Highlights & News

New Westminster, B.C. 19 Jul 1881 6-pg Marcus Smith Letter home

New Westminster, B.C. 19 Jul 1881 6-pg Marcus Smith Letter home

July 19th,1881
My dear Wife
I have had a very hard month’s work surveying the Harbour of Port Moody and adjacent grounds for the western terminus of the C.P.R. It is surrounded by high hills wooded with trees of enormous size. Many of them fallen and with the rankest growth of underbrush-..

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Port Moody, B.C. 26 June 1881 Marcus Smith 3-page letter to his wife

Port Moody, B.C. 26 June 1881 Marcus Smith 3-page letter to his wife

Sold for $605, Port Moody, B.C. 26 June 1881 Marcus Smith 3-page letter to his wife
“The surveys are fairly commenced and I have been forced to do some very hard work- owing to the incompetency of the assistant Ailyn who has had very little experience and is naturally very dull & stupid- Gamsby is very little better. He has hitherto got on by always having good assistants but knows nothing himself- has no brains but for old woman’s gossip- has no instruments, never had any in his life nor does he care about the work- ..”

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Victoria, B.C. 9 June 1881 4-sided Marcus Smith Letter to his wife

Victoria, B.C. 9 June 1881 4-sided Marcus Smith Letter to his wife

“There will be a glorious out crop of this state of things- and in the muddle- no one will be responsible. ..Trutch I find is very unpopular – here as he is ostentatious and haughty, and considered as a spy, and a disturber instead of a peace maker between the Dominion and Provincial Govt. And will cause trouble to the former. This however is none of my business but I forsee that the time will come when he must cease to muddle with engineering matters-

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Shoal Lake, N.W.T. 27 Sep 1880 Marcus Smith 2 pg letter to his wife

Shoal Lake, N.W.T. 27 Sep 1880 Marcus Smith 2 pg letter to his wife

Shoal Lake N.W. Territories 1880
“My Dear Wife… We have had wretched weather for six weeks past especially the last month. High winds and cold with rain overhead and swamps the men are constantly soaked to the waist almost- Our tents are always dripping and everything is damp some of us are suffering from rheumatism, and my joints are stiff. But I am otherwise well- But my long journeys are over..”

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