Early Fulford 1900 – 1912
When David and Clara Maxwell moved to Fulford, the only thing there would be the Government Wharf. They moved there around 1906, and they lived there until their death, both dying 6 months apart in the year1966. Clara inherited $500 from her dad’s estate and purchased property on Morningside Road with her money.
Clara and David were either the first or second family settling in Fulford. Clara’s brother Adolph Trage may have been the first. We will get to him later.
David Maxwell was from Burgoyne Bay and Clara Trage was from Beaver Point. When they married, they bought property on Morningside Road., building their house near Weston Creek. The house still stands today.
They farmed their property, their produce not for the market, but for their own personal use. They had cows, pigs, chickens. They planted many fruit trees, and had a big productive garden. Their house was at the end of Morningside Road. Across Weston Creek was their chicken house and yard.
David Maxwell worked on the sealing boats, he was a logger, a fisherman, and he was in the First World War .
Bertha and Roby Strelly Daykin
Clara sold/gave her sister part of her property to make her home. Bertha Trage married Roby Strelly Daykin. They lived on Morningside Road by the area near Stowel Creek. They had 4 children.
Roby was a boat builder, and an seaman., he eventually worked on the Cy Peck. Bertha was a school teacher. She had used her inheritance money for more education.
John Mollet
Alexander John and Maud (Lee) Mollet, farmed the property where the marinas are now. They moved there when they got married in 1907. I believe John farmed and sold his produce to market. They had a wonderful garden and loved showing it off.
Adolph Trage
Adolph Trage built the house that Bruce Patterson lives in today. Adolph inherited the property of his dad which was a large piece of property from Beaver Point, Menhenick Road area to Fulford. I am not exactly sure if the Trage property went all the way to Adolphs house, and that when he sold the property, he kept it for himself, or if he purchased it from another owner. One day I will check it out through Land Registry.
I can safely say that the three Trage children were of the first to settle in Fulford.
Adolph inherited the property with the stipulation that he look after his mother until her death. Bob Akerman remembers accompanying his grandmother, Granny Gyves, when she went to visit Susannah Trage at Adolph’s house. Adolph was a logger. He married Florence Conery, but unfortunately Florence died very young, leaving Adolph two young children to care for.
Albert Smith
Albert Smith and his wife owned the property where Bruce Patterson’s store is now.
I could not find a date as to when they arrived, but on a map dated 1912, their name is on it. They ran a boarding house there. Bob Akerman remembers a boarding house called “Dolly’s Boarding House.” He said it was a red building. I am not sure if it is one and the same.
Albert started a launch ferry service, although he did not run it on a regular schedule. He became discouraged with the ferry service when he ran his boat up on a reef and was stranded overnight.
He bought one of the first Ford cars, a Model T. I have no knowledge is source of money. His property was from his home through to the Maxwell property line to the East and the Mollet property line to the North.
The Core – blue
Robert and Anna McBride arrived in 1926, purchasing at least part of the Smith property. He was living where Bruce Patterson’s store is now. I don’t know how extensive his property was, but I believe he did own the property where Elaine and Dan Fraser are on Tahouney Road. This may not be, as Eva Horsburgh thinks Pattersons bought the property from the Tahouney family.
Robert built a private school in 1928 and it opened with 10 students and the teacher was Bertha Daykin. This building is the one Kay Catlin lived in.
Robert McBride had a paralyzing stroke and so he moved to Vancouver and the school closed.
Fred and Elsie Cudmore bought the property in 1927.
Up until this point Fulford has been slowly changing, but with Fred Cudmore coming, it started to change quite dramatically.
Bob Akerman tells me that Fred had a launch, and he used to sell and deal with Releigh Products. Bob believes he used Adolph’s house as his storage and display area for the product.
Fred built the small houses along the east side of Fulford-Ganges, I am not sure if they were for sale or for rental.
In 1927, Fred opened an ice cream stall on the wharf, as ice cream was delivered once a week.
In 1931 he opened a store and post office.
Arthur Cudmore, Fred’s brother opened a blacksmith shop at the site where the McBride house was (where Bruce’s store is).
WD Patterson
Bill Patterson decided to open a store in Fulford. He purchased his building from Fred Cudmore in 1930. He left his wife to run the Beaver Point store and post office, and he would drive to Fulford to run that store on his own. He also offered delivery service which worked out well for the more rural people. I believe he purchased the feed shed from Mouat’s which was on Fulford Wharf.
Crawfords
Mrs. & Mrs Crawford and their two sons arrived in Fulford in 1934, and they rented the basement suite of the house where Bruce’s store is now. Mr. Crawford was a logger and he came to work for Jack Fletcher. This house burned down in 1939 and they started renting Kay Catlin’s house, which was also at that time owned by Cudmore. They moved off island in 1944. Len Crawford told me that after the house burned down, Gordon Cudmore used that area for a shooting range.
Mr. Crawford had a shop opposite Maude’s home on Morningside where he kept his trucks and equipment.
With the Crawfords coming, it also brought the Grosarts. Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Grosart were sisters.
James Grosart came over to SSI to keep Mr. Crawford’s book and also to do bookkeeping as a business in the community. Grosarts stayed on living here in Fulford after the Crawfords left, they bought the house on Morningside Road, by Stowell Creek, and the big cedar tree. They had two daughters and one son. James then had his office on the Fulford Ganges Road, I believe it was the building James Fogerty is in now.
Orchard Road
I haven’t been able to get very much detail for Orchard Road. I will just name off some of the residents. Hewitt’s lived on the corner (Edith Yardley’s old place). Fred and Jean Hollings lived next door. Fred was a logger, and also was interested in collecting Pink
Rhodenite. There was a school teacher named Mrs. Seymour, Rex and Marg Daykin lived there, I guess until their house got too small and they moved to Ganges.
The Hamilton’s had rentals on top of the hill. This Hamilton is not the same as the Isabella Point Hamiltons).
Tahouney Road
There is a discrepancy here as to when the Tahouney family left. His name was Joseph Henry Tahouney, and they moved to the Saanich Peninsula. It needs further exploration.
Water Transportation
Ferry Service – Finally, after many tries, in 1930, Fulford has regular ferry service with the start of the Cy Peck.
There are interesting stories of different individuals attempting to fill this service.
When John Hepburn arrived and set up his farm just up the Beaver Point Road, he had a brilliant idea of running a barge ferry service. He wanted to have a way to get him produce to market in Victoria. He could carry two or three cars. His barge was powered by a car engine, and if he needed more speed, he would hitch the engines of any cars he was carrying to the engine.
Albert Smith tried to run a launch ferry service, although he did not run a regular service. He got discouraged when he ran his boat unto a reef and was stranded all one night.
A small launch called the “Elf” started a steady launch service from Fulford to Sidney. At Sidney the passengers connected with the Victoria and Sidney railroad train.
Tom Jackson had a launch called the “Dalziel” which he ran a short time, and only in the summer.
Bob Pollock put on a passenger launch, the Aristo and Ariston
Captain Byers of Sidney was often on call to serve this community
Ferry Service Comes to Fulford
1930, Fulford receives a regular ferry service. Sam Matson head of the Vancouver Island Coachlines bought the old original Island Princess from the CPR. He had it converted into a ferry vessel, re-named it “Cy Peck” and it was Fulford’s first regular ferry service. Captain George Maude was in command, and he kept Fulford well served.
Big Change
The next big change occurred in 1960. Les Mollet subdivided a portion of the Mollet property. Hilltop and Sunnyside appeared on the scene.
Up to this point the earlier settles had gradually sold off parts of their property as the need arose. Fulford now has a subdivision.
Activities and Socializing
Throughout all of these years with changes of the people, and changes of the size of the community, Fulford has remained a friendly, courteous, helping community.
The different citizens take it upon themselves to make the village unique.
I think of Nancy Patterson. Nancy owned and ran “Nan’s Coffee Shop,” and she also had the food service on the ferry. Nancy took it upon herself to make, plant, and the maintenance of the flowers to beautify Fulford.
I think of Mrs. Maude, she took it upon herself to get the children involved. She started the Christoper’s Club which was open to all children. They met in a small house on Orchard Road, it was a one room structure. They met there and had tea and cookies. Each one was given a small broomstick with a nail on the end of it, and they went around picking up papers and such in the village every Saturday.
I think of Bob and Nancy Patterson, I think they were the ones instrumental in organizing a cleanup every spring where the whole community turns out for a working bee.
It was great to have the fire station right in Fulford. Bob Patterson and Fred Hollings were very active in the Fire Department, and in Bea Hamilton’s book, says that they kept the road and wharf sparkling clean when they cleaned out the fire hoses. It was a great sight to see Bob and Fred running to the truck when the alarm sounded.
The post office was a great socializing event. People would walk down, a little early, to pick up their mail. This gave them an opportunity to chat and discuss local and world events with their neighbours. I think of David Maxwell, he had his old army knap sack, he would get his grocery list from Clara, he would head to the post office, talk to anyone around, pick up the mail, head over to the store, and then return home. This would be his opportunity to touch base with the community.
I will close with a comment on Morningside Road.
I was talking to Bob Akerman recently and told him about my project and I was looking for information on Fulford. We got talking about Morningside Road and how difficult it is to drive on. He said he used to drive a logging truck with a full load of logs on it, taking the logs to one of the dumps. Morningside Road had two dumps, one right at the straight stretch next to Tudor’s property, looking straight out the harbour, and the other one was where Agnes and Bill Cunningham live now. Bob said when he came to a stop, he couldn’t back up, so they had to work that one out.
Barb Lyngard
Feb. 28, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment