Series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence generated during Douglas's residence on Cortes (1949-1993) and covering subjects of primarily local interest. Before the advent of telephone service in 1968, island residents communicated extensively through the Post Office, and much of this correspondence consists of notes and letters from Douglas's neighbours. Subjects covered include daily life, community activities, B.C. and Cortes Island history and Douglas's health concerns.
Series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence generated during Douglas's residence on Cortes (1949-1993) and covering subjects of primarily local interest. Before the advent of telephone service in 1968, island residents communicated extensively through the Post Office, and much of this correspondence consists of notes and letters from Douglas's neighbours. Subjects covered include daily life, community activities, B.C. and Cortes Island history and Douglas's health concerns.
Fonds consists of textual records generated by the Whaletown Women's Institute organized into seven series: Minutes, Financial Records, Administrative Records, Reports, Projects, Correspondence and Notes.
The Whaletown Women's Institute (WWI) began in 1920 as the Friendship Circle. In 1923 it became a branch of the Women's Institute, a community service organization for women with the goals of fostering the skills of rural women, improving their lives and works, and celebrating their achievements. During its years of activity, the WWI was very active in working for local improvement. Some of their projects included initiating a library service, donating books to the school, arranging for regular visits of a doctor and dentist, hosting an annual Christmas party and providing gifts for all the Whaletown children, maintaining the cemetery, fund-raising for a school playground, financing firefighting equipment and installing an emergency telephone network. The WWI was disbanded in 1963.
Custodial History
These records of the Whaletown Women's Institute were held by Gilean Douglas, a past officer in the WWI and author of a history of the Women's Institutes in Canada. Upon her death, they went into the possession of her literary executer, Gillian Milton, who turned them over to the Cortes Island Women's Institute. They were subsequently returned to her custody, and donated to CIMAS.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of textual records generated by the Whaletown Women's Institute organized into seven series: Minutes, Financial Records, Administrative Records, Reports, Projects, Correspondence and Notes.
Fonds comprises records of the Southern Cortes Community Association. It includes minutes and agendas of meetings, correspondence, financial records, administrative and legal documents, and reports on projects and activities.
Original groupings of documents in files have been maintained with the exception of general correspondence, which has been grouped by date.
Files have been arranged into eleven series: Minutes; Financial records; Administrative records; Correspondence; Events; Newsletters; Dental clinic project; Show Business; Manson's Hall renovation; Ephemera; and Committee minutes and reports.
The Southern Cortes Community Association (formerly known as the Manson's Landing Community Club) is a Registered Charity incorporated in 1956 under the Societies Act. The object of the society is to promote services and programs of a recreational and/or educational purpose within the community.
A primary responsibility is operating and maintaining Manson's Hall, a center for Cortes community activities. The original Hall was built in 1922 on land donated by Frederick Froud. A major expansion and renovation project completed in 1980 added space for the post office, playschool, cafe, offices, a pottery studio and a library to the original hall. A further expansion in 1986 added space for a medical clinic.
Programs include sponsoring a licensed playschool, a Parents & Tots program, a Summer Youth Recreation Program, a thrift store, and the annual Cortes Day at Smelt Bay. Manson's Hall is a venue for the Cortes Seniors Society's programs, and for group meetings, entertainment events and a variety of regular wellness and exercise activities led by local residents. The Hall houses the post office, a community kitchen, a thrift store, and a playschool. Over the years, it has provided space for many services to start, such as the Cortes Health Centre, North Island College and Cortes Community Radio. The SCCA also owns and manages the Manson's Landing cemetery, and provides space for the Strathcona Regional District's skate park.
Custodial History
Records in Accession 2001.001 were kept at their homes by various Board members. When an office was opened in Manson's Hall, the records were consolidated and then donated to CIMAS by Cathy Cambridge on behalf of the SCCA.
Records in Accession 2007.001 were in the possession of May Ellingsen and were donated to CIMAS in 2007 by Andy and Susan Ellingsen.
Scope and Content
Fonds comprises records of the Southern Cortes Community Association. It includes minutes and agendas of meetings, correspondence, financial records, administrative and legal documents, and reports on projects and activities.
Original groupings of documents in files have been maintained with the exception of general correspondence, which has been grouped by date.
Files have been arranged into eleven series: Minutes; Financial records; Administrative records; Correspondence; Events; Newsletters; Dental clinic project; Show Business; Manson's Hall renovation; Ephemera; and Committee minutes and reports.
File consists of materials pertaining to the Community Preventative Dental Clinic including dental records, parental consent forms, patient lists and financial statements and correspondence.
File consists of materials pertaining to the Community Preventative Dental Clinic including dental records, parental consent forms, patient lists and financial statements and correspondence.
Series contains records related to work on the Manson's Landing Community Hall in the 1960s, a major expansion and renovation project completed in 1982, and an expansion to add a medical clinic in 1988. It includes plans, grant applications, payroll records, financial reports, receipts, and correspondence.
25 files of textual material
4 photographs : col. ;
2 architectural drawings
Scope and Content
Series contains records related to work on the Manson's Landing Community Hall in the 1960s, a major expansion and renovation project completed in 1982, and an expansion to add a medical clinic in 1988. It includes plans, grant applications, payroll records, financial reports, receipts, and correspondence.
File consists of material related to the Hall expansion and the grants that financed it. It includes correspondence, lists, reports and an estimate for a sound system.
File consists of material related to the Hall expansion and the grants that financed it. It includes correspondence, lists, reports and an estimate for a sound system.
File consists of an application to the Recreation Facilities Assistance Program for a grant for Phase II with details of the project and funding sources; a floor plan; and a report including a financial statement as at Feb. 1979.
File consists of an application to the Recreation Facilities Assistance Program for a grant for Phase II with details of the project and funding sources; a floor plan; and a report including a financial statement as at Feb. 1979.
File contains letters of support for the project and three copies of the Whaletown National Enquirer with articles about the project (Vol. 1 #7 and #8; Vol. 2 #10).
File contains letters of support for the project and three copies of the Whaletown National Enquirer with articles about the project (Vol. 1 #7 and #8; Vol. 2 #10).
Fonds consists primarily of photographs and slides taken by Mary Weiler. Textual records include correspondence, several issues of the "Log" of the Columbia Coast Mission, and material about Victor Von Donop, for whom Von Donop Inlet is named.
Fonds is arranged in five series: 1: Photographs, 2: Correspondence, 3: Von Donop, 4: Ephemera, and 5: Books.
In April of 1947 Otto and Mary Weiler were recently returned from London, and they were war weary---Mary was recovering from tuberculosis, and Otto from injuries sustained in the army, and like most people in those days, they were left strapped by the Depression and the War--- but they had a dream. They chartered a boat, and traveled up the BC coast, seeking a place where they could live---in their words---"a happy, romantic, bohemian life".
Otto John—always known affectionately as Ottie---was born in Victoria, BC on March 27, 1903, to a well-to-do mercantile family. His grandparents, John and Christiana Weiler, arrive in Fort Victoria in the early 1850's from Germany by way of San Francisco, where they established a successful furniture factory and other businesses. Reminders of the Weiler family still exist in Victoria, most notably the six-story Weiler Building at the corner of Broad and Government streets, originally a grandly-appointed department store, and the Weiler cenotaph in Ross Bay cemetery.
Mary was born Mary Agnes Campbell on March 13, 1915, in Enderby, BC. Her grandparents were pioneers who arrived in the North Okanogan to farm in the 1880's. The family moved to New Westminster in 1921. After high school Mary studied nursing at the Royal Jubilee hospital in Victoria, and then departed for France, having decided to work her way around the world. When war broke out, however, she was evacuated from France at Dunkirk, and immediately joined the British army. She served a nurse in London for the duration of the war, and here she met Ottie, a major with the Canadian Scottish regiment. There were married in 1943, and both went back to their respective postings with the army, looking forward to the day when they could live together.
When Ottie and Mary sailed into Whaletown Bay, they were immediately enchanted by the house on the point, half-built and occupying 5 rocky acres of waterfront. They were urban and idealistic, and ready to throw themselves into life on a remote island. At first they turned their hand to fishing commercially. Their boat was twelve-foot clinker built inboard; a salmon license cost a dollar. In 1949 they were hired by Cece Stubbs to manage the Whaletown Store. When Gary and Velma Bergman bought the store in 1956, Ottie was offered the position of Whaletown postmaster, a job he held until a few months before his death.
Mary was an artist—a talented and serious one. In spite of the isolation of Cortes Island in those days, she made a name for herself as a British Columbia artist of note, showing her work widely and selling internationally. Her studio was the dining-room table, surrounded by a swirl of children, and her paintings and prints were created in the midst of the gardening, fishing and canning necessary to country survival.
Ottie was a writer---he had been a journalist before the war---and was a passionate gardener, fisherman, hunter and forager who tirelessly explored the trails and homesteads on the north end of Cortes, and beachcombed all his firewood.
They were both dedicated to community service. Ottie was Justice of the Peace, a thoughtful counselor once famously referred to by Gilean Douglas as 'a Justice who really practiced peace' and he also served on the boards of the Whaletown Community Club and other organizations for many years. Mary acted as a community nurse, as well as teaching First Aid classes, holding monthly clinics, and canvassing for the Canadian cancer society. She taught annual art classes and workshops for adults and children, and in the late '60s, she and Ottie opened a summer art gallery in their Whaletown home---the Garden Gallery---as a showcase for local artists and craftspeople.
Ottie and Mary had four daughters---Christina, born March 23rd, 1951; Brigid, born June 6th, 1953; Alexandra (who, however, has always gone by the nickname “Johnny”) born May 5th, 1955; and Sarah, born September 27th, 1958.
In 1973 Ottie died after a short illness, and Mary didn't want to stay in their dream home without him. In 1974 she sold the house and said farewell to Whaletown. Mary Weiler went on to many more adventures—studying, travelling, and always making art---and died in Victoria in1999.
[by Brigid Weiler, March 10, 2016]
Custodial History
This material was created or collected by Mary and Otto Weiler and donated to CIMAS by their daughter Brigid Weiler. The first accession was in 2003 (Accession #2003.002). There are two accruals: #2009.002 and #2017.001.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists primarily of photographs and slides taken by Mary Weiler. Textual records include correspondence, several issues of the "Log" of the Columbia Coast Mission, and material about Victor Von Donop, for whom Von Donop Inlet is named.
Fonds is arranged in five series: 1: Photographs, 2: Correspondence, 3: Von Donop, 4: Ephemera, and 5: Books.
