The Past Businesses |
Czechoslovakians Memories of Trinity Creek Area in the 1920's When we were small, Ashton Creek district seemed very far away (about 2½ miles from our house) so we as kids knew very little about this far away place. I was born 3 miles east of Enderby at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stamberg. There being no hospital available in those days, Mrs. Stamberg helped bring many of us into this world. Prior to my mother and I being loaded into a wagon to come home to Trinity Creek a young lady used to wheel me around in a baby buggy. That same lady (Mrs. Charlie Carey) lives at Swan Lake near Vernon. When my father first came to live on the land he had purchased from a Mr. Goodchap, there was no road east of Enderby and no bridge across the river so his mode of travel was by canoe on the Shuswap River. All the early farms had river frontage and the houses were along its banks so the supplies would not have to be carried very far. By 1920 the community was getting filled up mostly by people of Czech origin. Most of them were people who worked in the coal mines in the Crows Nest Pass and after a series of explosions in the mines in which quite a number of the miners lost their lives, the ones who were spared decided they would go farming in British Columbia. Some bought out trappers' homesteads and some homesteaded Crown land. There were about 15 families who came and settled south of the Shuswap River. Most of these settlers had families. Quite a number were of school age but there was no school near by. These people petitioned the government for assistance to build a small school nearby. This was done in the summer of 1920. The area was inspected by a school inspector and the local M.L.A. These men saw there was a strong need for a school and in the winter my dad received a letter from Victoria saying the government was willing to assist with a donation of $150.00 for the building of the school and after the building was completed that it would furnish half the monies needed for books, desks and any other items that were absolutely need. I know the strap must have been one of the items as I saw and felt it used on several occasions. In the spring of 1921 a work crew of six men went out and cut the logs for a log building. These were cut and peeled nearby then skidded with horses to the chosen site. A big cedar tree stood near by and it supplied all the shakes for the roof. The rafters were made of poles. It was then the carpenters took over and built the log building. The boards for the floor, the windows, nails, bricks and doors came out of that $150.00. By June the school was completed. A school district was formed east from Baxter bridge to the extent of private property along what is now known as Hidden Lake Road and south along the Trinity Creek-Lumby Road to the railway belt. Each home owner in this district was assessed $10.00 to help with initial expenses. A teacher was advertised for and our first one was a Miss Houston from Victoria whose English accent was far stronger than any Englishman's in England. Now the Czech people would always speak their language at home, the result being that when some first graders went to school they did not know a word of English. The only words of English that I knew were some choice ones I learned as I followed the teamsters driving horses. Most parents knew how to speak English but there were a few women who did not. My dad was the secretary of the school board for many years and he kept two sets of minutes, one in English and one in Czech, the latter being for the ones who could not read English. The Czech customs were kept up at home until all the old timers passed away and the youngsters grew up and intermarried with boys and girls of English, Scottish or Irish origin. After the first year of school the youngsters always spoke English amongst themselves and some, which was a pity, forgot their mother tongue all together. The first day of school, 21 pupils attended all the way from six years to sixteen years of age and with grades from one to eight. The teacher's salary started at $600.00 per year and out of that she had to pay room and board. Believe me that teacher earned her salary. Some of the children walked 2½ miles to school and in those days the roads were never plowed in winter and in the summer the mosquitoes were so bad one had to run to school to keep ahead of them. There were no screens on the windows the first year at school and they got really thick inside. The favourite pastime was to see who could fill up their inkwell with dead mosquitoes first, with the ones that were killed while feasting on hands, legs and face. The old school still stands and is used for a storage shed by Mr. Van Dalfson who acquired the property from the school district. We had a tough time getting a dollar or two in those days but we always had lots to eat as everybody had a large garden, their own animals to butcher and lots of cream, butter, eggs, hams, bacon and some farmers had their own wheat made into flour at the mill in Armstrong. The main source of a few dollars was the monthly cream cheque plus selling some logs, poles, cordwood or fence posts. We had no TVS and very few people had a radio so we made our own fun. We played cards in the evenings and on Saturday nights there was always a house party or dance in the school. We were very fortunate in having some good musicians in our district who not only played at dances but would put on concerts which were held in the school in the winter and, in summer, on somebody's lawn. I still consider myself very lucky to have grown up in the Trinity Creek district in the early part of the twentieth century. See also: Stan Wejr, 1986 |