Beginnings
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Lheidli T'enneh
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Meeting of
Two Cultures
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The Pioneer Experience
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There were many people whose influence had a great impact in the shaping of what today is the thriving city of Prince George. Here we have noted a few of the more well-known figures; however, there were certainly many others who contributed their time, labour and imagination to the development of the city.
Father Coccola Father Morice
Simon
Fraser George J. Hammond
LC Gunn
Captain Browne Six Mile Mary
Granny Seymour
Father Coccola was born at Corsica in 1854. He arrived at Victoria in 1880 and was ordained a priest at Spence's Bridge. He served in a mission at Kamloops where he farmed, cooked and taught young children. In 1883 he was ordered to the Trans Canada railway camps to help relieve the vice and hardships faced by the labourers. His intervention with the contractors in 1885 averted a revolt of the workers and improved their conditions. Father Coccola then became the missionary at Fort George where he joined with the Natives and gave advice on selling their land. He died in Smithers in 1943.
Father Morice was born in 1859 in France. He reached Victoria in July of 1880 and was ordained a priest in 1882. For years he rebelled against his superiors at New Westminster in an effort to be removed from such "civilization" and placed in a territory of his own. Finally as an act of punishment he was sent to Stuart Lake in 1885. Little did his superiors know that this was exactly what Morice wanted (Mulhall). He spent nineteen years at thi s post, with his territory being roughly one-eighth of British Columbia. During this time he decided that "religion should be taught in the language of the people" and so developed a syllabic alphabet for the Dene language. He then put out a Carrier-language newspaper called "Testtes Nahivelnik" or "The Paper Story-Teller." Morice was admired by the Carrier for his determination (Mulhall) but remembered for his violent temper (Hubbard 1966).
In response to a rumour that the goal of the American expedition of Lewis and Clark was to annex all land west of the Rockies, the North West Fur Company sent out Simon Fraser to Lake McLeod. In 1805 he established Fort McLeod, the first trading post in British Columbia. In 1806 Fraser established Fort St. James, Fort Fraser and Fort George, naming it for the King of England at the time, George III. His explorations came to an end when he realized that the Fraser River was not the Columbia River that he had been seeking, and turned back a few short miles from the Pacific Ocean. Had he continued he would have been the first European to enter the Georgia Strait.
George Hammond was a real estate promoter and land speculator during the first few years of the twentieth century. In the fall of 1908 he staked a large tract of land west of Hudson's Bay's property, and called his new townsite "Central Fort George." He spent a great deal of money advertising Fort George and land was sold all over North America and Great Britain. His ads were sometimes rumoured to be false and sensationalist.
L. C. Gunn was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1876. He came to Canada in January of 1904 and worked with the Grand Trunk Pacific Company in Edmonton as a draftsman. In 1910 Gunn made a preliminary survey for the GTP railway south of Fort George and became the head surveyor of the railway in this area until he resigned in March of 1912.
Captain Browne was born and raised in New Westminster by his Hawaiian parents. He helped to design the BX sternwheeler and subsequently became its commander for the length of its operation on the Upper Fraser. Captain Browne married Margaret "Minnie" Seymour, Granny Seymour's daughter.
Six Mile Mary lived to be 108 years old, and in her later years was a well-known trapper and entrepreneur in the Prince George Region. Russell Walker remembers Mary renting her canoe, "Mary charged us 50 cents and a 15 cent packet of smoking tobacco as rental for her canoe. After repeated attempts, we gave up trying to pay her 75 cents cash and no tobacco. Until we produced the 15-cent packet, she wouldn’t take the 50 cents and she generally opened the packet and filled her foul smelling old pipe and took a few drags before remembering the money that was coming to her. Mary set her net every day she was at the lake (Six Mile Lake) and caught whitefish. She had several dogs and these had loads of fish to pack to the reservation."
Margaret "Granny" Seymour was born in 1852. Her father was Jim Bouchey, a Hudson's Bay man and her mother, Tartnan, a Haida princess. At the age of 5 Margaret was baptized into the Catholic faith. With the passage of time, Margaret came to know many Roman Catholic priests that worked among the Native tribes of British Columbia, including Father Lejaq and Morice. Margaret also helped out at her father's Hudson's Bay fort. Margaret was praised well for her good work. Margaret married twice, first Edward Flameau and after his death Billy Seymour—son of famed Red River fiddler William Seymour. At 112 years Granny was still sewing without glasses from 9–5 every day. She attributed her long life to eating the right kind of food and good outdoor living. At 113 years of age she still liked to eat wild meat and fish once in awhile. She used wild roots to keep her health and continued to wash her eyes from the juice of the bear-berry bush. Granny distrusted modern medicines, claiming that modern preparations spoiled the pure medicine from roots and herbs (Prince George Citizen).
Granny Seymour died at the age of 114 in 1966, outliving all but one of her 14 children.
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Home
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People
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Glossary
Beginnings
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Lheidli T'enneh
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Meeting of Two Cultures
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The Pioneer Experience