've had Jeremy given to us
Unknown Speaker 1:01:33
start from the ocean
Unknown Speaker 1:01:34
of fish clams oysters clams at the end of the day so good spot not many people know about it it's there's a reef off the end of the tunnel actually been out there. They have made a point well there's a reef reef that because dry had a real low tide. You got to be careful when you're out there that you could get on this reef and get stuck but it's in between Maine and Georgia and on the south side, meaning the inshore side there's a little pocket in there white Shell Beach great place requires clean I don't know if it's been discovered. We went out there quite a few times where the locals are out here no phone and we probably wouldn't be any left if they did. I don't know. What else did
Unknown Speaker 1:02:36
you guys used to do anything else like to close or anything like that from like? No. What about berries
Unknown Speaker 1:02:54
there's, there are various there if that's if you're if you're suggesting specifically to that property, there's berries. There's not sure what the real the technical name for them is not what we call the real wild Blackberry. We call them the team by