Pender Islands Historical Timeline

The Howard Harris family leaves Pender for Saturna, and Albert Menzies retires to their home at Hope Bay. For the next decade, Albert’s son Victor leases and then buys his father’s farm, “Valley Home Farm“, located beside today’s Community Hall.

The Coast Shale Company brick factory at Bricky Bay is closed and placed under caretaker status until its demolition in the mid-1920s.

First official record of a cottage at the Roesland Farm Resort being rented. The renters are the Gordon Gray family of Vancouver.

Arthur Spalding (1863-1932) sees a plane flying over his farm on South Pender for the first time on May 12th.

Pender’s WWI veterans return and marry after years of waiting: Tom & Helen Walker on South Pender; Fred Smith & Peggy Hamilton on North Pender are among them.

John M. MacDonald (1843-1917) dies at age 74. His wife Jessie (1860-1953) lives to age 93.

The Waterlea estate is purchased by Capt. John Muus and his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. A.E. Craddock.

The ship “Daily” is purchased by Canadian Pacific Steamship Lines, refitted, and renamed the “Cy Peck“ in honour of a war hero and BC politician.

Prohibition of the sale of liquor in BC begins following a 1916 referendum. It will be repealed in 1921 and replaced with government-run liquor stores.

John MacKinnon registers the first planned subdivision on Pender on land purchased from Mr. Hayashi.

Women get to vote in provincial elections for the first time.

The Canadian government outlaws Indigenous reef nets which had been used by the Coast Salish for millennia, but allow J. H. Todd & Sons to use nets fixed to the seabed. This practice continues from 1916-1940s, when Todd is bought out and that type of fishery is discontinued.

The winter of 1915-16 sees major snowfalls on the island.

St. Peter’s Anglican Church is built on Port Washington Road on land donated by Spencer Percival.

Dr. Aldridge, a retired physician, and his wife Mary return to Pender to live full-time, purchasing land stretching from the Canal/Shark Cove area to the junction of today’s Canal & Aldridge Roads. They first came to live on South Pender ca 1910.

Heavy commercial logging begins on Pender, expanding after WWI.

From a total population of just over 200, 60 Pender Islanders will serve in WWI. Ten did not return: Lewis Shapter, James Hunter, Ross Brackett, Claude Proctor, Richard Evans, Harry Symes, Hugh Baker, Perry Powell, John Schloesser, and Godfrey Walker.

Jeannie Hamilton is the first woman to run for public office on Pender, as a school trustee. Sadly, she loses.

A larger, second Hope Bay Store and two small warehouses are built by R.S.W. Corbett.

The Port Washington Community Hall is built.

“The Maples” is built for Elijah Pollard on the shore of Port Browning by Walter Bowerman. (He will build many fine homes on the Penders that are still in existence.) Elijah marries Evelyn Robins in 1919, and The Maples will become a popular resort for 40 years.

Having landed by rowboat on South Pender during a storm, William Usticke Pender of Cornwall, England, settles and starts a chicken farm in the valley. In 1914, “Bill“ marries Elizabeth Spalding, the second of the four Spalding children. Descendants will much later discover their connection to Captain Daniel Pender, for whom the Pender Islands are named.

Canadian Northern Pacific railway inaugurates a new Gulf Island ferry service from Sidney with the steamer S.S. Joan.

After buying 50 acres at what is now Bricky Bay, the Coast Shale Brick Company opens a brick factory, employing 75 men.

The 1902 Pender Island School is expanded by raising it on a brick foundation to make space for a lower level.