Showing 12 results

authority records
McEwen, Margaret
MS 137 · Person · 1922-1981

Margaret Ivy McEwen was born July 11, 1922 to George and Daisy McEwen and raised on a small farm in Grindrod, B.C. Her parents had two more children, Donald and Duncan. When Margaret was six years old, her mother, Daisy, was pregnant with a fourth child and suddenly died. Margaret’s bother Donald McEwen wrote about the tragedy.

“Dad had a job rafting cedar poles from Enderby to Mara for the piling for the bridge. He wasn’t able to get home until late. Mom went to get the cows pasturing...... She had difficulty with them, and tripped in a gopher hole and fell. She was expecting another child, had complications and passed away.” (Oct. 21, 1928)

“In May of 1929 our Aunt Ivy came from [Hampstead, London] England to look after the family. They were married within six months.”

George and Ivy married on August 19, 1929 in Vernon, B.C. and by all accounts Ivy was a loving mother to the three children. Ivy passed away in 1948 and George passed away in 1972.

Margaret attended the school of nursing at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria in 1942 and graduated in 1944. She found work at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, but took a six month leave to nurse her stepmother who was failing. At that time Margaret met Robert (Bob) Douglas Jackson from the Mt. Ida District, Salmon Arm, and the couple were married May 18, 1948. The Jacksons had five children: Barbara, Margaret Elizabeth (Betty), Douglas Ian, and twins Garth and Gordon. All the children were born at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Gordon and Garth were premature and Gordon passed away at the age of one month.

While raising her family and working on the farm, Margaret continued to nurse, initially providing homecare to people who needed help. Soon she was asked to come in to work in the hospital when extra help was needed. This became a full time job that she enjoyed. Margaret Jackson died February 26, 2011. Robert (Bob) died December 18, 1990.

Herald Family Fonds
MS 140 · Family · 1882-1949

Dr. Dundas Herald, son of Rev. James Herald, was born at Dundas, Ontario in 1870 and was awarded his medical degree at Queen’s University in 1891. Dundas and his brother Wilson registered with the BC College of Physicians within the year. Both brothers practiced in Vancouver before Wilson moved to Ashcroft, BC and Dundas moved to Quesnelle Forks in the Cariboo. After 1901 the brothers established a cattle ranch at Medicine Hat, Alberta.

In 1905 Dundas married Edith Phyllis Grant and their children Jessie Edith (1905 ) and James Barclay [Buster] (1907) were born in Medicine Hat. A third child, Arthur Dundas, was born in Salmon Arm in 1909.

Edith Phyllis Grant was born October 18, 1875 to Joseph and Anne Grant (nee Schroder) at Corona, Ontario. Her family moved to Walsh, Alberta in 1900 to ranch.

In 1906 the Heralds purchased “Bonny Bray” a 160-acre farm and home from John Reinecker near Sunnybrae and moved to the Shuswap. Dundas Herald never practiced medicine in the Shuswap.

The Heralds lived in isolation. Children Buster, Arthur, and Jessie were educated by their father at home and without the guidance of a school curriculum.

The family raised Jersey cows and took their milk across the lake every two or three days. They also made butter for sale – 70 to 80 pounds a week. Power for churning the cream into butter was provided by a water wheel. The Herald family picked and shipped cherries and raspberries for a few years, but gave that up and concentrated their efforts growing hay.

Dundas Herald died in 1951 and was survived by his wife and children. Their Sunnybrae property was sold to the provincial government and became a park in 1975.

Herald, Dr. Dundas
MS 140 · Person · 1870-1951

Dr. Dundas Herald, son of Rev. James Herald, was born at Dundas, Ontario in 1870 and was awarded his medical degree at Queen’s University in 1891. Dundas and his brother Wilson registered with the BC College of Physicians within the year. Both brothers practiced in Vancouver before Wilson moved to Ashcroft, BC and Dundas moved to Quesnelle Forks in the Cariboo. After 1901 the brothers established a cattle ranch at Medicine Hat, Alberta.

In 1905 Dundas married Edith Phyllis Grant and their children Jessie Edith (1905 ) and James Barclay [Buster] (1907) were born in Medicine Hat. A third child, Arthur Dundas, was born in Salmon Arm in 1909.

Edith Phyllis Grant was born October 18, 1875 to Joseph and Anne Grant (nee Schroder) at Corona, Ontario. Her family moved to Walsh, Alberta in 1900 to ranch.

In 1906 the Heralds purchased “Bonny Bray” a 160-acre farm and home from John Reinecker near Sunnybrae and moved to the Shuswap. Dundas Herald never practiced medicine in the Shuswap.

The Heralds lived in isolation. Children Buster, Arthur, and Jessie were educated by their father at home and without the guidance of a school curriculum.

The family raised Jersey cows and took their milk across the lake every two or three days. They also made butter for sale – 70 to 80 pounds a week. Power for churning the cream into butter was provided by a water wheel. The Herald family picked and shipped cherries and raspberries for a few years, but gave that up and concentrated their efforts growing hay.

Dundas Herald died in 1951 and was survived by his wife and children. Their Sunnybrae property was sold to the provincial government and became a park in 1975.

John and Elizabeth Jackson
MS 141 · Family · 1914-1960

Elizabeth Reid Miller [1887-1970] was born at Lanark County, Ontario and came to the Mt. Ida District of Salmon Arm with her parents in 1905. She married John Jackson in 1915 at her parent’s home. Rev. Reid, the Presbyterian minister, officiated. The couple operated a mixed farm in the Mt. Ida District. They had two children: Robert Douglas (Bob) born in 1918 and Marion born in 1924.

John Jackson [1877-1968] was the eldest son of Robert Jackson and Christina Paton and was born at Kippen Station, Sterlingshire, Scotland. John learned to farm by working with his father and grandfather, George Paton. He gained an appreciation of good draft horses, particularly Clydesdales. He taught himself to play the accordion and violin.

John emigrated to Canada in 1910 at the age of 33. He found work and lodged at Duncan Cameron’s farm. In 1911 John purchased a 40-acre parcel of land located in the Mt. Ida District calling it Cumberauld.

Ruth Adair Peterson
MS 148 · Person · 1921-2008

When Ruth Adair Peterson (nee Brooke) died August 1, 2008 in Reno, Nevada, a succession of remarkable events repatriated to Salmon Arm a collection of significant paintings which celebrate a lovely story, a loving family, and its community.

More than three hundred paintings by Ruth’s father, Arthur Adair Brooke, were found under her bed wrapped in a cotton pillow slip and tied with a green ribbon. They came “home”. The one-of-a-kind collection was archival in every sense of the word. It spanned an important period of time and documented rural life in the Mt. Ida District of Salmon Arm.

Ruth’s story begins in 1921. Life on the Brookes’ farm, Asterfield, was unexpectedly interrupted with her birth. She was a fourth child and the first daughter to middle aged parents Arthur Adair and Annie Florence Brooke. She was given her mother’s maiden name and raised like an only child, adored by her adult brothers. Family members tell us her parents were strict Baptists. Ruth left home to attend business school in Calgary. It was there she met the love of her life, a divorced American baseball player named Bill Peterson. Ruth followed Bill to the States and they were married in 1951. Ruth and her new husband lived in Oakland, California and Reno, Nevada. The couple had a long marriage until Bill’s death in 1985.

But the story really began with the artist. Born in Rome in 1874, Arthur Adair Brooke had a long journey to Salmon Arm, British Columbia. The eldest child of Arthur Swindells and Amelia Adair Brooke had little memory at the age of two of moving with his family to Switzerland. His father was a professional watercolour artist and supported the family of 9 surviving children by painting landscapes.

When A.A. Brooke finished secondary school he was sent to England before emigrating to Canada in 1890. The first stop in Canada was Manitoba where he learned to farm under the tutelage of Joseph Merry at the Barnsley Farm Home. Four years later, Brooke began working his own farm.

Brooke married Annie Florence Ruth in 1898. Their first son, Harold Arthur, was born at Barnsley two years later. The family moved to Didsbury, Alberta, and two more sons joined the family, Ralph Edward in 1902 and Ernest Cuthbert in 1903. A.A. Brooke worked a homestead and received his Western Land Grant in 1904.

Alberta was not to be the end of the journey. Brooke sold the homestead and its improvements, and moved the household west after purchasing 60 acres of the Goforth farm in the Mt. Ida District near Salmon Arm. They arrived by train in 1907 with two loads of settlers’ effects and set up residence, naming their new home Asterfield.

Still adjusting to retirement, the couple moved again, this time south to another farming community, Cloverdale in the Fraser Valley. Arthur Adair spent his remaining years painting.

Annie Florence passed away December 6th, 1957. After her death, Arthur ached with loneliness and moved to Siska Lodge at Lytton, B.C. to be with his son Harold. He kept busy painting watercolours to sell in the Lodge’s coffee shop.

Arthur Adair was a prolific artist and left a legacy of a significant body of work. The farmer artist sketched images all his life, using his drawings as inspiration for later watercolours. His landscapes depict Switzerland, Ireland, Manitoba, Alberta, Alaska, and British Columbia. Numerous watercolours and sketches are held in private collections, at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the Dufferin Historical Society Museum in Carman, Manitoba and the Salmon Arm Museum. But his best work is said to be Ruth’s baby books that document his daughter's early life.

Arthur died thirteen months after Annie on January 13, 1959.

Harper Honey Family
MS 151 · Family · 1947-1976

Two lifelong residents of Salmon Arm: Henry Ivens (Buzz) Harper and his wife, Reba Mayne (nee Honey) Harper, played a paramount role in the local community.

Reba Mayne Honey was born on November 16th, 1913 in Salmon Arm to parents William John Honey and Agnes Lucy Bond. Furthermore, Henry Harper was born to parents Julia Edith Mary Ivens and Henry Arthur Harper on November 11th, 1909 in Salmon Arm. The parents of Henry Harper were first generation immigrants who were originally from England. Reba Honey’s parents and grandparents were born in Ontario. Her paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Cornwall and her maternal grandparents came from Scotland (Bonds and Baynes).

In his youth, Henry Harper, worked at various sawmills as sawyer, scaler and millwright including the Exchange Mill and Charlie Nakamura’s Mill as well as having his own mill on Mt Ida with his brothers-in-law, Max and Jack Honey. In 1953 he embarked on an economic enterprise for he started his own General Construction Company with another brother-in-law, Arthur (Rocky) Birkelund. Known as Harper & Birkelund, they built many commercial and residential buildings. Following Rocky’s departure, the business became known as Harper Construction. Throughout his lifetime, he was known for his industrious character and deep fondness of nature. Possessing a keen intellect, he studied mathematics and Western Canadian history in his spare time and followed the paths of the explorers and Hudson Bay trails as well as studying the C.P.R. history in BC. Meanwhile, Reba Harper in her younger years, had an incredible aptitude and intelligence for academics, and consequently furthered her studies as she trained as a teacher at the Victoria Normal School. Hereinafter she taught at Gleneden and Notch Hill Schools. Her father as Secretary Treasurer of the School Board for many years felt her to be better suited to teaching than to her dream of nursing.

Both Reba Mayne Harper and Henry Ivens Harper were positioned with fortune to see the critical junctures of the last century. For instance, during the societal, economic, and global quandaries that were brought by the catastrophes of WWI, Reba Harper, alongside her family, spent three years in Saskatchewan during the war. A rare occurrence of when she was not in Salmon Arm.

On May 8th, 1936 Henry Ivens Harper and Reba Mayne Honey were married.
After their marriage Reba became a full-time wife mother to daughter Linda and son John, bookkeeper, newspaper editor, crossword puzzle expert, and a hockey enthusiast.

Reba Mayne Harper died at the age of one hundred and four on January 14th, 2018. Her family described her as the “quiet lynchpin”. She was predeceased by her husband, Henry Harper, who passed away on New Year’s Eve of 1995.

Frank and Laura Marshall
MS 19 · Family · 1939-1983

David Franklin (Frank) Marshall was born April 16, 1900 in Listowel, Ontario. While working as a reporter for the New Westminster Columbian he met Laura Bell Burroughs. The couple married June 14, 1928 and had one child, Denis Paul Marshall in 1933.

Laura was born in Kent County, Ontario February 27, 1899. Her family moved to Chaplin, Saskatchewan, where her father was a general merchant. The family’s next move was to New Westminster in 1921.

The Marshalls made their home at the coast for 16 years. Frank Marshall concluded his 23-year career as a reporter in 1944, purchased the Salmon Arm Observer, and settled into Shuswap life.

It did not take Frank Marshall long to become immersed in his new role. In 1946 Frank was the Charter President of the local Rotary Club, he joined the board of the BC Division of the Canadian Weekly Newspapers’ Association, and successfully ran for alderman - a position he held from 1947 to 1953.

In 1946 Frank was also elected to the Board of the Salmon Arm Community Co-operative Association (later named the Salmar Community Association). The Association’s goal was to buy the Rex Theatre and raise money for a living memorial to those who did not return from the recent World War. The group later built a new community theatre, paid off that debt, and, with proceeds from ticket sales, raised funds for the Salmon Arm Memorial Arena. The community asset was completed in 1958.

Frank Marshall was busy on several fronts. He built a new building for the Observer in 1947 and had a new home constructed on Harris Street in 1948 just a few blocks from the downtown core and Observer building.

When Frank died in 1964 after a lengthy illness, Laura Marshall continued in the family business. Their son, Denis Marshall, took over the position of Publisher. The two capably published the weekly paper until 1976 when it was sold to Lynne and Ian Wickett.

Laura retired to Victoria and died in 1988.

Marshall, D. F.
MS 19 · Family · 1939-1983

David Franklin (Frank) Marshall was born April 16, 1900 in Listowel, Ontario. While working as a reporter for the New Westminster Columbian he met Laura Bell Burroughs. The couple married June 14, 1928 and had one child, Denis Paul Marshall in 1933.

Laura was born in Kent County, Ontario February 27, 1899. Her family moved to Chaplin, Saskatchewan, where her father was a general merchant. The family’s next move was to New Westminster in 1921.

The Marshalls made their home at the coast for 16 years. Frank Marshall concluded his 23-year career as a reporter in 1944, purchased the Salmon Arm Observer, and settled into Shuswap life.

It did not take Frank Marshall long to become immersed in his new role. In 1946 Frank was the Charter President of the local Rotary Club, he joined the board of the BC Division of the Canadian Weekly Newspapers’ Association, and successfully ran for alderman - a position he held from 1947 to 1953.

In 1946 Frank was also elected to the Board of the Salmon Arm Community Co-operative Association (later named the Salmar Community Association). The Association’s goal was to buy the Rex Theatre and raise money for a living memorial to those who did not return from the recent World War. The group later built a new community theatre, paid off that debt, and, with proceeds from ticket sales, raised funds for the Salmon Arm Memorial Arena. The community asset was completed in 1958.

Frank Marshall was busy on several fronts. He built a new building for the Observer in 1947 and had a new home constructed on Harris Street in 1948 just a few blocks from the downtown core and Observer building.

When Frank died in 1964 after a lengthy illness, Laura Marshall continued in the family business. Their son, Denis Marshall, took over the position of Publisher. The two capably published the weekly paper until 1976 when it was sold to Lynne and Ian Wickett.

Laura retired to Victoria and died in 1988.

PMA 08 · Family · 1862 - 1976

George Plummer (1862 – 1934) settled in Parksville in 1887. After first living on a property on the north-west side of Englishman River, the Plummers purchased land in 1889 on the south-east side of the river, built their home and established a farm. George Plummer raised livestock and worked on road crews. In addition, The Plummers had a son, Frank (1885-1972) and two daughters, Harriet (Hattie) (1889 – 1976) and Victoria May (1891 – 1974).
Frank Plummer worked as a teamster for the Alberni to Nanaimo stagecoach line and served in World War I. In 1908, Hattie Plummer married Will McDermid. He had arrived in Parksville from Ontario in the early 1900s and had begun work as a teamster at a logging camp at Englishman River. In 1910, the McDermid

Coombes Family
Family · ca. 1901-ca. 1995

Erna E. Coombes was born in Rossland on 7 September 1901. Erna was educated in Rossland and after two years at Normal School taught at Bellvue on the Arrow Lakes, she taught at MacLean School in Rossland. Archie Coombes was born in Burtell, England on 7 January 1897. Archie and Erna were married in 1928, and their son, Allen, was born in 1934. Erna taught Sunday School for twenty-six years at St. Andrews United Church. She also taught Kindergarten out of the large annex at St. Andrews United Church. Archie and Erna were married for sixty-four years. Archie died on 4 February 1992, and Erna died on 17 February 1995.

Cox Family
Family · ca.1905-ca.1967

Alexander Cox left Liverpool in 1896 and came to Rossland in 1898, where he worked as a miner. He went on to become the Canadian customs officer at Paterson during the late 1920s and into the 1930s. He later became a rancher in Paterson and married Mary Lewis. They had three children: Mary Christine (born 1915), Edmond Thomas (born 1918), and Jane Ethel (born 1920). Edmond became a pilot officer during World War II but went missing in 1943. Helen died in 1961.

Read, Frank
Person · 1911-1994

Frank Read was born on March 1, 1911. In the early 1930s, he became an accomplished oarsman with the Vancouver Rowing Club. Following a back injury, suffered while playing football, that ended his rowing career, he went into the hotel industry. In late 1949, Read agreed to coach the University of British Columbia rowing team which, at the same time, began a formal co-operation with the Vancouver Rowing Club. In recognition of both institutions, it was decided to call these new members "VRC/UBC" oarsmen. Despite very limited resources for UBC’s fledging rowing program, Read focussed on the importance of training and conditioning and instilling in his athletes dedication to the sport.
His intensive training program soon produced results. Competing against other top Canadian teams to represent the country at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, the UBC team was beaten by the Toronto Argonaut club. Two years later, Read’s eight-oared crew represented Canada at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver. There the team won Canada’s first ever gold medal for the eights. The following year, invited by the Duke of Edinburgh to compete against the world’s best at the Henley Regatta in England, the students scored an upset victory over the world champion Russians in the semi-finals, and finished second to the U.S. team in the finals. In 1956 Read lead his rowing teams to the Melbourne Olympics where the coxless four won a gold medal and the eights came a very close second to capture a silver medal – these were the first Olympic medals won by Canada in rowing.
After a brief retirement (1957-60) Read returned to coach the rowing team at the 1960 Rome Olympics. That year, his eights finished second, earning Canada’s only medal at the games. Following the Olympics, Read once again retired, bringing to a close an important era in this country’s rowing history.
Read was also a mentor to those who followed him as rowing coaches. During his first retirement, John Warren coached the UBC team which represented Canada at the 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff, Wales, winning a gold and two silver medals (in the eights, fours, and coxless fours, respectively). Two others, Wayne Pretty and Glen Mervyn, were on the coaching staff for Canada’s rowing teams at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo (resulting in one gold medal in the pairs) and the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.
John Carver in "The Vancouver Rowing Club: A History, 1886-1980" offered the following assessment of Frank Read’s accomplishments:
Starting with almost nothing, operating on the most meagre budgets. he took his crews to the top international competition and, incidentally put himself among the top rowing coaches in the world. He had the drive, and the patience to stand the rugged twice daily grind in all kinds of weather; he demanded discipline and condition, and got them, and he had the
knowledge and knew how to impart it to his crews. He will say to himself that it is the horses in the boats that win races and of course he is right. But no sport demands more coaching than crew rowing and Read supplied it beyond measure.
Frank Read died in Vancouver in 1994.