Winter in early Harper’s Camp was never just about surviving the cold; it was about maintaining standards, no matter how the environment conspired against them. The years between 1910 and 1914 offer a perfect glimpse into a community that balanced high-society aspirations with raw frontier grit.
The Teacher in the Coop
When Miss Annie Moore stepped off the stagecoach in 1910, she looked better suited for a Victorian garden party than a muddy mining camp. Standing barely five feet tall, she arrived clutching a delicate parasol and wearing refined gloves, a style so striking that local women immediately turned to their Eaton’s catalogs to mimic her.
However, the “little teacher” proved sturdier than her lace accessories suggested. Finding the Horsefly Hotel, a raucous hub of miners, too loud for lesson planning, Annie took matters into her own hands. She personally scrubbed out an old chicken house on the hotel property and converted it into her private residence for several months.
Her authority extended to her “log bunkhouse” schoolroom, where she taught ten pupils, mostly from the Walters family. Despite her size, she commanded such respect that the oldest boys in class reportedly competed to please her and maintain order.
High Tea and Deep Snow
While Annie was domesticating poultry sheds, a group of “Remittance Men,” younger sons of wealthy British families, were busy maintaining the habits of the “Old Country.” These men famously spent their winters playing polo, cricket, and football in the waist-deep snow, often while insisting on afternoon tea.
Though they maintained these refined habits, they were far from “soft.” Known for drinking their whisky straight, almost every one of them paid his own way back to Europe in 1914 to join the war effort.
The Peg-Legged Hotelier and His Bear
At the heart of this social whirlwind was Alex Meiss, the hotelier instantly recognizable by his wooden peg leg. Meiss brought the district’s first automobile, a 1910 McLaughlin, to town and would charge local children 25 cents for rides to “Stuart’s Pitch.”
The Meiss Hotel offered more than just a room; it offered a spectacle. Visitors were often greeted by the sight of Mrs. Meiss feeding the hotel’s pet bear cub in front of the building. Between the bear, the peg-legged driver, and the teacher in the chicken house, the winters of Harper’s Camp were anything but dull.
Sources
- University of British Columbia Library Archives: B.C. Historical News, Summer 1998 Edition.
- Horsefly Historical Society Visual Archives: Jack-Lynn Memorial Museum Photo Collection (Call Number 982.14cn).
- Horsefly Historical Society Textual Archives: “First Families in Horsefly” and Pioneer Stories.
- Provincial Archives of British Columbia: Daily Colonist Historical Records (March 1979).
- Gold Rush Trail Records: Historical Profiles of Rural Student Life and Pioneer Housing.
- Geoscience Canada: Historical Perspectives on Cariboo Social Habits and Winter Migration.