Front matter

SOME REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA

BY EDGAR FAWCETT

Toronto William Briggs 1912

Copyright, Canada, 1912, by EDGAR FAWCETT.

TO Sir Richard McBride. K.C.M.G. PREMIER, NATIVE SON AND PIONEER THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY HIS HUMBLE SERVANT THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

To My Readers:—

A preface is, as I understand it, an explanation, and maybe an apology, for what follows. If such is the case, I must explain several things contained in these "Reminiscences of Old Victoria" and its pioneers. Had I not been laid aside with the typhoid some eight years ago, it is likely I should not have thought of writing down these early memories, but many know what convalescing after a sickness is—how one longs for something new, something to do. I was at this time at the seaside, and all at once decided to pass my time in writing. Seated comfortably on the beach with my writing pad, I commenced "A British Boy’s Experiences in San Francisco in the Early Fifties," and so have continued on from time to time during the last eight years.

I have been much encouraged, by pioneers and friends, to gather the result of these pleasant labors together, and I feel I have succeeded in a very imperfect manner; but, dear reader, consider how little I should be expected to know of book-making; therefore take faults and omissions in the product of my labors cum bona venia, for there are sure to be many imperfections. There are repetitions of which I am aware, and have decided to let them stand, as I think they fit in in each case. Had I been a man of more leisure I should not have had to apologize for so many of these imperfections.

I have to thank Mrs. Macdonald, of Armadale, the venerable Bishop Cridge, and Alexander Wilson, for valuable information, and also Mr. Albert Maynard and Reverend A. E. Alston for many photographs to illustrate the book. We all know that a book in these days is nothing without pictures. There are others who have helped me in other ways who will accept my thanks.

With these explanatory remarks, and in fear and trembling, I submit the book to your favorable consideration.

Dingley Dell, Christmas, 1911.

A SHORT AUTOBIOGRAPHY

All the Fawcetts I ever heard of from my father and mother came from Kidderminster. My father’s father was a maltster, and the sons, with the exception of my father, the youngest, were carpet weavers. The family were strict Nonconformists, and produced one or two noted divines of George the Third’s day, one of whom preached before that king. There was also a kinship with the Baxters of "Saint’s Rest" fame.

My mother was Jane Wignall, whose father was a Birmingham smallarms manufacturer in rather a large way of business, but who through the dishonesty of his partner was nearly ruined and brought to comparative poverty. The daughters, who were all well educated, had to take positions as governesses and ladies’ companions. My mother, in this capacity, lived and travelled in France and Spain, and spoke the languages of both countries. In a voyage to her home from Barcelona she was wrecked in the Gulf of Lyons, but through the timely assistance of a Spanish gentleman and his Newfoundland dog, who bore her up, she was brought to shore in little more than her nightdress. I have to-day a letter from the British consul at Marseilles which he gave to my mother, recommending her to the care of other British consuls on her way to England. The Spanish gentleman who saved her life made an offer of marriage, which my mother declined, I think, on account of his being a Roman Catholic. He would not take no for an answer, but later on followed her to England and offered himself a second time without effect. Shortly after this she and my father were married, and on the advice of Rowland Hill, his cousin (Sir Rowland Hill), he took his young bride to Australia. Rowland Hill, being his father’s trustee under his will, paid my father his share, with which he took a stock of goods and started business in Sydney.

In 1849 we left Sydney, where I was born, for San Francisco—father, mother, my brother Rowland and myself, in the ship Victoria. This vessel my father afterwards purchased and sent to Alberni, or Sooke, for a load of lumber for England, when we all were going with her. The vessel never came back, having been wrecked somewhere near where all the wrecks have since taken place, on the west coast of this island. My father was ruined, for there was no insurance, so he had to start life anew. He came north to Victoria in 1858, where he entered into business until appointed Government Agent at Nanaimo, where he served some years, dying at the advanced age of seventy-six. My mother died in 1863, and at the present writing, in addition to myself, there is one brother in Victoria—Rowland—and another brother, Arthur, in London, England.

The author has completed his fifty-three years in this fair city.

Dingley Dell, December 20th, 1911.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER.PAGE

I.The Experiences of a British Boy in San Francisco in the Early Fifties11

II.Theatrical Memories20

III.My Boyhood Days in Victoria26

IV.Victoria’s First Directory38

V.Some Recollections of Victoria by One who Was There in the Sixties57

VI.A Little More Street History68

VII.The Victoria Gazette, 185873

VIII.Victoria in 1859–186084

IX.Fires and Firemen92

X.A Siberian Mammoth100

XI.Mrs. Edwin Donald, Hon. Wymond Hamley, Hon. G. A. Walkem109

XII.The Consecration of the Iron Church115

XIII.The Iron Church Again121

XIV.Its Departed Glories, or Esquimalt, Then and Now124

XV.Old Quadra Street Cemetery129

XVI.Pioneer Society’s Banquet144

XVII.Victoria District Church149

XVIII.Christmas In Pioneer Days153

XIX.The Queen’s Birthday Forty Years Ago159

XX.Evolution of the Victoria Post Office166

XXI.Fifty Years Ago170

XXII.Forty Years Ago174

XXIII.The Late Governor Johnson178

XXIV.A Trip to a Coral Island181

XXV.A Victorian’s Visit to Southern California183

XXVI.An Historic Steamer199

XXVII.Colonel Wolfenden—In Memoriam203

XXVIII.The Closing of View Street in 1858206

XXIX.Mr. Fawcett Retires from the Customs212

XXX.Some Colored Pioneers215

XXXI.John Chapman Davie, M.D.220

XXXII.The Beginning of the Royal Hospital and Protestant Orphan’s Home226

XXXIII.Victoria’s First Y. M. C. A.229

XXXIV.The Late Mr. T. Geiger234

XXXV.Roster of the Fifty-Eighters237

XXXVI.More Light on Closing of View Street240

XXXVII.Bishop Cridge’s Christmas Story244

XXXVIII.Christmas Reminiscences258

XXXIX.My First Christmas Dinner in Victoria, 1860263

XL.Evolution of the Songhees283

XLI.Victoria the New and the Old288

ILLUSTRATIONS

Fort Victoria, 1859, Showing Fort St. Gate

Government Street, Looking North

Government Street in 1860

S. E. corner Government and Yates Streets, 1858

Lady Douglas

Sir James Douglas

Edgar Fawcett

Hon. Wymond Hamley

George Richardson

George Hills, D.D.

Henry Wootton

Capt. John Irving, Sr.

Quadra Street Cemetery

A Group of Early Legislators

Fort Street, Looking East

Yates Street, Looking East

Fort Street, Extending Through the Fort

Old View of Government Street

Government Street Before the Removal of the "Old Bastion"

Wharf Street, From Corner Fort Street Northward

Craigflower, Showing School, 1858

First Bridge Over James Bay, 1859

Government Buildings, 1859–60

May Day Parade, Hook and Ladder Company, May 1st, 1862

Hon. Sir Richard McBride, K.C.M.G.

Old View of Douglas Street, Iron Church in the Distance

Showing Inside of Fort from Wharf Street, 1859

Hon. Amor De Cosmos

William P. Sayward

Thomas Harris

Bishop Garrett

First Methodist Church

First Bridge Over the Gorge, Victoria Arm

Forty Years Ago, Queen’s Birthday, Beacon Hill

Colonial Hotel

H. B. Co.’s Steamer Beaver

Part of View Street, 1859

Victoria District Church, 1859

Hon. Senator Macdonald

Lt.-Col. Wolfenden, I.S.O., V.D.

Wm. Leigh

John Chapman Davie, M.D.

Edgar Fawcett

Captain "Willie" Mitchell

Hon. Dr. Helmcken

Gov. John H. Johnson, of Minnesota

Samuel Booth

Rev. Edward Cridge, 1859

Venerable Bishop Cridge

Bishop and Mrs. Cridge at their Golden Jubilee

A Park in San Bernardino

Songhees Indian Reserve

Bastion—S. W. Corner of Fort

SOME REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA