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Frederick Tregillus Letters from the Cariboo Boys

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F.J. Tregillus Barkerville, B.C.

Cariboo items since 7th. Feb. 1918.

On the 15th. Feb., Joe House shot two cariboo near the corral on Cow Mtn. The following day Tommy Blair and I helped him to get them down to town. With Harper's consent, one carcase was put in the butchers's shop from which every house in town, but Dr. Callanan, got a piece. The other carcase Joe, Tommy and I took care of. Under the impression that I had a hand in the shooting, Grain laid a complaint and the Quesnel cop came up. Joe was fined $250. for one and let out on suspended sentence for the other. Grain then wanted to prosecute 6 of us, Blair, Spratt, Wallace, Ford, Mrs. McCarthy (Fran was working in the Canyon) and myself for having wild meat in our possession. McCarthy came to town as mad as a hatter and informed on 5 more: Harper, Mrs. McIntyre, Billy Hodgekinson, Joel Stevens, Johnny Shepherd and Roddrick. Before Gardner, all but Harper were fined $5. each. In the bunch Harper was the only one who had any use for Grain so, although he had broken the law in a double sense by having it both in the shop and in the restaurant, he was 1st off. Wild meat, when obtainable has been coming to town since '62, including several catches last winter, but no word of warning did Grain ever issue. Times are exceptionally hard and the nearest butcher's shop is at Quesnel. Harper only ships enough beef for his own and Hopp's camps. When Peter Houser and Geo. Brown were leaving, they both had some business in the Govt. Office. Grain assured the both of them that he was their sincere friend and if he could at any time do anything to assist them, all they had to do was to let him know. Almost as soon as they got to camp at the Willows, a case of spinal meningitis is broke out and they were quarantined. This made things very gloomy but to cheer them up down came a letter to the O.C. to keep his eye on our two boys as they were pro-Germans, probable spies, &c. The letter was shown to them and they could hardly believe their eyes when they read the signature, C.W. Grain. Two weeks later, before Grain new they had seen the letter, Pete got a letter from the same hypocrite of the most friendly and encouraging kind. Jack Yorston and Harry Jones (who was in Victoria attending to getting a renewal of Unverzagt's charter on Lightning Cr.) called on the O.C. so as to put the boys in right. He admitted getting the Grain letter and a copy of Pete's cut, as it was against military etiquet, would not show them. He assured them that the boys would go over with a clean sheet, in fact, shewed the sheet. Can you wonder that those of us who knew this stinker years ago want to see him out of here? Herb Brown left here to join up on the 24th. May. Three days before, he called on Grain against whom he has many

BC Archives, MS-0426 Box 1 File 5 / TREGILLUS, Frederick James, 1862 - 1962. Barkerville, miner. / Correspondence from Ernest Seeley, 1915 - 1919.