Editorially speaking...
They say time flies when you’re having fun—it certainly does when you publish on a weekly basis while balancing several other balls in the air.
I’m referring to deadlines, that curse of all publishers who live with one eye glued to their watch and the other cocked at a calendar. Such is life here at the Chronicles.
The result can sometimes demand compromise or scaling back or, at the very least, following the line of least resistance.
Which explains this week’s editorial. As you’ve seen by the just-concluded serial on the 1915 Pacific Coast Coal Mine disaster in which 19 men were drowned because of a fatal oversight, South Wellington’s resident historian Helen Tilley has generously shared her archives with the Chronicles.
Note the spelling of Alexandra Mine, South Wellington. —Courtesy Tom Teer
Overall, she’s satisfied with my account but was prompted to write in mild protest of my references to the Alexandra Mine as the Alexandria.
Let me assure you that I know the difference between the two spellings and their connection with South Wellington. This James Dunsmuir mine which operated, 1891-1901, has also been referred to as the Alexander Mine.
So we have the Alexander, Alexandra and Alexandria—which is correct?
As you’ll see by Helen’s attached letter and newspaper clippings, etc., it’s Alexandra (no ‘i’). In writing this four-part series on the PCCM, I drew heavily on the B.C. Department of Mines’ Annual Reports which repeatedly refer, in error, to the Alexandria Mine.
Because these Reports’ are generally accurate (and, after, they’re the official record), I simply followed suit—that line of least resistance, I mentioned earlier.
Here’s Helen Tilley to set the record straight...
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Hi Tom,
Just downloaded part 3 and really enjoyed reading it. You have so many details that I haven't read about before.
I do, however, have a bone to pick with you and that's what my attachment is about.
Another local historian here in Nanaimo who works in the VIU library and has a South Wellington History Blog was using the incorrect "Alexandria" in reference to the mine and the former name of our community. I know her personally and I just couldn't help myself in contacting her and, when I sent her my research on the matter, she agreed with me about the
name and changed it on her blog.
We can't correct all the mistakes the Ministry of Mines and others have printed over the years but we can go forward with the correct name from now on.
The names Alexandra and Alexandria are flipped and flopped around by the Minister of Mines reports for a number of years and it has led to much confusion about what is the correct name. They started out with the correct name, Alexandra, and it all went downhill from there.
They even had me wondering about which name was the correct one but I did some research before putting the story about our community, originally named after the mine, into the South Wellington book [South Wellington: Stories From the Past, 1880s-1950s] and I am satisfied that Alexandra is the correct name and is the one which should have been used and should be used going forward.
I have attached some news articles and other sources, most correct and, after which dates, the name seemed to be reported incorrectly. What I discovered was that the newspapers seemed to be copying the incorrect spelling around the same time the Minister of Mines changed the spelling. In later years, the Minister of Mines seemed to revert to the correct spelling of Alexandra.
Too late as the damage was done by then.
As for the articles, I doubt very much that in the Canadian Collieries letter they would misspell the name of their own mine, the name would not be misspelled in an ad for a teacher or in the advertisement for "Alexandra Coal". Also, James Beck's obituary with the town of Alexandra named after the mine seals the deal.
Helen
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See you next week, TW.
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