Issue 103.Indd
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ARCH GR SE OU E P BRITISH COLUMBIA R POST OFFICE B POSTAL HISTORY R I A IT B ISH COLUM NEWSLETTER Volume 26 Number 3 Whole number 103 September 2017 60-cent registered double-weight cover from Whalley to Nairobi, returned by dead letter office. Here’s a colourful, well-travelled cover with a lar datestamp on reverse. wealth of exotic markings to decipher. Sent from Some additional datestamps on the back of the Whalley (in Surrey) on Dec 22, 1950, it pays the 60- envelope are: New Westminster, Dec 23, 1950; Van- cent registered double airmail rate to Kenya (25c per couver, Dec 23, 1950; Montreal A.M.F., Dec 25, 1950; ¼ oz, 10c for registration), and was received at Nai- Nairobi registered, Dec 29, 1950; and Nairobi R.P.O., robi on Jan 9, 1951. Mr Athar, the addressee, could Jan ??, 1951. not be found, and the cover was marked “unknown” And the rectangular tax marking in purple on and “returned to sender” (“retour à l’envoyeur”). the front? Well, from 1922 to 1954 the dead letter of- The next set of markings, on reverse, is dated fice charged a 3-cent fee for a returned letter (which March 7, 1951, at the Montreal Dead Letter Office: would probably have arrived back in an “ambu- one is a meter impression on a piece of tape, the lance” cover). It’s quite remarkable that the cover other a “No. 12” rectangular clerk datestamp. The could be sent from Montreal on March 7 and arrive cover arrived back in New Westminster on Mar 8, at New Westminster on March 8—or is that a date- 1951, according to the small-lettered (Type C) circu- stamp error?—Andrew Scott In this issue: • Lumbering in the East Kootenays p 1019 • Favourite cover: Whalley to Kenya p 1011 • Drowned post offices, part III p 1022 • Hugh Westgate sale results at Eastern p 1013 • Scrimgeour miscellany p 1025 • The “other end of track” post office p 1015 • Recent BC post office markings p 1026 BC Postal History Newsletter #103 Page 1012 receives an inkjet cancel. If I were to request that our From our readers postal people use an Ashcroft cancel, they willingly do so, but then the envelope goes into the bag for Scott Rockhold writes: sorting and re-cancelling on the Lower Mainland. It is I just ran across BC Postal History Newsletter #94 possible to mail a local letter, which is then cancelled and the notes on Hockin Landing (June 2015, pp and placed in a postal box. But if one puts the same 876-77). I enjoyed it very much. Jane Hockin was letter going from Ashcroft to Ashcroft in the wrong my great-grandmother. Hockin Landing has taken bag, the letter may take a week to find its way back to on mythical status in the family but no one has any our community. I have noted that Cache Creek, Logan details. You helped make it real. Lake and Clinton no longer use their local cancelling Some of the details don’t match family lore. Jane devices, rather it is the Vancouver inkjet. A letter married Thomas Bassett Hockin in Herodsfoot, coming from Kamloops to Ashcroft now takes about England, in 1877. She arrived in the US in 1898 to reunite a week instead of two days. On the brighter side, mail with her husband, who died in 1901. Jane moved to the from Victoria usually arrives within a couple of days. Shuswap in 1912 and became the postmistress. Our local posties are not too enthralled with the Charles Francis “Frank” Burkhart was born in new procedures, as this has created dead space in Illinois (1858), married in Missouri (1888) and in 1892 their day, when normally they would be sorting and was living in California. In 1900, he moved from Los cancelling the outgoing mail. Angeles to Marin with his wife Katherine and two As a cancel hobbyist I am less than thrilled with children. The 1910 census shows him as widowed the inkjets instead of the village or specialty cancels. and living with his parents in Oakland with the The last edition of the postal history newsletter children. Katherine is also shown in 1910 and later was, as usual, right up to your high standards! censuses as widowed and living in the Bay area. By 1918, Frank had moved to Hockin Landing where he worked as a barber. (Editor’s note: Jane Subscription renewal time and Frank were married at Kamloops on Dec 12, 1918; Print subscriptions are now due, at the annual rate Scott sent along a copy of the marriage certificate.) The of $15, in Canadian funds for addresses in Canada, marriage did not last. Jane returned, alone, to the and in US funds for addresses south of the border. Michigan area in the 1920s; her excellent adventure Please send cheques to the editor at the address in the idyllic Canadian wilderness had come to an below. Please keep in mind that emailed digital sub- end. She lived with her son Robert from 1930 until scriptions continue to be free. (You can, of course, her death at Marquette in 1951. have both types of subscriptions.) What took her to the Shuswap is a mystery to us. If you wish to receive the digital edition, please We suppose that she knew a relative in the area. make sure we have your email address. You can also Jim White writes: download the newsletter from our file-sharing site Of interest to our BC cancels hobby is the way Canada (see below). This is the last issue that we can honour Post now handles the mail. For example, if I were to 2016 print subscriptions. If we have your email ad- mail you a letter from Ashcroft, it goes directly into a dress, we will shift any remaining unpaid print sub- bag without any cancelling or sorting here in Ashcroft, scriptions to digital for the December issue. Thank then goes directly to the Lower Mainland where it you to those who have already resubscribed. The British Columbia Postal History Newsletter is Editor: Andrew Scott published quarterly by the BC Postal History Study email: [email protected] Group, an affiliate of the British North America Associate Editor: Tracy Cooper Philatelic Society (BNAPS). email: [email protected] Annual subscription fee for printed and mailed Study Group Chair: Tim Woodland newsletters (four issues) is $15, in Cdn or US funds. email: [email protected] Dues are payable to the editor: Andrew Scott Editor Emeritus: Bill Topping 5143 Radcliffe Rd, Sechelt, BC, Canada V0N 3A2 Newsletter submissions may be sent to the editors at Individual print issues sell for $2.50 each, post paid. the addresses above. Free digital newsletters can be downloaded as PDF files at the following websites: for issues 1 to 59, go to www.bnaps.org/hhl/n-bcr.htm; for later numbers, visit https://spideroak.com/browse/share/Andrew_Scott/Backissues. Issues 89 to present are in full colour; earlier newsletters are in b&w. File size is approximately 2 Mb/issue. BC Postal History Newsletter #103 Page 1013 Eastern Auctions: Hugh Westgate sale results The Hugh Westgate British Columbia collection was sold by Eastern Auctions at Halifax on June 17, 2017. Westgate specialized in colonial material, both stamps and postal history, and had an eye for quality. The sale featured some of the finest BC items to come on the market in several years. Realizations were firm. A handful of non-colonial BC items were also auctioned, including an 1898 Upper Columbia Tramway & Navigation Co cover with a 5-cent “U.C. Co.” label, which sold for $8,000. (All realizations are in Canadian funds and do not include the 15% buyer’s premium.) The sale began with an unusually choice selection of BC stamps, including several copies of BC #1. A mint example in extremely fine condition with full original gum (most copies are without gum) brought $28,000. Another extremely fine copy, but without gum, sold for $13,500, while a fine/very fine example went for $7,500 and a very fine “specimen” copy for $4,500. Two fine blocks of BC #2 from the 1925 “Mayfair” find were sold: a mint gutter block of 16, with 12 stamps never hinged, brought $3,750, while a mint block of 12 (11 copies never hinged), with a full left margin including inscriptions, sold for $2,750. The 5c and 10c imperforates (BC #3 and #4) also brought solid prices. A pair of small die proofs sold for $2,700, while a rare unused copy of the 5-cent in fine condition realized $15,000. A very fine mint example of #4 with large part original gum went for $3,250. A few of the more significant selections from the comprehensive postal history offerings are shown below and on the next page. Overall, the BC portion of the auction brought in more than $230,000 (exclusive of the buyer’s premium).—Andrew Scott Undated Wells, Fargo & Co cover used as a paste- up, with an exceptional 36- cent Large Queen franking paying the 12-time letter rate (up to six ounces in weight). Stamps are tied with oval Wells, Fargo & Co Express Victoria V.I. cancellations in blue. Realized $5,250. Undated (c 1859) Ballou’s Fraser River Express cover to California with rare red “scroll” frank. Manuscript “Paid through B Express.” Handstamped “J. Bamber & Co Contra-Costa Express San Francisco.” With Wellburn page. Realized $3,000. BC Postal History Newsletter #103 Page 1014 Eastern auction results continued Undated (c 1865-66) Wells, Fargo & Co express cover with embossed 3-cent imprint.