|
Robert Alexander, a native of Huron County, Ontario, settled here in 1883 along with his wife, Margaret, and their three children. The original house that he built, identified as such when the house was being restored, was the western end. About 1890, sometime around the death of his wife in June of that year, the larger eastern portion was added onto the original structure. In June 1898 Robert remarried to kathrine V. Smith. Not long after, the family moved to New Westminster where Robert died in 1902. The property remained in the hands of the Alexander family (or the estate) until 1945 when the last subdivided piece was sold off.
Robert Alexander's importance lies less in his having been one of the early settlers and farmers in the area, and more in the plans that he set in motion for this corner of Tsawwassen. In 1893, he had a survey done, carving up a large portion of his 202 1/2 into small lots and he deposited this plan, titled "Plan of Summer Resort Grimsby", at the Land Title Office in New Westminster in the same year. The next year he made a trip to California, perhaps San Francisco, looking for people who were interested in purchasing summer property. In fact, Robert appeared to have been pursuing a strategy that made him the first "developer" in Delta.
There were great plans to add a hotel, which never came about, but one year, 1895, he along with a partner named Robertson opened a "grocery, fruit and confectionary store" and offered boats for hire - two excellent additions to the area and some of the first steps towards developing a camping resort. Where that store was l ocated and whether it remained in place are unknown.
While the lots were sold over the years, no such thing as a "Summer Resort" ever materialized here. The reasons are open to conjecture: perhaps people were still preferring to holiday on the attractive American side of Boundary Bay beach. Robert had been a carpenter in Ontario, rather than a farmer, a factor which may have been of importance. Or perhaps there were personal circumstances, such as health, that made the pursuit of his dream unattainable for Robert Alexander. Or was he simply ahead of his time? Regardless, his dream did lay the groundwork for the evolution of the community of Boundary Bay that developed in this southeast corner of Delta.
The remainder of the Alexander property, the 160 acres that was bough by David Gunn and later farmed by his son, developed along a different trajectory. Sold by the Gunns eventually to the spetifore family, it became part of an enormous agricultural holing that now bears the name Southlands. But let's have a little information about the Gunn family also.
David Gunn had been born in Scotland in 1864 and served in the navy in his youth. He and his wife, Betsy, who he married in 1879, immigrated to North America in 1883, stopping first at Chicago to earn enough money to complete his journey to New Westminster. David and Betsy had five sons: David, William, Robert, Peter, and George; and three daughters Margaret, Janet, and Bessie.
The history of the Gunn family in Tsawwassen began in 1903 when David and Betsie Gunn moved here to farm the 160 acres they had purchased from the Alexander estate in 1902 0r 1903. It was most lykely 1902, since The Delta Times reported in April 1903: "D. Gunn of New Westminster brought down this week to the Alexander farm at Boundary Bay, his herd of dairy cows."
The Guns had previously operated a dairy farm in New Westminster and David had been a partner in the grocery business of Parnell & Gunn in New Westminster. After David retired to his farm in Silverdale, the running of the farm in Boundary Bay was left to his son, Robert, who had remained on the farm after the other sons had enlisted and gone overseas during World War I.
Robert Gunn and his wife, Dora, owned and farmed this land from 1915 onward, according to assessment records. A bungalow was built on the property in 1922 to accommodate his widowed mother, who later did in 1933. In 1933, a large barn was added which, unfortunately, burned in a wind-fed fire in 1952 killing most of the herd of dairy cows (24 out of 72 survived) and destroying all the winter feed of bales of hay and straw as well as sacks of grain stored in the barn.
Robert Gunn died in 1945, and his wife was still alive at the time of the fire. Robert and Dora had four children: David, who joined the air force in 1942 and returned home with an English war bride, Jean; Robert, who disappeared in 1941 from a boat in Boundary Bay; Doris; and Grace. Every one would no doubt be proud of what has been achieved in the restoration of the Alexander/Gunn house.
Through the several generations of Gunns that farmed here, the emphasis was on dairy cattle. This was also the case with the Spetifores although in larger numbers. Eventually, the Spetifores milked up to 200 head of cattle and that was without milking machines in the early years. They grew strawberries and sold those from a roadside stand on Imperial Road, now 52nd Street, in the 1950s, and from a large drive-in market on 56th Street where The Wexford is now, they sold every kind of farm-fresh produce. Everything that could be grown in the field was produced here: corn and peas for the canneries; broad beans one year after World War II for a company in England; sugar beet seed, potatoes, cauliflower, and cucumbers. But the Spetifore name was long associated with the growing of potatoes.
|
