Research Compiled by Chris Hanna for Point Ellice House Museum & Gardens
As part of our efforts to learn more about Charles and Catherine Wallace, for whom Point Ellice was built, we asked researcher Chris Hanna to visit the City of Victoria Archives and BC Archives. As we begin to understand more about this family we are also learning about other people that were a part of their life in early Victoria. With February being Black History Month, we are sharing the story of Augustus Christopher who is directly linked to Point Ellice House through his employment in the 1860s at Dickson, Campbell & Co., the Victoria business managed by Charles Wentworth Wallace.
Augustus Christopher was born about 1820 in Jacksonville, Florida, to Martha and Lewis Christopher – he was reportedly a slave in his early life. He came to Victoria with his wife Lucinda in January 1859 as part of the great migration of Blacks from California during the Fraser River gold rush.
On October 16, 1859, Lucinda Christopher gave birth to their daughter Selina, who was baptized on December 28, 1859, in St. John’s Church, Victoria. Another daughter, Louisa, born about 1839 in the United States apparently accompanied them to Vancouver Island.
In about January 1861, Augustus took the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. His occupation during his first years in the colony is unknown, but by 1863 he was employed as a porter for Dickson, Campbell & Co. at its warehouse and dock on Wharf Street, Victoria.
It seems that Christopher’s domestic life was unsettled. He was charged with assaulting his wife in 1859 and by 1862 his wife Lucinda was in a relationship with Robert Tilghman, a Black barber in Victoria. When Tilghman removed furniture from the Christopher residence he was taken to court; Augustus Christopher’s lawyer reported that Christopher wanted the return of his furniture rather than his wife.
By the late 1860s Christopher had taken up residence in the Point Ellice neighborhood, almost certainly because Charles Wentworth Wallace, who had married into the Work family that owned all of Point Ellice through their large estate, had facilitated his acquisition of land from the Work family. Christopher built a residence on his lot, which was located on what was then Work Street (now Bay Street), between the Point Ellice and Rock Bay bridges.
His daughter Louisa was working as a servant in the Cariboo by 1869 and entered into a relationship with George Green, a former Royal Engineer who was then serving as a constable at Barkerville. They would have at least six children together and take up residence at New Westminster.
By the late 1860s Christopher was working as an independent hand-barrow or hand-cart man making deliveries from Victoria businesses to their customers. The 1874 Victoria City Directory recorded him being a “carman” on Government Street, but this appears merely to be his business stand where he could be contacted to undertake deliveries. In 1876 he helped found Victoria’s First Baptist Church on Pandora Avenue, and by 1878 his business seems to have been successful enough for him to purchase a horse and operate an express wagon. The 1881 Canadian census recorded Christopher living alone in his residence in Rock Bay.
In July 1883, Christopher was charged with brawling and using obscene language when a buggy ran into his wagon and he attempted to pull the offending driver out of the buggy for physical chastisement.
Christopher also appears in the archival record through an unsuccessful petition to the Victoria City Council in November 1883; he sought financial assistance toward purchasing a horse after his horse broke its leg while running away from the noise of a municipal rock crusher. The council expressed regrets that it had no funds at its disposal for such a purpose.
On January 3, 1884, Augustus Christopher married Mary A. Bolmer (nee Hernandez) at Victoria. She was originally from St. Augustine, Florida, and had come north to British Columbia with her sister during the Fraser River gold rush. At the time of her marriage to Christopher, she was fifty years old, a widow and a resident of San Francisco. Their marriage does not appear to have endured as he did not refer to her in his will.
On 12 September 1888, Christopher had his will drawn up. He left all his estate to his granddaughter Laura Green, the daughter of his daughter Louisa and her husband George Green. Interestingly, the executors of his will were his neighbours, John Herbert Turner, sometime mayor of Victoria and future premier of BC, and Joe Wilson, of the clothing firm W. & J. Wilson – both lived opposite Point Ellice House. Christopher signed his will with an “X”, indicating that he was illiterate.
Augustus Christopher died on 20 February 1889 at the age of 70 years. Under the title “Death of a Well-Known Colored Man,” the Colonist newspaper recorded his death at his residence after what was described as rheumatism and a “protracted illness.” The article stated that he was “well-known in Victoria” as “Old Chris” and the driver of an express wagon. His death certificate recorded his cause of death as being “old age and general debility.”
His funeral was held from his residence and he was interred in Victoria’s Ross Bay Cemetery. His grave in Block G, Plot 32, E 11, is unmarked and he is the only occupant. Turner and Wilson renounced their executorships over Christopher’s will in favour of two Black businessmen of Victoria: the tailor Thomas W. Pierre and Samuel J. Booth.
On February 26, 1889, the Colonist recorded that Christopher left his residence at Rock Bay to his granddaughter, Laura, then living in New Westminster, and his horse and express wagon to G. Montaro, a Black merchant of Victoria. Laura married Thomas Moore in Vancouver in 1895 (her first husband, George, died in 1886). A grandson, Norris Green, died in Vancouver in 1950 but we have not traced the rest of the family.