Spilsbury

Assessment records show that in 1910 Edward Watson purchased the Spilsbury home and 70 acres of land of the SE part of  DL 326. Ashton W. Spilsbury kept the western part of 34 acres. The 70 acres were repossessed by Spilsbury in 1922 and were sold by creditors. The house must have been adjacent to River Road.  We  don't know when the house was demolished. Jim Spilsbury puts the focus for the monetary troubles of his father on the Watsons who had stopped paying for the 70 acres they bought (war-time moratorium of debt). But Spilsbury also had to pay municipal taxes on property he still owned in Whonnock beginning with the 34 acres left of DL 326. In addition  Spilsbury owned  the SW 1/4 of Section 1,  Township 12. In 1912 he subdivided the northern half of the 160 acres into four 5-acre lots (numbered from 1 to 4) and six 10-acre lots (numbers 5 to 10) obviously trying to sell. Beginning in 1911 he also owned three lots in DL 329, sub div F:  Lot 1 (4.46 acres) Lot 5 (7.83 acres) and Lot 6 (.28 acres).  DL 329 was subdivided in 1910 and it seems that AWS took his share of the land when it became available. It seemed a good investment at that time but unfortunately after a boom, the economy of British Columbia took a sharp downturn. Many went bankrupt in that pre-war recession and AWS survived barely.