North Ward

North Ward, one of three sub-districts within Nanaimo city in 1891, spanned from Fitzwilliam and Bastion Streets in the south to the northern city limits at the end of Vancouver, Stewart and Newcastle Avenues. The east and west boundaries were defined by the harbour and city limits respectively. The population of North Ward Nanaimo in 1891 was approximately 1,300 residents. At this time, the North Ward was a diverse region as it integrated commercial, industrial and residential components. The North Ward was, essentially, the commercial centre of Nanaimo, juxtaposing gentility and labourers side by side.

Commercial and industrial enterprises intermingled in the North Ward. The downtown area contained a variety of businesses, including hotels, jewellery stores, butchers, stables, produce stores, dry goods stores, two jails, an undertaker's parlour, a newspaper printing facility, a soda water works, a fish and poultry shop, and the courthouse. This was the main shopping area for the residents of Nanaimo. The northern extremity of North Ward contained a few small businesses, such as breweries, and some large operations, namely the Nanaimo Gas Works, the BC Tannery Boot and Shoe Factory, and Andrew Haslam 's Nanaimo Saw Mill. The saw mill - which the majority of residents in the northern sub-region of this ward - produced "rough and dressed lumber, shingles, laths and pickets, doors, windows and blinds."

The inhabitants of this area represented many types of occupations. Of the nearly 525 professions recorded in the 1891 census, the North Ward inhabitants represented a large proportion of these occupations and were a mix of white and blue-collar workers. Some of the most common professions included: coal miners, carpenters, labourers, teamster/hack driver/drayman, shop owners, self-employed, and hotel/boarding house proprietors. Generally, women were homemakers; however, a few prominent families had older daughters who worked as dressmaker apprentices or milliners. Of the widows listed, most of them had boarders, possibly to obtain income. Children over the age of fourteen tended to work, generally as an apprentice, assistant, or servant.

One household on Skinner Street might have been a brothel. At the suspected brothel, Belle McMillan and her two-year-old son Stephen lived with their lodgers, Jeannie Adams, an American-born "dressmaker," and Ann Peterson, a Swedish "servant." Although only four people are listed in this household, they resided in a large, two-storey, eleven-room building.

Most of the residents were from England, Scotland, British Columbia, Eastern Canada and the United States. This ward contained many families as well as many lodgers/boarders. A large proportion of the families in the area had lodgers living with them, while the largest number of lodgers lived in hotels. The majority of boarders were single men; however, couples were boarders as well. Sometimes, groups of men lived together. Milton Street was an example of this: There were eight men crowded into a three-room house, as well as a group of seven men in a five-room house. In another 'census family', two of the men were listed as married, which suggested that perhaps, once they were established financially, they would bring their families over to join them. The majority of the residents were under forty years old, but there were some older inhabitants. William Downie (71) was a gold miner who came from Scotland. He was a lodger with four other single men in their fifties.

There were some large families, even without counting lodgers or servants. The largest was the Edward Quennell family on Fitzwilliam Street. He owned the Cosmopolitan Market, and was a butcher. He was also a Nanaimo alderman in 1893, and mayor in 1894 and 1895. His family consisted of his wife Maria, and eleven children between the ages of one and nineteen. By considering the age of Maria and the eldest child, and the age gap between the fifth and sixth children, one could conclude that Maria was Edward's second wife. As well, the rector for St. Paul's church, John Booth Good, lived on Front Street with his wife Sarah, and their five children.

In addition to legal marriages, common-law relationships were found in the North Ward. Two men were recorded as living in common-law marriages with native women. Both men were listed on the census as being "single" while both women were listed as "common-law wife." In the first case, John Wilson lived on Campbell Street with Jeannie Oh-meek-ki-ack and five children. In the second case, involving George Hilton, it was not clear where this household was located because Hilton's name did not appear in the Nanaimo Directory. However, in the census, Clag-will-Clah was listed as Hilton's "common law wife."

As well as the above-mentioned inhabitants, this ward was home to some of Nanaimo's most notable residents.

Residents of North Ward belonged to a variety of religious denominations, but the majority were (respectively) Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. However, there were also Roman Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Spiritualists and Free Thinkers, among others.

For the most part, people tended to marry within their religion, but there were some exceptions. Notably, there were some Catholic and Anglican marriages, such as the Fosters on Fraser Street. There were also a few Catholic and Presbyterian marriages such as the Trudells on Comox Street. Children were of the same religious denomination as their parents, and if their mother and father had different faiths, they were stated to be of the father's faith.

The North Ward was home to St. Paul's church, which was located on the corner of Chapel and Church streets, as well as a Methodist church in the same vicinity. St. Peter's Roman Catholic church was located on Wallace, near Wentworth. St. Ann's convent school was also located here. It was maintained by Sister Placida, a forty-year-old Mother Superior from Quebec, and three nuns.

There were a variety of building types in this area. There was a stone post office on Front Street, built in 1884 as well as the wooden courthouse and provincial jail, also on Front Street. On the corner of Bastion and Front Streets was the wooden Bastion, the fort built to protect the original inhabitants of Nanaimo in 1853-1854. It was also used as a municipal lock-up for prisoners on remand and short-term infractions. Between the two, twenty-nine felons were imprisoned at the time of the census.

Hotels in the ward tended to be constructed from brick instead of wood, and generally had two to three stories, with upwards of 28 rooms. Most of the hotel proprietors lived in the hotel they ran. The brick Globe Hotel, operated by Charles Martin, was built on Front Street originally as a marble works in 1887. The brick Opera House, operated by John Mahrer, was on Church Street and was built in 1888. The Opera House was a hotel on the top two floors, while the first floor had a theatre. The Opera House building also housed the Nanaimo Brewing Company. The wooden Old Flag Inn, built prior to 1874, was at the corner of Skinner and Bastion streets, and was operated by John E. Jenkins.

Homes and businesses intermingled in the ward. Many people who owned a business in the downtown area also lived nearby, as with the George Norris and John Hilbert families. This was also the case for the Andrew Haslam family who lived on Mill Street, near the Nanaimo (Haslam) Mill. Homes were generally made of wood and most were one storey tall, with some exceptions, as seen with the William Keddy family on Chapel Street. The Keddy house was two stories and had eight rooms for the nine family members. Most houses had between four and seven rooms. Again, there were exceptions as seen with the Trapp family home on Bastion Street. Samuel Trapp, his wife Elizabeth, and their three children lived in a one-room wooden house.

Throughout the North Ward, property values ranged, on average, from $200 to $1500. A newspaper announcement in 1891, declared optimistically that 'Nanaimo [was] in demand' due to interest from Vancouver residents seeking real estate. The New Vancouver Coal and Land Company owned a large quantity of land in the area. Likely, it had erected houses on it, which it rented out to its employees. For example: It owned six lots on Wallace Street, with values ranging from $450 - $650, and on Front Street, it owned twenty-six lots with values of $250 - $1750. Storekeeper and mayor John Hilbert owned a $2500 lot at the corner of Bastion and Front streets, presumably where his store was located. St. Ann's Convent and School owned two lots on Wallace, with values of $400 and $550. Hotelier John Mahrer owned lots on Church Street, presumably the site of the Opera House, with values of $2500 and $4500. Andrew Haslam owned two lots at Comox and Wallace, the future site of Haslam House in 1892, with values of $2000 and $900. Women owned property in Nanaimo as well. Mrs. George McBain owned property on Wallace Street with a value of $850, and Mrs Mary MacDonald owned a lot on Fraser Street with a value of $700. While many people owned property, structures were not necessarily built on the land; therefore, there were many empty lots in North Ward.

Luckily for residents of Nanaimo, a notice in the Nanaimo Free Press praised the health of Nanaimo claiming, 'things are therefore very quiet with the [medical] profession.' The bulletin also notes that sickness such as diphtheria was widespread during the summer previous. In fact, many inhabitants died that summer and needed a final resting place. There was a cemetery in the North Ward but it was no longer used by 1891. The old cemetery was located at the corner of Comox Road and Wallace Street. It was used primarily for the families of the original settlers in Nanaimo, and contained graves for many children. The cemetery used in 1891 was just outside the city limits on Comox Road.

Sometimes, residents were injured during their daily lives. One evening in January 1891, Charles Over had the misfortune of falling at the corner of Wallace and Fitzwilliam streets, and injuring his knee in the process. In the January 14th edition of the Nanaimo Free Press, he called for the gas company to ensure the lamps were lit when it was dark in order to prevent accidents like his from occurring. As well, workers faced the constant potential for injury as the case of William Brown reveals. Brown, who was employed by Haslam's Sash and Door Factory, lost three fingers of his left hand while milling wood in February of 1891.

Despite any hardships the town and its citizens experienced, there were still times of celebration. In the spring of 1891, Nanaimo was preparing for the Queen's birthday on Monday, May 25. There were notices in the Nanaimo Free Press advertising the events that were to take place and they included: a regatta, a fire hose reel contest, bicycle races, athletic sports, dancing, and other programmes throughout the day. Times like this allowed the whole community, from coal miners to aldermen, to join together in celebration, thus helping to forge strong community ties between the diverse members of Nanaimo's North Ward.

Additional sources

Lynne Bowen, Three Dollar Dreams (Lantzville, BC: Oolichan Books, 1987).
Frederick William Howay, British Columbia: From the Earliest to the Present, Biography Vol. III (1914)
Patricia M Johnson, John Parker and Gino Sedola, Nanaimo: Scenes From The Past (Nanaimo: Nanaimo and District Museum Society, 1966).
Patricia Mary Johnson, Nanaimo: A Short History (North Vancouver, B.C.: Trendex Publication, 1974).
J. B. Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (Vancouver: Kerr & Begg, 1890).
Jan Peterson, Black Diamond City: Nanaimo, The Victorian Era (Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House Publishing, 2002).
Walter J. Meyer Zu Erpen, "Towards an Understanding of the Municipal Archives of Nineteenth-Century British Columbia: A Case Study of the Archives of the Corporation of the City of Nanaimo, 1875-1904," [unpublished manuscript, 1985].
Nanaimo Community Archives. Family files; Nanaimo Museum fonds.