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- 92 VICTORIA ILLUSTRATED.
from Port Angeles to Seattle. They have the finest office in the city, and every known specimen of quartz is contained in their splendid
cabinet. They have taken a deep interest in the mining and lumber interests of this province, and they have the largest line of timber and
coal properties on the Pacific Coast. For two years they had employed two cruisers, cruising the timber in Oregon, Washing-ton and British
Columbia. They have large coal fields in British Columbia, and make a specialty of these claims. They have a tract of 4,300 acres on
Denman Island, and also immense tracts on Queen Charlotte Islands. The general quality of this coal is good, being principally bituminous.
They have samples taken from the various mines, and have them on exhibition at their office, together with the specifications of each
specimen. They have also some fine specimens of gold, brought to the city by the lately deceased Mr. Mason, M. P. P. for Cariboo. The
Company is agent for a number of life, fire and marine insurance companies, also agents for British Columbia for the American Investment
Union, of New York ; and the Dominion Safe Deposit Warehousing & Loan Company, of Canada, the bonds of which they have for sale. They are
largely interested in mining companies, and will furnish full information on application.
DALBY AND CLAXTON.
The members of this, one of Victoria's best-known real estate firms, are Messrs. William Dalby and Fred J. Claxton. Mr. Dalby is so well known in British Columbia, of which he has long been a prominent character, that his remarkable career is at home almost a by-word ; but his history will here meet with eyes in other lands and will to them be a theme of considerable interest. He was born at Richmond Hill, Ontario, and, when merging into manhood, left home in company with John Grant, present Mayor of Victoria. While on the water between New York and San Francisco, in 1861, there was fought in the States the memorable battle of Bull Run. Their passage took them by the way of Panama and Aspinwall, and, after arriving at San Francisco, they went to Santa Cruz, California, walking there (some state) and subsisting the last day of their journey upon a loaf of bread and a watermelon. Here Mr. Dalby, who had learned the tanning trade, entered a tannery, and soon became foreman ; but both he and Mr. Grant, hearing of the Cariboo gold excitement, left the following year for Victoria, and from here went to Cariboo. Mr. Dalby remained at McCollum's Gulch only two months, and, returning to Victoria, built a small tannery on the Saanich road, and subsequently combined with it the harness business, and later still shoe manufacturing, the business then being merged into the Belmont Tanning, Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Company, in which company he remained until it was bought by the well-known Ames Holden Company, and of which he for some time acted as manager. Mr. Dalby's success to that hour had been very marked, and he retired from active business and took a great interest in civic affairs. He was elected Alderman for one year, and subsequently was Mayor of Victoria successively in the years 1873 and 1874. Since November, 1879, he has retained the office of Justice of the Peace for the Province of British Columbia to the present date. He has been once Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia, A. F. & A. M., and in 1887 was appointed by the Grand Lodge of Canada as Representative of their Grand Lodge in the Grand Lodge of British Columbia. He is also appointed as Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Victoria, Australia. Mr. Dalby has become a large property-owner in Victoria and other parts of the province. For three years he was President of the Agricultural Association, and the active interest he has taken for twenty years in that association has redounded much to its benefit. Mr. Claxton, who is a native or Montreal, was, until he came to Victoria in 1889, engaged in the wholesale dry goods business with his father, Mr. T. J. Claxton, of Montreal. Shortly after Mr. Claxton's advent in Victoria the firm of Dalby, Ballantyne & Claxton was formed, and it has since been changed to Dalby & Claxton. The principal business done consists of real estate, financial and insurance brokerage. In real estate they have not confined themselves to inside and outside property and farm lands, but have handled some coal and other mining properties of an extensive nature. Mr. Dalby having been a resident of Victoria from its infancy, and the fact of his having twice occupied the civic chair, as also having been City Assessor, gives him a practical knowledge of real estate values possessed by few men. In the making of loans and the insurance department this experience is particularly valuable. Mr. Dalby is manager of the British Columbia Fire Insurance Company, and director in the local board of the Dominion Building and Loan Association of Toronto, whose capital is five million dollars. Mr. Claxton is treasurer of this company, as also secretary of the Sechart Quicksilver Mining Company of Victoria. The firm represents the Royal Canadian Insurance Company of Montreal and the Lancashire Guaranty and Securities Corporation (Limited) of Huddersfield, England ; and when we say that the latter has loaned about $400,000 on this coast in one month of last spring, it is a sufficient guarantee of the confidence shown by English capitalists in the stability of values in this country.
FRANCIS BOURCHIER.
One of the most successful real estate men who ever established in British Columbia is Mr. Bourchier, a native of Devonshire, England, who made Victoria his home in 1887. He almost immediately wentinto the real estate business, and soon after associated with him as partner Mr. W. R. Higgins, son of the Hon. D. W. Higgins, M. P. P. Mr. Higgins after a short period retired from the firm to go to Europe, and Mr. Bourchier then formed the firm of Bourchier, Croft & Mallette, which was eventually merged into the Vancouver Island Land and Investment Company (Limited), with a capital of $250,000. This firm of Bourchier, Croft & Mallette was the first to start the boom at Port Angeles, and three years ago heralded the advantages of Victoria in a manner that aided in the tremendous progress she has since enjoyed. It may be said, in truth, that this house was the best known in British Columbia, and distributed at its own expense more valuable statistics in the shape of pamphlets and other mediums than any other firm. At times their offices were so crowded that it was almost impossible to transact the business offered. The offices were of marked taste, and displayed a mineral exhibit equaled by none in the province. Mr. Bourchier traveled extensively East and abroad and interested foreign capital, and accomplished the formation of syndicates and land deals which the most sanguine had deemed impossible. Mr. Bourchier sold, in August last, his interest in the Vancouver Island Land and Investment Company (Limited) to Mr. Croft, and is again engaged in business for himself, having taken handsome offices on Government street, in the Five Sisters' block. Mr. Bourchier is at present engaged in large syndicate land speculations covering the entire province. He has served as one of the Council of the B. C. Board of Trade.
MORROW, HOLLAND AND CO.
D. W. Morrow, senior partner in this house, is a native of Barrie, Ontario, and came here in June, 1883, and became connected with the postoffice here as second clerk. Subsequently he became connected with commercial interests, and later was with F. G. Richards, Jr., in the real estate business. In January, 1891, he started for himself as a real estate, insurance and financial agent, under style of D. W. Morrow & Co. In April the style of the firm was changed to Morrow, Holland & Co., Joshua Holland being admitted to the business. Mr. Morrow was Secretary and Treasurer for the British Columbia Fire Insurance Co., which position he held for three years. Mr. H. A. Munn, of this firm, was born in Queens County, Prince Edward Island, in 1861. He left there in 1883 for British Columbia. He was connected with the newspapers " Standard " and " Colonist," and subsequently bought an interest in the " Times." He remained with the "Times " for some six years, when he sold out his interest, immediately entering into partnership with J. Cochrane in the drug business, taking it over from one Kellogg. This drug business has been a pronounced success from the start, and their store is one of the handsomest and best appointed establishments in the city. Mr. Munn is largely interested in the industries of British Columbia, having invested in sealing, fisheries and real estate, and numerous other projects. At the last civic elections he came out as a candidate for Alder-man for James Bay Ward, and was elected by a large majority over other strong competitors. Joshua Holland, the newly admitted member of the above house, is a native of Shropshire, Eng. He sailed from Liverpool for Canada in March, 1882, and on his way across the continent he remained one year in Winnipeg. He followed the impulse to move still further westward, and he reached here 1883, coming by way of San Francisco, in company with several others, visiting Chicago, Ogden, Denver and Salt Lake City. Immediately upon his arrival here he engaged in the carpentering business, remaining in it for two years, when he branched out for himself as a contractor and builder. Five years afterward he retired from business, and, standing for election, he became an Alderman in January, 1890, to which position he was re-elected in the present year, standing at the head of the poll at both elections. He represents Johnson Street Ward. During the past year and a half he has been engaged in speculations in real estate, and in April last he became a partner in the business of Morrow, Holland & Co., to which he devotes much of his time. The firm do a general real estate, loan and fire insurance business. In the latter branch they are agents for the Lancashire Insurance Company, one of the strongest in the world. They handle Victoria inside property principally, and do a large rent collecting business besides. The gradual increase of their business has necessitated their removal to larger premises, which they have secured and fitted up handsomely on Broad street, near Yates.
CRANE, M'GREGOR AND BOGGS.
This firm was formed in January, 1890, for the purpose of transacting a general real estate, brokerage and insurance business, and has made a record for itself unequaled by many of the older houses. Mr. J. E. Crane, senior member of the firm, is a native of Ontario, and came here in 1886 as agent of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Montreal, Mr. W. D. McGregor came from the city of his birth, Montreal, in the summer of 1889. Mr. Beaumont Boggs, who is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, came to Victoria in 1885.
In their insurance department they represent to-day the Sun Life Assurance Company of Montreal, the Eastern Fire Insurance Company of Halifax, and the Citizens' Fire Insurance Company of Montreal. They are heavily interested in and are agents for the Victoria Hydraulic Mining Company, which is the largest company of its kind in the province, and are putting in this year fifteen miles of ditch at Quesnelle Forks, Cariboo, for gold mining. They are also agents for
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