150 passengers arrived on board the train of an engine, tender, baggage car, express and mail car, two emigrant sleepers, one first-class, one Pullman, and one private car. Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood became home to many Black porters...
Charles Alexander, one of the Black pioneers, initiated and assisted in the building of the original Shady Creek church in Saanich in the 1860’s. He was one of its first lay preachers. The congregation built a new building, completed in 1895 at its current location....
John Freemont Smith was born in the Danish West Indies (now the Virgin Islands). He initially prospected in the Interior then spent some time in Victoria where he married and started a family. The family moved back to Kamloops where John owned and operated a retail...
Housing in Vancouver was, and is, extremely difficult for Black tenants and aspiring homeowners. Leonard Lane recognized this and, in 1959, opened the first Black credit union in BC, a branch of the BC Unity Credit Union. As a founding member and treasurer, he led the...
Charles and Nancy were married in Springfield Illinois, on December 25,1849. In 1899 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with many friends and well-wishers at their home in Lake Hill (a subdivision in Saanich, BC). Read more More than 400 descendants have...
