The Kinrade Family
as told by Charlie and his son, Chuck
Charles Stanley Kinrade was born in Pele, Isle of Man, in 1884. When he was fourteen years old he was apprenticed as a journeyman painter. In 1904 he came to Butte, Montana, where an older sister lived and got a job as houseman for the Finland Hotel.
By 1908 he was working at his trade, painting and papering in places such as Moyie, Greenwood and Phoenix. He came to Cranbrook in 1910 and worked there for four years. He was in Trail in 1914 when war broke out and he signed up for Army duty. He was wounded twice, the second time was August of 1918 during the battle of Amiens and he spent the next five months in hospital. In Janaury of 1919 he sailed back to Canada on the Empress of Asia via the Panama Canal.
Charlie made a couple of trips back to the Isle of. Man, the first in 1921 and again in 1922, when he married Evelyn Cringle of Pele. He returned to Kimberley in the fall of 1922 alone when the Company was in need of a painter and paper hanger to work on the many houses that were being built in Chapman Camp.
A son Frank was born in Pele and it was 1926 before Evelyn joined Charlie. A year later a son, Charles (Chuck), was born. Their home was in Chapman Camp.
Evelyn passed away in 1936 and several years later Charlie married Eva Cop. She too passed away fifteen years later.
Frank joined the Navy and then attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, study- ing to be a psychologist. Later he returned and studied to be a math and science teacher for a few years, and he is now in Ottawa working for the Government.
Chuck has lived in Kimberley all his life. He began working for the Company at a very early age by washing dishes at the Chapman Camp Cookhouse and he was an office boy at the Concentrator. He joined the Army when he was sixteen and by the time he reached eighteen, the war was over.
In 1945, Chuck began working at the Machine Shop at the Concentrator and in 1948 he transferred to the Electric Shop at the Mine and later entered the office of the Engineering Department.
Chuck married Esther Sgro in 1948 and they have six children; five sons, Terri, Kim, Jay, Lanny and Jody and one daughter, Shaunna. Terri is in Nelson and works on Environmental Control. Kim is attending U.B.C. studying Political Science, he is also a musician and plays many instruments and has produced one record. Jay is a motor-cycle mechanic in Vancouver. Lanny is a cable splicer for B.C. Telephone in North Vancouver. Jody has remained in Kimberley working for the Company on trackless mining, underground. He is married to Colleen Godlongton and they have one daughter, Jacyln. Shaunna is still a student.
In 1969 Chuck and Esther took over Tony's Store and by 1969 Chuck resigned from the Com pany to devote his time to developing and enlarg- ing that business, which includes Mary's Kitchen.
Chuck has always been a bundle of energy. He no sooner finishes one job before he is tackling another. He has involved himself with fishing, hunting, skiing and his favorite hobbies are motor cycling and snowmobiling. He has a keen interest in old railroads and has visited every old station house in the area. It was Chuck that purchased the old Kimberley Railway Station and made it into a combination restaurant and railway museum which he sold recently. He collects electric railway antiques.
Chuck likes a challenge and when Prince Phillip made a remark that Canadians were too soft, Chuck swam twenty-eight miles to prove him wrong and won a medal for his efforts.
Chuck lifeguarded at the Chapman Camp Pool one summer. He coached pee-wee-junior baseball in summer and hockey in winter for five years. He has acted on the Dynamiter executive and was President for one year. In 1964-65 he was elected to the City Council. While working for the Company he was captain of a mine rescue team for five years with Art Burrows, Bill Graham, Bill Howe, Carl Helland and Jimmy McDonald. They won the Provincial Championship twice. He has been Chairman of the Parks Board and Chairman of the Board of Stewards for the. United Church. He was a probation officer for two years.
His present undertaking is trying to promote a railway from the town to the ski hill. He, along with Bill Spence and Curly Unrah, has purchased the tracks and a locomotive from the old H.B. Mine at Salmo.
Charlie Kinrade is now ninety-five years old and has been a resident of the Pines Special Care Home since it opened. He can look across McDougall Townsite and point out many of the houses that he painted and papered. He retired from the Company in 1947 but continued to work on his own until he was seventy-seven years old. He was a working man for fifty-four years. He still has a keen memory.
His son Chuck was on the Alpine Beautification Committee when it first started. The results of that Committee can be seen today as Kimberley emerged as the "Bavarian City of the Rockies."
