Amor De Cosmos

This house at 1860 Grant Street is an example of a prefabricated home supplied by B.C. Mills Timber and Trading Company. However, the current style is not reflected in any of the company's catalogues.

Wednesday we talked about B.C.'s first premier, John Foster McCreight who served in that position from November 14, 1871 to December 23, 1872. He was replaced by Amor De Cosmos.

Our second premier was an interesting fellow. Born William Alexander Smith in Windsor, Nova Scotia on August 20, 1825, Smith's parents were United Empire Loyalists. He did a stint at King's College in Windsor then went on to become a mercantile clerk in Halifax.

While in Halifax, William joined the Dalhousie University Debating Club. It was there that he came under the influence of Nova Scotia politician and reformer, Joseph Howe.

Edward Farraday Odlum erected this house in 1906. It is a block east from his father's home at 1774 Grant, a house I have written on recently. The elder Odlum is credited with naming the district.

In 1845, Smith joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 1852, he emigrated to Kanesville, Iowa and established a daguerreotype studio. However, as with many young men, the lure of the California Gold Rush called to him the following year so it was off to Placerville, California. In Placerville, Smith and his brother set up a new studio and prospered taking photos of miners and their operations.

The pair later moved northwest to Oroville, California where the two were successful in various entrepreneurial endeavours. In 1854, Smith petitioned the California State Assembly to change his name to Amor De Cosmos. (It is inaccurately translated to "Lover of the Universe"). He said the name change was to pay tribute"to what I love most...Love of order, beauty, the world, the universal."

This photo of Amor De Cosmos comes from the BC Archives

In 1858, De Cosmos and his brother moved again. This time to British North America where they would once again live under the British Flag. They saw an opportunity in the city of Victoria.

Since 1843, the capital of Vancouver Island was a quiet village of about perhaps 300 people. An economic boom started the spring of 1858 though as Victoria became the jumping off point for miners headed to New Caledonia (now mainland British Columbia) and on to make their fortunes in the Fraser Gold Rush.

De Cosmos founded a newspaper, The Daily British Colonist, still in operation today as the Victoria Times-Colonist.

Monday I will talk more about De Cosmos's career as a journalist as well as his entry into politics.

Thank you the Government of BC for the listing of premiers and Wikipedia for the information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Amor De Cosmos, history, Premier, California Gold Rush British Columbia,Victoria,Fraser Gold Rush

John Foster McCreight

On May 14, our province goes to the polls to elect a new premier and officials. So I am going to write a bit on every one of our 35 premiers so far. And I will start today with British Columbia's first premier, John Foster McCreight.

Born in Caledon in County Tyrone Ireland in 1827, McCreight came from a well established and a well-connected family. He studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. From the Emerald Shores, McCreight went down under and opened a law practice in Melbourne, Australia.

Then, in 1859, John left Australia and sailed first to San Francisco then to Victoria.

A photo of John Foster McCreight

B.C.'s flag

McCreight arrived in Victoria in 1860. At that time, the city was the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island. At that time, Sir James Douglas, the Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company governed the colony.

Two years after his arrival, John was called to the British Columbia bar and opened a practice in Victoria. By all accounts, McCreight led a quiet life. Outside of his law practice, John was active in the local Masonic Lodge as well as being an active layperson in the congregation of the local Anglican cathedral.

It was in 1866 that the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia merged. Initially, when the colonies united, the newly formed province didn't join the Canadian Confederation. However, the economic and strategic situation soon made the idea attractive. So on July 20, 1871, British Columbia became part of Canada.

McCreight joined the interim transitional cabinet as Attorney General. During the first provincial general election, John won a seat in the legislature for Victoria City. Sir Jospeh Trutch, the Lieutenant Governor, chose McCreight to be the first premier. In addition, McCreight still carried out the duties of Attorney General.

Unfortunately, reports show that McCreight didn't have the right temperament for public life. A colleague of McCreight's, Henry Perring Pellew Crease, described the premier as "bad tempered and queer...by fits & turns extremely credulous & extremely suspicious...excessively obstinate in the wrong places...close and reserved in his daily life...[and] utterly ignorant of politics".

In spite of his shortcomings, McCreight had a productive tenure as premier. Three dozen pieces of legislature were passed in the first year. But his inability to form alliances and mollify others in the cabinet led to a loss of support from the MLAs. McCreight resigned in 1872 after losing a motion of no confidence.

McCreight stayed in the legislature until 1875 when he left to return to his law practice as a Queen's Counsel. in 1880, he was made justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In that capacity he served the Cariboo, Victoria and finally, in 1883, New Westminster. He retired in 1887 at the age of 70 and returned to the United Kingdom. He died in Hastings, East Sussex at the age of 86.

Thanks goes to Wikipedia for the information on McCreight and the Province of British Columbia for a list of premiers.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, John Foster McCreight, history, Premier, Sir James Douglas British Columbia,MLA,Ireland

Jack Wasserman

The entry that Tamy Burns wrote yesterday inspired me to write on a local legend, Jack Wasserman. And Saturday when I was riding on the bus, I met a woman who had actually worked with the newspaper man and said he was quite a character.

Here's Jack Wasserman eating Chinese food on May 8, 1974. This photo was taken by Croton Studios. The photo comes from the Vancouver Library Collection.

This house is at 1940 Napier Street. I don't have any information on it, besides the fact that it is listed as H.A. McDonald residence and this photo dates back to 1932. I got this from the City of Vancouver collection online.

And the rest of the house today.

Jack Wasserman came to Vancouver in 1935 at the age of eight. He was born in Winnipeg on February 27, 1927.

Wasserman graduated from King Edward High School in 1945 and went on to law school at the University of British Columbia. However, the law wasn't for him and Jack dropped out to take a reporter's job with the Ubyssey.

Wasserman joined the staff at the Vancouver Sun and became a columnist to be read if you wanted to keep abreast of happenings in the nightclub scene. It is said that after reading Jack's column, a person actually felt as if they had been at the Cave or some other night club.

Here's a quote from one of his columns"Vancouver erupted as the vaudeville capital of Canada, rivaling and finally outstripping Montreal in the East and San Francisco in the south as one of the few places where the brightest stars of the nightclub era could be glimpsed from behind a post, through a smoke-filled room, over the heads of $20 tippers at ringside. Only in Las Vegas and Miami Beach, in season, were more superstars available in nightclubs."

Jack's biggest scoop came when he reported the sordid death of Errol Flynn in a West End apartment.

A long-time gossip and self described "saloon reporter", Jack Wasserman would phone in his notes for certain articles. Legend has it that the notes were so good, the Sun ran them verbatim.

At the age of 24, Jack was given a man about town column. He wrote on the often lurid details of Vancouver's night life and society (and scandal of course). He haunted such famous nightclubs as the Cave and the Ivy.

The area where Wasserman worked - certain blocks of Hornby Street - have been dubbed 'Wasserman's Beat'.

Jack was fired from the Sun but rehired 18 months later. He ran a radio show on CJOR in 1969; another show on CKNW in 1970 called "Wasserman's World" and later hosted a show on CBC TV called Hourglass.

In 1977, while speaking at a roast for Gordon Gibson Sr at the Hotel Vancouver, Jack Wasserman dropped dead of a heart attack. He was fifty years old.

Thanks goes to the BC Radio History website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Errol Flynn, history, The Cave, The Ivy British Columbia,The Sun,Jack Wasserman