Churches/Cemeteries — Members Only Blog — British Columbia Chronicles

The Fight for the Standard

During a recent tour of Victoria’s beautiful Ross Bay Cemetery, Old Cemeteries Society guide John Adams pointed out the headstone for onetime U.S. Consul Allen Francis.

Coincidentally, in his latest bestselling book, Untold Stories of Old British Columbia, friend and fellow historian Dan Marshall pays tribute to a mutual hero of ours, David Williams Higgins, whom I’ve introduced to Chronicles readers on several occasions.

There’s a strong and fascinating connection between Francis and Higgins.

George Turner's Church

Build it and they will come.

It may have worked in a novel and in a movie but, sad to say, it seldom works in real life. If ever you wanted proof, take the sad story of George Turner and his church.

He poured heart and soul, every penny he had and years of his life into building the Church of Jesus Christ of Christian Brotherhood that, today, minus its tower and bell, is a sales and service shop.

Tombstone Tales - A Virtual Tour of Mount View Cemetery

As you may have seen in the news, and in last week’s Chronicle, North Cowichan Municipality is looking to expand Mountain View Cemetery into an adjoining forest of mature fir and maple trees—proving that even dead people come first.

The Cowichan Connection to Ross Bay Cemetery

As entertainment convener for the Cowichan Historical Society, I’d just announced that the next month’s speaker would be John Adams of the Old Cemeteries Society, Victoria

New Lease on Life for Historic St. Andrew’s Church?

As I recently reported, the Cowichan Station Area Association, operators of the Hub, is working to take possession of the deconsecrated St. Andrew’s Church. Negotiations are underway with the Anglican Diocese of B.C. Apparently the beautiful century-old church beside the Koksilah River needs serious and expensive repairs and funding remains to be determined.

Happy Tom Schooley

Genealogists have a field day with Vital Statistics; they’re a treasure chest for family researchers and historians alike. But, of course, they really don’t tell you much beyond the barest of bones.

Victoria’s Pioneer Square: ‘God’s Forgotten Acre'

In my promo for this week’s post on what is today’s Pioneer Square in Victoria, I lamented that cemeteries are supposed to be hallowed ground and treated with due respect—meaning that the graves and headstones are kept up, in effect, for all time. But, as I sorrowfully pointed out, such isn’t always the case and what originally was the Quadra Street burying ground, or cemetery, home to some of Victoria’s earliest and most historically significant pioneers, is now treated and used as a park.

Pioneer Methodist Cemetery

Long before there was an E&N Railway or the Island Highway over the Malahat, Maple and Cowichan Bays served as the gateways to the Cowichan Valley. Hence Maple Bay was a likely site for a Methodist church. Previously, Methodists had shared the Anglican chapel at Somenos, their minister attending from Victoria. In 1868 they held the first of three annual outdoor meetings at the site of today’s Maple Bay Inn. The Saanich-milled lumber from the ‘tents’ used for those occasions was recycled the following year in construction of a modest log church on 100 acres pre-empted by the Rev. E. White.

Featured MembersPatricia MacGregor Graphic DesignerSeptember 17, 2020Churches/Cemeteries

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