By Dr. Patrick Dunae
February 1, 2024
Moses R. Smith (1832-1896) was a Black settler in early Victoria and a prominent British Columbia business owner. At the turn of the twentieth century, the commercial bakery he established in 1858 was the largest in the Pacific Northwest.
A biographical sketch of Smith, with an overview of some of his business interests, is posted on the BC Black History Awareness Society website: https://bcblackhistory.ca/the-m-r-smith-bakery/
Here, we might consider in closer detail the social and class standing of Smith and his family, who moved comfortably within the colonial-settler Establishment in Victoria.
Moses Rowe Smith was born in London, Canada West (Ontario). His wife, Sarah Ann Hamilton (1838-1913) and daughter, Selina Frances Smith (1854-1938), were born in the same place.
Moses Smith came to Victoria in 1858 during the Fraser River gold rush. He subsequently won a contract to provision British naval ships in nearby Esquimalt with bread and biscuits. After 1865, when Esquimalt was designated as the headquarters of the Royal Navy’s Pacific Squadron, Smith’s business grew substantially. He received many compliments, with one admiral stating that “his ships had never been better served by any contractor in any part of the world in which he had sailed.”
Sarah and Selina joined Moses in Victoria in 1866 and two sons were born there: Hamilton Smith (1867-1965) and Garrett Smith (1869-1960).
The Smith family worshipped at Christ Church, the Anglican [Church of England] cathedral in Victoria. The bishop and head of the regional diocese, George Hills, was the son of a British admiral who maintained close ties with naval officers at the Pacific station. The Smiths remained loyal to Bishop Hills following a schism in the congregation in 1875.
The Smith children attended private schools affiliated with the Anglican church. Selina attended Angela College, while Hamilton and Garrett were enrolled in the Collegiate School.
Selina was artistic and won prizes at Provincial Exhibitions for artwork. She studied piano at the Toronto College of Music and earned a diploma from a prestigious academy in Leipzig, Germany, before opening her own studio in Victoria. As the Victoria Daily Colonist noted (12 August 1906), “Amongst her pupils Miss Smith has numbered the children of all the best families in Victoria, who have never failed to express their complete satisfaction with the result of her tuition.” Selina, who never married, lived in the family home at 104 Dallas Road, in a house designed by the eminent architect, Samuel Maclure. The Smith residence was called “Seaview.”
Selina’s brothers entered the family business. Hamilton Smith worked on the production line, while Garrett was employed in the office and travelled as a sales representative. An amateur photographer, Garrett recorded his sister’s studio on Fort Street and the interior of the family home on Dallas Road.
Garrett married Emily Vogel, whom his sister knew from the Toronto music conservatory, in 1900. Vogel was of German descent. Mixed race marriages which had been solemnized in a cathedral wedding were not common in Victoria at the turn of the last century. Garrett, his wife and their son, Bernard, lived in a large house at the corner of Dallas Road and Boyd Street. Their residence was called “Am Meer” and in 1901, according to the census, they employed a Japanese servant who lived in their home.
Hamilton Smith, a life-long bachelor, was active in many fraternal and social organizations, including the Native Sons of British Columbia. In 1909, he attended a “brilliant social function” at the Empress Hotel, when members of the Native Sons (Victoria Post No. 1) held their annual ball. The premier of BC, Richard McBride, and E. E. Wootton, a prominent barrister, were among the political and social elite at this gala.
Wooton was Registrar of the Anglican Synod of British Columbia – the governing body of the Anglican church on Vancouver Island. The Smiths’ affiliation with the church and friendship with Bishop Hills and his successors bolstered their social standing in Victoria. That Moses Smith was born in British North America may also have been an advantage to him and his family. Most of Smith’s contemporaries within Victoria’s Black community came from the United States and were Methodists.
Smith’s connections to the Royal Navy were advantageous, too. When Rear-Admiral Culme Seymour was commander of the Pacific Squadron, he encouraged Smith to submit samples of his wares to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in London. Seymour arranged for Smith’s goods to be transported from Victoria to England in one of Her Majesty’s ships; and, as the admiral predicted, M. R. Smith & Co. was awarded a diploma and gold medal. [Images of prizes from the imperial exposition were reproduced on the company’s letterhead and invoices.] In an article to mark the firm’s Golden Jubilee, the Daily Colonist noted that “officers of H. M. Navy have spoken most highly of the biscuits manufactured by this firm and have always taken them on their fishing and shooting expeditions on the Island” (13 December 1908).
The esteem in which Moses Smith and his family were held is evident in their funerals. When the patriarch died in January 1896, his funeral was conducted by the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Canon Arthur Beanlands. Sarah Smith’s service in April 1913 was also held in the Anglican cathedral and her pallbearers included a chief justice. Services for Selina, Hamilton and Garrett Smith were held in secular funeral homes but were conducted by senior Anglican clergy.
Moses R. Smith, his wife and children are buried in the family plot in Victoria’s historic Ross Bay Cemetery. The plot is outlined with a concrete border but there is no headstone on their grave.
Last year when we celebrated Black History month, Dr. Adebisi Alade, a historian at the University of Victoria who specializes in African history, noted that a “common narrative of Black history in Canada” revolves around hardship and discrimination. However, he said, Black history is also a story “of achievements and contributions of Black people to the development of our communities.” Moses R. Smith and his family made significant contributions to their community. The Smith family’s story also reminds us how some Black residents engaged in the complex network of religious and business interests that operated in Victoria during an age of empire.
References:
Black History Awareness Society, “Christmas with the Smith Family,” https://bcblackhistory.ca/the-m-r-
smith-bakery/
“Great History of Victoria Firm,” Victoria Daily Colonist (13 December 1908), p. 8.
Philip Cox, “Teaching Black History” [interview with Adebisi Alad], The Ring (February 2023), p. 7.
[The bakery was built on the north side of Niagara Street between Montreal Street and St. Lawrence Street, Victoria.]
References:
“Great History of Victoria Firm,” Victoria Daily Colonist (13 December 1908), p. 8.
Philip Cox, “Teaching Black History” [interview with Adebisi Alad], The Ring (February 2023), p. 7.