Under
the Land Act, 1875, Wake's first certificate of
record for un-surveyed 160 acres of land was on
the De Courcy group of islands. This was recorded
on March 16, 1876. The Valdez land pre-emption
was recorded on July 4, 1876 for 160 acres of
land. The additional military grant for 600 acres
of Valdez land was recorded on September
6, 1876.
In
correspondence from
December 1876, and January 1877, between The
Honourable AC Elliott, Provincial Secretary, and
Gilbert M. Sproat, Joint Commissioner, we learn of the
difficulties shared between the long-time
Lyacksun Native settlers, and the new arrivals,
the white pre-empting settlers.
The
Wake family built their homestead at the northern
tip of Valdez Island, in a bay within Gabriola
Passage. They had a farm, grew vegetables and
raised sheep and cattle.
In 1876, Captain Wake
became the teacher at the Gabriola School. His
transportation was a small boat
which he
rowed from his
Valdez homestead, through turbulent Gabriola
Pass, to the Maples, a small bay near the
Gabriola School.
According to the Nanaimo
Free Press, "Wake exercised good moral
influence, and was painstakingly conscientious.
Although he offered a good influence to the
scholars, there was growing dissatisfaction with
his teaching methods. In June of 1878, Captain Wake
was removed from his teaching position".
The following speech is an
interesting
document of his ideas concerning
the problems and strengths of the Victorian school
system..
After
Captain Wake's death, in 1880, his younger son,
Baldwin Hough, remained at Valdez, where he lived
for the rest of his life. In the 1881
census, he is listed as living alone. The first
telegraph station in the area was begun on Valdez
Island the same year, with Baldwin as the
telegrapher. In 1884, he travelled to England,
returning with a bride from Yorkshire, named
Amelia. They lived together at the Valdez
homestead until Baldwin’s accidental death,
in 1904. After her husband's death, Amelia
remained on Valdez, farming and working as the
telegrapher, until 1946, when she died after a
brief illness, at Nanaimo Hospital.
When Amelia died, the ownership of the property on Valdez Island
passed from the Wake family.
The small bay within
Gabriola passage, named Wake Bay or Wake
Cove, is
marked on nautical charts, and is an enduring
reminder of this settler family