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MR. AND MRS. STUART ABBOTT

AND FAMILY

by Gladys Van Baaren in consultation with Mrs. Olive Abbott Stuart Abbott, a native of Scotland, came to live in Rosedale in 1919 on a 20-acre farm at 50817 Castleman Rd. Abbott, a gardener by profession, had been married in Scotland and had a son Philip born in 1903. Philip's mother died and Philip went to live with relatives in New York. Stuart Abbott, with his second wife, Mary came from

Vancouver to Rosedale. Accompanying them were

children Thomas and Catherine. A third son Robert and daughter Mary were born in Rosedale. Thomas and Catherine attended Rosedale Elementary School. Philip Abbott rejoined the family in the 1920's as a young man. He attended Rosedale United Church and was active in the Young People's Society.

In 1924 the farm was sold to Mr. Arthur Henry

Cornish. Stuart and Mary Abbott took over a farm of Mr. Cornish in Alberta, and moved the young family there. Philip Abbott moved to Chilliwack where he worked for twenty-five years as a printer for the "Chilliwack Progress". He had a distinguished military career serving in the Canadian Army 1939-45 in France and Italy and rose to the rank of sergeant major. He was married to Doris Nichol of Chilliwack and the couple had three children, Audrey, Anita and Ethel. After the death of Mrs. Doris Abbott, Philip married her sister, a widow, Mrs. Olive Nichol Thornton of Chilliwack. Phil Abbott was an active member of the community until his death in June 1967 at age 64 yrs. He is buried in the Royal Canadian Legion Cemetery, Mt.

Shannon, Chilliwack, B.C.

His widow, Mrs. Olive Abbott, continues to live in Chilliwack and is very active in Chilliwack United

Church.

THE ADACHI STORY

as remembered by Fred Bryant and edited by Mrs. A. Sasaki One family that had a particularly fine effect in the early days of Rosedale was the Tommy Adachi Family. The cruel hard effect of World War II was felt no more deeply by a community than what it did to this very fine, industrious and hard working Japanese family. "Little Tommy," as he was affectionately known to one and all, farmed on the property immediately south of the Elementary school at 10065 McGrath Road. He moved to this farm in 1924 from Sardis, B.C. With his wife, Fuyu, they had a family of two sons and two daughters. The eldest girl, Aya, was a dressmaker who married in December 1938, and moved to Vancouver. She served as secretary to the United Church Sunday School for many years. The two boys, Setsu and Rai, were keen sportsmen and while small in stature, their prowess at baseball, soccer and lacrosse left many a bigger fellow wondering what had happened to the ball. 212
Seated: Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Adachi. Standing: Rai, Jack (Aya's husband),

Aya, Setsu, Mitsuye.

Little Mitsuye, the youngest of the family, was everybody's sweetheart, petite, charming, and lovable. She was 20 years old when the family left Rosedale. In those early days, when automobile transportation was not universal, dependence on neighbours was often necessary. Tommy Adachi's skill and ingenuity as a helpful veterinarian were highly appreciated. There was not a veterinarian clinic in those days. Long before calcium injections were known as a treatment for milk fever in dairy cows Tommy would treat by udder in flation and saved many a cow's life in this way. His small but exceedingly strong forearms were just right for delivery in difficult calvings and his swift and uncanny use of a trocar in the instance of bloat, which was very common in those days, saved many a valued cow or heifer. As far as it is known Tommy never would accept remuneration. "After all," he would say, "What are neighbours for?" This was the time when silage corn was cut by hand with a short-handled hoe and loaded on wagons for filling silos by use of a cutting box. Little Tommy could outwork many a man three times his weight. When it looked like the threshing machine would be late in getting to your place it was Tommy Adachi who could and would build the grain stacks. Any he built stood true and shed the rain, a real accomplishment. His team and wagon were the envy of all. A special mention must be made of the fine orchards on the Adachi farm. Prized indeed were those large King apples just over the fence from the schoolyard. I can't remember anyone ever swiping one. There was no need. The Adachi boys would come to school after lunch, walking through the orchard, and bring apples to us all. Then came the war in 1939, followed by that fateful morning of December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbour. Sud denly everything changed. All Japanese on the Pacific Coast were suspected enemy aliens. There were blackout Air Raid precautions and reports of Japanese warships off the B.C. coast. As a precautionary measure all Japanese were ordered to move at least 100 miles from the coast. This meant everyone--there were no exceptions. The Tashme camps at 14-mile post on the New Hope-Princeton Highway suddenly became an instant town. The Adachis would have to move, although they had become as much a part of Rosedale as any pioneer family. But this was war and it was not for Rosedale nor the Adachis to say. Aya recalls the departure vividly. She has since returned to the Surrey area where she married and raised her family. She has kept in close touch with friends in Rosedale, friends who just couldn't grasp the horror of what was taking place. No one event, before or in the forty odd years since, has so touched a community. On the night that the family boarded the CNR train in Rosedale for Ontario all residents, and it is generally agreed that there were few, exceptions, were there at the station to see them off. The send-off was boisterous, while tears flowed freely and the train was obliged to wait much longer than scheduled. The grim reality of war settled over the large crowd as the engine whistled and carried our much loved neighbours away to the east around the bend towards Popkum and a new life in Ontario. Also in the Adachi household for a time was Shingo, a cousin. He wa s known for his left-foot kicking of a football, his art in sketching and whittling, and his beautiful handwriting. Shingo was a v1ct1m of rheumatoid arthritis and passed away in 1953, in early maturity. Setsu, Missuye, and Rai remained in Ontario after the wartime transplanting.

All are married and living in

Scarborough.

The Adachi Family Home at 10065 McGrath Road.

MR. AND MRS. ROBERT AITKEN

PIONEERS ON CHAPMAN ROAD

by Gladys (Aitken) Van Baaren Robert Aitken and Mary Jane Stafford were born in Berkeley, Ontario, near Owen Sound. They married in Chatsworth in June, 1900, and came we st by Great Northern Railroad through the United States, travelling through the Badlands of North Dakota and Montana. Standing: Alvin, Raymond (Ray), Edward (Ted). Seared: Gladys, Mrs. R.

Aitken, Thelma.

On the way through the Badlands of Dakota the y saw large bands of Indians riding alongside the train galloping their horses at top speed in full war regalia , with painted faces, feathers, and buckskin jacket s, whooping and yelling. My mother , a shy, young bride from the Ea st, was frightened out of her wits . The conductor said, "Don't worry about them; they're just having a celebration of some sort.'' When they arrived at the ranch in Montana which he shared with his partner, a sad reception was waiting for them. His partner came to him with tears in hi s eyes, as his wife had just been drowned in a stream swollen by a flash flood. The wagon in which she was fording a stream upset and a wagon board hit her on the head, causing her to drown, leaving him with three small children . My father said, "Here, take my share of the ranch." They left later for the gold mines at Rossland, B.C. A note about the ranch they left behind: my mother told me that two cowgirls were riding horseback at full speed, with revolvers at their hips and were shooting at a tree, writing their names with bullets round the tree. My mother said, "This is too wild a place for me," so they left for Rossland. She said that the children played with forks and spoons of gold from the mine. From there they moved to Texada Island where my father worked in the copper mine at Vananda. Two children were born there,

Thelma and Ray.

213
After three years the family left, as the smelter fumes made my mother very ill, and came by the steamboat, Beaver, up the Fraser River to Chilliwack Landing. Five times the steamer had to go back to New Westminster due to ice jams in the river. In February, 1904, they finally arrived at Chilliwack Landing and had dinner at the Harrison House. Someone whispered in Mother's ear, "Over there is Bill Miner, the train robber, sitting, eating his dinner." Again my mother was frightened. The proprietor said, "Don't worry; he just robs trains." He was living in Chilliwack at that time. The family then travelled by horses and sleigh to the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Chapman on Chapman Road. There was only a rough trail to Rosedale then which came by Camp River Road. After staying overnight at Mr. and Mrs. John Chapman's they went to their "new" home, a house which was only a granary. My mother could look through the cracks and see the stars at night. They had bought 80 acres of timber and bushland and paid $1,800 for it. My mother, Mary Jane Aitken, remembers helping my father cut down 13 trees which were over five feet across, with a crosscut hand saw. The initial stock was small, one cow and twelve hens. Mother found farm work very demanding. She churned and made butter and traded butter and eggs for groceries at Bartlett's store. There was an Indian trail through the woods from McGrath Road to Rosedale. Sometimes when mother would go a half-mile through the woods to a little clearing to milk the cow, the deer would come and stomp their feet, staring at her through the trees as much as to say, ''What are you doing here!'' Three more children were born on this farm: Alvin,

Ted and Gladys. I only weighed

2 1 / 2 pounds when born

and my first bed was a shoe box. In 1908 my parents sold most of their possessions and cattle, and rented the farm to Jim Muirhead. They went back to Ontario after eight years - their first trip home. It was quite a chore taking five small children on the train. One lady said to my mother, "Why don't you tie a rope around them?" While in Ontario, my father worked in the silver mine at Colbalt. He told us that he walked on a silver sidewalk, made from the mine ore. A year or two later, they came back to the Rosedale farm. They sold 17 acres to a Mr. Billy Harris, and another

20 acres to Mr. Kelly at 50817 Castleman Road.

The only help was a Chinaman who did the land clearing. They finally acquired more cows, pigs and chickens and built a bigger barn and implement shed. In 1918, Jack Martin, contractor, built a new ten-room cement house. Mr. Aitken designed and made the cement mixer. The house is as sound today as the day it was built. Money for groceries was obtained by selling pigs, which had to be taken by team and wagon to Minto Landing where Chinese buyers, after much dealing, would pay good prices. In time, a cream separator made it possible to ship cream to the creamery at Sardis or Chilliwack. The three boys eventually left the farm and went into milling and construction work. A sawmill was operated for many years on what is now known as Aitken Road, west of Chilliwack. Thelma, the elder daughter, was a clerk in the 214

The Aitken Family Home 1919.

David Spencer store before it was sold to Eatons.

Gladys Aitken married one of the first Dutch im migrants to the area, A.B. "Mac" Van Baaren. Together they operated the family farm for a number of years. In

1948, they purchased a farm on the west side of Chapman

Road. The land was still heavily wooded and it was long hard work to clear it. Gladys ran a hairdressing shop in Rosedale and later in Vancouver before she married. Gladys (Aitken) Van Baaren has a record of teaching Sunday School at the Rosedale United Church for all of fifty-five years. Gladys is fondly remembered as the lady who so effectively used flannel graphs to tell stories and who worked so hard to help children to take part in concerts and in musical and recitation numbers for Sunday School and church services. Several times children of two generations were pupils of Gladys. After moving to Chilliwack, Gladys taught at Mount Shannon

Sunday School for three years.

Mac and Gladys have two children, Sylvia Porter and

Robert "Bobbie". Mrs.

R.M. Aitken passed away in her

95th year in 1970; her husband Robert predeceased her in

1937 at age

72.
Mac and Gladys Van Baaren sold the farm in 1979 and moved to a retirement home on Elliott A venue in Chilliwack. Mac was well known as a musician, playing piano in the Don Northgrave orchestra. He passed away in 1984. Below: A.B. (Mac), Bob, Sylvia, Gladys Van Baaren. In the early years of 1900 on the Robert Aitken farm, my father raised a lot of pigs which he sold each year in the fall. Every year he kept one pig to be butchered for our winter's meat supply.

It was cured in a salt brine

mixture. On this winter morning as my father and brother, Ray, went to milk the cows, they thought they would take a peek through the crack of the barn doors to see if the pig which had been killed, scraped and cleaned, was still hanging by its hind legs attached to a beam by rope and pulley. When Ray looked through a knothole in the barn door, he heard a crunching sound, and said to Dad, "What's that?" Dad scolded him and said, "Get away from that door, there is a cougar in there, eating the innards of the pig." The cougar had dragged it to the hen house section of the barn. When the cows were milked and after breakfast, the men went to the back of the barn with their rifles and sure enough the cougar was gone. The men followed its tracks in the snow to the Indian Reserve on Chapman Road, half a mile away.

It was a heavily wooded area and lots of

wild animals roamed the area. My father had been a prospector in the latter years of

1800 and the early 1900's in the upper country. He knew

what cougar tracks looked like, but this one, had made good its mission. I'll bet it was well satisfied with breakfast.

FRANCIS K. AKEROYD 1898-1982

by Joe Patterson

Francis "Frank" Akeroyd was born in Antler,

Saskatchewan. The family moved to Enderby, B.C. in

1901 and farmed for a number of years in that area.

Frank joined the Canadian Army at the age of 16 and saw action in Europe. He was invalided back to Canada in 1917. Later he moved to Chilliwack, where he married

Pearl (Brannick) Patterson in 1926.

They had two sons, James and Clarke. James married Mary Harvey, and Clarke married Margaret Bustin.

James resided at Courtenay, Clarke at Aldergrove.

Frank was very active in the Fraser Valley

Milk

Producers Association, the Chilliwack Ploughing

Association, Chilliwack and District Agricultural Society, Dairy Herd Improvement Association and on the board of the Artificial Insemination Centre. His hobbies were growing gladiolia and raising Clydesdale horses. " Pearl Akeroyd died in 1952 and Frank married Hazel (Annis) Bursey in 1965. Hazel died in 1966. At the time of his death in 1982, Frank was one of two survivors of the 29th Regiment, known as Tobin's "Tigers". Pearl Akeroyd was a charter member of the East Chilliwack Women's Institute and a member of the Chilliwack Horticultural Society. She enjoyed her gardens and corresponded with other flower growers from as far away as South Africa. She also painted china as an indoor hobby. Pearl had a long career as a schoolteacher. She taught

Pearl and Frank Akeroyd.

at Websters' Corners, in Maple Ridge, Lotbiniere, East Chilliwack and Rosedale. In 1940 she returned to teaching at Cheam View for a number of years. An in teresting situation developed many years later. Pearl Patterson's first school was Websters' Corners in Maple Ridge in 1920. In 1961, her granddaughter, Gail Pat terson, started teaching in the same school and in the same room, with the original visitors' book.

MR. AND MRS. W .H. ALLEN

AND FAMILY

by Mrs. Emily Allen William Henry Allen was born in Sussex, England, October 19, 1990. His father was a Master Butcher. Just in his early 20's when the first World War broke out, "Bill" enlisted in the British Army, serving in the Royal

Sussex Regiment.

Following service in France and after demobilization, Bill emigrated to Canada, coming to the Rosedale area . He worked for several years for Joseph Brannick Jr. Besides land clearing, he became very adept at some of the first wooden box drain installations. Before sawn cedar was used, cedar would be split and laid for drainage channels. Bill showed many younger farmers the knack of removing the top sod and stacking it on one side of the ditch so that it could be replaced later with the grass side down to help prevent the infiltration of sand into the drainage channel. 215

William Henry Allen

In the early 1930's Bill purchased twenty acres of land from George Millson and built a house and barn at what is now 9435 Ford Road. Here he developed a very well groomed and productive farm, shipping milk to the

FVMP A. Bill was a member of Branch 4, Royal

Canadian Legion of Chilliwack. In 1939 he married Mrs. Emily Blair, a widow with two children. Her daughter Norma, born in 1929, attended Rosedale Elementary School. She married Nicholas Couston and the couple were active Chilliwack business people. A son, Arthur

Blair, born May 6th, 1927, attended Rosedale

Elementary School until his tragic death by drowning in 1937.
Besides helping her husband with the farm and the garden, which was a model and very productive, Emily Allen worked in the filbert nut orchards and bean fields. She was well known as a very good reliable picker. For three or four years Bill Allen worked for the Department of Highways as a road maintenance man. Never losing his English accent he was known for his quick wit, and while he was often thought to be gruff with children, he was a very friendly and helpful neighbor. After 21 years on Ford Road, Bill and Emily moved to a smaller acreage on Yale East, just west of Upper Prairie Road. In 1966 he retired to live on Spadina Ave. in Chilliwack. Bill Allen passed away in 1973. Mrs. Emily Allen continues to live in Chilliwack. 216
. William and Emily Allen.

THE ROBERT AMOS FAMILY

by Pearl (Amos) Wilson Alice and Robert George Amos moved from Guelph, Ontario to Vancouver in 1910. I was 2 years old. My dad worked with a team and wagon, hauling anything he could to make some money as well as doing carpentry. We lived first on 8th Ave., and later we bought two lots in Burnaby for $850 each. I can remember there were lots of stumps and I had fun playing there,· except when I Pearl Amos, Mr. and Mrs. R.G. Amos, 1920's or '30. crawled through some sewer pipes and got my nice pink dress very dirty. We had company that day and I was shut in the bathroom and missed my lunch. My cousin crawled through the pipes too, but he wasn't punished. We built a new house in Burnaby and moved there in 1911. In April, 1913 my dad built a one-room shack in the Chilliwack area on 20 acres that he bought from the Grigg farm on Yale Road East at Big Ditch Road (now called Upper Prairie Road). It was actually the deadend of McLeod Road. The house and barn which my dad built are still there. Then he traded the two lots in Bur naby for seven more acres from Mr. Grigg. Mr. and Mrs. Grigg both were drowned when the Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence on May 29, 1914. In July, 1919 we sold our farm for $11,000 and went back to Ontario. We had planned to stay there but we weren't there long before we decided to return to the

Fraser Valley.

On January 15, 1920 we bought the Mark Edmondson

farm of 21.90 acres on Camp Slough Road at Jesperson

Road. It sold for $5500

-the cows, pigs and chickens for another $765. I can remember Mr. Watson was the real estate agent. When he took my dad to look at the place he said he would have to make up his mind right away as Mr. Edmondson might change his mind. So the deed was signed right then and there. Sure enough, next day Mr. Edmondson came out and said he had changed his mind, but it was too late. He was furious! We had so much bad luck the first year we lived there that we began to wonder if he had put a curse on the place. But after a lot of hard work digging, dynamiting and burning many stumps, things began to improve and we loved it there. My dad built a new barn in 1929 (which burned down later) and a new house in 1931, which is still there. Dr. Preto, the current owner, has renovated it so you wouldn't recognize it. After we left the farm it was subdivided and there are now 3 more houses there. In June 1925 we bought our first car. The thrill of it was the curtains you could draw when it was stormy. Before that I rode horseback or bicycle many times to Camp River Hall. Vera German (Andrews) lived next door and one night riding from her place (I had no light) I ran into a cow. I don't know who was the most scared, me or the cow. We lived there from 1920 to 1943 and sold to Mr. and Mrs. Swerdfeger for $9,800. My dad built over 100 silos in the valley and many houses. He was well known also for raising pigs and selling them as weaners. I married Eddie Wilson on June 1941 and moved to Powell River for a year and then Eddie joined the army. Our family was increased by the addition of sons Brian and Barrie. After the war we moved back to Powell River but like my folks we were drawn back to the Fraser Valley and in 1947 we moved to 330 Mcsween Road. Like my folks we built a shack which later became our chicken house. We moved into our new house in 1953. My folks built a little house beside us and after 3 years on Maple Avenue spent the rest of their days there and were very happy. My mother died in 1957 and my father in 1964.

I have many happy memories of Camp Slough and

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