Salt Spring Island Archives

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Mrs. Caroline Gyves (1892) and Mrs. Mary Brenton née Gyves (1894)

Mrs. Gyves and Mrs. Brenton talk of their parents’ lives at Fernwood and Burgoyne Valley, and their own lives as teacher and farmer.

Accession Number 989.031.009 Interviewer Margaret Simons
Date May 5, 1977 Location
Media tape Audio CD mp3
ID 10B

9A_Gyves-Caroline_Brenton-Mary.mp3

otter.ai

20.01.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is made fifth, and I can send the seventh. And we're at Mrs. Caroline drive posts on pull for Ganges Road in full CRUD. And today we're talking to Mrs. Jive and Mrs. Mary Brenton. And Ray Newman is here. And lastly, dogs and doors, dogs. And I think first of all, it'll be interesting to hear from Mrs. Brenton and Mrs. Jaws a little bit about their backgrounds and life when they were young on Saltspring. Mrs. Brenton, could I ask you a couple of

Unknown Speaker 0:35
questions? Yes, sir. Where were you born on Salt Spring Island.

Unknown Speaker 0:41
You were born

Unknown Speaker 0:43
on the same farm?

Unknown Speaker 0:44
On this farm right where we are now. Yes. And your name then was? What was your name at

Unknown Speaker 0:52
that jives? My father was Mike James.

Unknown Speaker 0:55
And where did your father come from? Where was your father from? from Ireland? What brought him to Saltspring Island? Did he come direct from Ireland?

Unknown Speaker 1:06
No, he came from he came from Ireland to New York. He had a brother there. And he came out and times are very poor and he couldn't get employment. So he joined the American army. And he served there for I guess I don't know what the time was maybe four years. And at that time. Before the four years were up, they had the salmon boundary dispute. So the army came across to San Juan

Unknown Speaker 1:34
and traveled across the states then from New York is to the San Juan

Unknown Speaker 1:40
Islands. Yes, I am. I'm not quite sure. I'm think they they traveled across. I don't think they would come by boat.

Unknown Speaker 1:48
That would be about the time of the pig Loida. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
And while he was there, his time was up. And he he didn't rejoin the army. He had his discharge. And he came to Victoria. And just that time it was at the other caribou gold rush. So he went north with a number of people. And I don't know how far north it was through the Fraser Canyon and up that way to caribou. He wasn't fortunate enough to strike gold came back to Victoria. And he met Mr. Maxwell that had the farm at Burgoyne Bay. And he told him that there was very good land here to be taken up for, you know, from the government. So he came over and that's how he settled in the valley.

Unknown Speaker 2:42
So that was Michael jobs beginning that when he came to Salzburg. He was going to farm once.

Unknown Speaker 2:49
Well, no, he was central here. He was a carpenter originally beginning you know, he was only an 18. At the time he left Ireland, I think. And Mr. Maxwell had told him about the cedar in the valley here. So that's why he chose this place this place

Unknown Speaker 3:06
for he was going to make furniture was I know,

Unknown Speaker 3:08
I think it was cedar shakes. Maybe they were exporting.

Unknown Speaker 3:14
Oh, so he was cutting shakes up the mountain. Now we

Unknown Speaker 3:18
all know it's just on the valley here. I guess maybe the timber is all down. No. But the the cedar was on this place. On this way. He chose this part of the valley.

Unknown Speaker 3:31
But all there was married on Spring was

Unknown Speaker 3:35
yes, my mother came from from college and Mr. Maxwell had told him that he would need a housekeeper and a wife and that's how he come to meet her.

Unknown Speaker 3:50
And she was she came from cow which in which she part of the Indian ban and COVID

Unknown Speaker 3:55
Yes, she was at the head of the couch and be

Unknown Speaker 4:00
her father was

Unknown Speaker 4:03
was the Indian chief of this little I think they had a number of chieftains there, you know, there's the head of the collection Bay. And then there's climate change. And then there was coca salah.

Unknown Speaker 4:15
All Yes. And he was the chief. Yeah. And that would mean that your mother must have been a princess then.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
Well, I suppose she was if they if she had remained on reserve, but that didn't mean that she was here.

Unknown Speaker 4:27
Because he didn't exciting. This so your mother and father then settled here on Saltspring? Yeah. And you had a sister did

Unknown Speaker 4:38
you? Yeah, she was 22 years older than I was. So she was you know. And then I have a brother. Michael Jackson, Mr. James's husband.

Unknown Speaker 4:50
Oh, yes. Mrs. Mrs. Chives. Is your sister in law? Yeah. And Now you live. You still live

Unknown Speaker 5:02
right next door and part of the property. This was part of the original property. It was quite extensive and wasn't it? Yes, he owned the property across the road to you sold to Mr. Edwards. The first storekeeper here, where was the store just across the road? Right next to the equipment's it's, you can see the orange tree there he planted that you see in the store was just on this side, right against the border.

Unknown Speaker 5:32
And it was a general store wasn't Yes.

Unknown Speaker 5:36
And the postmaster

Unknown Speaker 5:37
he was it was the post office

Unknown Speaker 5:38
Yes. It's the only one here at the center of the island at that time. And I guess the only store it's just handed the island

Unknown Speaker 5:49
with the produce come in to Fulford harbour and the mail would come into Fulford harbour at that time. Yes, it did. And then horse and cart, bring it up

Unknown Speaker 5:59
no cars and those days. Did.

Unknown Speaker 6:04
Did you have any animals on your farm?

Unknown Speaker 6:06
Oh, yes, he did farming as well. He had cows and they had course horses to do the plowing and that sort of thing. And pigs, chickens, ducks and geese

Unknown Speaker 6:18
for your own use mostly?

Unknown Speaker 6:21
Well, no, they sold the soul. The eggs that she's a store is quite handy. And he took most everything that could be sent eggs and poultry and yet it was about all

Unknown Speaker 6:38
Well, who would shop in the store?

Unknown Speaker 6:41
Well, I think it was General all the farmers around us the store.

Unknown Speaker 6:46
That would mean the farmers in Burgoyne Valley Valley. Yes. And were there any people living down at Fulford harbor at that time?

Unknown Speaker 6:56
Yes, there were. The place that is down there. At the head of the harbor was one of the first pioneers just named was Sparrow. And, and then there was the one next to Azure cloud to Isabella point was one of the early pioneers too. He was a shepherd, a shepherd. His name was Shepherd. Oh, he didn't never sheep. Know

Unknown Speaker 7:27
where their sheep on the island at that time?

Unknown Speaker 7:29
I think so. See, they were about the first pioneers in the valley in the first two records of beaver point in the McClellan's they were about the only two that were out there and the trade keys. They have the place that we're Solimar is now net where Irene lives. Her daughter bought her son in law bought that place.

Unknown Speaker 7:54
Well now where would you have gone to school when you were little?

Unknown Speaker 7:58
Still going to school at Burgoyne Valley. It's still there is a little gray building there just opposite the United Church.

Unknown Speaker 8:08
And the United Church, of course, wasn't there. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:11
no, no, it was built to quite early though, I think must be almost 100 years ago.

Unknown Speaker 8:18
Now in Fulford at that time, when most of the people have gone to the Catholic Church, or was the Caddo

Unknown Speaker 8:26
there wasn't any church of any kind here at that time that I think the Catholic Church is one of the first that was that was built, it's almost 100 years ago. And most of the people that attended there, there's a picture and be Hamilton's book. And they mostly were from the San Juan Islands, and originally from Hawaii. Oh yeah. And for some reason rather, they they moved from San Juan over to Salt Spring. Summer of the descendants are still here like the Romans. It was built before the United Church, and I think before the Anglican Church shipped Central and it was all free labor. They brought the they brought the lumber from the old stone church in connection. It was built there on the Indian reserve, and it became too small for the congregation. So they built a bigger church promet shim, so they donated the windows and the doors and anything that was moveable, the altars. And they brought it by canoe over to Burgoyne and then by oxen and slays all that down. And it was all built by free labor. They all donated time, and he married tell him how he became a school teacher and taught school year. Oh, yes. It was no high school here in those days and no and no way of taking up But after the eighth grade, and I guess my father didn't have money enough to just send me. I mean, just send me away for for very long. So I took just one year for the ninth grade at St AMS, and then Nymo. That was for $10 a month. That was the pension he was getting from the American army. And after that, to be just an Irishman that taught school here, his name was Mr. Cook. He taught in the Valley for a number of years, and then up the divide schoolhouse and then he was down at Isabella point. And he was a friend of my father. So a father said, Well, I can't afford to send you away to high school. So why don't you go and ask him to if he will teach you, as well as the rest of the pupils. So I remember going down to him and asking him he didn't seem to be very anxious.

Unknown Speaker 11:01
On another students would he have?

Unknown Speaker 11:05
Well, it was an ungraded. School, I think there may be about 20. And of course, it was, you know, extra extra work to do, but it's just, it was just the supervision that I wanted. And

Unknown Speaker 11:16
you'd have all grades right from grade one up?

Unknown Speaker 11:19
Yes, he did. And he was he graduated from from a university in Dublin. And of course, he could have had a much better job, I guess, somewhere. But two, he stayed on the island all those years until he died. So I took all my high school from him. And then you went to St. Anne's? No, I went up to after the eighth grade nine at St. Ann's in Nanaimo. So and then had to pass the examinations,

Unknown Speaker 12:00
and then came back to the island to teach.

Unknown Speaker 12:03
Yes, the first school I taught was that Galliano Island. And then over here at Burgoyne

Unknown Speaker 12:11
second year, and that's the school where you went when you went to the same school. Oh, that must have been interesting to come back and teach where you

Unknown Speaker 12:19
had gone to school.

Unknown Speaker 12:21
Well, along with a quite a few of the pupils I had gone to school with you see, so they were still there.

Unknown Speaker 12:31
Then you were married here on the island. Where are you?

Unknown Speaker 12:35
Yes. Married in Victoria, two grand son of the Mr. Edwards that had the store here. The Brandon's

Unknown Speaker 12:47
had your husband grown up on the island to

Unknown Speaker 12:50
know you used to come here for vacations? I don't know whether this is interesting. Or not. But I was four years older than he was and I guess he was about six when he was here. He often used to be at the store and in those days. He had long curls about down to his shoulder. And I was walking to school one day and I said I called out to him Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Unknown Speaker 13:18
Once he insulted oh very

Unknown Speaker 13:23
used to watch me morning say after dark with rocks. Rocks. No, I had to run pretty fast going but

Unknown Speaker 13:32
not too many little boys for the hair long I take it then.

Unknown Speaker 13:36
No, they didn't. I don't I don't know why. But I guess he hated it. Was very insulting. Little did

Unknown Speaker 13:45
he ever know at that time he'd end up as your husband was earnest. Yes, earnest

Unknown Speaker 13:53
Brenton.

Unknown Speaker 13:54
So you were married in Victoria? Yes. And then did you live in Victoria?

Unknown Speaker 13:59
No. These people were in Anacortes. And he went back to Bellingham. He worked in the lumber mill there for a few years, and then he became interested in the Legion, the American Legion. He was a returned soldier. And so he became a sheriff's deputy for a number of years, for about nine years, I guess it was and then in those days, they didn't have civil service like they have no, when the Republicans were in power, I guess that was when he had his job and the Democrats went down and everybody went outside and they put in their own man. So that's how we came back to Salt Spring. Here. He stayed. He moved down to Anacortes, and you We're in the middle there. And the family came over here with me so used to come over. Just we, you know, once a month or so until he moved over all together.

Unknown Speaker 15:11
I see. And then when he moved to Salt Spring, was he farming?

Unknown Speaker 15:15
Oh, no, I don't think he ever was much of a farmer. He got work driving a lot of getting trapped for logging company here. And then after that, a school bus. And

Unknown Speaker 15:30
by then I guess the school was up and again, yes, it was.

Unknown Speaker 15:36
So he never did much farming. Just gardening.

Unknown Speaker 15:41
And your children grew up in Salt Spring Island. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 15:44
they all did. What but the only one that was born here was the youngest son. And it was Brian.

Unknown Speaker 15:51
What family do you have Mrs. Five?

Unknown Speaker 15:55
Four boys, four sons and a daughter

Unknown Speaker 15:57
and what are their names? What are their names?

Unknown Speaker 16:01
The oldest one is Charles and then there was Ernest and Pat and Sheila Brian was the

Unknown Speaker 16:11
youngest and living on Saltspring island now are

Unknown Speaker 16:16
just failed a son Charles is here. Oh, yes.

Unknown Speaker 16:22
I think we'll move on and ask Mrs. Chives a little bit about life when she was a little girl. You were born on the island to warn to

Unknown Speaker 16:32
Fernwood Asperger just passed

Unknown Speaker 16:35
Fernwood? Yes. Why did your parents come to the island?

Unknown Speaker 16:40
Because her mother and father had moved up here and she moved up to with him when she was 16. Or she moved to the island. Yeah. And then your father George Matuson, down past Victoria.

Unknown Speaker 16:55
So your mother came with her parents and then your father came to the island and they were married? Is that right? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 17:02
Well, they knew each other before but for Victoria.

Unknown Speaker 17:06
What did your father do before he came to the island? He was

Unknown Speaker 17:09
on the boats. You've worked on boats?

Unknown Speaker 17:13
And was he doing that after he moved to the island to

Unknown Speaker 17:17
Oh, yes. I use on boats all the time practically and his own boat after break

Unknown Speaker 17:24
up at Fernwood? Yes. And he would go fishing would you be on his boat?

Unknown Speaker 17:30
If when

Unknown Speaker 17:31
he went fishing did he

Unknown Speaker 17:33
know he was he used to run freight you work with his his father was a captain. And he used to run freight from the 912 Victoria and around like that, different places.

Unknown Speaker 17:47
And so would he bring produce into the island and building material to Saltspring? Or

Unknown Speaker 17:54
what would you do anything at all

Unknown Speaker 17:55
that that anybody wanted? They bring in this so your neighbors up at Fernwood then would be your grandparents?

Unknown Speaker 18:03
Right near right near about five minutes walk from our place. And did you have any other neighbors? Yes. So my other aunt married up and lived about I don't know how many miles two miles away from her place.

Unknown Speaker 18:24
You had quite a few relatives on the island and did

Unknown Speaker 18:28
another amp dude lived in St. Mary's Lake. She had a big family. You make friends had a big family. Mother had a big family.

Unknown Speaker 18:41
Are there many of you left in the island now? And the only one and you've got it all? On the island to heaven to Doris Yeah. How about your children? Doris, do you have any children on the island? Mark? Yeah, Mark is all amazing. Going to Saltspring on high school. He's in his last year. Grade 12 Where did you go to school Mrs. Jobs at Fernwood there was a little scholarships. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 19:12
yes. That was the name of it then. And just north in North Vesuvius.

Unknown Speaker 19:19
There must have been a lot of schools and Saltspring at that time

Unknown Speaker 19:24
well, they came in a boost in their memory that they weren't for long time

Unknown Speaker 19:31
Yes, it was responding to your point here and wanted to call it the divide. Where you went over Central and Fernwood

Unknown Speaker 19:46
when when you were a little girl and you went to school at Fernwood what's their store up there? You mentioned your father and your grandfather working on the boats. Now I guess produce would be brought I got into Fernwood. Yes. But we used to deal with Bittencourt. Down at the CVS Bay, there was a storage facility. And yes, while there was a settlement at the Soviets at that time then was there. They bring there was a settlement at Vesuvius at that time was there.

Unknown Speaker 20:19
Well, I don't know about when mother moved on to the island, but she was after this really dealt.

Unknown Speaker 20:27
So there were people living in CVS then. Yes, the bitten carts, and were there any other families there?

Unknown Speaker 20:34
Oh, yes. They, they were in a big family and they all married and loathe America. Live right there.

Unknown Speaker 20:41
And other than the bitten courts, were there. People at Vesuvius.

Unknown Speaker 20:46
I'm sure, not very many, because he distributed gorgeous stone, practically all the land around here.

Unknown Speaker 20:54
But the children from Vesuvius would have to go all the way to Fern went to school. That's a long way.

Unknown Speaker 20:59
No, there was a few of us. The Sufi space school and

Unknown Speaker 21:03
central at Central. Oh, yes. It's really can you think of any games that you used to play when you were a little girl

Unknown Speaker 21:16
dropping lots of lengthing is played and baseball based on these plays.

Unknown Speaker 21:24
How many children would be in the school?

Unknown Speaker 21:26
There was Jerry Bob 1415

Unknown Speaker 21:29
Oh, enough for a baseball team that when were you married Mrs. Gize?

Unknown Speaker 21:35
1916.

Unknown Speaker 21:37
And you were married on Saltspring? Were you my own home? Pardon me?

Unknown Speaker 21:44
My marriage in my own home.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
And who did you marry

Unknown Speaker 21:48
him was Brendan's brothers.

Unknown Speaker 21:50
My jives Michael jives just like his father Michael John. Yes. And then did you move from Fernwood? They bring you moved from Fernwood Did

Unknown Speaker 22:01
you move down here as Fulford to your present home? This is a beautiful home. I really like it. I like it too.

Unknown Speaker 22:16
And it was built before you were married, was it? Well, it

Unknown Speaker 22:19
was partly hit right. We live with the office for a couple of months I think wasn't a marry. But a couple of months. During the summer and then they moved over here

Unknown Speaker 22:31
with your husband's parents. You live with them for stitching. Yes. And who built your house? 30 orchard. And it was he the local Carpenter on the island at the time.

Unknown Speaker 22:44
This was his first job and he made a good one because you want to advertise his work.

Unknown Speaker 22:51
What other buildings did he build after this one? He built the hall. Did he the first what family Mrs. Chives. Have you been what family have you five girls five girls.

Unknown Speaker 23:09
I'd love to better boy.

Unknown Speaker 23:13
And Doris is the only daughter living on the island now then, yes. I'm very interested to know how you met your husband there. You were up at Fernwood and he was living down here at Fulford therefore, there must have been dances and different functions when the the whole of the island got together. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 23:36
Yes. They used to be dances at Central. He used to be a hall there a long time before there was a whole

Unknown Speaker 23:43
any results. And is that the whole that's still there today? Yes. What did you do Mrs. Jobs and Mrs. Brenton for entertainment. When you were when you were young

Unknown Speaker 23:58
dancin mostly.

Unknown Speaker 24:00
And transportation. They it was just horse and buggy. So we used to travel. Quite a few dances they held at the cranberry Marsh right in that way in a small schoolhouse. And it's central. And it Burgoyne Valley,

Unknown Speaker 24:16
what kind of music but

Unknown Speaker 24:18
they have oh, it was just a local music. violins that I guess they just played by ear. They never had any music teachers in those states. Usually just violins. And would there be a piano to know?

Unknown Speaker 24:33
And so there would be a couple of people playing violins but Oh,

Unknown Speaker 24:39
yes. Yeah. And they did square dancing a lot.

Unknown Speaker 24:46
Mom has always been interested in the Women's Institute here will tell us

Unknown Speaker 24:51
a little bit about the Institute and

Unknown Speaker 24:55
we've worked for anybody that that we think we should work First, you know,

Unknown Speaker 25:03
what is the is the institute part of the farmers sensitive?

Unknown Speaker 25:09
Well, they're they're sort of I don't get connected some way or another.

Unknown Speaker 25:15
And it's called the Women's Institute Yes. What kind of work would you do?

Unknown Speaker 25:23
Well, we used to put on dances and things to raise money for any buddy that had sick children or something and couldn't, couldn't afford to pay for doctors and nurses and send them to the hospital. And we worked for the hall. We were the first one to start the hold out the institute fulfilled Institute or

Unknown Speaker 25:49
and if there was a fire, I guess everybody in the community would rally together and provide bedding and and food for people. Yes. Institute. The Institute with organized something like they did. And the institute is still going today

Unknown Speaker 26:07
is going to do

Unknown Speaker 26:10
and you were one of the original members, were you?

Unknown Speaker 26:13
I haven't I'm the only charter member never really. Oh say.

Unknown Speaker 26:21
Did you make quilts that 1.2?

Unknown Speaker 26:23
Yes. raffled One vote for the first soul.

Unknown Speaker 26:31
And you use Saltspring Island wool to gain the quilt with our own sheep. Your own sheep.

Unknown Speaker 26:40
Yeah. I did myself. I've been making quilts. So I thought this dandy way to raise money they did.

Unknown Speaker 26:54
What did your husband do Mrs. Chives

Unknown Speaker 26:56
when he was a farmer, and he worked for the forest street used to lead the ongoing work for the forestry.

Unknown Speaker 27:05
This would be with the provincial government with it. Yes. You have quite a few fruit trees around your property and YouTube Mrs. Brenton? Did you sell fruit or was it

Unknown Speaker 27:16
no we we never had We never wanted to shoot straight from grapes. The farm there is that you see in the fields?

Unknown Speaker 27:24
You do have some fruit trees around your property, don't you? Was it for your own use?

Unknown Speaker 27:31
Just for everyone.

Unknown Speaker 27:34
We hear about Saltspring fruit that was sent from the island. Who were the the fruit growers on the island at that time.

Unknown Speaker 27:43
Well, obviously largest orchard I guess was the tradies that beaver they had to especially dock built where the boat just to come in and that's where a lot of the young men who worked in the orchards gather the apples and they ship the ship the fruit to Victoria Vancouver.

Unknown Speaker 28:04
Uh huh. And how about up at the north end? In the Fernwood in the service area, Mrs. Jobs who was doing the who had the fruit trees there I see there are still trees those

Unknown Speaker 28:21
years the Member of Parliament for years he's quite old and then he died and he was a member of parliament.

Unknown Speaker 28:35
And where did he live?

Unknown Speaker 28:37
furloughed farm oh

Unknown Speaker 28:42
now where are they said springs aren't they up around there someplace

Unknown Speaker 28:46
during the boot farm it was quite a few of them and the leg and burn

Unknown Speaker 28:50
Have you actually ever seen the Salt Springs burn Have you ever seen the Saltspring

Unknown Speaker 28:56
Oh yes. Used to Blake to play around and Mother You Never Want us to play around said that there was no bottom to them if we fell in would go down and never stopped

Unknown Speaker 29:12
well what did the Salt Springs do? Did they bubble or?

Unknown Speaker 29:14
Yes they did. And they were filthy looking. You know they were dark brown and bubbling and there was all kinds of trees whether people just fill them in to see what had happened to them or what I don't know there was still limb sticking out is just a wild horrible place.

Unknown Speaker 29:38
Was it like rather Marshy? Was it warm water? Did you notice any change? I

Unknown Speaker 29:47
never was ready to go to near my phone. Was there a smell? From the spring? Yes, kind of Yes. Pick up bad

Unknown Speaker 30:00
Mrs. Drag your husband worked up at the lookout tower when he was forest working for the forestry. Is that right? Yes. When would he go up?

Unknown Speaker 30:11
To the end of May, in May,

Unknown Speaker 30:15
1 of May.

Unknown Speaker 30:17
And during fire season he'd be up there. And there was a tower on Mount. Bruce would it be? Yeah. Just like there

Unknown Speaker 30:25
was no tower when he first went up there. He had a tent. The blue, wind blues are part of it away.

Unknown Speaker 30:34
This would be after you were married, would it be?

Unknown Speaker 30:36
Well, yes. And then he looked on, looked at the fires on the island.

Unknown Speaker 30:45
And he would live up there all summer that long then Woody?

Unknown Speaker 30:50
Yes. For the three months. Used to

Unknown Speaker 30:59
come back sick could do the farm work. Oh, yes. You'd have to do while he was gone, wouldn't

Unknown Speaker 31:08
it five horses a year then. 40 pigs? Nine cows to milk.

Unknown Speaker 31:17
Nine cows. How were your five daughters? Are they good at milking. They bring where your five daughters good at milking.

Unknown Speaker 31:26
Those that are too small.

Unknown Speaker 31:29
To take them out to the barn. Sit them on top of feed bin cows and come in and smell their feet. They thought this is great.

Unknown Speaker 31:41
Did your daughter's go to school on the island? This is James

Unknown Speaker 31:45
will live and went to high school in St. Ann's in Victoria.

Unknown Speaker 31:51
But they went to elementary school here on the island. Would they have gone to school in Ganges then

Unknown Speaker 31:58
went Yes. After this school was close to see when they when they had the Combined School of again. buses and victim.

Unknown Speaker 32:10
Could you tell us about when you were teaching up in the caribou and you rode your horse?

Unknown Speaker 32:15
Oh yes, that was a little school called otter lake. It was between Verdun and Armstrong ungraded school. And I didn't even have to apply they had sent to the Normal School in Victoria and I mean in Vancouver and asked the principal to stand up a teacher that you know wouldn't be suitable. So I don't know why he chose me. I didn't apply for the school. And this Mr. O'Keefe was one of the I think there's quite a few articles in the in the paper about him. He was one of the original pioneers. And he owned he bought cattle and he owned a lot of property all in around the Okanagan. And is he had the first family. The mother died and then he went back east Mrs. O'Keeffe was just quite a bit younger, I guess he was in his 60s and she was 18. And this was the second family that were that I boarded with. They wanted the teacher in their home so that because before that they'd always had a governess. And they thought it would be more suitable to see what she was like I suppose. So I was there for four years.

Unknown Speaker 33:44
And you took your own horse consult screen? Yes. So how did you get it from Saltspring up to

Unknown Speaker 33:52
well, it went by freight to Vancouver. And then it was shipped by car by car to help. And for their I rode from hope to Princeton. That's the way the ranchers used to drive their cattle over the mountain to Vancouver, of course and in a row then No, it was just a trail.

Unknown Speaker 34:20
It was a long

Unknown Speaker 34:21
it's just arrived. The

Unknown Speaker 34:23
other the whole Princeton highway is over that original trail.

Unknown Speaker 34:30
How long did it take you to run

Unknown Speaker 34:32
a lotus to it we started out early in the morning and we stayed at this prospectors cabin overnight and I left early in the morning and got to prison about two in the morning. And I started out to ride from there to Penticton said it was quite a quite a distance. And someone from the island that I knew he was on the Provincial Police and he have to come into hotel on the side came on the register. And they told him I had already written out. So I've written about 10 miles and he drove up at his car and he said, You come back to town and there's a rodeo in Penticton and we'll have your horse ship with the horses there. So he drove me to Penticton I didn't have to do that long last

Unknown Speaker 35:24
year about 1918 or something.

Unknown Speaker 35:28
I was there when the war ended and there was the war started it was four years wasn't it? While I was there during the four years I can remember we wrote into into Vernon and when the armistice was signed in May there was this rejoicing mayor was quite intoxicating was all dressed up

Unknown Speaker 35:56
crowds are so so happy because there were so many you know young men from their head joined up

Unknown Speaker 36:04
well this is Dr. Judy on Saltspring when the more was on then when show is I was here you were right here in this house. And were there quite a few Saltspring boys that were overseas

Unknown Speaker 36:17
many of them

Unknown Speaker 36:20
their names are on that

Unknown Speaker 36:21
Senator we come back

Unknown Speaker 36:27
quite a few were killed Brendan

Unknown Speaker 36:35
Were there many cars on Saltspring at that time? No not at all

Unknown Speaker 36:43
is there was one one there all Mr. Bullock got the car and he came in and he handed off all brass shining all his policies every time he went off every day on the horses used to run away oil here

Unknown Speaker 37:06
where would he ride his car? Were there many roads in the island?

Unknown Speaker 37:10
Very narrow roads. There are roads Yes. nearly as many as there are no but they were all narrow roads trails banging and bumping along

Unknown Speaker 37:23
but he sometimes drive his car down to full

Unknown Speaker 37:26
well yes. All over the island must be to show the

Unknown Speaker 37:35
you know, missable Oh, new wealth appears

Unknown Speaker 37:42
he didn't want he was going around piercing everybody's ears anyway, I'm fired personally, and they wouldn't have it. So he gave me a pair of black ears. They were about that long. I used to do my hair down quite low. And then I took it on my hair that just looked like it is my ears which wasn't on this is pilots, pilots wife, mother, and I forgotten there was a big long name. And Mr. Bullock came down to one of the industry she planned to the institute. And she didn't care what she did and what's the say? So Mr. Bullock was standing there and he had whispers about so long, right down to his waist almost. Yes. And they were spread all out. And she went up to Seton dome on the way out this week this whiskey is lovely with this just like my husband are horrified to those because of all the stability that you taught himself this wonderful and then I forget that he was that this truck

Unknown Speaker 39:03
Well, we've heard of his magnificent parties. Were the full people ever invited to his party and

Unknown Speaker 39:11
he didn't think very much of the former female Mrs. Mod was saying when they first came to the island he thought it was very wrong ever to buy a property down at Fulford and because that was just like living across the tracks.

Unknown Speaker 39:27
I was in the boat recently with Miss mod. And she was a quite a young young thing then. System cat mods beat her and I didn't know Dad's books and this is a big heavy one but Chevy and she had a real response. She had a clipper while she was talking to this other other boat. We slipped in

Unknown Speaker 39:52
and wondering. Were there many things like in her Island competitions

Unknown Speaker 39:57
like the main island on the 24th of May they always had and sort of all the islands

Unknown Speaker 40:02
used to go down there every year

Unknown Speaker 40:04
where there's special things here and fold for that other times the

Unknown Speaker 40:08
Well it seemed to be more interesting at main island I don't know why

Unknown Speaker 40:12
it was a bigger affair they had boat crew seeking all kinds of things most people

Unknown Speaker 40:18
well now I can remember when we came to the island and this would be about 12 years ago they had made a here in Fulford start

Unknown Speaker 40:28
institute this puts them on I think Mayday. Mayday queen and goodness I forget what happened. But the one that works for

Unknown Speaker 40:43
the children

Unknown Speaker 40:45
sports for the children used to have down there on that field break at the end of the day there are there any

Unknown Speaker 40:53
other special days and Saltspring

Unknown Speaker 40:57
show day used to be a big day to up again. T's central used to have the vote central first. Big shouldn't be all kinds of

Unknown Speaker 41:08
farmers institute that's one thing that everybody went to not very many people in song streaming was no longer fall fair.

Unknown Speaker 41:17
What Yes, it was,

Unknown Speaker 41:19
was the fall there. And it was horse racing. You said ladies riding

Unknown Speaker 41:28
remember carries mother riding horseback they wrote sidesaddle in those days

Unknown Speaker 41:33
Yes. Strike

Unknown Speaker 41:37
everybody go from full full to the full fare lawyers everybody

Unknown Speaker 41:40
went

Unknown Speaker 41:41
all over the island. Everybody went in it wasn't the big day Musa like legal song bothered with this liberal tiny

Unknown Speaker 41:52
bit late with data way back then if it was going on when you were a little girl Yes. And it was held at Central all the time. It was always held at Central was it

Unknown Speaker 42:04
not always but for for most of the time for for years.

Unknown Speaker 42:10
And it was usually at the end of August beginning of September?

Unknown Speaker 42:15
I guess so because the fruit was a great show. Fruit and vegetables

Unknown Speaker 42:21
with somebody come over to judge

Unknown Speaker 42:26
there was judges,

Unknown Speaker 42:27
they come from off Island

Unknown Speaker 42:38
and what else

Unknown Speaker 42:38
would go on at the fall? Well, they

Unknown Speaker 42:41
seem to show an awful lot of farm animals, cows and cows and pigs and sheep and chickens, chickens, turkeys, geese and everything that they had.

Unknown Speaker 42:57
And would they have handicrafts? Like quilts and things like

Unknown Speaker 43:03
fancy word cooking pickles fruit all kinds of again the bird

Unknown Speaker 43:15
to beautiful singer

Unknown Speaker 43:20
was quite happy as well people to hear him