THE BITTANCOURTS of SALT SPRING ISLAND
(Adaped from Lusitania.ca, June 2003, by M. Azevedo)

 Bittancourt family-Saltspring Island Archives

In May of 1917, Estalon Joze Bittancourt (Bettencourt) died in his home at Vesuvius Bay on Salt Spring Island, B.C. He had lived on the island for nearly 60 years. An obituary in a local newspaper described him as one of the most prominent residents of the island with large real estate holdings and a wide circle of friends, not only on the island, but also throughout British Columbia.

Estalon, also known as Estalno, Bittancourt was 17 years old when he swam ashore at Royal Roads on Vancouver Island. He had stowed away from Sao Miguel, Azores, on a sailing ship bound for the goldfields of Australia. He did not stay long and soon set sail for greener pastures.

Salt Spring Island, at 120 square miles, is the largest of the Gulf Islands. It did not have any  permanent settlements, although nearby Indians fished and hunted there. It was a paradise of 200-foot tall trees  teeming with wildlife. In 1857 and 1858 a small number of Blacks settled there. In 1859 Governor Douglas permitted 29 people to pre-empt land with no down payment. The small colony soon consisted of Indians, Blacks, Hawaiians, and Caucasians. By 1895 an informal survey counted 22 Portuguese.

Estalno and his brother, Emmanuel Antoine, were among the first settlers. After jumping ship, Estalno bought a sloop to carry freight. A fierce gale soon destroyed it but Estalno, a powerful swimmer, managed to save himself. Soon after he met John Norton (another Portuguese from Flores Island in the Azores) who persuaded him to move from Victoria to Salt Spring.

It did not take long before the enterprising Estalno established himself at Vesuvius Bay at the north end of the Island. He built a large house, which became Vesuvius Bay lodge. He operated a store and post office. He operated sandstone quarries, mined coal, farmed and built several fine houses. At one time, the family operated three sloops carrying stone to Victoria and Esquimalt for the dry docks, Empress Hotel causeway and several churches in Victoria. There were 26 East Indians working the quarry by the turn of the century. The quarry’s stone even made its way to the U.S. Federal Mint in San Francisco.

Estalno married Mary Katherine Paul. The 1881 census describes her origin as African. They had five boys and six girls. They were a religious family. Their home included a private chapel, in which pioneer Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Dunkel held monthly services. Dunkel had been rescued, by Estalon, from his capsized dug out canoe. About 1888 he built the “Ark,” a chapel still standing in 1998. In 1885 he helped build St. Paul’s church at Fulford Harbour. His son Joseph, became an oblate father at St. Peter’s college in New Westminster.

Estalno’s brother, Emmanuel Antoine, born in 1845, was also an early settler on Salt Spring but vanishes after the 1881 census in which he is described as an “ordinary seaman.” He married Mary Elen from Ontario. They had five sons. Abraham Reid Bittancourt stayed on the Island. He was a master craftsman who built some of the finest buildings on the island. Today’s museum and archives are located in Bittancourt House. Abraham also operated a store but sold it around 1910 to enter the customs service with his boat under charter to the Federal government. During the thirties he chased many a rum smuggler with his boat, the “Winamac.”

The Bittancourts were one of the most prominent and wealthiest families on the island. Bittancourt Road is named after the family. Norton Road is named after their compatriot John Norton.

Bittancourt family-Saltspring Island Archives

JOHN ENOS of NANOOSE BAY

(From Luistania.ca, June 2003, by M. Azevedo)

John Enos (Joao Ignacio) was born in 1834 in the parish of Sao Pedro, Santa Maria, Azores. He was the first European settler in Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island, settling in 1862. Local historians describe him as the “most colourful pioneer of all.”

Enos went to sea when he was 14 years old. By 1852 he was in Boston working as a servant for John Richard. He probably worked his way to the USA on an American whaling ship, as was the custom in those days. From Boston he headed to the California gold fields, sailing around the Cape.

In 1858 he joined the exodus from California to the Fraser River gold rush in B.C. In 1859 he almost drowned at Fort Yale when his raft overturned. He returned to Vancouver Island where he worked as a seaman carrying coal from Nanaimo to the naval base at Esquimalt. He then worked squaring timbers for the Hudson Bay Company in Nanaimo. He built Nanaimo’s first bridge.

In 1862 he went to the Cariboo in search of gold but returned shortly to settle on Notch Hill Ranch on the Nanoose peninsula. There he cleared and farmed the land. He raised cattle, pigs, and bulls. He also planted a large orchard and fished with a sloop he built.

Misfortune struck Enos in 1870 when one of his bulls gored him. He was forced to rely on others, especially his friend John Suza (Sousa). Shortly after, his wife, Teresa Elisia of the Songhees nation died. In 1890 he sold his farm and returned to the Azores to marry but was spurned by his widowed childhood sweetheart. In 1892 he returned to Nanaimo to live with his family whom he had left in his house.

Enos was a canny and litigious entrepreneur. He purchased various properties in anticipation of the coming of the transcontinental train promised by the Federal government when B.C. joined confederation in 1871. He was involved in lengthy litigation with the Hudson Bay Company over property he owned in Nanaimo.

He retired in 1894 to the men’s ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria. He negotiated a shrewd contract with the Sisters of St. Ann to look after him and voluntarily paid more money as a result of his longevity. He died in 1921 at the age of 87. He was a familiar face in Victoria, riding his woman’s bicycle (he was short) till he was 85. He sang and played the guitar for the nuns and guests. He also read music. Enos lake and Enos creek in the Nanoose area are named after him.

John Enos 
by fernandocandido

We often lunch on the rocks in Mellstrom's Cove where Spanish and British sea captains repaired their sailing ships. We gaze up at Notch Hill and think of the peaceful life of Nanoose's first settler, John Enos who raised sheep and cattle on these slopes, and the far more tumultuous life of the Giant Powder Company who later would build there a gunpowder production plant and a townsite, wharf and railway to support it.

He was from the Island of Santa Maria and helped build the bridges of Nanaimo ( Manuel Azevedo)

Joao Inacio, who simplified his name to John Enos, also came from the Azores. Like the others he had gone to sea in his early teens. He jumped ship at Boston in 1852 and worked his way west to California, hoping to get rich from gold. He found all the good claims staked, and he made his way north to British Columbia as soon as he got news of the gold rush there. He tells a story of being scared away by Native people from Yale that it is so similar to Portuguese’s Joe (Silvey) account, it’s very possible that they made the trip together. John Enos got work near Nanaimo, took up land a bit farther north at Nanoose Bay in 1863, and married a Songhees woman whom he named Teresa Elisia. Just as the Bittancourts and Norton had done, Enos acquired a reputation as a successful farmer. When Portuguese Joe and his family traveled on the Morning S.

PETER SMITH, aka as Portuguese Pete and Peter the whaler

(From Lusitania.ca, 1^st edition (June 2003), by Manuel Azevedo)

Peter Smith, also known as Portuguese Pete and “Pete the Whaler” was born in the Azores in 1833. He was in B.C. by 1860, probably having come with Joe Silvey. He was a fisher and perhaps the earliest European whaler in B.C. According to Chief Khahtsahlano, Smith was a “white man, [who] used to live at Brocton Point (Stanley Park), and made a living spearing whales. He used to catch them off Bowen Island, and take them to Swis-pus-tah-kwin-ace (Wholcombe Island), Westminster, and Victoria. When the white man came, he did the same as Indians had done before. Peter Smith got an Indian wife and four children.”

Peter Trower, writing about whaling in B.C. in the Raincoast Chronicles says, “One of the first local white men to practice the trade was a half-legendary character called Peter the Whaler. Little is known about the background of this strange man. He hunted the giant mammals with a wild crew made of Kanakas [Hawaiian aboriginals] and Indians.” Whaling in B.C. ceased in 1967.

After mining in the Cariboo, Smith settled at Brocton oint in Stanley Park with other Portuguese and Scottish men who partnered with Indian women. Alan Morley, in an article in 1940 in the Sun described the settlements at Stanley Park thus, “[n]ear the end of Coal Harbor is the famous Kanaka Rancherie where Captain Raymur’s exiles now have a pretty settlement with cherry and apple trees in fruit and neat gardens. There live the many offspring of the Kanakas and their Indian and half-Indian wives … Just beyond Deadman’s Island lives Tompkins Brew amid a little community of fishermen and beachcombers. The Inlet beachcomber is no down-and-out beachcomber of fiction, but often a respectable citizen…There is Johnny Baker, who lives where a certain Nine O’clock Gun will be in the future and ‘Portuguese’ Joe Silvey, former proprietor of the ‘Hole in the Wall’ who is a prosperous manufacturer of dog-fish oil for the mills and logging camps (it sells for 25 cents a gallon) and Baker and Joe and Peter, the longshoremen, all married to Indian women. There is also Peter Smith, who pursues whales and blackfish in the Inlet and on English bay and tows them to Wholcombe Island where he has his works.”

Peter Smith was unlucky in family matters. Kenick, his wife, bore him four children but died by the time of the 1901 census. His daughter Maria, born December 25, 1888 died during the small pox epidemic and was the last person to be buried in Stanley Park. Peter died of cancer, in 1905 at the age of 74. Some of his children ended up at residential schools in the Fraser Valley. Smith’s Portuguese name may have been “Vardaros.”

Portuguese Pioneers in Stanley Park

(Adapted from Lusitania.ca, January 2004,  by M. Azevedo)

On November 5^th, 1923, the case of the City of Vancouver against Gonzalves, Peter Smith and Mary DeKosta came on for hearing before the Honourable Mr. Justice Murphy of the Supreme Court of British Columbia at Vancouver. The City of Vancouver and the Attorney General of Canada sought to eject the defendants from their homes in Stanley Park which the defendants and their families had occupied before Vancouver was incorporated in 1886 (The townsite of Granvile was surveyed in 1870).

In their defense, the defendants sought to prove that they and their predecessors had occupied the lands and homes near today’s nine o’clock gun for at least 60 years which would give them title to the lands in question.

The defendant Alfred Gonzalves, born in 1891 in Stanley Park, claimed title through his father Joe Gonzalves who came to Gastown in 1874 from Madeira via San Francisco to care for his uncle Gregory Fernandez who died shortly thereafter.

Joe Gonzalves of Pender Harbour (Madeira Park) was the only original Portuguese settler to testify at the trial:

Q: Your name is Joe Gonzalves?

A: Yes

Q: You are known as Portuguese Joe?

A: Yes I did, he is gone now. I used to know him.

Q: Aren’t you sometimes called Portuguese Joe?

A: I am Portuguese Joe, I guess because I am from the same flag.

Q: When did you come to Stanley Park?

A: In 1874, my uncle Gregorio Fernandez was running a store in Gastown. Tomkins Brew lived in his house at the time.

Q: Who was living there at that time?

A: Joe Silva was there and Peter Smith.

Q: Parcel 2, is that you are now living?

A: Yes, I got the place from Joe Silva. The place was so old, I built a new house. I repaired the broken fences and I started a garden there. I built a shed to repair boats, and a chicken house. My uncle used to fish and smoke fish in the early days.

Q: How much did you pay Joe Silva?

A: Nothing. He told me he was leaving because he was not catching much fish. He went to Howe Sound to a place called Gibson’s Landing. He just gave me his house. He didn’t want any money.

Peter Smith (Jr.) was too ill to attend court and on November 7, 1923 the court went to his house to take his evidence:

Q: Where were you born Mr. Smith?

A: Right here, in the little house next door.

Q: How old are you?

A: 48 last May.

Q: What was your father’s name?

A: Peter Smith, he lived in the house in the middle.

Q: When did your father come to this Province?

A: 1858, he went up to the Fraser River to Cariboo Country in the gold rush. He came back here in 1860 and built the house.

Q: Had your father any other names other than Smith, do you know?

A: Not that I know of. Oh, Portuguese Pete; in them days they all had nicknames, the old timers.

Mary DeKosta, wife of Frank DeKosta, testified on November 8^th, 1923:

Q: You are a daughter of Peter Smith Senior?

A: Yes.

Q: He was Portuguese.

A: Yes, he died about 18 years ago.

Thomas Fisher, 79 years old testified on behalf of the defendants. He came to Vancouver in 1867 “when there were no white people in this side at all.” In the spring of 1867 he passed by Brockton Point in Stanley Park,

“there were three little wharves there… where these Portuguese were… there was one named Portuguese Joe – his name was Joe Fernandez, the next man who was living there was – well, we called him Portuguese Pete – that is Peter Smith and Joe Silva.”

Tom Abraham, an old Indian testified through a Chinook interpreter. The judge questioned him:

Q: Now at that time when the Gold Rush to Cariboo was on ask him were there any white men here in Vancouver.

A: No.

Q: Were there any Indians living in the park?

A: There were people living all the time.

Q: Ask him if he remembers a Portuguese named Joe Silva?

A: Yes, he knows Joe Silva.

Q: How many houses were there at the time of the gold rush?

A: Three or four.

Q: How many Portuguese people were living at the park at the commencement of the Cariboo Gold Rush?

A: I think about four. – I can remember Portuguese Joe and Shwuthchalton’s son-in-law (Peter Smith).

Q: Portuguese Joe afterwords sometime ran a saloon at Brockton Point, near the gun, didn’t he, near where the gun is now?

A: No, a store.

Then the judge had a few questions:

Q: Was Peter Smith a Portuguese?

A: Yes, he was a Portuguese.

Q: The whole three of them were Portuguese, were they?

A: Yes, they were all Portuguese.

The Defendants lost the case at trial but won before the Court of Appeal of British Columbia, which believed the evidence of the Indian witnesses. Unfortunately for the defendants, upon appeal by the City of Vancouver, the Supreme Court of Canada restored the trial judge’s finding that no weight could be placed on the testimony of the Indian witnesses. The pioneers lost, but fortunately, their story can now be told.

Professor Jean Barman’s book, Forgotten Families of Stanley Park will be published in the fall of 2004.

JOSEPH GONSALVES, aka as Portuguese Joe (No. 3)

(Adapted from Lusitania,  June 2003, by Manuel Azevedo)

Joseph Gonsalves, also known as Portuguese Joe No. 3, was born in 1859 on the island of Madeira. He stowed away to sea when he was 12 years old. He landed in New Westminster in 1874 and walked to Gastown (he got lost along the way) to work in his uncle’s, Gregory Fernandes, store. He knew Gassy Jack well. His uncle died the following year and Joe took up fishing and moved to Coal Harbour in Stanley Park where he and Susan Crabolt had four girls and one boy. In 1904, his eldest daughter, Matilda, married a handsome Russian, Steve Dames, at the Brockton Point lighthouse. That same year he and Dames purchased 80 acres from Charles Irvine in Pender Harbour, known as the “Venice of the North.”

Pender Harbour came to be known as the “Land of Portuguese Joe.” He built the first hotel and saloon, as well as a deep-sea dock. He and Dames bought large tracts of land including the site of Irvine’s Landing and Madeira Park.

Irvine’s Landing became the hub of Pender Harbour. People from all around flocked to Joe’s facilities, which included a large dining room, a post office, a general store, and a barbershop. The steamers docked there too. There was much socializing, dances, baseball games, and large picnics. It is said that Joe’s daughter, Matilda, presided over the whole affair like a benevolent aunt.

Joe also fished in the seine boat he built, the “Hermosa,” which was skippered by Joe Perry, a black man from the Azores. Perry (Perreira?) is described as a huge man who sat children on his knees and regaled them with stories of far away places. Perry was also Joe’s aide de camp, gardener, and bouncer.

Gonsalves died in 1939 at the age of 82. Madeira Park is named after him.

http://sunshinecoastmuseum.ca
(Information compiled by Heather Till for Bigpacific.com)

Pender Harbour 

SCMA Photo#861 - Pender Harbour, circa 1920. The Sechelt village on Skardon Islands at the entrance to Pender Harbour. Photo by A.P.Harrold.

The Pender Harbour area was once the winter capital of the Coast Salish nation, specifically the shishalh tribe, from which the town of Sechelt takes its name. Judging by the wealth of archaeological evidence, the local population in 1800 was greater than it is now. The shishalhpeople were highly industrious during the summer months, fishing for salmon, hunting venison and gathering berries, all of which were dried for winter use. They built large dugout cedar canoes and huge communal longhouses (up to 800 feet in length) with separate family compartments divided by cedar screens. Examples of watertight baskets made from spruce root, aprons made of deerhide or woven cedar bark, blankets of mountain goat wool and fishing line fashioned from stout nettle fibre are further evidence of their creativity and diligence.......

A legend persists that the first non-Native to occupy the Pender Harbour area was a Chinese who began a fish saltery at the mouth of what became Irvines Landing. An Englishman known as Charlie Irvine (for whom the Landing is named) is more commonly recognized as the first settler. Irvine built a log trading post at the Landing, then joined the excitement of the Klondike gold rush. He sold his property in 1904 to an enterprising sailor and fisherman, "Portuguese Joe"Gonsalves, and his North Vancouver Salish Nation wife, Susan Harris. Joe and his son-in-law Theodore (Steve) Dames (a burly Russian seaman married to the Gonsalves' beautiful daughter Matilda) really developed the area. They built a deep-sea dock, general store, post office and hotel/saloon at the head of the wharf. The Union Steamship Company made this a regular stop, the beginning of Pender Harbour's real presence on the map.

http://www.penderharbour.org/html/pioneers.html

Portuguese Joe

In the late 1800’s “Portuguese Joe” Gonsalves, a young sailor and fisherman from the Portuguese Island of Madeira (off the coast of Africa), came to Canada, apparently as a stowaway. He grew up in Vancouver, married an Squamish Indian woman and raised his family as a homesteader at Stanley Park's Brockton Point.

In 1904, his daughter Matilda and the Russian sailor Theodore Dames were married. Later that year, Portuguese Joe and Matilda's husband bought half of John and George West's property in Irvine’s Landing.

The family arrived with Joe Perry, a sailor friend from the Azores, to help with their enterprise. They developed Wests' old supply post to include a hotel and saloon while Gonsalves continued to fish his seiner, Hermosa, with Perry as deckhand.

Gonsalves and Dames expanded their business to include a deep-sea dock, barbershop, general store, post office, and Pender Harbour's first public telephone. It was the business and social hub of Pender Harbour, as locals rowed their little boats over to pick up supplies and meet the steamers that arrived twice a week.

Fire eventually destroyed the wooden buildings, and Garden Bay became the community's business centre. The BC Archives lists the death of Joseph Gonsalves, 82, in 1939 in Vancouver. Theodore Dames died in Irvine's Landing March 2, 1935, at 68.

Portuguese Joe has many descendants living in Pender Harbour, and the Madeira Park Elementary School and Community Hall sit on property that he donated to the community.

Today, his likeness (carved in cedar by local sculptor Jack Crabb) overlooks the harbour from Seafarer's Park and Pender Harbour is still called "Venice of the North," which probably has as much to with its network of bays and coves (and the fact that everyone traveled by boat) as its Mediterranean pioneer.

Also see Irvine’s Landing (History) and Madeira Park (History).

The store and hotel built and operated by Gonsalves and Dames
at Irvines Landing at the northern entrance to Pender Harbour.
Photo by H. H. Winn circa 1952.

JOE GONSALVES, Madeira Park
(UNKNOWN SOURCE, OBIT?)


THE ARRIVAL OF PORTUGESE JOE
On Sept. 1, 1904, Matilda Gonsalves and the Russian sailor Theodore Dames were married in  Vancouver. Later that year, Matilda's father, Joe Gonsalves, and her new husband bought half of John and George West's Irvine's Landing property. Gonsalves  was a sailor and a fisherman from the Madeira Islands off Spain who suposedly left his home as a stowaway at an early age. In Canada, one of Stanley Park's many squatters, he was known as "Portugese Joe". He arrived in  Pender Harbour with Matilda, Theodore, and Joe Perry. Perry, also a sailor, was a large and powerful black man from the Azores who was known in Irvine's Landing as a kind and gentle person.
     Gonsalves and Dames, with Perry as an employee, expanded Wests' supply post to include a hotel and saloon while Gonsalves continued to fish his seine boat, the Hermosa , with Perry as a deckhand. Gonsalves and Dames expanded their enterprise to include a deep-sea dock, barbershop, general store, post office, and Pender Harbour's first public telephone. Fire eventually  destroyed the two old wooden buildings, and Garden Bay became the community's business centre. The BC Archives lists the death of a Joseph Gonsalves, on June 3, 1939.  He is survived by many Pender Harbour descendants. Theodore Dames  passed away in Vancouver, at 82 years of age.

JOE SILVEY

, aka as Portuguese Joe (No.1)

(Adapted from Lusitania.ca, June 2003,  by M. Azevedo)

1872 wedding picture of Joe Silvey and Lucy Kwatleematt-(courtesy Rocky Sampson)
(cover photo of professor Jean Barman's book,  Stanley Park Secrets: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point (Harbour, 2005)


Joe Silvey (aka Joseph Silvey Simmonds), the original “Portuguese Joe” of British Columbia was born on April 23, 1828 in Calheta de Nesquim, parish of Lajes, Pico, Azores; son of Joao Jose de Simas and his wife Francisca Jancinta, paternal grandson of “pay incognito” and maternal grandson of Antonio Silveira Quaresma. He had four brothers and four sisters.

He probably left Pico on an American whaling ship in 1846. It was customary in those days to work on whaling ships for about two years before being dropped off in America, usually at New Bedford. The 1848 California gold rush attracted many Portuguese from the American east coast and also caused whaling crews to desert their ships while anchored in San Francisco. In 1850, J. S. Silvey is listed at Clark’s Point, San Francisco as a pilot on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

It is likely he arrived in B.C. around 1858 to 1860 with four or five other Portuguese men in search of gold. After a scare with Indians in the Cariboo, they returned down the Fraser River on their way to Victoria. At Musqueam they met some friendly Indians who gave them shelter. They were welcomed onto shore by Grand Chief Kiapilano, Joe’s future "grandfather in-law", who blessed the marriage.

Soon after Joe married Khaltinaht, Kiapilano’s granddaughter. Many years later, Joe described his first wife as a, “pretty girl with dark eyes, and hair down to her middle; large deep, soft eyes.” After honeymooning in Point Roberts, where Joe may have previously lived, he built a house at Coal Harbour near Brockton Point in Stanley Park. There, Elizabeth was born around 1864/67, the first child of European parentage born in Vancouver.

In 1867 Joe became the first Portuguese in Canada to receive British Citizenship. The following year he requested the Colonial government to lease him 20 acres of beachfront property in Stanley Park but was refused. However, he purchased lot No. 7  in Gastown  after  the surveying of the town site of Granville in 1870. Gassy Jack opened the Globe Saloon and Joe opened the Hole in the Wall across the street from Gregory Fernandez’s store. Gastown, was two blocks long. Vancouver was in its infancy.

Disaster struck Joe’s family soon after their second child was born in 1871. His wife Khaltinaht caught a cold in her back and died. She was buried with her people at Musqueam. Devastated, Joe sold his Saloon to some hand loggers and retreated to his home in Stanley Park. He fished in a sloop he had built in Stanley Park, the “Morning Star,” the first European built boat in Vancouver. It was probably while fishing in Howe Sound near Eqmont that Joe met Kwaham Kwatleematt, a Sechelt Indian known as Lucy. She had ten children before Joe died in 1902.

As pressure increased on the settlement of Portuguese, Scots, and Indians living in Stanley Park, (by now a federal military reserve), Joe decided to leave. He left his house to Joseph Gonsalves (Portuguese Joe No. 3) and in 1881 pre-empted 160 acres on Reid Island, just off the northern tip of Galiano Island. Later, his son Domingo acquired the rest of the island. Joe built a large house and a store. He continued to fish and farm. He planted an apple orchard. Later a school was built for the growing families. In 1901, the year before he died, he described himself as a fisherman who had earned $600 the previous year, a considerable sum in those days. He was generous with the fish he caught, helping many people who needed food to survive.

On January 17, 1902 Joe died on Reid Island where he and his son Domingo are buried. Today, there are over 500 descendants of Joe Silvey in B.C. who are very proud of their Portuguese and Aboriginal ancestry.

Lucy "Kwatleematt" Silvey (later Mrs. Joe Watson) circa 1930

Her name was Kwatleematt and when she married her husband Joseph Silvey her name white name became Lucy.

Lucy was born in a village called Tsonei.  That village stood at the junction of Princess Royal Reach and Prince of Wales Reach.

See the map below for Lucy Silvey's place of birth and home territory.

http://www.princesslouisa.bc.ca/here.html

Josephine Marie Silvey (nee Crocker) Circa 1940

Josephine's family came from Lyackson Valdez Island and Yekwola on Kuper Island and also the State of Maine.

Josephine married Domingo Silvey.  They raised a family of seven on Reid Island.

(photos courtesy of Rocky Sampson)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

FROM HARBOUR PUBLISHING
  

The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey

by Jean Barman

A biography of one of the West Coast's most vibrant characters written by one of the West Coast's top historians.

Book Description

British Columbia is known for the colourful pioneers who helped build and shape the character of this weird but wonderful province. And few were as colourful as Portuguese Joe Silvey - a saloon keeper, whaler and pioneer of seine fishing in British Columbia.


Born on Pico Island, of Portugal's Azores Islands, sometime between 1830 and 1840, Joseph Silvey began whaling when he was just 12 years old. In 1860, when Silvey came to the BC coast on a whaling schooner, he decided to jump ship to try his hand at gold-mining.


From harpooning whales in small open rowboats, to serving up liquor to rambunctious millworkers, to being the first man to have a seine license in BC, Silvey was the Renaissance man of his generation. His friends were many, and included saloon keeper Gassy Jack Deighton for whom Vancouver's Gastown is named, his prestigious grandfather-in-law Chief Kiapilano (of the Capilano Nation) and a remittance man who liked to wear either his wife's clothes or none at all.


Although Portuguese Joe and his family prospered - he had 11 children with two wives and his many descendants still populate the BC coast - they also had their share of grief. Joe's first wife Khaltinaht died after a few short years of marriage; his eldest child Elizabeth was later kidnapped and forced to marry against her will; and his sixth child John was murdered in a rowboat while on his way to buy clams.


Historian Jean Barman brings to life the story of Portuguese Joe - the romance, the tragedy, and the adventure - with skill, piecing together interviews with Silvey's descendants, archival records and historical photographs to build an intriguing and entertaining portrait of Joseph Silvey, his family, and the time and place in which he lived.

From City Archives-Major Matthews
(Early Vancouver
Volume Three
By: Major J.S. Matthews, V.D.
2011 Edition (Originally Published 1935)
Narrative of Pioneers of Vancouver, BC Collected During 1933-1934.
Supplemental to Volumes One and Two collected in 1931-1932)

Antony Silvey, Reid Island.
(See Early Vancouver, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3—in preparation.)
HISTORICAL.
“The marriage and dates can be found at St. Mary’s Mission, Mission, B.C., in Rev. Father Fokkia’s
Books. My father, Joseph Silvey, came here from the Californian gold excitement to take in the Cariboo.
When he came back, he settled down at Brockton Point, Burrard Inlet. That is where I and my brother
Domingo were born; that was 1874 and 1877. Mrs. J. Walker and Mrs. S. Anderson were half-sisters to
us. They have over sixty grandchildren. Vancouver was called Gastown at that time.” – Mrs. M.A. Buss, a
daughter of Mrs. Watson, who died in late July or early August, 1934.
PORTUGUESE JOE.
Excerpt from a letter of Theo. Bryant, Ladysmith, son of Rev. Cornelius Bryant of Granville, 28 September
1934.
“Mrs. Jos. Silvey passed away only a few weeks ago in the person of Mrs. Jos. Watson, leaving Jos.
Silvey at Sechelt, Domingo and Antonio at Reid Island, near Portier Pass, Henry, don’t know residence,
and Mrs. Jas. Walker living in Vancouver with a big family. The Silveys of Sechelt are of Reid Island
stock.”
15 OCTOBER 1934 – GENEALOGY OF MRS. MARY ADLAID BASS.
Residence: Egmont, B.C.
Place and date of birth: Gastown, Vancouver, B.C., 24 May 1877.
“I am the daughter of Portuguese Joe Silvey and Lucy Silvey.” (Watson.) “These are four of my children;
the oldest is dead:
“Dexter Sidney Brown, born at Frake, B.C., 7 October 1902.
“Ida Brown, born at Lund, B.C., 1905.
“Kenny Brown, Mission City, B.C., 7 October 1907.
“Arthur G. Buss, born at Chemainus, B.C., 25 December 1914.”
PERSONAL SERVICES.
“My father, Portuguese Joe Silvey, used to have gill nets and rent them out to the Indians and every
Indian on the coast knew him. That’s how they all came to call him ‘Portuguese Joe.’ He had a little
trading store and traded with Indians. That Gregorio Fernandez was my godfather.
“My oldest daughter, Mrs. Laura Harris, was killed on Hastings Street in 1914, and my oldest son was
drowned with my brother, Manuel Silvey, in the Narrows at Brockton Point; they were run down by the tug
Magoon on 16
th
 December 1916. Two of my other daughters died in Alberta.
“One of Mrs. S. Anderson’s sons is here with us. Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Walker are our half-sisters, but
Portuguese Joe Silvey’s oldest daughters.”
HISTORICAL.
“I am the Mary A. Silvey that you refer to and the daughter of Lucy Silvey Watson and Portuguese Joe
Silvey, my father. My mother was a native or Indian, if you wish to call her that. My father was married
when he first came to this country, to Mrs. Walker’s and Mrs. S. Anderson’s mother, who died in Gastown
in 1865. Then Father married my mother so as to raise the two girls, Elizabeth and Josephine, now Mrs.
J. Walker and Mrs. Steven Anderson. Mrs. Walker is now Mrs. Harry Armstrong; she lives on Georgia
Street, Vancouver, B.C.—I don’t know the number—and Mrs. Anderson is dead. Father had a store in
Gastown and when the C.P.R. was surveying the road he had some dispute about moving his house
back; the water used to be up close to where W.H. Malkin’s Building now stands. Father went in with
Ladner, canning salmon, and he was the Portuguese Joe that the Indians speak of. So please get this
129

Elizabeth Walker (nee Silvey), born in Stanley Park. (photo courtesy of Rocky Sampson)


“Then the next morning after Josephine was born they brought me home, Mrs. Trim and Mrs. Smith (I’ve
got a good memory, haven’t I?) on Bowen Island, and the little baby, my sister Josephine, was on a
pillow.”
Major Matthews: Harry Trim came down from the Cariboo, after he got through with mining, in 1868.
Mrs. Walker: “That’s what my father, Joe Silvey, did but he came down before he got very far up the river
because the Indians chased him away.”

GREGORY FERNANDEZ of GASTOWN aka Portuguese Joe (No. 2)

(From Lusitania.ca, 1st issue (June 2003), by Manuel Azevedo)

Gregory Fernandez, also known as Portuguese Joe No. 2, came to B.C. during the Fraser River gold rush. He was from Madeira. He opened the first store in Vancouver in 1868 at foot of Abbot St., across the street from Joe Silvey’s establishment, the Hole in the Wall. The Indians living in Stanley Park supplied his store with fish and milk, which he traded for flour, powder and groceries. Prior to Vancouver, Fernandez operated a store in New Westminster, then capital of the mainland colony. In 1857 he operated a fruit and vegetable store in San Francisco.

Fernandez never married. He was described, by a child of the 1870’s, as a blackguard; “he had gold earrings.” He got mixed up in a drunken brawl, resulting in a bullet in his leg. He died, probably as a result of infection, after 1876, two years after his nephew Joseph Gonsalves (aka as Portuguese Joe)  arrived to help him. Vancouver was not yet born.


Early Vancouver 
Volume Five 
By: Major J.S. Matthews, V.D.
2011 Edition (Originally Published 1945)


MEMO OF CONVERSATION WITH CALVERT SIMSON,
 FORMERLY STOREKEEPER, HASTINGS SAWMILL, WHO HAS JUST RETURNED FROM A FLEETING CALL (WHILST THE BOAT WAS AT DOCK)
AT IRVING’S LANDING, PENDER HARBOUR, 31 JULY 1936.
“PORTUGUESE JOE.” JOSEPH SILVEY. GREGORIS FERNANDEZ.

Mr. Simson said: “I had fifteen minutes only with Joseph Gonsalves just while the boat was stopped, and he was busy, selling ice cream to tourists, etc., on the 26th. He tells me that Gregoris Fernandez of Gastown was his uncle, and owned Lot 16 in Block 6, O.G.T.” (northwest corner, Water and Abbott) “as well as Lot 1 in Block 5” (southwest corner, Water and Abbott) “and had a store on the bank on Lot 16 with a slip down to the inlet, but had a storehouse and kept chickens on Lot 1.
“According to Joe” (Gonsalves), “whom I knew quite well when he was in Gastown and I was storekeeper at the mill, Gregoris Fernandez was a Cariboo miner who came to Gastown and bought these lots; he never did any fishing.” (See Street Ends Case, evidence, Appeal Court, January 1905.) “He took ill and died, and Henry Saunders, grocery and liquor merchant, Victoria, wound up his debts.
“Joseph Silvey was a fisherman; Gregoris Fernandez was never a fisherman.”
JOSEPH GONSALVES. GASTOWN.
“Joseph Gonsalves, long known to me as ‘Portuguese Joe’” (note: this makes three “Portuguese Joes”),
“says he came to Gastown in July 1874, and he remembers that the wreck on the beach beside the
Hastings Mill wharf, and in front of the store, was there when he came.” (Lawson photograph.) (Note: Mrs. Crakanthorp states it was there when she came in April 1873.) “Joe tells me that ‘The Deighton House came first; then Miller’s, then an American named Billy Jones, then Bill Blair’s, and at the very end, John Robertson’s “Hole in the Wall” saloon.’*

(The "Hole in the Wall saloon" is associated with Portuguese Joe Silvey's saloon, now the Dominion Hotel at the south-east corner of Water and Abott streets.)

JOE FERNANDEZ 
by fernandocandido

http://www.fernandocandido.com/portcanada/bcportuguese/joefernandez.html

Joe Fernandez was from the island of Madeira in Portugal. His real name was Gregorio. He lived in Stanley Park. He was living there in 1867 according to the testimony of an Indian named Thomas Fisher.

Historian Manuel Azevedo said he remained a bachelor the rest of his life. He also had a general store in Gastown near Jack Gassy. “ Among the other Gastown businesses was a general store that served both millworkers and Natives, who could land their canoes on the long float jutting out from the store and trade furs for other goods”.  He was a former Cariboo miner and he may have been one of the guys who jumped ship with the more famous Joe Silvey. But before we jump to this conclusion we need to remember that the Azores were far away from Madeira and the American whalers used to stop in the Azores to recruit sailors not Madeira but anything may be possible.

One of the persons who knew him well was the eldest daughter of Joe Silvey, Elizabeth. Both families lived near eachother in gastown and Joe Silvey owned a bar not very far. “Elizabeth referred affectionately to Fernandez, who also went by the nickname “Portuguese Joe,” as her uncle, although he was not a blood relative. Another of Joe Silvey’s children recalled that Fernandez “ had gold earrings; I saw them myself; it was an old custom with sailor men.”

According to Jean Barman it’s with the encouragement of Fernandez that Silvey opened a saloon nearby . From the Vancouver Voters List we learn the precise location of the store which was described as “ being in at the west end of the beach, on the north east* corner of Abbott and Water Streets.” The store probably operated around 1870. (should be north west)

Frank Miranda connected itself, in his early years in Canada, apparently with two well-known Portuguese families, which lived in Gas-Town before his arrival. One was Joe the Portuguese or Joseph Silvey (probably Silva), and the other Joseph Gonzalves and his uncle Gregorio Fernandez. In that pioneer epoch, besides those and other Europeans there were many indigenous people and some of Chinese background.

His uncle Gregorio Fernandez brought his nephew Joe to become his heir, for he was ill, and a year later he died.” There was a drunken brawl, or fight, and Fernandez got mixed up in it and somehow, and got a cut on the leg, and gangrene set in; he died. I was a little girl, but I can just remember it. I think he was put in jail at (new) Wesminster, and died there.” Elizabeth Silvey

“Portuguese Joe had shot another Portuguese and then hidden on Siwash Rock for a time until his hideout was discovered.” (Vancouver Voters Lists of 1886) This may be the brawl that she was talking about. He may have been in jail for that crime. It will be interesting to know who that Portuguese was and if he died of his injuries. There was a few Portuguese living in the Vancouver area at that time.

Later on his store was sold to Benjamin Henry Wilson a gentleman from Nova Scotia.



NEW WESTMINISTER CRACKER AND COFFEE MANUFACTURY
(Joe Fernandez, proprietor)

Early view of New Westminster, 1862-1866. - Record Detail

Early view of New Westminster, 1862-1866. - [between 1862 and 1866].

Part Of:	Photo Collection  [Description]
Description Level	Item
Item No.	IHP0618
Date Range	[between 1862 and 1866]
Title Source	Title based on content of image.
Responsibility	Claudet, F.G.
Physical Description	1 photograph : b&w ; 20 x 28 cm
Scope & Content	Photograph shows an early view of New Westminster dating to 1862-1866. This photo was taken from Surrey and shows the Fraser River with a First Nations person in a canoe. The New Westminster Cracker and Coffee Manufactury (proprietor G. Fernandez) appears just to the left of the stern of the paddlewheeler.
Subject Access	City Views | Transportation - Canoes | Communities - First Nations
Geographic Location	New Westminster (B.C.) | Waterfront
Record ID	17843
Comment on this record	museum@newwestcity.ca

The British Colonist,  1860-1876, from (online version)

GREGORY FERNANDEZ, (sometimes Fernandes)

The British Colonist (online edition)

August 29, 1860, page 2

PROMPTLY DISMISSED

Gregory Fernandez

appeared in the Police Court yesterday

morning to make complaint of petty larceny

against a Hydah squaw, whom he said had

stolen $5 from his pantaloons pocket during

the night previous. In making his complaint,

Fernandez acknowledged having admitted

the woman to his house for improper purpose.

His honor immediately dismissed the

charge, and reprimanded the complainant

in scathing terms. The fellow, after the

lecture, slunk out of court and made off in

haste, evidently much ashamed of himself,

as indeed he well might be.

July 4, 1876, p.3

Shooting Affray at Granville

___

On the return of the steamer Cariboo-Fly from Granville,

on Sunday afternoon, news was quickly circulated that a shooting

affray occurred at that place last Saturday

evening which, it is feared, will be attended

with fatal results. From the somewhat

incomplete information gathered it appears that

a man named Juan Baptiste Jemore, who was

formerly a partner in the Omineca ( Omineea?) Saloon, Government Street,

in this city, left here to attend the Granville regatta,

and amongst other places he visited was the store of

one Joseph Fernandez, with whom he has previously had

pecuniary difficulties-- Fernandez being indebted to

Jemore. Jemore's particular business however seems to have

to have been to collect a bill for some fruit shipped by

a merchant of this city to Fernandez .

Jemore presented the bill and an altercation

relative to his personal claim against

Fernandez would seem to have ari en (sic). The

result of the wordy transaction was that

Fernandez consented to pay the account

for the fruit and turned to his till appar-

ently with the intention of counting out

the necessary money. Jemore not sus-

pecting Fernandez of treachery turned

his back to him, but the latter instead of

taking the money from the till

took a revolver from the drawer and, Jemore

states, deliberately shot him. As soon as

the shooting became known Fernandez was

arrested by constable Miller, and medical

aid (Dr . Mclnnes) was procured for the

wounded man from New Westminster

city. After an examination had been held

it was found that Jemore had been shot

about an inch and a half to the left of the

spine and that the bullet had probably

penetrated the left lung and passed into

his intestine. But faint hopes are enter-

tained of the wounded man's recovery and

although not dead when the steamer left

Granville he was apparently sinking

rapidly. The statement he made of the

occurrence is in substance the same as

above. Fernandez denies the shooting entirely.

July 5, 1876, p.3

News from the Inlet

The steamer Etta White arrived here

last evening from Burrard Inlet with the

bark Antioch in tow, lumber laden for

Shanghai. She reports that Jemore, who

was shot on Dominion Day by a

Portuguese named Joe Fernandez,

is out of danger and that hopes are entertained

of his recovery. Fernandez, the would be assassin

has evaded the officer in charge of

him and has left the district,

and probably proceeded to the United States of America.

July 6, 1876, p. 3

NOT DEAD

Jemore, who was shot by

Fernandez at Granville on Saturday last,

is not dead-yet . It seems that the would

be homicide was not arrested at all, but

was simply kept under the surveillance of

a constable, which he managed to baffle.

July 6, 1876, p. 3

NEW WESTMINISTER DISTRICT

___

(Guardian)

Referring to the shooting affray at

Granville and the subsequent escape of Fernandez

the Guardian says: “on the wounded man's

statement Mr. Fernandez was arrested, but he denied all

knowledge of the way in which Demore had been wounded.

He was allowed to proceed with his business, a special

constable being detailed to watch him meanwhile.

It would appear that everything went on very well until

Sunday morning last. When Fernandez went to the upper story

of the house on some pretex, and suddenly disappeared.

As it was very probable Demore will die, there is great likelihood

that an investigation will take place, as it appears extraordinary

that anyone supposed to be guilty of homocide should be

allowed to evade the law in any such manner. We only

judge of the circumstances as they have reached us, and must

wait further particulars before venturing on any conclusions.”

July 8, 1876, p.3

THE GRANVILEE SHOOTING CASE

The Superintendent of Provincial Police left

here yesterday morning for Granville ,

Burrard Inlet, where he will investigate

the circumstances attending the escape of

Fernandez , accused of shooting Jemore

on Dominion Day.

July 9, 1876, p. 3

THE GRANVILLE SHOOTING CASE

From latest advices in connection with

the shooting affray at Granville on Do-

minion Day, it seems that Fernandez,

who evaded the constable in charge and escap-

ed to neighbouring island has returned

and delivered himself up to the authorities

and is now lodged in New Westminister jail.

He attributes the shooting of Jemore

entirely to accident and asserts

that when the revolver was discharged he

was not certain whether he or his companion

had been shot. Fearing, however,

the result of an investigation, he acted on

the advice of his friends and left the

neighbourhood. The Herald says:--

“He went in a boat and the man who took him ,

after they had gone some distance, cried

out that they were pursued, and advised

Fernandez to get ashore and run for it.

He did so, leaving his hat and coat, with

purse, etc., in the pockets, in the boat.

He found himself on an island, without a

morsel of food or drop of water . At

first this caused him no uneasiness, as the

man who had the man who had taken him

there had promised to keep him well supplied.

When two days had passed away, however, with no

sign of the promised aid, Fernandez

thought it was time to do something .

Whatever might await him at Granville,

it was preferable to a lingering death by hunger and thirst.

He accordingly hailed a passing canoe, was conveyed

back to Granville, and gave himself up.

The man who took Fernandez to the inland was also

arrested and lodged in jail.”

Dr . Mclnnes has extradited the ball

from the wounded man who is now supposed

to be out of danger and on a fairway to recovery.

Thomas Bransfield charged with aiding Fernandez

to escape has had a hearing and is remanded till

Tuesday.

July 13, p. 3

NEW WESTMINISTER DISTRICT

(Guardian)

The prisoner Bransfield, the boatman who

conveyed Fernandez in his craft, was

again brought up, yesterday and after

the usual discussion among a full bench of Justices,

was again remanded until Friday.

Jemore, the man who was wounded-by

a pistol shot at Granville, is out of danger

and rapidly recovering.

July 16, p. 3

NEW WESTMINISTER DISTRICT

(Guardian)

The boatman Bransfield was again

brought up yesterday, on the charge of

aiding the prisoner, Fernandez to escape

from custody, and after the evidence had

been heard was discharged.

October 26, 1876 p. 3 (report of the trial-note the spelling Fernandes, usually spelled with a z )

Mainland Assizes

Before [ Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie*, C. J. (Chief Justice)

NEW WESTMINSTER , Oct. 21st , 1875 (sic)

The only criminal case was that of Regina vs. Gregorio Fernandes.

Mr . E . Johnson conducted the case for the Crown. Mr. Robertson , instructed

by Mr. Morrison, appeared for the prisoner.

There were two counts in the indictment, first for shooting with intent to murder, second,

shooting with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The Grand Jury ignored the first count,

and the prisoner was consequently arraigned on the second. Mr. Johnson, in opening the case

stated that on 1st July last, the prisoner was at his store in Granville, when a man

named John Baptist DeAmor came to him to collect an account for some fruit which

he had brought from Victoria for the accused.

Fernandes desired him to call again for the money, and to return to the store about ten o'clock the same evening; he was waiting , supposing the prisoner was looking for the money--- resting his arm on the counter with his back towards the prisoner, when he heard the report of a pistol shot, and immediately discovered he was shot. He fell to the ground, but regained his feet, ran out, and was conducted to a hotel by some persons he met, when he was at once placed under medical treatment.

There were reasons adduced showing that prisoner had a spite against DeAmor. It appears that some time ago DeAmor deposited $250 with the prisoner, whom he was compelled to sue in order to have the money returned. A witness also, was produced, who swore that Fernandes had stated his intention to shoot DeAmor if ever he got a chance to do so. The contradictory statements of the prisoner after the shooting were also held to be good evidence of his guilt.

The defence was very ably conducted by Mr. Robertson, showing that the pistol was discharged accidentally, and the Jury taking that view of the circumstances, acquitted the prisoner, in which the Chief Justice concurred.

July 30, 1876, p. 2 (repeated August 1, 4, 8, 12, 13, 15, and 16, 1876)

BANKRUPT SALE

----

Re G . Fernandes , Granville , An Insolvent

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the

Stock and Fixtures

of the store known as

G. FERNANDES' STORE , Granville

Is offered for Sale by TENDER

Stock has been taken at Cost , and will

be sold at a discount therefrom.

The Lot and Buildings,

including a good House and Store, will

also be sold by tender, either with the

stock or separately .

The Stock and Stock-Book can be examined on the premises daily, from 8a.m.

till 6 p.m .

TERMS

One-third cash, one-third in

sixty days , and one-third in four months ,

approved endorsed notes.

Sealed Tenders, endorsed, “ Tender

G . Fernandes' Stock ," &Co. , will be received

by the undersigned up to 12 o'clock,

noon, of Wednesday , August 16th .

The highest or any tender not necessarily accepted.

JAMES MORRISON ,

Official Assignee .

July 28th , 1876

*Matthew Baillie Begbie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie

Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie (9 May 1819 – 11 June 1894) was born on the island of Mauritius[1], thereafter raised and educated in the United Kingdom. In 1858, Begbie became the first Chief Justice of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in colonial times and in the first decades after confederation of Canada.

Begbie served as the first Judge of the Supreme Court, Colony of British Columbia 1858 to 1866 and then, in the same capacity in the Supreme Court, the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia from 1866 to 1870. He was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Colonies from 1870 to 1871 and, following British Columbia joining confederation in 1871, he served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the new Province of British Columbiauntil his death on June 11, 1894.

In the years after his death, Begbie came to be known as the Hanging Judge. However, it appears that he does not deserve this reputation. The death penalty was mandatory in murder cases in those days unless the government approved a judge's recommendation for clemency. Indeed, Begbie successfully argued for clemency in several cases.