"History isn’t a myth-making discipline, it’s a myth-busting discipline ..."

Sir Richard Evans FBA

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Clement Stickney

Birth certificate
of Ethel Maud Stickney
born in “Wharnock"
July 21, 1894.
In 1885, Clement Stickney and his wife, Esther Elizabeth Betts, settled in Whonnock. They came from the Falkland Islands where their first three children were born: Ester Mary (1881), Clement William (1882 ), and Jessie Elizabeth (1884). 

Clement Stickney was one of the first to settle in Whonnock after the arrival of the railroad. He owned land south of the railway tracks, west of the Whonnock school (he was a school trustee) and only a short walking distance from the general store and the railway station. The records show Stickney to be a fruit grower and a farmer, or, as he jokingly recorded at one time, a horticulturist. 

During the Stickney’s ten years in Whonnock four more children were born: John Edward (1885), Florence Emily (1887), Martin Henry (1890) and Ethel Maud (1894). 

The birth certificate for daughter Ethel Maud (July 1894) carries a note saying: “Everything is doing as well as can be expected.” She was born under grim circumstances. The most devastating flood of the Fraser River flood ruined Stickney’s orchard and crops and damaged or destroyed his home and any other structures on his property. The family left for Vernon that same year. In a letter dated 16 June 1894 to the Superintendant of Education by Emma Sampson writes that Stickney was eager to sell even before his property flooded a month later.

One last  child, a girl called Frances, was born in 1896 in Vernon BC and died shortly after her birth. He mother Esther died in the following year. 


Clement Stickney sold his land to John Owen
Sketch map dated 1896

Click here to see a Stickney page of the Falkland Families Web site. 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

The Gilchrist Brothers

George, Donald (who never married) and Alexander Gilchrist were among Ruskin's early pioneers and land owners. Following a descendant report of the brothers and their children. To the best of my knowledge there are no direct descendants of the brothers alive today.
===
Hugh Gilchrist
& Jessie McKay
|           George Gilchrist
|             b. 18 May 1862, Caithness, Scotland
|             d. 5 Sep 1940, Mission
|           & Benjamina Laing
|             b. 2 May 1868, Scotland
|             d. 10 Apr 1950, Mission
|           |           Hugh Alexander Gilchrist
|           |             b. 13 Oct 1900, Vancouver
|           |             d. 20 Apr 1901, Vancouver
|           |           Elizabeth Mildred Gilchrist
|           |             b. 21 Nov 1902, Vancouver
|           |             d. 22 May 1963, Vancouver
|           |           & Charles Alexander Stuart Black
|           |             b. 15 Sep 1896, Brussel, Ontario
|           |             d. 20 Sep 1991, Mission
|           |             m. 26 May 1927, Vancouver
|           Donald Gilchrist
|             b. ca 1864, Scotland
|             d. 25 Feb 1939, Ruskin
|           Alexander Gilchrist
|             b. 2 Jan 1867, Scotland
|             d. 20 Aug 1951, Vancouver
|           & Ann Nightingale
|             b. ca 1861
|             d. 31 Aug 1939, New Westminster
|             m. 24 Jan 1894, Victoria
|           |           Donald Hugh Gilchrist
|           |             b. 27 Dec 1895, Whonnock
|           |             d. 28 Sep 1928, Port Coquitlam
|           |           Dorothy Elizabeth Gilchrist
|           |             b. 7 Jun 1899, Whonnock
|           |             d. 5 Mar 1989, Vancouver
|           |           & William Albert Foley
|           |             b. 10 Mar 1883, Ontario
|           |             d. 24 Aug 1976, Vancouver

|           |             m. 27 Dec 1934, Port Haney