Research and Writing
I’ve been working on a story
that has a “crime baron” operating in New Westminster, BC in 1881. I’ve found
the research interesting, due to the great changes that were taking place at
the time. However, more about that in a later post.
For now, I was just looking
through some of the material I collected for “The Making of Jake McTavish” (or
Jake) and “Gunfighters, Thieves and Lawmen” (GTL) and thought I would post some
of those items.
The building of this Fort St.
John jail and barracks by the NWMP is mentioned in “The Making of Jake McTavish”.
The top picture is how it
appeared in 1927 and the bottom, how it appeared when I worked on the
surrounding ranch in 1964.
In 1909 it was maned by the
British Columbia Provincial Police (who actually had jurisdiction) and then
abandoned in the late 1920s when the Hudson’s Bay Company moved about 2 miles
north and up out of the Peace River Valley to what was called the “Fish Creek”
area and is the present site of Fort St. John.
The "new" Hudson Bay Post at the "new" site of Fort St. John, 1928
GTL takes place west of
Edmonton in the early 1890s and has to do with some of the unlikely people who,
despite their lack of a proper background, eventually became the developers of
Canadian Agriculture.
It also introduces an
aboriginal policeman. According to a couple of sources I discovered the BC
Provincial Police appointed “Special Constables” (a policeman’s responsibility
but with little training and no pay) very early on in their history when they
were still “Colonial” police (prior to 1872). They also had “Assistant
Constables” who were paid but could be laid off at any time. As a result and
despite the general low opinion of aboriginals throughout the European
immigrant community, the BC Colonial Police and later the BC Provincial Police
included the first aboriginal officers – even if they were usually “Special”
constables and seldom “Assistant”. This policy was carried over into the RCMP (but
not without some years of kicking and screaming) when they took over provincial
policing from the BC Provincial Police in 1950 --- for no apparent reason that
anyone can discover other than political-behind-closed-doors chicanery.
This is not to say that
bigotry did not exist in BC for, as was/is the case anywhere in the world, it
certainly did. That of the most visible nature was, of course, toward the
aboriginals by the “whites” but also by the aboriginals toward the “whites” ---
and the Chinese and the Blacks. And the Chinese toward other Asians, Europeans,
blacks, natives, and all those toward all the others.
Silly?
Damn right, as is bigotry of
any … color.
Sorting furs in the 1890s
However, the first whites in
the BC Interior were trappers who learned their trade from and/or worked with
the natives. Following those immigrants where Hawaiians who landed near to the same
time as the onrush of gold seekers. Since the gold-rushers where from all over
the world they spent their first years in BC hating each other before they
found time to work up some bigotry for the natives or Chinese. As a result of
this history and the relatively few years it took for the population to explode,
more crews were of mixed race and thus each was forced to learn more tolerance than
in some other areas of the world.
This familiarity, along with very
poor pay and a need to understand the workings of diverse societies resulted in
the acceptance of a wide variety of races in the BC Police.
But back to the prairies on
the other side of the mountains – to “Jake” and “GTL”.
The stories also touch on the
development of coal mining and the structure of the North West Mounted Police,
their barracks and district prison at Ft. Saskatchewan.
Much of “Jake” or perhaps the
‘heart of the story’ takes place in 1898 in the same area as “GTL”. However we
also learn something of Jake’s early life as an Ontario farm boy, a Great Lakes
deck-hand, a fresh water fisherman, a cattle ‘tender’, and a ‘wolfer’
attempting to help clear the Canadian Prairies of predators after the devastating
blizzards (yes, plural; one after the other) winter of 1886. Following the rape
and murder of his wife he also spends time trapping on the upper reaches of the
Peace River system.
Peace Country Lake and Cariboo
The first sternwheeler on the Peace River was the St. Charles, launched in 1909.
This is the D.A. Thomas going upriver (probably to Hudson's Hope) about 1920 with Fort St. John Hudson's Bay Post on the opposite bank and just behind her drive-wheel.
Within “GTL” there is mention
of the development of agriculture machinery and at least one of the railroad “connector
lines” to be found in the country.
Sawyer-Massey traction engine made in Hamilton, Ontario about1895
Case traction engine, 50 HP, from about 1915
Within “GTL” there is a look
at some of the disruptions within the NWMP that could have led to its demise
and the steps taken to avoid destruction. There is also mention of early
development of telephone communication within the North West Territories.
Yes, I do enjoy writing these stories and winding facts through them, but I almost enjoy the research as much.
Enjoy --- or click on a book cover to the right and go to my author page.
