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					Colonial Settlers : Isaac and Mary Ann Kipp
			The Land Colonial Settlers Community of Villages Pre-emptions Agriculture Timelines Image Gallery		saac Kipp (1839-1921) was born in Ontario. He left for the west at the age of nineteen, arriving in California in December 1858. He mined in California until 1862 when rumors of gold discoveries in the Cariboo district drew him and his brother, Henry, north. They were not successful in their search for and returned to Yale. Yale was then at the head of navigation for Fraser River steamboats and was an important staging point for northern bound gold seekers. In Yale, they worked for their cousin, Jonathan Reece, who operated a butcher shop and slaughter business. Reece found the grasslands in the Chilliwack area suitable for grazing cattle before moving them to Yale for slaughter. Isaac Kipp assisted his cousin in this endeavor. In 1862, Kipp pre-empted land in Chilliwack, acreage that eventually became part of the downtown core of the community. Kipp was a supporter of the Methodist Church and the Liberal party and a leader in the emerging community. In 1865 he married Mary Ann Nelems (1839-1931). In preparation for frontier life, she studied nursing and surgery, gaining practical experience assisting Dr. Blake, the district doctor. She was the first woman on the Chilliwack Prairie and for 14 years was the only nurse and midwife in the valley east of New Westminster. The couple had ten children.
								Issac Kipp portrait P-241 Mary Ann Kipp P-433 Isaac Kipp Family

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