GLENORA'S RISE.
The Klondike rush has been the making of many towns, including Glenora and Telegraph Creek. Interesting particulars regarding these are contained in recent issues of the Glenora "News," which says:
For 24 years the town of Glenora had held its own, and no undue excitement was there to chronicle. Among the settlers was Mr. J. C. Calbreath of Glenora, Telegraph Creek and Teslin Lake, merchant and trader. At Glenora he had warehouses and a small farm.
One day last month Mr. Calbreath gave orders to prepare his farm for the
season's crops. The ground was ploughed and harrowed and made ready for the crop, and Mr. Calbreath made a trip to Telegraph Creek to look after his interests there. A fortnight
later, on his return to Glenora, a surprise awaited him. On the most conspicuous corner of his modest farm the largest newspaper outfit north of Vancouver was installed, and a semi-weekly newspaper was in course of production. A dozen establishments, including a blacksmith shop and church were scattered over his farm, the Fife-Alaska Trading Company's
mercantile establishment was transacting business in his dooryard, a family of tourists had taken up their abode in a tent that leaned confidingly against the pnortheast corner of the Calbreath residence, and numerous other habitations were in close proximity to the barn. Two or three dray lines wete hauling goods across his ploughed ground, and 200 soldiers were encamped thereon to protect the inhabitants from any deep-draught Spanish man-of-war that might stray up the Stikine.
Across the road from the Calbreath residence a bakery, storehouse and
another institution crowded the occupants of a private grave-yard where for years the occupants thereof had slept the sleep that knows no wakening in this life. No tombstones mark the graves, and while the evil minded stated that they were taken by the printers for use as imposing stones or ink slabs, we have it on the best authority there never were head or footstones over those graves.
In short, the quiet town of Glenora had become a bustling city of more
than 3,000 inhabitants, with a score of steamboats running to it, and two railways projected and due to be built immediately or sooner. That is the Glenora of to-day.
SOME EARLIER HISTORY.
Mr. G. A. Pritchett, the Glenora merchant, is the oldest inhabitant of Glenora. He came there in 1874 with the Cassiar rush, as a packer. He made one trip to Laketown from here, and thereafter packed from Telegraph, the goods going up the river from here in canoes to that point. From him we learn the following of Glenora's history:
The year of 1874 was the year of the great Cassiar rush, and Glenora was an important point at that time. Three steamboats ran to Glenora, the Glenora, Hope and Gertrude, although the latter boat may be said to have come in ‘75.
In 1874 John Lovell built the largest store here, on the river bank opposite the present site of the Pritchett store. The flood of 1877 flooded the Lovell
store, and he was forced to move across the street where he erected the store as jt stands to-day. Mr. Lovell continued in business until 1882, when he was succeeded by Mr. Pritchett, who still conducts the business at the old stand.
Mr. J. C. Calbreath, heretofore mentioned, is another Glenora pioneer, although he spends most of his time at Telegraph Creek. He came here in 1874, erected warehouses, and later boughs the Pullin ranch, mentioned above as the Calbreath farm.
In 1888 a big flood came to Glenora and created havoc among the buildings here located.
THE TELEGRAPH CREEK.
The steamer Duchesnay connects Glenora with the busy little town of Telegraph Creek.
Telegraph Creek is in reality the head of navigation on the Stikine. A few miles above Telegraph begins a canyon 60 miles long and with water so swift that no boat can navigate it. The town itself is beautifully located. There isn't much room for corner lots but what there is can be made into an attractive townsite. Surrounding the town are hills of a height that almost entitle them to the dignified names of mountains, and over those hills you must come or go if you travel by land.
On the summit of the highest hill is the graveyard of the Tahltan Indians, and few ever saw one like it. This tribe believes in cremation. They burn the body, gather up the ashes, lock them in the highest priced saratogas they can find and then build an attractive little house over the trunk. The house is built of lumber, is shingled when possible, and has a window. The trunk that holds the ashes of one "Hyas Tyee" is on the top of two poles, higher than his less noble brethren. It is bound in brass and zinc, has no house over it, and glistening in the sun reminds those for miles around that the ashes contained therein were once the bone and sinew of a living man. To the burial of the Indians come the members of opposing tribes, who buy new guns and blankets to burn with the dead. According to Indian etiquette: what they thus burn with the dead is returned to them ten-fold at the next "Potlach." It is considered a great disgrace to burn anything but new articles with the dead Indian.
WIRE STILL INTACT.
The town of Telegraph Creek has now about 350 inhabitants. This town was so named when there was a movement in 1866 to connect the continent with the old world by way of Alaska and the Behring Straits. The telegraph line had been laid over 900 miles when news came that the cable had been laid across the Atlantic and the work was abandoned. Parties who have travelled over it say that over 300 miles of wire still remains intact.
Telegraph Creek at present has two general stores, one hotel, two warehouses, and a wharf in course of construction, two bakeries, one restaurant and about a dozen log houses. The balance of the inhabitants have immense faith in the future of the town and bitterly resent the action of the steamboat companies in side-tracking freight and passengers at Glenora, and claim that the Stikine is navigable to Telegraph at any time it is to Glenora.
Horses are badly needed at Telegraph. Packing is 40 cents per pound, and the Government and Hudson's Bay Company have all there are in sight engaged. Private parties, unless they are lucky enough to have their own animals, have to wait and pray.
A saw mill has also been put up about a mile from Telegraph and is operated by Frank Calbreath and the Canadian Development Company jointly. Pack trains are going out of Telegraph every day.
QUARTZ DISCOVERIES.
At a point 10 miles above Telegraph, rich quartz discoveries have been
made. Five samples sent to Bougardes, an assayer of assured reputation, returned an average value ef $200 per ton, and ranged from $4 to $392.
A syndicate of Victoria men recently sent out Pierce, the locator of the
celebrated Great Boulder mine, of Australia, and he has now reached the Tooyea and is sending back encouraging reports.
POLICE HEADQUARTERS.
The headquarters of Mr. W. H. Bullock-Webster, head constable of the
Cassiar district, is at Telegraph. His office and the jail are all in one log cabin, about 12x16 in size. It contains two cells, which, until the Nanaimo assizes, held three prisoners - Claus, the murderer, Harry Hunter and a "bad man from Bodie," who would tote
a gun whenever Mr. Webster was out of town. One day he struck an Indian over the head with his gun - at the expiration of his nine months' sentence he will probably leave the country.
In the office of the jail are the books of the previous courts held in this section, Mr. Webster showed us the entry of the trial of the Indian "Attou," alias
Johnson, who murdered George Jenkins at Telegraph Creek on July 19th, 1879. He was convicted of wilful murder at the Assizes held August 23rd, 1879, at Glenora, and was hanged at Laketon on October 1st, 1879. He is described in the book as "a Roman Catholic, American und Stikine Indian." Mr. A. W. Vowell was the Coroner.
As a relic of the old Cassiar days, when foolish men would carry revolvers, as some do now, Mr. Webster presented the writer with a "gun" taken away from a bad man in 1874. It is a Remington 6-shooter, cap and ball pattern, about 20 inches long and weight about 10 pounds. Each chamber must be loaded separately, with powder, rags and ball, and the exploded caps are still on the cylinder just as the bad man left them, for the gun was never cleaned after capture.
