Editorially speaking...
A problem with telling a story in a neat and structured form is that some good ‘nuggets’ just don’t fit, not even as sidebars. There are three that didn’t make the cut for this week’s bio of Gerry Wellburn.
First, this great photo by the late Cecil Clark. It appeared in the Colonist in August 1958 and shows the original Sooke stagecoach with a load of happy visitors to Gerry’s Deerholme property before the move to the Cowichan Forest Museum beside Somenos Lake. I’m including it as proof that Gerry saved more than trains, logging equipment and stamps.
Gerry Welburn saved History.
(Clark concluded his short photo-story about that weekend’s 150 visitors to the Wellburn farm by pointing out “The Wellburn collection is not a public exhibit.” We can imagine the result.)
Not every artifact or relic that came Gerry’s way was in pristine or operating condition, as the cover of my Cowichan Chronicles, Vol. 3, shows. The sad vehicle, painted by Maria Raynor, is from a photo taken of the real thing when it mouldered, a derelict, at Gerry’s country estate.
Compare it to this photo of Old Maude, the Duncan Volunteer Fire Department’s No. 2 fire truck after restoration. Maude not only looks good, she runs, and has been in numerous parades and events. She’s currently on permanent display in the showroom at the front of the Canada Avenue fire hall.
I quoted Vern Wellburn, Gerry’s son, in this week’s post. I had the pleasure of knowing him slightly (many will remember having seen him in parades, driving his Stanley steamer or, later, his mom’s 1929 yellow Packard) and when I attended his Celebration of life in 2012, I carried away a summing-up of his life that resonates with me still. In a world of strife and tragedy, not everyone has been so blessed that they could say (I’m quoting from his eulogy),
“I’ve had a great life. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”
Like father like son—what a life, what a legacy!
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From a subscriber—a professor of history no less—a thumbs-up to my put-down of ivory-tower professionals who don’t walk the talk by going out in the field as do we Indiana Jones types. I promise not to give you away, Richard Somerset.
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For all the wonders of the internet I still subscribe to home delivery of the Times Colonist because, almost daily, there’s something in the news that has historical roots, something I can use in the Chronicles, something I clip and file.
I also subscribe to online Facebook websites that cover everything from B.C. ghost towns to hotels and saloons to the Boundary Country to Vancouver Island history. Some of the content is outstanding and all for free, I have to admit with some sensitivity as a money-grasping subscription blogger.
One of the best is the Vancouver Island Early History Facebook site (just Google it). It’s the creation of Daryl Ashby, author of 85 Grams: The Story of Art Williams – Drug Czar, and John Muir: West Coast Pioneer. He never fails to amaze me with his regular postings which are well researched and well written. Time and again he touches upon subjects that I’ve dealt with myself, usually at greater length, and which I’d like to respond to and expand upon but I already have all the writing projects I can handle.
Then there’s Glen A. Mofford’s FB site on B.C. hotels and saloons, the result of his voluminous research into the history of provincial hostelries and watering holes that no doubt is about to become his third book. His collection of photos and postcards is little less than astounding as you can see for yourselves on Facebook or in his two best selling books, Along the E&N: A Journey Back to the Historic Hotels of Vancouver Island and Aqua Vitae: A History of the Saloons and Hotel Bars of Victoria, 1851-1917. He chose 1917 as his cut-off year because that’s when Prohibition reared its ugly head.
All of which is to say that there’s more good history and good reading than can be found at this humble abode. But please stick around, and I’ll see you next week in the Chronicles.