susan emma townsend + everett george youngs
Susan, and her twin sister Harriet, were born in Victoria in the colony of British Columbia on 20 December 1867 to Alfred and Charlotte Townsend. She was baptised at St John’s the following year and grew up in the James Bay area of the city with her four brothers and sisters.
In 1891, Susan was living with her family in James Bay and working as a Bookbinder and at the age of 30, she married Everett George Youngs in Victoria on 16 June 1897. Everett was born in Oxford, Ontario on 9 June 1872 to Benjamin Franklin Youngs and his wife Margaret Reid. Everett moved from his home in Ontario to Victoria shortly before his marriage and was lodging at the Clarence Hotel on Yates Street. He found a job as a carpenter but after they married, he found a better job as a construction contractor in Vancouver.
Their first son Allet Franklin, known as Frank, was born at 901 Hornby Street in Vancouver on 8 April 1898 and Theodore Norton Townsend, known as Norton, was born on 28 April 1900. By 1901, Susan and their two sons had returned to Victoria and were living with her mother Charlotte Townsend but Everett was not listed with the family. They were still in Victoria when their daughter Thelma Minnie Harriet was born on 2 April 1905.
Like many others, Everett travelled up and down the west coast looking for work in the developing towns of Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco and in 1910, the family was living in Los Angeles County in California where Everett was likely working in the booming construction business. They returned to Victoria once again and settled in a house at 137 Clarence Street near Beacon Hill Park. On 30 July 1915, Everett enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and several months later, his son Norton, who was working as a candy vendor, also enlisted followed by Frank, a student, on 3 December. Everett suffered from gastritis and after being discharged from the army for medical reasons, he arrived in St John, New Brunswick on Christmas Day 1916. Norton served overseas until the end of the war and arrived in Halifax on 21 May 1918.
c. 1923
While stationed in Belfast, Frank met and married Annie Cromien in the spring of 1919. She was born in Belfast on 2 August 1898 to Joseph Cromien and his second wife Annie Murphy. Frank sailed home after his discharge and arrived in Quebec City on 25 August 1919 while Annie arrived in Halifax on board the Tunisian some months later before travelling across the country by train. Frank’s family was not happy that he converted to Catholicism before marrying his Irish wife and the marriage caused a terrible rift in the family. Frank and Annie settled in Victoria and had two daughters, Noreen Frances born on 16 August 1920 and Jacqueline Rose born on 27 March 1922.
In 1921, Everett, Susan and their two younger children were living in a house at 1421 Chambers Street, between Pandora and Yates Street, and both Everett and his 21 year old son, Theodore, were out of work. Everett left Victoria several months later, possibly in an attempt to find work, and he sailed from Prince Rupert and arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska on 14 June; the passenger manifest lists his occupation as a vendor but there is no other information on the type of business he was engaged in however, a passenger list from 1930 lists his occupation as a government liquor vendor.
Their son Norton was working as a chemist when he married Emma Wenmouth at Christ Church Anglican Church on 18 August 1926. His address on the marriage register was 1417 Vancouver Street while Emma was living on Hollyburn Road in West Vancouver and working as a teacher. They had one son, Norton Wenmouth, in Victoria before moving to Prince Rupert on the north coast of British Columbia where Norton worked as a real estate agent and a travel agent.
Blanshard Street, Victoria
The family celebrated a second wedding in 1926 when Thelma married Edward Creech on 6 October at the Church of Our Lord in Victoria. The church was built in the Craftsman Gothic style in 1876 at the corner of Blanshard and Humboldt by a congregation from the Reformed Episcopal Church and in 1998, the building was recognized as a National Historical Site of Canada. Edward Creech was born in Victoria on 16 January 1903 to Richard Kendall Creech and Rachel Ann Bloomfield. When they married, Edward was working as a civil servant and living at 1956 Ash Street while Thelma was living with her family on Vancouver Street.
In 1927, Frank and Annie’s marriage broke down and after they divorced, Frank left Victoria and moved to Shanghai, China. In 1932, he left China and sailed to London on board the SS Suwa Maru; the passenger manifest lists his intended address as the Grosvenor Hotel in London and his occupation as an office manager. By 1939, he had moved to Gillingham, Kent and was lodging with Robert and Kate Adkin at 16 Queens Road and working as a specialty salesman. He married a second time to Irene Harris in Middlesex in 1947 and they had two daughters.
Seventy-seven year old Everett was working as a hotel clerk at the Fairfield Hotel on Douglas Street when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He died at St Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria on 3 July 1948.
Susan died on 7 July 1957 at 857 Burdett Avenue in Victoria and was buried in her family plot at Ross Bay Cemetery four days later. On 21 January 1964, Norton tragically died as a result of a self-inflected gun shot wound while parked in his car on Summit Avenue in Prince Rupert. He was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Prince Rupert three days later.
Frank, had moved from London to Glasgow some years earlier and he lived there until his death on 5 January 1972. Annie Cromien remarried on 2 July 1943 to William Haley in Victoria. He died at the Veteran’s Hospital in Victoria on 20 January 1974 and Annie died at their family home on Kings Road on 23 April 1978.
Thelma died in Victoria in 1990 and was buried in the Creech family plot at Ross Bay Cemetery with her husband Edward who pre-deceased her in 1984.