Jack and June Johnson

Jack and June Johnson

June (Wilcox) Johnson at her mother's grave not far from the Wilcox home place on Wilcox Road

HERE LIES IRICA BANNERMAN WILCOX

NEE’ MCLARY

WIFE OF HARRY, MOTHER OF JUNE (JOHNSON)

26 APRIL – 02 NOV 1920

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Vital Event Death Registration

Name: Irica Bannerman Wilcox

Event Date: 1921 (Yr/Mo/Day)

Age: 25

Gender: female

Event Place: Lillooet District

Reg. Number: 1921-09-291302

B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13120

GSU Microfilm Number: 1927297

We complete the McClary family line with June, daughter of Irica and Harry Wilcox, and her husband Jack Johnson1. As mentioned in a previous chapter, June was raised by her grandparents, Mac and Jenny McClary, on the Chub Lake ranch. One or both of the grandparents must have had a real southern drawl as it always puzzled this writer (Phil, speaking here), not knowing they were from the U.S., why June sounded like someone from the Carolina’s. Accent aside, it was very much a pioneering, outdoor existence, riding horses everywhere, fishing for brook trout in the stream, hunting, and of course the ranch work of haying, looking after the livestock and ensuring the food and wood piles were high enough for the coming winter. As was often said about the early days, you had to be able to look after yourself, and you only ran out of wood once.

Jack’s father, John Andrew Sven Johnson (step-father, maybe), arrived in the U.S. by sailing vessel, moved to Canada in 1912 or so, and took up ranching near 100 Mile House. His mother, Amy Louise Farnden was from London, England and apparently1 moved to the U.S. with two children in tow after her first husband died in the war. Their story, how they met and decided to head for B.C., is not recorded at this point. John and Amy settled on a farm just west of 100 mile House, described by son Jack as all meadows and mosquitoes. Farming, in those days, was not enough to live on, so John did lots of contract work, such as putting up hay for the 100 and 105 Mile House Ranches. Like everyone else in that country, you did what was needed to survive. Hauling supplies was another source of cash and John would use a 6-horse team to haul freight in from Lilloet and Lytton. Construction of the PGE Railway provided much need work as it went through the area about 1919 or so2. PGE construction slowed or halted during WWI (and the company was bankrupt, supposedly) but when going again there was work on the rail gangs and also the hauling of supplies.

Education

Education in the 1902’s was a sporadic affair for everyone. Often there were no nearby schools so boarding out was not uncommon. June was sort of home schooled from age 4, and only got to a ‘real’ school at 8yrs old. For a while she boarded with the Houseman family at Buffalo Creek (which is somewhat between Forest Grove and 100 Mile House) and attended Buffalo Creek School. She relates that she felt she was sent to whichever school needed the pupils to justify staying open. Presumably there might have been an option at Lac La Hache, but it also depended on having a trustworthy place to stay. Over time the odd school year was missed, but she found school easy and when at school she usually did two years in one. By 16 years, when she quit, she was essentially caught up to her age group. There was one interval near the end of schooling when her Aunt Dorothy was in 100 Mile running a taxi, and June stayed with her. At 16 her grandfather Mac McClary died and as Jennie had been and was sickly, June hung around to help take care of her.

Jack started school at 6yrs old at Lac La Hache and for that he boarded out. Than for a spell there was a cabin on the ranch turned into a classroom and a women came in to teach. Jack also spent some time (1928) boarding with the Houseman family at Buffalo Creek, along with two sisters, which is where he first met June. It was antagonism at first sight and they were always scrapping. June reflected that she was spoiled by the Houseman’s, being a ‘favorite’, so got away with lots. At age 13-14 yrs Jack quit school and started to work, at whatever could be found, no doubt some of that on his fathers ranch. This was during the depression so work and money were scarce and, as always, you did what you could. People in the country were generally okay for food (there was always hunting and the garden) but had little cash. People in the cities could not be sure of even the food. One much used technique in the absence of cash was to work off your taxes by doing government roadwork.

Life’s Progress

At one point Jack got to work on a rail crew, a unionized job that paid the princely sum of 41 cents per hour. He couldn’t believe how nice it was to work an 8 hr day, as he was more used to putting in almost that much time before breakfast (story telling was also an art in those days). And at 41 cents/hr he had money to burn, bought an old car and drove all around the country. No doubt often in the company of June. This was just prior to and entering into the war years so the economy was starting to pick up.

In 1941 June and Jack married. For the first few years they looked after his fathers ranch (the ranch was sold to the 105 Mile Ranch when his parents retired) then, in 1943 they both entered the services. Jack went into the Air Force as an airframe mechanic. He managed to use the service to learn every trade that interested him. Whenever the Air Force posted you to a different place they always asked your trade, and Jack always told them whatever he had picked to learn next. Once posted, he would find the local expert in his ‘new’ trade and make sure he was that experts most valued apprentice. In this way he picked up welding, machine work, blueprint reading etc.

June went into the army and studied ‘law’, which involved helping the returning injured and retired to understand what help was available and what were their rights. She left the service in 1945 (pregnant). Jack left in 1946. After leaving the service they returned to the Dempsey Lake area and, making use of the Veterans Act, bought the John A Wilcox property on Dempsey (see Crown Grant map in the McClary section). While John A had preempted the property, his brother Harry had probably done the necessary improvements to get title. Harry used it essentially for putting up hay but by 1946 it was apparent he had been no longer doing this for some years. Presumably his home place was adequate for his needs, though he still showed up on occasion to fish in Dempsey. An old mower was still there but some disrepair had set in and the fences were starting to fall.

June and Jack lived there 21 years, to about 1967 and raised two sons and a daughter. At one point Jack developed health problems and couldn’t work for a few years, which made for tough times as they were trying to put 3 kids through university. Jack was in demand as a machinist so when they sold the place he readily found work, so long as no heavy lifting was involved. June went to work in a building supply and became their paint expert (for 5 yrs).

Life in the Country

Building and surviving on a homestead had the same challenges for everyone in the region. There was always wood for the fire, so long as you got out and cut it. Meat was never a problem as there was hunting and of course the livestock (cattle, sheep, etc.) and the usual domestic fowl. Everyone grew a garden for some of the winter staples, canned or stored in a root cellar, as appropriate. Any cash on hand was used to order-in other necessities.

Home pizza delivery today had nothing on the delivery system used in the Cariboo through to the 1950’s. Woodwards of Vancouver, and their catalogue, were a fixture on every homestead (including the outhouse). Bulk dry goods, canned goods and all the finer items of a kitchen could be ordered. The goods were shipped, and very reliably, by PGE2. Spare cash to pay for all this might be earned from stock sales, but more likely trapping or guiding. A number of farms earned a bit of cash with the dairy business. They would ship cream in 5-gallon cans to a creamery in Quesnel. Given there was no refrigeration, the cream was good for making butter even if it went ‘off’ a bit.

Protecting your livestock was another ongoing problem. Jack and June had sheep and the bears, coyotes and even the odd cougar found them quite tasty. In later years there were government hunters to hunt down specific predators, in one instance a cougar that wiped out a fair number of their sheep, but generally everyone had a gun and could look after the odd nuisance animal on their own. They actually had a case where a coyote family denned on the property and never bothered the sheep.

And for entertainment? Old timers were always good storytellers; much practice was gained around the barrel stove. And many people could play some kind of instrument, something like a mouth organ, so there was always talk and music to while away the odd long winter afternoon. A lot of effort was made to get to the occasional ‘dance’ at the nearest village; after all, the young folk did have to meet.

Conservation

The early pioneers in the Cariboo seemed to practice conservation as a matter of habit. Yes they hunted, they trapped, and with the possible exception of the beaver, they never took more than they needed. The beaver were trapped out prior to WWII, but by after the war they came back in droves and since no one was trapping them, they became a nuisance. Even at the small level the people looked after their resources. June recalls she was only allowed to catch a quota of brook trout (several every 2-3 weeks, say), just to ensure the pools would not be depleted. [The stream on the farm had brook trout and was the domain of the children].

Another practice the locals adopted from the natives was the brush burn. Jack relates spring and fall they would be “sent out with a box of matches” to open up the bush. These burns did open up the woods and had the benefit of providing good viewing for hunting, clearing the underbrush and reducing summer fire hazards, and also reducing the wood ticks. When the government “experts” stopped this practice, the woods became impassable with underbrush and prone to large nasty fires. Such government experts were often viewed with derision. Jack recalls one instance when he and about a hundred other guides met with a couple of government “experts” in Clinton to define the rules on bull and cow moose hunting seasons. All the guides were unanimous on certain cow moose hunting rules, which the experts promptly ignored and which resulted in overkill of the cow population.

After WWII, with a big influx of workers and people “not of the land”, there was a shift in general attitudes. The old timers would be disgusted with outside hunters that would kill anything for the fun, and seemed to show more disrespect for their environment. With this influx also came a change in the native groups and in interactions with the native tribes.

Natives

The old timers had really good relations with the natives. The Williams Lake and Canim Lake bands were always riding back and forth, especially when there was a stampede, and they usually passed through the Chub/Dempsey Lake area. They would stop in for supper, stay the night and be off. One old guy was a band hunter and might drop in for a week, talking about hunting and methods and skills in the woods.

Lots of natives worked with Jack’s father during haying and they were a always cheerful, joking, hard working bunch. But if there was a funeral or a stampede (rodeo) to go to, they were gone, hay be damned. They did have different priorities. The McClary sons were often on hunting trips and just plain exploring ventures with native friends. Jack relates learning an Indian trick for keeping fresh meat longer in the summer heat. They cover it with a certain type of willow leaf and set in it the sun to dry and crust over. Seemed to defeat the blowflies. Rather than keep meat past the green stage, it was more usual, if you got a deer for instance, to simply divide it up and pass it around. There was an easygoing relationship between the homesteaders and the natives. This seemed to change after WWII, with the influx of new people, with different attitudes and less appreciation for surviving on the land, and also the native themselves may have changed but not at the same rate or necessarily in the same direction as the growing community that surrounded them.

Religion

Organized religious gatherings were not exactly easy in the pioneer life and so played a small part. Religion, if practiced, was usually a family affair. June’s grandparents represented two distinct contrasts. On the one hand were the McClary’s, who were deeply religious (Jack though Jenny as the most religious/spiritual person he knew), but it was personal. Jenny encouraged the kids to read the bible, at least once, and she read a small excerpt at breakfast time as a prayer, but that was it. She thought most religions were basically the same, and whichever one you preferred was just fine. There was no proselytizing and nothing was ever pushed on the kids. Mac had similar views, but was perhaps even less overt about his beliefs. In his view there was no time in life to be spared for preachers or lawyers – time to move on when they arrive. On the other hand was Alice Wilcox, Harry’s mother. Very strongly catholic in her beliefs, she was against Harry marrying Irica, as Irica was not catholic. June called Alice a “fine” woman, always kind, but not warm. Alice would send June religious pamphlets, and once voiced the thought that perhaps Jenny and Mac might not let her read them. Jenny and Mac were very open minded about this or anything else and the kids could read whatever they wanted, a view that was perhaps foreign to Alice. While Harry Wilcox might have started out with heavy duty catholic training, he soon got away from that and in the end really wanted not much to do with it. June and Jack followed much the same path; managing to lead a good life, thoughtful and considerate of others, basically following all the commandments without the baggage.

By Phil Wilcox