St. Paul’s Church
Salt Spring is an island of beautiful, small churches including the much photographed St. Paul’s in Fulford Harbour. The small, quaint country churches create romantic settings for weddings of visitors and islanders alike.
On May 10, 1880, a congregation of Kanakas, Indians and European settlers attended the consecration of St. Paul’s Catholic Church. Land for the church was donated by Horace Shepherd, a settler whose two sons, Bill and George married Kanaka women. The windows, door, altar and lumber were brought from the stone Church at Cowichan Bay by natives in three canoes lashed together.
Ted Akerman used a “stoneboat” and oxen to transport the load from Burgoyne Bay to Fulford where it stands today. This is one of the most photographed land marks on the island today and is a very popular for summer weddings.
Reverend Edward Francis Wilson
Excerpts from Reverend Edward Francis Wilson’s salt spring Island, British Columbia, 1885 include:
As clearing land isexpensive, there is a vast difference between the price of cleared land under cultivation and that which is still primeval forest. The market value of the former is from $50.00 to $125.00 per acre…….while the later may be purchased from $7.00 to $15.00 per acre. The chief wants felt by the settlers were a doctor……….a family hotel…….a good general store……a shoe maker…...telegraphic communication with Vancouver Island…….more frequent steam boat service……more settlers.
During the winter and early spring…….bays and inlets are alive with water fowl of all descriptions ……Salt spring Island is certainly an El Dorado for the sportsman.
The most ubiquitous and the most mischievous of the winged tribe are the blue jay and the American robin.
One man relates how he and his father shot nine panthers between them within a few weeks one autumn.
Here in the islands on the Pacific coast the climate is mild……no dread of an intense cold winter, no fear of drought in the summer.no lack of fuel……crops can be gathered in almost invariably good condition.
The farmer’s wives all say…more is made by selling the eggs than by raising young birds.