How Rutland came to be, the early years
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a two-part column on the early history of Rutland. Part two will be published on June 26
Rutland was formerly known as Ellison Flats, this area, due east of Kelowna, was named for an Australian, John Rutland who farmed on the flats east of Mill Creek around the turn of the century.
In 1906 a syndicate headed by Dr. W. H. Gaddes and J. W. Jones acquired the land. They added a piece of the Simpson Ranch and a block of land purchased from Price Ellison. An early resident was Isador Boucherie, who lived about a mile from the present Rutland packinghouse. Other early settlers were Ira & John McLure, Henry Rice, Jim Clark, Prior Brown, Geo White, Henry Praether, John Dilworth and Alphonse Lefevre.
The post office was authorized in 1908, the first postmaster being Dan McDonald, who also built the first general store. Below is the early history.
William Peon was a descendant of a “Kanakas’ group which were South Sea Islanders brought from the Sandwich Islands of Hawaii to North America. These Islanders came to the Okanagan Valley in 1812 with the fur trader, Ross Cox. William’s father, Louis Peon was among them and he first lived at the foot of the Okanagan Lake for about a year before marrying and living near Colville, USA.
In 1858, William was a pack master in charge of Father Pandosy’s pack train. William was the first white man to discover gold in Gallagher’s Canyon.
Early in 1862, two French Canadians, August Calmels and Chapee pre-empted 160 acres bordering what was later known as Peon Creek, to the west and north of Dry Creek and up the creek to the vicinity of the earlier controversial Marshall Ranch Feedlot (by the railway tracks, near Boyd’s Drive Inn Theatre). Calmels and Chapee’s cattle venture was not profitable because of the cold winter of 1863 - ’64 and later they brought sheep in from Oregon, USA, which proved more successful. This was possibly the first farm in the Okanagan Valley.
Frederick Whendt, (later this name became Brent) came to the United State in 1827 and served in the US Army from 1857 and then took a discharge at Fort Colville and married a native woman. Frederick served as a scout and escort for the gold miners heading north into Canada. They bought land from the Parson’s brothers and settled in 1865 on this farm near “Schloocum” (now Duck Lake) near the upper waters of Pion Creek, which is now the ACT Ranch near our present day Kelowna Airport.
Brent purchased the Calmels/Chapee land and took possession on 1 May 1871. Brent built a two-storey log house and the first industrial enterprise in the Okanagan Valley, a gristmill on their farm near Pion Creek.
Brent’s Grist Mill is a significant part of our pioneer history and the oldest surviving gristmill building in B.C. The Central Okanagan Heritage Society is in the process of restoring the Brent house and gristmill.
Michael Hagan, founder of the Kamloops “Inland Sentinel,” was among the first settlers to the Okanagan Mission, that was a name applied to the entire Central Okanagan area at that time in 1888. The land registry shows he took up 640 acres of land in 1891. The west boundary was the present Rutland Road from the Four Corners of Rutland to J. A. North’s house and all the land east of that line for a mile. It included all of the Rutland bench orchard land and built up sub-divisions on the flats over the Joe Rich Road.
According to the Sentinel, 31 July 1884, Dan Rabbitt, schoolteacher from Victoria came by the last steamer to Spallumcheen to take charge of a school in the Pleasant Valley settlement. In another article on the 28 August 1884 in the same newspaper stated, “A public school was opened at Spallumcheen on the 4th and one at Pleasant Valley on the 11th instant.”
The same children’s names appeared on each school roll and Mr. Rabbit taught both, each in turn on alternate weeks.
The Vernon News article of 8 May 1902 reported, “Dan Rabbit last week sold his farm of 960 acres at Okanagan Mission to J. M. Rutland. Mr. Rutland is an Australian who made a visit to the district last year, and was so favourably impressed with the Okanagan, that he made several attempts to secure land, without being able to get just what suited him. He went back to Australia, but could not resist the desire to return to the Okanagan, which he pronounces ‘the finest country he has seen in any part of the world.’”
In 1902, John Rutland returned with his new wife, Edith and bought three parcels of a half-section each. One 320-acre block was the W ?. Section 35 twp. 26, which lies west of the Rutland Road from Reid’s Corners to the S. E. corner of the former William Gay property, and extended west to the Vernon Road, and crossed that road to include the property west of Mill Creek on which the Kelowna Growers Exchange (KGE) packinghouse stood. The house and other buildings were on the west side of the Vernon Road. The Rutland KGE Packing House stands on the extreme NW corner to the former William Gay property. It included a large house with a smaller building alongside, connected by a passage way and was used as a Saloon. The house had been built in the early part of the 1900’s on the Vernon Road, north of Brent’s farm. Mr. and Mrs. John Besset were the first proprietors and the house was used as a hotel for many years. Many single men boarded at the hotel while working in the district. George Guest and Jack Brown lived there for some years. John Besset contracted to Dan Rabbitt, who operated the hotel with the aid of his sister Mary. A fire destroyed part of the Saloon and Dan went into bankruptcy.
A second 320-acre block was the E ?. Section starting diagonally across from the William Gay’s corner, and running south to the present Rutland village corner, extending eastward to the foot of the hill. On this part, the Rutland Middle School is located and residential subdivisions.
The 3rd block 320 acres just east of section 26 being just dry hillside range bounded on the west by Rutland Road to Black Mountain Road (which went to the four corners of Rutland and then became the Joe Rich Road), and east by Gibson Road on the upper bench. This became known as the “Rutland Flats.”
John Rutland began his first commercial planting in 1903. In 1904 he started to sell off parcels to incoming settlers. Sam Sproul bought a 24-acre block near the foot of the hill, his brother Robert bought some of the young orchard too as did several other early settlers. In the spring of 1905 a Kelowna syndicate, Okanagan Fruit and Lands Company bought the remainder of the John Rutland holdings for future development. The syndicate proceeded to subdivide the property into 12 and 24-acre lots and registered a plan at Kamloops on the 13 of July 1905. Soon many new homes dotted the property and new orchards were planted.
A notice in the Kelowna Clarion and Okanagan Advantage on the 23 Feb 1905 mentions that the Kelowna syndicate wished to lay out a small town site on the Rutland property. They thought a few stores and other business places could be located to accommodate the trade in that portion of the Valley. Later in May 1905 another article appeared in the paper, if the progress of the Okanagan Mission Valley continues at its present rate, in a few years the farming district will contain the densest population of any portion of Western Canada.
This development is particularly noticeable a few miles out of town. On the Rutland property near Black Mountain, the number of houses that have gone up on 10- and 20-acre blocks during the past few months is really marvellous.
In May of 1906 another article in the paper mentioned “The editor of the Courier had the pleasure of a run through the Rutland property per bike on Victoria Day. The roads in that district are in fine condition for wheeling, the light soil being more absorbent than on the lower levels. The fruit trees we put out last year are doing extremely well, the properties of Messrs. Cleminson and Phipps being especially noticeable in this respect. An ample supply of water is laid on from Mission Creek, and the orchards in time should rival any in the Valley.”
Though the John Rutland family lived only a short term of about three years in the district, his chief accomplishment of installing a major irrigation system to his planted orchards, was the beginning of the transformation of this area from cattle raising, grain growing and just plain rangeland, into a prosperous fruit growing area.
Evelyn Ottenbriet Vielvoye has been a Rutland resident since 1946 when her family came to the area. She has an avid interest in Rutland history, and has been a longtime executive member of the Kelowna branch, OHS. This article is part of a series submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan historical Society.