Pioneer Days in the Cowichan Valley (Part 2)
This is the second instalment of an unidentified pioneer’s recollections of Cowichan Valley pioneers, most of whom he’d known personally, and of the dramatic changes he’d witnessed over his own lifetime.
To maintain its original flavour, I’ve kept editing to an almost non-existent minimum. To correct the misspellings and grammatical errors would take away much of its charm. Hence I’ve only interceded when I felt absolutely compelled to do so to maintain clarity.
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The Agricultural society always counted on this as a reliable source of income. There were private parties and dances of coarse which I can say little about. I am sure the people were not so crazy on dancing in the old times as they are today, possibly because dancing meant dancing then and not sliding around on a skating rink.
There was another institution which flourished for many a year but now seems almost forgotten, that was the good Temperance League. Perhaps the liberty league folks think that accounts for a good deal of the prohibition sentiment in the district, but anyways it served a useful purpose as a meeting place for the young folk. Its headquarters were the old school house at Somenos and the members came all the way from Chemainus and Maple Bay and Koksilah and many a happy night they spent, latterly the social side became so prominent that one old fellow left it because he said it had degenerated into a sparking club. Around these three institutions we organized our social events. They weren’t the elaborate things we arrange now a days. But believe me there was more of the joy of life went into them then into the up to date entertainments we try to believe we are enjoying today.
Perhaps we should not exactly classify our churches under the head of social institutions, though a great deal of social intercoarse and social contact was created by our religious community interests in early days.
Many churches have been built since that day. Some have been rebuilt on a grand scale and the builders are rightly proud of them. But the churches of that older time were plenty for our needs. Some of them are standing yet but only the ruins of some going back to an older date can now be traced. One memory of them all stands out very clearly now. Of every one you could say, they were beautiful for situation, where ever located, from the old stone church at Tzhelalm to the church at Chemainus river, the old log church at Quamichan at Maple Bay and down by Somenos Lake. And the little church up at Somenos where one good lady in a far corner of the settlement when she was dying asked them to bury her there because the sun was always shining up at Somenos. Comparitivily I think the churches were better attended then than now, even the roughest of the old pioneers had a certain respect for the things of real religion and reverence for the sacred things though they were not very strong on creed and rituals.
There is a tradition before my time, that the old men used to stack there guns outside the church door and go into the service in there shirt sleeves and come out and resume their hunting afterwards. That was in the old log church by Somenos Lake, we do not like to hear shooting on Sunday no, but it is possible the old settlers were just as near as we are to the spirit of worship and to him whose disciples fished of old on the Sabbath Day in the lake of Galilee.
We look on our churches as organizations, with clearer eyes to day than we did a generation ago, men are not blind to their faults nor to how far short. they have fallen of their intentions, but no just and reasonable man will dispute there importance in our commercial development, and that there influence has almost always been for the good.
No place in our development has seen greater changes or progress than in our schools, in those good old days where some of the children had to tramp eight or nine miles on the round trip to school it would have seemed like a dream of another world to think of a day when children would only have to walk to the end of the road and step into a motorbuss, then step out again and find themselves at school. We raised boys and girls in those days to and honestly I don’t think the boys and girls to day are any improvement on them. With all the pampering they get. New methods, experiments... But we are not thinking of the school as educational institutions only, but as social institutions, and they were that to.
The picnics in the summer and the christmas trees and socials in winter, the singing school, spelling bees are all memories that cluster round the little old school house, indeed some people had almost come to think the chief end of of a schoolhouse was to hold socials in. Of course every social ended up with a dance. The desks had to go out at the window or any old way in a hurry, as a consequence a good many never came in again in the same shape they went out, a good deal of repairs and rough carpenter work was necessary to make them serviable again. It was an awful blow to the young folks when the government sent up a lot of desks that had to be screwed to the floor. They struggled manfully with the new situation for a time, screwing and unscrewing the desks every time a dance was held. As a matter of fact it was the desks and not the dancers that wore out first. As a finish an order came up from the department that the desks were not to be moved as they and the floor was getting wore out in the process. I am not so sure where the dancing was carried on after that. Homes were more in use, halls were getting available and barns were put into service; one thing sure it didn’t stop the dancing.
I had almost thought of our Agricultural Society as another social institution. Some features of it certainly owed their success to the “get together” principle. No better [way] could have been found at the time of bringing people together in friendly intercourse and friendly rivalry. As far as serving the real purpose of our agricultural society I believe the old free and easy hit or miss kind of method more nearly attained their object than the more highly organised and expensive system of today. Though the latter may belong simply to the natural evolution and development of the district and community.
In olden times the fall fair was the great gathering of the year.
Every one came from the far corners of Cowichan and the Islands of the Gulf. Every one brought what they had worth showing and some that wasn’t worth and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and each in their own way succeeded in doing it, which all made for the success of the show.
We shall never forget our own impression of the first one we attended in 1884, it was held at that time on the old grounds at Maple Bay and you could not imagine a more beautiful setting for the picture. The day was one of those perfect Indian summer days in September, the grounds were crowded with [a] happy, smiling lot of people who mixed with each other and greeted you in such an honest friendly democratic way, with out class distinction, or condescension; it would have delighted the heart of a socialist.
Then the wonderful exhibits of produce, fruit, flowers, grain, roots, vegetables, was a revalation of possibilities to one who had never seen anything like it before. It was no wonder the stranger from a far country who had come there with nothing but faith and health and hope, looking for the opportunities and independence and freedom of the west decided once and for all that here was the land and here was the people among whom his lot should be cast, where he would make himself a home. We have never changed our mind since then, and nobody need tell us that an agricultural society run on these lines is not a great factor in attracting desirable settlers, in encouraging and helping old settlers, in developing the resources and adding to the community life of any settlement. Of course everything weren’t all rosy, there would be differences of opinion.
So far as I can judge, we have not improved very much on the quality and the many exhibits since then, perhaps distance lends enchantment to the view, but the pumkins are just as big, the cabbage, the roots, the potatoes, just as impressive. The fruit as large and luscious and beautiful and the grain more plentiful.
The live stock of course will bear no comparison as we had no pure bred animals in those days, though some very fine grades were owned and exhibited. There was even a great beleif among the old settlers that there grades could give a better account of themselves tha[n] the pure bred animals and that an old scrub cow could rustle her living in the woods as they had to in those days where a thoroughbred would die.
But we seem to have gone through a whole cycle of progress in this direction since those days. Since the advent of the Creamery and the importation of the first pure bred Jersies by Mr. W.P. Jaynes, Cowichan has climbed to a very high place in the live stock world.
I have spoken of the pleasant impressions of the first fairs at Maple Bay, there were only two held there. After that the show was moved to Duncan after the advent of the Railway. (1886). Much against the wishes of many old settlers, though it was the logical thing to do. A prominent old timer felt so badly over it that for thirty four years he never came near it again.
The history of the society during that time has been a most extra ordinary succession of ups and downs. Some times as an Irishman would put it there seemed to be two downs for one up.
But it has never failed so that the people begin to think you can’t possibly kill it, we hope that is true. There is just one other Fall show that lives in my mind comparable with the first one, perhaps the opinion is mine because I happened to be the secretary that year. But many people still remember it yet, as the most pleasant and successful in many years. The society had gone into the depths the year before and the bluest set of directors you ever seen, met to consider ways and means to face a brighter looking aspect on the previous year[’s] accounts. People had lost interest and they had come to think the society was run by a small clique who had lost sight of the old democratic way of equality and fraternity, there was no visible means of revenue. But the Bank advanced money on the personal note of the director to carry on and meet current obligations, and let me say its my opinion we never had a finer body of directors nor a better president that we had that year of 1911.
There was a great deal of hard work done through out the year to interest the people again in their society, a great many life membership fees were turned in and a record of chief subscriptions and donations collected. And when the show was held in the fall with the same beautiful setting as of old, the people turned out, both themselves and their exhibits and enjoyed themselves in some things like the old democratic way, and the old settlers almost felt as if they had come into their own again. That was the most important thing. But incidentally we would say with the most careful economy in expences, and with record reciepts, we found ourselves with a good, substantial surpluse in the bank. You never saw such a surprised board of directors, some of them would hardly believe the Secretary[’s] report when it was submitted and one of the pleasantest of my memories is the recollection of how those Directors looked when they trooped out of the committee room and strolled through t the grounds planning how they would spend that surplus in improving the grounds and buildings.
Our society has gone through another cycle of experiences since then as you know and is coming to life again but these things do not belong to the old timers or old times so we pass on.
Our municipality, that only covers half the district, we hope it will all be incorporated some day. One thing we note with out going into the minds of municiple government, the settlers to the north have always felt a little superior because we manage our own affairs, while the settlers in the south have always had a satisfied feeling because they believed their taxes were lighter and more money spent on their roads in proportion under government contracts. That has a familiar echo. Our municipality is one of the oldest in the province and originally held the city of Duncan under its wing.
Going back to the beginning you will understand things were conducted in a primitive free and easy way. The lawyer called it a loose and original way, now, which has resaulted in a good deal of trouble in these later days.
But no one has hinted at the shadow of corruption against these old timers, they honestly did there best and gave of their best. And if they knew more about clearing land and raising crops then about conducting municiple business that was not their fault. They certainly did things in a funny way, these old councelors. Judging by the recorded minutes and the unrecorded minutes are more interesting still. Some of them had a great contempt for what they called red tape and beleived in what they called common sence, business way of doing things and starting things. A road with them for instance was a road if it was discribed as starting at one point and ending at another, whether every little turn was defined by a surveyor or not. Common sence says they were right, but the law apparently says there is scarcly a single road in the municipality today. (Lucky we are not all Swallowfield farmers.)
It was a day of little things, the small beginning of our municipality life. The yearly revenue at first was less than $1,000.00. That wouldn’t go far in road work to day. But we did things with great econemy in early days and certain sure as always got value for our money. I am not sure if we paid the clerk any salary. But sure thing we didn’t pay the Reeve or Councilors. The clerk in those days went around and collected the taxes in the good old fashioned way. Just carried his little receipt book in his pocket and held you up at church or fair and reminded you something was coming to the municipality. Later when the treasurer reported $6,000.00 collected in taxes the councilors were amazed. The business was not very weighty in those early days though it required seven men to transact it at that time. And the council meeting by some of them was regarded as a kind of holiday. They were not paid for there services either. So the obligation was on the public for such services as they rendered.
A good deal of time was spent in irrevelant discussion and smoking of tobacco and swapping stories.
One old councilor had a habit of going off to sleep when the business did not interest him and had to be wakened regularly to cast his vote or be told it was time to go home. And it was quite common for two or three councilors to go off on a side issue of their own while the rest were discussing the main business, with very humourous resaults sometimes. They were not always harmonious as in our present council. Every one was supposed to pull for his ward and if we happened to be pulling to hard or getting to much money spent near his own gate there was bound to be trouble. The road system was slightly different long ago, each councilor acted as a pathmaster in his own ward, for laying out work and inspecting and passing contracts. You will note we have always believed in the contract system in the municipality and have been all most invariably justifie[d] in that beleif.
But as some of the councilors did not know the first thing about laying out contracts and still less about writing out specifications you can see the complications which were bound to arise.
And as the councilors were very human it was difficult some times to pass on the work of a friend or neighbour and keep him to the letter of hard contract, or if he didn’t understand how to do the work to show him how and make him do it without getting into trouble.
It was connsidered a great step in advance when it was decided to do away with the pathmasters and appoint a road road inspector as general supervisor of all the road work in the municipality [who] would work when required and would be paid for the time he was actually employed. You see the position was practically that of your road superintendent to day. The service “Super” only were required intermittently through out the year. Now he practically puts in full time, which should not be quite necessary unless he is willing to lay hold of a shovel like the rest of the men, occasionally and work out his own salvation. The first inspector was old Mr. Alex Blyth who gave good satisfaction. He was followed by Mr. Dave Evans who held this position the longest of any of the sup[erintendents]. Though he is now very close by Mr. R.S. Smith. And to these two we are indebted for the best of the roads we have to day.
There is one old regulation of note in connection with the roads. That was the statue labour bylaw. This was simply a provission by which those who were not able to or prepaired to pay out their road tax of $2.00 could do so by giving two days work. It worked pretty well for awhile, so long as the settlers needed the roads badly and were allowed to work it out near there own place. But lately it began to strike them that giving two days work of ten hours each for a two dollar tax was hardly good business, and hardly fair. So being very human those old settlers they began to pay a little and to figure on giving only $2.00 worth of work whether they spread it over two days.
There was a good story use[d] to be told by our old neighbour Brown, of a time when he and Bob Morrison and Jamie Mutter started out to do their status labour, Mutter being the [path]master. It was flaming hot weather in August, and having worked more or less faithfully all forenoon, they had lunch then having finished off the bit on hand about two o’clock they retired to a nice shady bank below a great shady tree to rest up. It kept getting hotter and hotter. To keep the mosquitoes off they had to smoke hard while they suffered stories and tried to keep [awake]. Finally the old fellows were overcome and drowsed off. Along about four oclock they woke up refreshed but feeling stiff. After limbering up a bit Bob Morrison suggested it was hardly worth hunting up a new place to begin work that day. It took a little discussion of course till they decided it wasn’t. Then Brown began hinting if they weren’t to work they might as well be going home. Oh, no hurry said Mutter we might as well stick it out a little longer, so they smoked away and argued the point until long about five oclock old Morrison got tired of hinting and as it was getting a little cooler and the leaves were beginning to shimmer on the trees he said brightly, well lets be going home, but old Mutter turned over on his elbow and drawled as he took the pipe out of his mouth, well now boys! We might as well tough it out until night!!
That was the point of the story. I never learned from Brown whether they toughed it out or not. That was the kind of thing that finally killed the statue labour bylaw, though we have a some what similar regulation to day.
Our roads at that time, I could say a great deal about them. But I fancy if you had roads like that today you would think the less said the better. They were very beautiful in the summer time as they wound in and out among the scenery. Some people have intimated that the original location of the roads simply followed a cow trail through the bush and came out the easiest way. Some...did a lot of stump dodging and hill climbing in those days, we would suggest a rocky mountain goat was followed, but we have always been proud of our roads in the municipality. As I hope we are to day. Some good roads we did have, good at least for the then traffic. Connecting roads and settlers roads were simple wagon trails through the bush, narrow, ruty, stony. I was amused the other day at a letter which came addressed to the municipality. It so discribed one of the old settlement roads my heart went out in sympathy to the writer. Though we could not help them at present. In those old days we had no motor cars to go bumping around in and when we got into a hole we didn’t sit around and wait for the council to pull us out. We always dug around and helped ourselves. It is intresting to recall how we used to drive over these roads at night, when we had occasion [or] were delayed, you know that even now how dark in places our roads are in the tall timber.
Well they were mostly all like that then, we never troubled to carry a light and we didn’t drive slow either. As we generally had far to go, it was just a trust in providence and the horses to keep on the track as they pelted along. Thrilling too when it was a down grade and you could not see a trace of the horse in front, only by the feel of the reins you knew they were there.
We were young and had some nerve in those days, but curiously I don’t remember a single accident happening.
Gradually and almost insensibly the roads improved. What struck me first was where at first we used to consider 500 feet of lumber all a team could haul, we found ourselves pulling a thousand feet over the same road with less difficulty with the same team. To day of course with the heavier teams they walk [off] with two thousand feet not overloaded.
The great systematic effort to straighten out the roads as far as possible, keeping them on the section lines was made by councilor W.Herd, when he was pathmaster. And we owe to him most of the strait stretches of road in the Somenos district.
A word about some of these roads as we have them now should be interesting; it is hardly possible now to realize the opposition that was made to some of these roads being built. Take the Bell-McKinnon Road. We are all satisfied it is in the right place now and a necessity. Its difficult to think of a time when there was no such thing. That we had to fight for years before the council would grant it, seems hard to beleive. All the traffic from down by the Long Bridge went around by Somenos station and down the Trunk Road on its way to Duncan. The people on the trunk road thought this was good enough. But we poor outlying settlers did not think it reasonable to ask us to go two miles out of our way every time we made a trip to Duncan. So petitions and counter petitions were got up every year and presented to the council, who always decided on a count of names. But finally the pressure got to be to great and the necessity so obvious that the council granted the road. The only regrettable thing about its construction was the error of the then superintendent in going out of his way to put a crook in it and made us climb the hill at the Somenos Lake Road, instead of keeping it strait and avoiding the hill. So there it is and there it will be and I fancy unborn generations will never cease to wonder what missmental incapacity put it there.
This is just an example, but it is surprising how many of the roads as now exist had to go through the same prosses before they were established. We are glad there were always some men in our community who could take the long look ahead and plan for years to come, we are rightly the prouder to day. Our roads of coarse are out of all comparison, better than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Changed traffic conditions demand that they should, though possibly by comparison they do not carry the traffic of motor cars and wagons of the early settlers.
One thing is very sure, we may have improved our roads from the standpoint of ability but from the artistic viewpoint never.
Nothing could exceed the natural beauty of those old roads as they wound through the unbroken forest, especially in the summer time. One does not like to specialize when all were beautiful, but the most delightful memory is the long stretch of Norcross Road from Somenos Church to Maple Bay school, it was only exelled in the olden days by the Bonsal Road which runs from Maple Bay to Chemainus River by way of Osborne Bay. You talk of sceenic highways and fly over them at twenty miles an hour in a motor car nowadays and you think you enjoy the view. But this is of little compensation where the old settlers had it all over you in the memory of the long walks and the long drives through a wilderness of beauty that has passed away. In the olden times we took life mostly in deadly earnest, we had set out to hew ourselves a home out of the forest and as old Michail Smith was to say “it was root, hog or die”. Well we didn’t die, nothing to speak on in early days we had a funeral about once a year, and always from old age.
End of Part 2 - To be Continued