File contains 3 receipts from the Cortez Lodge Store (Note the telephone number, "Cortez 1X"), and 2 Island Air receipts, one for a flight from Campbell River to Cortes for $12. Receipts are from Hector Graham.
Donated by Ann Dewar and Robbie Graham on Jan. 20,2017, along with items for the Artifacts Committee. Material donated is from Robbie Graham's father Hector Graham.
Scope and Content
File contains 3 receipts from the Cortez Lodge Store (Note the telephone number, "Cortez 1X"), and 2 Island Air receipts, one for a flight from Campbell River to Cortes for $12. Receipts are from Hector Graham.
Fonds comprises material created or collected by Wilfred (Wilf) Freeman in the course of his work as a logger and during his community activities. It includes correspondence, logging records, maps, minutes of committee meetings, financial records, ephemera and clippings. It is arranged in four series: Logging; Centennial Committee; Ephemera; and Cortez Grapevine Telephone Association.
Wilfred (Wilf) Michael Freeman was born October 21, 1917 in Vancouver B.C. and died December 23, 2012. He was the son of William George Freeman and Robina Steel (Manson) Freeman and brother to Elizabeth Jane May (Freeman) Ellingsen (born March 13, 1914). His grandparents were Michael and Jane Manson. Wilf grew up on Hernando Island until 1926 when the family moved to Vancouver. One of his first jobs in the early 1930s was in Powell River where, among other things, he was hand digging basements under some of the original Powell River townsite homes.
He gravitated to the logging industry, working for Sigurd Ellingsen and Eric Flescher in Phillips Arm through the late ’30’s and into the 1950’s. He was an excellent worker; strong, resourceful, thoughtful, humorous and thorough, and, as well, he enjoyed hunting and fishing.
Wilf and his wife, May (Spence; died 1970) moved down to Smelt Bay on Cortes in the early 1950s from Phillips Arm. He logged with Bill Mathews between 1954 and 1965 in the Von Donop Creek areas. As well, they both crewed on the seine boat “Courtenay Maid” with Pat Andrews for a few summers.
When the ferry came to Cortes Island, both Wilf and Bill worked as deckhands, always cheerful and busy throughout the trips, often chipping and repainting rust spots on the ship.
Wilf was active in many community affairs over all the years living on Cortes: among them the Ratepayers Association, the 1958 Centennial Committee, the Cortes Grapevine Telephone Assoc. (a local telephone system, 1959 - 1966), Cortes Days summer celebrations, Cortes Island Firefighters Assoc., Cortes Rod and Gun Club.
Wilf and his second wife, Nora, lived on in Smelt Bay until they moved to Willow Point, South of Campbell River, in 2002. There they lived until, on December 23, 2102, he passed away while shovelling snow in their back yard.
Custodial History
Accession 2001.001 was donated to CIMAS by Wilfred Freeman on June 16, 2001. Accession 2002.002 was gathered at Wilf Freeman's garage sale by Bonnie MacDonald and donated to the museum in June of 2002. Accession 2017.006 was donated to CIMAS by Bruce Ellingsen, Freeman's nephew, in July of 2017.
Scope and Content
Fonds comprises material created or collected by Wilfred (Wilf) Freeman in the course of his work as a logger and during his community activities. It includes correspondence, logging records, maps, minutes of committee meetings, financial records, ephemera and clippings. It is arranged in four series: Logging; Centennial Committee; Ephemera; and Cortez Grapevine Telephone Association.
Sous-fonds consists of materials generated and gathered by Ralph Nursall during his term as Regional Director. It includes minutes and reports of the Cortes Island Advisory Planning Commission; community plan reviews; reports of public hearings; agendas, minutes and background material from Nursall's work on the RDCS Forest Policies, Greater Campbell River Planning, and Executive and Personnel committees meetings; licenses for the use of foreshore and crown lands on the island; and material relating to aquaculture, forestry and other island concerns.
Sous-fonds is arranged into six series: Advisory Planning Commission; Community Plans; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Regional Board; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Committees; Subject Files - Cortes Affairs; and Regional Director records from Accession 2008.001.
Ralph Nursall was elected Regional Director of Electoral Area I (Cortes Island) for the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona (RDCS) in November of 1990. He served two terms as Director: 1990-1993, and 1993-1996.
Custodial History
Records were donated to the Cortes Island Museum and Archives Society by Ralph Nursall in 2003 and in an accrual in 2008 (Accession 2008.001).
Scope and Content
Sous-fonds consists of materials generated and gathered by Ralph Nursall during his term as Regional Director. It includes minutes and reports of the Cortes Island Advisory Planning Commission; community plan reviews; reports of public hearings; agendas, minutes and background material from Nursall's work on the RDCS Forest Policies, Greater Campbell River Planning, and Executive and Personnel committees meetings; licenses for the use of foreshore and crown lands on the island; and material relating to aquaculture, forestry and other island concerns.
Sous-fonds is arranged into six series: Advisory Planning Commission; Community Plans; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Regional Board; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Committees; Subject Files - Cortes Affairs; and Regional Director records from Accession 2008.001.
Sous-fonds consists of materials generated or gathered by George Sirk during his term as Regional Director. It includes correspondence; minutes and reports of the Cortes Island Advisory Planning Commission (APC); Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw revision materials; records of foreshore leases and licenses; correspondence on various island issues, and material relating to parks, aquaculture, forestry, treaty negotiations and other island concerns. Sous-fonds is arranged into six series: Advisory Planning Commission; Community Plans and Bylaws; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Regional Board; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Committees; Rezoning and Development Proposals; Subject Files: Cortes Affairs; Aquaculture; and Treaty Negotiations.
George Sirk was elected Regional Director of Electoral Area I (Cortes Island) in the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona in 1996. He served three terms as Director, from 1996 to 2005.
Custodial History
Material was donated to CIMAS by George Sirk in 2004, prior to his move from Cortes Island to Victoria, BC.
Scope and Content
Sous-fonds consists of materials generated or gathered by George Sirk during his term as Regional Director. It includes correspondence; minutes and reports of the Cortes Island Advisory Planning Commission (APC); Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw revision materials; records of foreshore leases and licenses; correspondence on various island issues, and material relating to parks, aquaculture, forestry, treaty negotiations and other island concerns. Sous-fonds is arranged into six series: Advisory Planning Commission; Community Plans and Bylaws; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Regional Board; Regional District of Comox-Strathcona: Committees; Rezoning and Development Proposals; Subject Files: Cortes Affairs; Aquaculture; and Treaty Negotiations.
Sous-fonds consists of records created or collected by Jeannette (Jenny) Hiebert during her term as Regional Director. It includes minutes of APC meetings, correspondence, records of public hearings, records related to bylaw and zoning changes, parks, aquaculture, and forestry issues, and material about the impending division of the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona into two separate districts.
Jeanette (Jenny) Hiebert served as Regional Director for Area I, Regional District of Comox-Strathcona, for one term, from 2005-2008
Custodial History
Donated to CIMAS by Jenny Hiebert in 2019.
Scope and Content
Sous-fonds consists of records created or collected by Jeannette (Jenny) Hiebert during her term as Regional Director. It includes minutes of APC meetings, correspondence, records of public hearings, records related to bylaw and zoning changes, parks, aquaculture, and forestry issues, and material about the impending division of the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona into two separate districts.
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.
