Fifty Years A Doctor ©Kenneth McMillan. One of the many treasures that we have is the sleigh bed belonging to my great grandparents, Andrew and Edith Henderson. Dr. Andrew Henderson was an individual who, because of his pioneering spirit, was able to see and experience much in the building of the West. Andrew;s story is an interesting one. Andrew's parents, Alexander Henderson (b. Galashiels, Scotland) and Christian Sutherland (b. March 1, 1819, Edinburgh, Scotland) had emigrated from Scotland in 1832 and had settled in Sorel, Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. They had six children: James (b.1846), Daniel (b.1847), Alexander (b.1849), John (b.1851), Andrew (b.1853) and a sister Elliot (b. 1857). I haven't been able to trace information on the two oldest children. Andrew had to go to work early to pay for schooling when his father drowned in on Lake Ontario. The ship, the Tinto, on which Alexander was an engineer, caught fire and sank on July 19, 1856. Andrew went to school in Montreal and apprenticed in pharmacology and eventually graduated in pharmacy. His real desire was to become a doctor so in the early 1870;s he enrolled at McGill University. In order to pay for his way through university he took up part time work selling medicine for the Lyman Company of Montreal. His route covered much of Quebec and the Maritimes. In a 1932 newspaper interview with the Saint John Evening Time-Globe, Henderson recalls visiting Saint John, N.B. in 1874. I made my triumphal entry into your bustling city by horse and team via the Medapedia route in those good old days of wooden ships and awful roads... Selling propriety medicines in those days was not the cinch it is at present. With roads now like billiard tables and pneumatic tires on high-powered automobiles, it is a pleasure. We had to jog along over rocks and ruts with trudging horses and clattering iron-rimmed wheels, calling at every country store, village doctor and for that matter, practically at every door. In 1880 Andrew Henderson graduated from McGill along with Sir William Osler who was to be an intimate friend and confrere throughout Henderson;s life. Henderson spent two and a half years as assistant and house surgeon in the Montreal General Hospital. Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway had begun in May of 1881 and the track was inching its way across Canada and by 1883 had reached the prairie provinces. Dr. Henderson felt compelled to head west so in 1883 he resigned his position and headed to Calgary. Left for the North West on April 1883, arriving at the end of the track ten miles from Maple Creek, Saskatchewan en route to Calgary. The journey from the end of the track to Calgary was made by cayuse in spells, and occupied the following six weeks, fording the Saskatchewan at Medicine Hat and the Bow at Calgary. I arrived at Calgary on June 8, 1883 and at once located on the east side of the Elbow river near the old Hudson;s Bay Company trading post. He stayed briefly in the cabin/office of Wolff and McVittie who were the Dominion surveyors for the new town site. Andrew had left his fiancee in Galt, Ontario. With a wedding planned in the near future he realized more permanent accommodations were needed. In July of 1883 he built a house that also served as a drugstore (the first in Calgary) and office. It was the first framed building erected in Calgary on the east side of the Elbow. The house was also temporarily used as a pay office for the crews of track-layers and graders employed by Langdon and Shepherd, contractors for that section of the line. The first framed house erected in Calgary in July 1883. Dr. Henderson is seated in the doorway with his dog Jerry. Edith, his wife is standing beside him. The third person is Mary a maid, holding;Crowfoot.; The cages above the door held canaries. They were the doctor;s first post- nuptial present to his wife. Photo taken 1884. In April of 1884, Dr. Henderson travelled to Galt, Ontario where he married and they returned to Calgary riding in the first caboose to reach Calgary. A son, Richard Gordon Henderson, was born in 1885, one of the first white children born in Calgary. At the time, Dr. George A. Kennedy was the surgeon to the North West Mounted Police Division at Fort MacLeod. When he left for a trip east in May of 1884, Dr. Henderson took over the medical contract for the Calgary division of the police, becoming the first civilian doctor in Calgary. In 1885, Henderson was appointed to serve as Brigade Surgeon during the Riel Rebellion (Saskatchewan Rebellion) and also as surgeon for the C.P.R. on the division from Medicine Hat to the first crossing of the Columbia River. He was also asked to care for the Indians of the Blackfoot, Cree and Stoney Reserves. In 1887, Dr. Henderson was offered the contract with the Great Northern Construction Company for medical services on the construction of the western extension of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway. When that contract was completed he moved his family to St. Paul where he taught clinical medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Henderson was also the leading physician at Merriam Park where he had his home. Merriam Park was a model community started in 1885 and was located midway between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Andrew and Edith;s daughter, Marjorie Sutherland Henderson was born in St. Paul in 1888. Dr. Andrew Henderson with wife Edith, son Richard Gordon (Tobe) and daughter Marjorie Sutherland in Merriam Park 1896. It was during this time that Dr. Henderson befriended Dr. Dwight F. Brooks. Dr. D. F. Brooks, Anson S. Brooks and M. J. Scanlon were principal executives for Brooks Scanlon Ltd. and Dr. Henderson was asked to be in charge of the hospital at Scanlon, Minnesota. This company operated a large mill there and also had huge logging and sawmilling operations throughout the American Pacific Northwest and the Southern B.C. coast. In 1907, as operations started to wane in Scanlon, the company began to focus on British Columbia. The three partners went to see their logging operations at Stillwater, a camp about 65 miles north-east of Vancouver. While there, they looked at the potential of building western Canada;s first pulp mill at the near-by site of Powell River where the Michigan and Puget Logging Company was operating. They bought the property in October of 1909 and formed the Powell River Paper Company. The mill in Minnesota was closed and Dr. Henderson and the entire operation along with hundreds of construction workers were moved to the Powell River logging camp. There was initially one Union Steamship boat from Vancouver once a week, about a seven hour trip. Dr. Henderson took his B.C. Medical examination and then went immediately back to Powell River. One of the first things Henderson did was to institute the first medical plan in B.C. One dollar a month was deducted from every workman;s salary which paid for his (but not his family;s) medical needs. Andrew then set about having his house constructed which was the first home to be finished at the town site. At the same time he also set up the town;s first hospital, a tent and converted bunkhouse, which opened on June 29, 1910. It could accommodate eleven patients and had facilities for surgery. Powell River in 1910. Dr. Henderson;s house is on the left (with white trim). The hospital tent and;bunkhouse; are just to the right of center. The only time extra room was needed was during a typhoid epidemic in the summer of 1912 when other houses were used for patients. The epidemic lasted until October resulting in two deaths and thirty-seven cases of typhoid. Henderson operated out of the tent and;bunkhouse; for over three years until the construction of St. Luke;s Hospital in 1913. The first staff consisted of Dr. Henderson, his assistant Dr. E. J. Rexford and Miss Grace Hancock, head nurse, cook and orderly. Dr. Henders...

Our acreage is located near Sechelt, a small seaside community northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1975 we purchased 5½ acres of land close to town but still in the bush with dreams of building a self sufficient homestead. Over the years we have taken a circuitous route to reach that dream. The following is a pictorial chronicle of our journey. To reach our acreage we originally had to travel down on old logging road which was built in the 1890's. It was definitely hard-to-come-by! The property had originally been homesteaded before the second war. We found an old hand dug well so our first project was to clean and crib it. We then had to decide what to build for a house. We had wanted to build a geodesic dome but our only tools were a hammer, Swede saw, sharpened shovel (for peeling logs) and a butcher knife. We also didn't have electricity so we decided to build a hexagon instead. We had never built anything before so I made a cardboard model and we plunged ahead. We used saplings for framing material. Flooring, roof shakes and exterior sheathing were salvaged. Windows were from garage sales, auctions and the dump. It was definitely a learning experience! We moved in on February 14th, 1976. Our house had cost us $500. For the next 6 years we lived without electricity, telephone or running water. As the years progressed rooms were added as needed to accommodate accumulated furniture and the need for space. We added a bedroom in 1977 (the lean-to on the right side of the house). In 1978 we built a workshop that has become our guest cabin. In the early 80's we finally put in power and a telephone which meant building a better road for the power poles. We had a well drilled so added a bathroom in 1986 and a living room in 1987. An ample supply of water allowed us to develop our garden. We were able to restore 2 original apple trees and planted grapes, walnuts, hazelnuts, raspberries, strawberries, tayberries, red and black currants, gooseberries, blueberries, apricot, cherries, pear, fig and a herb and vegetable garden. In 1995 we felt we wanted to share the beauty of what we had created so began renovations on the old workshop. We added a bathroom and front porch, scrubbed and painted the interior and transformed it into our Bed Breakfast. We now use it as our family friends guest cabin. The same view just after we finished. Furnished with my sleigh bed. We opened on Labour Day 1995. We have met many wonderful people and are thankful for the experience.

 Luggage storage
 Smoke-free guest rooms
 Parking lot
 Private park, garden, courtyard
 Quiet surroundings
 Private/Ensuite bathroom
 Tea and coffee making facilities
 Patio, summer terrace