Editorially speaking…
Well, another year and another Christmas Chaos, the annual mid-November mega craft sale in the Cowichan Community Centre.
It must be almost 30 years that I’ve had a table with my books at Chaos. It’s a chance to show the corporate flag, so to speak, and to meet new and old readers.
Some of us have grown grey together!
Another enjoyable feature is that I get to meet new readers—some of them pretty young, I’m happy to report. In this ever-changing world of ours it’s reassuring to me that people still read inked words on paper, not just send and decipher codes on their smartphones.
There is hope for humanity...
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During my four days at Chaos, my mailbox filled daily and my Facebook posts continued to draw comments, including this fascinating one in response to a post on Gerry Wellburn, founder of Duncan’s BC Forest Discovery Centre.
One of Gerry Wellburn’s rare horse-drawn carriages at his Glenora farm. This was before the internationally renowned philatelist and saviour of railway and logging equipment moved his collection to what originally was the Cowichan Forest Museum beside Somenos Lake, Duncan. —Author’s Collection
I hadn’t known that Gerry Wellburn also collected rare horse carriages until Doran Degenstein wrote this from his Prairies farmstead:
Thanks for the story on Gerry. I have a connection to him, in that I have a collection of six of his horse-drawn vehicles. I have slowly built the story about them from a variety of sources.
These vehicles were considered high-end in their day, representing the status of the logging industry owners. Do you know anything of his collecting of horse-drawn vehicles? I can share with you what I remember about them briefly from snippets I gathered here and there.
I first learned about this collection in 2012, from a friend in Arlington, Virginia, a noted collector and authority on Brewster Carriages. Brewster Carriage Mfg., Broome Street, New York, were noted as America's number one high-end Carriage makers.
Three [Wellburn] vehicles were Brewster high-end sporting vehicles—equivalent to the high-end sports cars driven by the rich and famous today.
Two others were McLaughlin Traps made in Oshawa, Ont. These are both pre-1880’s vehicles, high-end sporting vehicle afforded by the wealthy. These five vehicles represent the forest industry magnates as the original owners. They are all Island vehicles.
The sixth one is a Peters of London Victoria Coach; few of these exist in North America. This vehicle was imported to Victoria from Britain by a ‘hairdresser,’ an associate of the Victoria elite.
I'm guessing there was another profession on the side to finance supporting a high-end vehicle like this—or she had a forestry industry sugar daddy.
The vehicle you pictured in your post was also probably part of Gerry's collection and perhaps others. If you look closely in the background you can see the Peters Victoria. My understanding is that Gerry had knowledge of these vehicles and sought them out as he built the BC forestry museum at Duncan.
Gerry displayed them there but when he gifted the museum, land, and collection to the Society he retained ownership of them and there was a certain amount of animosity when they were removed to go to the BC Transportation Museum on the Mainland in conjunction with Expo 86.
With the scandal that surrounded the museum, I understand, Vern [Wellburn, Gerry’s son] stored/displayed them at the Duncan Exhibition grounds. He or his estate sold them to Ian Farrell, a retired Victoria Firefighter. A divorce necessitated their sale after a few years.
[Farrell] tried to sell them back to the BC forestry Museum and also approached the Remington Alberta Carriage Museum. Neither would purchase but would accept as a donation. I bought them with one seller’s condition—that the collection never be broken up.
When I went to get them [at] the BC Forest Museum...most of [the staff] were tight-lipped or knew nothing. They were very uncooperative. I did finally meet an aged volunteer who immediately showed me the original catalogue records that, according to staff, did not exist. The accession numbers and information I was able to glean match the description and accession numbers still extant on some of the vehicles.
When my research and progress with the volunteer that knew Gerry and Vern was discovered, I was asked to leave. This is what little I know. It is my intent to keep them together. With no family to squabble over them in my estate perhaps they can go back to BC or to the Remington Carriage Museum with what little information I have cobbled together.
Thank you, not of Interest to most folks, but what I find interesting is that collecting the vehicles was a lasting way of representing the Island elite. It was hard to find the snippets I did, and when pulled all together I will check and add dates.
Any of your insight is appreciated.
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Thank you, Doran Degenstein for saving these rare antiquities and for sharing your knowledge with Chronicles readers.