Fonds consists of material generated by the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society and includes meeting minutes, administrative records, research materials, correspondence, ephemera, maps, plans, and publications of the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society, as well as some records of the Cortes Island Old Age Pensioners' Organization. Fonds is arranged into twelve series, following the original order of the records.
An accrual in 2023, described as Series 12, contains meeting minutes, correspondence, etc; arranged in chronological order (original order).
In 1987, members of the Cortes Island Old Age Pensioners' Organization incorporated the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society (currently known as the Cortes Island Senior's Society) with the following stated purposes:
(a) to operate a facility where persons aged 65 years or older, or persons between 55 and 65 years of age who are in need, can improve their health through physical and other acitivity;
(b) to operate a residential housing facility for such persons;
(c) to carry on social activities incidental to the above purposes, but not to own, operate or manage a social club.
The records of the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society provide useful insight into their process of envisioning the future of seniors' housing on Cortes Island.
Custodial History
Donated by Ruth Zwickel on behalf of the Cortes Island Senior's Society in 2013. An accrual was donated by Elinor Harwood on behalf of the Cortes Island Seniors' Society in 2021.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of material generated by the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society and includes meeting minutes, administrative records, research materials, correspondence, ephemera, maps, plans, and publications of the Cortes Island Seniors' Building Society, as well as some records of the Cortes Island Old Age Pensioners' Organization. Fonds is arranged into twelve series, following the original order of the records.
An accrual in 2023, described as Series 12, contains meeting minutes, correspondence, etc; arranged in chronological order (original order).
Binder contains a photocopy of a Province of BC bulletin on how to pre-empt land (1929), and a list of pre-emptions from the records in the BC Archives in Victoria.
Binder contains a photocopy of a Province of BC bulletin on how to pre-empt land (1929), and a list of pre-emptions from the records in the BC Archives in Victoria.
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.
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.
Memories of Mansons Landing 2005 – Central Area – Bridge Hill and Smelt Bay Hill
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Mary and Bill Block, Larry Borland, May (Freeman) Ellingsen, Wilf Freeman, the Froud family, Robbie Graham, Bill Guthrie, Gloria Morrisette, Jean (Reford) MacDonald and Beth (Martin) Slater.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Memories of Mansons Landing 2005 – Central Area – Bridge Hill and Smelt Bay Hill
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Mary and Bill Block, Larry Borland, May (Freeman) Ellingsen, Wilf Freeman, the Froud family, Robbie Graham, Bill Guthrie, Gloria Morrisette, Jean (Reford) MacDonald and Beth (Martin) Slater.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Etta (McKay) Byers, Bert and Penny Hansen, Peggy Pyner, Frank Hayes, Vida (Trousdale) Hodgson, Bob Milton, Lorne Musclow, and Elton Anderson.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Etta (McKay) Byers, Bert and Penny Hansen, Peggy Pyner, Frank Hayes, Vida (Trousdale) Hodgson, Bob Milton, Lorne Musclow, and Elton Anderson.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs relating to Michael and John Manson and their families. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs relating to Michael and John Manson and their families. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs relating to schools in Mansons Landing. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs relating to schools in Mansons Landing. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ginny and Bruce Ellingsen, the Lambert family, Dolly (Jeffery) Hansen and Maryann McCoy, with additional historic photographs of Smelt Bay from the early to the late 1900s at the back. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ginny and Bruce Ellingsen, the Lambert family, Dolly (Jeffery) Hansen and Maryann McCoy, with additional historic photographs of Smelt Bay from the early to the late 1900s at the back. It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Memories of Mansons Landing 2005: The Landing and the Lagoon
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ken Summers, Bert and Victoria Summers, Ann Barton, Hiram (Buster) and Mabel Christiansen, Otis (Christiansen) Coulter, George and Rosemary (Gavin) Hawkins, Bob Martineau and Fred Reedel.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Memories of Mansons Landing 2005: The Landing and the Lagoon
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures from Ken Summers, Bert and Victoria Summers, Ann Barton, Hiram (Buster) and Mabel Christiansen, Otis (Christiansen) Coulter, George and Rosemary (Gavin) Hawkins, Bob Martineau and Fred Reedel.
It was created as part of the Memories of Manson's Landing Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures.
Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures. It was created in 2001 as part of the exhibit "The Von Donop Creek Story - 1920-1960", curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson. Binder contains interviews, stories and pictures.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Additional information:
re photo on p 79: "Dell Tooker with Stephen Williams (son of Trefor Williams). The Titus’s were gone by 1960 when the photo was taken. This horse was “Lady” and belonged to Bert Hansen. He kindly loaned her to us sometimes which was so appreciated." (from Tari Tooker Chiasson, 5/2021)
Binder contains interviews, stories and photographs documenting the social history of the Whaletown area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Additional information:
re photo on p 79: "Dell Tooker with Stephen Williams (son of Trefor Williams). The Titus’s were gone by 1960 when the photo was taken. This horse was “Lady” and belonged to Bert Hansen. He kindly loaned her to us sometimes which was so appreciated." (from Tari Tooker Chiasson, 5/2021)
Binder contains interviews, stories, clippings and photographs documenting the social history of the Coulter Bay and Carrington Bay areas. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories, clippings and photographs documenting the social history of the Coulter Bay and Carrington Bay areas. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories, clippings and photographs documenting the social history of the Green Valley/Bluejay Lake area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
Binder contains interviews, stories, clippings and photographs documenting the social history of the Green Valley/Bluejay Lake area. It was created as part of the Windows on Whaletown Exhibit, curated and mounted by Doreen Thompson.
