The
Story of Butchart Gardens
by Dave Preston
Introduction and Excerpts
Late one mid-December afternoon in 1950, an elderly woman looked out
of the window of her home in Victoria, and softly whispered to her nurse:
"I've never seen a more beautiful sunset." A moment later, she
died.
The woman was Jennie Butchart, and during her eighty-two years on this
earth she helped make a small corner of it so beautiful that more than
a million people a year travel to see it. The legacy she left rivals the
splendour of any sunset and Butchart Gardens continues to amaze visitors
from around the world . . . it's a remarkable legacy, left
by a remarkable woman. And one which her family continues to cherish.
*
Jeanette Foster Kennedy was born on February 26, 1868, in the downtown of fast-growing Toronto, Ontario. Her Canadian-born mother, Martha Kennedy, was of Irish origin but little is known of her Irish father, James Kennedy, except that he was a reasonably successful seed and commission merchant. His untimely death occurred the same year Jeanette was born.
According to her family and friends, the young Jennie was "round-faced, rosy-cheeked, wide-awake and full of laughter." Though polite and well-mannered, she was an active child and not afraid to show her natural athletic skills. "I rode almost as soon as I could walk," she told a reporter years later, and she could drive a coach and horses, or a "four in hand" at a very young age.
When her mother died in 1880, Jennie moved to Owen Sound, another busy Great Lakes port of the time, to live with her aunt, Mrs. Robert Paterson. Although there were seven other children in the family already, Jennie settled down quickly into her new home, and enjoyed outdoor life. She would help out on the farm and a favourite companion was a large collie dog, which helped Jennie chase and round up cattle; an illicit pastime that earned them both a frequent scolding.
"My aunt was an excellent housekeeper," she later recalled, "and we were taught domestic science in the good, old-fashioned, unforgettable school of experience." The skills she learned in that basic kitchen would stand her in good stead, when later the world, as it would seem, began to visit her home and appreciate her role as gracious hostess.
*
Robert Pim Butchart was a tall, lean young man of Scottish descent, with a good head for figures and a fine business career unfolding before him. Owen Sound, in the township of Sydenham, was a burgeoning port, first settled in 1840, as steamers were busily opening up this part of the continent via the Great Lakes.
Church attendance and associated social gatherings were requisite, and Bob soon became friendly with Jennie Foster Kennedy. Bob's father and Jennie's uncle Robert had been colleagues on the town council and active members of local society. Jennie and Bob's courtship was deemed to be a good match, and well encouraged.
*
At twenty-seven years old, having outsmarted or out-manoeuvered Jennie's other suitors, Bob Butchart won the hand of his eighteen-year-old bride. They went down to Buffalo for the wedding and Jennie shelved any thoughts of furthering her career in visual arts, devoting herself instead to her new husband and providing support to this determined entrepreneur.
The Move West - Welcome to Saanich
Work began on construction of the cement plant in March 1904, and a few weeks later, on April 19, the Vancouver Portland Cement Company Limited was formed with a $500,000 capital investment. A Toronto financier, Mr. E. R. Wood, was president, with Bob taking on the role of managing director plus many other duties. Another newcomer from Ontario, twenty-six-year-old Mr. Harry A. Ross, was appointed treasurer, and would soon earn a place in the Butchart family.
Business took off almost immediately. The strength of cement as a building material had been tested in the east and now local engineers and builders were anxious to get their hands on some. By spring of 1906, Bob's cement business was booming. A daily newspaper report of the time said: "R.P. Butchart, manager of the Vancouver Island Portland Cement Company at Tod Creek, this morning said that he was working night and day to supply the local demand, and has ordered another mint which is now on its way here. He will increase the plant from six hundred barrels, and will supply the Canadian trade before filling orders for San Francisco, although builders there are offering seventy-five cents to one dollar more a barrel just now."
*
Athough she was proud of her husband's success, Jennie mentioned, only half jokingly, the price the environment was paying. "You're ruining the country, Bob," she said, "just to get your old cement!"
The Story of Butchart Gardens, 200 pages, includes colour photos.
ISBN 0969954001, price $19.95, published by Highline Publishing.
© Dave Preston 2007 All rights reserved.
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