thebravestcanadian

by Sam McBride

Many years ago my father Leigh Morgan McBride (1917-1995) showed me the gravestone of his parents Roland Leigh McBride (1881-1959) and Winnifred May Foote (1889-1960) in Nelson Memorial Park in Nelson, British Columbia.

R.L. McBride c. 1903

He always referred to them as “R.L.” and “Win”.  R.L McBride never went by his first name of Roland.  He was known in the community by his middle name Leigh.  After his son Leigh was born, his father referred to himself by his initials to avoid confusion with his son.  I was seven when R.L. died, and a year older when Win died.  I remember them well from regular visits to their home at 708 Hoover Street in Nelson.

At the cemetery my dad pointed out the gravestone right next to my grandparents’ stone in memory of Eva Mackay Hume McBride (1885-1912), and Marjory Dawn McBride, a premature baby daughter who died a few days after her mother.  He said Eva was R.L.’s first wife, and was a very good friend of Win’s.  Tragically, Eva died from childbirth complications in the bedroom of their home at 824 Mill Street in Nelson, a little over a year after the marriage.  On her death certificate is notation from her doctor that she died from hemorrhaging from childbirth problems, over a period of approximately four hours.

Eva Hume c. 1908

About 20 years ago, a few years after my dad died, I was beginning to be interested in the family history, and I asked my mother about Eva.  She said Leigh had told her that Win and Eva were best friends, and that when Eva knew she was going to die on November 23, 1912 she encouraged her husband R.L. to “get together with Win.”  Two years later, on Dec. 22, 1914 R.L. and Win married and moved into their new home at 708 Hoover Street where they lived for the rest of their lives.  I tended to be a bit skeptical about the story of Eva,  Win and R.L., as it seemed a bit far-fetched.

Recently, though, I was very pleased to receive a letter from Eva’s niece Dawn Bolton Brashear in California, who confirmed the story from the side of the Hume family, except with a twist.  Her mother Freeda Hume Bolton (1900-1998) told her years ago that Eva on her deathbed at their home at 824 Mill Street in Nelson whispered “marry Leigh” in Win’s ear.

punch bowls from the McBride-Hume wedding (photo courtesy of Dawn Brashear)

Freeda Bolton had written extensively in the 1970s and 1980s about life at the Hume residence across the lake from Nelson called Killarney-on-the-Lake, including the elaborate wedding of R.L. McBride and Eva on September 6, 1911, which Freeda said was “the social event of the year” in Nelson.  Freeda described how she and her siblings and mother Lydia worked for months on decorations and other features in preparation for Eva’s wedding.  The Shawn Lamb Archives at the Touchstones Museum in Nelson have about 40 pages of typed memories written by Freeda and her younger brother Jack Hume.

watercolour of Killarney-on-the-Lake by Arthur Lakes, commissioned by Lydia Hume, 1916

Freeda wrote that there was a wonderful array of wedding gifts, as R.L. and Eva were both “immensely popular” in the community.   According to Freeda, the newspaper report was wrong in its description of roles in the wedding.  She said her older sister Dawn Hume was the Maid of Honour, R.L.’s sister Edith McBride from London, Ontario was Matron of Honour, and she was a bridesmaid — not a flower girl, as was wrongly reported.  Other guests from London, Ontario — where R.L. McBride was born in 1881 and lived until moving west in 1900 — included his mother Fanny Morgan and his cousin (once removed) Ina McBride, who was a child of the third and final marriage of R.L.’ s grandfather Samuel McBride, who outlived his first two wives, and died at age 86 in London, Ontario in 1905.

The wedding was long before there was a bridge across the West Arm of Kootenay Lake at Nelson, or even a ferry, so the wedding guests arrived either by rowboat or motor launch, or on one of two water taxis operating at the time.  Many of the guests at the wedding would go to the official opening two days later of the the CPR’s new Kootenay Lake Hotel at Balfour.  Aside from the ups and downs of the mining industry, times were good in Nelson and optimism abounded in the West Kootenay region.

Eva was actually a niece of Lydia Hume.  She was adopted at age eight by J. Fred and Lydia Hume after both her parents had died in epidemics in their home province of New Brunswick, where J. Fred, Lydia and their eldest children also lived before moving west in the late 1800s.  Freeda described Eva as “a dearly loved adopted child.”

Eva’s engraved jewellery boxes (photo courtesy of Dawn Brashear)

Freeda wrote that R.L. McBride`s second wife was Eva`s “dear friend” Winnifred Foote, and she noted that the Hume family “loved them both.”  Freeda did not write about Eva’s deathbed communications, likely because the memories were so painful and private for her.  But she did talk about it to family members, including daughter Dawn.

The Hume name has been a dominant one in Nelson ever since J. Fred Hume (1860-1935) built the Hume Hotel in 1898. Originally from New Brunswick, J. Fred moved west to Revelstoke, B.C. in 1883, where he established a dry goods business and was active in mining ventures.  After marrying teacher Lydia Irvine in 1891 they settled in Nelson.  He served as representative in the provincial legislature between 1894 and 1900, including the positions of Provincial Secretary and Minister of Mines in the latter two years, where he had a central role in establishing the eight-hour day regulation for miners and other workers.

J. Fred built the Hume Hotel in downtown Nelson 1898 at a cost of $60,000 operated it until selling the hotel in 1907.  Freeda wrote that her father earned “three fortunes” in his business career, as he had to recover more than once from devastating fires to his buildings.

The name of the hotel changed to Heritage Inn for about 20 years, but is now once again known as the Hume Hotel.  For almost a century the Hume Elementary School in Fairview has also carried his name.

The married couple R.L. and Eva McBride are in the upper left of this view of the 1911 wedding scene, looking back across the lake to Nelson.  The young girl next to them is 11-year-old Freeda Hume, who was a bridesmaid.

Prior to her marriage, Eva worked as a stenographer for the Wood Vallance Hardware Company, where R.L. McBride was assistant to the manager.  Winnifred Foote worked as a clerk at the Nelson post office.  They were all in a circle of young unmarried friends that included Roy Sharp (another Wood Vallance staff member), and the dentist Dr. Wilmot Steed.  Sharp retired from Wood Vallance with his close friend (and longtime boss) R.L. McBride in 1950.

report on the 1911 wedding in unidentified local publication

A great curling enthusiast, Sharp was president of the B.C. Curling Association in the 1930s and is credited as being the Father of Nelson’s famous Midsummer Curling Bonspiel.

Wilmot Steed was the first of several generations of Steed dentists in Nelson.   His children included Dr. Graham Steed (who was my childhood dentist), teacher Jack Steed, and nurse and Welcome Wagon hostess Edna Steed Whiteley, one of Nelson’s best-known and most popular old-timers who is well into her 90s, and has been a great friend of the McBride family and also kept in touch with Freeda, Dawn and other Hume descendants over the years.

Nelson Daily News report of Sept. 6, 1911 McBride-Hume wedding

Nelson Daily News report of McBride-Foote wedding in December 1914

Roland Leigh McBride, c. 1910. Family photo.

Winnifred Foote, c. 1910. Family photo.

Gravestones of Eva Hume McBride and baby Marjory Dawn McBride at left, and R.L. and Win McBride at right.  Side by side in the Mason section of Nelson Memorial Park.  The memorial stone for J. Fred Hume and other Hume family members is the IOOF (Oddfellows) section of the cemetery beside the Mason burial area.

Freeda Hume and her younger brother John at Killarney-on-the-lake, c. 1910.  Photos courtesy of Dawn Bolton Brashear, daughter of Freeda and granddaughter of J. Fred and Lydia Hume.  Both Freeda and John provided detailed accounts of their memories of life at Killarney-on-the-Lake.

one of Freeda’s notes on the early days of Nelson, B.C.

first page of Freeda’s article on the 1911 McBride-Hume wedding

page 2 of Freeda’s article on the 1911 McBride-Hume wedding.  Courtesy of Shawn Lamb Archives, Touchstones, Nelson