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The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey
Heritage trustee Jean Barman has spent so much time helping other people's projects, it's a wonder she has produced 13 books of her own since 1984-including the most widely used history of the province, The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia. Now she's going from macro to micro with two new books about so-called ordinary people, two non-Anglo pioneers in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey (Harbour $17.95) recaptures the life and times of one of British Columbia's first businessmen, Joe Silvey, aka Joe Gonsalves, an illiterate fisherman and whaler who jumped ship to become a saloon keeper, fishing community patriarch and possibly Canada's first officially accepted Portuguese Canadian citizen.
Maria Mahoi of the Islands (New Star $16) recalls Maria Mahoi, born outside of Victoria, probably in Esquimalt, around 1855, of a Hawaiian father and an unknown mother who is thought to have died in childbirth. Mahoi had 13 children by two 'newcomer men', including a Scottish-born sea captain, while living mainly on Saltspring Island and nearby Russell Island.
The lives of Silvey and Mahoi intersected in the Gulf Islands in the late 1860s. For the Mahoi book, Barman began her research after a descendent asked to find out his heritage. She later attended a family reunion in August of 2002 when Mahoi's turn-of-the-century home on Russell Island became a focal point for a new Gulf Islands National Park. For the Silvey book, Barman's interest was also sparked by descendants. Two of his great-great-great-grandsons contacted her after she was heard discussing Portuguese Joe on CBC's Afternoon Show with host Mark Forsythe.
"The Portuguese Joes of the past are not easy to know,"; she says. "Most of us remember our grandparents, or at least something about them; we can picture them in our minds and we may have tucked away some letters they wrote. We are far less likely to know much about our grandparents' grandparents. They may have been illiterate...or found reading and writing uncomfortable.";
Without Anglo connections, entrepreneurs such as Joe Silvey were proudly different from the dominant Brits of British Columbia. They intermarried with First Nations women to create separate worlds from the dominant British sensibilities.
Born in the 1830s, Silvey was raised on Pico, one of nine Azores Islands controlled by Portugal off the coast of Africa. The Azoreans were mostly sailors, fishermen and Catholics. Family lore has it that Silvey had blue eyes, a legacy from a Scottish grandfather who was possibly involved in whaling from the Eastern U.S.
At age 12, Joe Silvey left the Azores on a whaling expedition, never to return, because the island's main food crop had been decimated by potato blight and a grape disease reduced wine production. Around the time the whaling industry went into decline, he and several other Portuguese crew members jumped ship, in San Francisco or Fort Victoria. Silvey and his companions were likely among the goldseekers who headed up the Fraser River in 1858, just as British Columbia was becoming a separate British colony from Vancouver Island.
At Point Roberts, Silvey and some frightened colleagues received friendly treatment from a meeting of Musqueam and Capilano Indians. Not long afterwards, Silvey formally married Khaltinaht, the granddaughter of Chief Kiapilano (Capilano) and his wife Homulchesun from the Musqueam, and they briefly operated a store at Point Roberts
Silvey turned his hand to fishing, living on Galiano Island and on Burrard Inlet, before he opted for local whaling, primarily for the extraction of oil. To do so, Silvey hooked up with Abel Douglas, a Scot from Maine, who was married to a beautiful half-Hawaiian-Maria Mahoi. Around 1871, with oil prices dropping and two children to feed, Silvey followed the example of Gassy Jack Deighton in Gastown, operating the Hole-in-the-Wall saloon and buying property at the corner of Water and Abbott streets for $100.
Recollections of this period in The Remarkable Adventures are mostly from Silvey's eldest daughter Elizabeth Silvey, who retained vivid memories of potlatch ceremonies and her Capilano relatives from her early childhood. These stories were gleaned by Vancouver archivist Major J.S. Matthews when he conducted interviews with Elizabeth between 1938 and 1943.
Devastated by the sudden death of his wife, Portuguese Joe took his two young daughters to live at Brockton Point, at Deadman's Island, then a remote area. [Barman's original interest in Silvey was sparked by her research for a forthcoming book to be called Stanley Park Secrets: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point.] An Oblate priest married Silvey to Kwahama Kwatleematt, age 15, of the Sechelt band, in 1872. Known as Lucy, she could read and write-unusual skills for a young Native woman.
Next, Portuguees Joe pioneered seine boat fishing in B.C., teaching Native women to knit nets at Brockton Point and pre-empting 160 acres on Reid Island, northwest of Galiano Island in 1881. Eleven of his children survived. With both aboriginal and Portuguese values, the Silvey family was routinely multilingual, speaking English, Portuguese, the local Cowichan language and the Chinook trading lingo.
Silvey's enclave at Reid Island attracted sealing schooners and wintering fishermen until his death in 1902, at approximately 66 years of age. The daughters of his first wife, Khaltinaht, splintered off, whereas Lucy Silvey remained on the island until her death in 1934. Barman traces Silvey's many descendants to the present day. Portuguese Joe also lived at Irvine's Landing, at Pender Harbour. The BC Archives lists the death of Joseph Gonsalves, 82, in 1939 in Vancouver.
Maria (pronounced Mariah) Mahoi died in the late 1930s. The title Maria Mahoi of the Islands refers to her roots in both the Hawaiian and Gulf Islands. As a prominent matriarch on Saltspring, Mahoi could trace her roots to the 'Kanakas,' Hawaiian-born labourers brought to B.C. by the Hudson's Bay Company prior to Confederation.
"To live as a half-breed was to be denigrated,"; says Barman, "to be denied any possibility of getting ahead. She herself drew far more on her Hawaiian heritage than she ever did on her aboriginality.";
Hawaiian families once lived at the "Kanaka Ranch"; at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver, where the Bayshore Inn now stands, on Saltspring Island and at North Van's Moodyville. The Empress Hotel in Victoria is situated on the ruins of a shantytown called Kanaka Row. Saltspring Islander Tom Koppel has published Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest (Whitecap, 1995) and Susan Dobbie's first novel When Eagles Call (Ronsdale, 2003) is about a young Hawaiian native named Kimo who signs up for duty with the Hudson's Bay Company in the 19th century, even eventually marrying a half-Kwantlen and half-French-Canadian woman.
A UBC historian in the Department of Educational Studies, Jean Barman was born in Stephen, Minnesota. In addition to her biography and history titles, she collaborated with Linda Hale for a 1991 bibliography of B.C. local histories, updated recently by Brenda Peterson.
Barman was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002. She is married to historian Roderick Barman, an authority on Brazil. They live in Vancouver. Silvey 1-55017-326-X; Mahoi 1-55420-007-5
[BCBW Summer 2004]
The Remarkable Adventures of Portuguese Joe Silvey (Harbour $17.95) recaptures the life and times of one of British Columbia's first businessmen, Joe Silvey, aka Joe Gonsalves, an illiterate fisherman and whaler who jumped ship to become a saloon keeper, fishing community patriarch and possibly Canada's first officially accepted Portuguese Canadian citizen.
Maria Mahoi of the Islands (New Star $16) recalls Maria Mahoi, born outside of Victoria, probably in Esquimalt, around 1855, of a Hawaiian father and an unknown mother who is thought to have died in childbirth. Mahoi had 13 children by two 'newcomer men', including a Scottish-born sea captain, while living mainly on Saltspring Island and nearby Russell Island.
The lives of Silvey and Mahoi intersected in the Gulf Islands in the late 1860s. For the Mahoi book, Barman began her research after a descendent asked to find out his heritage. She later attended a family reunion in August of 2002 when Mahoi's turn-of-the-century home on Russell Island became a focal point for a new Gulf Islands National Park. For the Silvey book, Barman's interest was also sparked by descendants. Two of his great-great-great-grandsons contacted her after she was heard discussing Portuguese Joe on CBC's Afternoon Show with host Mark Forsythe.
"The Portuguese Joes of the past are not easy to know,"; she says. "Most of us remember our grandparents, or at least something about them; we can picture them in our minds and we may have tucked away some letters they wrote. We are far less likely to know much about our grandparents' grandparents. They may have been illiterate...or found reading and writing uncomfortable.";
Without Anglo connections, entrepreneurs such as Joe Silvey were proudly different from the dominant Brits of British Columbia. They intermarried with First Nations women to create separate worlds from the dominant British sensibilities.
Born in the 1830s, Silvey was raised on Pico, one of nine Azores Islands controlled by Portugal off the coast of Africa. The Azoreans were mostly sailors, fishermen and Catholics. Family lore has it that Silvey had blue eyes, a legacy from a Scottish grandfather who was possibly involved in whaling from the Eastern U.S.
At age 12, Joe Silvey left the Azores on a whaling expedition, never to return, because the island's main food crop had been decimated by potato blight and a grape disease reduced wine production. Around the time the whaling industry went into decline, he and several other Portuguese crew members jumped ship, in San Francisco or Fort Victoria. Silvey and his companions were likely among the goldseekers who headed up the Fraser River in 1858, just as British Columbia was becoming a separate British colony from Vancouver Island.
At Point Roberts, Silvey and some frightened colleagues received friendly treatment from a meeting of Musqueam and Capilano Indians. Not long afterwards, Silvey formally married Khaltinaht, the granddaughter of Chief Kiapilano (Capilano) and his wife Homulchesun from the Musqueam, and they briefly operated a store at Point Roberts
Silvey turned his hand to fishing, living on Galiano Island and on Burrard Inlet, before he opted for local whaling, primarily for the extraction of oil. To do so, Silvey hooked up with Abel Douglas, a Scot from Maine, who was married to a beautiful half-Hawaiian-Maria Mahoi. Around 1871, with oil prices dropping and two children to feed, Silvey followed the example of Gassy Jack Deighton in Gastown, operating the Hole-in-the-Wall saloon and buying property at the corner of Water and Abbott streets for $100.
Recollections of this period in The Remarkable Adventures are mostly from Silvey's eldest daughter Elizabeth Silvey, who retained vivid memories of potlatch ceremonies and her Capilano relatives from her early childhood. These stories were gleaned by Vancouver archivist Major J.S. Matthews when he conducted interviews with Elizabeth between 1938 and 1943.
Devastated by the sudden death of his wife, Portuguese Joe took his two young daughters to live at Brockton Point, at Deadman's Island, then a remote area. [Barman's original interest in Silvey was sparked by her research for a forthcoming book to be called Stanley Park Secrets: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point.] An Oblate priest married Silvey to Kwahama Kwatleematt, age 15, of the Sechelt band, in 1872. Known as Lucy, she could read and write-unusual skills for a young Native woman.
Next, Portuguees Joe pioneered seine boat fishing in B.C., teaching Native women to knit nets at Brockton Point and pre-empting 160 acres on Reid Island, northwest of Galiano Island in 1881. Eleven of his children survived. With both aboriginal and Portuguese values, the Silvey family was routinely multilingual, speaking English, Portuguese, the local Cowichan language and the Chinook trading lingo.
Silvey's enclave at Reid Island attracted sealing schooners and wintering fishermen until his death in 1902, at approximately 66 years of age. The daughters of his first wife, Khaltinaht, splintered off, whereas Lucy Silvey remained on the island until her death in 1934. Barman traces Silvey's many descendants to the present day. Portuguese Joe also lived at Irvine's Landing, at Pender Harbour. The BC Archives lists the death of Joseph Gonsalves, 82, in 1939 in Vancouver.
Maria (pronounced Mariah) Mahoi died in the late 1930s. The title Maria Mahoi of the Islands refers to her roots in both the Hawaiian and Gulf Islands. As a prominent matriarch on Saltspring, Mahoi could trace her roots to the 'Kanakas,' Hawaiian-born labourers brought to B.C. by the Hudson's Bay Company prior to Confederation.
"To live as a half-breed was to be denigrated,"; says Barman, "to be denied any possibility of getting ahead. She herself drew far more on her Hawaiian heritage than she ever did on her aboriginality.";
Hawaiian families once lived at the "Kanaka Ranch"; at the foot of Denman Street in Vancouver, where the Bayshore Inn now stands, on Saltspring Island and at North Van's Moodyville. The Empress Hotel in Victoria is situated on the ruins of a shantytown called Kanaka Row. Saltspring Islander Tom Koppel has published Kanaka: The Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest (Whitecap, 1995) and Susan Dobbie's first novel When Eagles Call (Ronsdale, 2003) is about a young Hawaiian native named Kimo who signs up for duty with the Hudson's Bay Company in the 19th century, even eventually marrying a half-Kwantlen and half-French-Canadian woman.
A UBC historian in the Department of Educational Studies, Jean Barman was born in Stephen, Minnesota. In addition to her biography and history titles, she collaborated with Linda Hale for a 1991 bibliography of B.C. local histories, updated recently by Brenda Peterson.
Barman was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002. She is married to historian Roderick Barman, an authority on Brazil. They live in Vancouver. Silvey 1-55017-326-X; Mahoi 1-55420-007-5
[BCBW Summer 2004]
Submitted on March 3, 2004 in By David.
