65_Margaret-Cunningham_Stevens-Boarding-House.mp3

otter.ai

21.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
It's 1990 My name is Ruth Sandwell. Today I'm talking to Mrs. Margaret Cunningham at her home on North End Road. She lives in the old Stephens boarding house.

Unknown Speaker 0:16
Asking questions.

Unknown Speaker 0:19
Why don't you start by telling me about when the house was built?

Unknown Speaker 0:24
Well, now that I have to go back and able to buy my own, do, you know his kitchen to be able to tell that because it was in 1818 84, that my father came to this island as a school teacher from London, England. And he'd been teaching there for quite a few years. And he was a younger or second eldest son of a large family, and a birth boys and girls. And so his older sister, Mrs. Betty's had gotten married, or other states, she had looked with her husband, and they wanted to leave England. So I'm not sure whether they stayed in some other part of India before the accident, but they did decide to leave England, because they had a loved one. So they came out to to the eastern coast of the States of America. And I'm not quite sure, right. In the moment I did at one time, remember, the actual patient name of the pace that they came to Ruby was on the eastern coast. And they stayed there for quite a while. But there was at that time, there was Elizabeth in writing at work, of course, he brought when they came here to this and so that time, you see there were still a lot of fighting going on, before they settled any of the dispute about the boundary lines. So so they thought, well, if this was going, this was going to be in place in America, then they had heard that on Vancouver, they call it Vancouver's and cap on Vancouver Island, how we had apostrophe s. And so they thought, well, that sounds like the rapid English up there in British Columbia. So and being called British Columbia, it attracted them more than any other name of any other province in Canada. And so they thought, well, they would go to British Columbia then because they were in I think it was in Indiana, or one of those seven or Northern central states. And then in America first, of course, they were on the extreme east coast. And then they moved inland a bit, but the winters weren't there were terribly cold. And there was all this fighting still going on, because they hadn't organized all the separate states properly into what they were going to be. And yeah, there's

Unknown Speaker 2:32
still a lot of dispute news and so

Unknown Speaker 2:35
on. So there was always fighting going on kind of a debt between the British and the Americans, I guess, on this

Unknown Speaker 2:42
other so. So this was Mrs. Bettis right, Mrs. Emily better.

Unknown Speaker 2:45
Yes, Mrs. Emily Bailey. So she was my dead sister. And she and her husband came with children. And they had about five I think, but I'm not sure. Really, I can't remember for sure how many they had at that time when they made the move. But anyway, they did have some children and they came up to up to the adult role in this. This island of Vancouver's Island sounded sounded interesting. So we thought we would go up to the middle of a river wherever the north where it wasn't now,

Unknown Speaker 3:17
in northern BC,

Unknown Speaker 3:18
you're in the northern part of Vancouver, and there was a there was a name of replacing their contact with right now. But it sounded quite attractive anyway to them. I can't see why it would be because it wasn't Campbell River doesn't Cowichan on our way, North way farther, the farthest north post part of Vancouver if they had heard about this place, is it? What would it be? No, I can't think of the name anyway. So so they they thought they would go up there. So they, they went to bid they came up from there to what we call them cruise. Because the cost of free Yes, it was in Vancouver Island, because get to Vancouver had found it and so. So they came there and they're walking the streets of Victoria, wondering where they would go actually, you know, and sort of trying to plan what they would do. And they met Mr. Racal on the street. And he would said he had to hold up the point. And he said, Oh, don't go all the way up to that. I wish I wasn't minister. I wasn't very motivated. But anyway, I can't remember the name right now. Anyway, he said, don't go all the way up to that island. That's a way north. He said, Come to Salzburg, and he had the whole of beaver point. So he said come to Salt Spring Island. That's a nice place and there are several lakes on the island. And you can get into it instantly quite easily because a lot of businesses nowadays you have to either go to Victoria which took your day in a guestbook, taking them to do a whole day from seven o'clock in the morning to seven o'clock at night to get there. So they would go to do. Sydney was the best place and then when I was a young girl at Sydney, they had what they call the flying line, which was a bus that ran from from Sydney into Victoria, all maybe three trips in the morning hours and maybe three or four in the afternoon weren't nighters only and you or something like that there were several trips back and forth between how long would that take? Oh, it would take about an hour. I guess. You know what I mean, on the best trip? Yes, yes, because the roll wasn't quite as same as it is right now. Today, they have a really good, clear, straight highway that goes right through lenses quite, you know, rabbit trail fabric and so on. But in those days, it was a little bit so a patient

Unknown Speaker 5:29
like the old Saanich road. Part of it

Unknown Speaker 5:33
was yes, I think so. They had to you had to go to Sydney to get in there. And I remember one time, when my mother of course, my mother and dad were going down, they had their teeth down. And later on when we had to have a retreat girls that have already done they had to go in Victoria and stayed at a hotel for about three days or four days. While everybody's teeth were getting fixed. Yeah. So I remember this one occasion when I was went down with my mother, and I guess I was going to have my teeth Pics or maybe she had to have a plate or something made Anyway, whatever it was, we were there together. And we had to have a bad day. We'll know fairies wedding here, you see. So we have to have a little gasoline boat to go from from Fulford overdue, specifically. And so on the way there. What happened now? Yes, something happened and what went wrong with the boat? Anyway, he couldn't make it. He couldn't make it to Sydney anyway. So he had to put us off on another space and they were around there. And then we went to short this place, and there are lots of trees right down to the beach and everything. And do you know what it was? Do you know what it was? It was? No, it was called Swartz Bay. It wasn't a thing. There are trees just trees everywhere. And so they put us up there this man ever knew where to go because he walked and went somewhere to the nearest house where you find a phone and phone for help. And somebody came by on a car and got it. Oh, you have to walk to the push a bit there you see right around the beach there. But anyway, that was that was the beginning of establish. Looks like it does the day because there's nothing to it. It was all just just trees.

Unknown Speaker 7:11
So so how did Mrs. Bettis how and Mr. bettas. How did they end up from from meeting? Did they meet Henry Rocco?

Unknown Speaker 7:17
Well, I got to tell you about what happened. Yeah. Yeah. So then the business is keen to ourselves when we met Mrs. Mr. Rakoff. And he said, Oh, don't go all the way up the URL. Now. He said come to Salisbury. And so he had, he had all that bigger point area. So when they got in their boat, they saw the beaver Point area. So they stopped and they visited him two or three days and had a visit with him. And then then they came on up further up, you see, and I guess they must have just followed the coastline up here. And let's see now talking about

Unknown Speaker 7:52
the badasses and how they win the very first time when they came to the island.

Unknown Speaker 7:57
So they they left the Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Andersen and the next thing that they saw after traveling us away was they saw this lovely long white Shell Beach. And he said, Oh, that looks so beautiful. We must do we must stop here. So they stop right there. And, and the beach. That was lovely. There was a lone, lonely Wrightsville Beach. Then there was another little beach that went into a small bay very deep. And then there was another beach on the other side, which was a big bay. And so there was a lovely spot, really. And so they actually stopped there. And so that's where

Unknown Speaker 8:33
they would stay. And so your father was it? Was it that

Unknown Speaker 8:37
a better teacher from from a beginning. And then he

Unknown Speaker 8:40
came in? He came with him on that on that trip. And

Unknown Speaker 8:43
he wasn't married, you see. And so he came with him. And so then they all went together and they got things going and

Unknown Speaker 8:51
how did they get from better speech? Did they into central today? There was no rotary wasn't talking about that yet,

Unknown Speaker 8:57
because there's too much too much happened before that, because they they landed on this beach there. And then of course they used to when they met Mr. Grecco. So they used to go down to Beaver point and see him and then they had to go to to I guess it would be Sydney or somewhere in there to get some food, you know, to get some surprising because of the bulking call. They're not at that time because there wasn't a little bit of people living here. There were only 12 Right families on the island. So people had to go, like over to say, was Sydney real exposure to drop the floor here and of course that we've been unable they either went to most likely they went to Nanaimo because there was a railway that ran between the nine or in Victoria. I think it was going I think it must have been going down because I can remember when I even when I was a child who the boat, the train whistle all the time, but for your time by particular. We used to do this all the time, I think I think that Nanaimo was going because they found that there was coal there, and under the sea, and so they, the

Unknown Speaker 10:06
trade, they had that mining community, some of their

Unknown Speaker 10:09
neighbor who lived here for a while he and his his parents, or his father who had been and he himself had worked in the mining to in recent years. But when I say recent years, I would say when I was about 20, or 25.

Unknown Speaker 10:21
Yeah, that's quite a while. That's right. But that's still later than the 80s

Unknown Speaker 10:25
in my time anyway. Yeah. And he worked in the in the in the underground there, plenty working under the sea like that. And they could hear every time the boat went by. And one of the big boats went by, you know, in recent years, and he didn't go to go, he didn't know how to you could hear the noise from the engines. You know, wonder whether that whole thing wouldn't collapse that whole time and go in. I would have been scheduled on the channel. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 10:47
don't think I'd want to do it either

Unknown Speaker 10:49
under the sea, you know, like that. But it does, it goes out from the nine require way to those other there's some islands or,

Unknown Speaker 10:55
you know, the other set Newcastle island out there, to something

Unknown Speaker 10:59
out there. I think there's something that because I met one of the men that was living on the Oracle who was living on the Android, he had come from the nonmoving. He had worked in the mines. I wouldn't want to look into mine. Oh, it's

Unknown Speaker 11:12
dangerous. You know, a lot of people died in those mines.

Unknown Speaker 11:15
I guess it did. Yes, it was. But anyway, money was a big thing in Nanaimo, and I think that's what made the town on the Nymo. Really, I think, to get back to where we are.

Unknown Speaker 11:23
So we were just at where they'd all arrived. The badasses and Raph was pretty had arrived on the island. So if they went to the Nymo, would they go by boat? I guess there was no road across the island. Oh, no, of course they are.

Unknown Speaker 11:35
And you know, everybody did everything by boat. You could you either go to Nanaimo or you could go to Victoria. But even even when I was a girl, and princess from the CBI, Princess boats used to come to Ganges, and they would be anywhere, sometimes the tools want to cover two o'clock. Mostly, they come in about that time, and they'd be there for an hour or something, unloading all the freight. And then they go down to Victoria. And if you were lucky, you get into Victoria about seven o'clock at night. Oh, really good. goes a long way to go and a whole part of that Peninsula around that way. And then on the wharf in Pretoria, it's in the carpark and so whenever my mother and dad used to have to have their teeth fixed or get false teeth or whatever, you know, they would take all three girls with them. And we go and stare at the the Dominion doctors when you near the hotel and down the street to do Strathcona Oh, yeah, go hotel. And we stayed there for about four days while they were getting their teeth done. Then later on, when it was our turn for our de COVID to be done. So. So that's really the way you were situated those days. Then, when I was a girl, we had a man doctor here and lady doctor, Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Lawson. Dr. Sutherland was the woman right? She was the only job to end up your loss. And they were as jealous as they could be of each other. And they wouldn't even acknowledge any other anybody else's patient that was in the hospital. Yeah. And so you they only go to their own patients. And so, and they wouldn't look at anybody else. It was somebody else, and other doctors, patients and all that sort of thing. So, so there was a real rivalry there. It was really quite ridiculous when you think about now, of course, there are all kinds of doctors, and there are lots of patients in the hospital. I know. And all the doctors get along together just fine. They have doctor's meetings, in fact, and that sort of thing.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
So how did how did? What's the connection between the badasses and Ralph was pretty and this house the Stephens boarding?

Unknown Speaker 13:35
Well, my father was the brother was one of the sons in his pretty family. And Mrs. Dear Mrs. Barrett was his she was a second youngest brother, my dad was raffles, Augustus Robert Bernie. Then everybody asked him why was he called raffles because all they can think about is these raffles where you sell things, but that's not it. His grandfather was Stamford Raffles, who was the goat who was the governor of India, in the 1800s, sometime in the 18, middle 1800s, I guess it was, and he was a, he was also my father's godfather. And because he was a personal friend of the family, and so when, when he was gone, that's where my father was called, to start the raffle, so we called him that. So I've often had to explain that because they said, What a funny name for that. I said, what it was after the government video, who was a friend of yours, and so, so my dad came out as a bachelor to see and they're badasses. And they were then in Eastern and Eastern, mid Eastern States of America, but it was quite really a lot of British people were there at that time in that area. And then there was still this fighting going on between making these states.

Unknown Speaker 14:49
And remember you you would just where they'd already moved up and they've met Henry Rachael and they've moved. So there they are, yeah, on the beach and they so they Ultra house did it the baddest is built their house down on it yes

Unknown Speaker 15:02
they built their house and they would have had to cut the the number and everything and going in a boat and got it from either Sydney or got into Victoria and got it and

Unknown Speaker 15:13
there were no sawmills or anything like that of course,

Unknown Speaker 15:15
there would have been a mistake no. Debbie be the major meal. The one big major feel that I can remember when I was a girl was down at the Bay on the way out and from just a past badasses going Christian called Christian Cove. Yes. It was a big it was a

Unknown Speaker 15:35
big sawmill there I don't know when it was there. Do you

Unknown Speaker 15:39
think that was the first big sawmill there was because later on in my time when I was a girl going to school there were these miniature or small sawmill all over the and there were 11 of them all the different pieces they were everywhere they were cutting down the trees everywhere you know and that they sent all these logs and the they're always boomed in logs in Ganges harbor all the time. Oh really? They were taken away to be sewn up in Sydney I suppose it was gonna be the Newspace for sawmills

Unknown Speaker 16:04
that's it well I know that it Christian Cove they had that sawmill but then it one day the whole wharf collapsed

Unknown Speaker 16:09
yes or no, I remember when that happened. That was terrible. It was a very stormy day. I think when that happened. Anyway, and everything went down. It was just terrible to think that,

Unknown Speaker 16:19
you know, all that lumber

Unknown Speaker 16:23
weighs a lot, really, because they hadn't built the wharf when they did expecting to have an awful lot of heavy stuff. But of course, in those days, it was so different to what it is today. The book came in. We had like two books we had when I was a girl talking back when I was going 1913. Now, when I was a girl, as I was going to school, too, it was more or less the same most of those years until I got into high school but but the we had two boats. One was a little tiny boat called the otter was brought birth right in Ganges Harbor. And she used to leave every morning. I think probably it happened seven. And where I lived in my old home where my sister married and museum buddies row. By the time she left the war for Ganges and out. exactly opposite RPC would be take 20 minutes. So my dad could almost hit his club, we didn't have these automatic comfort round very rarely. So are your electric toxin you might get so so he said he's called everyday by that of going past eight o'clock in the morning. I think it must have led to 2027 or something from the ages. And by the time it's directly opposite, where I live down this road is where it would be and so he said he's covering it every morning. And he had been a teacher and he had lived in this house. How did he come to live in this house because there wasn't anything developed down at that end of the island at that time. There was only this is what they call a central settlement. And which is just around here. This is called settlement as well. And we're this area is and really fairly cold bitten core family, big DMC reality. They lived and they had to hold the serious, they own the whole entire thing. And of course they were no there was only a little walk there for small boats. And so I offered them extinguisher come in and tie up there. But it wasn't like it wasn't a very connection and all that. But the boat. The reason they knew they use that was because the boat used to run from Victoria, Nanaimo and from a neighbor back to Victoria and so on so that they could drop off. They never they never hit the wall. But they dropped the open a little boat and go into the get into the

Unknown Speaker 18:34
so you couldn't actually just land and walk off. You had to think

Unknown Speaker 18:37
you could No, I think all the staff up but they didn't. I guess they didn't think the water was deep enough. They're turning the boat in right to the gym, you know, where the cars really when you go down to the bottom of the hill. Interview seriously, there used to be a big old white house just like this one was. And it was the Vesuvius hotel, they call it so anybody can do that. I ended up staying. We stayed there because it was the hotel you see, right there.

Unknown Speaker 19:07
Was that built before this house?

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Oh, long before this house? Why No, wait a minute. I'm not sure about that. But it was run before or not.

Unknown Speaker 19:15
Because this house was built in 1887. Was it?

Unknown Speaker 19:20
No. It was built when Stevens's came. And my Mr. Barish came in. On my dad came with them in 1806 1884. And they came three months later. Oh, I see. And they came here. They, they came. Well, of course, my dad stayed with his medicine and then the steam just came in. They bought this place. It was it.

Unknown Speaker 19:44
Did it had it already been built? They built it here on the land. He built

Unknown Speaker 19:48
it here. Yes. And they added us a hotel really? Because this wasn't here in those days. Now. This is what I had done in my kitchen. This kitchen. Yes. So originally, they had We built a lot of room that when building this way, we had it was divided there for the when you came to like kitchen sitting room I think was there and then they bedrooms on this side and it was about not much bigger than this whole place. I guess it really and it was on lock calories, all locks. And then they had a they had a chicken van right outside there. I don't know how it was and then they didn't have any road to the they didn't have any road around here to the house. There was no road to the house. They you had to carry everything yourself. You know from the road. The road, went to the barn over there to the barn didn't come to the house here. Oh, I see. So that you had to go to the barn and then we had a little footpath. And they planted out that little edge there. And you had a footpath along the front of the line of hedge. Well, I have since had a basement made and all that Earth was put out there and made me that lawn out here. They didn't have that either. There is holly trees planted when they were that high because Mr. Mr. Boat gave them to me. But Toby, because he had a hole, he had a whole driveway. And they were holly trees all up the side of the driveway. So you got lots of new young ones coming in all the time. So he gave me these young trees and I planted them up there. And he gave when when a young person got married that he knew he gave them a couple of holly trees. Besides the fact that he was he was he was my eldest son Ron, he was the godfather for my son Ron, the eldest one, my boys. And he came on day. One don't use used to come to have tea with me, he used to invite me to his house all the time for tea and for big dinner parties that he had used to love to have big dinner parties of about 20 people and just on a table like that. And he'd have first of all, he started with them. I guess it's been Evans was it he hadn't, he had one man anyway, that worked for him. And then he's going off on his own. Then he got in, he decided to get boys from the orphanage in Victoria in Victoria. So he'd go down there and he'd get to a couple of boys or something. And then one time, he had four boys all at once. And the boys would be you know, they'd be just out of school, you know, they'd be about 90 knows I'm there maybe a bit older, just 18 or 19. And anyway, he had, he had these four boys all at one time. And he teach one to do the cooking. He was he was really good cook. So he was able to teach someone how to cook. And the other one would do the house cleaning and and, and so on and one would work on the farm. And then the other one I forget what the other one who he had for her time when I had to wait on the table when he when he had dinner parties and he loved to have dinner parties, and he would have an all co frequent and you have some courses you know you certainly have a grid corridor sliced up like this already. And then you'd have soup and you'd have been on vacation you'd have all these different courses you know, you didn't vegetables and then you'd have then you have three wonderful desserts and oh you're all kinds of these fancy desserts you know maybe with God and stuff like that and, and pies and things and he loved he loved good cooking and he used to come down once or once a year to visit my family when I was a child he used to come and visit because he knew my dad you've seen the days when my dad was born here and dropped

Unknown Speaker 23:12
first keyboarding here when when Harry Bullock was was

Unknown Speaker 23:16
Mr. and Mr. Bowden my dad bought it here at the same time. My dad had a nice dinner where it was it was only when my dad had one room upstairs Mr. Booth had to have these two rooms over here he had just downstairs here on the right there. On the far side is my library. I made it in the library and there was a connecting door between that and the next room which is now my bedroom. But that was that was a private one. There was a private section from Mr. Bullock because he liked to have his own notes to entertain his own guests so he had those in between so he could entertain how this wasn't here then there was this there was this long log room that went here which was the dining room for the for the guests and they're out there where the road is was where the where the kitchen was leaking to the house and then they had an outside originally and that's a toilet but then eventually of course when police was used here in Asia or leave the media probably a better bathroom but it wasn't in those days. They just had desert hotel in the very early days. It was practically everybody had until they got running water into their house you know

Unknown Speaker 24:22
when they got plumbing here was it When did you buy the house?

Unknown Speaker 24:25
Well, I bought the house and let's see now we wanted

Unknown Speaker 24:30
I think it was was after you're married?

Unknown Speaker 24:32
Oh yes. Yes. I'm just trying to think when it was when it was see I was when I was first married. It was wrong to my my partner my husband guys family had bought it had they bought it from the Stevens yes, they bought it from the Stevens Yes. Yeah. Let's go live with a boy from the Stevens's and an indigenous a strange curiosity. I live down on British road and there's a place there where you'll see a lovely view of the sea. There's a house quite an average house with a few matrices, you know, and picket fence all around the area where the house is. And then there's a big bar right on the roadside right at the roadside. And you go and pass this about. And that's where I was born. And when I grew up, because my father had bought that property because the system was Mrs. Davis and she lived about five or seven miles down the end of the British road. And so he bought halfway between outbreaks and oh, yeah, going to Ganges so that he could go and zero all the time. So he had that property for a long time. In fact, he he started there numerous realize that when he came to the home in the early days, there was nothing cleared everything was just all trees. So the first thing you have to do is chop down trees and clear out the stumps, we've got something called and get rid of them and then build so that everybody had to have a job in the beginning they had to be good strong people to be able to work the heavy work the other day, she said it was the same with everything. And the same with this place. They had to clear everything, clear everything out again. Um, and then my father had come as a pioneer of school to do to the school at Central which was right next to the hall. And we may we have seen this now. And so he bought it in this house for about 12 years or so while he was teaching school and Henry

Unknown Speaker 26:11
Bullock was here at that and he put them to

Unknown Speaker 26:13
until he bought his property and he bought the lake that he has his own little boat leggenda Stevens lake was this seems like bound to this place, which is Stevens

Unknown Speaker 26:21
lake, the little lake behind Bullock place and that belong to this place. Really. And then what happened? has happened? I

Unknown Speaker 26:28
think Mrs. Coming in, that's good. My husband's mother must have sold it to Mr. Bullock, because he ran. I think they they wanted it or something. I forget what happened. Anyway, again, it was costumes that he belonged here the scenes is and then Mr. Berg was the father and his property. So it goes to get one beat went into the other one. Yes. And so. So anyway, that's why it was called students who didn't belong here. I think what happened with Mrs. Cunningham, my husband's mother must have sold it.

Unknown Speaker 26:59
Because he did in the end, he had properties all around the lake. I've heard that he owned all around. Is that what Yeah, Mr. Bullock, so he would have bought that from me.

Unknown Speaker 27:09
He did. He must have bought it from it. Yes, he bought it from my husband's family. But But. But it's funny though. This was the only hotel Amiata. And this is where my father lived. And that isn't a strange thing that when he got down there to do British road nurse is basically the sister and then he built that house down there in the barn right on the roadside. And that's where my sister lives. I was raised there and rode school from there. That, that I should come back to live in the very house that my father had lived in when he first came to the island when they were only about 12 white families on the front that was to this point, this actual real wasn't here. That was the long log room was this part. And that's what they started with. And one part of the one part was there was their bedroom and sitting on combining oil. And then the other part was their kitchen and sitting room combined. I think it would just have been two rooms really, then they had an outhouse. Instead of because they didn't have any plumbing those days. So you had to hold water on your behalf. So you had to have a well, while there was a well down down here, down here. So the eventually, you know, it got piped up to the house. And nearly days it didn't have Well, the first thing they did was was clear some land and then plant orchard trees. So they planted an orchard down there. So there's an orchard running all down that way down there. And it's the same with my father where when he got the property in my system areas, the first thing they did was cut down trees and planted out and my dad started with a little tiny part of the property down on the waterfront. And so he planted in the YouTube room, Kevin down there and kind of trees all around that area. And then he started clearing the land. And then when he got the trees down, and he got to the top of the hill, and he saw this gorgeous view looking out all over the all over the harbor and down to hell all across it to the islands, you're in the middle of coming to get us out of those islands. And that's how it was added. And we didn't house on it. And so it was such a lovely view. So then he built the house, gave up his cottage down there and build a big house at the top on the top of the top of the hill you see and so then you had all these cleared fields.

Unknown Speaker 29:09
Is that where you were marry England lips mouth and sisters. She's

Unknown Speaker 29:12
a year older than I am. That's right. And that is a shame if you've seen her that has you seen the place and it's all those lovely feels like going back to trees now. And the trees are five and six feet high. Oh, it just makes reasonable breaks my heart to see going back like that. Yes. You know what you could do is if they had a few years ago when they saw the trees coming up with about this height they should have gone and mow the more part of all the ground and go workable again.

Unknown Speaker 29:37
That's right you really have to keep cutting and cutting here. And if

Unknown Speaker 29:40
there's anything Oh knows those things go start new is the

Unknown Speaker 29:44
same on the old book property now is that that's Yeah, but they're really it's been sold to people now who are really working hard to keep the meadows and meadows and they're starting to graze animals and put and keep them cut off. So those people then well the folkers have bought Just recently in the last year who bought one half and then we bought the other half? Yeah. So Sandwell

Unknown Speaker 30:07
must write that down. Yeah, I'll write it down for

Unknown Speaker 30:09
you in case they want to give you him.

Unknown Speaker 30:11
Yes. Well, anyway, so much. So much has changed now from what it used to be. And yet you're in a way that things are the same because you see all this property, they all went out this way, or did it go and you went out there and they gave that land up there for the English church. And Mr. Baris came and built my cousin, Mr. Barrett,

Unknown Speaker 30:31
which Mr. Baris was, it

Unknown Speaker 30:32
will be Charlie, Charlie bear was one of the family he came and built the church.

Unknown Speaker 30:36
That's very nice. So you can see it. So clearly, from here to here. Yes, you can and

Unknown Speaker 30:40
have the nice trees that were planted in here. Because the neighbor was was always there. Joe was a maple tree there. But there are all these others are these other ones here are the qualifications that they planted that they had one, they because the maple tree was on that side, or the will be coming in, they planted another one on the other. Another tree, which was a case study on that. So even my husband came here to live. And this is long before I was married, because he used to be our neighbors when I was down on this road. Oh, really? And then they got this place. Isn't that extraordinary?

Unknown Speaker 31:14
They bought it from the Stephens then

Unknown Speaker 31:18
moved to those 1925 or something like that. That would be when that happened. Yeah, of course. It's quite a long time.

Unknown Speaker 31:24
So when did you get married? I was married in

Unknown Speaker 31:27
born in 1913. And I got married in 1936. I think it was 1936. And then we were married for about two years in the walking along and go join it right away. So then I only had Ron and, and Don before before I joined that this the Indian was only three months. And then he joined up and went over and then that he was away for seven years. So

Unknown Speaker 31:53
were you living in this house then or did you move here after the war?

Unknown Speaker 31:57
No, no, I was here. I was here in this house was there was there was going my husband and pops. Her name is Olivia but there but they called her pocket because in England the radiation for for for Lydia, her name is really Olivia. And so they call them Laurie, oh, they dropped along and called up Molly papacy lollipops as an English candy so so they call it a pop. So that's how she got the name of pop. So again, so far you have to explain why she called Pop. It was very funny really, because that's how it was. And then and then there was so when they came to be married and lived here. This guy and his sister Olivia Oh pops in. And Harry knew when a boy had come out and had come up from him and his cousin Ortiz, I think was his cousin Mrs. Price the way up price road were really poor for

Unknown Speaker 32:57
that market price or the

Unknown Speaker 32:58
price here. And funnily enough, she lived below me when I was when I was, she used to come to visit Gumball and move to the loungers all the time, because the prices and the loaders down. And then when the when the prices came well, it's used to go and visit them. And never time but it's worked. So I knew you about her long ago, you know when I was just a child. Anyway. And so there were there were these there are some biceps over four delts here that I had to look forward to when I first got married. Can you imagine it and you know adults I don't think I can imagine. I never knew anybody that ever did that before. And

Unknown Speaker 33:33
they were so if they were all living here, then

Unknown Speaker 33:37
this girl these were what happened to Harry Newman was the fact that he'd come up to his cousin out and windfall for but the daily to some marriage. They needed the other leg out there. They called prices late. Yeah, so they were prices that was Christ. Yes. And, and they figured that we will. We were in the dairy business. And we were selling milk QC and bottled milk from here or when you were down right here. We were selling bottled milk and so so they think that Harry would learn more about farming if he came to us rather than stayed with them. So he can. So that's how I was I had no more adults when I was when I was first married, you know, and the house was so different. This wasn't here, then this wasn't here at all. This was a lot in this region. All districts that who knows new bill, but what used to be was the original opera house that they started with this was made a lot and it had a kitchen and sitting on one side in the bedroom and on the other kitchen Zoom Room was at work and the other one was the bedroom and they didn't have I imagine they washed in a tub somewhere in the kitchen because they didn't have a bathroom and they had an outside toilet. You said

Unknown Speaker 34:43
I wonder it's when Mr. Stevens ran this as a boarding house. Do you have any idea how many people should have at one time to

Unknown Speaker 34:50
watch for Oh, she'd have no this was a long, long day. This was a long dining room area and then and then so this is the dining room procedural quite a number of people because she had a long time he had these extension tables that are much larger. So that was here. And then their kitchen and sitting room was out in their kitchen. And was out here for the stables in those things is out here. The kitchen was out here, but this was this area was their lab room they started with right here, yeah has been shut down just before we were married. Let's see, he proposed to me in June, I think it was and then we got married in September. And in those two months, I already saw him because he was tearing off the old house and building this new kitchen. So it'd be ready for when we got married if they so, so I didn't see that my job and really, but that's I know that the olden days to come here and there was days UCN and the old kitchen and Washington silver out there. There was a place where you could go in and wash but they had an outside toilet. There was a place there was going to wash or what actually did. They used to have those old fashioned big basins and a great big jug of water. And if they had one of these big washbasins and Joseph was was working in the house, we have to take the water up to them all the time for

Unknown Speaker 36:09
so when Mr. Stevens would have like she had obviously she had some people who stayed here for a long time I carry Bullock and Ralph was pretty did she have people who would just come and stay one night,

Unknown Speaker 36:21
just Hotel The the book called at the zoo is and so it didn't there was no Ganges. And because because people and the early days, I'm talking about the very desperate, they wouldn't come all the way up to have and go out again, it was too far away. So they'd stuck over for serious. And then the written course had the whole of a serious they had they were just too big goes left and they went down to where a big cover is down and out for this road. Right? Go down the hill to the sea. From there. Just as you go down this beginning of this row is Robert Hale that first hill. So so things were quite a lot different in those early days. But that's why they call the central settlement. And you know, we had an incursion near Mr. Gnostic and Holmes, and he would never call it Central. He said, he called it center, you always call center. Because central central isn't agitated. He said, Of course he didn't. You didn't realize it there. Also in the early days, your telephone operation was called Central to call Central. But anyway, but in central he said was an adjective, which is true, it really is an adjective. But but because he got that name, stuck with it, you see into that has always been called Central. Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 37:30
So there was a road through to the Vesuvius terminal from where there was no ferry terminal, but to the wharf down at Vesuvius and old road. And then when the hotel right there

Unknown Speaker 37:40
on the right hand side. When you go down that last hill to the war had before you, you could you would take it the other road and go down around into the bay. Yeah. And there's one fairly long the whole of the bay minutes, you don't even remember the name. They wrote the whole band the point there. Don't see my channel, I just come in radio come back anyway. They had that whole area. But previous to that. The large. It's called a large lady, but it used to be the hotel. It was in the series hotel, it was a big white square building just like this one. Exactly like this square without this park. And it was a it was called an A C was large. And they had another one dirt floor flip. And three times. Oh, that White House. So the white lines down there. It was called the White House. It was called the white Lodge. And then they call it then they had another one which wasn't even white. It was something different. It was so different color. And everybody and they had one that was a lot of some not yet. So the same

Unknown Speaker 38:43
people on that is

Unknown Speaker 38:46
no, no, the people are getting filtered. That was stripped out. It was Mr. Miss Eaton were there. And they used to be they used to have an orchestra of their own. She played the piano and I forget what he did. But

Unknown Speaker 38:58
yeah. Oh, I've just been hearing a bit about him,

Unknown Speaker 39:02
as well. That's right. And they had the Davis together. Whenever there was a doubt they used to pay for dances. Yeah, so yeah, they were he was very short. And then he worked. And he worked in the post office for a long time. To gages mystery. Yeah, yes. And then. Oh, there's so many things that have happened over the years. Oh, goodness.

Unknown Speaker 39:21
When did Mrs. Stephens when do you know when they sold it to your husband's family?

Unknown Speaker 39:27
Well, it would be 1921 or 22 or something like

Unknown Speaker 39:30
that. Did Did they run it as a boarding house right at? Oh, yeah. Oh, that whole time?

Unknown Speaker 39:35
Yes. I think people used to stay here for quite a while because there was no other place to stay. Except that have a House Hotel Ganges. Or what was the other place?

Unknown Speaker 39:47
The Travelers Rest down in the south end? Well,

Unknown Speaker 39:50
that's a new there may have been something there but it wasn't called Travelers Rest there was there was the corporate Hotel. Don't telephone I remember I was six years old being taken down on their resume, some friends and my parents wanted to give them a dinner party and they took us down we will see girls and we went down to it was first time I had been really too forward to this right.

Unknown Speaker 40:11
That was the White House.

Unknown Speaker 40:14
Eating red. That was in my time when I was just a girl, then and then then was called the white Lodge and then it burned out and been burned down three times. I think wherever they got there seemed to be burned. I don't know whether it was vandals or digital. Whether it was an accident or what happened but it's the last building stood a bit longer. Yeah. And been up there for quite a while but they always were burning that White House or white lodge or something.

Unknown Speaker 40:38
I've never heard but it was but I just know that they've been like three in at least three places.

Unknown Speaker 40:45
They decided to have the very general there. Well, that sort of gave him quite a boost to to to pull that.

Unknown Speaker 40:51
When was that ferry terminal put in? Was there a ferry terminal there before BC Ferries?

Unknown Speaker 40:56
Well, no, no, no, no, there wasn't not another ferry terminal because we never had anything any ferries target. That's

Unknown Speaker 41:04
right there was so motivated to Joan used to stop down there.

Unknown Speaker 41:08
Well, yes. To come and again, just have all the boats came to Kansas, however, and unfulfilled habit. So there was a little work there. For football. Because I remember years ago when we went to when you wanted to get to, to Victoria, you kind of service we had there was quite different. You have to forget and wherever any carries. We didn't have any ferry hours, ferries, we only have the CPR boats. And the other. A lot of us were launchers. So we had the CPR booked in Kenya Victoria, can you do Ganges rather, on Mondays from Vancouver? And yes, for Monday from Vancouver was it was and then Tuesday, it went back to Victoria on Tuesdays. And on Thursdays it came in and went back to Victoria juice. And then on Thursday, I came in from Vancouver. Oh, this is very late, about four o'clock very late to give me lots of time to get my mail or away from the mulch office, you know, because I had 30 letters to do sometimes. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 42:13
really? Did you work at the post office? Or were you

Unknown Speaker 42:15
I was in more stenographer. Oh, really? Yes, I had been to Business College in Victoria. And this is strategy on my part, my mother never going away to England. And I was in charge of Victoria. And so I completed the course. But I couldn't find a job. So because it was so hard in the early 30s to get workers. And it was just terrible. And so mothers had everybody come home and be with my younger sister, Hilary. So she won't be alone. And the job for her. It arrived was made to go from the teacher. So I could get in and out, you know, go home and let me tell. So, and I told her all these adults in here I was about 16. You can imagine teaching all these adult men no more shorthand and goodness knows what rather than wanting to learn shorthand. And all this other stuff, you know that I felt funny being a teacher about 16.

Unknown Speaker 43:08
So you were you worked at Melitz then

Unknown Speaker 43:12
so we're so then I went to Mozart when I came back what happened was mother and dad were going through and so and they wanted me to go home. So So I had previously the previous year right? When I was in Victoria, I had written to them, I said, Well, why did you come back for a couple of months in the holidays in the summer, just to be at home here for the summer for a holiday. And I hadn't got a job in Victoria. So could I come and work in their office for a couple of months for nothing just to get the practical experiences and habits. So those are all adopted that because that gives you an extra snort buffer. And that was just fine for them was great because I said I didn't want any pain because I'd be living at home or I could ride my bike back and forth. You see so. So I did that. And so, so anyway, not very long after that. The what happened though, is there's demographer was always getting married, because there was this demographer, and they were the nurses at the hospital. And there are some of the waitresses that they have to tell. And these were the about the only women that came to the ER, and they're all these digits for the schools, you'll see. And each one only lasted about a year and a job because they all the bachelors wanted to marry one of them. So they'd get snapped up. All these teachers would get slept there right away and the nurses from the hospital. So everybody would last about a year at their job. And we didn't have to tell you because you were already two months. That's right. So you got to already very rarely could live at home and rode my bicycle so it wouldn't cost you anything. And I got good practical experience. So

Unknown Speaker 44:35
how long did you work there?

Unknown Speaker 44:36
So I worked there about three years, I guess when I got married, and that that was the thing. They know the young bachelors on the island. Were looking for a wife so they would they would get the nurse from the hospital or more stenographer or what oh one of the teachers so this was their regular routine Niniola that is those days married. Are they one of those great people in the sea. So it was quite But he really enjoyed my work there, too because I've known them for a long time it was they said they wouldn't have to train these eight months for nothing just to get some experience. So you're very well,

Unknown Speaker 45:13
that's good. You know what I have to leave shortly so I'd like you to show me around the house home do you think

Unknown Speaker 45:19
okay, well now what? What else is there that you know, is there anything else that you really like to know that I love a lot really, but I know that a lot of it has just been talking to us.

Unknown Speaker 45:30
No, I think the I don't know if I if I asked her if he told me who built the house. The Stephens family actually built the house they built the log cabin, and then they added on to it later and use that as a boarding house. We

Unknown Speaker 45:42
can we took my husband took down the Lord part because he was rotting away and then built this new kitchen. So that happened when I was first married in 1936. When we got married, so that was maybe we had you then you had this we're using

Unknown Speaker 45:57
here well