W . W. W r a t h a I I An Autobiographical Family History ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- My grandfather, William Wrathall, was born at or near the village of Grassington, Yorkshire about 1830. He married my grandmother, Grace Parker, about 1850. My father, Richard Parker Wrathall, was the first of thirteen children. My grandfather on my mother's side was John Richmond, who married Elizabeth Walker at or near Skipton, Yorkshire. They had six children. I think my mother was their fourth child. Mother's brother, William, came to Victoria about 1884 and had a farm at the Gorge in Victoria. ( William Richmond and his wife Mary farmed at what is now the corner of Gorge Road and Dysart Avenue around 1886. His son Kenneth and wife Rita lived at 666 Treebank Road, on the water across the Gorge from 1953 to 1972; their daughter Gloria, living at 79 Gorge Road West, is the third generation to reside on the waterway. ) My father, Richard Parker Wrathall, married my mother, Alice Richmond, about 1880. They had six children: Brida, Victoria, William, John, Olive and Richard. Brida, Victoria and Richard died in infancy. William, myself, was born in Hammersmith, London in 1884 where my dad had gone to work for a bus company. Brother John was born at Craigflower, Victoria in 1891, the folks having come to Victoria in 1889 to stay and work for my uncle Will Richmond. In 1890 my dad rented a farm at Craigflower and started a milk ranch which carried on for a year. We then moved into town where he started a butcher shop on Johnson Street with a partner named Dinsdale. Business became poor and they closed up and he then became a cattle dealer. We lived on Humboldt Street, then Green Street, then Douglas Street, where my sister Olive was born in 1893. Then we moved to Speed Avenue. Only four houses on Speed Avenue, and we lived in two of them at different times. We then moved to Oakland, where my mother died February 3, 1906. She is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery. Olive went to live with your mother, Lynn, and her family. Brother Jack was working in Vancouver for the Great Northern Railway. About 1900 I started work with the CPR in Victoria as a messenger, delivery clerk, counter clerk and then telegraph operator. In 1904 I was transferred to Vancouver with the CPR, and was transferred back and forth between Victoria and Vancouver until 1907. I resigned from the CPR in September, 1907 and accepted a position with the Dominion Government Telegraphs at Hazelton, where I arrived October 6, 1907. Left Vancouver September 10th and arrived at Pt. Essington September 13th to find all the river steamers wrecked or fast ashore. The new steamer, Moart River, had turned over in Kitselas Canyon. The Northwest had broken in half at Graveyard Point, and the Hazelton was tied up on account of low water. On September 15th I was asked if I would like to help Harry Daniels line and pole a small canoe up the 18O miles of Skeena River to Hazelton. So I bought a 30-30 rifle, some blankets and grub, and we started out. We made the hot springs the first night. The second night we stayed with Bert Kergin and his helper, Lafontain, at Telegraph Point. So far we had the tide with us. After leaving Telegraph Point, we had to buck the seven mile current of the Skeena River. About the fifth day, we reached the wreck of the steamer Northwest at Graveyard Point. Daniels found his Native girlfriend and decided to stay and leave me stranded. However, Solomon Johnson and Dick Morrison and their families had a two ton canoe and for twenty dollars they offered to let me work my way with them as far as Hazelton as their home was at Kitsilas, seven miles north of Hazelton. They were very religious Natives and I enjoyed their company very much. If I remember rightly, there were nine in the two families. We arrived at Hazelton on October 6, 1907. On the way up the river we slept on the river bank without tents. Some nights it was quite frosty but we were comfortable with a large fire burning. Brother Jack came north in1909 and started to work with the Government Telegraph line at Metlakatla, and continued to work for the telegraph line until his retirement about 1945. My sister, Olive, came to Hazelton in 1909 to live with us. I opened a photo shop in Hazelton in 1910. Olive helped look after it. In 1908 I was sent to Kitselas for two months, and it was from Kitselas I went to Victoria to marry your mother. We were married at mother's home by Baptist minister Stephenson. The date was September 20, 1908, and we arrived back in Hazelton on October 4, 1908. Bill, Jack and Audrey were born in the Hazelton hospital in 1909, 1910 and 1912. I was working for the Dominion Government Telegraph as an operator. In 1912 I quit to devote myself to our store. In 1913 I bought a stationery business in Prince Rupert and your mother brought our three children to Rupert on January 1, 1914. In August 1914 the war with Germany broke out and we had rough going for several years so I closed up the stationery store and opened a small photo finishing plant on 3rd Avenue and put son Jack to work and went back to the Government Telegraph at $156.75 a month. This was about 1929. My father, Richard, died shortly after we came to Rupert early in 1914. I think in February. He was living with my uncle Will Richmond in Victoria and is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery alongside my mother. I would like to have their resting place located and marked some day. The grave could be located by the dates I have given. My father's brothers were named Robert, John, and William. His sisters named Tom Verity, Harry Lee, Willis Haigh, and I think he had another sister but forgot the name. My sister, Olive, named H. H. Little, manager of the Union Bank, Hazelton and later manager of the Union Bank at Rupert. They were married in March 1914 at our house on Thompson Street. They had four girls and two boys and you know their names. They were later transferred to Vancouver where my dear sister Olive died in 1935 at the age of forty-two. Your uncle Jack married Lucy Harkin at Telegraph Creek about 25 years ago. Lucy came to Prince Rupert for medical treatment early in 1953 and died in Prince George on her way home. Her passing was a severe blow to Jack. Jack came to Rupert in 1954 for an operation. Had a lump on his right side, and a few months later complications set in and he went to the Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver where he died March 14, 1955. Thelma knows where he is resting. My father, Richard, was born August 6th, 1853. My mother, Alice, was born May 20th, 1864. I was born June 2, 1884. Brother Jack was born February 22, 1891. My sister, Olive, was born November 5th, 1893. Your mother, Lynn, was born at Richmondswort, London, September 8, 1887. Your mother's father was James Haynes. Married Miss M. Jobbins in London, England. They had three children, Marie, James and Lydia. They came to Canada about 60 years ago and settled in Manitoba, then came out to Victoria about 1903. Marie died in California about 1950 and John died in Victoria when he was about 30. Mr. Haynes died about 25 years ago, Mrs. Haynes about 12 years ago. I started school when I was six at the old Craigflower School in Victoria, the first school built in Victoria. The lumber was brought out from England. It now is used as a museum. I was there from 1890 until 1892 and Mr. Johnson was my teacher. I also attended the Central School. When we moved to Douglas Street I went to the North Ward School, and later when we moved to Speed Avenue I transferred to the Tolmie School. Quit when I was in the Fourth Reader to go to work at the age of 16. In England, my uncle John Wrathall had one daughter, Maud, now Maud Keighley. Maud and her daughter Enid visited us in June 1954 and Audrey returned to England with them on June 30, 1954 for a three months trip to England and Europe. One of my father's sisters married Tom Ler. One daughter, Marie, now living in Edinborough, Scotland. My uncle Bob at one time was the largest cattle buyer in Yorkshire. His sons, Willie, Tom and Fred. He may have had more children I do not know of. My uncle Willie at one time owned street car systems and a railroad in Belgium. One of his daughters married into the Lever Brothers family, the great soap makers. Vivian was born on Dunsmuir Street during the first great war. Dick was born on Taylor Street. Kenny was born on Seventh Avenue -- all in Prince Rupert. Your dear mother, Lynn, passed away in the Prince Rupert General Hospital after six months illness on June 17, 1953. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Small halftone photocopy of a photo of Jack Wrathall at the 5th Cabin, Government Telegraph Line, Telegraph Creek, B.C. c. 1910 ] Written by W.W. Wrathall of Prince Rupert, B. C. for his daughter sometime after 1953. Given to his cousin Walter Richmond (son of Will Richmond, late of Victoria) and passed on to Walter's brother Ken Richmond of Sydney B.C. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-MAIL HOME