CALL NUMBER: T1244:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Kathleen Hughan remembers early Aiyansh on the Nass River PERIOD COVERED: 1880s-1917 RECORDED: [location unknown], [196-] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Kathleen "Kay" Hughan (nee Priestley) was born at Port Simpson around 1900. Her father, Arthur F. Priestley was a homesteader, teacher and storeowner at Aiyansh; her mother, Melita M. McCullagh, was born at Aiyansh in 1885. Kay Hughan speaks about homesteading, the promise of a boom (1900's), and river travel along the Nass. Her maternal grandmother, Mary Webster, and grandfather, Rev. James B. McCullagh, came out to Old Aiyansh (1880's). She recalls Rev. McCullagh, his garden, his interests, mission work, the flood of 1917 and the move of the village of Aiyansh to Gitlakdamiks, and t;he mission house fire of 1910. She recalls her paternal grandparents -- Joshua Priestley, the family pre-emption, the house fire and the Priestley family move to Victoria. She talks about freight for ;her father's store, travel on the Nass, Mill Bay, Kincolith, hospitals, Dr. MacDonald, the Collison family, childhood memories of old Aiyansh, mail and visitors.TRACK 2: Kay Hughan recalls details of her father's store: the postal service, the social centre of Aiyansh, supplies for the settlers, stock, outfitting survey parties, the "Grease Trail", trails, wholesalers, floods, Indian-white rela;tions and the store credit system. She speaks about the land boom of 1910-1912, homesteaders, the impact of World War I, bogus land promotions -- Rattenbury Land Company (1909-1910), settlers, the flo;od of 1917, Grease Harbour, settlement patterns, the first school, Tseax, more about settlement patterns, Al Ferris, employment, taxation and roads.
CALL NUMBER: T1244:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Kathleen and Peter Hughan remember the Nass Valley - Aiyansh and Tseax regions PERIOD COVERED: 1917-1958 RECORDED: [location unknown], [196-] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Kathleen Hughan remembers floods along the Nass River, the flood of 1917, moving the Old Aiyansh mission to Gitlakdamiks, mosquitoes, housing, settlement patterns and subsistence farming in the 1930's. Peter Hughan came from Scotland via England (1923) to the Prince George region. He discusses his reasons for emigration, experiences trapping, work at Prince Rupert (1924) and Terrace, his woodsman skills, locating land in the Nass Valley, his Tseax River property, the Vedder property, place names, settling and clearing land, purchasing the Charlie Gordon farm, river and trail travel and the telegraph trail to Stewart. TRACK 2: Peter Hughan speaks about pioneer life, his market garden, trapping, building a new house (1928), clearing, "wild rice" -- chocolate lily, changes in settle;ment, the Columbia Cellulose road opening up the area (1950's), development, logging, proposed hydro dams and the difficulty of land acquisition. He recalls pioneers including Al Ferris and the Joe Phillips family and soil and climate conditions.
