The Boy in the Picture

by Ray Argyle

  THE BOY

  in

  THE PICTURE

  THE BOY

  in

  THE PICTURE

  The Craigellachie Kid and

  the Driving of the Last Spike

  RAY ARGYLE

  Copyright © Ray Argyle, 2010

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

  Project Editor: Jane Gibson

  Editor: Nicole Chaplin

  Design: Jesse Hooper

  Printer: Marquis

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Argyle, Ray

  The boy in the picture : the Craigellachie kid and the driving / by Ray Argyle.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Also issued in electronic format.

  ISBN 978-1-55488-787-3

  1. Mallandaine, Edward, 1867-1949--Juvenile literature. 2. Railroads--Canada--History--19th century--Juvenile literature. 3. Canadian Pacific Railway Company--History--19th century--Juvenile literature. 4. Railroads--Canada--Employees--Biography--Juvenile literature. 5. Canada--History--1867---Juvenile literature. I. Title.

  HE2808.2.M34A74 2010 j385.092 C2010-902402-8

  1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

  Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

  J. Kirk Howard, President

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  www.dundurn.com

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  For Christopher, Logan, Sarah, and Jenna

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  Chapter 1: Edward Looks for Trouble

  Chapter 2: Caught in the Flames

  Chapter 3: A Dark Night at Eagle Landing

  Chapter 4: Thunder in the Pass

  Chapter 5: No Time to Fight

  Chapter 6: Edward Gets His Chance

  Chapter 7: Edward Meets the Hanging Judge

  Chapter 8: Lord Lansdowne Comes Calling

  href="Chapter 9: Courage on Gold Mountain

  Chapter 10: Edward Rides the Rails

  Chapter 11: Edward and the Last Spike

  Chapter 12: Home from the Mountains

  Epilogue

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Author

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  When I decided to write Edward Mallandaine’s story, I jotted down my recollections of all the tales he’d told me of his youthful adventures. Growing up, we lived in a house he’d built and I looked forward to him coming around every month to collect the rent from my dad. That’s when he’d tell me stories of his exploits. When I turned to books about the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, I soon realized I would have to go much deeper. Fortunately, I had a lot of help along the way.

  The staff of the British Columbia Archives were very helpful in providing me access to their files of Edward’s letters and family records. The Glenbow Museum in Calgary offered a treasure trove on Edward’s work with the CPR, and I wish to thank their staff, especially Lindsay Moir, for valuable assistance.

  Not many small towns have two museums, but that is the case in Revelstoke, British Columbia. I am especially grateful to Jennifer Dunkerson of the Revelstoke Railway Museum for her assistance and support. She always had time to take telephone calls from myself and my publisher, and was enthusiastic in her endorsement of this project. Cathy English of the Revelstoke Museum and Archives was generous with her time in helping me track down facts about leading personalities from Edward’s day

  The Creston Museum and Archives in Creston, British Columbia, is the repository of much information about the town’s early history and Edward Mallandaine’s role in establishing that community. I was greatly assisted by its director, Tammy Hardwick, who scoured through back copies of the Creston Review for articles by and about Edward.

  This book would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of Barry Penhale, publisher emeritus of Natural Heritage Books. I am grateful for his encouragement. I also wish to thank Nicole Chaplin, for her meticulous editing of the manuscript.

  To my knowledge, Pierre Berton’s The Last Spike: The Great Railway 1881-1885 was the first widely read book to recognize Edward’s presence at the ceremony in Craigellachie. I want to express my appreciation to Elsa Franklin, who was Pierre’s manager, for her help and encouragement for The Boy in the Picture.

  I first wrote about Edward Mallandaine for The Beaver magazine (now Canada’s History Magazine). I am indebted to Nelle Oosterom for her award-winning presentation of that article and her ongoing support.

  My grateful appreciation goes to my partner Deborah Windsor for her everlasting inspiration, helpfulness, and comfort.

  INTRODUCTION

  This is the story of Edward Mallandaine, the boy in the picture of the driving of the Last Spike. This photo, perhaps the most famous in Canadian history, marked the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) across Canada. It was taken early on the morning of November 7, 1885, in Craigellachie, British Columbia.

  I had the privilege of knowing Edward when he was a very old man and I was a young boy. I have drawn on accounts he left and stories he told me to write this tale of his journey along tote roads and the newly laid tracks of the railway, past “hostess houses” and “Chinese joss houses,” into hotels crowded with rough characters, through mountain passes filled with beautiful scenery, and into the lawlessness of remote towns and railway camps.

  Today, we enjoy instant communication by phone and the Internet, and think nothing of accessing music, videos, and pictures online. We are only hours away, by plane, from any other place on earth. It may be hard to imagine what it was like when Edward, just eighteen — and looking even younger — set out on his great adventure.

  News travelled slowly in Edward’s day. The big story during his teenage years was the North-West Rebellion. Edward lived in Victoria, B.C., and the accounts he read in his local newspaper, the British Colonist, about the fighting on the prairies were often days old. Right away, he wanted to get in on the action. Accounts from those days tell of how he wanted “to fight the Indians,” as First Nations people were known at that time.

  Edward probably had little understanding of the true causes of the North-West Rebellion — of how Louis Riel had struggled to obtain justice for his people, the mixed-blood Métis of the plains, and for Natives who had lost their hunting grounds and were being driven into reserves. But with the enthusiasm of youth, he was determined to join the battle.

  As it turned out, Edward was too late. The fighting was over by the time he had slogged his
way east by boat, train, horseback, and on foot.

  Fate had a different destination for Edward. He talked his way into a contract with the Post Office Department to ride a pony between Eagle Pass Landing and the town of Farwell (now Revelstoke), delivering supplies and newspapers to the workers on the railway, and picking up mail and packages. He spent an adventurous summer until the railway was finished, at the beginning of November 1885.

  The night before the driving of the Last Spike, Edward clambered aboard a flatcar loaded with steel rails and clung for his life as the train drove through a blinding blizzard to reach Craigellachie. Sleepless and half-frozen, he was determined to put himself in the soon-to-be famous photograph that marks the occasion when Canada was bound together, coast-to-coast, by the transcontinental railway.

  The Last Spike was only the first great adventure of Edward’s life. He went on to do important work for the CPR and helped found the town of Creston, B.C. He served his community as a magistrate and politician, respected throughout British Columbia. After leading the Kootenay Regiment of the Canadian Army Forestry Corps in the First World War, he became a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Army Reserve. From that day on, he was known as Colonel Mallandaine, the title by which I knew him.

  When Edward died, I was close to the age he had been at Craigellachie: Canada’s entire history as a nation has unfolded, from Confederation to the age of terrorism, during the lifetimes of just the two of us. Today’s Canada is held together by forces that have long since replaced the railway. It is time to draw again on the legacy of Craigellachie, and the burning ambition that one young man brought to that time and place — to be in the picture, and to be a leading actor in the building of a boisterous, confident country.

  I have meshed storytelling with historical record in writing this tribute to Edward Mallandaine. It is dedicated to all young men and women who yearn for adventure. May they be as determined as he was to find it.

  Ray Argyle

  CHAPTER 1

  EDWARD LOOKS

  FOR TROUBLE

  The thing about Edward was, he couldn’t stay out of trouble. It was the one thing he was never shy about. At school, he had no difficulty mastering his lessons, but trouble seemed to follow him around. One could never be sure whether trouble found him, or Edward found trouble.

  Take the time when his teacher at Victoria Central School, Mr. Pleace, a tall, stern, and fiery-tempered schoolmaster, shouted at him:

  “Eddie, you bag of fleas, stop your squirming. You will never set the harbour on fire.”

  The reason Mr. Pleace shouted at him was that Edward learned his lessons so quickly, he fell easily into boredom. He had to find something else to do — and what he found usually got him into trouble.

  This time, Edward was daydreaming about fishing: it was his favourite pastime. He’d sit on a rock on the edge of Victoria Harbour and drop in his line, bearing an enticing hook camouflaged with a cleverly tied imitation bug, or fly. The young salmon and sea trout were often fooled by Edward’s flies.

  And on his lap, that fateful day, Edward was tying a new fly that he hoped to try out right after school.

  When Mr. Pleace told Edward he’d never set the harbour on fire, he took it as a challenge. He decided right then that he’d show the schoolmaster that he could, indeed, set the harbour on fire.

  He pondered the conundrum as he meandered along Simcoe Street on his way to his home in Victoria’s James Bay district. He wondered if anyone had ever set the sea aflame. He talked it over with his younger brother Frederick, when he got home.

  Edward’s childhood home on Simcoe Street in Victoria, British Columbia. A C.C.

  Pemberton photo, 1935.

  Together, they decided it could be done. They rummaged around their backyard and found a large, discarded wooden box. After collecting shavings from their woodpile and crumpling up some old copies of the British Colonist newspaper, they stuffed the whole mess into the box, and poured oil all over it. Then, the two of them went down to the shore.

  “Give me that match, I’ll light the paper,” Edward told his brother.

  Once he was sure it was burning well, he pushed the box out onto the water.

  Unfortunately, they’d chosen to launch the fiery carrier just a few feet from the James Bay Bridge, a wooden structure that spanned the Inner Harbour. The tidal current, aided by a brisk breeze, carried the box straight up against the bridge. The burning box soon ignited a piling and in a flash, the bridge was on fire.

  A man fishing from a rowboat saved the bridge. He saw the fire and rowed over hurriedly. Using his bailing can, he quickly extinguished the flames.

  The boys could hear the man calling to them.

  “You kids will be in a pack of trouble if I catch you,” he shouted and started rowing quickly to shore.

  Edward and Fred ran off, terrified at what they had done but jubilant at having actually set fire to the harbour. That night, all of Victoria was agog at the attempt to burn James Bay Bridge.

  As soon as Edward’s class assembled the next morning, he shot up his hand, snapping his fingers to gain the attention of the teacher.

  “Well, flea bag, what is it you want now?” Mr. Pleace asked. “I suppose you’ve made up some fantastical excuse for not having done your homework.”

  “Oh, no Mr. Pleace, it’s not about my homework. You said I’d never set the harbour on fire. Well, you’re wrong, Mr. Pleace. I did set the harbour on fire. Really and truly I did.”

  If Edward expected praise, he was gravely mistaken.

  “You did?” Mr. Pleace exclaimed. “I see you’re destructive as well as lazy. We know how to fix a boy like you!”

  And with that, he yanked Edward from his seat, grabbed hold of his collar, and dragged him to the front of the room.

  “Look at this sorry specimen, children. And let this be a lesson to all of you,” he said, pulling out the strap.

  In Edward’s day, it was common for teachers to beat their pupils when they did something that displeased them.

  After, Edward boasted to his friends how it was. “Mr. Pleace gave me one of the best floggings I ever had from him! Still, I can claim to be the only one who ever set Victoria Harbour on fire — and that’s something!”

  Edward Mallandaine grew up in the very British town of Victoria, British Columbia. During Edward’s boyhood, it had already become the biggest town on Vancouver Island. It was also the capital of British Columbia, which had joined Canada as a province based on the promise that it would be connected with the rest of the country by railway.

  Victoria was a typical colonial outpost during Edward’s school years. The Union Jack flew proudly from the Birdcage, the building that housed the legislative assembly of the young province. The city was built around the magnificent Inner Harbour on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Edward thought it must have the most beautiful setting of any city in the world.

  As a seaport, Victoria attracted a colourful array of characters. There were proper British settlers who brought all their traditions to this new land. Roaming seamen were left wandering the waterfront when their vessels left port without them. Miners en route from California to the gold fields of central British Columbia kept the town’s saloons busy. Chinese workers, penniless and adrift, had come to “Gold Mountain” to earn money to support their families back home. They squatted in Chinatown, hoping for the day they could bring their wives and children over.

  Edward grew up with his town, as well as with Canada. He was born on June 1, 1867, exactly a month before the Dominion of Canada came into being when the Province of Canada (modern day Quebec and Ontario) joined with the colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Confederation. The new nation soon spread west. When British Columbia joined in 1871, Canada was complete from coast to coast.

  Edward’s teen years were exciting ones. He was a good-looking boy, with sandy-coloured hair and hazel eyes. He did all the things a boy likes to do: he clambered over the rocky shoreline of Victoria H
arbour to cast lines for salmon and sea trout; he liked books, and made his father buy all the latest titles, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. As Edward devoured every word, he imagined himself in company with the young hero who lived on the Mississippi River. Like Tom, Edward loved the water and had a zest for new experiences.

  Edward’s experience with people of other races was somewhat limited. With his friends, he sometimes dared to explore the mysterious laneways of Victoria’s Chinatown. The boys ran screaming when they encountered a “son of heaven,” imagining that the little men in pigtails would harm them if they were caught. In their hearts, Edward and his friends knew they were in no danger.

  Edward’s position as the oldest of the five Mallandaine children conferred certain privileges on him. He got to stay up later than the others, and was more or less left on his own as to how he spent his time. Whenever he could, whatever he did, he did it with Fred, who was just fourteen months younger. Together, they swam and played cricket for the James Bay Athletic Association. Then there were Edward’s two sisters, Louisa and Harriet, and finally the youngest of the lot, Charles.

  Edward especially liked playing big brother to Charles. He was eight years his junior, born in 1875. Edward vied with his sisters for the little boy’s attention. He could never say no when the lad pleaded to go along with him and Fred on one of their more harmless adventures.

  Edward must have got his sense of adventure from his parents. Both had dared to take on unknown risks in search of excitement.