The Methodist and the Madam

There were a number of arrivals to Granville in 1873. The barque Whittier brought a piano among its cabin furniture. The master sold it to Mrs. Schweppe who resold it to Mrs. Richards - the schoolteacher. She gave piano lessons in her rooms.

Methodist missionary-pastor, Reverend James Turner, arrived in 1873. He was soon known as the Minister of the Interior.

Reverend Turner's parsonage was at the northeast corner of Water and Abbott streets, across from Simmons' saloon, which was now called the Hole-in-the-Wall. Two doors west of the parsonage, just past Fernandez' store, Vancouver's madam - Birdie Stewart- opened a brothel. So Reverend Turner must have found lots to preach about!

Reverend Turner wasn't the only religious person in the area at the time. Next to the Hole-in-the-Wall, devout Mrs. Sullivan, a mulatto, set up a tiny restaurant. Her son, Arthur, opened a store and soon became the town's leading musician and a popular master of ceremonies. Mrs. Sullivan was Gastown's first Methodist and Reverend Turner held his first services in her kitchen.

Dr. William Wymond Walkem arrived on the scene in 1873. Walkem was the inlet's second - or maybe first - resident physician. He was employed by the mill and lived in a mill cottage.

One of the more important arrivals of 1873 was Henry O. Alexander. Henry was the first white native to be born in Vancouver. He would go on to rise to the position of judge, honoured and loved by many citizens of Vancouver.

According to one pioneer, this was the year that a famous civic institution began. The Negro cook of the Red Rover was caught stealing from a Gastown clothesline and put on a 'chain gang' until he was returned to the ship and it sailed. A light chain was secured to each ankle. The chain was long enough so it could be tucked over his belt while he was working on the roads. The chain gangs were used until 1910.

Captain Raymur was still trying to tame Gastown. He advertised in New Westminster's Mainland Guardian for a resident magistrate who would oppose the licensing of 'any Burrard Inlet houses that keep open after midnight or play cards on Sunday'.

The birth of Henry Alexander was overshadowed by farmer Hugh Burr on the North Shore. His wife gave birth to the inlet's first white twins - Emaline and Adeline.

Another interesting arrival was the Union. Two pioneers, their names are lost in the mists of time, welded together a square scow and a steam threshing machine then supplied it with a pair of paddlewheels. The two men went into the towing business.

The Union only had one speed  - full ahead. She would start off with a long slack line on her tow, gaining speed and achieved a crack-the-whip effect at the end of the line. This set the Union back on her heels but at the same time, imparted a moderate forward velocity to the two. She would then gingerly tighten the line and plod up or down the inlet.

The only people who called her the Union were the owners. To everyone else, she was known as the Sudden Jerk.

I am getting this information from the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis. Thanks goes to the author, Alan Morley.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Hy and Alexander

On October 6, 1901, Harry Adaskin was born in Riga, Latvia. Harry was a musician, a child prodigy who played the violin from the age of 7. He was a founding member of the Hart House Quartet (1924). In 1946, Adaskin moved to Vancouver. He established the musical facility at UBC (University of British Columbia) and was well known for his efforts to popularize classical music. He received the Order of Canada in 1975, two days after he retired. Harry Adaskin died in Vancouver on April 7, 1994.

Hy Aisenstat was born in Calgary on April 28, 1926 in Calgary. He was the son of a Russian emigre wholesale grocer. Hy started in sales then owned a small oil company. In 1955, Hy and his wife Barbara opened Hy's Steak House after getting a $3,000 loan. Five years later, Aisenstat came to Vancouver and opened Hy's at the Sands, then the Mansion (1979) and Hy's Encore.

Hy's of Canada united 12 companies with restaurants across Canada, Chicago, Honolulu, Palm Springs and Beverly Hills. Hy smoke ten Havan cigars daily and liked to call his restaurants 'saloons'. He played host to such celebrities as Marlene Dietrich, Louis Armstrong, Bob Hope and others. On August 11, 1988, Hy Aisenstat died in Vancouver.

The first white male born on Burrard Inlet would go on to become a judge. On December 13, 1873, Henry Osborne Alexander was born at Hastings Mill. His father was Richard Alexander. Henry was educated at St. Paul's college in Esquimalt. He practised law in Vancouver after being called to the bar in 1896.

Alexander had a unique way about him. In 1908, two South Vancouver residents came before Magistrate Alexander arguing about who owned a specific rooster.  The Magistrate's solution was to set the rooster loose in the street and see which man he went to. He was an early, active member of the Royal Yacht Club. He died April 18, 1920.

Next up is Richard Henry Alexander who happened to be a storekeeper at Hastings Mill. And I suspect the father of Henry Alexander. Richard was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 26, 1844. He came with his parents to Toronto in 1855 and in 1862; Richard joined an expedition that journeyed from Minneapolis to the Fraser Gold fields. During this journey, Alexander kept a journal, which is now in the Vancouver City Archives.

Once the man got to New Westminster, he did odd jobs until 1870 when he went to work at the Hastings Mill Store. He rose quickly to the position of mill accountant then manager upon the death of Captain James Raymur. Alexander also served as justice of the peace, member of the Granville School Board and other various public positions before his death in Seattle on January 29, 1915.

Although I don't write on people that often - more on buildings and events - it is the people that have made this city the great place it is today.

I hope you find the beauty around you.


Karen Magill, Vancouver, Henry Alexander, history, Richard Alexander, Hy Aisentat British Columbia, Canada, Hy's Steak House, The Mansion,judge