1910 is when this house on Woodland Drive was built.
There are three names that will forever remain in the history books as those who began this city. Those names Sewell Moody, Jerry Rogers and Captain Edward Stamp. They are the legendary lumbermen of Burrard Inlet.
The North Shore's Pioneer Mills was the inlet's first sawmill, opening in 1863.A year later, the company had fallen twice into bankruptcy and was picked up by an American named Sewell Moody. Moody was smart enough to capitalize on the timber riches of the Douglas fir forest that lined the inlet.
International trade from Burrard Inlet was born with the arrival of Moody. The refurbished mill loaded the Ellen Lewis with lumber bound for Australia. Under Moody's firm hand, Moody's Mill was profitable for the next ten years.
The workers at the mill needed places to live so a company town around the mill of Moodyville was developed - the first settlement on Burrard Inlet. Moody made sure that the settlement was a family town and a role model for the rest of the area.
Moodyville had the first religious service in 1865; first wedding in 1868; opened its first school in 1870 adn installed the first electric lighting north of San Francisco in 1882. Sew Moody died in a shipwreck off the coast in 1875. It was then that the fortunes of Moodyville began to wane.
This house next door was also built in 1910.
The second legendary lumberman was called 'the greatest woodsman of them all'. Jeremiah Rogers arrived in the Burrard Inlet from Port Alberni in 1865. Rogers camped at Point Grey so he could log the grand stand of tress that grew there. (Jericho - originally known as Jerry's Cove - was named after him.)
Rogers and his men produced some of the finest "Vancouver Toothpicks". Spars that were about 100 feet long and 24 inches square. It was intense physical labour to produce those. A single tree could take two days to fell then it had to be hauled out of the forest on "skid roads" by teams of oxen.
Jeremiah Rogers died in 1877 and his land was logged over two more times before all the finest trees were taken. It was in 1884 that Angus Fraser took over and he shipped flawless beams to Peking for the Imperial Palace - these 'toothpicks' were 112 feet long and 28 inches square.
I gleaned the above information from the book Vancouver, A History in Photographs by Aynsley Vogel and Dana Wyse. The information on the homes comes from Bob_2006 at flickr.com.
Friday I will tell you about the third legendary lumberman - Captain Edward Stamp.
I hope you find the beauty around you.
Angus C Fraser was my paternal great grandfather.
ReplyDeleteInteresting times during the early days of Granville later known as Gastown. He and his brother had a rowing crew and they would compete with other logging camps in Burrard Inlet. Zoe
Thanks for reading and sharing that story. It makes what I write more meaningful.
DeleteJust today, I found on wikipedia, the specific location of the logs that were sent to Peking's Imperial Palace by my great grandfather Angus Fraser who had a logging camp in Jericho: "One famous sale of trees cut from the Jericho neighbourhood (west of Kitsilano), was a special order for the Celestial Emperor of China consisting of dozens of immense beams for the construction of The Gate of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City, Beijing." (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vancouver). Hopefully, when I go to Beijing in a few years, I will check out those logs!
DeleteAlso:
To clarify the names: Gastown, Granville and Vancouver, this wikipedia source for Timeline of Vancouver history is brief and concise summary (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Vancouver_history)
1867 – Gassy Jack opens the first saloon to provide drinks to workers from the Hastings Mill. Gastown then builds up around this popular saloon;
1869 – Gastown is surveyed as Granville Townsite; and
1886 – The Town of Granville is incorporated as the City of Vancouver (the name was in fact chosen by the President of Canadian Pacific Railway). Rate-payers elect Malcolm Alexander MacLean, a real estate dealer, as the first mayor of Vancouver. The city has a population of about 1,000 people."
Zoe
Source for specific location of the logs in Peking's Imperial Palace that my great grandfather Angus Fraser sent from his logging camp in Jericho: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vancouver
Delete"One famous sale of trees cut from the Jericho neighbourhood (west of Kitsilano), was a special order for the Celestial Emperor of China consisting of dozens of immense beams for the construction of The Gate of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City, Beijing."
Also, origin of names of "Gastown, Granville, and Vancouver" as indicated briefly in timeline of Vancouver history source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Vancouver_history
1867 – Gassy Jack opens the first saloon to provide drinks to workers from the Hastings Mill. Gastown then builds up around this popular saloon.
1869 – Gastown is surveyed as Granville Townsite.
1886 – The Town of Granville is incorporated as the City of Vancouver (the name was in fact chosen by the President of Canadian Pacific Railway). Rate-payers elect Malcolm Alexander MacLean, a real estate dealer, as the first mayor of Vancouver. The city has a population of about 1,000 people."
Zoe
Thank you for the additional information
Delete