A Brief History of Thetis Island, Overbury and our family

Early history and first settlers

Thetis Island was first mapped by Europeans in 1850-53 when the British frigate H.M.S. Thetis commanded by Captain Augustus Kuper, R.N. discovered 5 unnamed islands while patrolling up the east coast of Vancouver Island from Esquimault. Little is known of the native inhabitants of Thetis as there appeared to be none when the first settlers arrived. The adjacent island, Kuper, was populated by natives of the Penelakut band at the time whose numbers had been decimated in 1859 during a raid by the Bella Bella tribe.

Following the offer of land by the government in 1874, the first wave of settlers purchased and arrived between 1874 and 1886. Of these first settlers, none established permanent homes. Several met tragic deaths in the harsh conditions of the early days. Henry Severne and Sam Gray fell from an overturned boat returning from Chemainus, five miles distant, Severne swimming the remaining half mile to the beachfront of his home perhaps dragged up by his dog, only to die during the night of exposure when no one knew his whereabouts. Help arrived only 3 days later when the rescuers were kept at bay by the loyal dog.

The second wave of settlers came in the 1890's and 1900's some of whose descendents still live on Thetis. The Burchell's arrived in 1891-92 to the Severne place in the southwest corner of the island (now Capernwray) and in 1891 Peter and Joseph Hunter arrived to start a farm at the North end of the island. Arthur Nixon also bought land in the 1890's.

Overbury

Helen Burchell's sister, Geraldine Hoffmann purchased the property adjacent to the Burchells in 1907 which was to become Overbury Poultry Farm and eventually Overbury Farm Resort. The Heneages arrived just north of the Hoffmann's in 1906. Geraldine Hoffmann's son, Rupert, came with his Mother and sister, Molly, to Thetis in 1910 after completing his studies at Cambridge. Geraldine's plan was to give Rupert a chance to live an active outdoor life near the sea in order to minimize his chances of catching tuberculosis or consumption as it was known in those days. Rupert's father, Arthur, had died of TB when Rupert was only 2 years old and Geraldine had a deep fear of losing her only son to the disease.

In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I , Rupert and Geraldine assumed Geraldine's maiden name of Forbes and moved back to England to join the war effort, Rupert served with the medical corp in the Middle East and Geraldine worked in England in soldier's canteens. Rupert managed to marry his sweetheart, Laura, on leave in the spring of 1916. With the end of the war, Geraldine with Rupert and Laura returned to Thetis to resume civilian life.

The Overbury Poultry Farm ran smoothly enough until the Great Depression when Geraldine died of cancer just months before her investments became worthless overnight. The Farm went bankrupt with the failure of the CPR boat to make its weekly trips to Thetis. Suddenly life on Thetis for Rupert and Laura with three young girls was much more a question of survival than of fulfillment. One of his first projects was to build 4 summer cabins for guests from the lumber salvaged from the now useless chicken coops. These cabins still stand and are used by the third and fourth generations of some families who had visited Thetis early in the century!

Rupert and Laura lived the rest of their lives at Overbury on Thetis Island except brief stays at the end of their lives in nursing homes, living to the ripe old age of 91 and 96 respectively. Of their three daughters, Josephine, trained as an Occupational Therapist, took over Overbury Farm in 1960 to run as a resort completing several essential repairs to the original old farm house updating the wells and sewage and building in 1984 four new cabins for guests. In 1990, Jo turned the property over to her nephew, Norman, and his wife, Arlene, who carry on the tradition of welcoming guests to the beauty of Thetis Island.

Sources

Sources include: Memories of the Chemainus Valley, Chemainus Valley Historical Society 1978; The Lives Behind the Headstones 1993