Excerpt from Goosegrass and Buttercups by Doris C. Kirk, 1912; article in North Island News "Ice Cream! 'Boat Day' was major event for the coastal urchins of yesteryear," 1993
Excerpt from Goosegrass and Buttercups by Doris C. Kirk, 1912; article in North Island News "Ice Cream! 'Boat Day' was major event for the coastal urchins of yesteryear," 1993
Article about the Inlet, date unknown; trip advertisement in Cortes Marketer; promotional posters; hand written notes working out cost of trip, invoices, fees paid, cost per person, and profit; emails regarding taxi and charter quote, tour guide, estimated cost per person, dates, coordinations, advertisements, and invoices; write up for press release; handwritten note noting how much they enjoyed the trip
Article about the Inlet, date unknown; trip advertisement in Cortes Marketer; promotional posters; hand written notes working out cost of trip, invoices, fees paid, cost per person, and profit; emails regarding taxi and charter quote, tour guide, estimated cost per person, dates, coordinations, advertisements, and invoices; write up for press release; handwritten note noting how much they enjoyed the trip
BC Bureau of Provincial Information Bulletin No. 7, 1929. Poem written by Emily Rekert, 1933. Excerpt from The Log of the Columbia, 1947. Issues of "The Log," a publication of the Columbia Coast Mission, 1951-1967. Writing, photographs, and article clippings with info on St John the Baptist Church in Whaletown, Rev. Alan Greene, Rev. Douglas Kendall, Columbia III, Rev. Patrick Ellis, Rev. Rollo Boas, old Cortes Clinic, Mrs. David A. Robertson, The Rendezvous, Rev. Ivan H. Futter, Simmon float, 1957-2011. Excerpts from The Columbia is Coming! by Doris Andersen, 1982. Receipt issued to Vern Logan, 2017.
BC Bureau of Provincial Information Bulletin No. 7, 1929. Poem written by Emily Rekert, 1933. Excerpt from The Log of the Columbia, 1947. Issues of "The Log," a publication of the Columbia Coast Mission, 1951-1967. Writing, photographs, and article clippings with info on St John the Baptist Church in Whaletown, Rev. Alan Greene, Rev. Douglas Kendall, Columbia III, Rev. Patrick Ellis, Rev. Rollo Boas, old Cortes Clinic, Mrs. David A. Robertson, The Rendezvous, Rev. Ivan H. Futter, Simmon float, 1957-2011. Excerpts from The Columbia is Coming! by Doris Andersen, 1982. Receipt issued to Vern Logan, 2017.
Receipts for community hall related income and expenses, 1952-1972. Keywords: Southern Cortes Community Association, Manson's Landing Community Club, Cortes Barbeque Committee. Tax form, order form, 1970. Southern Cortes Community Association reports, 2009-2018.
Receipts for community hall related income and expenses, 1952-1972. Keywords: Southern Cortes Community Association, Manson's Landing Community Club, Cortes Barbeque Committee. Tax form, order form, 1970. Southern Cortes Community Association reports, 2009-2018.
Info on: history, leadership, culture, community initiatives, sustainability, reconciliation, self-governance, treaties and land claims, archaeology, legends, events, partnerships, politics; First Nations Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP); Klahoose Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation (QXMC); and more, 1983-2018. Excerpts from: Sliammon Life, Sliammon Lands, Bouchard and Kennedy, 1983; Seven-Knot Summers, B. Hill, 1994; and Indian Myths and Legends, Bouchard and Kennedy, 2002 (translated from Boas' 1895 edition). Full issues of Community Stories, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2009; Salish Sea Sentinel, "Coast Salish Country," 2016; Canadian Geographic "Canada's Indigenous Peoples," 2018. Email exchange regarding partnership with North Vancouver Island Aboriginal Training Society (NVIATS), 2014
Info on: history, leadership, culture, community initiatives, sustainability, reconciliation, self-governance, treaties and land claims, archaeology, legends, events, partnerships, politics; First Nations Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP); Klahoose Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation (QXMC); and more, 1983-2018. Excerpts from: Sliammon Life, Sliammon Lands, Bouchard and Kennedy, 1983; Seven-Knot Summers, B. Hill, 1994; and Indian Myths and Legends, Bouchard and Kennedy, 2002 (translated from Boas' 1895 edition). Full issues of Community Stories, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2009; Salish Sea Sentinel, "Coast Salish Country," 2016; Canadian Geographic "Canada's Indigenous Peoples," 2018. Email exchange regarding partnership with North Vancouver Island Aboriginal Training Society (NVIATS), 2014
Historical info on the Gorge Harbour Community Hall Society, the building of the Gorge Harbour Hall in 1933, and the Gorge Harbour Young People's Dramatic Socety, 1930s. Clippings about Gorge Hall events, taxes and community resources, 1962-2013. Broadway Musical Comedy itinerary, Gorge Hall, 1972. Vintage looking poster "Songs for Winter," Gorge Hall, undated.
Historical info on the Gorge Harbour Community Hall Society, the building of the Gorge Harbour Hall in 1933, and the Gorge Harbour Young People's Dramatic Socety, 1930s. Clippings about Gorge Hall events, taxes and community resources, 1962-2013. Broadway Musical Comedy itinerary, Gorge Hall, 1972. Vintage looking poster "Songs for Winter," Gorge Hall, undated.
Info on Southern Cortes Community Association, 1956-2017. Info on building a new Manson's community hall, 1978-1979. Clippings, and emails regarding hall, and full issue of The Howling Wolf, 1982-2019. Additional info on history of Manson's hall, grant application, and community hall and tax service.
Info on Southern Cortes Community Association, 1956-2017. Info on building a new Manson's community hall, 1978-1979. Clippings, and emails regarding hall, and full issue of The Howling Wolf, 1982-2019. Additional info on history of Manson's hall, grant application, and community hall and tax service.
Manson genealogical information from late 1700s onward. Government certificates of banns & marriage, John Manson and Margaret Ellen Smith, late 1800s. Info on Raven Farm; Sunnybrae Farm, early 1900s. Photocopied letters, early 1900s. Letters from Education Office, 1914. Military papers for John Manson, 1917. Issue of Campbell River Courier, 1957. Newspaper excerpt about Manson Family, undated. Info on Mansons Landing Cemetery. Emails, 2013-2015.
Manson genealogical information from late 1700s onward. Government certificates of banns & marriage, John Manson and Margaret Ellen Smith, late 1800s. Info on Raven Farm; Sunnybrae Farm, early 1900s. Photocopied letters, early 1900s. Letters from Education Office, 1914. Military papers for John Manson, 1917. Issue of Campbell River Courier, 1957. Newspaper excerpt about Manson Family, undated. Info on Mansons Landing Cemetery. Emails, 2013-2015.
Portrait of Judith Williams, 2000. Info about Judith's published works Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time, 2001, Clam Gardens, 2009, and "Desolation Sound Salmon Enhancement Society," 2010.
Portrait of Judith Williams, 2000. Info about Judith's published works Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time, 2001, Clam Gardens, 2009, and "Desolation Sound Salmon Enhancement Society," 2010.
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.