While Dragging Our Hearts Behind Us
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The Railroader's Wife
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£11.99
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The Railroader's Wife
Letters from the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
Sale price
£11.99
Regular price
£15.99
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The story of the railway has never been told in such a charming voice as in these letters by Bernice Medbury Martin. Bernice Medbury married railroader Leslie Martin in 1912 and arrived later that year in Prince Rupert at the height of rock blasting and railroad building. Lonely for her family in Wisconsin, Bernice wrote frequent letters home in which she described in striking detail the machinery and mudslides, the weather and the wilderness, the local characters and the outrageous cost of supplies. She wrote of her frustration at the slow pace of the railway work and her happiness at an invitation to a social event many miles away. She lived in a tent at Kitselas, a hotel in Hazelton, a shack in the Bulkley Valley and a hand-hewn log cabin at Decker Lake. Bernice's letters span the two final years of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway track building and are neatly woven together by Jane Stevenson's well-researched narration. A stunning collection of photographs illustrates the enormous task of constructing a railway along the Skeena River, through the Bulkley Valley and on to Burns Lake. Bernice travelled to a land her friends and family could not imagine, where she experienced the challenges and joys of the Canadian western frontier and witnessed the construction of the truly "Grand" Trunk Pacific Railway, until the last spike was driven near her home early in the spring of 1914.
Bernice Medbury Martin was born in 1882 in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. She and her husband Leslie lived in northern BC during the final two years of construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. In 1914, after the completion of the railway, Bernice and Leslie returned home to Wisconsin but finally settled in Los Angeles, California. Bernice gave birth to a daughter in 1919 and a son in 1922. She died in 1973 at 91 years of age., Jane Stevenson holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria, majoring in Anthropology and Environmental Studies. She was curator of the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers and has been published in Geist, Connections Magazine, The Western Producer and Acreage Life. She is the regular historical writer for Northword magazine. She lives in Telkwa, BC.
- ISBN-13
- 9781894759434
- Publisher
- Harbour Publishing Co.
- Imprint
- Caitlin Press (CA)
- Publication date
- 1 April 2010
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 200
- Dimensions
- 175 x 205 mm
- Illustrations
- 60 b/w photos
- Language
- English
