Newsletter Team: Publisher: Production & Distribution: Editor: Will be announced in the next newsletter. Corvorate Members: Ancor Enterprises Inglewood Mining Corporation British Pacific Properties Ltd. BC Rail Dr. Bryan R. Hicks Inc. Capilano Golf and Country Club Chapman Land Surveying Ltd. Dave’s Autobody Shop Ltd. Faximum Software & Claredon Datex Ltd. Hollyburn Funeral Homes Ltd. Laura Millar Editorial and Arch. Services North Shore Driving School The Palms Guest House Royal Canadian Legion Branch 60 Simpson Home Hardware Vancouver Historical Society West Vancouver Board of School Trustees Wetmore Motors Ltd. Some Memories of Mannville By E. J. (Jack) Cox Ernest John (Jack) Cox, was the father-in-law of Society directors, Joan Cox and Ian Macdonald. He wrote the following article for a book published in 1983, by the “Mansville(Manville?)(Alberta) Old- Timers Societyâ€. It is not the history of West Vancouver, but what a story it tells of life in Canada in the 1900’s and how different things were from the comforts we enjoy just one hundred years later. Jack Cox spent the late years of his life in West Vancouver and passed away 1993. Memories On October, 1898, my father Arthur Cox (Zip) married my mother Elizabeth Anne Burniston (Liz) in London, England. Dad was 23 and Mother 21. They made their home In Whitstable Kent, District of Tankerton. Dad and his brother had a book binding and publishing business in London. He commuted daily by train. In 1907 he sold his share of the business to his brother and decided to take up a homestead in the wilds of Canada, where you could get 160 acres of farm land for $10.00. As you know there were certain provisions to fulfill before a title was granted, but Dad and Mother made it. Dad used to say the Federal Government wagered his $10.00 plus 160 acres that he wouldn’t stay the three years and make the necessary improvements. He came out in March 1907 and lived in a tent until he had a log shack built. He often said, if he had had the money he would have caught the next train and boat back home. However he made application for his homestead and proved up for his title. There was a small lake in the centre of our farm that never dried up in the summer or froze solid in the winter, so there was always plenty of water for the stock. He named his farm Tankerton, after his Whitstable home, in Kent. Cont’d. next column Memories - cont*d. My brother, George Arthur, was born in my parents’ Tankerton, Kent home in July 1899 and I, Ernest John (Jack), was born in the same house in November 1906. Mother with her two sons followed Dad to Mannville in July 1907. It was a trying trip with two children crowded in with the rest of the immigrants, many of whom, could not speak any English. Dad also had quite a trying trip. His train was wrecked near Carlstadt, where he lost his food and many personal belongings. The farm house on the homestead, circa 1907. Dad bought three oxen, a black, a white and a red and they were each named after their colors. They were large gentle animals, very slow, but strong and steady. It took from early morning to late at night for them to make the return trip to Mannville. Those same oxen hauled logs from Buffalo Coulee and the surrounding country to build our two room house, also the barns and fences. To make the log house there were, large logs, small and crooked ones, all chinked with mud, straw and manure. Those same oxen broke the sod and pulled the stumps. Dad later sold those oxen to another green Englishman who had homesteaded east of Grizzly Bear Coulee, and bought some dandy work horses, a riding pony and a long legged buggy horse. This horse had plenty of stamina and made the trip to town in very short time. We once lived in a sod house. It was very warm but Mother wouldn’t put up with the linen and other nice things she their home in England. What back to the log house, was the that caught fire one day; no damage done as the roof was also sod, but all got a good scare. In the meantime Dad had enlarged the log house, put in some insulation and dug a cellar under the kitchen. This is where we kept our perishables and box of eggs packed in salt. In the winter a lantern was hung in the cellar to keep out the frost. after about a year, dirt falling on her had brought from decided the move long grass roof. Cont’d. next page Paae 5