Jack Bell – E&N Section Foreman

September 8, 2008

Ross Carter telephone conversation with Dave Bell

Ross Carter’s grandfather, Harry Carter, co- owned the Carter Brothers Store at Shawnigan Lake between 1923 and 1926. Dave said that his family moved to Shawnigan lake in 1921.

As a consequence, Dave Bell lived the first 19 years of his life (1921 to 1940) there. After WW II, Dave married, raised a family and worked as a Dental Lab technician and later a Denturist in Victoria. BC.

Crossing the ocean

Jack Bell (Dave’s father) was 12 years old when he moved from England to Duncan, B.C. The year was 1904 and Jack’s father began operating a dairy farm there. Jack’s family moved to Duncan to join his grandfather who had earlier settled there and the Bell in Bell McKinnon Road, just north of Duncan, is named after Jack’s grandfather.

Crossing back over the ocean

When WW I started, Jack joined the war effort and was sent overseas. During the war, a German soldier had shot and nearly killed him. Luckily, the bullet was slowed down by jack`s helmet and only creased the top of his head. Down but not out, Jack had some luck because a German First Aid man came along and saved him. Dave said such is the craziest of war – One minute they`re trying to kill you and the nest trying to save you. Jack woke up in a German hospital and when he was well enough he was moved to a prisoner of war camp. He ended up spending 1½ years in the camp and he was released after the war ended.

Back on the Island

Jack went to Victoria (not Duncan), since his parents had there during the war as his father had found work in the shipyards there. Dave commuted that his grandfather, who had been running the dairy farm up until then, found it more patriotic to build ships for the war effort then to be milking cows.

Jack quickly got down to the first order of business and married on April 19, 1919 his Duncan sweetheart, Alice Chapman, who had waited for him during the war.

New directions

Before the war, Jack had been a sawyer in a sawmill near Cowichan Lake but he was advised by his doctor to change occupations. Unfortunately, during the war Jack had been gassed and his respiratory system was not as strong and it was suggested that the sawmill dust might eventually kill him.

So he changed occupations from the lumber industry to the railroad. He was hired by the E & N railway to be the Section Foreman, Heading a work gang, for a stretch of track running from the Malahat up to the cut off at Shawnigan Lake.

Home Sweet Home

Then, in 1921, he became the Section Foreman for the stretch of track running from the cut of up to Cobble Hill, about 11 miles in distance. As part of his wages, he was provided the section Foreman`s house at Shawnigan Lake. It was located up the tracks north of where the old SLAA hall was located, about half way to the crossing.

Beside the house, there was a smaller cabin for the No.1 person in the work gang and down closer to the tracks there was a tool shed, pump-house and water-tank.

The house was located near the tracks so the Section Foreman would be close at hand in case of any problems. In the tool shed were kept all the items necessary to keep the railway in repair like picks, shovels and jacks.

There were also three speeders. One speeder could carry 3 or 4 men and another had a flat-deck able to carry such things as railway ties. The third one was a 3 wheeler built to be used by one person.

Dave said that one sat above the two wheels and there was a third outrigger wheel on arm. Dave remembered playing on this as a kid and said that if you put the brake on too fast the back wheel (the flange only on one side) would pop off the rail stopping any fun a child might have.

There was a Y track and the Section house sat in the middle of the Y. There was also a side-track near the water-tank. Dave said they didn`t normally switch tracks at Shawnigan. Dave said he remembered this being done down at Fitzgerald South, towards Victoria, where there was a side-track. The passenger train would pull over and allow the south-bound train to pass.

Gang warily

Jack`s major responsibility was track maintenance and he had a work gang of 3 to 4 workers to oversee to get the job done. One worker was named George Cornwall who lived in a house up closer to the Mill and Cornwall Road is named after him. Another worker was George Middleton.

If the railway ties became rotten they changed them. If the brush or grass grew too long they were cut back. In Jack`s Section, there were 4 switch lamps that had to be refuelled with coal oil and kept lit. Jack also earned an extra $15 per moth above his foreman wages to fill up the water-tank.

The Shawnigan Lake water was soft and pure and good for the train steam engines. Jack would check the water-tank gauge and see if the tank need filling. Roughly 3 times a week it needed filling and after work he would prime the pump at the pump-house and fill up the water-tank. The water-tank could hold enough water to service 5 or 6 engine stops.

The steam locomotives would pull up, swing the spout over, and fill up the water tank behind the engine. It was usually freight trains that stopped for water. It was a good job, especially with the house and extra $15 per month and saw Jack and his family through the lean Depression and War years.

Dave remembers the freight trains stopping to take on water or shuffle the cars around during the Depression. Homeless men were riding the rails for free up to Port Alberni looking for work in the mils or out in the woods.

Often, during the short break while the train was stopped, there would be a knock on their front door and his mother, somewhat cautious, would ask Dave to answer the door. Dave commented that if any of these men had been dangerous it’s not likely a little kid was going to slow them down.

They would always ask “Is there anything to eat kid?” and Dave ended up making a lot of peanut butter sandwiches for them over the years. They were hungry but appreciative and would earnestly say “Thanks”. Dave thinks it’s difficult to grasp how bad things were in the 1930’s before the days of welfare.

The Carter Brothers Store (owned and operated by Harold and Walt Carter between 1923 and 1926).

Dave said that his father Jack often spoke about the Carter Brothers store. Jack always said the Carters had the first car at Shawnigan, but he had the second. Jack first owned a Ford Model T Touring car followed by a Chalmers Touring car. Dave remembers the Chalmers two jiffy seats. These extra seats pulled down out of the front seat and his dad would put a plank across them sometimes so 3 kids could sit across.

Dave guesses that his father and the Carters met through shopping at the store and he said his father talked about him on occasion years afterwards. He also said Jack didn’t work at the mill so he was free to buy his goods anywhere he wanted so he must have done his business at Carter Brothers.

He said there was a mill store and employees and their families were expected to buy their goods there. As well, the Foreman’s house and the Carter store were relatively close to each other with only the old SLAA and some land separating them…so they were neighbors.

Dave said that Jack loved to fish and would go to Cowichan Bay to fish during the salmon run. As Harold Carter also loved to fish, they must have exchanged fishing yarns if not being actual fishing buddies.

Dave said his parents played a card game called 500, a pre-bridge style game. Harry and Margaret Carter are known to have enjoyed card playing so it’s not totally unlikely that they may have played cards with one and other.

Jack lived and worked at Shawnigan Lake between 1921 and 1946, for 25 years. However, while the Carter Brothers were there for only 3 years (1923 to 1926), these were the first impressionable years of raising a family, working hard, and living by the lake.

By 1947, Jack had moved to Langford to be the Section Foreman of a stretch of railway track there and worked another 4 of 5 years before retiring. Beyond his company pension benefits, his retirement perks included a free pass on the E & N and half price tickets on the CPR boats.

Dave was between 2 and 5 years old when the Carters operated on the Store so he Doesn’t remember meeting them. By the time Dave entered Shawnigan Lake Elementary School in 1927 at 6 years old, the Carters had sold the store (to Shrigley & Ball? McLarens?) and moved away.

He does remember some details about the Carter store building. The upper floor was living quarters, the main floor had the store and post office and down below was the butcher shop. He said you entered the post office off the verandah and that Mr. Jack Rathbone operated it back in those days.

Dave said that most of the mail was sent General Delivery back then and people would pick up their mail during normal business hours. However, his father rented a private box – Box 5, Shawnigan Lake and this allowed his father to pick up his mail after hours.

Dave doesn’t remember entering the store part of the building. He does remember the Butcher shop because it had a sawdust floor and a great big wooden chopping block. The butcher was named Mr. C. H. (Jimmy?) Smith and he was only there 1 or 2 days a week as he operated his own butcher shop up at Cobble Hill.

Alexander’s Garage (opened in 1925)

Dave remembers his father telling the following story about one day at Mr. Norman Alexander’s Garage. At that time, in the mid 1920’s, the Old Victoria Road did not go straight through the intersection with the Shawnigan-Mill Bay Road but zigzagged about 100ft before continuing on towards cobble hill.

Dave said someone had a house on that piece of land and it blocked the thoroughfare and it was not until around 1931 that the road as it is known now was built. The house was moved (twice)and still exists today across from the RCMP and is being operated as an Accounting Office.

The Garage was located at its same location as today but as a result of the shape of the road intersection at the time, the Garage and pumps faced south, parallel to the Shawnigan-Mill Bay Road.

Dave said that almost every Saturday night his family would drive up to Duncan shop until the stores closed and then they would catch the last movie showing.

One particular Saturday night after finishing work around 4:30 pm, Jack cleaned up and drove the Chalmers car up to the garage just before 5 pm and requested a tank of gas.

However, Dave said that Mr. Alexander was a haughty Englishman who replied to his father Jack that he was a damn nuisance, coming in at closing time to get his car filled up. Dave rhetorically said you can believe it a man in business telling his customer that he’s a damn nuisance.

Anyways, Jack was incensed to be spoken to in this way and told Mr. Alexander where he could put his hose. Jack always took great pride in his next swiftly executed move. He didn’t even start his engine. He let the brake off and just coasted down the hill to the Carter Brothers store and refueled there.

Carter Brothers had one gas pump, located in a little building across from the store. Dave thought that this gas was mainly for the powerboats and of course the Carter’s own car. As Harold Carter pumped the gas, it can be imagined the smile on his face as Jack told him how he had bested the Englishman at the top of the hill. Jack never did business with Mr. Alexander again and mostly filled up at the Cobble hill gas station in the years ahead. However, Jack was not to hear the last of Mr. Alexander.

The Fire

The date is April 2^nd, 1930. Dave 8 years old, was in school all day and by the time he returns home that afternoon all that remains of the old Carter Brothers store and the original SLAA is a pile of ashes.

Earlier that day, down below the old SLAA, Jack and his gang, had been cutting the brush back on both sides of the railway track up to the fence. In those days there was a fence along the track. They then burnt the slash at the level of the railway.

Jack recounted the accepted story that a hot piece of grass from the burning slash floated up over 500 feet and landed on the North side of the SLAA roof.

Supposedly, he said non-believingly, the fire began there and led to the incineration of the two buildings. Jack said this story was started by Mr. Alexander who had been down (the hill from his Garage) for his mail at 10AM that morning to the Store and said he had seen the slash being burnt down below. Jack said that Mr. Alexander went on to guess that a piece of grass from the burning caused the fire.