What's in a Name?

                                                                                      Hillcrest Farm                      photo courtesy Campbell River Museum

As you can see we named "the farm".  After throwing out all my suggestions including , Penny Apple Farm.  Etienne suggested the historical name Hillcrest Farms and we all agreed. Hillcrest Farm is the orginal name of the farm land that we lease.  I feel the name is a great fit for us as we are all young farmers with pioneer farming values.  Both Noah and Etienne ancestor's have been in Canada for eight generations or more, maybe this is what gives them their hard work ethic. All I can claim is that I have cleaned up more manture and groomed more horses than then both of them combined  ever will in their lifetimes! The Hillcrest farm was started in 1888 and  was later known as Noble Farm.  Thanks to  Jeanette Taylor for compiling this rich history and because of her I have some to share with you.

An Englishman named Robert (Bob) Hall pre-empted the property on June 28, 1888 and it’s likely he built the house that same year.

When Bob Hall arrived on Quadra Island (then called Valdez Island)  there were only about 10 non-Native settlers. Hall was 54 years old the year he arrived, but he was full of youthful vigor.  His accomplishments were impressive.   By 1890 he had built a squared log house measuring 22 x 17 feet, cleared and seeded one and a half acres of a large swamp, had a further four and a half acres roughly cleared, ditches dug and timber cut down near the house.²

            Part of what attracted Hall and others to the island was the government’s generous “pre-emption” offer, available throughout the province. Intending settlers (who had to be male and British subjects) could claim 160 acre blocks of land for $1.00 per acre and then make $2.50 per acre in improvements.  They were required to have their chosen piece surveyed and live on the property full time while they cleared it for ranching and farming.  Once they met these stipulations an assessor appraised their work.  In about 1890 Hall’s improvements were valued as follows:

                                                                                                                        1 ½ acres cleared and seeded                        $120

                                                                                                                        4 ½ acres slashed                                        72

                                                                                                                        House 22 X 17 hewed logs                          150

                                                                                                                        Ditching                                                    10

                                    Cut down timber near house                            50

Settlers from miles around, including those who lived at what is now Campbell River, made their way to Hall’s store to pick up mail and get basic supplies.  One such settler, Fred Nunns, kept a diary. He frequently mentioned paddling across the Passage in his dug out canoe, on the chance of finding mail that had been picked up in Comox or dropped off by a passing steamship.  He also brought produce to sell, as on January 5, 1892, when he brought Bob Hall eight bags of turnips.  Hall would, in turn, sell this produce to logging camps.   Nunns and others, according to his diary, occasionally worked for Hall, perhaps in lieu of cash.  November 9, 1892: Stayed night at Bob Hall’s and did some work for him.  April 12, 1892: The man Hill has looking after his place has gone to work for Hall.  On one occasion Nunns mentioned a mishap with Hall’s oxen, heavy cattle used for clearing land.  February 8, 1892: Bob Hall lost one of his oxen.  His leg got broken by catching in a root.¹⁰

            Bob Hall’s prospects seemed good when his nephew  R.H. (Dick) Hall joined him in 1892.  The 18-year-old Welshman was probably a lively companion for the aging bachelor.  Judging by the fact that Dick was later made a Justice of the Peace for the district, he must have had a good education.

The Halls and other settlers on the island regularly paddled in large canoes or rowboats to Comox  to stock up on their bulk supplies. On one such trip in 1896 Robert Hall and two other men were caught in a storm off Shelter Point.  The Colonist newspaper of October 11, 1896 reported the tragedy.   Mr. John Wilson, of the steamer ‘City of Nanaimo’ received a telegram last evening from Nanaimo announcing the death by drowning of a trapper named George Warren and Robert Hall, an old time store keeper at Quathiaski. 

In about 1910 or 1911 Dick Hall sold his property.  One of his contemporaries recalled that he returned to Britain to join the war effort after selling his property to the Nobles,¹⁵ who were just passing through Vancouver when they met Dick Hall.  According to a daughter-in-law, Vivien and Thomas Noble were headed for Australia when they met Dick Hall.  His extensive property and its wealth of timber, offered at a “good price,” proved tempting.¹⁶

            The Nobles were newly married when they bought the property, having met while crossing the Atlantic from England to Canada. Thomas Noble had spent some time in Canada before they met, paddling the lake systems in Ontario, where he took an interest in mines.  He retained both these interests while on Quadra Island, where he kept a sail boat and invested in the Lucky Jim Mine near Granite Bay.

            Thomas and Vivien had some family money from Thomas’ father’s railway interests to invest in their farm. Their descendants recall that it was Vivien who was the serious farmer, applying new ideas and methods. As early as 1918¹⁷ she had a self-filling water system installed in the barn. When cows pushed down on the center of the big iron bowls they filled with water. She also had built a fully heated, sunken, greenhouse, the foundations of which still stand.

                                                                                        Viven Noble                         photo courtesy Campbell River Museum 

            A grandson, Bruce Noble, recalls that the kitchen was on the northwest side (now the front of the house) and to the east, along a short passage, was the pantry.

The south side of the house used to be the main entrance, looking out at a pear tree and a tennis court.  To the rear, the north side,  was a wood shed and a pump house with a generator that ran the milk separator.  To the west was an orchard (which Noble added greatly to) and two wells.  To the east, in a line straggling out towards the big farm field, was the greenhouse and behind it a root house, the carriage house, more orchard, the horse barn, the main barn and yet another barn.

  There was no electricity on the island until the 1950s so  batteries and

generators were used for most purposes.  There was a cooler beside the back door, for the milk and butter, with the latter being kept down the well during summer.

The Nobles’ contemporaries say their farm was the most successful on the island. A Province newspaper reporter, writing about life on the Discovery Islands in 1925 was also impressed:  Another fine farm, which must not be omitted, this time on Quadra Island, is that of Thomas Noble.  Here is, perhaps, the best equipped and most up-to-date farm in all the island group.  There is a large area of cleared land and among the livestock are pigs, cows and poultry.²¹  A neighbour recalled that they also kept goats for milk for the twins, who both had ponies to ride ; they also raised turkeys and had impressive fruit trees, especially the delicious pear that stood in front of the house.

This same neighbour, Grace (Willson) McPherson, recalled how hard Mr. Noble worked on the farm, tending the animals and a huge field of tomatoes.  From his earliest years on the island Thomas Noble served as the local representative for the Farmer’s Institute and as a school trustee.  For many years the Nobles provided room and board for teachers who came from off-island to teach at the little school house near what is now the Department of Highways yard.

            Thomas and Vivien had three children, the twins – Harold and Bruce – and Jack. The boys were still quite young when Vivien died as the result of surgery in 1921, at the age of 36. Vivien’s premature death, which he attributed to faulty medical procedures, was a severe blow to Thomas Noble. He packed up her personal belongings – her huge collection of papers, letters, diaries and books, clothing, hair nets, glasses and fine linens – leaving them just as they were when she died. A daughter-in-law, Kay Noble, inherited the boxes and they remained untouched until about 70 years after Vivien’s death, when family members opened them to find a treasury of personal effects.

                                                                                                                                                 By Jeanette Taylor