Sechelt History

by Heather Till

THE SHISHALH PEOPLES:
The Sechelt area was originally occupied by natives of the Coast Salish nation, specifically the shishalh tribe, from which the town of Sechelt took its name. Much of their settlement was concentrated in the protected inland areas along the Sechelt Inlet where natural food and fresh water were abundant. The shishalh enjoyed a thriving community, rich in culture and family tradition. Their first contact with white settlers, likely the Catholic missionary Father Paul Durieu, was not an agreeable one. One of the first European innovations to alter the shishalh's traditional way of life was smallpox. In 1862, a severe epidemic took the lives of over 90% of the Coast's Native population.

Many of the survivors considered this plague a punishment from the spirit world, in some way connected to the powerful medicine of the black-robed missionaries. One of the largest mass conversions in history took place right after this epidemic, perhaps as a desperate attempt to placate the hostile forces that had brought on the illness. Father Durieu "successfully" confirmed into the Catholic faith every surviving member of the shishalh tribe.

Shortly afterwards, he began the controversial residential school system, choosing the area known to the Natives as Chateleech as the site for the first school. By shishalh standards, it was a generally inhospitable spot for year-round living due to its open exposure to both weather and attack, and the lack of fresh water. Despite this, St. Augustine's Residential School was officially opened on June 29, 1904, on the present day site of the House of Chiefs in Sechelt. Rigid discipline was enforced. Children were not allowed to speak their native language, even to their parents, who were forced to learn English to communicate with their own children. Students could not live at home even if they lived within sight of the school. Parental visits were limited to one or two hours a week and were supervised by hovering nuns. The School burned to the ground in 1917, and classes were held in temporary quarters until it was rebuilt in 1922. It continued to play a major role in shishalh history until the 1960's.

Native culture was strictly suppressed by the theocratic regime of Durieu and his preists. His converts were forced to burn centuries-old totem poles and other "paraphernalia of the medicine men" and to abandon their potlatches, dancing and winter festivities. Durieu instead began an all-Native brass band and travelling theatre troupe and encouraged such non-traditional economic pursuits as logging and commercial-scale hunting and fishing.

The population (and the morale) of the shishalh continued to decline under the influences of the church. An official 1881 census showed only 167 band members left of the original body of 5000. Only a sad remnant remained of what was once referred to as "one big smoke" extending from Gower Point to Saltery Bay. Most of the repertoire of songs, dances, stories and art have been lost. Only in the recent past has this trend begun to be reversed with the push by present-day Band members to reclaim their lost heritage and a measure of the pride they once had in their unique culture.

EUROPEAN SETTLERS:
The first European to hold property in Sechelt was John Scales, a sapper with the Royal Engineers. In 1869, he took his 150 acre military land grant on Trail Bay and bought an additional 110 acres on Porpoise Bay. He didn't take up residence, however, and his property remained unoccupied until purchased by Thomas John Cook. Cook and his wife Sarah became the first Europeans to settle permanently in the Sechelt area. He called his property Shorncliffe after the area in England where he grew up. The name was eventually given to both a street and an extended-care hospital facility in Sechelt. Another early pioneer was William Jackson Wakefield, after whom Wakefield Creek is named.

THE WHITTAKERS:
It was the entrepreneurial Whittaker family who truly begin the commercial development of Sechelt. Alfred and Henrietta Whittaker arrived in Sechelt in 1893 with their five sons and three daughters. Alfred acquired the original John Scales pre-emption and subdivided it into what is now the Sechelt townsite. Oldest son Herbert (Bert) ended up with 3/4 of a mile of waterfront on Trail Bay and a sizable chunk of the Sechelt Inlet area. Before he turned 22, he had constructed a store (the only one between Gibsons Landing and Pender Harbour), a post office and a 21-room hotel. He went on to increase his empire to include two more hotels, a larger store, a row of rental houses, a dance hall, two sawmills, five logging camps, two commercial wharves, a fleet of passenger steamship vessels, a cabin cruiser and a farm. His own home, Beach House, was completed in 1906 - a gracious three-storey, seven-bedroom waterfront mansion. It is not surprising that when Grace Kent arrived in town in 1912 to teach school she observed that Bert Whittaker "owned practically all of Sechelt."

Whittaker's business ethics were not admirable, however. He was known to fake breakdowns in his Porpoise Bay launch so Vancouver-bound loggers would miss their connection and be forced to spend the night at his hotel. He watered down the milk sold in his store and at least once charged a tired logger 25 cents for the privilege of sleeping on the beach in front of his full hotel. In 1912, he was persuaded to let the community use a small building on his property as a schoolhouse. The following year he forced them out because he was offered seven dollars a month to use the building as a telegraph office.

Whittaker's empire began to show signs of strain. In 1914, his hotel burned to the ground, and in 1915 his wharf collapsed. During the rebuilding, a new wharf was constructed by the All Red Steamship Line at Selma Park, diverting much of the tourist market from Vancouver. In 1917, the Union Steamship Company bought the wharf and added a store, waterfront cottages, picnic grounds and a huge dance hall. Whittaker countered with the addition to his hotel of a tearoom, dance hall and tennis courts. In 1924, he suffered a bout of ill health and eventually lost his property to the bank. It was purchased by the Union Steamship Company who continued to promote Sechelt as a resort area.

THE CLAYTONS AND OTHER FAMILIES:
A cousin of Whittaker's, Edric Sidney Clayton, was another of Sechelt's leading citizens. He became store manager after Whittaker's property was taken over by Union Steamships and worked there until 1949. He and his wife Florence then opened their own store (next to the present Catholic Church in Sechelt) which prospered. Descendents of Clayton still operate the Trail Bay Mall and several other leading businesses in town.

An enterprising farmer, Jiro Konishi and his family, had a 32-acre operation on the west side of Porpoise Bay. He produced fruits, vegetables and dairy products which he delivered by horse cart to Sechelt. He operated the farm for 30 years until his death, one month after Pearl Harbour. His family was interned during the war, and the farm was sold and allowed to deteriorate.

INDUSTRY IN EARLY SECHELT:
Aside from Konishi's farm and a few smaller gardens, Sechelt's economy in these days was oriented toward logging, fishing and tourism. The Sechelt Inlet area supported active railway logging camps, a brick factory at Storm Bay, fishing resorts up Salmon Inlet and settlements at Doriston and Clowhom.

Other tourist-related businesses included the Oneongo Lodge, built in 1926 by Bryce and Gertrude Fleck. It offered tennis courts on the waterfront. A former employee of the Flecks, William A. Youngson, built the Rockwood Lodge in 1936. Rockwood, with its beautiful gardens and open-air pavillion, is now the cultural centre of Sechelt and home to the very popular Annual Festival of the Written Arts. St. Hilda's Anglican Church, just down the hill from Rockwood, was also built in 1936, and the Sechelt Elementary School, below the church, opened in 1939.

Up to this time, most of Sechelt's business was geared to traffic from the water. The wagon path (now Wharf Avenue) that connected Sechelt Inlet to Georgia Strait was Sechelt's busiest street. Gradually, this focus shifted. In 1952, Highway 101 was completed with ferries at both ends, and the commercial centre which had been situated on the Trail Bay waterfront turned itself around and the "heart of Sechelt" became the businesses lining Cowrie Street.

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