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COLONIAL SETTLERS
Isaac Kipp (1839-1921) was born in Ontario. He left for the west at the age of nineteen, arriving in California in December 1858. He mined in California until 1862 when rumours of gold discoveries in the Cariboo district drew him and his brother, Henry, north. They were not successful in their search for gold and returned to Yale. Yale was then at the head of navigation for Fraser River steamboats and was an important staging point for northern bound gold seekers. In Yale, they worked for their cousin, Jonathan Reece, who operated a butcher shop and slaughter business.
Reece found the grasslands in the Chilliwack area suitable for grazing cattle before moving them to Yale for slaughter. Isaac Kipp assisted his cousin in this endeavour. In 1862, Kipp pre-empted land in Chilliwack, acreage that eventually became part of the downtown core of the community. Kipp was a supporter of the Methodist Church and the Liberal party and a leader in the emerging community.
In 1865 he married Mary Ann Nelems (1839-1931). In preparation for frontier life, she studied nursing and surgery, gaining practical experience assisting Dr. Blake, the district doctor. She was the first woman on the Chilliwack Prairie and for 14 years was the only nurse and midwife in the valley east of New Westminster. The couple had ten children
Jonathan Reece (1831-1904) was born in Woodstock, Ontario. He arrived at Fort Victoria in 1858 by way of California, one of the first to arrive for the start of the 1858 gold rush. He achieved some success on the gravel bars located between Fort Hope and Yale. In 1859 Reece and partner, John Lawrence opened a butcher shop in Fort Hope and later established a shop in Yale. Yale was the centre for Fraser River gold operations. Cattle for the butcher business were driven from Oregon to Seattle, put on a steamer to Whatcom (now Bellingham), and then driven up the Whatcom Trail to Chilliwack.
In 1861, Reece pre-empted 270-acres of land, the first pre-emption in the Crown Colony of British Columbia. For a time his cousins, Isaac and James Kipp worked for him, caring for the cattle. In 1869, he sold the butcher shop and took up residence on his farm in Chilliwack.
In 1865, Reece returned to Ontario and in January 1866 married Lucinda Lewis (1844-1909). The couple had four daughters and one son.
Chilliwack’s first agricultural exhibition, in 1873, was held in his barn. The Fair has been a tradition in the community since that date and Reece served as the first President of the Agricultural Association. Reece was active politically, acting as Warden of the Township of Chilliwhack in 1874 and 1875 and a councillor during the 1880s and 1890s. A cairn, located in front of A.D. Rundle Middle School in Chilliwack, commemorates the location of the Reece farm.
Born in Napanee, Ontario, A.C.Wells (1837-1922) came west in 1862 to the gold fields in the Cariboo. He was not successful and left the gold fields broke. In 1863, he went to Yale and turned to his trade as a harness maker. With employment secured he sent for his wife, Sarah M. Wells (nee Hodge) (1835-1921) who still lived in Ontario. The couple had married in 1859. Sarah Wells travelled to her new home with her sister, Jane Evans and Mrs. Susan Forsyth. They travelled to New York City and then by boat to Panama, crossing the isthmus by narrow gauge railway. A boat trip up the coast took them to Victoria where her husband, A.C. Wells, met them.
In 1865, the couple moved to Sardis from Yale. In Sardis Wells managed the property of his brother-in-law Charles Evans who continued to live in Yale. Wells purchased his own land, 400 acres, in 1866 and moved into a simple frame house. Acreage was added to the property over the ensuing years so that Wells became one of the largest landholders in the Sardis area.
Wells prospered in his farming endeavours. In 1885, he built the first creamery in the area, that later became a co-operative, the first in British Columbia. Wells’ purebred Ayrshire cattle were, in 1906, recognized as the best in the Province. As early as 1907, Wells exported stock to Japan and Korea.
He was trustee and treasurer of the first church in the community, the Atchelitz Methodist Church that was built in 1869. He was Chilliwack’s first Justice of the Peace, Reeve of the Municipality of Chilliwack for various terms and an active member of the Chilliwack Agricultural Society.
Sarah and Allan Casey Wells had two children, Lillian and Edwin. Edwin took over the farm after his father’s retirement. In turn, Edwin’s son Oliver continued the family tradition until the early 1970s when the farm was sold and subdivided.
English born Charles Evans (1839-1871) arrived in Chilliwack from Ontario in 1865 and acquired land on the east bank of Atchelitz Creek. Shortly afterwards two more 160-acre lots were added. An 1866 farm report noted that Evans owned 500 acres of land with fifty cultivated acres producing 2,000 bushels of grain, 50 tons of prairie hay and 800 bushels of potatoes. Eight head of cattle, eight hogs, fifty chickens, fifty cows and large barns were located on the property. Evans, who was trained as a bookkeeper, gained his income from his position as manager of the Bernard Express Company in Yale. Yale was then the starting point for the stage lines travelling to the Cariboo gold fields. John Forsyth and A.C. Wells, worked on the Evans’ property improving the land.
Jane Wells (1835-1921) was born in Napanee, Ontario in 1835. In 1863 she left her home in Ontario and came west with her sister-in-law, Mrs. A.C. Wells. She resided with her brother and his wife until her marriage to Charles Evans in 1865. After the marriage the Evans’ lived in Yale. The couple had two sons and one daughter. After Charles’ death in 1871 Jane Evans moved to Chilliwack with her small children and successfully farmed the property her husband had acquired. Her two sons continued to farm the land after her death.
Chester Chadsey (1837-1910) was the eldest of a family of four brothers and two sisters who came to British Columbia from Ontario. Chester and his brother James were the first to arrive in 1862. Supplying gold seekers in the Cariboo with hay and butter proved to be more profitable to the two brothers than seeking gold. Canned butter, for example, sold for $1.25 to $1.50 per pound while hay sold for $20 to $50 a ton.
In 1866, Chadsey returned to Ontario to marry Hannah Fiddick (1846-1919), who was born in Colbourne Ontario. The couple had two sons.
Chadsey's dairy and grain farm, that grew to 340 acres, was considered a showcase for area residents. Their farm was located in the Sumas (Greendale) area.
William Chadsey (1843-1906) was born in Prince Edward County, Ontario. In 1866 he married Mary Jane Town (1845-1936). The couple moved to Chilliwack in 1867 to join three brothers and a sister who had arrived earlier. They raised a family of twelve children.
William along with brother James initiated a new method of hermetically sealing two, five and ten pound cans of butter that were shipped to the Cariboo gold fields. In 1868, William and his brother, James, reportedly shipped 2500 pounds of butter to the Cariboo gold fields. In 1869, 600 pounds were shipped. In the 1870s, the two brothers built the area’s first gristmill that was, in 1880, relocated to Centreville (downtown Chilliwack). The Chadseys lived on a farm in the Sumas (Greendale) area.
Mrs. Chadsey was an active member of the Methodist Church and the United Church.
In 1862, David Miller (1830-1903) came west with his wife, Laura (1834-1914), and brothers-in-laws, Chester and James Chadsey. She was the first white woman to enter the valley. The Millers settled on land at the east end of Chilliwack Mountain. In 1867, Miller opened a store and post office and this location, Miller’s Landing, became an important stop for paddlewheel boats travelling along the Fraser River. While the business prospered, the Miller’s continued to farm. Their land holdings eventually amounted to about 900 acres.
In 1877 Miller erected a large stone house that became a local landmark. He was a member of the first Municipal Council and a respected member of the Methodist Church. The Millers had one child, Elizabeth. Laura died in 1914 at Long Beach, California while spending the winter with Mrs. W. A. Rose, Mrs. G. W. Chadsey and Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Kipp.
George Washington and Eliza Jane Chadsey
Ontario born George Chadsey (1846-1910) and his brother William arrived in the area in 1866. After living for short times in New York, Michigan and British Columbia’s Cariboo area, they joined their two brothers, Chester and James and brother-in-law David Miller and his wife. George pre-empted land in an area now known as Greendale.
In 1869 Chadsey returned to Ontario to marry Brighton Ontario born Eliza Jane Thorne (1849-1931) and they returned to the Fraser Valley in 1870. Mrs. Chadsey was highly esteemed for her neighbourliness and involvement in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Women's Institutes and the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church.
In 1887, Chadsey was appointed Registrar of County Court of New Westminster and a notary public. He was registrar of births, deaths and marriages, collector of the municipal dyking tax and agent for the Vancouver Power Company. In 1899, he gave up farming and the Chadseys’ moved into Chilliwack. He was involved with the Methodist Church. At the time of his death, he was Clerk of the County Court at Chilliwack. The Chadsey’s had three sons and three daughters.
James Chadsey (1839-1908) arrived in 1862 with his brother Chester. He homesteaded in the Sumas (Greendale) area. In 1868, with brother William, they initiated a new method of hermetically sealing two, five and ten pound cans of butter for shipment to the Cariboo gold fields. In 1871, James brought the first reaper to the Valley and in 1879 built the first gristmill.
James Chadsey married Harriet Hall (1853-1935) in 1868. She was the daughter of Corporal William Hall, a Royal Engineer who came to British Columbia in 1858. She was born at Gibraltar and with her parents came to British Columbia by way of Cape Horn, in what was undoubtedly a heroic journey. The Royal Engineers fulfilled the role of constructing roads, surveying and, together with the Royal navy, acted as the Crown Colony of British Columbia's first police force. The couple had seven children
Reuban Nowell (1829-1907) was born in the United States in Bangor, Maine. At an early age he apparently ran away from home and became a cabin boy on a sailing ship that travelled from Maine to San Francisco. Nowell first arrived in British Columbia in 1857 where he worked as a labourer on an American crew surveying the boundary between Canada and United States.
When rumours of gold discoveries reached Nowell he left his job and travelled to the Thompson River. Family oral histories suggest that during the winter of 1857/58 he broke his leg near the StÇ:l\ village of Skwah, near the mouth of the Chilliwack River. He spent the winter there, formed a ‘country marriage’ and fathered a child. In 1858, Nowell using boards from a disassembled long house built a hostel on the river for use by the gold seekers. Thus he became Chilliwack’s first businessman and first Euro-Canadian resident of the area.
In 1862, he pre-empted 160 acres of land east of Young Road, in the heart of what became downtown Chilliwack. Nowell was active in the community and served on the Municipal Council.
He married Swedish born Lisa Osland (? – 1926). The couple had six children. Lisa Nowell died in Arizona where she spent her retirement years.
William Hall (1827-1913) was born in England in 1827. Hall attended medical school but left before qualifying and joined the Royal Engineers where he learned his trade as a stone mason. He married English born Ann Bucklelow (1824–1897) in 1846, prior to his 1848 posting to Gibraltar. He served in the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856. Hall, accompanied by his wife and first three children, arrived in the Crown Colony of British Columbia in 1859, as a member of the Royal Engineers. Five more children were added to the Hall family after 1858. Hall’s duties included constructing parts of the Cariboo Road, through the Fraser Canyon, and the Hope-Similkameen road.
During this initial period the family moved from Sapperton (New Westminster) to Yale where Mrs. Hall operated a boarding house.
In 1863, the Columbia detachment of the Royal Engineers disbanded. Hall chose to stay in the colony to claim a free military grant of 150 acres. Hall’s original land holdings were located on Unsworth Road. By 1878, however, the Halls had moved their residence to property on the west end of Chilliwack Mountain.
Hall continued to practice his trade as a stone mason and worked on the construction of many local homes, and carved gravestones.
Volkert Vedder (1808-1898) was born in Schenectady, New York. Around 1830, he married Agnes Swart (ca. 1813-1852). After his wife’s death, Vedder left New York for California. News of gold discoveries in British Columbia undoubtedly lured Vedder north. By 1860, Vedder with his sons Adam and Albert travelled to the Cariboo gold fields. His son John died in California. The family returned to the Chilliwack area where Vedder pre-empted 160 acres of land. He later added to these holdings. Vedder’s land hugged a mountain that now bears his name, Vedder Mountain. Vedder was a strong member of the Methodist Church. His retirement years were spent at his son Adam’s house where he passed away peacefully in his 90th year.
Adam Vedder (1834-1905) was 26 years old when he arrived in British Columbia in 1860. He was an American from New York State who travelled west with his brothers, Albert and John and father, Volkert. He spent several years in Hope and North Bend working as a builder and butcher, before pre-empting land in the Sardis area in 1868 and became a prominent Sardis dairy farmer.
Vedder served as a Warden of the Township of Chilliwhack, a Member of the Provincial Parliament and as a Postmaster (1888-1894). He opened the first post office in his home at the junction of Coqualeetza and Skowkale roads (now Vedder and Knight roads). He was married twice, first to Alathea Sicker (1829-1892) from Napanee, Ontario and then to Elizabeth Jackman (1863-1940), originally from Owen Sound, Ontario.
Before her marriage to Vedder, Alathea was married to John Sicker (1831-1875). Sicker arrived in 1866. In 1867, he took up 160 acres of land east of Luckakuck Creek, part of which was later, in 1893, to become the Hulbert Hop Yards. He drowned in 1875 during a freshet on the Luckakuck.
James Bertrand (1829-1933) left his hometown of Exeter, Illinois and came to live in Blaine, Washington in 1853 by way of California. He married Mary Ann John (1842-1918), the sister of local StÇ:l\ chief Captain John, in 1859. They had nine children. In 1859, Betrand worked on the boundary survey, siting small iron monuments along the Washington/British Columbia border. In that same year, he came to Chilliwack where he operated a mercantile business. The Fraser River gold rush was in full swing during this time. He pre-empted land with Reuben Nowell in 1863, a section of land that now forms the eastern part of downtown Chilliwack. In 1871, he left Chilliwack and settled near Lynden, Washington, on land known as Bertrand Prairie. He returned to Blaine in 1886 and operated a general store and worked in real estate for several years. In 1890, he went to Alaska and in later years explored much of northern British Columbia. He died in Blaine at the age of 103.
Bertrand is credited as the man who put the ‘whack’ in Chilliwhack. The original spelling was Chilukweyuk. Until 1980, when amalgamation took place, the spelling for the Township of Chilliwhack differed from the City of Chilliwack.
Thomas Shannon and William Shannon
William (1843-1928) and Thomas Shannon (1843-1909) arrived in British Columbia by way of Ireland and Ontario. In 1862, they headed west to the gold producing Cariboo area. While Thomas worked a gold claim, William operated a successful freight business. In 1865, the brothers left the Cariboo, taking up a tract of land just east of the town site of Chilliwack, on land adjacent to a small hill that today bears their name. In 1872, a third brother, Joe, arrived. William became a member of the first Council of the Municipality of Chilliwack in 1872. In 1874, Joe bought land closer to New Westminster in an area that became the community of Cloverdale. Thomas and William followed in 1875. William became a successful Vancouver businessman while Joe and Thomas remained in Cloverdale. Thomas married Mary Robertson and the couple had four sons and one daughter. Thomas was the first Warden of the Municipality of Surrey and an influential member of the Surrey farming community.
In 1859, Irish born Matthew Hall (1825-1914) came to Canada as a Sergeant with the Royal Engineers, a Crimean War veteran. He was discharged from the Royal Engineers in 1863 and, in 1866, settled on 160 acres of land in South Sumas (Atchelitz). In 1857 he married Harriet Hall (1823-1907), a sister to Corporal William Hall. The couple had four children.
Henry Nelems (1844-1915) was born in Ontario, one of eleven children born to William and Eliza Nelems. He received limited schooling before beginning his working life. In 1864, he left Ontario for California. In 1865, he made a journey north to join his sister and brother-in-law in the new settlement of Chilliwack. He purchased a 250 acre farm in 1868. In 1869 he left the area and returned to Ontario and worked on the family farm. Thirty years later on the death of his father, he sold everything and returned to Chilliwack and bought a 55 acre farm, 1.6 kilometres from town. He was married twice, first to Sarah Jane Davis and, then to, Isabelle Howell.
Born in Woodstock, Ontario, David Nelmes (1850-1923) tasted adventure as a soldier for the Queen's Own Rifles starting at the age of 16. In 1870, after his 1869 discharge, he left for the west, travelling to Chilliwack via New York, the Isthmus of Panama, San Francisco and Victoria. He came to Chilliwack to join his sister, Mary Ann, who had married Isaac Kipp in 1865. He owned a farm about 4 kilometres from Chilliwack in Cheam.
In 1875, he married Annie Danbrook (ca. 1852-1927), of Ontario. Annie Danbrook had travelled west from Ontario with Lucy Ada Hopkins who came to marry Horatio Webb. The couple had eight sons and one daughter.
Matthew Sweetman (c.1833-1895) arrived in Chilliwack in August 1862 from the Cariboo gold fields. He took up land on the banks of the Luckakuk River, living first in a tent along its banks. He was a farmer who accumulated a large property and was well off. He was 62 when he passed away. No record of a marriage or children has been found.
Born in Wales, Thomas Lewis (c.1830-1882) arrived in Sumas in late 1862. He married Mary Ann Richards (ca.1839-1921) about 1857. He returned to Wales around 1872, ten years after his original trip to Canada, for his wife and two children. Twin daughters were born at Sumas in 1873. Lewis was a councillor for the Township of Chilliwhack in 1879/80. He was also Justice of the Peace for the Chilliwack District from 1880 until 1882. While attending court proceedings in New Westminster in his capacity as Justice of the Peace he was drowned when trying to cross the Fraser River from New Westminster in a canoe to return to his home.
Mrs. W. A. Rose [Clara Chadsey]
Clara Sophronia Chadsey (1857-1922) was the sister of Chester, James, George and William Chadsey. After her father's death in 1870 in Ontario, she moved west with her mother, residing with her sister Laura and husband David Miller. Clara was married first to Alex Hendry and then later to William Rose.
Born in Ontario, Donald McGillivray (1838-1913) left, at the age of 13, with his parents for New York State where his parents farmed. In 1860, he travelled west, working first for the Puget Mill in Washington State and then operating a pack train on the Cariboo gold rush trail. After he sold his company to the Western Union Telegraph Company around 1864, he worked, for a short time, constructing telegraph lines. He then settled on Sumas Prairie and operated a dairy and stock-raising farm until 1903, when he moved into the town of Chilliwack. During this time he operated the Centreville General Store.
Susan Hall (1853-1880), daughter of Corporal William Hall of the Royal Engineers, was born in Gibraltar. She arrived in Chilliwack in 1866. She married Donald McGillivray in 1868. The couple had six children. She died shortly after giving birth to her sixth child.
In 1881, McGillvray married Julia Ann Andrews (b. 1860). There were five more children by this marriage.
McGillivray was an active leader, serving as a Magistrate, Justice of the Peace, Member of the Provincial Parliament and Reeve of the Municipality of Chilliwhack. He was a Conservative and a Methodist.
George Clarkson (1844-1877) came west in 1861. He was initially engaged in business ventures but adopted the Methodist Church as his mission. He returned to Ontario where he married and studied for the ministry. Returning to British Columbia he temporarily accepted a position as a collector of Customs at Burrard Inlet. It is known that in the summer of 1869, a Methodist Church was built at Atchelitz with Reverend Clarkson as its first minister, staying for a two year period. He was living in New Westminister at that the time of his death, leaving a young widow.
Originally from Napanee, Ontario, John Forsyth (c.1835-1882) arrived in British Columbia in 1862. He was a carpenter at Yale and Chilliwack in the 1860s and settled on a farm near Chilliwack Mountain.
Susan Dowling (c.1827-1915) was born in Napanee, Ontario and arrived in British Columbia in 1863 with Mrs. Sarah Wells and Jane Evans. That year she married John Forsyth in Victoria. She was engaged in farming for thirty years and was one of the early residents of the Valley.
Richard and Sarah Elizabeth Hodgson
An engineer by occupation, Richard Whittam Hodgson (1834 - 1909) came to Canada from Yorkshire, England. He first settled in Kingston, Ontario but left for British Columbia in 1863. After spending some years as a miner in the Cariboo, he returned to his profession and was engaged in running a steamboat on the Fraser River. He was a farmer at Sumas (now Greendale). Later, he worked for the Moodyville Sawmill Company, for seventeen years, as a chief engineer, resigning in 1886. The family was then in the express business in Vancouver.
Sarah Elizabeth Wilson (c.1837 - 1901) was born in Rochester, New York. She came to British Columbia in 1866 from Kingston, Ontario, three years after her husband, with their eldest son. They came to the Chilliwack area in 1868. The couple had five children.
Alexander Peers (1837-1899) was born in Woodstock, Ontario, the son of a prosperous Ontario farmer. He obtained his education in public schools in Ontario and became a teacher, but in 1869, seeking his fortune, he travelled to British Columbia where he pre-empted land. In 1872, he taught school in the area’s first school, at Sumas (now called Greendale). It is not clear how long he remained a teacher but it is known that he remained in the area until about 1882, becoming a respected and prosperous farmer. In 1874 he married Margaret Wells (1833-1913), sister of Sardis farmer Allen Casey Wells and Jane Evans. At one time she resided with her husband at Sardis, and owned a farm on Knight Road that was later purchased by Shelton Knight.
Peers was a supporter of the Methodist Church, a Liberal and temperance advocate. He retired to New Westminster.
A Welshman, he owned land in 1870 in Sumas (now Greendale) . He was a brother to Mrs. Thomas Lewis.
Chilliwack's first historian, Horatio Webb (1852-1936) arrived in Chilliwack in 1870. His brother-in-law, George Ashwell, was already in Canada when Webb made the decision to leave England. Webb first worked as a farmhand for Jonathan Reece. He eventually purchased land in Sardis. In 1873, he promoted the first plowing match in the Fraser Valley and won first prize. He was one of the first promoters of the Chilliwack Fair and was a life member of the Victoria, Chilliwack and Canadian Pacific Exhibition Association Fair Boards.
He married Lucinda Hopkins (1850-1920) in 1875 in Jonathan Reece's home. The couple had seven children. It was the first double wedding of the Valley, David T. Nelmes and Annie Danbrook being the other couple. In 1872, Webb purchased property in Sardis from A.C. Wells. He assisted in bringing the material for the first Anglican Church, by canoe, from Port Douglas in 1873. He worked as Deputy Sheriff, assessor and collector for the municipality.
George Randall and Sarah Ann Ashwell
George Ashwell (1831-1913) was born in Bedfordshire, England and, at an early age became a landscape
gardener. In 1855, he immigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto in a career as a carpenter. In 1860 he moved to New Westminster and, in partnership with Thomas Cunningham, operated a hardware business. He returned to England in 1867 to marry Sarah Ann Webb (1845-1916) and then returned to New Westminster. She was the sister of Horatio Webb and was a life long and devoted member of the Chilliwack Methodist Church. She was known for her generous and gracious hospitality. The couple had six children.When the partnership with Cunningham dissolved in 1871, the Ashwells moved to Chilliwack. For a few years Ashwell operated a general store on Yale Road, east of the intersection now known as Five Corners before he moved the store to Chilliwack Landing when he purchased the stock of a store previously operated by Robert Garner. This important riverboat landing was the commercial centre for the small but growing rural settlement. Ashwell moved his store closer to Five Corners in 1888, the emerging centre of the community. Ashwell’s Departmental Store became a key business on Wellington Avenue and at one point branch stores were opened in Rosedale and Sardis. He was a staunch Methodist and a strong supporter of the Conservative Party, running once, narrowly losing in his bid to represent Chilliwack in the Provincial Legislature. He was a Justice of the Peace, first secretary of the Chilliwack Agricultural Society, Municipal Clerk and as Reeve of the Municipality.
In 1856, Thomas Crosby (1840-1914), with his parents, left his home in England and came to live in Ontario. His desire to minister to native people led him to the west coast of Canada. He arrived in Victoria in 1862 and in 1863 went to Nanaimo to take charge of an all-Native school. He travelled up and down the coast and into the interior, preaching in both native and English languages. He paddled a dugout canoe from Nanaimo to the mainland and travelled by pony and on foot for many miles. In 1869, he conducted a camp meeting on the banks of the Atchelitz Creek and from his works a church was built on land donated by Charles Evans and A.C. Wells.
In 1873, Crosby visited Ontario for a short while, then returned west, going north to Port Simpson, near Prince Rupert where he ministered for 25 years. His mission work on the coast took him north to Alaska, east to Hazelton, west to the Queen Charlotte Islands and south to Queen Charlotte Sound. Friends of his mission work provided him with a little steamboat named "Glad Tidings". He travelled many miles in the steamer, ministering as far south as Victoria. The "Glad Tidings" was wrecked while in service and was replaced by a new missionary boat named in his honour the "Thomas Crosby”.
Thomas Crosby married Emma Douse in 1874. They had six children; three of whom died at a young age.
Reverend Crosby returned to Chilliwack in 1899 and retired to Vancouver in 1907.
James Kipp came to Chilliwack from Yale in 1862 with his cousin, Isaac Kipp. He was among the early settlers in the Chilliwack Valley. He bought 160 acres on the Chilliwack Prairie in November 1862 but sold this land in 1865 and returned to Ontario.
Born in Ontario, Henry Kipp (1842-1930) left home when he was only 16 years old and joined his elder brother Isaac in Bakersfield, California. In 1864, he decided to go to Barkerville in the Cariboo. He arrived in Victoria, crossed to New Westminster and canoed to Yale. He then walked from Yale to Barkerville but he returned to Yale where he worked for a time as a butcher for his cousin Jonathan Reece.
In 1870, he travelled east and married Caroline Ann Trenamen (1852-1926) in 1871. The couple had seven children.
Kipp’s pre-emption was located near what became the commercial centre of Chilliwack. He was a prominent Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He farmed keeping cattle, sheep and Berkshire hogs, but at heart he was a horticulturist. His fruit growing operation was recognized throughout the area. He served for a number of years as member of the Municipal Council and was a member of the school board.
John McCutcheon (1842-1926) was born in Ireland and arrived in British Columbia in 1862. For two years he farmed at Comox on Vancouver Island. His sense of adventure soon drew him away from the farming life. He worked for a short while with the Collin’s Overland Telegraph Company, that was constructing a telegraph to Europe by way of Canada, Alaska and Siberia. However, when a cable was successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean these plans were abandoned. McCutcheon found himself on the Skeena River in charge of the Collin’s Overland Telegraph Company’s supplies. He next worked for Western Union Telegraph Company in Bellingham, Washington, transferring to Chilliwack in 1867 where he continued to work as a telegraph operator.
In 1870, he married South African born Caroline Mercy Morey (1854-1926), daughter of a Royal Engineer.. She arrived in British Columbia in 1859 with her parents. The couple resided on their farm for the next 35 years and had four children.
McCutcheon served as the first Postmaster at Chilliwack from 1872 to 1874, the first Reeve of the Township of Chilliwack in 1873 and was one of the first Wardens of St. Thomas’ Anglican Church.
Richard Willoughby (d. 1904) prospered beyond his wildest hopes in the diggings of the Cariboo. He had the soul of a miner, not that of a farmer and preferred hunting to tilling so he did not stay very long in the Valley. While in the Cariboo, he discovered and named the Lowhee Creek, a small stream that flowed into Williams Creek. He named the creek in honour of the "Great Lowhee", a secret society at Yale, in which he was a prominent member. The Victoria Colonist, September 23, 1861, said that Willoughby had come down to Yale, after six weeks of work, with $13,000, a fortune in those days.
Willoughby tried his hand at farming in the Chilliwack area but only lasted for a few years. In 1869 he left for the north again seeking his fortune in the Cassier and Omineca regions. He died in Nome, Alaska.
John Blanchard homesteaded at the place now known as Cottonwoods Corners. He was one of the first councillors in 1873 and was re-elected in 1874, 1875 and 1876. Together with Isaac and Henry Kipp and Reuban Nowell, he bought a 10 horsepower threshing machine. He died in the second half of the 1870s. He was married but the name of his wife is not known. The couple had three children.
Robert C. Garner (1832-1912) was an American from Jackson City, Missouri who arrived in Chilliwack in 1864. He farmed in the Deroche and Chilliwack areas before opening Chilliwack's first store in a log building in 1867. In 1869, he married Alice Joseph and they had seven children. Garner was the Postmaster from 1874 to 1876 before selling his stock to the Ashwells.
Jacob Jesperson Sperry (1827-1905) arrived in Chilliwack in 1868. He was one of the old timers in British Columbia and had driven a team on the Cariboo Road in the early 1870s. He met Isaac Kipp in the gold rush days and lived with the Kipps for many years. He died of ‘dropsy’ at the residence of E.A.Kipp.
Samuel Greer (1843-1925) was originally from Ireland. He apparently left Ireland in the early 1860s for the United States where he served in the American Civil War. Biographical data is sketchy but suggests that he may have left the United States to return to Ireland where, in 1866, he was married. In 1867, he left Ireland with his wife, travelling by way of Cape Horn, to Victoria. His ultimate destination was Barkerville, the major gold producing area in British Columbia. He met with indifferent success before moving to Chilliwack before1870. He first worked on Jonathan Reece's farm. He moved to Vancouver in 1885, attracted by rumours that the Canadian Pacific Railway was about to build a terminus somewhere around English Bay. His was involved in a land dispute with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Kitsilano Point, a dispute that led to a shooting and his imprisonment.
John Willie came to Chilliwack in 1868. He married a Native woman. By 1872, he was residing in Oakland, California and had made a fortune selling "Willy's Discovery"; a cure for nearly all ills that flesh is heir to.
Robert Kennedy (c.1842-1902) came to Chilliwack in 1870. A public meeting was held at his house on May 7, 1873 for the purpose of organizing an agricultural society.
He died in Ladner where he had resided for some years, but was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery. He was married and had at least one daughter.
John Hardison (1825-1894), an American from Missouri, arrived in Chilliwack in 1864, after stops in Oregon and California. For eleven years he worked for Isaac Kipp. He married in 1863 and the couple had five children. His death certificate lists the cause of death as consumption and his religion as Methodist.
Stewart supposedly arrived in Chilliwack in 1864 and moved to Harrison Mills ca.1876.
Fraser York’s (1858-1941) parents, Thomas and Anne Marie York and sister Phoebe, arrived in Nanaimo in 1854 from England. Thomas was recruited to work in developing the coal mines owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1858, when gold was found near Yale, Thomas moved his family to this centre of gold mining activity. He quickly realized that there was more money to make providing shelter for the miners and constructed the first boarding house in Yale. It was here, in a half-finished structure that a second child, Fraser, was born to Thomas and Marie.
In 1865, the family moved to Sumas Prairie, settling into a successful farming life. Fraser received most of his education in New Westminster before beginning his working life in Yale where he ran the Oriental Hotel. In 1880, he married Josephine MacDonald. The young couple moved to a 160-acre farm on Sumas Prairie. This land was given to York in 1876 to honour his status as the first white child to be born on the Mainland of British Columbia. The farming life held little appeal to York. He eventually became the customs officer at the Whatcom Road port of entry, a job he held for 23 years.
Mary Jane Kipp (1866-1953), eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Kipp, was born in 1866, the first white child born in Chilliwack. At the age of eight she was sent to New Westminster to begin her schooling. Fortunately a local school was started the following year and she was able to return to Chilliwack. In 1883, at the age of 17, she married William Knight. Knight operated a sawmill in Popcum where the couple resided for the next 12 years before moving into Chilliwack.
Mrs. Knight, a self trained piano and organ player, was much in demand to play at the Methodist Church.
As a result of the 1858 gold rush, 30,000 newcomers entered British Columbia, in the space of a few months. The Sto:lo place within society quickly became an afterthought for a colonial government more concerned with the pre-emption of land and road building.
No attempts were ever made to officially extinguish Sto:lo title to the land through treaties as specified in British, and later Canadian law. Moreover it was not until six years later, in 1864, that First Nation reserves were even marked off in the Chilliwack area. By this time a great deal of the Fraser Valley had already been pre-empted by newly arrived settlers.
In 1864, Sergeant William McColl, a surveyor with the Royal Engineers, was asked by Sir James Douglas to mark off “all lands claimed by the Indians”. Douglas’ instructions stated that in no case was McColl to lay off a reserve under 100 acres. Unfortunatley after McColl finished his work he died and Douglas retired. Settlers in Chilliwack complained that the reserves were too large and their irregular pre-emptions should be recognized. Police Superintendant Chartres Brew was dispatched to the area and set up reserves based on ten acres per person, a considerable reduction from the acreage propsed by Douglas. Although the settlers pre-emptions “failed to comply with government requirements” they were recognized.
By 1868, ten years after the initial influx of gold seekers, the Sto:lo land base was reduced to a few reserves, largely on flood-prone lands or lands considered marginal.
The roots of land claims date from this period. Under pressure from settlers, the Colonial Government sided with the settlers by not recognizing or even attempting to understanding how the Sto:lo used the land.
Names
- Isaac and Mary Kipp
- Johnathan and Lucinda Reece
- Allen Casey and Sarah Wells
- Charles and Jane Evans
- Chester and Hannah Chadsey
- William and Mary Jane Chadsey
- David and Laura Miller
- George Washington and Eliza Jane Chadsey
- Reuben and Lisa Nowell
- William and Ann Hall
- Volkert Vedder
- Adam Swart Vedder
- James Curtis Bertrand
- Thomas Shannon and William Shannon
- Matthew and Harriet Hall
- Henry Nelmes
- David Thomas and Annie Nelmes
- Matthew Sweetman
- Thomas and Mary Anne Lewis
- Mrs W.A. Rose (Clara Chadsey)
- Donald McGillivray
- Rev. George Clarkson
- John and Susan Forsyth
- Richard and Sarah Elizabeth Hodgson
- Alexander and Margaret Peers
- Charles Morgan Richards
- Horatio and Lucinda Webb
- George Randall and Sarah Ann Ashwell
- Rev. Thomas Crosby
- James Kipp
- Henry Kipp
- John and Caroline McCutcheon
- Richard Willoughby
- John Blanchard
- Robert Craig Garner
- JJ Sperry
- Samuel Greer
- Dr John Willie
- Robert Kennedy
- John Hardison
- John Steward
- Fraser York
- Jennie Kipp
- Pre-emptions
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