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- Geographic Features - Neighbourhoods 9
Interview with Florence Hart Godwin by Bettina Bradbury July 2, 1975 - Track 7
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory16
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1930-1939
- Length
- 0:05:09
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to Florence (Hart) Godwin's thoughts on Municipal politics of the time.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to Florence (Hart) Godwin's thoughts on Municipal politics of the time.
- Date Range
- 1930-1939
- Photo Info
- Florence Hart Godwin on her wedding day, August 7, 1922. Item no. 477-601
- Length
- 0:05:09
- Names
- Pritchard, William A.
- Subjects
- Elections
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Edmonds (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Interviewer
- Bradbury, Dr. Bettina
- Interview Date
- July 2, 1975
- Scope and Content
- Recording is a taped interview with Florence Hart Godwin by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury, July 2, 1975. Major themes discussed are: Victoria Order of Nurses (VON) and the Edmonds Historic Neighbourhood. To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes."
- Biographical Notes
- Florence Hart was born in 1898 in New Westminster. Florence first saw Burnaby in April of 1905 on a trip made by horse and buggy from the family home in New Westminster where her father worked as a real estate agent. By 1911, he had built a permanent home for his family in Burnaby, building what is now known as the Hart house and is currently owned by the municipality. Frederick John “Fred” Hart married Alice Chapman in Yale BC on August 13, 1895. They had four children together; Kingsley Chapman born May 27, 1897, Florence Elizabeth born October 23, 1898, and ten years later, Edwyna and Jack. They followed their family nurse, Miss Maude Woodward to Burnaby and purchased thirteen acres of land at Deer Lake to build a summer cottage. Mrs Hill and the children spent the summer months there while Frederick continued working in New Westminster, joining his family on the weekends. Florence Hart attended Douglas Road School before boarding at Crofton House in Vancouver. Kingsley Hart had enlisted in the army on March 23, 1915 when he was only seventeen years old. He was killed in action on September 26, 1916. The Hart family then moved to Kerrisdale, Vancouver. Florence worked at the Carnegie Library. On August 7, 1922 Florence Hart married Harold “Hal” Godwin and moved back to Edmonds in Burnaby where they remained for their entire married lives. In 1929, Florence and Harold’s daughter, Elizabeth Godwin was born. Alice (Chapman) Hart died May 24, 1935 at the age of sixty-eight. Frederick John Hart died August 29, 1945 at the age of seventy-seven. Florence Hart Godwin was named Good Citizen of Burnaby in 1971 and received a life membership to the IODE (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) for her long tenure. Both Florence and her husband Harold were awarded life memberships from the VON (Victorian Order of Nurses) for more than half a century of service. Harold Ward Godwin died December 12, 1962 at the age of sixty-six.
- Total Tracks
- 8
- Total Length
- 0:47:57
- Interviewee Name
- Godwin, Florence Hart
- Interviewer Bio
- Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Subseries
- Oral history subseries
- Transcript Available
- None
- Media Type
- Sound Recording
- Web Notes
- Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.
Images
Audio Tracks
Track seven of interview with Florence Hart Godwin by Bettina Bradbury
Track seven of interview with Florence Hart Godwin by Bettina Bradbury
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/100-13-17/100-13-17_Track_7.mp3
Interview with Jack McGeachie June 18, 1975 - Track 2
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory36
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1927-1930
- Length
- 0:08:22
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to John Aloysius "Jack" McGeachie's teen years including the early passing of his father.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to John Aloysius "Jack" McGeachie's teen years including the early passing of his father.
- Date Range
- 1927-1930
- Photo Info
- McGeachie family; John Aloysius "Jack" McGeachie is the eldest child, standing second from the right, 1925 (date of original). Item no. 204-464
- Length
- 0:08:22
- Geographic Access
- Formby Street
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Edmonds (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Planning Study Area
- Richmond Park Area
- Interviewer
- Bradbury, Dr. Bettina
- Interview Date
- June 18, 1975
- Scope and Content
- Recording is a taped interview with John A."Jack" McGeachie by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury June 18, 1975. Major themes discussed are: the Depression, the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) and farming in Burnaby. To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".
- Biographical Notes
- John Aloysius “Jack” McGeachie was born January 14, 1914 in Little Mountain, Vancouver to Helen and John McGeachie. Helen and John had four children; John Aloysius “Jack”, Florence Mary, Thomas Joseph “Tom” and Roderick Noel “Rod.” In 1922 the McGeachie family moved from Vancouver to East Burnaby where the children attended Edmonds School. John Sr. became ill and died, leaving the eldest Jack as the main breadwinner of the family when he was still just a teenager. He began his working life at a chicken farm, later learning his trade while working for the Hudson Bay Company. Jack McGeachie married Burnaby Historian Doreen Pixie Johnson. He and Pixie raised their children Kathi (Dunlop) and David McGeachie in the house the couple built themselves in 1947. John Aloysius "Jack" McGeachie died October 12, 1981 at the age of sixty-seven. Doreen "Pixie" (Johnson) McGeachie died August 14, 2010 at the age of eighty-nine.
- Total Tracks
- 8
- Total Length
- 0:51:13
- Interviewee Name
- McGeachie, John Aloysius "Jack"
- Interview Location
- Rosewood
- Interviewer Bio
- Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Subseries
- Oral history subseries
- Transcript Available
- None
- Media Type
- Sound Recording
- Web Notes
- Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.
Images
Audio Tracks
Track one of interview with Jack McGeachie
Track one of interview with Jack McGeachie
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/100-13-10/100-13-10_Track_2.mp3
Interview with W.H. O'Brien July / August 1975 - Track 9
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory26
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1933-1935
- Length
- 0:08:46
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the Cooperative Commonweath Federation (CCF) as well as his mother and father's involvement in politics.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the Cooperative Commonweath Federation (CCF) as well as his mother and father's involvement in politics.
- Date Range
- 1933-1935
- Photo Info
- Harry and Gertrude (Sutherland) O'Brien on their wedding day, October 12, 1940. Item no. 315-005
- Length
- 0:08:46
- Names
- Weaver, George
- Subjects
- Elections
- Organizations
- Interviewer
- Bradbury, Dr. Bettina
- Interview Date
- July / August 1975
- Scope and Content
- Recording is a taped interview with W.H. "Harry" O'Brien by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury. Major themes discussed are: the Army of the Common Good, the Union of the Unemployed and the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union). To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".
- Biographical Notes
- W.H. “Harry” O’Brien was born in the coal mining town of Nanaimo, British Columbia on October 20, 1914. He came to Burnaby with his parents and five siblings in 1927. Harry’s mother, a school teacher, wanted her children to live closer to school in order to obtain a better education, so the O’Brien family settled at Inman Avenue, Burnaby. Harry's mother, Mary Anne Crossan, was Gilmore Avenue School's first teacher. Harry left school in June of 1929. Harry’s father worked as the caretaker at Central Park around this time and Harry helped him to clear brush, plant trees and enforce the land clearing and wood cutting permit regulations held by men who were on script. Although too young to vote by just over a week, Harry O'Brien worked as a scrutineer for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) during the 1935 Federal Election. On October 12, 1940 Harry O'Brien married Gertrude Sutherland at St. John the Divine in Burnaby. The Sutherland family came to Burnaby from Winnipeg in 1933 and settled at Nelson Avenue. Harry began his involvement with the Unemployment Organization in Burnaby by participating in an organised protest against the municipality for homeowner evictions brought on by unpaid taxes. The South Burnaby Union of the Unemployed organised in order to protest rules around receiving Relief. Harry became involved, eventually becoming one of the spearheads of the organization, taking over as secretary by 1936. Harry was an original member of the Army of the Common Good, helping to produce over one hundred and twenty-five tons of vegetables from its own gardens to feed Burnaby citizens suffering from the lack of resources during the Depression years. The members of the Army of the Common Good who cut wood for consumption or worked in the gardens were given credit for their work through LU (Labour Units) which they could then use to buy groceries and that at the Army's Cooperative stores, one of which was at McKay Avenue, where Harry began working as Manager of Groceries in 1937. The Credit Union movement of British Columbia was also organized by Harry O'Brien and his fellow Army of the Common Good members. W.H. "Harry" O'Brien died July 1, 1992.
- Total Tracks
- 9
- Total Length
- 1:17:56
- Interviewee Name
- O'Brien, Harry
- Interviewer Bio
- Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Subseries
- Oral history subseries
- Transcript Available
- None
- Media Type
- Sound Recording
- Web Notes
- Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.
Images
Audio Tracks
Interview with Reidun Seim by Kathy Bossort January 13, 2016 - Track 5
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory654
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1930-1950
- Length
- 0:09:51
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about Reidun Seim talking about the families and the vineyard and apple orchard on Aubrey Street. She tells stories about picking wild blackberries near Aubrey and raspberries grown on her parent’s farm, and about her mother’s large garden and kale grown for chicken…
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about Reidun Seim talking about the families and the vineyard and apple orchard on Aubrey Street. She tells stories about picking wild blackberries near Aubrey and raspberries grown on her parent’s farm, and about her mother’s large garden and kale grown for chicken feed.
- Date Range
- 1930-1950
- Length
- 0:09:51
- Subjects
- Geographic Features - Neighbourhoods
- Geographic Features - Gardens
- Agriculture - Fruit and Berries
- Geographic Access
- Aubrey Street
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Lochdale (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Planning Study Area
- Lochdale Area
- Interviewer
- Bossort, Kathy
- Interview Date
- January 13, 2016
- Scope and Content
- Recording is of an interview with Reidun Seim conducted by Kathy Bossort. Reidun Seim was one of 23 participants interviewed as part of the Community Heritage Commission’s Burnaby Mountain Oral History Project. The interview is mainly about Reidun Seim’s memories about her parent’s farm on Curtis Street, events in her childhood, and the people who lived in or visited her neighborhood. She takes us on a tour of her neighborhood in the 1940s, telling us stories about families who lived on Curtis Street on and east of 7300 block, including people who lived on Burnaby Mountain in the old Hastings Grove subdivision above the end of municipal water service at Philips Avenue. She describes changes to Curtis Street, particularly after it provided access to Simon Fraser University in 1965. She also talks about her teaching career, and about how she values the green space and conservation area on Burnaby Mountain.
- Biographical Notes
- Reidun Seim was born in 1931 in Vancouver B.C. to Sjur and Martine Seim. Sjur and Martine Seim emigrated to Canada from Norway in 1930, and after settling in Vancouver, moved to an acre of land and a new home at the base of Burnaby Mountain in 1932. Sjur attended UBC to learn about poultry farming and began his own chicken and egg business in 1935. The farm animals and large garden also contributed to the family’s livelihood and self-sufficiency. The Curtis Street neighborhood was a lively place and extended well up Curtis Street on the west slope of Burnaby Mountain, where Reidun would babysit for families. Reidun attended Sperling Avenue Elementary School (Gr. 1-8), Burnaby North High School, and Vancouver Normal School for teacher training in 1950-1951. She began teaching primary grades in Port Coquitlam at James Park School. Most of her career was spent in North Delta, teaching at Kennedy and Annieville schools from 1954-1958, appointed Primary Consultant (1958-1960) and Primary Supervisor (1960-1985), before retiring in 1986. Reidun lived at home with her parents on Curtis Street, commuting to Delta, and continues to live in the original farmhouse.
- Total Tracks
- 14
- Total Length
- 2:35:58
- Interviewee Name
- Seim, Reidun
- Interview Location
- Burnaby City Hall in the Law Library
- Interviewer Bio
- Kathy Bossort is a retired archivist living in Ladner, BC. She worked at the Delta Museum and Archives after graduating from SLAIS (UBC) in 2001 with Masters degrees in library science and archival studies. Kathy grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and, prior to this career change, she lived in the West Kootenays, earning her living as a cook for BC tourist lodges and work camps. She continues to be interested in oral histories as a way to fill the gaps in the written record and bring richer meaning to history.
- Collection/Fonds
- Community Heritage Commission Special Projects fonds
- Media Type
- Sound Recording
Audio Tracks
Track five of interview with Reidun Seim
Track five of interview with Reidun Seim
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/MSS196-017/MSS196-017_Track_5.mp3