Salt Spring Island Archives

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The Akerman Family

Robert Akerman (1912-)

This tape is part of the Salt Spring Island Historical Society Collection and comprises an address to its members.

Mr. Akerman, with the help of Ivan Mouat and Manson Toynbee talks about the pioneer families of Akerman and Gyves, and others who settled in the Burgoyne Valley in the 1860s-1880s.

Audio File Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that these interviews, recollections and talks are one person’s “truth”. These speakers generously shared their stories, experiences and personal knowledge with the Salt Spring Archives and we share them here with you. We ask that you be respectful with how you read and share them. We hope that you will learn from them.

Accession Number 989.031.025 Interviewer Salt Spring Island Historical Society
Date February 13, 1990 Location Central Hall
Media tape Audio CD mp3
ID 3B Detailed Tape Guide yes
Topic The Akerman Family Restrictions none

21_Robert_Akerman.mp3

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18.01.2023

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Molly Akerman

Ivan Mouat 0:00
He doesn't need an introduction to people on this island, but however, I'll tell you a little bit about him anyway. He was born in Fulford and educated Burgoyne school, the old Burgoyne school. He was a farmer. He was a logger. He was a cougar hunter. But I think perhaps his greatest contribution to this island, and it's a continuing one, is as great sportsman, and a great sort of supporter of all sports activities. You just have to name anything. Any sports that’s ever taken place on Saltspring and Bob has had a role in helping it, encouraging it, certainly the south of the island. Roller hockey, softball, badminton, baseball, you just name it and Bob has had something to do with it. And he still continues that interest. And also, of course, he has lived on the island a few years and he's here to tell us a little bit about what he can about the early days Saltspring in particular, south Salt Spring. What we've set up a program, sort of, and it may be varied but Manson and I are going to ask Bob questions and if he gets tired of answering them then he can do something else. By the way, you mentioned about the numbers that are here to hear Bob Akerman, one of the things that will come out in this afternoon I think is that Bob is related to a lot of families on the island, I think he’s just got his relatives here today. Manson do you want to start off?

Manson Toynbee 1:32
Bob, your grandfather was Joseph Akerman, an early pioneer in the Burgoyne Valley. Can you tell us a little about him?

Bob Akerman 1:40
Yes. He was born in [indiscernible], Wilshire England in 1838. He left England in 1855, he was 17 years old. On a sailing ship, the Tynemouth. He worked in Victoria and mostly in New Westminster loading lumber on the sailing ships that used to travel around the world in those days. He was trying to make enough money to buy some land and didn't have any money when he came out, he was 17 years old. But he saved a bit of money and 1860 he came into the Fulford area in the valley, and he took up 350 acres in the valley. And he built himself a small log cabin and cleared some land. In those days you could get land if you cleared it, preempted, it's called preemption, you can clear the land, take down the trees, burn them. And if you could get enough cleared then you could lay claim to it. But he had himself a small patch where he used to grow vegetables and things. And then he was in Victoria in 1862 when the bride ship, Robert Lowe, landed from England.

BA 3:32
And he met my grandmother, Martha Clay, from Leicestershire, England. And they were married by Reverend Matthew McPhee and they moved to Salt Spring in 1883. And built a Traveler's Rest was the first hotel and store in that area. And they raised eight children. Fanny was the oldest girl. Joe was next one. Then there was...that was Uncle Joe, Aunty Fanny and Uncle Joe. Aunty Tilly. Aunty Martha. Ted who was my dad. Jim, my uncle. Tom an uncle and Bill an uncle. And Fanny married Joe Nightingale, who was a cousin of Florence, heard about the lady with a lamp I think it was. And Joe married Tyne Horrell, the old family, Charlie Horrell’s aunt. And then after she died few years ago, then he married Amy James, who was Jack James's sister. Jack has passed away now but he lived at Vesuvius. And the James’s had the old Fernwood farms and they used to raise garden seeds and sell them, sold them all over the BC I guess. And Tilly she married the Shipwright, Mr. Wallace from Vancouver. Martha married Mr. Cartwright, still Cartwright's on the island here. That was the first husband, then later on he died and she married Bill Page, he worked for Mouat brothers for years, years and years, he worked for the Mouat brothers. They lived on Rainbow Road. Ted my dad, married Ellen Gyves. I'll tell you more, something about Mike Gyves later on.

BA 6:30
By the way, Val Gyves is with me. She's down at the back there. She's a cousin of mine. And her father was Mike. Then it was Jim married Annie Cameron from Scotland. Tom married May Urquhart. And Bill was a bachelor. Thats about all I got about the early Akerman family.

IM 7:01
Bob do you mind if we just go back on that a little bit. Francis (Fanny), the oldest of your grandfather's children, your oldest Aunt. And she married Nightingale, Joe Nightingale. Joe Nightingale had a daughter Martha Isabel Nightingale, who married Gilbert Mouat. So that relates the Mouat and Akermans. Joseph married Tina Horrell. [Indiscernible]. Molly married away from the island. Martha married Cartwright's, and the Cartwrights there was Basil Cartwright, and this was ER Cartwright that I think she married. So that in other words, that would make you and Peter Cartwright second cousins. And she married later Bill Page, of course we all know that. And your father married Ellen Gyves. And I thought Jim, your Uncle Jim married Mrs. Carr, who was a widow.

BA 8:08
No, there was Ivy.

IM 8:11
Oh, Mrs. Carr had a daughter Ivy. Yeah. I got confused. Okay and Tom, your Uncle Tom married a widower who had four children One was Jimmy Irqheart. Okay. These are names that have lived on the island [indiscernible]. Okay, thanks. Where did these various uncles...can we go to the names, where did they live in the island?

BA 8:49
Francis. They bought the farm which was the Reed farm after, the Tom Reed farm. And then Roger Hughes bought it and they turned it into a dairy. Now some people from Europe have bought it and they're fixing it all.

IM 9:13
In other words, the old Reed farm was a Nightingale farm.

BA 9:16
They cleared that land.

IM 9:19
Joseph, your Uncle Joseph Akerman. He lived, where did he live?

BA 9:25
He lived, he bought the farm right across from there, which is the old Charlie Mullet farm. And now it's some open farm. It was right across from the little Methodist Church. Little white one, across there in that area. Then he moved to the north end to Walker's hook. He bought a farm there. He lived there and worked for the James brothers. He was road Foreman for a good number of years. And then he worked for the James brothers on the same farm.

IM 10:00
Yeah, we were discussing this I think, about the road Foreman, rather interesting. And we don't mean to sidetrack, but it just so happened that road Foreman changed here in Saltspring, they used to. Every time the government changed. For instance, Joseph Akerman was the road Foreman whenever the Liberal government was in power. And then as soon as that was done with and the Conservatives came in, then Harry Caldwell was road Foreman. And that was for the north end, but I think your father is much more enduring, he served both didn't he? We won't mention the reason for that.

Speaker 10:44
[chatter] Your Uncle Joe married my cousins Aunt.

BA 11:00
Her name was Amy. Oh, that that was Jack's Aunt. Oh, I see. I've got that wrong. Sorry.

MT 11:34
Bob, could you tell us about Joseph Akerman and the development of his land in the valley, the orchards, and dairy, etc. That place there?

BA 11:43
Yeah, well. Joe, when they got back to island in 1883. They built a Traveler's Rest, which was the first hotel and store in that area. Well [chatter], it's across the creek anyway, across the valley creek and it's on the left hand side going towards Fulford and it’s just pass what they call Jones road. I don't know if anybody knows where Jones road is but it's halfway down the valley and it's to the left. It's still standing in there, it's still standing but it's not in very good condition right now. It was built with square logs, the logs were, in those days, they hewed them square and they built them square and they didn't keep them round, they were square it off. And that's how it was built and it was a basement and three stories. Quite a large place. And after they built it, there was a lot of people coming through looking for land in those days to settle. And of course we didn't have too many boats traveling in those days so they used to stay at the Travelers Rest like overnight or a couple of nights to get the next boat whenever it would come in. And there was not very many boats coming in actually, it was mostly by canoe they used to travel. But anyway, that's where they stayed. The Travelers Rest I guess served it’s purpose. They had a little store there and people from outlying areas used to come in and get their groceries there. And in those days there was a lot of game in those days. A lot of venison, blue grouse.

BA 13:58
And the Indians used to come in a lot with venison and Blue Grouse and he would cure it. He would cure the venison. I think he would, I'm not sure, he would salt it I guess. And then he would ship it into Victoria. And he made quite a bit of money that way. Indians made money too to buy groceries I guess. He was a gardener, he was quite a gardener. And he planted a lot of trees. He used to send England for seed, like Holly seed and maybe I better not say it but he brought the broom here too. What they call the ferns, it's like a broom only it's it's prickly. He brought a lot of things like fruit, like meddlers. I don't know if you've ever heard of meddlers but this is something you eat after they get wrapped and you eat them and they're very good. Different apples. And he had a quite a showplace there. And in the early days, lot of the early settlers from Ganges used to travel down by horse and rig, horse and buggy and visit his place because it was a showplace. Like Mr. Bullock, he used to come down with a party every once in a while, have a picnic there.

BA 15:43
And he had a family, he had his big family, too, I guess they helped after they got a little older, they helped to clear the place and fix it up. And he built a big barn, this barn was 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. And they got along very well, they must have got along they raised eight children, so they got along pretty good.

IM 16:10
Bob you said earlier, when we're talking with you, Manson and I were talking with you. First of all, he was across from his first sort of property in Salt Spring, or did he just stay there, was he in the shadow of the mountain and he just moved across?

BA 16:23
No that is when he first came. I mentioned it here when he first came in 1862, I guess, could be ‘61 or ‘62. I could be a year or two out here either way but I think it was ‘62. And he moved on the other side of the valley, under the mount Bruce side. And he found it too shady there in the wintertime. The sun would go down early. So then when he got married and came up in ‘63, he moved across onto the sunny side of the valley. And that's where he built the farm

IM 17:10
And that's where the 350 acres were?

BA 17:12
Yes. And it went up in the mountains.

Speaker 17:23
French's house was there?

BA 17:24
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. After Tom had it...it was left to Tom Akerman and he died. And then the widow sold it to a Mr. French, from England. And he stayed there raised a family. And after he got too old to look after it, he sold it to my son Ted. So my son Ted owns it now. And he farms, but there's not too much money made on the farming these days. And that's why the valley is not like it used to be. At one time when the the old timers were through there, everybody was farming. They all had a few cows, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, you name it, they had it. But nowadays, you just can't make it. The younger people can make more money working on the ferries or working on Hydro or somewhere, so the young people they just haven't got too much interest in farming. But Ted, actually right now he's quite interested in Christmas trees. He has the hydro right away from across Galliano Island, which is about two and a half or three miles long, and 100 and some feet wide. And he's trimming trees on that right away and he has 1000s and he's selling, he sold several 1000 last year into Vancouver. And I think from now on, he'll be doing that so he'll be able to get along on that I'm sure. But the other boys, my other boys, Pat, he's in that business too. And he's also in the butcher business, he's a butcher by trade. And he does a lot of cutting and wrapping for people on the island, they might have a steer or some lambs or something and he will take them, pick them up, take them down, butcher them, cut and wrap for them.

Speaker 20:09
I just wanted to ask, from the earliest days was there always a trail from Fulford up to this area of the island? Well, was it possible for [indiscernible] to come down with a horse drawn carriage.

BA 20:22
Well it was just a...later on after my grandfather came, a few years after that, there was a wagon road put in to Ganges. Not quite where it is now. Used to go over the divide, what we called Old Divide, in above Blackburn lake.

IM 20:45
Must have been the 1880s before it was rotated.

BA 20:48
I think so maybe in the 1880s.

Speaker 20:52
Before that did people come around by boat to go shopping? They didn't come down to the Travellers Rest to shop?

BA 21:00
No because they had, they must have had a little store here too. Did they have a store?

Speaker 21:13
[Indiscernible] the boat wouldn't pull into Ganges because it was too much out of the way. So they call it Beaver Point and Walkers Hook. And then on the other side of the island they [indiscernible], so Ganges wasn’t really formed until [indiscernible], then everything moved from Central down to Ganges.

IM 21:37
Oh, yeah, one thing I was going to ask, I haven't got down here Bob. But one thing we were talking about is the different buildings that were Fulford Inn, the White Lodge, the White House and so on. And you mentioned the first public house in Fulford was...?

BA 21:53
Rogers Saloon they called it. That was on the same site as a Fulford Inn is now. The White House on the same site, and that was built by a chap, a Mr. Blandy. And he had a store and took in boarders there too. And that was that was sold to Mrs. Collington from West Vancouver. Who fixed it up and had a store and a pub there. It burnt down and then they built... [chatter] the White Lodge. Etons had the...thats right after Blandy, Etons. Then he moved to Ganges and he was postmaster here for years. Mr. Eton. [chatter]

IM 23:14
And then the Collingtons were after him.

BA 23:17
Then the Collingtons were after him. Yeah, I was ahead of myself.

MT 23:23
And then that was burned down.

BA 23:27
That was burned down. The white Lodge was built by a chap by the name of Kennedy and then it changed hands several times. And the one that had it, the last one that had it was Mr. Kingsley from Shawnigan Lake, Mr. Kingsley. And he was there when it burnt down. And then it was idle for quite a number of years. I think Mrs. Lachman owned it. There was a hotdog stand or something. And then on to the present owners now Ray Semard, Moore Semard, and Jerry Gordon.

IM 24:21
And that was about 1977, ‘78. Okay, thank you. One more here, Bob. Your mother was Ellen Gyves. And her father was Mike Gyves. And her mother was a Cowichan Indian princess. She must have told you much about the early days. Could you tell us something about her?

BA 24:43
Well, maybe I can just tell you about Mike Gyves. He left Ireland in 1855 too, he was I think 18 years old. He and two brothers landed in New York. One of them went down, one is still in New York, one went down to the mines. He worked as a hard rock miner down in the mines. My grandfather Mike and Vals grandfather, he joined the American army, and in about 1860, I guess, in New York. And he traveled across the continent escorting covered wagons, the covered wagons were coming across in those days into Oregon and the coast. He was with the American army at that time under his superior officer, was a chap by the name of Paget. And he was with them for all together six years with them. But they got into to Portland, Oregon. And about, i think it was 1860. And they ordered them up to San Juan Islands, because they were having trouble over the line. And so they came to the San Juan Islands and landed there and 1859.

BA 26:45
And he told me one time that they had their camp on the south end. And they found out to that the British were going to land at the north end. So he was a Regimental Sergeant Major. And he got a couple of his boys together, and the commanding officer says, you get there and get that flag on a beach, they're gonna land there tonight. So they traveled all night. And they got there a bit before daylight, and he put the American flag on the beach. And they woke up, and when the when the daylight came there was two war ships, so just out there, but they hadn't landed, I guess. And when they saw that they came in and asked him what they were doing. And he says, Well, we've had orders to take this for the Americans. And so they talked it over and by that time the other officers from the south end were up and they talked it over with the British and they went back to Victoria. Anyway, they settled it in the end. But I think the whole thing started over somebody shooting a pig. That's how it started. But then after that they got the Keiser William to look on the map and say where the line will be. And he put it down to the Narrow Strait. Now Mike, then he went back to Victoria. And he met a another Irishman, John Maxwell. And they went to Barkerville, looking for gold, Barkerville, there was a gold rush there.

BA 28:49
And he said he didn't get any gold, but Maxwell did pretty well. So anyway, they came back and Maxwell said he was going to take some land up on Saltspring. So he thought he'd come over too. So he came over just after 1860, ‘64, I think. And he built himself a log cabin. And it's just back where the fire hall is now, the log cabin, just back where the fire hall is. And he took up 300 and some acres in that area too. And the Indians were camping at, the Saanich Indians were camping at Fulford Harbor and the Cowichan Indians were camping at Burgoyne Bay. And they had a line. There's a little creek that crosses the valley and that was the line between the Cowichan Indians on one side and Saanich on the other. And they were friendly, they were friendly, they were all Salish. They used to cross down through grandfather Gyves’s property. And he used to invite them in and give them tea, and he was quite a cook and he’d have bread and things for them. And they got along very, very well with the Indians. And my grandmother told me that she was a little girl, she used to come down through the valley and visit the Saanich Indians in Fulford, sometimes stay overnight and come back through again, they used to cross through grandfather's place. And so after my grandmother, I think she was about 17-18 at the time and I guess grandfather, he was in his early 20s. And I guess he maybe asked the chief if he could have a granny as his wife. So chief says fine. They were married. [cuts out], it was Ellen. Mike, my uncle and Mary, my aunt.

BA 31:33
My dad lived next door. And when he left the farm after clearing land for a good many years. He worked on the pile drivers and they build wharves around the Gulf Islands. He worked for a chap by the name of Al Rains and they had a small pile driver. And they built wharves around the islands and up as far as Lasqueti Island I think it was, and then he came back. He was married in 1898 and cleared his farm. And then in 1905, he was made road foreman. I think at the same time he was made Justice of the Peace, and he was Secretary of the school board. [Indiscernible] , I don’t know what else, everything I guess. But the only...oh he was a fire ranger too, fire warden. But the only thing that paid money was the Road Foreman when he worked, when he worked they paid him but the others didn't pay any money, it was just volunteer work. But he was Road Foreman for over 45 years. And [Indiscernible]. Then he was hurt quite badly, hit with a truck in ‘48, I think it was ‘48 or ‘50, something like that. And he didn't go back to work again after i think it was about 50, he was hurt. And he raised five in a family. There was my oldest sister Molly, Dorothy the next one, Tilly who is down with me today, Jim my brother who lives in White Rock. Tilly, by the way nursed in the the old Lady Minto hospital on the hill there for good many years. How many how many years have you worked in the hospital, I imagine 20 years. And Val, my cousin there, she worked for the children's hospital in Portland for how many years? 30? 20 years. And she worked in St. Joseph Victoria too. I don't know, maybe I'm way ahead of myself or behind.

MT 34:52
The other children of Mike Gyves, one was Mrs. Brenton, that was Mary? And then there's Mike, Mary...

BA 35:02
Mike, Mary, and an old time family from the north end. The Cotsford’s. Carrie Cotsford.

IM 35:14
Perhaps Bob, we might stop for a minute and see if there any questions. Anybody has any questions?

BA 35:18
Okay, If can answer them.

Speaker 35:25
Bob, one of my favorite memories is soccer matches between Fulford and Ganges, things you would know pretty well, were you involved with some of those?

BA 35:37
Oh yes, I was. In the early days around the turn of the century, there was a lot of English boys that came into Ganges. They call them the remittance man. And a lot of them were good soccer players. They played good soccer in England. And of course at Fulford they didn't know what soccer was, like we called it football in those days. And so they used to beat our boys quite badly in that time. And Mr. Jackson, who got there about the turn of the century, he was from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. And he played a little football at school. So he started to train these boys. And they trained really hard and at that time our Member of Parliament was a chap by the name of McPhillips, and he put up a cup, pure silver cup, quite a high one and they played for that. Ganges won it twice and if you won this cup three times you could keep it. And Ganges one it twice. So the Fulford boys practiced real hard that year, and they beat Ganges and they got it. And by that time, the first world war came along, and most of the boys, the football players, they went overseas. And when they got back in 1918, they started again about 1920 and they started playing for the cup again. It had to go back and forth back and forth. And the Fulford boys had it twice and they thought, well, one more year and we are going to keep that cup.

BA 37:57
So what happened is there was three boys from England came out that played professional back there, and they were the Nickel boys. The Nickel boys, and they played for you. And they played for Ganges and they beat Fulford again. So we have to go all over again. So then in the end anyway, the Fulford boys won our three times and we kept it. And then we had another member by the name of Hart and he put up a cup, the Hart cup. And the Fulford boys won that, three in a row and they kept it. It’s there in Fulford now, there in the Fulford Inn. And then the Macintosh, Captain Macintosh, he was our member. He lived at Fulford, he was a member of parliament, the Conservatives here. And he put up the Macintosh Rose Bowl, and we played for that and the Ganges boys won it. And after that, they thought well, no use wasting the talent they have, they had good teams, both are really good teams. We better come together and play in the Victoria league, they had a Victoria League. So they did, but they never did have a good team, the team together didn't seem to work as well as either one. I think either one...the original Ganges team or the original Fulford team could have beat that team. And that was about all I can say about the soccer

Speaker 39:46
Can you tell us some of the names of the players? The Fulford boys? Not necessarily a team but over the years.

BA 39:58
Over the years. Well, the ones that I played with were the Morris boys, Fred Morris, Ray Morris. Jim Akerman, my brother, Harry Nickels, Alf Nichols. yeah, I was just saying the whole island... because I played for Ganges quite a bit too. They used to get me to play for them if they had a team going into Victoria or somewhere else, they would ask me to play for them so I did. So I played for Ganges quite a little bit, and then there was [Indiscernible], Patty Crofton, Desmond Crofton, Dermot Crafton, Hamilton boys at Fulford, the Shepherds, Rolands, Lumley's. Ed Lumley was a great player, he was one of the best soccer players on the island. The Tahouneys, these boys were descendants from the Hawaiians that came into Fulford in the early days. And they were really good soccer players. Then we have the other odd one, we had the odd one from England. We had Harry Thornet from Scotland, who played professional ball there. Captain Drummond was another one, Captain Drummond, he played in the British Army. He was a very good soccer player. He took up land at Fulford, I have the Drummond place now.

Speaker 41:51
Bob, I just wondered what position your brother was in Jim. Jim came up and lived in Ganges, worked in the creamery. Which team did he play for them?

BA 42:01
I think he played harder for Ganges. I think he played harder. And we lost Fred Morrison and Ray Morris at the same time and Ed Lumley, and we lost four good players there. But I'm sure they play it harder for Ganges then they did for us.

Speaker 42:20
You mentioned your brother Jim. I always remember Jim being the person who left early in the morning, went all the way down to the Beaver Point, came back calling all the farms to pick up the cream for the creamery. He drove. BA 42.34
That's right he went to work in the creamery in Ganges when he was 18 years old. And he worked for 18 years or 20 years at the creamery there. Then he went to Quesnel and took over a manager's job to the Quesnel creameries. But he used to get up in the morning at four o'clock and go down and get the steam up in the steam boilers in the creamery. Then he would take the old truck and he'd go to Beaver point as far as Ruckles and pick up the cream. He’d deliver the empty cans going down and he would bring the full cans back with him. And then he would look, the farmers always had a few pounds of butter to be delivered. And then he would meet the boat sometime at night, the boat coming in from the other islands, got cream from the other islands here, Pender, Maine and Galliano. And he'd have to go down there sometime 10-11 o'clock at night, pick the cream up and get back to the creamery there. So he'd put in a long day for 20 years. The buttermilk, people used to pick ot up for their pigs,m it was given to them, it was given to the farmers.

IM 43:50
Just above Embe bakery, used to be a road going in there, I think there still is and all of [indiscernible] was stacked there, and that’s was where the big vat was that the buttermilk was in. Like the Price brothers used to get it for the pigs, people's could just come and get it. People who sold the cream.

BA 44:06
And barrels, they did it in barrels. The skim milk was all separated on the farm. The farmers had separators, cream separators. You turn a handle and the cream would come out of one spout and the skim milk would come out of the other. And so they would just ship the straight cream to the creamery

Speaker 44:27
Was that the creamery were the Embe bakery is now, or the creamery on upper Ganges road?

BA 44:35
No, the one that he worked in is where the bakery is now. The first one was up on the road up here, on the upper Ganges road, that was the first one.

Speaker 44:56
This is off the topic, but do you remember as a child ever hearing about the ship that was lost in the [indiscernible], a sealing ship with some young men from Saltspring on it? Do you know the name of that ship?

BA 45:13
Yeah, yes. I have it at home, I have at home with some of the ones that were lost on it, some of the ones were lost.

Speaker 45:20
1904 or something like that?

BA 45:21
I have the name if the ship?

Speaker 45:35
Can you tell us the about the wolves?

BA 45:47
Wolves? The wolves were more Ganges in those days. My mother said that she used to hear the wolves when she was a little girl. They'd be howling from one mountain to the other across the valley in the evening, in the still evening, she could hear them howl up there and then they'd answer across the valley. But there was a lot of wolves and elk, quite a few elk on the island those days. Speaker 46:14 Cougar?

BA 46:12
Well, yes, there's been cougars here from the time my grandparents were here. And I’ll just read you a little from this book here, “Early Days Among the Gulf Islands” is a book that belonged to my dad. It's quite interesting. And she was saying about carrying some chickens from one field to the other... I guess they had the barn and then they had a chicken house further along, and they were carrying these chickens. It was divided by a field and a panther kept up pace with them, and squawking hens, they had this squawking hens in their hands. This got on to my grandmother's nerves, and she cried out, Joseph if this beast follows any longer, I will drop the fowls. But her husband's only reply was don't drop the fowls.

IM 47:31
Are there any further questions?

Speaker 47:34
I would like to ask if you know why there were two creameries on the island at the one time. So the one on Upper Ganges road and the bakery.

IM 47:46
I don't think they operated at the same time. One was closed down and the other was starting... I think the other, they wanted the Embe bakery, I think was started about 1905 or 1906. I believe it was started about that time, but the other one was only operated for a short time. There was quite an upset about the building and the operation of that building, I think which caused a lot of hard feelings locally. And I don't think was operated much after that.

Speaker 48:18
I heard it was started as a sort of co-operative Creamery by the farmer, because the creamery at the Embe bakery was operated by the Mouat family and they found they were dissatisfied with what they got.

IM 48:34
Started as a co operative, the one at Embes was also started sort of co-operate and then became a limited company, and most of it was held by the Scott brothers and and Mr. Bullock had some in [indiscernible], had some shares in it. A lot of people had....were producing farmers and people just wanted to support it. But no he was talking about the other one, I don't think the other one was operating at that time. And I don't think it operated very long. But the Embe bakery or the Saltspring Island, the one that operated and produce Canadian Butter, it was prize winning butter. It won the Prize in the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, it was wonderful butter. Always served the Queen when she visited British Columbia but this was all produced out at Embe bakery. Any further questions?

Speaker 49:35
I wanted to ask about hunting, when he was a younger man. Was there a lot of hunting? [indiscernible]

BA 49:57
Yeah, at one time, there was a bounty of $40 was on the Cougars, that was in the early days, quite early days though. There wasn't that many, we seem to have a lot of Cougars here around from 1950 on, we had a quite a lot. And they did a lot of damage. They killed a sheep, one Cougar would kill maybe a half a dozen sheep and one night and just leave them, wouldn't eat anything off them. And we had three here at one time and we we got them all, we got a good dog from Kamloops down and my boys and I we got them, the three of them in one week. But then about every year or two there'll be one come. At one time, I remember my dad saying it, one time one Cougar killed a horse, for the Branford’s on the top of Mount Bruce, a young horse, they killed it. So they're pretty strong and they can kill a cow without any trouble. They'll get a full grown sheep and they'll jump a five foot fence with it, They’re a very strong.

Speaker 51:34
What other crops did you grow. And what are the cash crops?

BA 51:43
Well, the farmers in those days they didn't grow crops to sell, they grew crops to feed their animals, like they raised a lot of hogs/pigs. And they would grow a lot of peas and the thrashing machine would come along, straight from Beaver point and come right through the valley and thrash at different farms during the fall of the year. And they would put the grain in bins and then they would feed it to their chickens and their pigs and geese during the winter. But there was no money that changed hands in those days as far as haying or thrashing goes. All the farmers would follow the machine along and when it got to their farm, everything would be...their grain would be trashed to. So there was no money actually changed hands. There was a chap who I remember, it was Jim Horrell. He had a thrashing machine and I think that he charged the farmer $10 to do the... or he took grain I'm not sure, but I think it was about $10 per days work with machines and himself.

Speaker 53:21
Are the wolves extinct on Salt Spring?

BA 52:24
Oh yeah, the last wolf that was here, Furness got it in the 30s, 1933 I think. After the war.

BA 53:44
The last Cougar shot here? Well, nobody says too much about anything about when cougars are shot now, because we got a little flack in the paper about it. So the cougars shot that's all. [Indiscernible chatter]

Unknown Speaker 54:25
I have a lot of pictures at home, I have a lot of Cougar pictures at home and writings, it would be one of my boys.

IM 54:33
Any further questions?

BA 54:35
I think you'll be getting tired of hearing me talk, I think we better...Oh yeah, if anybody wants to take a look at some of these pictures they can. We have some very early pictures here. Theres one I have for you there. You recognize the guy in the middle here? And then we have a picture of John Nightingale here. And Dick Maxwell, another old timer. We have a picture of the school back in the early days about the turn of the century. A picture of the opening of the church.

IM 55:15
Perhaps we'll just leave the spread out and we can see them after.

Speaker 55:35
Bob, I would like to say thank you very, very much for coming and giving us such a wonderful, interesting talk.

BA 55:39
Thank you very much.