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Barnard Family
g-08024 -- Barnard
BC Archives: G-08024

SIR. FRANK STILLMAN BARNARD

"Sir Francis [Frank] was born in Toronto on May 16, 1856, his father, Francis J. Barnard, being descended from an old-established New England family which located in Massachusetts in the middle of the seventeenth century. His father came to British Columbia at the time of the gold rush, bringing his family out in the early sixties, establishing later the celebrated express service with which the early life in the province is closely interwoven. Mr. Barnard went into politics later and was a member of the House of Commons until his health failed." Times, Tuesday, January 1, 1918.


g-00385 -- Mr. Francis Jones Barnard
BC Archives: G-00385
"Since the very inception of the crown colony of British Columbia the name Barnard was associated with the political and industrial development of Canada's Pacific province. Francis J. Barnard, father of Sir frank Stillman Barnard, K.C., M.G., went to the pacific coast from Eastern Canada when the news of the gold discovery on the Fraser River in 1858 filtered through to the older colonies of Great Britian.

a-01086 -- Mrs. Francis Jones Barnard
BC Archives: A-01086
Frank Barnard was born in Toronto, May 16, 1856, and went to British Columbia with his father and mother, Ellen Stillman Barnard, when in 1860 they determined to make the new colony their home. Frank Barnard's father soon became a prominent figure in the new affairs of the new country and established Barnards Express, system of transportation that became famous for its efficiency. He served as a member of Parliament for Yale-Kootenay from 1879 to 1887." Province, November 4 1936.

a-01559 -- Barnard Express
BC Archives: A-01559

Sir Frank Barnard, Former Lieutenant Governor, Recalls Cariboo Days

g-00018 -- Mr. Frank Stillman Barnard
BC Archives: G-00018
"Sir, -The speech delivered by Mr. Justice Murphy on the occasion of the unveiling of the monument erected at Yale last June to commemorate the work of the builders of the old Cariboo road, reproduced in Sunday's Province of the 20th inst.. and very appropriately described by you as an "eloquent address," recalls my boyhood days spent in Yale from 1860 to 1866.

I remember distinctly, as of yesterday, the arrival of Sappers, their disembarkation and selection of a camping ground on a grassy flat where Yale Creek empties into the Fraser River. Then shortly afterwards, on a walk with my father when taken by the hand, I witnessed the beginning of work on the first tunnel just outside of town.

This was in the year 1862 when the construction of the old Cariboo road by the Royal Engineers was to displace the trail built in the 1860-61 under contract by my father and Captain powers (afterwards of Moodyville) as far as Chapman's Bar.

These reflections recall the fact that Mr. Justice Murphy's father and my father where partners in 1 860, working a claim on a bar of the Fraser just below the tunnel referred to where the Sappers put in their first blast.

a-01836 -- Cariboo Road
BC Archives: A-01836
It is pleasant for me to dwell on the fact also that his father and mine remained fast friends during all the years that Barnard's express and stages operated on the Cariboo road, and Mr. Dennis Murphy developed his ranch at the 144 mile post on the same old road.

Owing to his friendship I attribute the splendid support which he gave on two occasions upon which I stood for the Commons for Cariboo. For his address containing so eloquent a tribute to the pioneers and their work on the old Cariboo road Mr. Justice Murphy deserves to be highly complimented.

The courage, energy and perseverance in the face of many hardships and trails displayed by the early settlers should serve as an example to inspire some of our newcomers to initiate individual effort rather than to depend on paternal governments to advance their welfare. -F.S. Barnard Victoria, September 29, 1925, Province.


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Last updated 31 August 1998.
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