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Hermina Agnes Wessel was born to John Wessel and Agnes Henry (Hamana) in Gastown on June 20, 1878. Mr. Wessel who hailed from Amsterdam, Holland, came to Canada as a mariner travelling by way of Cape Horn. He worked at the Hastings Sawmill in Gastown which was then managed by a man named Richard Henry Alexander. He married Agnes, daughter of Henry and Catherine Hamana, recent Hawaiian immigrants to Canada, and together they had three children: Hermina, John Jr. and Sarah, of which Minnie was the eldest.

In 1879, Minnie moved with her parents to South Pender Island where her father was installed as a shepherd with James Alexander, brother to the manager of the Hastings Sawmill. Her mother left their family after the birth of Sarah, the youngest Wessel child. Her father soon thereafter divorced his wife and entered both Hermina and Sarah into St. Anne’s Convent in Victoria, while her brother John stayed with their father on South Pender Island. John Wessel Jr. died at the age of 10.

In 1889 John Wessel moved to Saturna Island to work for Mr. Warburton Pike as manager of the Pike Ranch. Upon graduating from the Convent, Hermina moved back with her father where she lived until her marriage to Hugh Taylor in Victoria on November 20, 1902.

At the time of their marriage Hugh Taylor had a freighting contract to carry supplies for the construction of the Dominion Yukon Telegraph Line. So for their honeymoon, the two rode horseback in the pack train from Ashcroft to Hazelton. Arriving in the late summer, Minnie Taylor remained in Hazelton while her husband went on to Telegraph Creek. The next year they built their log ranch house at Kispiox, Mr. Taylor became the local telegraph operator and together they taught themselves the Morse code. At the birth of their second child, this knowledge of Morse code allowed them to communicate with Dr. Wrinch at the nearest hospital through their local telegraph operator in Hazelton!

In the spring of 1919 Hugh Taylor was appointed to the staff of the Public Works Department of the Provincial Government and so the family moved to South Fort George. Upon their arrival they stayed in the Alexandra Hotel until their household effects arrived by train. In 1921 Mr. Taylor died of pneumonia.

Minnie Taylor and her family lived in Prince George until 1935 when she moved to live with her daughter Lucy and family in Grand Forks. During the war years she lived with her son Dixon and family in Chisolm Mills, afterwhich she returned to the Lower Mainland where she again lived with Lucy and family until her death on February 3, 1972. She was survived by four daughters (Mrs. Ellen Garland, Mrs. Violet Baxter, Mrs. Lucy Burbidge and Mrs. Virginia Woods) and two sons (Arthur and Dr. Hugh Taylor Jr.). She was predeceased by her two sons Dixon (1962) and Thomas (1944).

Violet Bourchier Taylor was born in 1906 in Kispiox, BC to Hugh and Hermina Taylor. Hugh Taylor was one of the original telegraph operators of the “Trans Siberian Line”. Violet completed her primary education in Kispiox, and then moved to Prince Rupert where she lived with her relatives Sarah and Herbert Glassey while she completed high school. After finishing her schooling, she worked in Prince Rupert as a private secretary for the head master of the CNR and was subsequently transferred to Prince George in the early 1920s. A few years later she worked for the City Public Works Department.

In 1933 Violet married trucking firm owner Bob Baxter, who held the hauling contract to carry the mail and perishables between Quesnel and Prince George from 1932 to 1948. On numerous occasions during the 1940s when her husband was unable to hire drivers, Violet Baxter worked for him as a driver. Bob Baxter predeceased his wife in 1955.

Violet Baxter also worked for the Provincial Forest Service for 15 years, retiring in 1970. She had a love of the outdoors and a keen interest in the history of Prince George. Violet Baxter passed away in the Prince George Regional Hospital on January 20, 1985 at the age of 79.

Born in Gapview, Saskatchewan to Robert & Harriet Baxter, Bob Baxter came to the Prince George district in 1922 and launched on the varied assortment of careers that made his name known throughout the Central Interior.

Travelling first by wagon over the old Blackwater Road to Punchaw Lake, he trapped in the area for seven years. Following stints as brush cutter for Bellos Ranch and graderman for the Public Works Department, he later operated a garage and service station in partnership with Andy Whitehead. When fire destroyed the building in 1932, he took over the mail route between Prince George and Quesnel, making the return trip once a week. When roads improved, a tri-weekly service was initiated.
During World War II he built up a fleet of seven trucks which traveled south regularly with a varied assortment of freight. He later sold this transport business to Wade Transfer of Quesnel and took over partnership operation of the Sportsman’s Shop on George Street. After selling out there he purchased a share in the Culcultz Lake Resort.

Mr. Baxter was an enthusiastic sportsman during his residence in the B.C. Interior, as well as an active member of the Rod and Gun Club and the Trucker’s Association.

Married to Violet Bourchier Taylor in 1933, together they had four children: Allan, Fred, Dixson and Edna. Mr. Baxter passed away in his home in 1955.

Herbert Francis (H.F. or “Bert”) Glassey was born in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria, BC on August 15, 1882 – the first child to be born at this “new” facility. He received his school and college education in Victoria and then went to San Diego, California. Upon his return to Canada, he met and married Sarah Wessel in Hazelton in 1914. That same year, the Glasseys moved to Quesnel from Hazelton where Mr. Glassey went to work for the F.G. Dawson, broker for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1918 Bert Glassey resigned from this position and he and his wife Sarah moved to Prince Rupert where he went in to the brokerage business for himself. In 1934 Mr. Glassey was appointed Government Agent for Atlin and served there for eight years not only in this capacity, but also as Magistrate, Gold Commissioner and Coroner. Returning to Prince Rupert in 1942, Mr. Glassey worked at the Court House and was in charge of the local office of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. He entered civic politics in 1950 and served on the City Council for four years. Upon the sudden death of Mayor George Rudderham in 1950, he was appointed to complete the duration of the two year mayoral term until the next election. Mr. Glassey also served as a Census Commissioner for the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in 1951, was a member of the Prince Rupert Liberal Association in 1953 and a member of the Society of Notaries Public in 1956. After being bedridden for four years, Mr. Glassey passed away on October 17, 1962 at the Prince Rupert General Hospital. He was survived by his wife Sarah.

Sarah Wessel, was born to John Wessel and Agnes Henry (Hamana) in New Westminster on November 13, 1881. Mr. Wessel who hailed from Amsterdam, Holland, came to Canada as a mariner travelling by way of Cape Horn. He married Agnes, daughter of Henry and Catherine Hamana, recent Hawaiian immigrants to Canada, and together they had three children: Hermina, John Jr. and Sarah, of which Sarah was the youngest.

In 1879, the Wessels moved to South Pender Island where her father was installed as a shepherd with James Alexander, brother to Richard Henry Alexander, manager of the Hastings Sawmill in Vancouver. Her mother Agnes left their family after the birth of Sarah in New Westminster. Her father soon thereafter divorced his wife and entered both Hermina and Sarah into St. Anne’s Convent in Victoria, while her brother John Jr. stayed with their father on South Pender Island. John Wessel Jr. died at the age of 10.

In 1906 Sarah made her first visit to her sister Mrs. Hermina Taylor in Hazelton, BC. In 1910, she made a second trip up to the Kispiox Valley and after experiencing the excitement of “progress” in this region brought by the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, she fell in love with this country and decided to stay. Not wanting to live with her sister and her family, Sarah Wessel decided to act upon a new law (enacted in 1911) which gave women the same right as men to pre-empt land. So in 1911 Sarah Wessel became the first single woman to pre-empt 160 acres of Crown Land in British Columbia in the Kispiox Valley. It took her a year to build her house after which she began to clear another 3 acres of land with the help of a local Gitxsan Elder.

While homesteading, Sarah met and was courted by Herbert “Bert” Glassey. It was Bert Glassey who gave Sarah a .22 rifle and her brother-in-law Hugh Taylor who taught her how to use it. Sarah Wessel became so proficient with this homesteading tool, that she was known throughout the Kispiox Valley for having shot more birds than any man in the area! Sarah Wessel, alone but for her little fox terrier, lived on her land for three years before selling it in 1914 to a local cattle rancher who had also purchased lands adjacent to hers. That same year Sarah Wessel married Bert Glassey in Hazelton and together they moved to Quesnel, BC where Bert took up a position with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In 1918, the Glassey’s moved from Quesnel to Prince Rupert. In 1934 they again moved from Prince Rupert to Atlin only to return to Prince Rupert eight years later. A pioneering resident of Prince Rupert for 36 years, Mrs. Sarah Glassey was active in the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire and the Order of the Royal Purple. She was also a member of the Women of the Moose and an honorary member of the Royal Canadian Legion. In April of 1961 Sarah Glassey was presented with a medallion from Vancouver’s 75th Anniversary Committee for having been a resident of Vancouver before the arrival of the first passenger train to Vancouver in May 23, 1887.

Herbert Glassey passed away after a prolonged illness on October 17, 1962. After his funeral on October 20, Mrs. Sarah Glassey came home, lay down and quietly passed away. Sarah and Herbert Glassey had no children.

Fred Jeffery was born in Bruce Mines, in the Algoma District of Ontario in 1870 to Richard and Mary Ann Jeffery. When he finished school he worked as a stationary engineer mining for hard-rock copper for the Bruce Mines until 1891, when he moved out West to British Columbia. After his migration, Mr. Jeffery worked as a steam engineer during the winters at both the original Hotel Vancouver and occasionally at the Rogers building; while each summer he traveled north to the Nass Valley where he worked as a steam engineer at a Prince Rupert salmon cannery. Upon his retirement he built a boat named the Algoma, and sailed around the Gulf Islands looking for the perfect spot to build a home – a spot he eventually found in Maple Bay (Duncan). Mr. Jeffery died in Maple Bay, B.C on 19 April 1952.

The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces. The modern Canadian air force has been known as Canadian Forces Air Command (AIRCOM) since 1975, but still refers to itself as the "Air Force" and maintains many of the traditions of the RCAF.

This 405 km long stretch of Highway 97, named for former British Columbia Premier John Hart, begins at Prince George, traveling for 152 km north through the small hamlet of Summit Lake, which is situated at the Continental Divide, as well as, through Crooked River Provincial Park, Bear Lake and McLeod Lake, to its intersection with Highway 39. It then journeys northeast another 150 km through the Continental Divide at which point the time zone changes from Pacific Time to Mountain Time. After emerging from the Pine Pass, the highway intersects with Highway 29 at the town of Chetwynd. After a trek of another 97 km east, the Hart Highway terminates at Dawson Creek, BC.