BILL SARGENT
Bill Sargent

tells the story of how his grandfather

settled

in Nova Scotia.
"Well, my grandfather
into Halifax.
in Halifax
Halifax

He was a lieutenant,

and he married

family.

grandfather
{Yes,

I think.

my grandmother

He bought a house

who was from an old

I think they were Empire Loyalists

joined

a church

he came to Canada

they decided
father's

came to Canada with an English regiment

to go west

and became

an Anglican

Minister.

about 1867, then a few years later

into Saskatchewan.

family were born

stock and my

I think all my

in Nova Scotia or else Prince Edward

Island where he ministered

but they had this one family which he

took out west, this was ahead of the CPR.
\'They went by railroad
Halifax

to Toronto

- the Grand Trunk Railroad

from

and then they went south into the States and

went through Minneapolis.
north to Winnipeg.

I don't think there was a raUroad

I think they took the Red River Carts.

My

father was about four years of age when this happened.

He grew

up in southern

became

Saskatchewan.

Dean of QueAppelle.
schooling

My grandfather

When my father was 18 he finished his

and was ready to go to work.

Bay Company

eventually

He joined

the Hudson's

in 1891.

~ Yes, he was sent by the company
other recruites

to Victoria

along with some

they had, and he was sent to the Hazelton post.

\\I don't think there was that much excitement.
very few people here.
from 1894 or 1895.

There were

I know I've seen the Hudson's

I'm not sure which one it was.

the people who had dinner

at the Hudson

Bay diary
It lists all

Bay Fort on Christmas

Day and it lists all the people that were here and I think there
were

11 people

that weren't

the total white population
Mr. Sargent

That was

of Hazelton

of 1894. ij

came by steamer

He then travelled
canoes

Indian and two Chinamen.

by Indian

from Victoria

freight canoes.

and had several men pulling

how they got their freight
in America

Klondike.

to Prince Rupert.

These were large

them up the river.

into the country

This was

to supply the miners

and stock for trading with local people.

Mr. Sargent
Hazelton

in mid-winter

recalls

to Dawson

that,

"The telegraph

was completed

from

City in 1898 or 99, after the gold rush in the

The gold rush wasn't

local, but was in the Omenica

2

country,

15 miles east of here.

get water

transportation

This was the closest

to the gold field.

from Yale at the head of Fraser navigation
pack train trip.

The southern route
was a much longer

There were a lot of mines up froro the Cariboo

and they kept going further
Omenica

they could

gold mine wasn't

north to new fields although

as successful

or famous

as the Klondike.

This rush for gold went on for about 10 years from late 1870 early

1880's, while

the Klondike

well over by 1905.

rush was in 1898-1899

and pretty

It was long enough to put Hazelton

on the

map.
After the gold rush came the Telegraph
telegraph

line was serviced

1930 or 31 they abandoned

Trail and the

north of Hazelton

until

1930.

About

the land line to use radio for communi-

cation.
Pack trains were contracted

by the BX Company

They would bring horses

and mules to Hazelton

pack them into Omenica

all summer,

winter

because

bought

then back to the Cariboo

decided

to go out of the pack train

Bay still needed

pack trains so they

the outfit and moved

it to Hazelton.

Mr. Sargent was

of the post at that time.

it" from the Hudson's

with the problem

Cataline
Hudson's

Mr. Sargent was faced

enough feed to winter

in the country

the stock.

at that time.

to be chief packer.

With Cataline

came

the son of a black father and an Indian woman

from Chilcotin.
younger

you look

came along with the train and was hired by the

Bay Company

Dave Wiggins,

with a "It's your~

Bay Company,

of securing

There were no other horses

He was experienced

man than Cataline.

from 1895 to 1900 at which

around pack horses and a

Cataline

packed

time the Omenica

about disappeared

and miners

Cataline

to pack for the telegrah

continued

had headed

One a winter Mr. Sargent,
others,

for

but the Hudson's

in charge
after

in the spring and

there was more feed and less snow in the Cariboo.

In 1895 the BX Company
business,

in Ashcroft.

would walk to Kitimat

for Hudson's
business

Bay

had just

for the Klondike.
line.

as a junior clerk,
to get the mail.

along with two

He would follow

the river on the ice with snow shoes.
Bill says, "The reason

they went to Kitimat

was because

they could get a water grade right down to the tide.

You see,

BILL SARGENT

3

the Skeen a is a big estuary
Kivinitsa

and there is not any good ice below

to about half way between

Terrace

and Port Essington

I

so they couldn't

follow the trall, for it was so bad."

The mail was brought
Mail was mostly
brought

letters

from Victoria

and probably

back by the three of them.

to Kitimat

newspapers

by steamer.

and a big pack was

They may have used dog teams

but it was all in a day's work.
From 1900, the railway
about

1905 I think,

the railways

was the biggest

the first sort of preliminary

were being done.

through

interested,

kept them here.

Omenica

had died off, they were expecting
Of course,

the preliminary

for

that

that kept the

Even if the business

in the

the railway construction

surveys

route and you never knew where

possible

surveys

the valley

people

see.

"It was

And once the speculation

there was going to be a railway

you

business.

they look over every

it was going to end up.

It's like the present

Alaskan

pipeline,

through

Valley

or come down the Alcan Highway

the Mackenzie

come down through

Kitimat;

whether

it's going to go

it could be either one.

or

They knew

they were going to go down the mouth of the Skeena.
"I don't know when the actual prairie

part of the construc-

tioA was done, but I think it started

from Winnipeg.

of the construction

on a route they thought

when they settled

This end
it

was going to come down the BUlklY and down the Skeena.

Then,

of course,

started

about

the final surveys were made and construction

1909 or 1910.
"As the construction

as they were anywhere
at Skeena

Crossing

started

in the country because

to build.

up to here by the steam boats
So they had men working
Crossing

" They worked

and they could get their supplies.

from here eastward,

from Skeena

to build up on the other side

and, of course,

they worked

from Prince

too.
eastward

and westward

from the town site of Seeley,

down to where the Seeley Gulf Station was.
of men in all the camps building
Gulch.

freight and traffic

which was quite a length of a chore so they worked

from here eastward
eastward,

they had the bridge

They could get

and they had these tunnels

of New Hazelton
Rupert

they had gangs in here as soon

The workers

railway

There were thousands

tressels

were all nationalities.

over Seeley

There weren't

too

4

many Orientals
the Chinese
Chinese

on the construction.

There was so much talk about

when the CPR was built they weren't

labour

During

allowing

any

into the country.fl

this time a bank robbery

took place and about

$65,000

disappeared

robbery

a year later - both from the bank in New Hazelton.

The telegraph

and was never recovered.
line was started

in 1898 and finished

1899 and was strung

all the way to Dawson

hundred

Cabins were built every

miles away.

The country
nailed
Tunnels

There was practically

"I've seen pictures

20 or 30 miles.

were making

rock.

all they had was horse

took a lot of men."

at all.

at the Ross
to

in; men with shovels and

to carry out the broken

grade,

were just

steel with sledge hammers

make the holes to put the dynamite
wheel barrows

no machinery

of them working

and they had men driving

in

City, five or six

was rough and most of the time insulators

to trees.

Bill says,

There was another

Then, when they

drawn scrapers.

That

After the grade was made they had to lay

the ties and then the rails.
Bill
a number

of schools:

old United
Anglican

Sargent went to school

in Hazelton

where there were

One where Smokey Morrison

Church was a school,

Church housed

now lives, the

an old log mission

one, one in the Salvation

behind the

Army Hall and

one in the old power house.

An old rented building

old drug store was the house

of the high school until the new one

was built

in 1950.

By this time the Native

and they needed more classrooms.
used with the same number

population

with students

were among the students.

three years in those days.
These three grades were

The following

High school consisted

You went to university

of

after that.

in one room.

daughter,

Sally, started

the same school as Bill had gone to ~
Charlie

Bernie Hindle,

to grade nine, which gave a full high school

in nine, ten and eleven.

When Bill's

were sent out

Next year there were

so the board hired a teacher.

year, more graduated

were

of teachers.

to grade nine as there was no school here.
Elma, Cox, Neil Sterrett

was growing

Five or six classrooms

Bill and his sister Mary and Ethel Tomlinson
five or six others

next to the

to school,

she went to

even sat in the same desk.

Janzi and a few others were telegraphers

on the

BILL SARGENT

telegraph
line.

5

line.

They also did a lot of trapping

It was a lonely
Bill recalls,

Police

Force.

policing

life, but a necessary

"The original

The RCMP didn't

here until sometime

a Provincial

Police

first Provincial
Dutch Cline.
I guess,

police

while out on the

one.

force was the Provincial

come to take over the Provincial

in the 1950's or 1960's.

They had

Force and I think that Kirby was one of the

Policemen

stationed

here.

Then later came the

His real name was Sperry Cline, but he was from,

South Africa

and then he was always called ~utch.

He

was the police here for all the time I was a boy and growing up about the time I was five or six years old till I was forteen or
fifteen.

In the earlier

years he never wore a uniform.

think they had uniforms.

He was just the Constable.

had a badge and that was it.
maybe

in the early twenties

provided

they decided

them with Khaki uniforms,

eventually
Federal

But somewhere

they were RCMP.

Indian Reservation."
but the general

policing

stage coach between
bought by

over by Faulkner

And then,

here for the

Eventually

to police on the

•

I

In by O'N~/l

were put on the back.

Hazelton

policeman,
police.

to be used as
It was

It was used as a

and Aldermiser.

Later the truck

McKay who had the livery stable which was taken
when McKay

died.

same old truck from Faulkner
28.

uniforms.

It was chain driven with solid rubber tires.

a flat deck and benches
was

military

was done by the Provincial

BIll tells of a truck brought
a packer.

to spruce them up and

He adds there was a Federal

•

He probably

along the line,

I think they had an RCMP detachment

Policing,

I don't

Marshall

Brothers

and used it for awhile
.

i~

Most of the transportatl0n~those

bought

the

in 1927 or

days was by horse drawn

carts.
The bridge

used by Bill was the one that went from the

'Ksan point to South Hazelton
The blacksmith's
those days.
sparks

Railway

Station.

shop was an intriguing

place for boys in

They loved to turn the forge wheel

and make the

fly.

Bill thinks Hazelton

changed with times and will continue

to do so with the help of 'Ksan and other attractions
put it on the tourist

maps.

which will