turner norton edward townsend + frances lee
Turner was born in Victoria on 10 May 1866 to Charlotte and Alfred Townsend. He was baptised at St John’s Anglican Church on 24 June 1866. When he was 18 years old, his father died and Turner became responsible for supporting his mother and younger siblings. He obtained a job as a brakeman with the E & N Railway, which ran between Esquimalt near Victoria and Nanaimo, and worked his way up to a position as a conductor.
On one of his trips to Nanaimo, Turner met Frances Lee and they later married at St Paul’s on 25 June 1892. Frances was born in Rothwell, Yorkshire on 11 September 1874 to Henry Lee and Emma Hudson. Henry was a coal miner in Rothwell and his two oldest sons also worked in the mines. The family emigrated to Nanaimo in 1883 and Henry and his 21 year old son Hudson went to work in the Nanaimo Colliery No. 1 which was also known as the Esplanade mine.
On the east coast of Vancouver Island, Nanaimo began as a Hudson’s Bay trading post in the early 19th century but the town expanded rapidly when coal seams were discovered around the harbour and to the north of the town. The Nanaimo Colliery No. 1 mine, located at the foot of Milton Street, was opened by the London-based Vancouver Coal Company in 1883 but on 3 May 1887, mislaid explosives resulted in a massive explosion in the mine that killed many instantly and trapped even more inside the numerous side tunnels. Fire raced through the mine and prevented any attempt at a rescue and as the trapped miners’ hope failed, they wrote final messages to their loved ones in the coal dust on their shovels before they died of asphyxia. One hundred and fifty men, including Henry Lee and his son Hudson, died in what is still considered to be Canada’s worst mining disaster.
Following their marriage, Turner and Frances returned to Victoria where their first son, Turner Norton, was born on 23 June 1893. They had a second son, Alfred Henry, on 20 October 1894 followed by two daughters: Violet Frances born on 17 February 1896 and Lily Charlotte on 6 October 1897.
Turner appears in the 1898 Victoria Voter’s List which listed his home address as 31 Meares Street and his occupation as a Carpenter. Shortly after, Turner moved to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory where he worked as a merchant. His wife joined him in 1900 along with Violet and Lily while their two sons remained in Victoria with Turner’s sister, Harriet, and her husband Charles Hubbard. The family was reunited when sons Turner and Alfred joined them in the Yukon four months later. Their daughter Harriet Emma was born in Dawson City in 1903.
The Klondike Gold Rush began when gold was discovered at Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, in August 1896. Prospectors had been mining for gold in the Yukon since 1874 but when word of the discovery at Rabbit Creek reached the outside world, tens of thousands of men left their homes and headed for the Klondike. Their journey began by steamship up the Pacific coast from cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Victoria to the Alaskan ports of Haines, Dyea and Skagway and from there they had to travel on foot over one of the trails through the Coast Mountains. The most famous was the Chilkoot Trail, a 53 km trail that ran from Dyea to the town of Bennett at the head of Bennett Lake in the Yukon. The North West Mounted Police required each prospector to carry enough supplies to last one year and many were required to make the trek over the Chilkoot Pass numerous times to carry the necessary supplies. Once in Bennett, the prospectors boarded ships, scows and rafts and travelled 800 km through lakes and rivers to reach Dawson City and the nearby gold fields.
Some miners became rich while others found nothing. Many who arrived in Dawson gave up the hope of staking a claim and instead found work in the rapidly growing town working in construction, the amusement halls or one of the many stores that supplied the miners. As a merchant, Turner likely worked in one of the supply stores in town. The family hasn’t been located in the 1911 Census other than their son Turner, known as Norton, who was working as a miner on the Klondike River.
On 1 July 1916, their two sons, Norton and Alfred, enlisted at Sidney near Victoria in the 231st Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force — also known as the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. Both listed their father in Dawson City as their next of kin and Norton’s occupation was listed as a student while Alfred was a Machinist’s Helper. While Norton and Alfred’s exact military experience is not known, the Seaforth Highlanders fought in both France and Flanders as part of the 4th Canadian Division. Remarkably, both sons survived the war and returned home to Dawson City in 1919. Turner returned to mining and in 1921, he was working as a placer miner — one who searches the sedimentary deposits in stream beds for particles of gold left behind by erosion — at Keno Hill in the remote Mayo District, 300 kms east of Dawson City.
On 7 February 1923, Alfred married his first cousin, Lucy Pargeter, at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Nanaimo. Lucy was born in Nanaimo on 31 March 1897 to James Thomas Pagerter and Sarah Lee — Frances’ sister. Alfred was still working as a Machinist and it appears he continued to work in Dawson City as he returned there alone only one month after his wedding.
Turner and Frances’ daughter Lily married several months after Alfred, to Cyril Aubrey Randle at Christ Church in Victoria on 8 September 1923. Cyril was born in Nanaimo on 24 May 1893 to Joseph Randle and his wife Martha Annie Andrews. Lily was living with her aunt and uncle, Harriet and Charles Hubbard, at their home on Clarence Street in Victoria while Cyril was living in Nanaimo and working as a Salesman. They returned to Nanaimo after their wedding where their only son, Charles Hubbard, was born on 24 October 1924.
Norton left the gold fields of the Yukon and moved to California. In 1926, he married Maud Hamlin most likely in San Francisco where they were listed in the City Directory at the time. Maud was born in Oregon on 25 December 1902. In 1930, Norton and Maud were living on Oliver Street in Daly City near San Francisco where Norton worked as a Grocery Clerk but there were no children listed in the household.
Harriet was the last to marry — on 15 October 1927, she married Albert Edward Sutton at St Paul’s in Nanaimo. Forty year old Albert was 16 years older than Harriet. He was born in Castleford, Yorkshire on 16 November 1886 to Joseph Sutton and Hanna Matthews and his family emigrated to Nanaimo when he was only two years old. Albert enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Victoria on 14 September 1915 and at the time, he was working as a Steam Engineer.
By 1935, Alfred and Lucy had settled on a farm at 670 Third Street in the Five Acres area of Nanaimo. A large parcels of land in the area between the city and Mount Benson was purchased by Samuel Roberts of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company in 1884. The land was sub-divided into five acres parcels and sold to miners at an affordable price. Roberts’ aim was to provide a way for the miners to support themselves when the mining industry was depressed. As a machinist, Alfred may have worked for the mining company or purchased the land through family connections.
Turner and Frances were still living in Dawson City where he worked as a Caretaker. Shortly after, seventy year old Turner retired and they returned to Nanaimo and settled in a house at 197 Harvey Street. Turner died at Nanaimo General Hospital on 20 May 1944 and was buried at the Nanaimo Cemetery. He had suffered from kidney problems for many years and the cause of death was listed as uremia which is caused when the kidneys fail to elimate waste from the body. His son, Alfred, was the informant on the death certificate and listed his address as 670 Third Street in Nanaimo; he was listed in the 1945 City Directory at this address and his occupation was recorded as Dairyman. Frances also appears in the same City Directory, at 197 Howard Avenue, but by 1953, she had moved to 620 Howard Avenue.
Dawson City c.1902
Norton and Maud were still in California but by 1940, they had moved across San Francisco Bay to the town of Hayward which lies between Oakland and Fremont. His occupation is unclear in the census return and he is simply listed as self employed on his US Draft card from 1942 but a 1947 border crossing card lists his occupation as Bar Tender.
On 7 November 1951, Harriet's husband, Albert, died tragically as a result of an accident at the sawmill where he worked. He was rushed to Nanaimo General Hospital but died two days later and the death certificate records the cause of death as ‘shock due to hemmorrhage, result of multiple lacerations’. An inquest was held and his death was ruled an accident as a result of ‘contact with a saw’.
Norton died, aged 67 years, in Alameda, California on 1 November 1960. His wife Maud died on 23 December 1981 in nearby Solano County. On 24 August 1969, Frances Lee died in Nanaimo and was buried at the city cemetery. Her daughter Lily died two years later, on 25 March; she was predeceased by her husband Cyril Randle on 17 February 1969. Their son, Charles Hubbard Randle, died in Nanaimo on 10 July 2014.
There is no record of Harriet after her husband's death in 1951 but it is possible she remarried. Alfred was the last surviving child of Turner and Frances; he died in Nanaimo on 20 July 1982 and his wife Lucy followed him only 5 months later on 6 December. To date, only one grandchild has been found and so this Townsend line continued on through Charles Hubbard Randle and his descendants.