Joseph and Lester Patrick arrive in BC

Joe Patrick moved his family to BC in 1907 to establish a sawmill, whose eventual sale would bankroll the creation of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. But he had been to the province at least once before, and not far from the Kootenay district where he would later buy timber limits.

The Montreal Gazette of July 9, 1900 reported:

Messrs. Wm. Mitchell of Drummondville and Jos. Patrick, manager of the Wilson Coal Company, left on Saturday for the Boundary country and other districts in British Columbia, where Mr. Mitchell has mining interests.

The paper added the following day: “Mr. W. Mitchell, of Drummondville, accompanied by Mr. Joseph Patrick of this city, left yesterday morning on an extended tour through the Northwest and British Columbia mining districts.”

Mention of the Boundary country is an interesting coincidence, because it was this area that would later be home to a hockey league that would serve as a virtual farm league for the PCHA. The Phoenix (BC) Pioneer of July 21, 1900 noted that:

During the last several days there have been a number of visitors to Phoenix, some of them interested in mines here, who saw the city where the mines are for the first time … Among these visitors were … Wm. Mitchell, of Montreal, a wealthy lumber dealer, and Joseph Patrick of Montreal, and Louis Patrick of Revelstoke.

(Louis was Joseph’s brother, who came west many years earlier to work for the CPR.)

Mitchell and Patrick continued on to the coast. The Victoria Daily Times announced their arrival on July 19:

Wm. Mitchell, a prominent railroad contractor in the East, who built the line between Halifax and Quebec, has just passed through the city, having arrived on the Islander last evening in company with Joseph Patrick. Both went on to the Sound this morning.

The Vancouver Daily World listed both men as staying two nights at the Hotel Vancouver, giving their home address as Montreal, although Mitchell was actually Drummondville’s mayor.

I don’t know if anything came of their visit to BC, or whether it planted any seeds in Joe’s mind. 

Six years later he returned to BC. On Oct. 22, 1906, the Nelson Daily Canadian listed among the guests at the Strathcona Hotel: “Jos. Patrick, C. Lester Patrick, Fred A. Peacock, Montreal.”

Peacock was presumably an investor. Lester’s inclusion on the trip is a surprise, however, for by his own recollections suggested that he didn’t come to Nelson until August 1907, after the rest of his family was already established there.

On Nov. 1, 1906, the Strathcona’s guests still included “J. Patrick, C.L Patrick, Montreal,” but Lester evidently returned home before his father, for a week later only Joe remained at the hotel.

A Winnipeg Tribune story of Nov. 20 with a Montreal dateline noted:

Lester Patrick, the well-known Wanderer hockey player, who was in the west on a business trip with his father for the past six weeks, returned yesterday. Lester looks to be in the pink, as he has put on weight. He enjoyed the trip immensely and was greatly enamored with the Western climate. “Why, I picked roses at Field, BC last week,” he said … His father and he intend to return to the West in the spying [sic] and engage in the lumber business.

The first legal ad mentioning the Patrick Lumber Co. appeared on Dec. 17, 1906. Joe took out timber limits and began planning a sawmill at Crescent Valley.

On Jan. 1, 1907 the list of guests at the Queens Hotel reported in the Nelson Daily News included “Joseph Patrick; wife and child Montreal.” Who the child was is unknown, but the youngest of the Patrick children at this time were Stan, 7; Guy, 9; and Myrtle 12.

On Feb. 9, the Daily News reported that Joseph would take part in local Methodist church services, and tell the story of “A Young Man’s Life.”

On March 12, 1907, the Daily News announced, a bit prematurely, that Lester and Frank Patrick would be moving to Nelson as well.

The boys are sons of Joseph Patrick, the owner of the Patrick Lumber company’s plant, two miles north of Slocan Junction, now nearing completion. Mr. Patrick is taking up his residence here and his wife who was in the city a short time ago, has returned east to bring out the rest of the family.

In The Patricks: Hockey’s Royal Family, Eric Whitehead quoted Lester on his arrival in Nelson: 

In early August 1907, my father came east from Nelson to confer with his associates regarding policies for the new company in Nelson, which was known as the Patrick Lumber Company. He persuaded me, with little effort … to resign my Montreal job and join his new company. I was to forget hockey. Reluctantly, I acquiesced, and I arrived in Nelson on Labour Day of 1907. I was sure that all of my hockey days were now behind me.

He was wrong. Although when he agreed to play for Nelson, the Daily Canadian seemed skeptical, reporting on Nov. 16: 

Robt. Noble, recently manager of the Strathcona, has returned to Ottawa, his old home, and has been telling some big stories about hockey playing in the west. Among other things he told an Ottawa newspaper man that while here he was instrumental in having a rink built up in the mountains around Nelson, where there will be plenty of chance for good ice all winter. He added that Lester Patrick would conduct the team and that he had procured a couple of good players from Winnipeg.

Five days later, the paper confirmed: “In addition to the players of last year there [is] now available Lester Patrick, captain of the Wanderers, of Montreal." (Meanwhile, an ad for a Methodist Church function promised “Readings from Dr. Drummond’s French-Canadian stories by Lester Patrick.”)

An unusual view of Nelson, BC in May 1908, when the Patricks were prominent residents. (Greg Nesteroff collection)

When the Nelson hockey club organized for the 1907-08 season, Joe Patrick was made honorary president and Lester was named captain. The team, which played in a covered rink at the corner of Stanley and Houston streets, held its first practice on Christmas Day. (Which seems odd today, but Nelson’s first organized hockey game, in 1897, was also a Christmas affair. It was about the earliest that natural ice was ready.)

According to the Daily Canadian: 

The hockey season began in Nelson yesterday afternoon with a practice match at the skating rink for a try-out of the available players. At the conclusion the new club captain, Lester Patrick, expressed entire satisfaction with the material in his hand, and confidence that a team can be chosen and trained which can travel in the fastest company without discredit … Of the new players, Lester Patrick needs no introduction to any who know anything of championship hockey in Canada. The unanimous opinion of the spectators yesterday was that he is in a class by himself.

But no one could anticipate just how great an impact he and his family would have on the game.