Nanaimo, British Columbia , Saturday,
February 9, 1907
Evening Edition
Reminiscences of Early Nanaimo
Days
The First of a Series of Articles
from the pen of Mark Bate Sr. Dealing with interesting incidents
of the Earlier Days of This City.
How quickly fifty years have
fled since first Nanaimo's shores I sighted,
With what a firm and fearless tread I on the rugged beach alighted.
No landing place to step upon, nor wharf at which to tie.
The "Beaver" anchored in the stream, off Cameron Isle near by.
Kind hands and hearts e'en then were here, to greet a stranger
who had come to stay,
Of the whole souled men be then did meet, Many, ah! most, have passed away.
Passed unto a word unknown - crossed the Great Divide.
Sorrowfully in the grave-yard laid, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother,
side by side.
Fifty years ago! Two generations in the meantime have gone; and
what wonderful development of amazing discoveries, and inventions in that
period? Electrical cables have girdled and encompassed the globe. Continents
have been spanned by railroads, and -- well, every reader nowadays is aware
of these and dozens of other great achievements, that are applied to every-day
service, and made known through the published records of industrial and
scientific progress. No need to enumerate great wars, earthquakes,
revolutions, slave emanicipation, etc. "Peace hath her victories,
so less renowned than War."
NANAIMO, a mining hamlet of some forty-five buildings, construced with
one exception, of hewn and round logs -- including the Bastion -- a saw
mill, store and warehouse, two carpenter shops, a blacksmith shop and a
stable, to which might to added the Indian camps -- was scarcely known --
half a century ago, outside Vancouver Island, and the precincts of the Hudson's
Bay Company's offices in London. The was almost a terra incognita.
Away from any channel of communication, weeks elapsed with "news
from home" -- new which was the sweetener of a lonely existence.
Postage of a half-ounce letter to the old country, thirty cents, and
yet, how gladly was an opportunity embraced to send a letter off, and with
what ecstacy a letter, or a newspaper was received!
The "Beaver" came along about every six months, the "Otter" more frequently,
and an express canoe occasionally. But ere two summers had passed,
what a change! Toot, toot, toot! We were suddenly enlivened
after what seemed the quietude of years. Ocean steamships -- Commodore,
Santa Cruz, etc. -- twice a month or more; river steamers. Surprise
-- Sea Bird, etc. -- three or four times a week, with hundreds, yes thousands,
of eager gold seekers on the way to Fraser River. This was the period
of the Fraser gold excitement, with all its attendant effects, when the
hardy pioneers of California, and an impetuous host from the other countries,
made a rush for the placer diggings of New Caledonia. (A brisk and
profitable business was done by one or two Nanaimo gentlemen in trading
every canoe available from the Indians, and selling them to miners who were
anxious to explore the rivers and creeks, tributary to the Fraser.)
How did Nanaimo look at first sight to a stranger youth, who, full of
ambition, aspiration, and determination, had come to make a start in life?
Rounding LIght House Point -- now known as Jack's Point -- a glimpse
was obtained of the clean, whitewashed row of houses standing on a rising
eminence a little way from the water front, the grassy slope between the
buildings and the harbor, looking as fresh as spring, the towering peak of
Wakesiah mountain, under a heavy cloud, and the intervening tall timber,
formed a sombre looking back ground, giving the place just then a rather
weird aspect.
To the right was the open gulf, hardly ruffled, and as the harbor was
approached, Douglas -- now called Protection Island -- with a few scattered
oak trees amid a clear "picnicy" looking spot, drew attention . On
a branch of one of the oaks two Indian murderers had been hung four years
previously. Off the Point was a beacon, held in position, at low water
mark, by rocks heaped against it.
To the left the delta of Nanaimo River was scanned, also studded with
oaks, and having the appearance of an extensive fertile field. Few
clear open spots were to be seen -- dense forest on nearly all sides.
Turning face about, the coast range of mainland mountains, with their
lofty crests, capped with a winter's snow was beheld. The right was
enrapturing, and for a minute or two the eyes were strained viewing what
was then thought to be, and what is now known to be, a bit of the most beautiful
of the grandest scenery imaginable. On that part of the peninsula,
extending from the shore line of the Coal Company's wharves, beyond the machine
shops, was the Indian encampment -- a long range of smoky huts -- in which
some 250 S'nenymos abode. Huts were standing at other places, namely,
where Johnston's fishery shed is now fixed - where the post office now stands
-- and on the point occupied by Hirst's warehouse. Cameron Island was
an Indian burial ground.
The shades of evening were coming on when the Beaver, after dropping
the Recovery in mid-harbor, slowly and cautiously made her way to an anchorage
near the entrance of Commercial Inlet. Good old Beaver!! Twenty
years before she was the first steamer to paddle the Pacific ocean, which
now bears on the bosom of its foam crested waves a mighty, yet steadily
increasing commerce.
Nanaimo's quaint looking fortress, the Bastion, was the most formidable
looking structure in sight. Two three pounder cannonades were its armament,
used to salute His Excellency, the governor, whenever he arrived, and they
served doubtless, to over-awe the Indians, whose tribal differences often
led to war - war of the guerilla type. The Cogwelts (Fort Ruperts)
and other tribes would make a sortie on the S'nenymous, whose numbers once
or twice, were reduced by several being beheaded, and women taken as slaves.
The S'nenymous rarely retaliated.
The whole inhabitants nearly were descried on the hillside, at the places
now covered by the city courthouse and jail yard, curious maybe, to get
a look at the new arrivals. Once ashore, the heartiness of welcome
from all was something never to be forgotten. Thinking of that event
gives rise to a felicitous picture of sweet-sad memories.
A week was spent leisurely among the few dwellers of the tranquil little
town, at the home of each, the warmest reception, and most open hospitality
were met. The mines were "inspected", the Indian camps visited, as
well as other places which had their special attractions.
The houses then stood on what are now known as Front, Chapel, Bastion,
and Skinner streets, from the site of the city hall to the Palace hotel.
One house and a blacksmith shop where the Commercial hotel stands.
The middle portion of Mr. Jas. Hirst's present residence was there
-- where it is now. Five houses near the beach, along from Dobeson's
foundry to the Millstream, two at the old sawmill, and a salt spring shed
opposite -- where Mr. Jesse Sage now resides. Two cabins near the stable,
which stood on ground in the rear of the government buildings. One
occupied house -- and one only -- with annexes, stood over the Ravine, at
the place now covered by the Shamrock livery stable. The frames of
two other buildings stood awaiting completion -- one became the Methodist
parsonage, the other the residene to the late Hon. R. Dunsmuir.
The pathways were narrow, rough, and stumpy indeed, out of the beaten
track. Twas scarcely safe to move out in the dark without a lantern;
but a cleared space was found in front of every door.
There was no means of crossing the Ravine -- which, like a moat -- around
some ancient castle, almost encircled the town -- except over logs or fallen
trees, and to reach the mines, workmen and visitors alike had to take passage
by a narrow trail on the hillside, which in wet weather was not easily mounted.
In front of where Morton's store now stands, and between that building
and Kermode's shoe emporium, there was a deep gully extending from the
Inlet to near Caven street, formed by the water which, in winter, created
quite a torrent as it drained and gathered in its course from the watershed
above.
In 1858, the gully was bridged over, and the Ravine also, say from the
Oddfellows' Block to Sampson's to enable coal to be conveyed by tramways
from the mines to a shipping staith, built that year, at about the same
point as Hirst's wharf now occupies. The coal trucks, for some time,
were hauled over a wooden track by oxen.
In 1858, the gully was bridged over, the first locomotive arrived --
the first to do service, and the first landing in British Columbia. (Mr.
Harry Cooper was the engineer, and the late Mr. T. E. Peck, fireman.)