• Contents
  • Coldspring

• Discussion
• 1880 samples
• 1881 samples
• 1882 samples
• 1883 samples
• 1884 samples
• 1885 samples
• Search Ledger J (Sept 1880 - Mar 1881)
• Search Ledger K (April 1882 - Mar 1884)

Discussion

The 1880s were a busy time for the Boyd's and Cold Spring House. The farming was thriving and providing full time farm manager Angus McPhail with lots of work. The pay journals show hay crews of 5 and 6 men working through each summer getting in the crops.

For much of the decade the family remained at Coldspring and there is no clear indication of why they moved to Cottonwood in 1886. Perhaps they needed more room with a growing family, perhaps they would be closer to Quesnelle (though Barkerville was still the major community in the area and the only one with a hospital). It is possible, however, that starchy, proper, Victorian John Boyd and his wife wanted to move to help ease the pain of their daughter, Ida's recent death in 1885.

In any event the Boyd family moved in May of 1886 to Cottonwood House and remained until the 1950s. The large cottonwood tree to the side of the house was planted in 1887, the next spring, and is still providing shade to travellers and tourists.