Harders

The Harder family moved to Joe Rich in about 1951, at about the same time as the Hockeys came here. They rented the Mack house on the northeast side of Highway 33 from Weddells and worked for them. Abe Harder, the father had a small mixed farm there. They were Seventh Day Adventists. The Harder children were Hilbert born in 1938, Raymond born in 1939, George born in 1945, Dorothy born in 1946 and Richard (Paul), the youngest. Paul had diabetes and died young.

The Harders lived very simply. Other schoolmates of the children still remember that they had a very aggressive billy goat which terrorized children who visited the Harder home. It did other unpleasant things too. Doug McClelland had just purchased a brand new pickup truck and was chatting with Jim Weddell when he turned around to see the goat standing on the roof of his truck cab.

The Harders moved from Joe Rich to the Arrow Lakes area in the 1950s. There they bought a farm. When the Hugh Keenleyside Dam was built in 1968 and the level of the Arrow Lakes rose and their farm was flooded out. Mrs. Harder is still alive in her mid 80s and living in Salmon Arm. Dorothy also lives there. Raymond drives trucks for Petches in Rutland. Hilbert, worked for a while in a saw mill with Dave Weddell and is now retired in Blue River. George drives a truck in Kamloops. Mr. Harder is dead.

 

Heptons

The Heptons were Irish. Ernest had been a policeman in England. He had gone to Ulster with the ‘Black and Tans’ after World War I and from there had decided to come to Canada with his family in 1928. He was eligible for help from the Soldier’s Settlement Board and also had a small pension from his time in the Black and Tans. In Kelowna, he worked a year in orchards and then was hired by the Black Mountain Irrigation District. He was the ditch walker for the lower section of the irrigation ditch and did the same job there that Mr. Charlie Philpott did for the upper end of the ditch. The lengths of ditch for which they were responsible met at Eight Mile Creek. For two years, the Hepton family lived in Joe Rich; for a year with Mr. John Findlay and then in the cabin belonging to George Patterson. Later, they moved to the Eight Mile Creek area where they had a small home just to the northeast of the present highway, on the right side as one drives to town, and near the top of the Clever’s Hill.

Betty born in 1923, Jack born in 1925 and Ernest born in 1926 attended the Joe Rich School in 1931. Vera was born in 1927. In 1934, Jack, Betty and Ernie were in the first class at the Black Mountain School which opened that year. They were travelling to school in a two-wheeled cart in summer and a cutter in winter down the big hill from Eight Mile where they lived. The school had a shed where their horse could wait for the trip back up the hill when school got out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1933 Jack Hepton, Stuart Weddell, Pat Weddell, Jim Weddell, Betty Hepton, Ernie Hepton, Vera Hepton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1934 1 st Black Mountain School Class 1) Jack Hepton 2) Betty Hepton 3) Ernie Hepton

Vera remembers walking the ditch with her father carrying his .22, one Sunday morning. The gophers sometimes dug holes in the bottom of the ditch and their burrows could create a water leak or even a wash out. When they came to a gopher, Mr. Hepton told Vera to shoot it, but she said, “Dad, I can’t do that. It looks like an old woman”. The gopher survived, and Vera never walked the ditch again with her father.

Gert remembers the New Year’s Eve parties which Inez Philpott used to put on. The guests dressed up for the occasion. Gert went in high heeled shoes and a stylish short dress which was in fashion then. During the evening, she noticed that Betty was looking very sad and asked her why. Betty said it was because no one would ride with her. To cheer Betty up, Gert offered to go for a ride, but neglected to ask what the ride would involve. Betty led her outside to her skidoo and in their party dresses and shoes they roared off into the snowy night.

On September 8, 1950 when Ernie was 23, he, Allan Frost and young Jacky Frost went fishing in the Greystokes. Ernie and Allan made a log raft and pushed off the shore of one of the small lakes to fish. While Jacky watched from the shore, Allan who couldn’t swim well because of a polio damaged leg fell into the lake. Ernie jumped in to save him and both were drowned.

Mr. Hepton lived in Kelowna until his death in 1982 at the age of 81. His wife, Jane died at the age of 78 in 1977.

 

Highs

Billy Huckle sold his property to Ed Sullivan who sold it to Andrew High. The High family moved into Huckle’s cabin where they lived for 4 or 5 years before selling to Jim Weddell.

The boys in the High family were Robert, Stan and Cliff. Both Andrew and his son, Cliff worked logging for Jim Weddell. Cliff and his brothers also worked for Wayne Slyter logging Grouse Creek on the south side of the Mission Creek Valley.

 

Hockeys

James (Jack) Clifford Hockey was a Canadian soldier in World War I and served with the T. Eaton Machine Gun Battery. He was wounded in the abdomen. When he had recovered he returned to duty, but as a motorcycle dispatch rider. In England, he married. He and his wife, Dorothy Alice remained there for a few years. Iris, their first child was born in London. Dorothy was a severe diabetic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1914 James Hockey

When Iris married a German, Wilfred Uppenborn, Jack Hockey found it hard to overcome his anti-German prejudice which had developed during his war experiences. However, he eventually learned to appreciate his son-in-law and realize that he was a good man.

In 1951, he and his family bought the Bailey House from the McKenzies for $10,000 (now owned by the Weddell’s and called the Brewer House by them) from the McKenzies. They lived there with their four children: Iris, who became Mrs. Uppenborn, Marion, who was Mrs. Rogers and later, Mrs. Karran, Thelma, who married Mike Feniak, and Nathan, who was a great guitar player. Jack Hockey raised cattle and sold Christmas trees; 5,000 of them one year.

The Hockeys were devout Seventh Day Adventists. They were part of a little group of Joe Rich Adventists to whom they were very close. This group included their two daughters, Iris and Thelma and their families and the Harders.

Hockeys had a small herd of about 30 beef cattle. They had a very good bull which Jim Weddell wanted to use once. He asked Mr. Hockey if he could come over and get it on Saturday and Mr. Hockey said, “Not Saturday”. Jim’s answer was, “What’s wrong? Doesn’t your bull work on Saturday either?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1958 The bull that wouldn't work on Saturdays

Jack Hockey also grew turnips and to irrigate these, he set up the first sprinkler system in Joe Rich using water out of Joe Rich Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1964 Hockey girls, Iris, Marion & Thelma

The Hockeys sold their place to the Brewers. They obtained DL5110 at the end of Schram Road as a Crown Grant in 1961. There, they built a house which they moved into. They sold it to Elwyn and Annabelle Ritchey in 1967. It was then sold to Elmer James Goerlitz. Probably Fritz Wirtz was the real estate agent. Roy Harold Gordon Mortenson then bought it in 1968. He sold to Brian Lovig in 1990, who sold to Joe Steinklaebl who now owns it.

When Hockeys sold out in Joe Rich in 1958, they bought 30 acres in what is now the Toovey Road area. Many homes have now been built on the property which they bought there and which they sold to Mr. Toovey. James Hockey died in Cottonwoods, six months past his one hundredth birthday, nursed by his daughter, Mrs. Uppenborn.

Iris and Wilfred Uppenborn lived most of their married life in Joe Rich. Mike and Thelma Feniak bought the Nicholas place (High Lonesome Ranch) and lived in Joe Rich after they were married. They sold out in 1966 and bought a small farm in Beaverdell where they now live.

The Hockey girls, especially Iris and Thelma, were great singers.

 

Huckle

Billy [William Isaac] Huckle who came from Ontario was one of the early settlers in Joe Rich. He acquired District Lot 4051 as a Crown Grant in 1921. His old roofless cabin still stands just above and to the north of the highway at Cardinal Creek. He was a bachelor who had a team of horses with which he cleared land, hauled out fire wood which he cut on his property and sold in Rutland. He cut hay in the bottom land beside Cardinal Creek where he had his barn. He planted a small orchard, but many of his trees did not survive. A few Yellow Transparent Apple Trees still struggle to survive beside his roofless cabin. He was apparently a sociable man who liked visitors and kept a clean and tidy cabin. Ellen (Black) Mark remembered him inviting the Blacks to his cabin for dinner one Christmas. It now looks so small that it is hard to imagine all the socializing that once took place in it.

When the Weddell children were still small, Gert would take them up to his then deserted property and shake the apples off the trees. They would collect them to make apple sauce. When the property was being logged some of the trees were pushed out with a cat.

In 1921, Billy Huckle sold a right-of-way to the Black Mountain Irrigation District for $240 to build the irrigation ditch across his property, but in 1922 the irrigation district minutes show that he was disputing the agreement. When water was finally running in the ditch, Charlie Philpott, Sr. was employed as the ditch walker. He suspected that Billy Huckle was siphoning off water from the ditch to irrigate his property. When he did catch this infraction taking place he decided to disregard it and put the water loss down to gopher holes causing water loss.

Although Billy Huckle was a bachelor, he apparently had an eye for the ladies. He attended the schoolhouse dances and on one occasion asked Kathleen Philpott to dance with him. The dance was a lively one known as “Strip the Willow”. It involved swinging one’s partner, and during the dance Kathleen, a strong girl, not only swung Mr. Huckle but actually threw him onto the floor. Later, when her mother said, “Kathleen, you really shouldn’t have done that to Mr. Huckle”, Kathleen replied, “You should have seen what he was trying to do to me”. As a bachelor, he had always cooked for himself and had worked in a candy store where he had learned to make candy. It was a standing joke amongst the girls that Mr. Huckle frequently asked one of them to come to his cabin so that he could teach them to make candy.

When Mr. Huckle was an old man, he sold his property and moved to Kelowna where he worked as a security guard at the Rutland Sawmill where Mara Lumber is today. Perhaps he was not used to the town traffic and still behaved as he had in Joe Rich. On December 20, 1945 while at his work, he walked out into the road and was struck and killed by a car. He was 67 years of age.

After his death, Huckle’s property was sold to the Highs who sold it to Jim Weddell. Jim logged it and ranged cattle there, but when the government gave up helping with fencing, he sold it to Elwyn Cross.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2004 Huckle's cabin