As anyone who works in community journalism will tell you, folks lap up news about lottery winners from their community.
Turns out, things weren't so very different 155 years ago.
For this week's look at at New West history, we're time travelling back to the Feb. 1, 1868 edition of The British Columbian, which details the success of a former New Westminster resident who went off to seek his fortune in the gold fields — and found it.
By The British Columbian's account, all that glittered was indeed gold for George Devoe, who'd lived in New Westminster in 1862, 1863 and 1864.
The newspaper reported that the "lucky fellow" had made as much as $3,000 a week from his gold claims the year before and was now reported to be worth $150,000.
For context, we checked out a Consumer Price Index inflation calculator online. It didn't have data from Canada that far back, so we used the U.S. as a rough guideline of what that might mean. By those numbers, that $3,000 a week would translate into more than $62,000 weekly today. And the $150,000? Well, think of that as more than $3.1 million.
It seems George did very well for himself indeed.
And the best part? It appears the newspaper found him deserving of his riches, noting: "In his experience he has proved the truth of the old proverb, 'Honesty is the best policy.'"
Congratulations, George. We hope that you and your family (and your descendants) enjoyed continued prosperity through the years.
New Westminster is a city full of history — and that history includes a variety of community newspapers over its many decades.
In this new 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.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, [email protected]
