Accession Number | |||
Date | 2014 | ||
Media | digital recording | Audio | mp3 √ |
duration | 31 min. |
351_Mary-Backlund_Imbert-Orchard_2014.mp3
otter.ai
16.02.2024
no
Outline
Speaker 1 0:02
I like to begin, actually with your grandfather. Just tell us about him. So we start not him. Who was who he was when he was four where he came from all this stuff? I can't remember. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 0:20
don't worry, you can check in with life. Yes. Yeah. Do you remember
Speaker 1 0:29
this people remember it's not too much historical facts. I mean, the marriage churches, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 0:43
Oh, my great grandfather with handmade Scotty Georgeson son of George George's son born at wolves in the Shetland Islands in Scotland on August the 14th 1835. He came out when he was very young, on receiving shipments to Orchard and 100 foot sailing ship around the horn. I think this is marvelous. I really do. He must have had a terrific glut of gumption I don't think they are very many people on that little sailing ship. He also had two other brothers branches of whom you will find Georgia some scattered all through violence. Needless to say. He came to now where did he come to somewhere along the California coast, I think in the very beginning, and then went up the Fraser, the Fraser River, looking for gold. And while he was up there, around milliwatt, he met this lovely Indian lady and consequently married her and who became my great grandmother. She was a very fine person. And he brought her back down here. And they were wandered around quite a little bit. And he finally had a position as a Lightkeeper, I believe in the Fraser River at one of those places at the Fraser River that there was a very small Lightship, I believe there at that time. This was a long, long while ago, and that he came down to Dalian Oh, and main island. And he was at Domina die house for a long, long while. And very much respected. It is one of my very great regrets of my life. I don't remember my great grandfather. I was four when he died. And I'm very sorry to say that I don't actually remember seeing him. very gracious person.
Unknown Speaker 2:49
Because they're in the boat.
Speaker 2 2:54
Now, this isn't the one it's the fleet. The fleet boats comes in at 1030 or anytime. I think maybe we won't bother with people.
Unknown Speaker 3:07
So that should just go on like this. And then they seem to get family background. A grandfather was the first light housekeeping.
Unknown Speaker 3:20
Yes, that's right. Yes.
Speaker 1 3:26
Can you just go on with a bit more of the family history, so to speak about your grandfather and
Speaker 2 3:31
assisted Yes. My own dad came up from England in 1912. And I don't have too much background on his particular history. He came to Victoria and was a butcher in the public market down there. Consequently, traveling through the islands he met my mother and married her family out of Ireland after they had moved over here. He married her 1924 which is possibly a little too late for you're wondering he wanted about 1912 Don't shoot before
Speaker 1 4:04
1920 But this is alright. We can see you. Your What was your father's name?
Speaker 2 4:11
My father's name was Albert Hawthorne. Typically a mistake, which is always had a horse at the door. Unfortunately, I don't remember him either. Just very, very brief little periods. I think it must have been a very great shock when he died very suddenly. And it was a very shoot great shock to a favorite small, spoiled child. Have something like this happen? My dad I think was very well known through the islands and also in Victoria. I have seen people and this is quite unusual Mr. Orchard once or twice. A very distinguished looking gentleman, or a little old lady would walk up to me and say are you Albert Hornstein. Arthur, and I must look a great deal like him, which I'm very proud of. I think it's nice to know that people remember him even my mother, of course, we married 10 years ago, and she is now Mrs. Dally brass whom you'll be speaking to I'm sure. My uncle whom you spoke to last night helped a great deal in the looking after the lighthouse. You see, they were six. I don't know if Uncle Archie told you this. They were six brothers. Three Sisters. Yes, yes. Yes, they were six brothers and three sisters in the Georgeson family of home. Three are still alive. One is in Vancouver. I have one at my house and one in Duncan. The other three have since died in various times. And also my great uncle who lived with us ever since. He came out I believe he was either came out from Scotland or else he was born here soon after. He must have come from Scotland because he was very old when he died.
Unknown Speaker 6:24
Yes, what is your grandfather's name?
Speaker 2 6:27
My grandfather's name was John George isn't he lived on Galliano, I think a great deal of the time and farmed what is now popularly known as the Gustin farm. They had a lot of acreage there. And he did a lot of farming. And he also worked around he died when he was very young, and he died very sadly, it seems, with some, possibly some disease that could very easily be cured nowadays. But I think maybe you know, that all of these children were born and brought up around the islands without the aid of a doctor, or very little medical help of any kind. So I think they must have been all very healthy, or else they did say the best they could when they got sick. I think all of the young people, all of my uncles and aunts were born out of hospital. I don't believe any of them were born in a hospital. They were all born at home. My aunt SAFIRE was the youngest of the Georgeson family. Visit Galliano. Now she's away on holiday right at this moment. And my mother, of course, and my uncle are here. They have all done various things during their lives, mostly following the sea. May I tell you about my two uncles. I'm very proud to be able to tell you about this. They follow the sea. Arthur Georgeson and Edward Georgeson. They follow the sea from very young seamen managed to climb the ladder completely to the top and become not only captain's but British Columbia pilots, which I think is the highest thing you could possibly hope for when you follow the sea. We're very proud of this. They are unfortunately both dead now. But we're very proud of their memory and their ability to do these things in these times. I don't know how much trouble it was, I believe it was quite took quite a lot of work and a lot of learning. Seems to me that the schooling in those days must have been very thorough and very complete because it provided them with a very good background and seems to me helped helped them a great deal to achieve these goals.
Speaker 1 8:56
Tell me about the girl to remember about sort of speak history of the islands and the kinds of people that are on them. What's your impression of Maine in the early days as an island and the people that were there did you hear any stories of the main island as
Speaker 2 9:16
the main Islanders and I would say possibly the Galliano islanders were did various things. In my great grandfather's diary Mr. Orchard he mentioned that he took the goods up to Robson's farm and Dr. Loney farm on Pender Island, and he got a barrel of apples for a barrel of sharings and things like this meaning that they must have done a good deal of trading among each other in order to have a varied diet. You know when they lived? I believe Mr. Robson was there Fred Robson resides on Galliano, right Now he is the grandson of Mr. Mr. Robson and speaking of he evidently had a very good farm with some very good apples because there's a pretty well renowned as being very good and very tasty apples. Everyone wanted apples from Robson farm. And Mr. Deacon who died not too long ago. He was I think he had a varied farm of vegetables and things seemed to be a fairly easy life, to me possibly a great deal easier now than than it was now because of the not having to worry about any competitions of any kind and keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak, it was quite leisurely, it seemed to me there was a lot of fishing going on. Evidently, I just don't quite know how they made their living. This bothers me occasionally, that tell you about the cooks. I refer to my notes and this is a lovely story. This is Mrs. Cooks name was le fluor Mrs. John Cook I'm going to tell you about now. They are wonderful people. They lived on Galliano for 66 years. And they were just the dearest couple. I'm very proud to have known them. Her father was a packer for Hudson's Bay, in the 1860s. And our good friend John Cook was born at main island. And he was kidnapped by the Haida Indians and take a North when he was a very small boy. And then when he was 13 years old, they came back around this area, and to the very place where John was kidnapped. So John, somehow or another recognized that he must belong in this area. So he ran away. This was at the age of 13. I don't think he liked the height of another. And he went back. This is quite amazing. He went right back to where he was born. And he found that his father had died in the meanwhile, and his mother had married again. I believe she had two or possibly three children, who were who were his, you know, by the same mother. And then John went and worked for Lady Douglas on her farm for $2.50 a month. This was a wonderful wage, but then when he got to be 50, and he got $5 A month. Then he ran away again, he seemed to be always running away somehow. And became a very close friend of Scottie Georges and my great grandfather. They were very good friends. And then when they were fishing together, evidently, because one day when they were out in the Gulf, the Gulf of Georgia, they were looking at land and saw this place what we now call cooks B. And granddad said to young John, he said, No, John, there's a place that you want to buy. So they fished around and talked about this for quite a while. And then when John was 17 when John Cook was 17 he was at Ladner, this seemed to be the gathering place for all of the people in this area. When they went to the city they rode to Ladner anyway, and this is the only way of course they had getting there was to row or sale. My great grandfather, by the way was a sailmaker. I don't I told you that data, you made sales for all kinds of people and possibly picked up a little money doing this. Anyway, our friend John Cook, borrowed a boat over there. Then he rode across to this bay that Scotty my great grandfather had told him about it, he thought that this is kind of nice. So he walked up to the north end, which is about six miles. Then he borrowed another boat and rode to craft and which is I don't know how far it's quite early in the way. And then from there, he walked to Benton, which was the land recording office in those years for the Gulf Islands. And he took a preemption on this 160 acres. It's a beautiful farm. And then in about 1886 He married this missile floor and move to moved up to cook Bay what we now call cooks bear. This was just before Vancouver burned. They saw we were out fishing one day these two newlyweds and they saw Vancouver burn. They thought this is a very huge, huge fire over there. So they rolled across but by the time they got there of course it was All gone. It was very much I don't want it's about 30 miles, I think, and to think of rolling it in this day and age when we complained about flying 50 minutes. Anyway, at 89, he died in 1955. and Mrs. Cook died in about 1959. I'm very pleased to be able to tell you all these things. I don't think too many people know this story. As a matter of fact, we were close friends who took quite a liking to us. And I'm very happy to be able to tell you that.
Unknown Speaker 15:39
I'd like to ask you some
Unknown Speaker 15:42
very interesting man. Oh, he was wonderful.
Speaker 1 15:44
Well, who was the father, mother,
Speaker 2 15:48
John Cook. I really haven't any idea they were born. They were at main island when he was born. This is quite obvious. And exactly how his father died between the time when, you know when when the baby was kidnapped, baby was kidnapped from the beach. By the way, John was kidnapped when he was very, very small. And I don't imagine that the mother and father ever thought they would see him again. And it must have been a wonderful thing when he came back to his own place and found his own mother all by himself. He didn't have anyone to tell him, you know, he just, you know, just seemed to think, well, this is where he belonged. And actually, to say he was a small baby is possibly wrong, because he must have known a little bit about it, mustn't he? He knew he must have had some sort of memory of his parents. And when, you know, this horrible thing happened when he was taken away. Give it away. They did that quite often. Seems to me they used to steal babies and bring them back and forth. At main island, he lived Oh, my, I don't think I know what he Mr. Cook. I don't know if he was not his parents would be I think of a mixed origin as my parents would be. It seems to me that he wouldn't be a totally complete Indian person because he was know how to make reservation. But then, of course, there were no reservations at that time. So it's difficult to know that, because
Speaker 1 17:32
I was wondering about the haters. Various Indian groups. Kidnap other Indian people. Yes, yes. As you know, already had been a white child, whether he's been kidnapped, and that case would have been even more difficult for him to adjust. And I suppose it is. It's such an interesting story. This
Unknown Speaker 17:55
you see? Oh, it's a tremendous story. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 17:58
There. How's it been brought up? What was the kind of
Speaker 1 18:07
what kind of contrast? That was? That was the haters? That's why I asked that. You know what I mean, to see whether he was used in good ways?
Unknown Speaker 18:15
No, no. I don't think so. I'm sorry to interrupt.
Unknown Speaker 18:21
But he was talking, he was talking?
Speaker 2 18:22
I think so. Yes. Either he or she now. I may be getting into trouble. I don't think it seems to me that he was possibly this, but I believe his skin when he was a baby would be quite weighed him, therefore be quite, you know, quite a surprise.
Unknown Speaker 18:42
It was a child that they took. So this would have been another contrast.
Unknown Speaker 18:50
Yes, that's right. Up there.
Speaker 1 18:54
These things didn't happen, then they always make a good story to me about the details of his life, and how he reacted to
Speaker 2 19:11
that I think they must have been very mean to Mr. Rochard, because he was quite willing to run away evidence. When they did. He evidently ran, you know, he took a canoe in the night and went right back to where he was. I think this is terribly interesting. And possibly some of his own grandchildren don't even know this, you know, because he was a very retiring type of person. He didn't talk to a great deal of people you were seeing around in his later years. He was seeing around a little village here that he would very seldom speak he became deaf. And of course, when you have something like this, you feel it. You know, you miss a great deal in the conversation anyway. So therefore, he was very quiet. But we were very fortunate to be able to go and visit and talk with them. And he was very active right up until the time he died. We were quite sure that Mrs. Cook would pass away long before he because she seemed to be very sickly. But she, she stayed for a little while. And then the day after he died, we were all feeling very sad. And we all went up to see the old lady. And she was sitting there looking very sad. And she looked up and said, you know, we were married for 66 years. And my husband didn't hit me once. And then she started bringing deliver beer here. So distinct from this is a very precious thing. If I think I think it's wonderful, I really do. too, be able to live in that place. It was so important to them, it was a beautiful little place with the fruit trees is still standing. And it's unfortunate they are not looked after, as well now. The cook farm is about eight miles up the island. It is now owned by McMillan and Odell, which is too bad because it is one of the landmarks, but the only thing you can see now is quite a few of the trees left around there on the outside, looking into the Gulf of the Gulf of Georgia into Vancouver. And then on a clear night, you can see the lights of the city, you know, and I live on that side of the island to see all the lights of Vancouver. It's quite, it's a glorious sight through there.
Unknown Speaker 21:48
He raised much of his farm.
Speaker 2 21:52
He had a lot of apples, and a lot of things he worked out, I think most of his life and very hard work. He, I think several places on Dalian or if you go and see the old rail fences are the ones that John Cook split. And they are quite big. He was a very big man and very strong. So I think he must have worked very hard in order to do that he must have had good tools. And he must have worked very hard to be able to produce these lovely things that have lasted. Well, 60 years, isn't it? I know he worked in rural farm for some while farming. And he was a good farmer. And I think this was mostly the way he did he made his living. It seems to me that he didn't do too much fishing after he got a little older. The place
Unknown Speaker 22:51
to go was full of interesting people, of course. Was anybody else?
Speaker 2 23:06
Yes, some people that I of course knew all my life. The borough brothers, Joseph burrow and Fred burrow. They came out from England, Mr. Joe, I believe came first and began a store not too far from here. And his brother came over and did all of the cooking and kept the house. Very neat and very tidy. He was a marvelous cook. Mr. Joe, along with looking after the store, his hobby was classical music. He played the piano just beautifully. He would play for maybe two or three hours every day. He had one of the best pianos, I would say in the Gulf Islands, if not, that you could possibly purchase at that time. That piano was still here. I'm happy to say. Anyway, Mr. Fred, if I say did all the cooking, but one day Mr. Fred had to go away to Vancouver. And Mr. Joe thought he would surprise him with some of this cooking. This is a funny little story. They tell so many wonderful stories of the Burrito Brothers. This is about Mr. Joel. He didn't like anyone to hear this story. Because it's on him naturally. He Mr. Doe thought well, we will surprise Fred here and make some bread. So he went about making the bread in the way that he thought was a very, you know, they knew exactly how to make bread. But the valley stuff didn't rise for some reason or another and it must have been in the summertime. As you will see as the story goes, because he thought that the bread was quite a miserable failure. It wouldn't rise it wouldn't rise in the pan so he took it outside and buried it. And then about two days later or even later on that afternoon when Mr. Read came home, he noticed something rather funny in the garden, and whatever this was kept rising and rising and rising, so he got very excited about the whole thing. And he phoned Vancouver. And he phoned me and he was a wonderful gardener. They had a beautiful garden all around that rural property. And this tremendous thing kept rising and rising and rising out of the ground and Mr. Fred kept getting more and more excited. Till Poor Mr. Joe had to break down and admit that it really wasn't anything phenomenal. It was the bread. Berry doesn't like because then another story that we have. I also remember the Gilmore's who were I believe you were spoken to the twist is that Mrs. Twist his father and mother. Captain Gilmore was a very great and wonderful sea captain. I'm very proud to have known him. And he was down one day at the burl brothers and having tea. And Mr. Let me see it was Mr. Joe as Captain Gilmore if he had caught any fish lately, and Mr. Captain Gilmore said, Oh, yes, we got a great big, huge, huge fish. It was 80 pounds. And so Mr. Joe looked at him in quite some amazement, and he said, Oh, you didn't? And he said, Yes, we gave fish away to everyone that we could think of. And we still have fish, and we're really getting quite tired of this. Great, huge fish. So Mr. Joel thought for a minute. And then he said, Well, you know, I was out fishing the other day. And I caught on to something that I thought was a very large fish. When I pulled it up, it was a lamp. And it turned out to the lamp of one of the old Spanish galleons. And you know, that the light was still burning. And so Captain Gilmore couldn't quite swallow this light still going listeners. So he looked at him for a minute or so. And he said, All right, Joel, I'll take 50 pounds off the fish if you blow the lamp out. It's another delightful little story. I wish I could remember all the stories that I have heard, all these things are so funny. They really are that the mode of travel in those days was so very, it was so very difficult to get anywhere. In order to go to Victoria, you have to roll or sail down to Sydney and then walk, you couldn't finish you got to ride with someone. And then in order to get to any dances, which when they said the word dance, everybody went. And you had to start off early in the afternoon and roll to the neighboring islands in there were stories of rowing across two main island to a dance and then possibly running out of some of this very nice bubbly stuff. So they'd roll over to Ganges to get some more and roll back again. This is a very leisurely way of life in the islands, it seems to me. And it was also I don't know if it had its drawbacks or not. Because we all seem to have been brought up and lived through all of these tribulations. They weren't really that hard.
Unknown Speaker 28:28
Compared to other pioneer areas. People were quite accessible to each other.
Unknown Speaker 28:34
Yes, that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 28:37
long distances are the terrible ones. People are miles away from each other. This is a feeling that has people were so lucky that they could get on the road. And
Speaker 2 28:48
absolutely, oh, yes, then they did it without any problem. They built their own rowboat. And you know, their own robots and oars and everything and just went from one place to the other. And anything for a gathering. Let's have a party on Saturday. So everybody gets together and had some fun. And they had their own music, which is also wonderful music that we very seldom hear nowadays, and possibly we'll go with some of our pioneers. This is a very sad thing in my mind. I think just about everybody could play Mr. Joel Berle was well known as an entertainer and also Mr. Fred. They used to play the banjo and the piano. And then all of my uncles all of my six uncles played the violin. So I was born to violin music, and I love music. Needless to say. They were also in great demand at any of the parties. Even when I was a very small child. You see, we have no no such thing as a babysitter. We were not left at home when there was a party. We were taken along. And I can remember when I was very small. If I was there A good in very quiet, I was allowed to stand up and watch them play. Otherwise I had to go into the other room which I didn't like when I think it teaches you patience somehow or another.
Speaker 1 30:11
Did anybody make any original music or songs on these items? Any composer creative and that?
Speaker 2 30:19
Oh yes. I think they played a lot of their own popular music and they also we have a wonderful person named Jimmy Neil, it may not and do you are going to speak to him, are you? Yes. Well, he has written many, many wonderful songs. My mother has a good collection of little things. Some people can do this so easily. They can sit down and all of a sudden it's a verse about something. I think it's a wonderful gift. I don't think there has been any original compositions, so to speak that have lived down to the years. It was mostly all possibly jigs and reels and the typical violin music saved on