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Barvis Ranch
The
Kenneth Morrison homestead
(page 45) |
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It took Governor
Douglas until February 4, 1859 to issue the first Pre-emption
Act whereby land could be purchased at the upset price of
ten shillings per acre, half cash and the balance in two
years. A second one passed on January 4, 1860,
provided for pre-emption of rectangular blocks, of which
the shorter should be at least two-thirds the length of
the longer side. The settler had to stake out the
four corners of his property and pay a registration fee
of eight shillings to the nearest magistrate. These
acts were amended from time to time over the next couple
of years. The
first man to pre-empt land in Langley was Kenneth
Morrison. He pre-empted 160 acres just upriver from
the fort. He called his home Barvis,
in honour of his birthplace, and operated it as a
stopping house for the miners. His friend John
McIver also pre- empted on the south side of the
river. He took up land west of the fort opposite
the Katzie Indian Reserve.
Both Morrison and McIver were present at the Crown
Colony of British Columbia's birth. As the boats
came up the river with the dignitaries the pair posted
themselves in the fort's bastions and (44) fired
salutes of welcome. Later McIver,
like so many others, left to prospect in the Kamloops
area. He mined at Cherry Creek, just
outside Kamloops, where he lived with an Indian girl and
fathered her child. When the 'Chilcotin
War' broke out in 1864 he joined a punitive party headed
by Donald McLean, ex-Chief Trader at Kamloops, to go
after the Indians accused of murdering the Alfred
Waddington road building party. McLean, upon
leaving the company had built the Hat
Creek Stopping House on the Cariboo
Road out of Ashcroft.
McLean, upon going into battle, always wore a
bullet-proof steel-plated breastplate for
protection. Unfortunately for him he bragged to one
too many Indians about it. A Chilcotin
Indian killed him with a bullet in the back. McIver
was closest to him at the time of the shooting.
Upon returning to Langley, McIver learned that his
original pre-emption had previously been a potato patch
belonging to Chief Michel of
Katzie. The Royal Engineers had
investigated the dispute and issued McIver a piece of
land on the opposite side of the river while he was away.
(45)
With the retirement of Yale in 1859 Clerk William
Henry Newton took charge of the fort. Yale had
ruled the fort's destiny for over 25 years. He
would live out the rest of his life on Vancouver
Island.
Newton, a native of Bromely, Kent,
England, had come to Vancouver Island in 1851 as an
agricultural assistant to E.E.
Langford, bailiff of the Puget Sound
Agricultural Company at Colwood, a subsidiary
of the Hudson's Bay Company. He
soon afterwards went to Fort Victoria in the
direct employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1856
he married Emmeline Jane Tod, the
daughter of Chief Trader John Tod
of Fort Kamloops. He was
transferred to Fort Langley shortly
after the marriage.
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