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Kapoor Singh Siddoo series
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/museumdescription21422
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Date
- [1940-1947] (date of originals), copied 2004
- Collection/Fonds
- In the Shadow by the Sea collection
- Description Level
- Series
- Physical Description
- 31 photographs (tiffs)
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of copies of photographs pertaining to the family of Kappoor Singh Siddoo and the Kapoor Sawmills Limited that were published in the book "In the Shadow by the Sea: Recollections of Burnaby's Barnet Village".
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Collection/Fonds
- In the Shadow by the Sea collection
- Description Level
- Series
- Physical Description
- 31 photographs (tiffs)
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of copies of photographs pertaining to the family of Kappoor Singh Siddoo and the Kapoor Sawmills Limited that were published in the book "In the Shadow by the Sea: Recollections of Burnaby's Barnet Village".
- History
- Kapoor Singh Siddoo was born in 1885 in the Punjab village of Kharaudi, India. Kapoor was one of the pioneer South Asian Canadian Sikhs who first immigrated to America in 1906, arriving in San Francisco in 1906 with twenty illiterate compatriots seeking employment. As the only one among them with a formal education, Kapoor acted as their interpreter, manager, and accountant. They worked along the Southern Pacific Railway line near Marysville, California, as it inched toward Reno, Nevada. At the same time, Kapoor was asked to help raise funds for a mining company in British Columbia founded by a Punjabi spiritual leader. Kapoor attempted to join the company in British Columbia (attracted partly by stories of the province’s natural beauty), but was turned back at the international border at Blaine several times before entering via Victoria in 1912. Once settled, he operated a successful dairy, invested in various businesses, and socialized with other South Asian immigrants interested in politics. However, emotions of those around Kapoor began to heat up; frustration among opponents of British rule in Indian grew intense. Kapoor left the explosive situation for Ontario in June 1914, determined to find a place for himself in Canadian society. He tried homesteading in the “Clay Belt” of northern Ontario, but like others found the extreme winter conditions intolerable. He returned to British Columbia in 1916, invited by a group of Sikh sawmill workers to help them manage the accounts at a Fraser Valley sawmill they had leased. Kapoor found his niche in the sawmill industry. Fraser Valley timber sat on land granted by the Dominion government to railways to help finance their construction. South Asian workers could get timber rights on these lands, unlike on Crown Lands elsewhere in the province. Kapoor and his new partners, particularly Mayo Singh, looked for other promising “railway belt” locations for another sawmill and found an ideal location on Vancouver Island near Duncan. Kapoor and his colleagues opened a large, modern mill in 1918 and despite various setbacks, prospered for the next decade and a half. In 1923, with a change in immigration laws, Kapoor arranged for his wife, Besant Kaur, to emigrate from India. Besant came to Canada with Kapoor’s older brother, Bhagwan. Kapoor and Besant had two daughters while in Duncan: Jagdis Kaur Siddoo (1925) and Sarjit Kaur Siddoo (1926), both of whom eventually became physicians. Kapoor’s lumber business on Vancouver Island flourished until 1935, when a fire destroyed the original mill. He moved his family to Vancouver, although retaining interest in another Vancouver Island mill. In 1939, he purchased a large piece (45 acres) of the former Barnet Mill in Burnaby, recently acquired by the Municipality as payment for tax default during the Depression. Kapoor named the mill Modern Sawmills and finalized the purchase though a business agent to get around Burnaby’s bylaw prohibiting the sale to a non-White person. Eventually he changed the mill’s name to Kapoor Sawmills Limited. The mill received timber in log booms from Vancouver Island, and once processed, the wood was then shipped via the Canadian Pacific Railway that ran past the mill, and still does today. Kapoor’s younger brother, Tara, who had earlier worked with Kapoor in other sawmills, joined the venture as a shareholder. Tara and his wife, Beant, took up residence in Barnet from 1943-1945 with their family: sons Lakhbeer, Gurdeb, Gurcharn, Baldev, Hardev and daughters Harjeet (Sangha), Runjeet (Basi) and Buckshish (Sarai). Tara oversaw the regular delivery of logs from Vancouver Island to the Barnet mill. He also became known as a local Burnaby philanthropist, donating to Burnaby General Hospital. The Kapoor sawmill prospered but burned to the ground on January 14, 1947. A smaller mill was rebuilt on the site and remained a successful financial operation until 1959. When he retired in 1959, Kapoor Siddoo was one of Vancouver’s most influential men in the South Asian Community. He was a leading businessman, but had also fought to give South Asian Canadians the right to vote. The year he retired, the family set up the Kapoor Singh Siddoo Foundation and with help from his wife and daughters opened a hospital in the Punjab village of Aur. In 1964, Kapoor died in India at the age of 79 years.
- Accession Code
- BV019.32
- Date
- [1940-1947] (date of originals), copied 2004
- Media Type
- Photograph
- Related Material
- See also, City of Burnaby Archives: Burnaby Historical Society fonds - "In the Shadow by the Sea subseries"
- Notes
- Title based on contents of series
Mayor's Office General and Administration series
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription158
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1828 (date of original) -2002
- Collection/Fonds
- Mayor's Office fonds
- Description Level
- Series
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of records created in the administration of the Mayor’s Office. This includes: reports, file lists, address books, subject files, correspondence, memoranda, photographs and ephemera. The Office of the Mayor is managed by an administrative staff who maintain the Mayor’s schedule, l…
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1828 (date of original) -2002
- Collection/Fonds
- Mayor's Office fonds
- Description Level
- Series
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of records created in the administration of the Mayor’s Office. This includes: reports, file lists, address books, subject files, correspondence, memoranda, photographs and ephemera. The Office of the Mayor is managed by an administrative staff who maintain the Mayor’s schedule, liaise with other City officials, and assist the Mayor fulfill his duties and responsibilities to the citizens of Burnaby. As a by-product of these activities, the Mayor’s Office maintains files related to general administrative tasks like record-keeping as well as collecting subject files and records of general interest to the Mayor and Council. These records were used as reference material and have been maintained for their informational value.
- Media Type
- Textual Record