The Dupuis Family
as told by son, Ed
Four of his brothers also came west to Britan- nia Beach and they were there at the time of the disasterous slide that claimed the lives of over one hundred people, including one of the brothers.
He went north to Anyox where he worked in the boiler shop for the Granby Mines for the next nine years. A daughter, Beatrice, was born there. Ed was only one year old when he arrived in B.C. He recalls his school days in Anyox. He delivered papers as a boy and became interested in basketball.
The family came to Kimberley in 1924 and Marcel went to work in the Boiler Shop at the Concentrator. Ed worked as a mucker in the Mine for two days and chucked his shovel in a corner one day and went back to Anyox for two years. He worked in the Boiler Shop heating rivets, and played basketball for the Anyox team.
His sister, Marguerite used to work for Sutherland's Jewelry store and later for J. C. Adams, Jeweler, before her marriage to Jackie Hutton, a goalie for the Kimberley Dynamiters. Jackie transferred to Trail and later joined the Air Force. He died on Armistice Day in a canoing accident in Germany. They had one son, Donny, now at Burns Lake working for the Department of Highways. Marguerite remarried Howard Calvert. He too has passed away and she is residing in Kelowna.
Ed returned to Kimberley in 1926 and went to work on the bull gang at the Concentrator with Jock McLellan and Harry Almack. Bill Spittle was their boss. He later went into the Boiler Shop.
His sister, Beatrice, married Lloyd Johnson, a Fernie man, who opened up the Orpheum Theatre in Kimberley. He later bought the Tivoli in Creston and lived there for thirty-four years. They had two son; Bill and Alex. Bill lives near Seattle and is married with two sons. Alex still resides in Creston and they have one son and one daughter. Both boys married Creston girls. Lloyd and Beatrice have now retired to Twin Bay on Kootenay Lake.
Marcel died in 1941 of pneumonia as his lungs had been weakened for years by silicosis. Mrs. Dupuis lived until 1970 and ended her days in a nursing home in Kelowna.
Ed has always enjoyed basketball and can remember Mr. Salter, the manager of the McDougall Hall, coaching them. The team won a cup several years in succession by competing in Nelson, Trail and Rossland.
Ed married Jean Townsend in 1936. She was the daughter of Harold Townsend, who worked at the Company Store in Trail, where Jean was born. He was transferred to the Company Store in Kimberley in 1928 and was manager of the grocery department for many years. He married a Lethbridge girl, Nora Lyall, that he met in Hedley when he first started working in a grocery store there. Nora died in Kimberley in 1946 and Harold left in 1953 and for awhile he worked as a caretaker for an elderly woman on an estate at Sooke, near Victoria. He passed away in 1958.
Ed and Jean have two children, Lorne and Barbara. Lorne married a Cranbrook girl, Adelle Reid. They live in Cranbrook, but Lorne is a millwright at the Company Fertilizer Plant in Kimberley. They have one daughter, Michelle. Barbara married Jim Griffin whom she met while attending business college in Vancouver. He worked at the Fertilizer Warehouse when the Plant was being built, but has been moved around a great deal. They live in Yellowknife, now, where he is the purchasing agent for the Company there. They have two children: Michael and Steffanie.
In 1948, Ed and Jean's place was damaged by the flood as they lived on the low road below the Anglican Church. They purchased property near the Black Bear Bridge and built a home and a Service Station there which they opened in 1950. Jean attended the service station and Ed became Maintenance Supervisor at the Concentrator. He retired in 1967 after forty-three years service.
They moved to Summerland for 3 years and then to Peachland for five years. In the spring of 1978, they moved to Creston. Ed curls in winter and gardens in summer. He has a complete workshop in his basement. His specialty is making beautiful laminated, cedar glass-topped coffee tables. Jean has done intricate petit point and lately has designed unique pictures from pressed autumn leaves.
