Stephen Tingley
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Stephen Tingley (September 13, 1839 – October 9, 1915) was a
stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
driver and one of the original owners of the pioneer transportation company BC Express that served the
Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the Caribou (North America), caribou that were once abundant in the reg ...
region in
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
,
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for 60 years, from 1860, when it was first founded as Barnard's Express, until 1920, when it ceased its
sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
service. For twenty years Stephen Tingley drove the BC Express stagecoaches between
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
and Cache Creek, over what was then one of the most hazardous roads in North America. Tingley Creek, which flows north-east into the
Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
near Marguerite is named for him.


Career

Born in Point de Bute near
Sackville, New Brunswick Sackville is a former town in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It held town status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Tantramar, New Brunswick, Tantramar. Sackville is home to Mount Allison University, a primarily undergraduate libe ...
, Stephen Tingley came to British Columbia in 1861 and tried his luck at mining during the
Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly Ri ...
before returning to Yale in 1864 and starting a harness shop, having apprenticed as a saddler in New Brunswick. In 1864, he hired on as a driver for Francis Jones Barnard. In 1868, he travelled to California and Mexico where he obtained 500 unbroken horses for Barnard. His notebooks provide details on the harrowing drive northward to Vernon. This exploit left him secure enough financially that in 1869 he returned to New Brunswick where he married Elizabeth Harper, with whom he returned to BC.Al Smith, "Pioneering the Wild West: Point de Bute's Stephen Tingley", in ''The White Fence''
Newsletter No. 51
, Tantramar Heritage Trust, May 2011.
The British Columbia Express Company was incorporated in 1871 with original owner, Francis Jones Barnard, holding one half interest, and Stephen Tingley and James Hamilton each holding one quarter interest. In 1886, Hamilton died and Barnard sold out to Tingley who thus became sole owner. Tingley ran the company for ten years before selling out to
Charles Vance Millar Charles Vance Millar (June 28, 1854 – October 31, 1926) was a Canadian lawyer and financier. He was the president and part-owner of the Toronto brewery of O'Keefe Brewery. He also owned racehorses, including the 1915 King's Plate–winning ...
. In 1894 Tingley bought the Hat Creek Ranch where he built the BX Barn and a large
stables A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...
for the
draft horse A draft horse (US) or draught horse (UK), also known as dray horse, carthorse, work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred to be a working animal hauling freight and doing heavy agricultural tasks such as plowing. There are a number o ...
s that were used to pull the stagecoaches along the
Cariboo Road The Cariboo Road (also called the Cariboo Wagon Road, the Great North Road or the Queen's Highway) was a project initiated in 1860 by the Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas. It was built in response to the Cariboo Gold Rus ...
. In 1896, Tingley partnered with Captain
John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of his fourth novel '' Th ...
of
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and Senator James Reid of Quesnel and formed the North British Columbia Navigation Company. The partners hired Alexander Watson to build a
sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
to work on the upper
Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
, the '' Charlotte''. The ''Charlotte'' ran from
Soda Creek Soda Creek is a rural subdivision 38 km north of Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Located on the east bank of the Fraser River, Soda Creek was originally the home of the Xat'sull First Nation. Soda Creek Indian Reserve No. 1 is ...
to Quesnel and was the only sternwheeler on the upper Fraser until 1909.


Personal life

He was married twice. His first wife Elizabeth Harper had two sons and died in 1873 when the rig he was driving fell into the Fraser Canyon near Yale. He returned to New Brunswick with her body, a trip lasting more than a month, to have it
interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...
. He later married Pauline Laumeister, daughter of Frank Laumeister, who had introduced
camels A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide ...
to the region. Tingley died on October 9, 1915, and was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
.Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
/ref>


Notes


Further reading

* West, Willis. ''Stagecoach and Sternwheeler Days'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tingley, Stephen Pre-Confederation New Brunswick people Cariboo people 1839 births 1915 deaths People from Westmorland County, New Brunswick Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Vancouver) Pre-Confederation British Columbia people