19 July 2010

His Legacy Destroyed, A.S. Farwell Dies Alone, With a Broken Heart

Revelstoke was once named after Arthur Stanhope Farwell, but due to an epic legal struggle that defined the creation of our town, history has been somewhat hard on the aspiring civic founder - Revelstoke Museum & Archives

Revelstoke British Columbia - Our 21 Jul 2010 issue features the conclusion of a four-part series looking into Arthur Stanhope Farwell, a leading figure in the early development of the town on the banks of the Columbia River that eventually became known as Revelstoke. The series commemorates the 125th anniversary of the founding of Farwell. All four parts are included here.
 
Part I
 
"In Farwell, the life was exciting, especially on pay days. There were brawls continually and gambling night and day with men of all nationalities throwing away their hard-earned pay at faro, stud poker, and other games of chance. What the gamblers and saloon men did not get, the women of the town did, and a very small proportion of the money reached the storekeepers", Revelstoke Herald, 24 Jul 1897.
 
Exciting new research by Revelstoke Museum & Archives curator Cathy English has shed new light on Arthur Stanhope Farwell, the founder of this city that would still be named after him, had he not lost a knock-down, drag out battle, that went all the way to the national Supreme Court, pitting British Columbia against the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion of Canada.
 
Born in Brixham, Devonshire, England in 1841, the civil engineer and surveyor arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1864, with connections, being the cousin of the Attorney-General of the Crown colony George Hunter Cary.
 
Surveyor Farwell made exploratory trips through the Eagle Pass and Yellowhead Pass in 1871-72, wintering in the Big Eddy, before being named Surveyor-General of B.C. the next year, a post he held until 1878.
 
In 1883, U.S. Indian Wars Calvary officer turned surveyor Major Albert Bowman Rogers had discovered his namesake mountain pass while working for the CPR. Farwell beat the CPR to the punch by a month in late 1883 when he registered a 1,175-acre block of land with the province. It included much of what's now called Lower Town and Columbia Park. The timing was suspect from the start.
 
Speculation about crooked deals involving Victoria insiders meddling in railways remains topical today, as it was in the years after 1883. The railway and Dominion of Canada soon challenged the province and Farwell in court.
 
This part of the story is well travelled.
 
New research into news archives by Cathy English has uncovered the real, ongoing ramifications the legal battle had on the ground in the place formerly known as Columbia City.
 
Duelling local and Dominion police forces grappled with each other over jurisdiction. "There are probably twenty bars in the town selling spirits openly, without a shadow of license," writes a visiting reporter in the 22 Apr 1885 issue of the Victoria Daily Colonist. "When the stipendary magistrate makes his visit there all the glasses and decanters are removed and no whisky-selling apparently goes on." And that's the way the locals liked it, the story goes.
 
The Dominion police then arrived, seizing liquor, and attempting to impose their interpretations of the law on Farwell. Siding with Farwell, the Daily Colonist editorializes on the situation. "The Dominion police are the chief disturbers of the peace in this district," they write on 3 Jul 1885. "But for their partial, irregular, and oppressive proceedings, everything would go on quietly in the old British Columbia fashion, and with a better result for all concerned."
 
Part II
 
After filing his claim in late 1883, Farwell finally came up with the money a year later. The Lands and Works Department in Victoria notes the funds were received on 17 Nov 1884.
 
The land surveying of Farwell was also conducted in 1884, paving the way for an explosion of activity in 1885.
 
Barely two weeks into the year, on 13 Jan 1885, Farwell got his Crown Grant, and had already partly laid out the townsite, with Front Street made the commercial centre of the town.
 
One of Farwell's first orders of business was shoring up his legacy. Up until then, the settlement had been known as Columbia City, which was eschewed in favour of Farwell.
 
Setting a civic administration precedent that still has its adherents to this day, Farwell envisioned explosive growth, predicting that the city would one day be a centre of trade with the U.S., a manufacturing hub, an administrative centre, tourist resort, as well as a hub for mining and "lumbering" activity.
 
Coverage of events in Farwell in early 1885 by the Victoria Daily Colonist were generally supportive and sympathetic towards Farwell's ambitions for the city on the banks of the Columbia.
 
On 12 Feb 1885, the paper ran an interview with the founder, sharing his vision for the city. Recently uncovered by research done by Revelstoke Museum & Archives curator Cathy English, the interview was titled, "The New City in the Interior - Interview with Mr. Farwell".
 
The Daily Colonist reporter was following up on reports of a 10,000 ton shipment of supplies making its way to the city up the Columbia River to Farwell from Portland. It was the easiest way to get bulk goods here at the time. Here is the story:
 
"I wintered there (Farwell) a dozen years ago, and then conceived the idea that there must be a city there if the railway came that way. It (the site) stretches for 2 1/2 miles along the east bank of the Columbia River opposite Eagle Pass and is above all chance of flooding. A great part of the site is, practically, already cleared, and the rest is easily cleared. The frontage tends to give good landing, and the deep water is on that side. The whole town site contains 1,175 acres, about the size of Victoria. It is the easiest place for streets and drainage you can imagine. The upper and lower ends are gently terraced back from the bank, the central portion rises to about 40 feet, forming a beautiful low upland with a flattish summit."
 
"I have already partly surveyed it for this purpose (town site) and now am only waiting the result of negotiations with the railway company as to their requirements. Their mountain division station probably will be there, the line runs through the land and crosses the river by a large bridge. I propose to lay off the upper end for sawmills and lumber yards, which will occupy about a mile of the bank, and for workmen's dwellings. The central portion will contain the railway station and depots, hotels, churches, schools, and residences. The lower portion will be a compact town, with suburban lots for gardening, etc. The soil is good, and the water supply from running streams within the town site is delicious, and enough for 100,000 people."
 
"The railway depots and sawmills will bring a population of several thousands, the trade with miners will be large, richer silver mines than those at Kootenay Lake exist in the neighbourhood, Canadian and American trade will naturally centre there, manufactories of all kinds will spring up quickly, the government headquarters for that district will be there. Tourists will visit from the city, the romantic mountain, and lake neighbourhood."
 
Farwell predicted logging camps would stretch 100 miles in either direction along Columbia. "Lots there will be the best investment on the continent," he said.
 
Within months, the town site was springing up, including businesses of all variety on Front Street. The Daily Colonist notes the town's social progress: (7 Apr 1885) "There are about a dozen respectable married white women with their families, and a population on the whole of a good class, though with some of the tough breed," they write. "Farwell is already three or four times as large as Kamloops."
 
But Farwell's unadulterated success would only last a few months. Due to legal struggles with the railway, he was unable to provide paper titles to those wanting to purchase, leaving potential purchasers naturally wary and his authority undermined.
 
On 28 Feb 1885, he posted the following ad in the Daily Colonist:  A.S. Farwell, Crown Grantee:  NOTICE - All trespassers on the Farwell Town site at the second crossing of the Columbia River will be prosecuted.
 
Part III
 
Calamity struck the new town site of Farwell on 7 May 1885, just a few months into its existence, when a fire destroyed much of the town site. Surviving photos show the conflagration also burned timber far beyond the small town.
 
The fire, however, was not really a defining moment in the town's history. "The town is almost rebuilt," the Victoria Daily Colonist reports in their 30 May 1885 issue, just three weeks after the blaze. "On the 24 May 1885 there were 83 houses erected and others in progress."
 
The boom continued in Farwell, which experienced housing shortages and price spikes due to the influx of newcomers. "At present everything is very expensive and there is hardly a place to sleep in. The greater number sleep on the floor or in saloons. Three $3,000 hotels are almost finished and many cheaper ones, when matters will change for the better," the Daily Colonist writes in the same issue.
 
Farwell's dispute with the CPR manifested itself on the ground most notably through disputes between Dominion and provincial police forces, who vied for jurisdiction over the town. Liquor was the most common flashpoint.
 
Stipendiary Magistrate Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, on behalf of the colony, tangled with Dominion Police Commissioner George Hope Johnston in a battle of wills over control of the thriving liquor trade.
 
The Victoria Daily Colonist emerged as an increasingly partisan supporter of A.S. Farwell, siding with Sproat in the dispute with the Dominion police. On 19 Jun 1885, the newspaper describes G.S. Johnston and his "Cossacks". "A very appropriate term, for they do most outrageous acts. They summoned a hotel keeper named Hanson under a search warrant, issued on an information in May, 85 miles east distant, sworn to at Beaver city. Johnston's search warrants are like bank circular notes, good anywhere."
 
In the same issue, the newspaper describes just one incident in which police were arresting other police, and it is known that the parties would often spot deputize posses of men to help with the arrests. "The other day one of Johnston's special officers seized John McGillies' stock of liquors and placed them in the barracks," writes the Daily Colonist. "McGillies consulted Mr. Sproat, and a warrant was sworn out against the specials for removing the liquor. Officer [John] Kirkup went to the barracks and demanded the liquor, the special in charge of it refusing. Kirkup broke open the door, secured the liquor, and summoned the special to appear before Mr. Sproat. When the case came on the special failed to appear, and it was discovered that he had gone east, where it is hoped he will wisely remain."
 
Judge Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, for whom Mount Begbie is named, arrived in Revelstoke in late June for county court sittings. "The county court business consisted chiefly of appeals from convictions in liquor-selling cases. An appeal from Mr. Sproat's decision was dismissed with costs. The appeals from convictions by Mr. Johnston, J.P., were held over for consideration, as they involve grave constitutional questions," writes the Daily Colonist on 3 Jul 1885.
 
In a July 1885 letter, Farwell decries the impact of the struggle over liquor licenses. "The action taken in consequence of the differences between the Dominion and provincial governments with respect to the right of issuing liquor licenses has inflicted the greatest hardship and loss upon many respectable licensed hotel keepers and traders in an important branch of their general business and has curtailed the trade of the province," he writes.
 
Although Farwell's court struggle with the CPR would continue on for years, the railway company was making physical progress with its works in the area, resulting in further erosion of Farwell's authority.
 
In the same letter, he bemoans a proposed railway bridge, complaining about dust from early bridge work on the banks of the Columbia River. "The proposed railway bridge stops steamboat navigation at the town of Farwell, and the railway embankment to the north of this town obstructs access by trail or road to the above region. The embankment being formed of fine sand and dust without any provision being made for its protection the material is blown over the town in clouds, much to the injury of the traders' goods, etc., and the inconvenience of the public at large," he writes.
 
Farwell also rails against taxation on a temporary bridge across the Columbia built by the CPR. "The Canadian Pacific Railway Company make a charge for wagons, foot passengers, freight, and cattle on their temporary bridge, by which locomotion is taxed without any charter from the provincial government," he writes in the same letter.
 
A lack of adequate mail service is another of Farwell's complaints. By mid summer of 1885 he is making good on his legal threats against several squatters on his properties, taking them to court and placing liens on their homes.
 
Part IV
 
In October of 1885, the federal government notified Arthur Stanhope Farwell that under federal rules his land was federal property, setting off a legal struggle that lasted for the next 20 years in a number of separate proceedings.
 
It was looking up for Farwell in 1886 when the Dominion government's case was dismissed by Mr. Justice Henry with costs at a sitting of the Exchequer Court of Canada sitting in Victoria.
 
The Dominion appealed the case, and Farwell eventually lost in the Supreme Court, with costs charged against him.
 
It was not the end of the dispute, and much of the details of the matter get quite technical, and revolve around British Columbia and the Dominion struggling over jurisdictional issues.
 
While the case was waiting to be heard at the Supreme Court, Farwell registered titles for his land in Victoria, creating even more uncertainty for land owners.
 
It was just one action in a protracted legal struggle of attrition waged by Farwell, who in the early years of the 20th Century was eventually reduced to writing threatening letters to the newly-formed Revelstoke city council, arguing over particular lots.
 
In a legal letter sent to council in about 1901, Farwell's lawyer, G.M. Sproat, notes that those visiting the cemetery were trespassing on his empty lot. "I hereby notify you, on behalf of Mr. Farwell, that he will not permit you to trespass on Villa Lot No. 39, for access to the cemetery or otherwise, as said lot is required for other purposes. Any inconvenience which this notification may cause, will be, I am sorry to have to say, the direct result of your inattention to the circumstances."
 
Farwell did eventually win right to hundreds of acres of land in his claim in a deal hammered out in the Dominion Parliament in 1896.
 
The effect of the struggle on the ground was to impede "progress," as what we now generally call development was known at the time.
 
The CPR soon tired of the uncertainty and opted to place its station about where their yards exist today, sealing downtown Farwell's fate. Merchants began relocating to where downtown is today to avoid having to haul goods a mile from the train to their premises.
 
"The uncertainty caused by the delay has worked incalculable injury to Revelstoke and has unquestionably retarded its growth," writes the Kootenay Mail on 5 Jun 1897. "Revelstoke would have been a big town today had it not been for this question of titles and the apparent insecurity attaching to them. Favored as she is by location and other natural advantages, she has not made the progress she would have but for this incubus."
 
The effect of the struggles on Farwell's legacy was even worse. In some of the history books compiled on Revelstoke so far, he's noted by necessity, but there is a real editorial undercurrent of disdain towards a figure deemed to have impeded our progress. "Pioneer" families that arrived here in the 1930s get more column inches than Farwell.
 
How many other places in North America would favour renaming their town after a wealthy English nobleman banker over an aggressive, opportunistic, forward-looking frontier pioneer and explorer-surveyor?
 
Following her brown bag presentation on Farwell in May, I ask Revelstoke Museum & Archives curator Cathy English for her feelings about Farwell's motivation. Was he in it for the money? To be the founding father of a town named after him? For the prestige?
 
"I would think all of the above," she replies. And in the end, he got none of the above.
 
Farwell also ran for provincial office. "The erudite Farwell was widely esteemed, but his unfortunate habit of pillorying people with his caustic wit did not endear him to the common man," writes historian Ted Affleck. He lost to J.M. Kellie in 1890 and J. Fred Hume in 1898.
 
Farwell never married because (as rumoured in the papers at the time) the woman he courted took another man's hand. Years later, after she was widowed, he courted his love again and succeeded, but put off the marriage until he could recover financially.
 
He never did.
 
In his latter years the "cantankerous recluse" summered in Nelson and wintered in Victoria. He died of heart failure on 29 Jul 1908. He requested burial at Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, without a service.
 
Aaron Orlando.