278_Cunningham_Central-Settlement-Early-Salt-Spring.mp3
otter.ai
19.04.2023
no
Speaker 1 0:00
Okay, just before we start, and I introduced on to as I, I would like to just sort of set a bit of the background for you. The program today is based on Central, the central settlement here, and Don's going to talk about that and its importance to the island. But I would like to go back a bit further beyond that back when the first settlers arrived to the island. And we had the looks. We had the land divided us up 1859, the first settlers arrived on Salt Spring. And so James, that was an Victoria Hudson Bay Company basically decreed that the land on certain areas would be available for people if they wanted to bid on it, and take it over. And so the island was divided up by survey, Orion says you could see into about 200 acre parcels that were long and narrow. And if you look at the north end of the island, you'll see that they all go from the waterfront, all the way through to the St. Mary's Lake area. So they were long, stringy pieces of land, that
Unknown Speaker 1:23
all technology is always wonderful when it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 1:32
Grab the other one. Yep. So this is that for one area here. And all of these parcels right here and all the names you see there are the people who preempted these lands as the time went on, and some of the families still own parts of those lands or all of those lands. And the object of the of the preemption was to convert this area into an agricultural area to supply the fort and Victoria. And the Hudson's Bay Company would come through and make sure that the preemptions took place. Now there were certain conditions that the preemptions had to have. One was that you could buy the land for $1.25 an acre, you didn't have to pay right away. But that's what you would commit yourself to say, No man could have 100 acres and married men could have 200 acres. Settlers wishing to register the land, and wanted to preempt it, to do so pretend shelling, so it was like a surveying of a mind claim, you would just register the land you want it. And that would be put into your name, and then you'd be responsible for it. If consent was one of the same piece of land, they would go back to the land registry and take the person who had the earliest application. And you had to occupy the land within 15 days of accepting it, and so you would accept the land. And then your first job was to start clearing the land because you had to convert it into agricultural land. And we'll show you what that means. You could transfer your claims between people. And eventually you could sell it if you sell it, but you had to have permission from the government and Bridget Tran while in Fort Victoria to sell the land. But so the the primary object of all of this was agriculture. And so that's the start of the settlers here. This particular piece of land is the one right at the end of the fertile dot goes off here. This was a bank owned that you've heard maybe you heard the term Bakersville it was a story he had up at the top and just underwater here. And he was there for two or three years. When he left. He just disappeared from the island at that time. But he was here and he had quite an instrumental part in the early history of of the north part of Salt Spring Island. And First Nations people used to come down and visit him the Salt Springs were up in here and they would come together salt from Salt Springs as part of their their area and this is just a more detailed. Here's the salt marsh here. You'll see it here and this is an overview of that map and the the land as it exists today. You can see the preemptions that was the one that was in color a few minutes ago. And you can see the land is still pretty clear. It's been broken down quite a bit by subdivisions but a lot of the agricultural land reserve is still reserved in that part of our island. And some of the first settlers to come to Salt Spring in 1859 were the blacks. And it's February is Black History Month, I wanted to take a moment just to sort of recognize their early contribution to our history. And you can see the green dots represent where they settled and where they preempted their land. Now, a lot of that land is not, it's still in their, their families, but some of the land still belongs to some of our ancestors of the black settlers who arrived in Salt Lake. Most of them came from Victoria via California, either worked for the Hudson Bay Company in Victoria and then came over here in preempted land. And so you can see there was quite a large number of them. And so when that Don talks about the central settlement, you'll see their influence there as well. So that's just an overview of the history of how we ended up developing this area here, and Don's going to concentrate basically on that area there. And its importance in the early history of Saltspring. So I'd like to introduce you to just a bit of dawn. Right now. They introduce you to Dawn Dawn Cunningham, born and raised in Salt Spring Island, American Historical Society, his family has lived in this area for many years as he'll tell you and he's going to take us through the history of the central settlement and the importance of this particular area to the early history of Salt Springs So Don welcome
Speaker 1 6:42
Yeah, you can use that mic it uses red pen if you want to push that button every time you want
Unknown Speaker 6:47
just one yep
Unknown Speaker 6:50
for the red red
Speaker 2 6:54
Okay, thank you. But you know, I heard Don Cunningham born here and grew up actually in what is the old Stephens boarding houses my family acquired back in the
Unknown Speaker 7:12
old squeak this way you can look around okay
Speaker 2 7:26
okay, this is the central Southern mantasy to use
Speaker 2 7:36
in the area here to golf course center like that, but that's the way to call the Crossroads or federal settlement. Basically it's called a settlement because of the fact that it was between two major ports, where the boat is to come in on the east side being banks which are based overseas as the bank settlement. We have the land that went from now firm like right through to the very late and then the studious was on the west side and read the two roads that are trails came together was basically at Central and this is where a lot of the black traffic came preempting last, the winter starts and Robinsons, etc. Some of them very skinny like rocks and road. Next dark road. And these are all people that have come here after getting away from slavery and getting land by government via the Hudson's Bay Company give you a bit of a view of what what it was like when they started out here the little buildings were not much actually in our testing. There it is, there's a settlement. So our shirts, one of the first buildings guarded to the courtesy of Henry Stevens who donated the land for the course of Mark's Church. And of course he had the property next door which of course students boarding house and their their acreage ran all the way back through the what's called the Stephens lake right here. And I remember my parents speaking of the fact that money, man hate my father, 70 bucks. farm that they wanted to, they couldn't afford the whole property. So Bullock who held the mortgage at that time on the property, said, David, it would allow him to take off about that much of the walk was the old Stephens property and sell it to him. He wanted possession of both lakes
Speaker 2 10:36
and in due course, ended up staying while he was doing all this at the at the boarding house. So basically, he had a kind of vested interest in acquiring more lands.
Unknown Speaker 10:50
How many acres are we looking at it
Speaker 2 10:54
but let's acreage here would be about 135 acres right in their bullet his property he owned basically he had quite a large amount of land. And anyway, the story to the starting of the of the central settlement was the fact that they needed a place to be in the hall they needed an agricultural Hall which of course, this hall here, which was built in 1890 8095 8096 some of them are wrongly leaking the 100 year this year, wow. Putting around anyway, that was later on the post offices here, the Central Post Office. The store was the Starbucks kids in store. It's actually the hall where the school was at the city school. And it was also the courthouse and Gail was here too. So major game was the the commerce area of the ad and it was said earlier, agriculture was the main main progression of what they wanted to do supply food for Victorian Hudson's Bay Ford etc it's gonna be a little bit bigger idea of what it was like. Nice were the Harrison the BlackBerry with the Harrison and then of course Reverend Wilson was in here then of course his was the combined free and which of course is no longer at the golf course today and of course it was a big farm and he farmed quite a large amount of of acreage.
Unknown Speaker 13:24
This is the school here is the city school. Central Hall, and over here was the jail
Speaker 2 13:44
I'm Mark church. This is our look at building connect in 1884 was one of the oldest churches and contributors on the island. It wasn't consecrated till 1894 and was built by my grandfather's brother in law. Sandow medicine his eldest son now for work for the Stephens donated the land for this there wouldn't have been a church Central and the construction at the same time as a Stephen boarding house has been built in my grandfather brother in law, this the Medellin muscles buildings
Speaker 2 14:40
this rather small table should be a picture later on of all the changes that are made to it. There's just the one we're looking up from the south side. This is looking from the student body and house area looking after sorry Church
Unknown Speaker 15:07
and Eric was like today
Speaker 2 15:13
these are some of the students from the first schoolhouse in central log house in 1894. Magazine some of the class in front of the the new school Nike this school was an operation up until almost live up and dos 19 was making for us it was wasn't it for us because when they consolidated all all the schools all of the schools back to the focus school, the Fernwood school and Burma in coleford those schools are closed in favor of the new what they call the consolidated school where it sits today again just because the elementary schooling and yourself that used to be when I was a boy could be from grade one to grade 12 And they had home economics and industrial arts.
Unknown Speaker 16:17
You have some names of the kids
Speaker 2 16:19
I will have the names in a moment thank you. This is rapid free and he was the Labour leader for the church but he was also a forgotten father and he was the one that got schooled here and 8580 97 now because he had so well educated no country even a professor in England, he would take any students who who wanted to go on to higher education and take them from their grade six or grade five level of education right up to university entrance. So they could go into their matriculation etc and become university students which was pretty difficult for students in those days. These are some of the students in 1929 and what what what their idea there are some of the names or maybe here Ruth Goodrich they are become real hacky Microsoft's mother Mark Marshall educate mother and her girls marital stealing and good rich Marshalls Uncle uncle and you can notice there's a lot of different ethnic groups in here a lot like him would Bob would soon as on the album today his older brother Jim a lot of gap needs students and a lot of black kids
Unknown Speaker 18:37
in schools 2019 21.
Speaker 2 18:51
This is the central hall because I remembered it as a young boy with all wood frame building with the cedar shingles and outside and it was had then become more of a all for theatrics. stage plays. Also, badminton was played in in their dances were held there. It was kind of a meeting place. And it survived a long time. Because like I remember a mother coming on. I said look, we've got to be refurbished at home because we don't have to move because they were talking to him tearing it down because it was getting it was no longer required. So it was going to be torn down and my mother said no enough to keep this building. It's necessary so she got a government grant able to get it restored. So this is what it looks like going down from here coming down was North and row boarding smartmatrix up here pretty wild narratives looking some good reporting out and the one thing but those will take all of this work around the outside of the house on this veranda and everything was all done with what they call them fingerboarding it was the the the work was all cut out by Copic saw etc and it was really very well ornamented in the sense of all the posts like that they're all beveled to texture with cornices etc. They're really, really quite a cleanup for a work of art. And of course the only method of heating with the with the fireplaces and each room has its own little private fireplace with its water service etc. With guns and bowls. And you're responsible for getting your own water for Washington cleaning and that was that this would make a good kitchen and then there was kind of a laundry room area in that area there might be father found me to go over this is what it was like when a new course they throw this down and you'll see
Unknown Speaker 21:44
the zooming
Unknown Speaker 21:50
what is there now
Speaker 2 21:52
that's the same house as it is today. Now in 1950 We took pictures unfortunately, the problem was that when you were had a fireplace they when they built them they didn't realize that Cinders and ashes etc. worked away through into the into the woods below them when we took the the old fireplaces out the house was built on 16 by 16 inch beings and you there 54 feet long, clear. There were recessed pockets where the fireplaces had sat and they burned great into the into the into the actual word itself but because it couldn't get any oxygen it never caught fire. So that was one of the reasons why they came out this is another one showing the Stevenson boarding house Stephen family most of their fencing those days is on what's called picket fencing which was about seven or eight feet high and then sharpened on top so that that was that was the easiest way it was what was cheap
Speaker 2 23:28
should be boarding house later on as a primary residence what happened was we had a heavy snowfall when winter and when the weight of the snow it took all of the what was veranda and we were in the house that happened and underneath that summit there was an earthquake and the result of this great crash and everything smaller windows can find faster windows were out there piles of broken roofing and debris cleanup for for weeks and months afterwards
Speaker 2 24:18
so some of the renovations that were done later on before my brother when he put it wanted to put the new deck ends and the older things good news supports and etc
Speaker 2 24:39
Now this is essential in the old Broadwell house that could be approximately directly across from what is now the CRD. Portlock Park building right down here and that's directly across the road. This is a Labor Day where people like Harry Nichols, Jack Nichols and Frank Stevens, Stevens Stevens, a lot of people remember again Stevens used to work for the Department of Highways well his family it's another one of the Bravo property and just showing how rough the land was to clear etc. Back and seem to mark tricks in the background there all slashed out. Basically quite quite opened up because of the various songs detected ever going on. Picture of a by mouth and demons demons even see the Jenkins job Ravana and Walter Stevens and some of Walters family are present in the company
Speaker 2 26:27
number one of the Bravo house later on. renovated by Wilson's and you can see all of like this was pouring out all of the scrollwork all around the road. It really added quite a quite a touch to the to the finishing of a house and of course you know various the trim etcetera they call it this is right across for the for the older houses to be horses. Not very large it's torn down this gives you a view of summary of lake from the Ernie Harrison farm or the black farmers living on what is now what are called Roger has a horse horse right there. And this is looking down into summary Nathan across to trip road
Speaker 2 27:45
this is showing from the what is no grab open over here looking across some backup to some arch church. I was just lashed out and of course your fences were way offensive but the original road assume this road was here and it went from halfway down what was SmartTrack Hill and cross over and joined up at the corner of corner down awfully later on a picture just kind of zooming in on it but most of the roads roll designed for people that were a horse and wagon so it wasn't designed for farmer beetles. Now this is a downward take on the part of Harrison farm
Unknown Speaker 28:59
what year is that?
Speaker 2 29:00
That will be probably about 1898 around another Ritter
Speaker 3 29:06
looking at like second rows now like is
Speaker 2 29:11
what you're looking at now is basically second rows because all of us that log
Speaker 2 29:20
in here is looking down the what is now what called the tsunami State Road. Actually in that day it was called northern road because the actual the city state road starts here and goes crossed and this is part of the the Harrison old Harrison farm
Speaker 2 29:55
this is what it looks like today. Hey by the Mormon tricks nothing down to what we're looking at before
Speaker 2 30:11
going on the Wilson boys cutting firewood they do use all method video of hands off you've got a four foot long and
Unknown Speaker 30:23
doing it all by himself
Speaker 2 30:25
probably himself or another person to give them a hand but it wasn't unusual to see like the method of like Sawyer being across Connecticut is in the word and see what have the aboard nailed it between say two stumps and up figure this upside down the name sharpens off maybe once or twice a day just to keep it for you here cutting and your crush good size to be there if you could have it bring out the spaghetti it was kind of improperly and you could get to a block of wood in about 20 minutes but that's a four foot long
Unknown Speaker 31:09
is that a bottle of oil
Speaker 2 31:12
it probably would be up all the way up on top there to help like reacts is there to help this the song goes through like he's got when he's up here to make sure that it is not going to pinch yourself
Speaker 2 31:38
this is the golf course this is Reverend Nelson farm probably you're looking at the number nine fairway or corn green as it is today. And then this is a kind of a stock color you hook your chain to the stump and then you would have attached to a some point in the side then you lever the lever the stump Oh my running our ratchet down that was like a Salt Lake City stop color
Speaker 2 32:41
okay, this is John at the other Jim Horrell calling now Jonas how far up the tree they're going. The reason they're doing that is they've they've put in springboards may cut these in by hand and it's like a metal clip cut digs into the slot and then your Springboard is bolted to that and that puts them up about six or eight feet above the flare of the the tree and much easier to fall and they get away from all the heavy pitch and twisted wood as
Speaker 2 33:33
you see they had their axes up there or one of those axes would have a bottle hanging off the end of it dripping piercing under the assembly so it would go easier through and of course when the tree went you had to get off of that board and on the ground otherwise you're things happen to happen rather quickly after first of all, maybe cut their socket on the other end on the other side and then they would get going with a double bladed falling axe and they will literally chop up the what is in the undercut then they go around the back and they would proceed to do the the back cutting on the tree now that tree would most likely be about four or five foot around tree so there was really no no mercy shown if something went wrong. And of course in those days it's hard hat to handle that
Speaker 2 34:50
there's your cross cuts on the Peter falling saw in the trees etc And here you see you've got your one side of your side, your tutors the other side. And then you call your record on your regular with who would cut, cut the side like little groove, then their regular would take it out. And if you saw was set properly and sharpened properly, they get long pieces of spaghetti about that long of wooden coming out. And it was slightly curved.
Speaker 2 35:32
A dish shows Barbie in that keynote one. And this was done, you're ready to go, of course, today. But then again, he was eating large amounts of tracts of land under under cultivation,
Unknown Speaker 35:48
see much in the way of fencing.
Speaker 2 35:52
Well, a lot of fencing could be done, so a lot of it didn't happen. And they had another way of curbing the problem with deer when they became food
Speaker 2 36:15
this is central in the context of settlement. And when I was a boy right in this area here, it was called the Red shed. And it was a big red building that was here. And that's where all the equipment was, was house, etc. And this is the government grader. And it's sitting up there. And my father and my team. I'm 31 asked if he could they had a gumball gun, the crawler and then come and character I needed to pull this Greer and run the syndicate the tough jobs. And that's as well couldn't be that hard. So he kind of got started made it work. Good. You've got yourself a job. So he would call this greeter all over the roads on Saltspring. And Bill he'll the greeter man now let's remember Bob Hill who lives down the party down upper Ganges road there, his father lung is greeted with my father. I know that he will get the cloud colored center from the beach and study point. And they would put that on the road. And then the runner would put the crawler factor bring it up and then graded so at night, you had a white girl to travel along. And so you didn't need a very strong headlight and you could see where you're going
Speaker 2 37:58
this is the way central today Now when I say boy, right here, it was the was an old score, like the knee long became mitad Harvey's house and then later on the tailors. And in 1951 that caught fire and burned down. Fire Department came, didn't have a very good fire department most days and basically just stood by and watched the house go up in smoke because there was really no, no adequate fire department. It was just anybody who could help to hold on to a homeless that was next door to that was Nikhil. Harry Nichols, right here, who's were the first United Methodist Church was right here in the corner. And that was put in by Jane Mowat. And later in 1920s have moved down to into Ganges next to water see coffee Italia is today living on tourism the United Church.
Unknown Speaker 39:09
I would avoid all this area here. Whether they're ready is there's the Methodist Church from 1904
Speaker 2 39:17
and that's out on the corner of you. But it was moved well before my time down. They move in on a stone boulders. They would I believe I don't know how they moved it back presumably would have something like a stone boulder
Unknown Speaker 39:34
okay
Speaker 2 39:40
and this is central as it is today. And the court to school and in this area here. Cemetery tobacco wasn't it was a playground for the children on school.
Speaker 2 40:17
All of that area here what are the boy was Milner's turkey farm field was the original house for the house the Minister of Finance and fanatic in church and get after the war. Martha and Joe Milner, along with their two children, took up residency here and decided to read turkeys and knew nothing useful to see as many as 2500 turkeys out in that area. And this was a turkey catching barn so you'd have to come in and grab the turkeys into their tax and then they would be shipped off to the various packing plants for processing. Your drone are amazing because the big companies would send over feed truck five tons of feed every week or so just to feed all these turkeys This is the maxis mill which he had a number of Mills all over the island with lots of logs around one method of making lumber for export or whatever for ties or for building etc. And they were one of the number of mills that covers similar sawmills are up in the cranberry, McAfee's mill and numerous other Mills milling timber the only woman is wearing a hard hat
Unknown Speaker 42:03
the only woman on this rig okay
Speaker 2 42:13
now this is where the mail used to be at gospel churches now around a boy all of that area is referred to Captain fivey later on Dave is it the five Egypt and behind that five euro rifle range give us a competition for the Beasley Michael associated association. So they had their their gun pitons back and then the militia was formed in the in the 30s people like Aaron Nichols does Grafton different ones using this array for a
Speaker 2 43:08
bit of an overview This is showing a it is today is all Portlock Park which used to be the part of the old mill and turkey farm of course Department of Highways yardman they waterworks etc golf course in here and my brother Adams on feels snare drum a gravel pit
Unknown Speaker 43:49
today
Speaker 2 43:55
it would be further up here because it is the bottom of the what they call a Atrix hill and you go up around the corner there's demons boarding and symmetric markers pardon the old the old road actually went from there quite the way across the parking lot there now
Unknown Speaker 44:25
yeah
Speaker 2 44:26
no that's been blocked off the corner here and blocked off at the top that used to be a shortcut shortcut to to the Soviet again you can see that he wouldn't do it to to do off the road and all my private property now.
Speaker 2 44:57
Introduce to go from Right about there so marketers can cut across to the curb there. So this may only be known as well, that little section aired was known as Norton road
Unknown Speaker 45:23
are you?
Speaker 2 45:53
Yes, up there on what is now the vody couple of property. Sorry. I do worry myself here. So I guess a better way to do a deal. Vinny, the old road, he started a couple of spirals later for that with our commotion prior to that, Kenji. And he prepared and McKenzie was dealing with James Seed Farm at the far end of their farm and just don't go to young property was the call assaults. oozing of salt out of the ground there and not First Nations used to collect the salt for assaulting excetera? And so it's kind of like a salt flattening today. There. It's, it's using up to this very grinding salt water all the time.
Speaker 4 46:54
Do you remember when the birds disappeared from the beautiful old house? And then there was an application to replace it? Or to reserve it? Yes. They have no idea that happened originally. There was some problem with the design panel. Please clarify that.
Speaker 2 47:12
Yes. Okay. What happened was my younger brother Brian decided that he wanted to put the house back to what it was like when we were children there. So he proceeded to go ahead and put it in. Except in the building inspection. There was never a porch there. So it can't happen. And he can excuse me, but if you go back to this Topo records, and look, there's always been a veranda report. And they wouldn't accept it. Until it was
Unknown Speaker 47:51
just the importance of what.
Speaker 2 47:54
So what we did what he did, that's the one thing he took out a permit and said, Okay, that's the crusade. I'm just going to restore to what it was like when I was a boy. And that's what he did. And that's what you see today. But if Monju doesn't have the scrollwork, etc, on the bottom, but he has done a magnificent job of restoring your daughter used to be like any other questions?
Speaker 5 48:23
Yes. Are they actually successful in the farming so that they could provide food for Victoria?
Speaker 2 48:31
They did. Yes, they they were able to supply a lot of food like there are farms that produce eggs, chickens, poultry, apples, of all different types are not unusual to have orchards of maybe 100 150 or more trees in the orchard and there would be we would have actions of breadbasket of Victoria Vancouver until the 1930s when the Okanagan with your irrigation etc. took over and because I can remember a mother saying My grandfather used to ship out the ship, maybe 50 or more crates of apples to Vancouver. And then in the 30s when of course the depression he had to give up shipping out most because the cost of the freight was more than the Apple for us. To pick became a bit of a problem that way but they made up to further weights the some of the farmers economic grandfather was I can you wouldn't say it was bootlegging, but they would convert the app on.
Speaker 2 49:59
Other people CollectA Roger's family who lived up in the cranberry and they had the fruit that they were not being able to utilize for sale so they would convert it into wine etc like that. But unfortunately the BC police force quite accept the idea that someone won't follow you have to go through the legal process of doing
Speaker 3 50:27
it that was the first slides you showed us where those tracts of land give it yes from Victoria. And a lot of that was cleared already
Speaker 2 50:41
know. You had to clear it it was it was a matter of you had the land you had to clear it was a prerequisite and yes, you've got it for rather cheap prices by today's standards. But that's a pretty tall order because you had to dig dig a well build a barn to the house here an acre of land at least an acre of land a year and you didn't have any equipment in your hands and whatever
Unknown Speaker 51:18
money in order to buy the equipment
Speaker 2 51:25
and then again, bringing in livestock was another another challenge you would already have your your modem or your power your pain or your sheet whatever you wish from Victoria and they would bring it by my boat but at that time there weren't sufficient docks to to the dock so they would You'll be informed that your your power sheet would arrive at a particular point on the island and then they would bring the boat in most assuredly good and over the edge we're not counting anything made sure
Unknown Speaker 52:20
yes
Unknown Speaker 52:24
parents came in North Beach Road but it was at that time and like parents cleared
Unknown Speaker 52:48
land and
Unknown Speaker 52:53
they stepped up with with force it's anyway produce
Unknown Speaker 53:17
because
Unknown Speaker 53:25
Are there ways to try first so and
Unknown Speaker 53:47
yes
Speaker 2 53:52
oh no believe Stevens as far as I know. My, my grandparents bought the Stephens farm back in the 1927. And it was when they came back and we're living on the island and they heard us as farmers for sale wanting to sell it off and they said they would never buy it but at that time, they couldn't afford the full acreage that was on that Stephens farm so we'll say well, if he could have the the land or surroundings in the natural Stephens lake they could have a for reduced price I'm not sure what to pay for but you pretty well maxed them out as to what they can afford. And it was through my my grandmother, my grandma Father had later had a heart attack and was unable to be there. So my my grandmother and her children basically ran the farm with the help of different people that came in. They were looking for work so they would like Harry Newman was one of the people that used to work on the farm narrative and different levels you know, Harry Newman, he used to work for the remote store there. They used to have a large egg producing the bulk producing place on what is now round on the sharp road
Unknown Speaker 55:42
Yeah, I just want to say this my mom, Joan is
Speaker 6 55:52
the granddaughter Yeah, and later, when I was a child we rented when this analysis that we were showing which was five years after he died live beside can see this because there's
Unknown Speaker 56:20
no relation
Speaker 6 56:21
that we ended up losing as well, in that Bravo house. And I thought that was fascinating. You had that picture of the Stephens visiting Mr. Bravo when we ended up later as descendants of them being back and living in a house as a kid that was asking for diamonds actually the current owner and I think that was to value Boston house but thank you for taking good care. Family
Speaker 2 56:54
Yes, well, we were we were actually my parents come into the, into the dairy business. And we were one of quite a number of dairies, bananas, and we had a large herd of cattle and the are all those all Milk, milk machines attacker in the market process, human hands never actually touched the milk. And in those days, it was 20 plates into quote, for quarter mountain, you get about that much cream on and we thought it was to present your email.
Unknown Speaker 57:29
dimension to small things. What about the telephone and also your mother's relationship to the movie theater?
Speaker 2 57:36
Okay. When I was a boy, we will be called the pink house. And it was just over right where the defense in the firewall is going north from here, put 100 yards in the corner. And it's we're asking you, Bradley are getting the grant because I knew at that time, if your two daughters, Jennifer and Susan. And that other code was the old post office and telephone exchange and over visiting Daphne and a daughter site was too young boy in marble means what are these plastic bottles on the wall, and each of them had a little glass bottle bottle High was so high because the liquid in it and it was taken here, plate there and a wire went from there to the next one. The next one. What are the good ones? No, it wasn't until they were hired in school. That was an elementary battery. And that was what powered the closed telephone system that they had an F included the the columns face. The Stephens boarding house, the barn and bullet residence and it was kind of a closed telephone exchange and he just ran up the number and that was it. But you got that was it. I didn't connect with anything to leave her on the beach hotel and opened up put the first telephone exchange and where the coffee Italia is now is where the first telephone exchange was. They had two or three switchboard operators and friend Aikens was the telephone operator co packer and then later on warehouse Piccolo is today with the second telephone exchange and then you had about 10 telephone operators working in that month. That was the old earring menu there you had a shortcut almost Allama to shortcut can offer the shortcut ever And you left the party line. Basically, you'd hear the phone ringing.
Speaker 2 1:00:14
You literally, you didn't have to worry about newspapers read that, because you're pretty well known anyway. We were, we were a while 1412 and jeans are number two shorts. And that was it. But I remember the boy picking going on the phone there, I didn't realize that. It was some means of communication. And I pick it up. And I talked into this thing, I kept going it my parents. I mean, five, four or five, we talked. And all of a sudden this bush would come boom into the earpiece, it's not a toy.
Speaker 2 1:01:05
I'd be about five, four or five. It was like on a table or sitting in school. And I couldn't tough on an old case with like a big wooden box with a crank on the side. And then you have the receiver. If you stuck in.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:22
I grew up with that.
Speaker 2 1:01:26
I would get on a chair. Do that. But the thing was, you had to be very careful because inside of that clinic was Magneto, and it was a telephone guy working on the line, you could give them one way to get shocked if you cranked it
Speaker 7 1:01:49
up before you go on to the complex, which reminds me, I just like to say how that telephone that close telephone circuit started. It was the younger Joel Broadwell. And it was Norman Wilson. And they were boys. They had all of that Telegraph's and they set up the telephone, telegraph communication between the two. And then Reverend Wilson got really excited about his son, and how innovative and cutting edge they were. And so they linked up the other around together. And then very soon in came the telephone. So that was the next thing. They dumped the whole telegraph stuff, but use the whole system to make telephones.
Speaker 2 1:02:39
One little thing leads to something else. Go from there. Any other questions? Oh,
Speaker 7 1:02:45
I have one other thing and that's how how you're related to distinctions. The first relationship was through your grandfather, because he's teaching at Central Hall That's right, instead of going all the way back home to where he was at Ganges Harbor, he would stay at the Stevens
Speaker 2 1:03:05
who was here and thought when he would he would do he would he he knew the Stevens's and in Austin and meant to stay with him because it was easy for them for him to teach school here and be at the Stevens Mater have a short walk from Stevens school here
Speaker 2 1:03:37
now mother's mother was quite a quite a one for for taking on various causes that other people wouldn't and there was tasks that they were going to take the central hall down and it was like humanity and it was going to be torn down. And so she said no, this can't happen she said this is an icon we need to select on that future generations will never know that even existed so so human craft to be carried to various different departments. And she got the runaround on last night, my department once again most of my department. So finally she said she wouldn't take no for an answer. She went to the top of the list and she go to heritage home Heritage Center building, etc. Anyway, she told him about this thing. So okay, fine, how much do you need? So he gave him a figure of what it required. And she got all the various contractors if you knew how to do the various jobs, and she basically went in and refurbished all of her Bible again. Fellow Dan ammunition. We need to theater on the because we used to have the old Rex theater and It was no longer and there were one or two other private equity theater movies. That didn't happen. So anyway again, Simone, I'll take the home I'll make it real with yours, if you did to make a quick version of what we have today with 16 millimeter film and proceeded to do the, the theater. My mother thought was very nice. Having a theater again. When I was a girl, we used to go to the movies here and it was all silent movies and used to have a piano player. So when we bought our piano, rolled it out and seats it that you'd entertain out of the movie doors. Was piano music. And then when the movie starts, if you'd like movie kickstand market if you didn't let loose up and walk out
Unknown Speaker 1:06:05
thank you, was really good.