1866 - James

James s/o Michael Archibald & Jane Cheaters - for the first part of this story Go to Our NewBrunswick Genealogy. Annecdote are under his wife Jenny Ryan

From the Vancouver Directory:

• 1923 James J Archibald, (laborer?) Tally Brooks Lumber co, 672 Homer
• 1925 James J Archibald (shingle inspector) 672 Homer
• 1926 J J Archibald, 2875 Kway
• 1927 MRS J J Archibald, 1216 Alberni

DEATH

James John Archibald died on 21 Nov 1934 (aged 68) and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

CHILDREN

1. Nina Ellen Archibald (Apr 15 1896-1982) m John Henry Cross - BIOGRAPHY FOLLOWS
2. Wesley Alexander Archibald (1898-Nov 8 1918) was a quiet boy. He suffered burns to his hips and upper leg working in his father's sawmill during his early teens. He was in bed for a year recuperating. The family was in Vancouver when Wesley signed up to go overseas in 1915. He served the first 10 months in Canada and remained in England for another half year, obtaining a quick promotion to sergeant in the signal corps because of his “good military character.”When he finally reached the front, it was as a replacement for the 7th (British Columbia) battalion. This was one the first Canadian units in France and some of the veterans did not appreciate having a green sergeant hoisted on them. Wesley was immediately demoted to private, only to have his stripes restored within hours. His unit was in the first wave that attacked Vimy Ridge. A pilot, watching the advance from above, wrote: “The men seemed to wander across no-man’s-land and into the enemy trenches as if the battle was a great bore to them...To me it seemed that they must wake up and run; that they were altogether too slow; that they could not realize the great danger they were in...I could not get it out of my head that it was just a game they were playing at.” Wesley was close to the extreme right of the advancing line. He was at the first enemy line less than thirty seconds after the artillery barrage moved on to the next objective. He and his mates had been trained to drop a few mills bombs in enemy dugouts, and move on. Machine guns were tackled differently: some men engaged the enemy frontally while others crept around to attack these strongholds the flank or rear. After half an hour the first three Canadian divisions had cleared the first line of enemy works and were racing uphill. At this point the 7th battalion passed two rabbits that had miraculously survived the shelling and were now scampering for safety. The first phase of the attack ended with the capture of the enemy Red Line. Wesley would fight no more that day Wesley Archibald took part in the assault that gained that bald knob of limestone known as Hill 70. His battalion quickly captured its’ primary objective in the assault on Passchendale, but suffered such heavy casualties that they had to be relieved. (As a result of the British army's failure to advance, the Canadian Corps abandoned this position. Passchendale was Sergeant Wesley Archibald’s last battle. Perhaps, as he struggled through the muck, he gazed upwards to the passing biplanes. He wanted to become a pilot, and both his Sergeant stripes and his having been awarded the military medal argued for his being accepted into the training program. On Dec 10 1917, he received permission to go to England. He was a Second Lieutenant, posted with the 29th Training Station, when his plane stalled on November 8th. He died three days prior to the Armistice that ended the war.
3. Ora Jane Archibald (Apr 14 1898) m Alexander BELL in Vancouver on June 11 1918 (reg # 1918-09-187821). Snatches of her childhood came to Ora Jane's mind as we talked.They attended a two room schoolhouse. Whenever someone started getting ahead they were given some slower children to tutor. Thus Ora Jane found herself teaching at 11 years of age. The children usually got a stocking filled with fruit and candy, and a present, for Christmas. One year Ora opened her present to find out that she only got a small doll while her sister Nina had a large one. She fought hard to control her tears. The next morning her mother Jenny drove to Campbellton and picked up a big doll for Ora too. After they moved to Vancouver Ora Jane started as a clerk in a fifteen cent store. At the end of her second day the manager came over and asked, "what's your name?" He went back to check his records after she told him, then said "There's no Ora Jane Archibald working here." More than eighty years after the fact, Ora chuckled as she told the story, then added "I must have gone back to the wrong store." Not long afterward Ora started working as a telephone operator. She married a 24-year-old police officer, Alexander Bell (s/o Robert Thomas Bell & Sarah Young of Ayrshire) in Vancouver on June 11, 1918. Their marriage lasted long enough to raise two boys. Jane was 44 when she left. She took on a lot of different sales jobs: Real Estate, ladies clothing. She even purchased her sister Jean's coffee house. Jane was 70 when she came to work for my mother (Dell Cross). After taking a bath, I once went into the kitchen clothed only in a towel. Feeling abashed by my nerve, Jane made a grab for my towel. I'm not sure which one of us would have felt more embarrassed had she actually got it. As it was, she laughingly chased me back to the door of my bedroom. Jane is now legally blind, and lives in a rest home in Maple Ridge. Children:
   • Norv Bell (June 5 1922) m June
   • Roy Bell (May 9 1919) m Barbara
4. Lindsy Archibald (June 10 1899, Flatlands NB - 1982) m (A) Anne Catherine Burtenbach in Vancouver on Nov 2 1920 (reg # 219410) (B) Monna abt 1923. Ora Jane says that her father was strict with all the children except her brother Lindsey. James was napping the day Lindsy broke the heads off a dozen matches and stuffed them into his father's pipe. James woke up, lit his pipe, and then started screaming after the flames jumped up to burn his nose. "Any of the rest of us would have really got it about then", Ora says. Lindsy was only 15 when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His mother Jenny went to the recruiting people and explained that Lindsey had lied about his age. She got him out, but he re-enlisted. Lindsy's unit, the 29th battalion, reached France on June 29. The day after his arrival, Lindsy's unit won the Second Division's tug of war competition. While it is not known if he participated, this coincides with Lindsy receiving a $4.00 fine for a rip his great coat. He fought at the Somme, when Field Marshall Douglas Haig sent a million men forward to try and break through the German lines. The 29th was kept in reserve, while the rest of the brigade was bogged down by German fire on September 15, 1916. (All but one of the 7 tanks that took part in this attack either broke down or was destroyed by artillery fire.) Lindsy's battalion led the assault that went forward on September 26 and, after two days of intense fighting, gained their objective. This was not enough to defeat the enemy, but the Canadian Corp's gains were impressive when compared to the rest of the British army's. They were used as shock troops for the rest of the war. Wesley's battalion was in the first wave that attacked at Vimy Ridge, Lindsay watched them go forward. He would later mention his unit often passed Wesley's, as they went to and from the trenches. The 29th battalion proceeded behind a creeping barrage. Lindsay would have been among those on the slopes when the clouds parted, giving both armies a clear view of the Canadian advance. “Thus for a fleeting moment was revealed the final issue of the day: the Germans saw that the ridge was lost, the Canadians knew it was won.” They overran Thelus trench, captured the south end of Hill 135. By noon, the crest of the ridge was in Canadian hands. Then Lindsay’s unit joined the 27th (Winnipeg) in a downhill charge that cleared the Bois de la Folie, on the reverse side of the ridge, of enemy machine guns and artillery. Lindsay was wounded during the last German offensive of the war. They penetrated 40 miles, but were finally defeated by their inability to supply their forward units. As increasing numbers of soldiers turned away from the battle to seek sustenance, Ludendorff was forced to regroup. Corporal Lindsay Archibald received a “blighty” – a wound serious enough to send him across to a hospital in England - on April 9th. Shrapnel tore into his leg and shoulder during the very last day of the offensive. He was transferred form the 29th to the 1st Reserve battalion in England. He was employed training Canadian replacements for the duration of the conflict, and was eventually promoted to sergeant. "He was different when he got back," Ora Jane told me. Aside from the fact he drank heavily, she couldn't explain why. Lindsy also had venereal disease, which so disgusted his sister Nina that she would have nothing to do with him. Lindsy married Ann, and made stainless steel pots for a living. He continued to drink heavily after coming back from the war, and eventually she took their son James and left. Ann ended up marrying a Mr Nelson. Lindsy became a longshoreman in New Westminster, and married Mona. Lindsey died at the age of 82, on 27 Apr, 1982. He was cremated. Children:
   1. James Archibald (c1921)
   2. Bobby Archibald (adopted)
5. Della Archibald (1900-1965) Della was struck with ostemolitis and had to remain in Vancouver's General Hospital for a year. At 16 she was in a beauty school, and by 1932 she opened her first shop on Hastings and Nanaimo. Della followed this profession for years. As late as 1955 we find her opening a new beauty salon on Comdason. Della married Sidney Talbot about 1932. He was originally a Vancouver city Policeman. They moved in with Jenny after their marriage. After that Sid worked in Della's beauty parlor for awhile, and bet on horse races. I remember the two of them taking me for a drive when I was 17. Sid produced a bottle of port wine and offered me a drink. Then they told me how Syd had got into a fight with a club bouncer not too long before. Seeing that her husband was getting the worst of the affair, Della promptly jumped on the man's back and started pummeling him. Moments later the bouncer had both Syd and Della on the floor. Della adored her husband. Ora remembers Della as being full of fun: " She liked to drink gin, though no one remembers seeing her drunk. She was a great one to laugh. She'd often start to tell a story, and then kill herself laughing half way through. She never could get to the punch line."
6. Vera Mary Archibald (1901) The first word people use to describe Vera is "fun". She liked to laugh. She chose careers that brought her close to people. She studied hairdressing, and was a receptionist. In 1924 Arnold Hines came to board in her mother's house. Arnold entered the United States that year. In 1925, Vera boarded with Mrs. Perry in Seattle, while she was taking a hairdressing course. She and Arnold were married in 1926. In 1930 Vera and Arnold opened a hairdressing salon with 26 operators in downtown Seattle. Vera was the receptionist. Arnold is listed as the owner in the census. Twelve years later they closed up shop and bought a hazelnut farm. Arnold died in 1949 , and Vera was crushed by overwhelming loss. The following year she adopted two of her niece Vera's boys. She possessed that spontaneous spunk that runs through much of the family. In her elderly years, Vera would give the finger to other drivers who annoyed her.Still alive, but senile, Vera presently lives in Seattle a home for the elderly. Children:
   • Terry Hines
   • Tim Hines
7. Opal Christina Archibald (29 Jul 1901) Opal was the quiet one in the family and is remembered for her love of fantasizing. She was 21 and unemployed when she married 25-year-old taxi driver Jonathan Reid ("Jack") Hicks (s/o Ephraim Hicks & Margaret Perry) at 335 11th West, Vancouver, on 20 Sep 1922. Her brother John Henry ("Jack") Cross and sister (Vera?) were the witnesses. They moved to North Vancouver. In 1938 they bought a farm in Cloverdale. Jack died in New Westminster on 16 Apr 1956. In 1970 Opal moved to Langley, to be closer to her daughter Vern. She died in Langley on 4 Nov, 1981 and is buried at Surrey Centre Cemetery in Cloverdale. Children:
   • Bernie Hicks
   • Vernice Hicks
   • Laughlin Hicks
   • Patrick Hicks
   • John Hicks
8. Isabell Archibald (born 29 May, 1903, in Flatlands, NB) Isabel had a childlike quality that endeared her to many. She was studying nursing at St Paul’s Hospital just prior to he marriage to Marcus Henry Burns (Mar 31 1895- July 14 1987) in 1926. Dell Cross remembers the years the Burns were short of cash. Isabell was given money for groceries, but little else, and she once had to sell an extra pound of butter to obtain some cash. Once, when Dell babysat for her, Isabell could only pay her with a pair of nylons. Marcus became an assistant manager in 1928. He periodically invited the Cross family over for lunch and had the staff serve them. Marcus was probably proud (and nervous) when the train carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth – along with the future Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret – pulled into Vancouver’s CPR station at 10 am on May 29^th, 1939. Thousands had been gathering along the streets where they would pass before dawn, and scalpers were selling the best seats for $10! The present Hotel Vancouver, under construction for over a decade, opened just in time to provide them with a suite. They royal party stopped there for lunch. I cannot help but wonder how Marcus Burns felt about the fact that the staff from Quebec’s Chateau Laurier that had been brought West to prepare the “crab legs, consumme Madrilene, crown of spring lamb and bombe aux fraises”. The royal party was on board the CPR cruise ship Princess Maguerite, bound for Victoria, that afternoon. Dell Cross was among those who had gathered on Broadway to watch the royal family and Prime Minister MacKenzie King pass in an open touring car. That wasn’t nearly as exciting as her chance encounter with Shirley Temple, three years earlier. The child actress had just been walking out of the Hotel Vancouver’s door when mom saw her. Temple flashed one of her famous smiles, and was gone. Mom almost fainted. After Marcus became the hotel’s manager, in 1943, the family moved into suite 767. He periodically invited the Cross family over for lunch and had the staff serve them. Hearing that Bettie Hales and Doug Lee did not have a hotel room for their honeymoon night, Marcus put them up in the hotel Vancouver free of charge. In 1961 Mark & Isabell retired to their summer home "the farm" on the banks of the Alouette river in Maple Ridge. I met her decades later, after she and her husbands retired to their “farm” (actually a river lot) on the banks of the Alouette River in Maple Ridge. We called her Mame, and it is only in recent years that I discovered her name was actually Isabelle. She was the prettiest of the Archibald sisters that I have met, and the only one to retain her slim figure into old age. Mame was dark haired, with very peaceful blue eyes and a gentle manner.Isabell died in Haney on 23 Apr 1966. Children:
   • Charles Roger Burns (17 Oct 1928, Vancouver - 16 Mar 1985, Richmond) m June Simpson
   • Gloria Joan Burns m Richard Drew
   • Marcus Edward Burns Jr. m Chris Youds
   • Carolyn Jennifer Burns (June 27 1947) m Bob Pearson (1942) They lived in Maple Ridge for awhile, and moved to Kimberly BC during the 1990s.
9. Jean Archibald (Mar 1 1905 - Aug 1990) m (A) Bertran Hodson (Nov1903-1954) (B) Dennis Bolter. Jean's grandchildren remember her as someone who was more interested in what was happening now than anything t that had occurred in the past. As a result they knew little of their family history. In 1921 Jean had married Bert Hodson, a "dental mechanic" who was also the son of a former Vancouver alderman. They had one child, Wesley. In 1943 Jean opened a coffee shop in Chapman's Bowling alley. Jean & Bert divorced sometime prior to his death in White Rock, 9 Nov 1966. Dell Cross says that after Bert's death, Jean married Dennis Bolter. She lived her final years in White Rock, where she died in Aug 1990.
   • Wesley Bertran Hodson (July 30 1923) a dental mechanic like his father. m (A) Mabel Hughina Handford (Aug 3 1925- Jan 20 1970) (B) Barb Robinson (Oct 14) White Rock BC
10. Patrick Vernon Archibald (1911-1979) m Laura Secord. Once when he was small Patrick was told to share his candy. He slowly looked around the room at all his siblings, then said, "Too many Brudders." Later on he worked in the office of the Harrison Hotel and commuted home every week. After he married Laura Secord, in 1941, his uncle Bert Hodson taught him the dental mechanics trade.
    • Laura Archibald

(Sources: Ora Jane Archibald; Norma Lorene Cross; Della May Cross; John Hanry Cross; Roy L Hales; WWI Service Records of Wesley & Lindsay Archibald; "Jenny" a booklet prepared by Marlene Moyes & Jennifer Burns; BC Death & Marriage stats)