July 28 – August 3: Items compiled by Dave Humphrey from the archived newspapers held at the Cranbrook History Centre and Archives

1912

High school honours … Congratulations of the sincerest character are due the teaching staff of Cranbrook public school for the excellent showing their pupils made in the recent high school examina­tions. Cranbrook has long held an enviable record for its public school teaching results, and this record is materially enhanced by these results.

Nasty accident … A distressing accident occurred in the C.P.R. yards on Sunday, when George Lynch, acting yard foreman, was caught by the yard engine and had both his feet run over. One foot was severed below the ankle, and the other below the instep. He was immediately taken to the St. Eugene hospital, where he is doing as well as can be expected.

Lynch is a married man and has an infant child.

Bad luck … H. J. Manion, of Moyie, met with a piece of hard luck last Saturday, when two of his horses were killed by the eastbound Soo-Spokane train.

Mr. Manion, who has a contract for taking out timber at Aldridge, turn­ed his horses loose Saturday night and they wandered along the track to the railway bridge which crosses the lower Moyie River. Here both were struck by the eastbound flyer. The horses were valued at $600.

Wentworth changes hands … The management of the Wentworth hotel changed hands last Tuesday, when John McTavish sold-out to D. A. McDonald.

The deal has been pending for some weeks. The price in­volved is said to be close to $14,000.

McTavish had been in charge of the Wentworth for about eighteen months, starting with only a few hundred dollars, he came here from Moyie, where for several years he worked as a miner, afterwards be­coming interested with A.D. Cam­eron, first in the Cosmopolitan hotel and then in the Kootenay hotel in that town. It will thus be seen that in the course of a few years he cleaned up a snug little fortune.

Mr. and Mrs. McTavish intend going back to Arnprior, Ont., about the 15th of August, and will spend a few months in the locality in which Mr. McTavish was born and raised. They will then probably re­turn to British Columbia and locate.

The Wentworth hotel has passed in­to equally capable hands. The con­ducting of a hotel is no experiment with Dan McDonald. For several years he ran the Manitoba Hotel in this city, and his house enjoyed a splendid patronage. Then he sold out to James Brown and went back to Detroit, Mich., and was engaged in the manufacture of automobile engines. But the lure of the west again brought him to Cranbrook, the scene of his earlier activities. The Wentworth under his able manage­ment will still continue to be one of the best hotels in Cranbrook.

Novel garden party … The Epworth League of the Methodist church gave a novel social evening last Tuesday night, when Miss Clara Bonner, elocutionist, rendered an interesting programme in the Church, impersonating the several characters of the play “Esmeralda”.

After the programme adjournment was made to the parsonage lawn where refreshments were served. The young people had tastefully decorated booths set here and there, and the surroundings were replete with bunting, and the grounds were brilliantly lighted.

Miss Bonner gave a short programme on the lawn in her inimitable way to the delight of a large company. The innovation of having a professional entertainer provide the entire programme was a pleasant departure from the time-worn, stereotyped garden party.

Auto sales brisk … Autos are becoming so thick in Cranbrook that Manager D. V. Mott, of the Kootenay Garage Company, has accepted the agency for a flying machine. He will provide any per­son with a modern, up-lo-date French flying machine for $4,000.

Yesterday the Kootenay Garage company re­ceived a carload of six new Fords for distribution in this city, Nelson and Trail. Four of the half dozen go to local people, viz: Thos. Gill, John McTavish, Mrs. Fingal Smith, Mr. Ed. Ismay, of the Davis Bros. Electric company. One goes to Nelson for Messrs. McQuarrie and Robertson, and the other to R. H. Stewart, of Trail.

Road building … John Reid, superintendent of road work in this district, is now busily engaged in constructing a first class wagon road between this city and Gateway.

For a time it was thought that his work was to be discontinued and, the question was raised by the Herald as to why The Fernie Free Press came back with the following: “Incidentally, the Herald gets slightly mixed in its geography when, it says that the bus­iness from Gateway should naturally come to Cranbrook. No amount of road building will ever make Cran­brook the natural shopping point for Greenwood. Not only is the dis­tance to Cranbrook farther than it is to Fernie, but people do not drive fifty miles over mountain roads to do business when they can ride forty miles on a railroad to their natural shopping point.”

However, it ap­pears that the Herald had been mis­informed and that the Free Press simply jumped at a chance to give us a crack.

Mr. Reid says the wagon road will be pushed through this fall and that, it will provide an excellent means of communication between this city and Gateway. The road runs by way of Gold Creek, and will be well under forty miles in length.

Crack shot … Just recently there was a feat accomplished near Fort Steele Junction that has been very rarely per­formed in recent years, although at one time of rather frequent occur­rence.

Some three weeks or more ago a young horse belonging to Clifford Sissons got away with the saddle on, the first time he had been free since taken off the range.

After many attempts to round him up in which he outran all the horses brought out to capture him, orders were given to the Indians to try the feat of creasing him. This is done by shooting with a rifle in the neck close enough to the spinal cord to stun the annual without severing the cord and as may be supposed de­mands some marksmanship.

Isaac, from the St. Mary’s reserve, after a good deal of labor succeeded on Saturday last in approaching within about 60 yards of the renegade and brought him to the ground, where he lay unconscious, for about five minutes, thus affording an opportunity to secure him with ropes before he came to his senses.

On Tuesday he was once more out for exercise and can be seen with the bullet hole through his neck carrying his owner and otherwise little the worse for his adventure.

Great production … Wm. Hamilton, who has one of the best improved farms near Cranbrook, is at present making a daily ship­ment of from twenty to twenty-five crates of black currants to Calgary. He also has a splendid crop of rasp­berries and picks of these some twen­ty crates a day. For the raspber­ries he finds a ready market at home. Mr. Hamilton expects to take 250 crates of raspberries from a half acre of land.

He has fourteen acres of land under cultivation, and is carry­ing on a highly profitable business.

Lacrosse club … The Cranbrook Lacrosse club made a big success of their dance at the Auditorium last evening. In fact ex­pressions were freely given that it was the best dance held in Cran­brook this year. Special attention was given to the ball decorations. There were bunting, Japanese lan­terns and lacrosse sticks in profu­sion, and the members of the com­mittee who had this work in hand are deserving of the highest credit.

At midnight a very tasty supper was served on the stage of the Auditor­ium.

Guerrard’s Orchestra furnished excellent music.

The dance was not given by the club as a, money-making proposition, but merely to show ap­preciation to the patrons who have given material assistance in the past.

St. Eugene Hospital new wing …For several months past contractors have been busy building a new wing to the St. Eugene hospital, but that is by no means all that has been added to this institution in the way of up-to-date improvements. As a matter of fact the entire premises have been overhauled and put in first class shape, making the St. Eugene an even more commodious resort for the sick and injured than it has always been in the past.

The additional wing, just completed, is a solid brick structure, 4 storeys high, 64 feet long by 37 feet wide, built of local brick throughout. The floors are of polished maple. A wide central hallway runs down the center of each floor. The new building can be shut off from the old by automatic fire doors.

On the ground floor of the new wing there are suites of private apartments, chapel and vestry, and a suite, of apartments contributed and furnished by the Knights of Columbus, the principal room of which has a specially designed parquet floor, with the arms of the order as a centerpiece.

On the first floor are situated the operating, sterilizing and doctors’ rooms, as well as several private wards. The operating section is finished with white enameled walls and tiled floors, as also are the lavatories.

On the second floor are situated the maternity wards and a number of private wards.

The top floor is devoted to nurses’ quarters. The whole of the sanitary and plumbing arrangements are of the most modern type, and the ventilating arrangements have been carefully considered and carried out.

With the addition of the new wing more space has been provided in the old portion of the hospital and considerable alterations have been carried out there, such as enlargement of rooms, opening up wider hallways, hardwood floors have been put down in the hallways and better facilities generally have been provided.

The basement has been enlarged, providing electric storage and machine room for the electric elevator, and considerable underpinning of the walls and strengthening of the structure generally has been carried out.

An electric elevator, of the most modern type, is being installed, to convey patients from floor to floor. The solid brick shaft for the elevator has already been built.

Mr. George Leask is the general contractor for the building, whilst the heating and plumbing contracts have been carried out by J. D. McBride. The whole work has been designed and supervised by Mr. J. J. O’Gara, architect, of Calgary and this city.

In addition to the foregoing extensive improvements to the main building, an isolation hospital has been erected adjoining the main hospital. A neat, attractive, homelike, little building which was erected by Contractor D. J. Johnson.

W. C. T. U. … A large and enthusiastic meeting of the W.C.T.U. was held at the home of Mrs. J. Bennett on Burwell Avenue.

Mr. Albert Slater, who attended the convention at Vancouver, gave a very gratifying report of the progress made, in moral and social reform work throughout the province. He also visited the Children’s home, where eighteen of Cranbrook’s unfortunate children are cared for, and was very much pleased with the good care there.

The W.C. T .U. hopes that the citizens of Cranbrook will give Mr. C. J. South some substantial aid in this work.

Elko news … From far-off Missouri comes now a call for a sample shipment of the mammoth strawberries grown on the Roosville bench lands. C. N. Ironside, writing to Oscar Wolf, editor of the Eureka Journal, says that fruit of this kind measuring 9.25 inches in circumference seems incredible to the natives of that illustrious commonwealth, and Mr. Ironside wants to “show” them. His call for the Roosville berry came too late, as they have long since passed off the market for this season, but next year he will be remembered with a generous supply. The berries referred to were grown on the Conner Ranch at Roosville.

Baker Lumber Company … One of the most up-to-date plants in the mountains is that of the Baker Lumber Company, Ltd., at Waldo, in the Elk Valley.

Erected in 1906, and started sawing in the following year, the plant has probably cut as much lumber in the interval as any mill in the interior, being operated most of the time on a 20 hour sche­dule.

The 10 hour capacity is 80,000 feet. The planing mill has a number, of fast machines, the stock being turned out in the best pos­sible shape.

The townsite, which is owned by the company, comprises a block of 800 acres. The firm’s tim­ber limits extend long the Kootenay river, giving a very short haul and permitting of cheap logging. The big plant and other buildings on the townsite are lighted with electricity generated on the premises.

The popu­lar manager, Charles McNab, has had a long and successful experience in lumber manufacturing.