One hundred and sixty years ago this week, New Westminster was bidding farewell to one of its pioneer missionaries and early community leaders.
The April 4, 1863 edition of The British Columbian included an elegant tribute to Rev. Edward White.
The pioneer Methodist minister was being transferred — against the city’s wishes, as the newspaper coverage made clear. The British Columbian printed a copy of an address given during a farewell presentation to White.
“Belonging to various denomination of Christians, we disclaim all desire to question the policy of the Wesleyan Church in removing you from a place where you have with singular felicity blended the duties of a Christian Pastor with the ability of an intelligent adviser and active promoter of every circumstance that might tend to advance our social and material progress; but we may be permitted to echo the universal wish that it had been ordered otherwise,” the address proclaimed.
The British Columbian added its own tribute to White for his success in helping New Westminster to grow from a site “covered by a dense and gigantic forest” to the city of the day.
“He landed here with his family about four years ago, where he has resided ever since, doing battle valiantly for the Colony and its capital against the combined attacks of mosquitoes, croakers* and Victorians,” the newspaper wrote. “He has, as a citizen, taken a lively interest and active part in every movement having for its object the advancement of the Colony; and beyond his professional duties he has truly proved himself a good citizen.
“Mr. White cannot but be missed.”
(*What are croakers, you ask? Our searching shows it to be slang for a pessimist, or one who consistently forebodes ill.)
White himself returned the compliments to New Westminster.
“I earnestly hope that the great wheel of Wesleyan itinerancy, which now rolls me from you, may some day so turn as to bring me again to the place where I have spent the happiest four years of my past life,” he said.
As it happens, Rev. White would indeed return to New Westminster a few years later.
But, on that day 160 years ago, sadness was clearly in the air as the city said goodbye.
New Westminster is a city full of history — and that history includes a variety of community newspapers over its many decades.
In this weekly series, we're taking a look back at the headlines from some of those newspapers, shining a spotlight each week on a notable news story, person or moment from this week in New West history.
Watch for it online every Thursday.
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