Community History

(1836-1915) Doctor & Superintendent of Indian Affairs

As the story goes, the name ‘Powell River’ was bestowed on the river known for thousands of years by the local peoples as tiskʷat by Lieutenant Commander Vere Bernard Orlebar of the HMS gun vessel Rocket. Named by Orlebar as they were sailing north along the coast in 1880/1881 for his passenger Dr. Israel Wood Powell.

While Dr. Powell likely never set foot in the region, he is one of many historical figures who greatly affected the development of British Columbia, and the treatment of indigenous peoples in the province.

Dr. Powell was born on April 27, 1836 in Port Colbourne, Upper Canada. He was accepted at McGill University to study medicine and graduated in 1860 with his doctorate. Two years later, Dr. Powell decided to sail to New Zealand to practice medicine, but upon arrival in Victoria, decided to stay and establish his practice in the growing city.

In 1863, Powell was elected to the House of Assembly of Vancouver Island on a platform that included responsible government and free public schools. When the General Board of Education was established in 1865, Powell was appointed to it and he served as Chairman from 22 June 1867 to April 1869. During his time in public office, Powell was also a great supporter of confederation. In 1867, he became vice-president of the Confederation League, in which capacity he remained until 1871 when B.C. officially became Canada’s sixth province. His long-standing support of confederation landed him the position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs in British Columbia on 17 Oct. 1872, a position he would hold for 17 years until he retired due to ‘ill health’ in 1889.

Historical narratives have often painted Powell as more sympathetic to indigenous people than most of his contemporaries (e.g. Sir Joseph William Trutch); however, Powell’s support of land claims and justice for the First Nations communities only lasted so long as they were consistent with his goals of assimilation. While he was a critic of the provincial government’s resistance to providing indigenous people with land and water rights, he also fought for the establishment of reserves arguing that ‘Indians’ would have a more sound economic base on reserves. He also worked to subvert communal ownership and the potlatch, a ceremony at the core of west-coast indigenous culture. In 1884, he succeeded in having the Indian Act amended to outlaw potlatching. Powell’s legacy is one of many in the history of British Columbia and Canada that led to the assimilation of indigenous peoples and the systematic destruction of their cultural practices.

While many will recognize Dr. Powell for what are considered his many accomplishments in medicine, public service, education, his role in confederation and in the history of freemasonry in the province, he is also a complex figure in the province’s history and relationship with the indigenous peoples of British Columbia.

(1842-1935) Doctor & Pioneer

Contributed by Townsite Heritage Society 2020

​An influential individual and pioneer, “Doc” Henderson was Powell River’s first doctor and co-founder, with the Powell River Paper Company, of the First Medical Plan in BC in 1910. The workers at the mill paid $1.00 per month, which covered all medical needs.

Andrew Henderson was born in 1852, in Sorel, Quebec. He graduated from McGill University and was then House Surgeon at the Montreal General Hospital. In 1883, he travelled by train to Saskatchewan, then by ‘cayuse’ to Alberta and became the first doctor in Calgary. With his new wife, in 1884, he took the first train to cross the prairies. Their son, Richard (Tobe) Gordon, was in fact the first-born white child in that young settlement.

In 1887, Dr. Henderson left with his family to the United States. It is in St. Paul, Minnesota, that he met Powell River’s founders; the Brooks brothers and M.J. Scanlon. It is also there that his daughter, Marjorie Henderson was born.

Andrew made his first visit to Powell River in 1909, when the vision for a Paper Mill by the river began unfolding. He eventually moved there with his wife, Edith and his daughter in 1910. Their house is Powell River’s first residential building and it was also the only privately-owned early home in the Townsite. Today, their house is maintained by the Townsite Heritage Society as a living museum.

Dr. Henderson is also responsible for the construction of St. Luke’s Hospital, Powell River’s first permanent hospital facility (now the Kenmar Building, named for Ken and Marjorie Henderson Macken). It was designed by George Ingemann and completed in 1913. St. Luke’s was essential in accommodating and treating patients during the flu epidemic that broke out in 1918.

It is in 1920, after the epidemic, that Dr. Henderson retired to become the Coroner and Health Officer. On top of his duties as doctor, he served on many community committees, helped found the Boy Scouts troop, supported sport groups, and was involved with the School Board until his death in 1935, at the age of 83. “Doc” Henderson, avid fisherman and boater, as well as an active church member, is said to have built the community, founding the lawn bowling club, the golf course, and active within the Masonic Lodge.

(~1870-1955) Last Hereditary Chief of the Tla’amin Nation

Chief Tom Timothy, also known as tama , was born around the year 1870 to parents ‘Captain’ Timothy from Sliammon , and qɑʔɑχstɑles (Anne Assu) from Cape Mudge. As the last hereditary chief of the Tla’amin Nation, he was highly respected amongst his community. Chief Tom lead his community through many difficult years before ultimately passing on the position after nearly seven decades.

Early in adulthood, he met his wife Mary and they had many children together. He lived a traditional lifestyle within the constraints of colonialism, spending time at different sites throughout Tla’amin territory including Qah Qeh qay (Grace Harbour), Metokomen (Lang Bay, Cokqueneets Sechelt Lands), and t’ishosum (Sliammon Village). For most of his later years, Chief Tom lived with his family at Kleh Kwahn num (Scuttle Bay).

He lived a very full life and became well acquainted with the European-style society emerging outside of his community, experience that enhanced his leadership skills and ability to navigate relations between his community, settlers, and the Canadian government. Chief Tom shared this knowledge with his people, which helped mitigate some of the difficulties brought upon the Tla’amin nation by colonialism.

Under Tom’s leadership, the village at Sliammon was entirely rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1918. Chief Tom evacuated his people to Ah gyk sun (Harwood Island), and there was not a single casualty.

As a hereditary chief, it was part of Chief Tom’s duties to be a knowledge sharer on behalf of his people. During the 1930’s, ethnographer Homer Barnett who was studying Coast Salish culture was frequently in contact with Chief Tom. Tom explained to Barnett as much information regarding the customs and lifestyle of the Tla’amin Nation as was culturally appropriate. This information was later published by Barnett in his ethnography “The Coast Salish of British Columbia”.

In 1937 Chief Tom received the coronation medal, an accolade recognizing the coronation of King George VI, awarded to recipients in the British Commonwealth for service to their communities.

Chief Tom was also an accomplished boat builder, specializing in the craft of dugout canoes. Multiple settler families living on the outskirts of Powell River recall receiving canoes built by Chief Tom, and he was known to socialize and trade with many people outside his own community. In 1939 a canoe was built by Chief Tom with the help of Eugene Frank from Sechelt for the purposes of the upcoming royal visit. The canoe was very large with capacity for eleven people, and was used to escort the ship carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England across the Salish Sea from Vancouver to Victoria.

On January 1st of 1949, Status Indians in British Columbia gained the right to vote in provincial elections. It was later that year when Chief Tom voted for the first time, alongside approximately seventy percent of the eligible voters from the Tla’amin Nation. Chief Tom encouraged the people of his community to vote and have their voices heard, and even procured a bus to transport people to the polling centre in Wildwood.

Despite the Indian Act’s regulation on elections beginning in 1876, no formal election was held during Tom’s time as Chief, as nobody in the community would vote against him. The system of hereditary chiefs and knowledge-holding people in the community had existed for the Tla’amin people since before memory, and they did not want to change this system. In 1952, Chief Tom stepped down from his position after approximately 70 years. His successor, Charlie Peters Williams, became the first elected Chief of Tla’amin. This marked the transition from traditional ways of governance to the colonially imposed Chief and Band Council system for the Tla’amin Nation.

As of 2016, the Tla’amin Nation is self-governing. Tla’amin’s current governance system consists of the Hegus and elected officials, a system which upholds Tla’amin values and rights.

Chief Tom Timothy died on October 28, 1955. His funeral service was attended by over four hundred people from all over the coast, a clear demonstration of the respect and admiration he held, as well as his significance to the Tla’amin Nation and surrounding communities.

(1879-1937) ​Architect & Engineer ​

Contributed by Townsite Heritage Society 2020

A notable figure that has left a legacy clearly visible in the architecture of Powell River’s Historic District, is the architect John McIntyre. He was a resident architect employed by the Powell River Company and designed the majority of the town’s early public buildings and residences.

John McIntyre was born in Stranraer, Scotland on January 31, 1879. He worked as an architect in Edinburgh and was in charge of the architectural department of the Scottish District War Office. Eventually, McIntyre moved to British Columbia in 1910 and opened an office in Vancouver. His office closed in 1913 due to the economy collapse; he was then in charge of the design and construction department for both Point Grey and Burnaby.
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It is in 1915 that he joined the Powell River Company as architect and engineer, working during the War at the hydroelectric installation in Kingcome Inlet, and was also Townsite Manager from 1919 to 1935. Some of John McIntyre’s notable designs in Powell River are the houses on Manager’s Row, Dwight Hall, the original Brooks School, Memorial Park, the Sally Scanlon Lodge and the Bank of Montreal (some of which are no longer standing). He also designed the numerous residential buildings creating what is known as the “New Town.”

One of John McIntyre’s greatest accomplishments was designing Dwight Hall; a lavish ballroom with a sprung dance floor and community performance venue. At the time, some said that Dwight Hall was the most beautiful small-town community hall in the province.
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As an individual, John was outgoing, charming and hospitable; he was actually known as “Mr. Powell River” and was elected Powell River’s first Good Citizen in 1944. John retired from the Company in 1952 and was quite ill until he passed away on June 21, 1957, at the age of 78, in Powell River.

(1875-1949 ) Powell River’s First Photographer

Rod LeMay was born in St. Louis de Lotbinière in Quebec on January 11, 1875 and when he was 16 he was an “Artiste Apprentice” in Montreal.

A story of heartbreak seems to have led him to the then remote area of Powell River at the age of 27. He lived on the territory of the Tla’amin Nation and appears to have worked in a logging camp. The first image we have by LeMay is that of the Michigan Puget Sound logging train in 1907. His first studio was located in what was called Lutzville at the time (where the old golf course in Townsite was located behind the hulks). 

In 1909 rumblings were heard that a pulp and paper mill was to start along Powell River and in 1910 construction of the mill and the town that grew up around it started. It is assumed that the Powell River Company allowed LeMay to document both the industry’s growth and that of the newly burgeoning Townsite.

LeMay did amazing work, all the more remarkable because of the cumbersome materials that were required for his images. His work faithfully reflects the growth of the Powell River community and its citizens, including a tragedy that befell the Tla’amin First Nations in 1918 when it lost a major village to a devastating forest fire.

The LeMay collection of images inspire awe in both visitors and researchers alike. His glass plate negatives and the prints made from them are pristine, elegant in their depiction of people in their work and at play. LeMay used a Romera view camera with a 6.5 lens. His ingenuity made it a magical instrument. He rigged up a process to use flash and to capture wide angle shots. He not only created technical innovations, his artistic eye produced lasting images that rank among the finest from early photographers.

The quality of his black-and-white original prints remained intense for decades due to a secret that he used in the dark room. The glass negatives he left behind produce images as sharp and detailed as the day he made them. The combination of his innovative technical expertise and his artistry have created a priceless legacy documenting the beginnings of the community.

We do not know why LeMay stopped taking photographs but in 1923 he sold his studio to Maud Lane. He remained in Powell River until 1947 and died in Vancouver in 1949.

(1882-1938) Photographer & Owner of Lane Studios

Our thanks to Dr. Gordon Goldsborough of the Manitoba Historical Society for information relating to Maud (Abbott) Lane.

Maud Lane (nee Abbott ) was born in Ontario and spent her childhood in Emerson, Manitoba. Her father, James John Abbott ( 1839-1914 ) was a photographer. They moved to Taber, Alberta and the family started a photography business there.

Coming to B.C. she and her father lived in Vancouver and in 1910, she married Reginald Lane ( 1879 – 1915 ). They moved to Powell River when he secured a position as postmaster in May 1913. He resigned this position in January 1914 and went to work in the pulp and paper mill. They had one child, Lorna. B.

Maud Lane purchased Rod LeMay’s photographic studio in 1923 and continued the work of documenting the development of the pulp and paper mill and the town that grew up around it. Lane recorded the unprecedented growth of the Powell River Company’s development of the dam at Lois Lake. She also developed a distinct three and four numeric numbering system and she often used a ‘date board’ that has been invaluable for historic purposes.

Lane’s brother, Roy Abbott ( 1884-1944 ) appears to have assisted her in her studio.

She sold her photographic studio to Oswell Stevenson ( 1890 – 1955 ) very shortly before her death in 1938.

(1887-1969) Nurse & Philanthropist 

Called a ‘bright spirit’ by John Smail, Olive Devaud (nee Wood) was born in Sheldon Hall, Warwickshire, England in June of 1887. She began her nursing training in 1911 in the Royal Infirmary in Huddersfield and graduated a gold medalist. After graduation she acquired her Certificate of the Central Midwives Board.

During WW I she joined the Queen Alexander Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve and was posted to duty in the King George hospital in wartime London where she served from 1914 to 1918. In 1920 Nurse Wood followed her family to Ewing’s Landing in the Okanagan, where she took a post at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

On Halloween night in 1926, she arrived in Powell River, ostensibly for a month’s relief work at the Powell River hospital working with Dr. Charles Marlatt, and never left. For a period of time around 1928, she served as a nurse in Powell River’s Isolation Hospital located in the vicinity of Cranberry Street and Dieppe Avenue on the road to Cranberry. However, she was best known for her ‘no nonsense’ attitude and her competence in running the old St. Luke’s hospital. As a nurse in the Powell River General Hospital in the Townsite, it is highly likely most of Powell River’s locally born seniors received their first “slap on the rump” by this no-nonsense nurse.

In 1932 Olive Wood married Alphonse Devaud. During the 20 years of their marriage they gave nearly all they possessed to Powell River, and are recognized as some of Powell River’s most philanthropic citizens.

They gave a 10-acre section of land in Westview to Powell River Hospital in the hopes that it would be the chosen site for the new hospital. However, the hospital was built on land overlooking the mill. After the death of her husband in 1954, Mrs. Devaud was persuaded to sub-divide the land, with the proceeds going to the hospital. Six acres of this land went to the Sunset Homes for senior citizens for $1.00 and Olive contributed $6000.00 in cash towards the building.

With the passing of her husband, Mrs. Devaud became generous to a fault. During the building of Sunset Homes, the society bookkeeper often found his accounts thrown out of kilter by anonymous (read Olive Devaud) $500 credits suddenly showing in the bank account. Olive Devaud also donated $1000 toward the building of the Moose Lodge after her husband donated the land and some money to start building.   So it went with the Boy Scout building in the same area. Similarly, many local people have found themselves saved from financial embarrassment through Mrs. Devaud’s generosity.

“She was always thinking of somebody else,” said her sister-in-law Mrs. Carol Wood. Said Ald. Norm Hill, also president of the Sunshine Homes Society, “She was a little woman with a big heart. She has given all she owned.”

Olive Devaud at a Glance

• Founder Member of the Royal College of Nursing and National College of Nurses in the U.K.
• Charter member of Women of The Moose
• President of the St. David Society
• Powell River’s Good Citizen of 1952.

In 1965 Mrs. Devaud published a small volume of her verse “Odes by O.D.” Perhaps she wrote her own epitaph when she wrote:  
“Since she came to Powell River, the outlook clears, The place and the people are dearer yet, Most other years she will soon forget.”

Mrs. Devaud passed away on November 16, 1969, and funeral services were held at St. John’s Westview United Church with Rev. Roy Rodgers officiating and the Women of the Moose taking part in the service.

As was her nature, Mrs. Devaud asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to the Sunset Homes Society.

(1889-1952) Decorated Canadian Soldier
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V.C. M.C. and Bar, D.C.M. E.D. 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (WWI)  2nd Canadian Scottish Mounted Rifles (WWII)

John MacGregor, a long-time resident of Powell River, won more prestigious awards for valour than any other Canadian soldier.

Born in Scotland in 1889, John ‘Jock’ MacGregor came to Canada in 1908. Sailing from Liverpool, he arrived in Montreal and worked his way West along the railroads as a carpenter, labourer and even as a rancher. Spending time in the United States, Vancouver, and in Prince Rupert, he eventually settled in Powell River in 1925.

While working as a trapper in the Naas Valley, MacGregor learned of the Great War in February of 1915. He trekked 70 miles to Terrace, over mountains and rivers to catch the train back to Prince Rupert to fight for King and Country. Ironically he failed his physical examination as he was exhausted from his trek. Undaunted, he travelled by steamship to Vancouver and applied again. He enlisted in Vancouver on March 26, 1915 joining the 16th Battalion Canadian Scottish, 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles and was soon sent to France.

His feats while in France were truly amazing. MacGregor was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal in WWI for his single-handed capture of an enemy machine gun at the battle of Vimy Ridge. In 1918, he captured several enemy soldiers on Hill 70 and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar.  His highest award, the Victoria Cross, was won for extreme bravery at Cambrai, France, where he captured a machine gun nest, again single-handedly. MacGregor served his country again in WWII in several command posts in Vancouver.

Following WWI, MacGregor returned to Canada eventually settling in Powell River in 1925 to work at the Powell River Company as a carpenter and later in his own concrete plant until his death in 1952. 

​A very humble man, MacGregor never talked of his wartime achievements and he was most proud not of medals, but of his efficiency decoration (for serving in both wars and twenty years of dedication to the military), and his Canadian Citizenship papers.  His son, Don MacGregor, recalls how his father was so excited about receiving his Citizenship papers, that he claimed, “These are the greatest awards Canada has ever given me.”

(1900-1969) Switchboard Operator & Writer

“I have never owned anything that can produce more food for less money than a family cow, nor have I ever owned anything that gave me more work. “

Bessie came to Powell River from Oregon City in October of 1911 with her parents Ferdinand and Marie Miller. Her father had been hired by the Powell River Company as Superintendent of the Electrical Department.

Bessie worked for a time on the local telephone exchange. The switchboard operator was a glorified office boy. She sat on a swivel chair with the switchboard behind her, the wicket to the right and a typewriter in front of her. When the switchboard needed attention, it buzzed and, with a deft kick on the leg of her desk, she swiveled around to push the plug into the number indicated by a red light. In those days you were not given a number, but simply asked to connect to ‘the wharf’, the wife, or to Tom, Dick or Harry.

On July 4, 1920 Bessie Miller married John Robert Banham. Together they worked their pre-emption (i.e., Crown land claimed for settlement and agricultural purposes) and raised their three children; daughters Jean and Judy, and son Jack. Bessie also found time to co-found the Wildwood Welfare League in 1929 and served as secretary until 1933.

Bessie Banham became a prolific writer of stories from the past when she began writing for the Powell River News. From her “Dances in the Early Days Were Primitive But Merry” which appeared in the December 29th 1948 issue of the Powell River News to “Powell River Pioneer Recalls Nursing Days” in the January 25th, 1965 edition Bessie wrote at least 111 Early-Day Stories.

Perhaps the most descriptive tribute to Bessie came from newspaper columnist Gerry Gray in the October 20, 1969 issue of the Powell River Town Crier. “She phoned me complaining that the game warden wouldn’t come up and shoot the bears that were raiding her orchard and breaking down her prize fruit trees. In a crusty voice, that carried the edge of iron, tempered from many years of getting things done, she said ‘I’m just telling you that I’m going to shoot that damn bear and I don’t give a bloody hell if I have to go to jail for shooting within the municipality.’ The next day I went up and sure enough there was a new bear skin hanging on the outhouse door.”

Powell River’s First Building Designer

Contributed by Townsite Heritage Society 2020

Powell River’s first designer was a Danish master builder from St. Paul, Minnesota, known as George Ingemann. His name was sometimes spelled “Ingerman,” since this was the English pronunciation of his name. It is spelled this way even in the first Powell River Company ledger in 1910.

George Ingemann is understood to have been a Master Builder, qualified to design buildings as he is not listed with the architects of the Minneapolis area but advertised his services as Master Builder. There is in fact very little written about him in our local history. In a 1924 Digester, it is said that the building of St. Luke’s Hospital was commenced in 1913 under the planning of Mr. George Ingemann. Accounting records from the Powell River Company also testify that Ingemann built many houses of the streets in the “Old Town” of Powell River as well as most of the commercial buildings of the time.
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His date of departure from Powell River is not known exactly. However, it was around the year 1914, during the Depression year, when production of paper on one of the machines at the mill and house building in the Townsite halted. Ingemann waited for a bit then left with his wife and three children: Bobby, Amy and George Jr., who lived on Third Street (now Aspen).

Hermit of Powell Lake and Last Hand-Logger License in BC. 

Information from “Mysterious Powell Lake” by Carla Mobley.

One of Powell Lake’s hermits, was a man named, Nicodemus “Nick” Hudemka. His story is perhaps less known than Billy Goat Smith’s but just as colorful.

Nick came to Powell River in 1940 and was issued the last hand logger license in BC. Sometimes it could take him up to two weeks to get a single log down the mountain to the lake. The logs measured up to 138 ft. long.

The work was dangerous; once Nick was pinned under a log for 26 hours before he got himself free. There was also many bears but Nick didn’t believe in hunting them, They were his friends and he wasn’t afraid of bears – although it is said that he had a fear of hummingbirds!

Over the years, Nick built several cabins around Powell Lake; the most well known, was the cabin at the head of Powell Lake where he built a large root garden and root cellar.

Nick came down to Powell River around once a month. Sometimes he also went to Vancouver to see football games; he called Powell Air and they would land at his shack up the lake, with Nick waiting all dressed. He lived the hermit life in style. It is also said that he often bought chocolates for women.

In his later years, Nick was unable to keep hand logging. However, he loved the wilderness so much, he also could not part with it. In 1976, he was recovered from Powell Lake, after a massive heart attack. He is remembered by friends as “part of Powell Lake.”

(1918 – 2009) Volunteer at the Hospital ECU and owner of Quality Printers with her husband Jack Hanna.

​Excerpts from John Carlson’s speech at Eva’s Funeral April, 6 2009.

Eva was born on Saltspring Island and moved with her family to Cranberry while she was still in Elementary School.

Her father George Mosely was of African, European, and Hawaiian ancestry. Born in Virginia and raised by his grandmother who worked​ as a domestic, George Mosely ran away from home at the age of 13 with dreams of becoming a jockey. His grandmother caught him and brought him back, but a few years later he tried again. He got away this time, but never did become a jockey. Instead he worked at odd jobs in various cities across America and then eventually landed in Victoria. There he met Eva’s mother, Martha, who was the grand-daughter of an English settler named Sampson and a Cowichan woman who had homesteaded on Saltspring Island.

Eva herself was born on Saltspring Island, and moved with her family to Victoria as a young girl. She had two sisters. Bernice and Grace. When Eva was still in elementary school, her father lost his job in a Victoria at a shoe store. From there, they relocated to Perry Ville in Cranberry where her father looked for work in the Powell River mill. Every day for months, George Mosely went to the mill gates with a couple dozen other men in the hope of getting casual work. Everyday different men got work, but never Mosely and his friend. It wasn’t until a year later that someone showed the two a union contract that stated that Orientals and African-Americans were barred from employment. But Mosely was a hard worker and found work in a pool room. Later the family moved to the Shingle Mill and then later still to what was then called the China Block on the Wildwood Hill.

It was while they were living in the China Block that Eva’s parents separated, and a year later, her father left town. Eva and her mother and sisters moved back to Cranberry and rented a house on Graveyard Hill. They stayed there several years until Eva’s mother couldn’t afford the rent and then they moved to a little house that Eva called “the shack” just off Drake St. It was in that house, where Eva’s mother operated a small restaurant specializing in hot tamales and fried chicken, that Eva met Jack Hanna.
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Max Cameron, the principal of Brooks school, paid Eva’s school fees when her mother couldn’t afford it and he encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a surgery nurse. Eva graduated from Brooks High School with top grades, however, she was prevented from being accepted into nursing school because of the colour of her skin. She nevertheless found a way to help others: “she worked for numerous charities throughout her life and is perhaps best known for her years of dedicated service as a volunteer at the Hospital ECU…Despite hardship, racism and discrimination, she found dignity in friendship and liberty in hard work.”

Later in life, Eva also fell in love with Jack Hanna, an American, who was a logger and a wrestler (he was known in the ring as the San Diego Kid). Together they went on to own and operate Quality Printers in Cranberry. The pair wanted to get married, nut no minister in town would allow mixed marriages. They lived together in their house on Nootka street as common law partners.

Tla’amin Elder (1931 – present)

Elsie’s Great Grandfather was ‘Captain’ Timothy who spent several years as a guide on a survey ship around the islands of Georgia Strait. At this time it was not known that Vancouver Island was indeed an island until Captain Timothy guided the exploration ships through the islands of Georgia Strait and to the northern tip of Vancouver Island. It is thought that it was during the performance of this work that Toma Timothy was given the name Captain Timothy.

When it came time for Captain Timothy to marry, his whereabouts were hunted down and he was taken to Cape Mudge to meet the girl his parents had arranged for him to marry. Instead Captain Timothy expressed his interest in marrying her sister whose name was Ka`a xstales.

Elsie Timothy was born at Sliammon to Gilbert Francis and Lily Timothy. A few years earlier, a young girl (Elsie’s cousin) had died after her parents had been summoned from Sliammon to Sechelt to retrieve the sick girl. Elsie was named in her memory. Elsie’s parents who already had 2 children and were about to relocate to Port Alberni were ill equipped to raise another child and so it came to be that Elsie’s Grandparents Jim and Molly Timothy, also of Sliammon, raised her.

Elsie had 10 siblings, William, Elizabeth, Irene, Rita, Mabel, Barney, Nancy, Doris, Doreen, Gilbert.

For the most part, Elsie kept out of the reaches of the residential school system. Her Grandfather towed their float house in and out of the coastal inlets-always one step ahead of the school officials. Elsie was therefore subjected to only two years of residential school. She also attended school for two months each year when the family returned to Sliammon for the winter.

At the age of 16, Elsie was working in the fish plant at Redonda when suddenly the whole building shook. It was the great earthquake of June 23, 1946.

In 1948 Elsie Timothy married William Paul who transferred himself and his mother to Sliammon from Church House. Married 27 years until William’s death in 1977, the Paul’s had 9 children. Glen, Sharon, Jane, Jeannie, Walter, Ann, Cathy, Marlane, and Clifford

While the children were growing up, Elsie did various jobs from shucking oysters to housekeeping at the hospital. In the 1950’s the day school at Sliammon began to deteriorate. Instead of sending her children to the new Assumption School Elsie opted to send her children to James Thomson Elementary School in Wildwood. From there the children went to Brooks Junior High School then on to Max Cameron Senior High School. “I pushed my children to get an education,” she said, “and they have done well.”Elsie did not ignore her own education. She continued to upgrade as an adult and achieved a grade 10 level.

In 1972 she was hired by Sliammon to run the administration of Social Development. She spent weekends at U.B.C. earning the credits for a certificate in Social Work. When Judge Shirley Giroday conducted the swearing in ceremony on the appointment of Elsie Paul as Justice of the Peace, she said: “Elsie was our first choice for the appointment and we were very pleased she accepted.”- “Justice of the Peace Court Appointment Cheered” PR Town Crier, September 18, 1989.

2008 is the 20th anniversary of the TsowTunLeLum (means “Helping House” in the Nanoose language). Elsie has served as a board member since this Healing Program began in Nanaimo. For the past four years Elsie has been involved in Inter-tribal Health Programs on Quadra Island, as a Elder/Support Person for the participants.

Frequently called upon to open events and ceremonies in both the Sliammon and the wider community, Elsie has given the Welcome and Opening Prayer for the Kathaumixw Choral festivals for several years.

(1864-1941)

George Clapp, christened AW Clapp, is remembered as Powell River’s Father of First Aid. He played an important role in the history of Powell River and the local branch of St John Ambulance

Clapp was Powell River’s first volunteer fire chief, a founding member of the Powell River Sick Benefit Society, founding member of Squatters Creek Water User’s Association and President of Westview Ratepayers. ​

A.W. ‘George’ Clapp (1864-1941) and his wife Elizabeth (1866-1952), son James and daughter came to Powell River from England in 1910. Clapp worked for the Powell River Company from 1910 to 1937. He started the Powell River St. John Ambulance Association in 1911. He was one of the originators of the Squatters Creek Water Association in Westview and was active in the Westview Light, Power and Waterworks District. He and Elizabeth celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1939.

 (1897-1985)

Frieda Marie Shaw (nee Richter) was born in Loomis, Washington and attended St. Ann’s Academy in Victoria, B.C. and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before going to San Francisco. She joining a concert group which toured Central America and after becoming ill she returned to her parents home in the Similkameen Valley. She married Norman Shaw (1899 – 1972) and moved to Powell River in 1931 because Norman had found employment at the Powell River Company pulp and paper mill. Their only child, Carmen, was born in Powell River. Frieda started a dance studio in the family home basement on 4523 Harvie Street in Westview. In 1933, her first year of teaching, 26 students enrolled. Various recitals were held at Dwight Hall with the 1942 one being held to aid local war relief funds.

​Three of her students went on to much acclaim. Anna (stage name Onna) White, (1926 – 2007) won an Oscar in 1969 for her choreography in the musical Oliver!, Joyce Gray (nee Hill) was a founding member of the National Ballet Company of Canada and Norman Thompson (1920 – 196?) , danced with the San Francisco Ballet Company, Sadler’s Wells, New York’s Ballet Theatre amongst other companies. Mrs. Shaw continued to teach until 1948 and continued her career upon occasion as an adjudicator for the British Columbia Festival.

 (1850 – 1931) ​

Tom Ogburn, a hunter and trapper, was an early Powell Lake character.  Originally from Kentucky, Tom came to Texada Island around 1906.  A few years later, he rowed over to Powell River and squatted on land close to the shingle mill on Powell Lake. When the dam was built, Ogden had to move. He moved his tar-paper cabin, which was decorated with totem poles, to what is now Poplar Street.  In order to get Tom off the land the Powell River Company induced him into moving to the company float shack that was used as a fishing lodge on the lake. In 1916 Tom settled into the float cabin on Goat Lake and built a lodge that soon became a well-known hunting and fishing lodge for out-of-town guests. His cabin was made of shakes and comfortably furnished. He had a Chinese cook who served trout for breakfast and lunch every day. Known for his big cigar and his phrase “Good God on a horse” he became a popular guide and lake enthusiast. Tom married late in life and his wife Mary helped him run the lodge.  He died in 1931 at the age of eighty-one. After his death his wife returned to England and the  lodge was no longer maintained.

First owners of the Rodmay. 

Excerpts and Information taken from Barbara Ann Lambert’s book; ” In Paradise: West Coast Short Stories 1890-1960″ published in 1998.

​The first owners of the Rodmay Hotel, which was first known as the Powell River Hotel, were Andrew and Barbara McKinney. The McKinneys were distantly related to the Brooks family, which had invited them to build a hotel close to the mill site. The Powell River Hotel was thus one of the first buildings to go up in the Townsite Historic District. 

Andrew McKinney brought his family up to Powell River to help run the hotel. His family consisted of his wife, Barbara, and their three children, George, Carl and Catherine. George and Carl were already married with families, while Catherine was in her teens. The two sons lived with their wives and children behind the hotel .

“McKinney ran the Rodmay Hotel which had a bar before prohibition and saw a lot of rip-roaring sessions.”

Powell River’s First 50 Years, PR News

Gertie Lambert (1893-1982) remembered the tales of the opening night of the hotel when drinks were “on the house” and the construction workers in hob nailed boots danced on the tops of the brand new billiard tables! 

Barabra and Andrew McKinney were Gertie’s aunt and uncle. Barbara’s maiden name had been Rippel: Gertie’s mother, Anna Tiber, was Barbara’s sister. The two sister Anna and Barbara had grown up in Columbus, Ohio. 

Their parents, Paul and Anna Rippel, were born in Germany in about 1840. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1855, soon after their marriage in Switzerland. They had six children: Anna, Joe, Barbara, Mary, Will and Jack, who were all born in the U.S. 

“Anna and her sister Barbara were destined to lead exciting and interesting lives. They always kept in close contact and both came to British Columbia, at the turn of the century, to start new lives.”

Anna was first to settle in B.C. travelling with her daughter Gertrude on the old “Cassier” to Manson’s Landing in 1908. Anna gave birth to her last child, Veronica Tiber on Cortes Island. She had three marriages and eight children. 

In 1911, Barbara McKinney arrived in Powell River and the sisters had family gatherings at the Hotel or the Tiber residence by Manson’s Landing. When Catherine McKinney was married in 1911 at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, the reception was held at the hotel. It was the first wedding held at the new St. Joseph’s hotel (after the flat roof church), which is now on the corner of Ash and Sycamore St. 

A second family wedding occurred in 1913 in Vancouver when Gertrude Mundigel married Tom Lambert of Cortes Island. In 1916, Gertie and Tom with their two year old son Stuart, came to live a small house behind the Powell River Hotel. The site of the house is where the cenotaph is located today. 

Living behind the hotel meant enduring noises and smells. Not withstanding the smell and squeals of the pigs, there was the noise of the mill machinery, the steady rhythm of hammering, as the new buildings went up during the day, and at night they could hear the singing and loud guffaws of laughter from the saloon. It is perhaps not surprising that they moved back to the peace and quiet of Cortes Island in 1917.

The McKinney family also decided to move the same year. Andrew McKinney sold the hotel to Mr. and Mrs. MacIntyre. Their son had the idea of renaming the hotel the “Rodmay” after his parents Rod and May McIntyre.  

Chinese Immigrants & First Merchants in Powell River

​Sam Sing, a Chinese immigrant, was one of the first merchants in Townsite, arriving in the area in 1907. He first set up a laundry on “Shack Street” and later opened the Sing Lee Building in 1913, where the current Townsite Public Market is located. There, he had a grocery and rented space to other merchants. At the time, Townsite residents were discouraged by the Powell River Company from shopping at the Sing Lee Building. Sam was eventually bought out by the PR Co. in 1923 and went on to set up a new store and building at the Shingle Mill, on the north side of the river. This new venture including a grocery, a butcher shop, general merchandise, and bachelor accommodations. 

The Sings lived in Wildwood, at the corner of Chilco Avenue. They also had a produce store at the top of the Wildwood hill called ” China Block,” a farm at the end of King Avenue and another in Okeover Arm.

Sam Sing passed away in 1937 and his thriving business was carried on by his children. The Penny Profit store was operated by his daughter-in-law May and his son Paul, and closed its doors in 1987. May passed away this year on April 4th at the age of 101. Westview Radiators today, is still operated by Sam’s grandson, Jack Sing.

Started in 1930, by a number of Scots working in the mill.
​
The Powell River Pipe Band has held a prominent place in our community for many years.  Informally started in 1930 by a number of Scots working in the mill, it grew more organized, and in 1939 it officially gained the sponsorship of the Powell River Company.  All members were employees of the Company, and were treated extremely well as the Company sponsored trips across North America and allowed members time off work to practice.

Lt. Col. John MacGregor, a rather famous person in his own right, was the first band president and the band adopted the MacGregor tartan as their official uniform in 1939.  The Band’s longest trip was in 1940, when it travelled to Texas and California for an entire month, promoting the Powell River Company and representing our town in numerous competitions.  The band’s most successful years came in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, when they won the Class A Pipes and Drums championships in six consecutive years (1958-63), held in various cities on the west coast of North America.

In 1960, MacMillan Bloedel took over the Powell River Company and the drummers adopted the MacMillan tartan, though the pipers continued to wear the MacGregor tartan.

Throughout their history, the Powell River Pipe Band  played in numerous venues, including the Seattle Sea fair, Grey Cup parades, PNE parades, Portland Highland Games, Victoria Highland Games, Seattle Highland Games and the Worlds Fair in Seattle.  They have also won every major contest in the Pacific Northwest and in 1961, recorded an album entitled “Pipes and Drums of Powell River.”  Although now formally defunct, some volunteers and old members gather to play at special occasions.

Women’s choral group who won top honours at the Powell River Music Festival, and went on to perform on CBC Radio

​It was a love of music which initially brought together Powell River’s Ethel Eason Singers. The group began rather informally, meeting in each other’s basements and living rooms on a monthly basis to rehearse. Their infrequent meetings could be attributed to the fact that most of these women were housewives who led busy lives, and singing together was a enjoyable pastime. In 1947 this group of women decided to enter the upcoming Powell River Music Festival as a small choir. They chose to call themselves the Ethel Eason Singers after their first conductor, Ethel Nuttall, whose maiden name was Eason. Their practice paid off, and to their pleasant surprise, the Singers were awarded the Foley Cup for the  highest score of the entire Festival.

Due to their success and notoriety among the community, the group was invited to perform on CBC Radio’s Parade of Choirs in 1953, and received such a positive response from listeners that they were invited to perform twice more. Throughout the early 1950s, the Ethel Eason Singers performed regularly at concerts and events in Powell River until 1955 when they merged with students of music teacher Lyle Henderson, and became the Powell River Choral Society. The talent and dedication displayed by the Ethel Eason Singers allowed them to make a name for themselves during a time when the local music scene was largely male dominated.