81_Ted-Brown.mp3

otter.ai

20.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:08
Today is August 21 1990. And today I'm talking to Ted Brown at the Salt Spring archives. My name is Ruth Sandwell.

Unknown Speaker 0:24
When did your family come to the island?

Unknown Speaker 0:27
19 can when we came, my father came in 19. Six took up the property.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
Why did he come? Why did he come? Why?

Unknown Speaker 0:42
Oh, he thought it was an opportunity for him. He thought it was his chance to to make a living. He was a carpenter and cabinet maker. And he had a good job in England, but some of his shoes coming out. So he was decide to come with him. But mother wouldn't come with him. And they love my mother. At my grandfather's were an attempt to I was born and hold. And he apparently came to Toronto and didn't find work there and came to Vancouver, and then to Victoria. And he ran into a friend from his home village. And he says, Do you know your brother and your sister and brother in law's up on Saltspring Island? And they said no, he left them in California a few years before? Oh, and so he says how'd you get there? And they told him you take the older Rockwall and when he got up there and stayed with my uncle and and he says I liked the look of it. Is there any more land available? And my uncle says yes, it shows Dukes wants to dispose of this piece right next to me. So he took it over, apparently paid $200 For Jukes to relinquish his title.

Unknown Speaker 2:44
How much land was the

Unknown Speaker 2:46
99 acres? How a lot. And I think Chalmers was the name of the man that had a nursery up on Ganges hill here. He had the north half. We had the south tap. Well, eventually I sold 90 acres of it. And the road cuts in half, just right up got left the nine acres takes out to a little over an acre and a half. So it goes to me. Three and a half, nearly four acres on one side and three on the other.

Unknown Speaker 3:40
Did your dad build the house? Did you when you first when your dad first came here? Did he build the house?

Unknown Speaker 3:48
Yes. He built his shack. And then he built the house in between times. It wasn't quite finished when I came in 1910 but between that he'd worked around and Victoria not even up as as far as rubbers in like,

Unknown Speaker 4:14
really as a carpenter.

Unknown Speaker 4:16
Yes, yeah. A man named Matt Tabish owned a cannery up at Berbers inlet. And he took him up there to do some work on the cannery. I don't know just what it was. And McTavish came back with him to stayed with him the winter. One winter. I don't know which it was and he wanted to buy a piece from the neighbor. But he wouldn't sell at that time.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
When you came when you came with your mother, that was 1910. Yes. Do you have any brothers or sisters,

Unknown Speaker 5:10
I had a brother who used to a year and a half younger than me. My father never saw him until he was three years old when he came back for us

Unknown Speaker 5:31
he was killed in 1934 fell under the real severe logging truck. Just by the baddest road. He went aboard the truck while it was moving and fell under the back wheel. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:56
that was terrible. What? So you came to Salt Spring? How old were you?

Unknown Speaker 6:03
I was fine. Yeah. I've been here ever since. More or less. I've been away. I worked in Victoria while in 24. And then I went to Saskatchewan for the harvest to 24. It was a very poor harvest, wet weather. And we got 16 days work and we got paid for in six weeks. And it was breaking up we had snow before they finished harvesting. But they don't they lasted a day or two. And the boss says boys, he says I can't keep you any longer. But he said tip your ear when it dries up. I'll hire you again. Brother went back and 28 just for the harvest.

Unknown Speaker 7:18
Can you tell me a bit about your school days. The school that you went to as a boy,

Unknown Speaker 7:26
the school was cranberry Marsh. At first it was an old log cabin belonging to Charles Gardner was used as a church and school at 1911. Before that some of the pupils that lived up in the cranberry district had to go to the divide School, which was two miles farther away I suppose would be nearly three miles between the two schools. And then in 1912, I think it was they built the cranberry school. And that was in operation until the the pupils of my age grew up and moved out. And there isn't enough to keep it open. And 1925 26 the time Mills came and they brought some children up into the cranberry marsh and they had to go to the divide school for a year or two the cranberry schools closed. And then finally it was opened again. But I don't remember just how long

Unknown Speaker 9:08
can you describe the school? What was the school like?

Unknown Speaker 9:13
Andrew said a 24 by 30 building symbol room and all classes taught from the primary class right up to first year Hi.

Unknown Speaker 9:32
What did Can you remember any of your teachers? Oh, yes,

Unknown Speaker 9:34
I remember them all. Burke Harris was the first 119 11 the spring of 1911 to closing and then the fall of 1911 I think was a J W dodge. You know last he died. Yeah, her father

Unknown Speaker 10:01
Oh yes.

Unknown Speaker 10:03
He taught 1911 and 1912 and I don't think he came back again. For 1913 I think it was Elizabeth Morley 1913 1914 school year

Unknown Speaker 10:34
now she'd be 1913 1412 13 wouldn't be it for her. Then Jane McGregor was 13 for gain. And then for gain 15 was Mrs. White. And then the 15 1617 was Mrs. Jessie Toynbee. She was much smaller than and after that was Hester Draper she was from Cloverdale and Lulu island there she had property and she was there till 1920 knots when I left school I think she taught a couple of years later and then after Hurricane Maria minor rose Mrs winwick later

Unknown Speaker 12:00
Can Can you remember what can you remember what you learned in school? What did they teach you? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 12:09
general subjects, written right and worse my take and so on. I was very poor grammar. I went to the Toyota take care entrance exams for high school in 1919. I failed due to grammar and history. But 1920 They held it to the Ganges school here that's what you know the Roman Catholic Church. And I got through I got my certificate. I was just beginning to realize what it all meant. And take a real interest in it. Otherwise it was just monotonous.

Unknown Speaker 13:15
We used to work for the neighbors in the summertime in their gardens in the hay and so on. And 1920 of fall, October I guess it was I went to work for Richard Toynbee the Father the previous president, Richard joined me and Ganges garage he opened up there and I worked the first six months there until things got quite in down there wasn't so much work to do. It was 60 Odd Model T Fords and for overland and to shepherd lease on the island and two or three public works trucks Ford's that was about all the traffic that was otherwise it was horse and buggy days 1921 They changed over from driving on the left hand side to driving on the right. And I worked through there till sometime about the end of March I guess it gross man there was not much doing. I went off on odd jobs.

Unknown Speaker 14:56
Can I ask you a little bit more about you about when you were a boy Boy well can you tell me about the house? Were that your dad built?

Unknown Speaker 15:07
He finished it. Oh. About two I think we moved in for Christmas of 1911 Maybe it was 19 Can Christmas 19 Can we moved in? What was

Unknown Speaker 15:32
the house like? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 15:34
it's a three bedroom house. Kitchen Hall and dining room. Of course there's an upstairs the room upstairs. That's a bungalow type with a purse frame house in the district. All the others were log houses.

Unknown Speaker 16:00
Where did your dad get the lumber?

Unknown Speaker 16:03
I don't know. Probably Bowman's mill. Where it was that was at Cushing Cove. And Beaumont sold out to I think it was Northwest Lumber Company. However, it was the largest sawmill on this part of the island.

Unknown Speaker 16:27
Do you know when it was started? Do you know when Bowman's mill started? What year?

Unknown Speaker 16:34
No, it was before I came was it

Unknown Speaker 16:43
a carpenter named Steven Carter had worked there for time. And then he built his house and Ganges here. I don't know who owns it. No, but it's right next to John page. I think it's a dog grooming place or something. However

Unknown Speaker 17:17
1925 a fall. I went to work in Cushing, cold milk. It had a capacity of 70,000 feet today. We only cut about 65 While I was Excuse me.

Unknown Speaker 17:44
Where did they get the logs? Where were the logs for the mill with they

Unknown Speaker 17:50
they were brought in on a big boom from somewhere up the coast. And I work done part of the boom. First I worked there they were building bunk houses. And I worked with Charles Gardner building a chimney for the bunk houses. Then I got a job in the mill. At least on the boom actually. We had drag saw permanent drag so you couldn't move it around. And we cut the logs if they were too long for the courage of the mill. We cut them in half. And then the winch man took them and drag them up the slip onto the deck for the mill. How many people worked in the mill? 30 some odd, really. I don't remember the number. But I do know that one superintendent moved out and another came in. And they had a new yard Foreman by the name of Magnuson a Swede and he was a carer. There was a mother of Swedes and Norwegians working there. And the old charmer used to call there once a week. And one day 27 of the Swedes and Norwegians walked off the job right onto the boat. They couldn't stand him any longer. Artie.

Unknown Speaker 19:40
What would he do? What did he do?

Unknown Speaker 19:43
Oh, he was just a slave driver. They had me work overtime tailing the planer and it was a two man job to pick those timbers from behind the plate and Ron put them on a yard truck. Near one night we're working there. He come along all it only takes one to tail that one light one. And the other color ducked out right away, left it for me. Well, I, sometimes I could get them onto the truck, if they felt the ground, I had to leave them there, or at least the war and the other yard men that were piling the lumber from the green chain, a couple of them that come along and take the truck when was loaded. And no pilot. And the it was a steam mill. And one night the that same night, I guess it was the belt broke. And it was getting nearer quittin time on the planer man says, well, by the time I get that belt placed and work and he says it'll be quittin time. So he says you can go. So I went up to the office to report my time because they went on the overtime that I should have got wasn't paid on the end of the month. I went in there, and Magnussen was in there with the timekeeper. What do you do on here as well? The planer shut down. What and he went over there like a streak. And I didn't hear any more about it. And they never had me on overtime after that. I got the flu. And I asked the supervisor says I'd like to go home and to go to bed to get rid of this flu. And he says yeah, he says Go ahead, come back when you're ready. I went home and three days later I was dwelling up to go back. And when I got back the super who is in Vancouver and Mel Wright says these put her apella In your place that's not worth a hoot. He says that like you're back there. He says producers he's one of his pets so I can't move him. And he says the worst dirt is disbanded the last mill and I've got the last metal crew on my hands. I've got to fill them in. Well, that led out several more man.

Unknown Speaker 23:04
And I guess in those days, there was no no unemployment insurance. No unemployment insurance.

Unknown Speaker 23:10
No, no, not at all. So I went back home when I got a job near home. Public Works I guess it was yes. It paid a little better than the mill did five cents an hour I think it was and later they found up from the mill for me to go back and

Unknown Speaker 23:43
phoned back and told the most I've got a job right at home that pays me better. I'm not coming back. And a month or two later. I think it was in early May or or maybe early June. That 2 million feet of lumber on the dock and they were using a horse to pull these yard trucks and they heard it start to Creek and quiver and they just got the horse off the dock onto the land when the whole works went in and to the brink. 2 million feet of the hemlock and green Balsam and of course it all sunk. Oh no, it was waterlogged.

Unknown Speaker 24:43
Who owns the mill at that time?

Unknown Speaker 24:47
I don't know but I think it was a Northwest Lumber Company. However they started to take output idling to build a new war but they finally closed the mill instead of finishing dark. Why did they do you know suppose it wasn't to operate in a paying proposition.

Unknown Speaker 25:20
Do you know where that lumber went? Do you know where they shipped their lumber to

Unknown Speaker 25:27
know all over the world that it goes through his ships come in from Norway, Bergen Helgason, Sweden being freighters at various times and loaded up with the slumber those two I remember well, but I forget the names of the ships

Unknown Speaker 25:55
do was it mostly? Was it mostly local men working at the male

Unknown Speaker 26:01
some, some, about half of them were locals.

Unknown Speaker 26:09
And the rest were were Norwegians and

Unknown Speaker 26:12
some were quite a number of Norwegians and Swedes. They'd be recruited in Vancouver I go

Unknown Speaker 26:21
and they lived in the bunkhouse and they would they would live in the bunkhouse yes with their families there.

Unknown Speaker 26:29
There was one or two had been leased the dirt pack the Mill Road had a thumb lathe and I think the Sawyer on one or two others but I just forget I never had much time to go around to visit and fact by the time you eaten and garden and rested when it was time to go to bed

Unknown Speaker 27:10
was pretty long days. Was there,

Unknown Speaker 27:12
some of them? Yes. The melon was opened again, or at least it wasn't operating. But another person named ke Li, I think it was took over in 31. And he had a nightwatchman there that used to fire up the boilers. And they were preparing the mill to start operating again. And at two o'clock one morning, they heard the crash. And they got up in the whole middle was a fire. There's two smokestacks 110 feet high. One of those had just fallen and burned the works up. Never operated up to that. The machinery aspires to know I don't know whether much of it was salvaged to work as workable or not. But a color for the Red Cross got it during the war, took all the scrap metal he could get hold of he wouldn't pay anything for it if he could do without.

Unknown Speaker 28:43
So what did he do with it?

Unknown Speaker 28:46
They sold it for the Red Cross for during the war.

Unknown Speaker 28:56
Can I ask you a little bit more about about the cranberry school? Yes. Do you remember anybody you went to school with?

Unknown Speaker 29:05
Oh yes.

Unknown Speaker 29:06
Who did you go to school?

Unknown Speaker 29:09
There was and Charlie knobs family. There was Emily Clara Ray Arnold, and then later on Stella and Irene.

Unknown Speaker 29:33
Fred nubs family with Annie, Margaret Emma, Janet and Nellie. And Harry nobs family was just Markel. And I think just see went but I'm not sure if she went to she wasn't gone by now was gone to school she wasn't told enough. But she went later on pretty sure. And Gardner's family who is homeless Marvin, oddly and Freedy and John Rogers van linguist, Dora, Stein, Stanley, Archie and Lorna Howard Roger's family with Ella Oswald, and violent the two L's your sons had already left school. I was Leo and Harold. Incidentally, Leo, I think he's still alive but I'm not sure he'll be 95 with the years. He lived somewhere separate to Cumberland. I had a letter from him five years ago, and he was 90 then. And his wife was 96 she was blind

Unknown Speaker 31:37
Carter family was less late. He was killed overseas in the First World War. Leslie, Phyllis. Elsie, LC LC and Edna LC within the same class I was because I was so dumb. I had a dropped one class back from what I should have been lt was in the next class you see.

Unknown Speaker 32:56
Did you have a favorite teacher? No. Did you have a least favorite teacher?

Unknown Speaker 33:03
We didn't like any teachers

Unknown Speaker 33:11
always still remain friends

Unknown Speaker 33:18
with the teachers did they make you work pretty hard

Unknown Speaker 33:22
sometimes. And if we misbehaved, we had to stay in after school. The last teacher I had we had to work out the summer the least common denominator

Unknown Speaker 33:45
that does sometimes take us a couple of hours

Unknown Speaker 33:54
and then of course we had homework to do. That was an hour or more of rebate I never got through half of it

Unknown Speaker 34:13
how far did you have to go to school?

Unknown Speaker 34:17
I was about a mile and a half from my place right around the block

Unknown Speaker 34:29
would you have your lunch at school? Did you have your lunch at

Unknown Speaker 34:34
lunch to school? There wouldn't be time to walk home

Unknown Speaker 34:51
the gardener's badly in the knobs from the did go home for their lunches. They were newer knob. The knobs found later was less than a quarter of a mile. And the gardener families about three quarters.

Unknown Speaker 35:08
But most everybody stayed. Today, most of the children would stay for lunch. Did the kids all play together? Did the children all play together?

Unknown Speaker 35:21
Just we used to play games. Various the older ones, they played, sticks, and Rounders, what sticks? Or we used to have a pile of sticks. And they take sides, you cross the line, and they tag each other going across on the wooden mat over to that side. was gathering nuts in May was another one.

Unknown Speaker 36:00
What was that? Was that

Unknown Speaker 36:09
come from pull away I think they called and who will come to pull her away? What girls would have side she said and one would have to pull the other that the winner would pull the other over to that. So that sort of thing. And then we got to play in ballgames, anti high over this just throw the ball over the school to the other side. rather run around each way and catch the different players. And then we took care of softball, I suppose it would be good. It's called ghost ball in those days. And bad about run bases like softball. Oh, yes, we've had a couple of Mason's going to school. Margaret and George. George, they were from Victoria. And her father owned the place up there and they can do stay for a few years. George tried to teach us baseball. Well, that didn't work very well. We used to revert to the softball.

Unknown Speaker 37:59
Did you used to play with the kids? A lot outside of school?

Unknown Speaker 38:04
Sometimes, but not very often.

Unknown Speaker 38:11
What would you do after school?

Unknown Speaker 38:13
Well, we went home and did chores Did you? What did you have to do? Or was animals to feed and

Unknown Speaker 38:20
what animals did you keep?

Unknown Speaker 38:24
Pigs rabbits? Chickens.

Unknown Speaker 38:33
Later, when I grew up, I had cattle and sheep.

Unknown Speaker 38:39
But your parents didn't keep your mom and dad didn't keep cattle.

Unknown Speaker 38:45
My father had a bunch when I was small. But to till I was about eight years old and again. They wouldn't stay home they break through the fence and travel all over the place. And they got over to a neighbor's and his dog apparently but one of them said my brothers told me then we didn't have any. Until 19 Eight King Arthur Bartlett had gone overseas, he left a heifer and came to my father some hour. And we had just a cow for about five years I guess four or five years, not even farther so that we had no animals with a dog and cat. And there was always stopped to dig out and burn and

Unknown Speaker 39:58
clear up Was it? Did you? Was your dad working at the carpenter all those years? Or was he farming?

Unknown Speaker 40:07
Well, part time farming, he worked out, you see, and we had to do the work on the farm. What a demanding job. There was probably, oh, maybe a week or two between his jobs, that he'd be home and we'd be working pretty hard on something else.

Unknown Speaker 40:30
Would he go away to Victoria to work? No, just on me.

Unknown Speaker 40:34
And the only time we went up to that was during the war. He worked in the shipyard but its health was poor. He had us and they did attack in my various times. And he finally had to leave Victoria and come back.

Unknown Speaker 40:56
So it was just mainly your mom and the two boys would be doing most of the farm work. Yeah. Did your mom grow vegetable?

Unknown Speaker 41:07
Yes. We used to grow most of our eatables but we did grow even wheat and oats. The wheat a neighbor had what they called a cradle it was a site with a sort of a rack on it. And you'll you'll cut it chief or a SWAT and this cradle held it so that when you throw it down and told me in straight row, Oh really, any of that is achieved. Then tuck it in and thrash that out in the winter. The father made the flail and I had to resist it to thrash out the tweet. And of course we were grown some are good to eat and the rest was used the chicken feed and pig feed I guess.

Unknown Speaker 42:18
Did your mum use did you use to sell any of the eggs?

Unknown Speaker 42:22
Oh yes. Were two more brothers general generally I don't know if we sold that might have sold to trading company. And of course pigs were butchered time some were sold some were kept

Unknown Speaker 42:42
who did you sell those to? Who did you sell the pigs to?

Unknown Speaker 42:47
Oh locally locally? Probably some neighbors and some would go young boys I suppose. Trading Company

Unknown Speaker 43:03
did your mum used to or dad used to smoke smoke?

Unknown Speaker 43:07
Yes, he smoked some salted salted and smoke it for winter use

Unknown Speaker 43:18
did you have running water in the house?

Unknown Speaker 43:20
No. No well we did first time we had a pump you tell the pump again

Unknown Speaker 43:36
oh years later after my father died. They tank sprung a leak mother was alone at the time and it leaked down on everything. I saw her that the leaks. And it happened again. So after that she wouldn't have any more water that way. Oh dear. So we had to do without hot water. And the I don't know what it was either the leak in the pipe or the foot valve went and the pump didn't work. So I used to carry the water from the well.

Unknown Speaker 44:32
What was your dad's name?

Unknown Speaker 44:36
John. John Brown.

Unknown Speaker 44:39
What was your mom's name?

Unknown Speaker 44:42
And Elizabeth. Her maiden name was Wilson My grandfather was a blacksmith and wheelwright.

Unknown Speaker 45:00
In back in England yeah yeah so when you were when you were a boy you used to help you'd worked on the on your parents farm while you were still going to school did you? Did you work anywhere else for money

Unknown Speaker 45:21
and the summertime and during the summer holidays we used to work for the neighbors with their gardens cultivated helped make hay

Unknown Speaker 45:40
dip course my brother I had to saw all the wood for the house. Split it he'd rather go somewhere else that saw Wood

Unknown Speaker 46:00
did your family use? Did you as a family used to do things together? Like would you go out on picnics? Or?

Unknown Speaker 46:07
Yes, we had our annual picnic sometimes twice a year generally at Maxwell Lake once on Masons when Masons were there that's on the south side of the lake but the rest of them were on the north side on demand property

Unknown Speaker 46:37
so all the families would go with all the families

Unknown Speaker 46:43
and number from around various parts of the island would come to these picnics

Unknown Speaker 46:51
where they put a school or the church where they put the school or church picnic so

Unknown Speaker 46:57
once in a while the church picnic one was held at knobs place hurry knobs but I don't remember any other church picnics?

Unknown Speaker 47:22
Did you did you use to go off the island?

Unknown Speaker 47:26
Not very often. No. The only time I went up the island was 1919 to Victoria to the exams.

Unknown Speaker 47:36
So you didn't go Greek? Okay, so you didn't go to visit or go shopping?

Unknown Speaker 47:42
No. No, we used mailorder Oh really? Where David Spencer Victoria is now eton's and David Spencer Vancouver. Woodward's. One or two other places, I guess.

Unknown Speaker 48:06
How would how would the parcels get to you?

Unknown Speaker 48:10
By CPR vote. They used to run the mail until we had very serious although they dropped out in the late 20s One of the new brothers had the lady rose. It used to service scan jeez

Unknown Speaker 48:39
were thumb

Unknown Speaker 48:40
that was until we had got ferry sear. And the first ferry was from Fulford of course to Swartz Bay. And then to periodically would come in to Ganges.

Unknown Speaker 48:58
Where did the lady rose go? I mean, did it go from Ganges

Unknown Speaker 49:02
Vancouver and from the Ganges in Victoria. Oh, yeah. And I don't know where else during the week. It probably did call it the gold violin portsip course. CPR used to do that when they had the male contract. But in winter, which we didn't get too much service

Unknown Speaker 49:31
did you used to go down to the south end of the island down to Fort Byrd very once in

Unknown Speaker 49:37
a while. I went down there to work 1922 I went to work for pharma there for a couple of weeks

Unknown Speaker 49:55
and years a two row word tough melon for rotten farmers down there

Unknown Speaker 50:10
could you tell me a little bit about the time meals

Unknown Speaker 50:14
the tiny most? Oh yes I worked in many of them they were singer timeouts there was only seven or eight of them I guess Horos was the first one to come that was Howard horo grandfathered to this President taller to URL

Unknown Speaker 50:47
can you describe those meals? Can you describe those meals? What were they portable?

Unknown Speaker 50:54
Yes, they were portable mills the set up cutter a stretch of timber near them. it until it got to a quarter of a mile or so away. Then they moved the middle up to the next lot of timber.

Unknown Speaker 51:10
How would they move them by truck?

Unknown Speaker 51:14
They look some of them were on skids and they just hitch the horses on hold them up. We didn't have bulldozers at that time. At least that they were new and I guess they couldn't afford them but they all had teams for yarding the logs down to the mill

Unknown Speaker 51:39
where was Mr. Singer this You said they were the singer males who was Mr. Singer

Unknown Speaker 51:46
was sitting there Lumber Company of the Vancouver a New Westminster actually Mellon blow Adele was a part of it at that time. But singer was the controller at that time then he died permanently as near as I could find out McMillan wanted to take a mortgage and and branch out and singer wouldn't allow him to do it. He wants to keep everything paid up and singer suddenly died and then his How is son Howard took over and he was getting things going and he would they got a new bulldozer and he was unloading the top of flat car in New West and I turned over on him and killed him that was the end of the singer males my bro del went ahead

Unknown Speaker 52:54
so did is that when the when the time males left Saltspring

Unknown Speaker 53:00
about 29 When the Depression hit Okay so one or two came back well one never did leave the island that was James brothers James Canadian seeds they always had a mill I had it outset very sleek. And they moved up into the cranberry and 36 I guess it was

Unknown Speaker 53:30
was that a tie mill as well.

Unknown Speaker 53:33
Tony Mills toes and lumber they the timber that wasn't large enough to make ties would be cut for lumber

Unknown Speaker 53:53
Can you tell me what the k two mill was?

Unknown Speaker 53:56
K two. Yeah. That was one I worked in

Unknown Speaker 54:04
was it a tie mill as well?

Unknown Speaker 54:07
I beg your pardon.

Unknown Speaker 54:08
Was it a tie mill as well?

Unknown Speaker 54:10
Yes. Tony mill

Unknown Speaker 54:17
k one and k two. I worked in both of them off and on. But one of them I think is k two had a backfire and burn the works. Set the whole works ablaze.

Unknown Speaker 54:42
When was that? That would

Unknown Speaker 54:45
be 1927 28 Somewhere there. They rebuilt

Unknown Speaker 55:02
During the winter they used to burn the slabs and apparently a spark got in the sawdust pile and burnt the mill again our lead finished that k two I was working on k one and counting and

Unknown Speaker 55:32
so what what did you have to do what what were you doing

Unknown Speaker 55:36
rolling logs onto the carriage 10 Dog and that's dropping the dogs onto the log to hold it oh yeah yes, I worked on the lug deck but I did for time to show some of them how it worked I had worked tail sign then when they moved out one or the godless can back in 31 and started up a mill and I worked in that for a time and then I got a job. My brother night with the neighbor. He was the carpenter so called we built a barn in Fulford and that was paying us better than the millwork gate really, and I didn't go back to the mill and I worked at various places in between. and, and 36 I think it was there 37 James moved their mill up into the cranberry district and started setting up the mill and I went to work for them doing some of the middle writing to late got running and I counted there and set a table shot for a little while to show the the grid crew how to work

Unknown Speaker 57:45
that finally shut down. They went broke on that. They had reached out they used to have a Seed Farm what firm wood farm they borrowed some money from the Conservative government to buy Corfield farm over on Vancouver Island is a seed farm and they were trying to run that seed prior the mill at the same time. The mill worked mostly in the the spring, the winter and spring and they tried various engines there. And due to the time when they were changing engines, they lost their contract for load of lumber that put them in the red and they finally moved everything out and they lost Corfield barn. James seeds ceased another output took them over

Unknown Speaker 59:09
who took them over to remember

Unknown Speaker 59:14
prosper. Crosland seems to they take over? It could be. It could be I don't remember the name.

Unknown Speaker 59:27
How many things on salt spring during the Depression?

Unknown Speaker 59:31
Well, it was rather difficult to get a job. We all registered for relief work and was worked out on the public works on the roads.

Unknown Speaker 59:56
You got to two days, three days a month, I think it was. And if you got one day's work apart from that, you will deducted that much from the relief.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:20
How much were they paying for the relief work?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:23
I think it was 1150 or 1140 something like that. A month

Unknown Speaker 1:00:34
How did people manage how did people specially with with families manage

Unknown Speaker 1:00:39
that did supply you with seeds so that you could plant your gardens?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:45
Who the government did is

Unknown Speaker 1:00:54
so people would just grow their grow their vegetables, and

Unknown Speaker 1:00:58
yeah. We had a cone that kept things going. My brother got a call in 31. And I kept her till 4151. And, of course, we raised calves and sold them locally. On the surplus milk, and I did sell some milk,

Unknown Speaker 1:01:33
where would you sell it? Where did you sell the milk?

Unknown Speaker 1:01:38
locally? I had several customers in the cranberry Marsh

Unknown Speaker 1:01:50
various people up there. Then we took over some sheep in 31. My brother and I and I used to sell lambs. And there was a sale from wool. But it wasn't very much

Unknown Speaker 1:02:11
was that all local as well. You you'd sell you'd sell that locally here on the island.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:16
Some but not much locally, usually sold it to more brothers. They'd get a shipment and ship it to the world growers. And you'd sell the hides to more brothers.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:38
Did you sell the cream from your cows to the creamery?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:41
Yes for a while until another outfit took over. Arthur Drake ran the Creamery and that was the Saltspring Island butter was second only to college and valley butter in the province. But then, a fella named Mackenzie's took over and it was hardly worthwhile taking your cream. He didn't pay very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:17
What year would that be? Was the 40s

Unknown Speaker 1:03:24
I don't remember the year

Unknown Speaker 1:03:31
so what did you do with the did you just use the cream yourself? After you stopped selling cream to the creamery? Did you just use the cream yourself or did you sell it elsewhere like

Unknown Speaker 1:03:43
butter and soy butter to someone to the store and some local customers raised a heifer net to cattle for over 10 years I guess they Jersey cattle yes jerseys

Unknown Speaker 1:04:12
is higher test and cream than most next door a number of people came to live they had to mill moved a mill into the cranberry they will get milk from a certain neighbor and I suppose he watered it. Finally they came to me and what know if I could supply them? And I said yes. Well, that got me in loggerheads with the other color that didn't like his milk you see. And mine was all new milk it was wasn't separated. Is all cream

Unknown Speaker 1:05:03
yeah