Monthly Archives: May 2011
Camas blooming in Metchosin
Happy Swiftsure/Memorial Day Weekend!
I snapped this while on a nature walk in Metchosin. Judging by the comments and photos on our Facebook Page, the Camas are definitely in full bloom all over the Pacific Northwest!
There is also an interesting article on Camosun College’s website about these beautiful flowers and their various uses. You can read it here.
Camas in full bloom. Photo by Rachel Perkins
The Camas
Photo by Nancy Anderson
In his book, Trees and Shrubs: Food, Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of British Columbia (Victoria: Banfield, 1925) James Robert Anderson (who attended school inside the old fort as a 12-year-old) described the Camas that bloomed every May in the oak meadows that surrounded Fort Victoria.
“It is commonly called Camas or Le Camas and so the name has degenerated into Lickomas amongst those who are ignorant of the origin of the name. It is a bulbous plant, bearing a spike of beautiful blue flowers, from 6 to 12 inches in height, belonging to the Lily family. The bulb, which is about the size of a small Hyacinth, is a common article of food among the Indian tribes of North America. …
“It is common everywhere where the land is sufficiently clear of trees and the soil rich enough, a rich black loam in open country being its natural habitat. The women go out when the plant is in bloom and with a long, sharp, slightly curved and flattened, tough sticks dig up the bulbs, which are from 4 to 5 inches in the ground. These are conveyed to a kiln, 10 feet or less in diameter, and there cooked, after which the bulbs are divided among the contributors, who place them in baskets and store them away for future use. In a raw state the Camas is perfectly white, very glutinous, and somewhat sweet. After cooking it assumes a rich brown colour, quite sweet, with an aromatic and pleasant flavour. The kilns of which I speak are hollows in the ground from 2 to 3 feet in depth, the bottoms of which are filled with large stones, on which fires are built until the stones become red hot. Grass is then placed on the stones, on the grass the Camas is heaped, and in turn covered over with grass and mats, and earth heaped over all. The Camas is allowed to remain in the kiln for several days or until it is quite cold, when, as I said before, the bulbs are divided up. This, before the use of iron utensils became known, was a very common mode of cooking. Besides Camas, other roots were cooked in the same way.”
In the Native Medicinal and Poisonous Plants section of the same book, Anderson warns that another lily, called Death Camas, also grew in Victoria. He described it, as follows:
“This is the variety which grows about Victoria in company with the real Camas; it also occurs quite commonly in the open parts of the province. Both have the same grass-like leaf as the ordinary edible Camas, but are to be distinguished by the colour of the flowers, the former being of a yellowish-white whilst those of the edible Camas are blue. Nevertheless, care has to be exercised by the natives in digging up the bulbs of the edible Camas on account of the resemblance of the bulbs. This is a well-known poisonous plant both to human beings and animals, the poison being contained both in the leaves and bulbs…. Experiments in United States show the poison to be an alkaloid related to the violent poison of hellebore. One-fiftieth of a grain killed a frog in two minutes. The dose of strychnine fatal to a frog is twice that amount. From this some idea of the intensely poisonous nature of the bulbs may be gathered.”
Submitted by Nancy Anderson
Ogden Family
Ogden Point, Victoria BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins
Peter Skene Ogden was born in Quebec, 1790 to American Loyalists Isaac and Sarah Ogden. Isaac Ogden was a Judge. Peter joined the Northwest Company. In his travels he married an unknown Cree woman, “à la façon du pays” according to the custom of the country in Ile a la Crosse, Saskatchewan in 1818. She had two sons and died. Peter Skene Ogden was transferred to the Columbia Department. In 1845 he became one of a triumvirate of Chief Factors of the HBC managing the Forts with James Douglas and John McLoughlin. He served on the board of governance of Fort Victoria.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
His first born Peter Ogden Jr., was also a Chief Factor of the HBC. He married Phristine Brabant, a Métis and Cree woman. They had eleven children including seven beautiful daughters. One daughter, Sarah Ogden, married James Marsden Lindsay Alexander, a Scot and Chief Factor of the HBC. They had nine children before Sarah died in 1886 at the age of 40. One of their sons, William Lindsay Alexander, born 1881 in Stuart Lake, BC, was Mark’s grandfather. He married Agnes Dunlop, born 1886 in Liverpool, England. The wedding took place at Queen’s University Chapel in Kingston, Ontario on November 6th, 1911. They had six children. Their youngest, born 1923 in Prince Rupert, BC, married Gordon Thomas Steven Perkins of Victoria, BC. They had three children, including my husband, Gordon Mark Perkins .
Submitted by Fern Perkins
Ross Family
Grave of Isabella Ross, Ross Bay Cemetery - Victoria, BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins
HBC Chief Trader (Chief Factor according to some documents) of Fort Victoria, Ross brought the first and only Métis fur trade family to Fort Victoria and supervised the building of the HBC Fort in 1843. Isabella Ross was the first registered independent woman landowner in BC. She owned Ross Farm, now Ross Bay, Foul Bay, King George Terrace, Harling Point and Ross Bay Cemetery.
Charles George Ross was born in Kingcraig, Invernesshire, Scotland, 1794, the son of Christina Munro and Scottish Nobleman, Sir Charles Ross, according to Mrs. Edward Cridge and Charles Ross’ correspondence. Ross joined the Hudson Bay Company in 1818 as a clerk with an excellent education, according to Governor Simpson. After marrying Isabella Mainville in 1822, at Lac La Pluie, “à la façon du pays” according to the custom of the country, they travelled across the country establishing trade at many HBC Forts. They renewed their vows in 1838 with the Reverend Herbert Beaver at Fort Vancouver, WT according to the tradition of the Church of England. Charles died of appendicitis in 1844 after Fort Victoria was completed.
Isabella Mainville, a woman of great courage, according to Governor Simpson, was born on the Island of Michillimacinac in 1807, to a French Canadian Métis father and Ojibway mother, Joseph and Josette Mainville. Their granddaughter calls them Melville in a Puyallup newspaper interview from 1916. The Rosses had ten children. Alexander Ross, the fourth son, born in 1835 at Fort Vermillion, AB, married Mary Ann Bastian. She was born in 1850 to Rose, of the Nisqually/Muck Creek Tribe near Tacoma and Henri Isaac Bastian, French Canadian Métis settler. Mary Ann Bastian was raised by the Reverend Edward and Mary Cridge after the death of her mother, the Indian wars and hanging of her Tribal Chief, Leschi, in 1858. Her guardian, The Reverend Cridge, performed the marriage ceremony of Mary Ann Bastian to Alexander Ross in 1868. Mary Ross was the laundry woman for the Carr family since their arrival in Victoria.
Charles Ross' Chair, Ross Bay - Victoria BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins
Alexander and Mary Ross had six children. Their only surviving daughter, Flora Victoria Ross, was born in Victoria on Queen Victoria’s birthday, May 24th, 1876. She married William Edward Ottaway on December 25th, 1895 at Christ Church Cathedral. The Reverend Arthur Beanlands officiated. The Ottaways had four surviving children. The third surviving daughter, Flora Victoria Eugene Waldegrave Ottaway, born in Victoria in 1905, was my grandmother. The Bishop Cridge was her Godfather until his death in 1913. Flora married James Francis Edwin Marrison in 1927. They had eight children. Their third child, Flora Loretta Marrison, my mother, was born in Victoria on September 15, 1930. She married Douglas Roy Barker of Victoria, BC. They had three children including me, Stephanie Fern Barker, born in Victoria on May 6, 1950, Paul Douglas Barker and Francesca Isabella Alexandra Mary Barker, also born in Victoria.
Submitted by Fern Perkins
Roderick Finlayson
Gravesite of Roderick Finlayson - Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins
Roderick Finlayson, born March 16, 1818 in the parish of Lochalsh, in the county of Ross, Scotland, was the second son and fourth child of Alexander Finlayson and Mary Morison. He attended parochial schools and loved reading Anson’s, Cook’s and Drakes voyages around the world. By age 16 he understood the principals of the rise and progress of the East India Company and other adventurers and longed to go abroad to do something for himself.
In July 1837 he left Scotland with his mother, siblings and maternal grandfather and headed to New York. While in New York he met his paternal uncle, Chief Factor Duncan Finlayson and Sir George Simpson who were returning to England. Through the kindness of his uncle he secured a position as apprentice clerk with the Hudson’s Bay Company.
He left New York and proceeded to Lachine where he worked for a short time then moved to Fort Coulonge. Here he learned to negotiate with Native American hunters and lumber men working on the Ottawa River. Not having any knowledge of the French language he taught himself the principals of the language and eventually spoke French fluently.
In 1839 he was transferred to the Columbia District. His journey west was uneventful other than being caught in the middle of a stampede of 500 buffalo that were crossing the Saskatchewan River. At Fort Vancouver, Finlayson was placed in charge of the new saw and grist mill; he supervised 32 men and reported weekly to Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin.
In the spring of 1840 he was transferred to Fort Stikine on the northwest coast. He traveled from Fort Vancouver via the Cowlitz Plain and learned from a Native American messenger that Fort Langley had burned to the ground. Once at Cowlitz he proceeded to Fort Nisqually and boarded the steamer Beaver under the direction of Chief Trader James Douglas. The steamer proceeded to Fort Langley and he helped rebuild the post. With Fort Langley rebuilt Finlayson one again boarded the Beaver with Douglas and proceeded north and stopped at Fort McLoughlin and Fort Simpson. At the latter post he met Sarah, the second eldest daughter of Chief Trader John Work.
By 1843 some northern HBC posts were abandoned and Finlayson was ordered transferred to the southern tip of Vancouver Island to help establish Fort Victoria. Chief Trader Charles Ross supervised the construction of the new post with Finlayson as his second in command. Less than one year after Fort Victoria was established Chief Trader Ross became violently ill and died. Upon Ross’s death Finlayson was placed in charge of Fort Victoria.
Roderick was an excellent supervisor. In a letter written to Governor George Simpson on April 6, 1846, Chief Factor James Douglas noted:
“Roderick Finlayson has managed the affairs of Ft. Victoria, remarkably well, since his accession to the charge of the Post and I assure you it will not be an easy matter to find a better man for the place. He is not a man of display, but there is a degree of energy, perseverance, method and sound judgment in all his arrangements, which from what I had seen of him in a subordinate situation, I was not prepared to expect. He is, besides a young man of great probability and high moral worth, this, in justice, to the young man, should have been represented before.”
In 1849 Chief Factor James Douglas moved from Fort Vancouver and took control of Fort Victoria. Finlayson was reassigned as Fort Victoria’s head accountant.
On Dec 14, 1849 Roderick Finlayson married Sarah Work the second daughter of Chief Factor John Work and his Métis wife Suzette Legace. One month after their marriage Finlayson received his commission as Chief Trader and ten years in 1859 he was promoted Chief Factor.
In 1861 Finlayson took a one year furlough to visit family and when he returned to Victoria he was appointed Superintendant of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s interior affairs. He continued in this capacity until 1872 when he retired and devoted the remainder of his life to farming and managing his business ventures.
Always interested in Victoria’s civil affairs Finlayson was elected Mayor of Victoria by acclamation in 1878 and was instrumental in pushing forward the construction of the first section of Victoria City Hall.
Historian Hubert H. Bancroft visited Victoria and wrote the following about Finlayson:
“He was well preserved in mind and in body, clear-headed, courteous, intelligent and public spirited. He was tall, well proportioned, and erect and crowned with gray, with fine full features, expressive at once of benevolence and intelligence. He was a shrewd, practical, clear-headed Scotchman, who meddles little with his neighbor’s affairs, but attends to his own business. He is kind, benevolent, honorable, and exceedingly courteous and a true gentleman in the highest sense.”
Roderick Finlayson died on January 20th 1892 at age 74. The flag situated on the top of Victoria’s City Hall hung at half mast indicating one of the leading and most honored residents of Victoria had passed away.
Submitted by Pamela E. Pike Gaudio,
great granddaughter of Chief Factor Roderick Finlayson and
3 x great granddaughter of Honorable Chief Factor John Work and Suzette Legace.
Cridge Family
Cridge Family Gravesite - Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins
Edward Cridge was born Dec. 17, 1817, in Devonshire, England. After graduating from Cambridge University, he became vicar at Christ Church, in the parish of West Ham near London. When he learned the Hudson’s Bay Company was seeking a chaplain for the fort on Southern Vancouver Island, he applied for the job and was accepted. He proposed to parishoner Mary Winmill who agreed to marry him and join him in this great adventure. (Mary Winmill was born in Essex, England on April 15, 1827.)
On September 20, 1854, they sailed from Gravesend aboard the Marquis of Bute. Over six months later, in March of 1855, after a journey around South America and via the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), they were welcomed to the fort by Governor James Douglas.
On August 12, 1856, he said the prayers at the inaugural meeting of the first meeting of the elected House of Assembly, held in a small room at the fort and was named Clerk of the Assembly.
Edward and Mary had nine children, four of whom died in the black measles epidemic of 1865. One of them was Ellen, born March 18, 1867.
Ellen married Thomas Herbert Laundy, on Sept. 17, 1891. (He was with the Bank of British Columbia, subsequently the Bank of Commerce, at the branch at Fort and Government streets)
Ellen and Herbert had six children, the youngest of whom were twins Edward and Arthur Laundy (my father).
Arthur married Dorothy Kennedy in 1939. They had two children; myself, David Arthur Laundy, born on January 16, 1942 and my younger brother, Robert Lynn Laundy, born on June 22, 1945.
Submitted by Dave Laundy (wife Janet)
descendant of Edward and Mary Cridge
(chaplain to Fort Victoria)
Fort Victoria Descendants 