| Title: | John B. Cherry, Spencers Bridge, Canada, to R.R. Cherry. |
|---|---|
| ID | 618 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cherry, John B/18 |
| Year | 1887 |
| Sender | Cherry, John B. |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | carpenter by trade, worked briefly as a lumberjack, currentl |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | British Columbia, Canada |
| Destination | unknown |
| Recipient | Cherry, Robert R. |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | brothers |
| Source | D 2166/1/3/1: From the Cherry Papers, deposited by J.C. Cherry. |
| Archive | Public Record Office , Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9306005 |
| Date | 07/08/1887 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Action By Date Document added by Jonathan Teer, 01 |
| Word Count | 1967 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Letter from John B. Cherry, Spencers Bridge, British Columbia, Canada, to his brother, R. R. Cherry, dated 7th August 1887. Spencers Bridge B. C. [British Columbia?] 7th Aug [August?] 87 [1887?] My Dear Dick After my arrival at Victoria on the 12th June, I at once went to look for work as a carpenter but found that there were more carpenters than there was work for. I stayed in Victoria for a fortnight and made a great many acquaintances a young fellow named Gulline a Chesire man who is a counsellors agent was very kind and his best to get me some work of some kind I was very nearly getting the post of bookkeeper at a salmon cannery 70 dollars a month and board but as I did not know "Chinook" the trade jargon of the Indians I was not able to get it. The Indians are diveded into over a hundred tribes who all speak different languages they cannot even understand each other and this Chinook is similar to Pidgeon [Pidgin?] English only of course Indian words mixed up with English ones instead of Chinese. I can now speak a good deal of Pidgeon [Pidgin?] English & also Chinook so in future will be better qualified to take anything that appears. When I found I could not get work in Victotia I went to Vanaims[?] and all about the Island of Vancouver but found a similar state of things every where I roughed it a great deal and have often slept out in the woods with only a blanket around me it is cold work camping out there as the climate is most peculiar no matter how hot the days are at sunset it gets very cold and generally before morning it is down to near 40 F. [Fahrenheit?] still there is something in the air that prevents a chill having any bad effect. I have woke up so cold that I could scarcely cut wood for my fire and was sneezing and coughing and in two hours I was all right. I then went back to Victoria but could not get anything there while I was there the second time I met Carl Graves & Tom Prosser who both have ranches 30 miles North of Vamaims[?] but from what I have seen of the land I would never take up a a holding unless I had at lease [least?] 3000 [dollars?] or £150 pounds. Graves goes about selling Graves roofing felt & says he is doing well but I imagine he told me a lie about #PAGE 2 it. I found out that he is in debt in every direction and has such a bad name that it is not wise to be seen aboAut with him I therefore avoided him as I could. Tom Prosser and I went up to a place named Chamamin[?] 80 miles from Victoria to a logging camp and got taken on at 2 [dollars?] per day and board but only worked 3 days as regular hands turned up & as we were not experienced they would not keep us. In any case I would have left as the work was too much for me, we were making a road for the logs through the forest up the side of a ravine about 300 ft [feet?] deep & the side at an angle of 45 [degrees?] the trees are something wonderful they average about 6 ft [feet?] in diameter and 170 or 180 ft [feet?] high but some of them were 8 & 9 ft [feet?] diam. [diameter?] & fully 250 or 300 ft [feet?] high and as straight as an oar. The road is made by felling the trees which grow about 15 ft [feet?] apart so that the outer outer stumps are all about 8 or 10 ft [feet?] high small trees about 15 in diam [diameter?] all these cut into 20 ft [feet?] length or so and rolled or carried down and the space filled up thus then across these skids are laid every 8 ft [feet?] & the space between filled up with earth. Two men had to carry these logs down the ravine and you can imagine what work it was, being green they are as heavy as a piano Tom P. [Prossor?] got off this heavy work as he was not able to lift the logs at all It is all very well to do this for 3 or 4 hours but to be at it from 7 am to 6 pm with an hour for dinner was too much for any man I found the loggers very decent fellows and very clean in their habits they were mostly states men, strange the most people here are mostly old country people and Americans!! I do not like the Canadians at all particularly the eastern Canadians. The woods are full of wild gooseberries & strawberries & a species of raspberry called salmon berries from the colour they are about 4 times the size of our largest raspberry but more fair and not so good in flavour, still they are very nice and I had many a feed of them. A very decent fellow a yankee who worked with me told me that no man could stand the work I was put to for a week & when I told him I was not accustomed to manuel [manual?] labour he said I would not last out the day but I falsified his prediction. He used to take his turn in sawing & [---?] work & in driving the [----?] so had a rest. They would not let me saw although I was well able to do it because Prosser #PAGE 3 made a mess of it & broke a saw. They fed us very well, vension bacon potatoes tea coffee bread & pudding at every meal and cleanly served. We lived in a log hut the walls of which had spaces of two inches between logs so that you might as well have been outside save for the roof. I have not been able to get any shooting I have been so busy looking for work that I have not had the time to go hunting besides it is surprising you have to go a great distance to get game. Travelling about Vancouver Island is most awfully expensive, they charge 7 cents a mile on the only railway you have either to ride or tramp it & they charge 2 [dollars?] a day for a horse sometimes 3 [dollars?] so your money goes away fast. The country hotels however are cheap 2 or 1.50 [dollars?] a day. They have a very queer money system here, nominally theyhave the regular Canadian coinage but they use no smaller coin than 10 cents, formerly the dollar usedto be divided into eight pieces called bits i.e.12.5 cents value. This bit which now has no existence is the standard everywhere, if you go into a shop they will tell you that the price of say a pound of meat is a bit, if you have a 10 cent piece they will accept it but if you give 25 cents they will hand you 10 cents. After you get accustomed to it, it does not matter but at first you are apt to lose 5 cents on everything. After being at Chamamin[?] I went back to Victoria I tried to get into a solicitors office but everthing [everything?] has been such an influx of strangers this year, several men told me they would have been very glad to have me 6 months ago but they had filled up their offices. While at Victoria I saw the advertisement of this place & more for fun than anything else answered it. However when the manager saw me he said I would Suit him better than anyone who had applied, there were 30 applied so you may imagine how many there are looking for something to do. I like the place and the work well enough but the hours are too long, fro [from?] before 5 o'clock to sometimes 11.30 & always 10.30, there is no hard work but anything that requires trust I have to do there are two cows and I have to milk them as neither Indians or Chinese can do so, I am now quite a dab at it. Mr M [?] is also very unreasonable in some ways he & his friends come into the bar in the evening & play cards & sit up until near 12 & after that I have to count my cash and enter up my book, it of course only takes a few minutes but when you are up at 4.30 or 5 you are anxious to get to bed. The trains arrive here also at very awkward hours, #PAGE 4 there are only two passenger trains the east bound train passing here at 11 pm & the west bound at 2.30 am. I am often roused up at 3 am & have to show people to their rooms. In Ireland or Victoria I could not stand the want of sleep but here people do not seem to require so much sleep. I have made a great many aquaintances amongst the railway people & one of them a Mr Newhart the section superintendant says he can get me the post of gang boss whose duty it is to see that the rails and bridges on the line are in proper order if I can get it I will give up this place. I could probably get on to something better & I would like the work. I am anxious to hear what has occurred in Pearse v Pearse and also if you have got the costs in Powers estate, like a good fellow, let me have a line from you. You can scarcely understand how I value a letter from home I got your Graphic & Express at Victoria allright [all right?] & the papers about the Metropolitan here. I was delighted to see that Waterford won the Liffey but the poor old Boat Club made a bad show. When writing direct to Mr J. Brissoe Cherry. There is a Cherry in Victoria whose initials are J. B. he is an upholsterer. There is a quantity of salmon here but they are a small kind not near so large as travel down the river.The salmon here is not nearly so sick as our salmon,most people say it is inferior but I like it better.This is a very primative [primi -tive?] place everthing [everything?] used in the house is made on the premises. Bread butter, coffee roasted,& we get a cow when we want beef & have to cut it up.I found a book in the house which gives directions how to cut it and succeeded very welI.I can make splendid bread now in fact the home made bread here is much better than any bakers bread & if the [----?] ease I will send them the receipe [recipe?] it is very simple I fact I am a sort of general factotum I mended several pumps and some machines for pressing fruit which had defied the real mechanics & have got quite a name in consequence. The weather here here is awfully h[Bot 110 in the shade in the daytime for the last week & it goes below 76 in the night. We had a thunderstorm & heavy rain a couple of days ago which is very rare here but it did not cool the air a bit. In spite of the heat & hard work I have got heavy and weigh 12st. [stone?] 4. With love to [-------?] I am dear Dick ever your affectionate brother J [John?] Brissoe Cherry. |
