A2 Thursday, April 30, 2020
West Kootenay Advertiser
History
Doukhobor jam factories stood at Nelson, Brilliant, Grand Forks by JONATHAN KALMAKOFF
Second in a series on the Doukhobor jam industry he Kootenay-Columbia Preserving Works operated preserving and canning facilities at three different locations over the course of its 27 years of operations: in Nelson from 1911-14; Brilliant from 1915-38; and Grand Forks from 1921-38.
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Nelson In March 1911, the Kootenay-Columbia Preserving Works (i.e. Peter V. Verigin) purchased the vacant Kootenay Jam Company factory at 601 Front St. in Nelson adjacent to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Constructed in 1909, it was a two-story 100 by 100 foot structure of wood-frame construction clad in shiplap wood siding with a flat roof. The preserving works were housed on the upper floor. By May 1911, the company added a cannery on the main floor with modern, new equipment ordered from England. With six steam-activated jam-making kettles in operation, the facility had a daily capacity of 12,000 pounds (six tons) of jam and 9,000 pounds of canned fruit. In January 1912, the company installed a full concrete basement with lifters under the Nelson factory for the storage of finished product. A brick façade was later added to the building exterior. By February 1913, the canning factory on the main floor was closed down because there was insufficient floor space to operate it, the whole floor space being taken up by fresh fruit used by the preserving works on the upper floor. There was no separate fruit packing house on the property.
Also in February 1913, company president Peter V. Verigin considered opening a retail outlet at the Nelson factory for the sale of its product. While this would have enabled the facility to remain in operation over the winter, it was never carried out. The Nelson factory ran for four seasons, concluding operations in the fall of 1914. Thereafter, operations were relocated to Brilliant. By March 1915, the Nelson factory was vacated and subsequently leased by the CCUB to third-parties until its foreclosure in 1938 by creditor-receiver. Three years later, in October 1917, the Kootenay-Columbia Preserving Works opened a branch depot in the two-story brick warehouse at the CCUB wood and coal yard (at 29 Government Road) in Nelson for the purchase of apples from local farmers for use at the Brilliant factory in making mixed jam. Managed
by Anton F. Streloeff, it oper- of $25,000, it was a four-story ated until 1928. 60 x 120 foot brick structure with a monitor roof and full Brilliant concrete basement. It was outfitted with modern, up-to-date As early as January 1912, the preserving equipment on the Kootenay-Columbia Preserv- upper floor and had large ing Works proposed building rooms for finished product, a new jam factory in Brilliant, empty boxes and cans on the where the CCUB orchards lower floors, with a basement were located, in order to save boiler room. With 12 steam-acon the cost of shipping fruit to tivated jam-making kettles inNelson and to save on shipping stalled, it had a daily capacity time to avoid delays in pro- of 24,000 pounds (12 tons) of cessing the fruit when it was jam. It began operation in the at its best. spring of 1915. It was also impossible to A number of ancillary meet the demand for orders, structures were built near the given the limited production Brilliant jam factory by the capacity of the Nelson factory. CCUB to provide necessary Another less palpable reason support to its operation. These was that company president included: Peter V. Verigin objected to • a power plant originalhis people who worked in the ly built in 1911 at a cost of Nelson facility becoming too $25,000 to operate the orchard fond of city life. irrigation pumps, which after Construction of the new jam 1915, also provided electric factory began in May 1914 (at lighting to the factory; • by 1911, a packing house 1839 Brilliant Rd.) in Brilliant adjacent to the Canadian Pa- was built to receive and procific Railway. Built at a cost cess fresh fruit, originally for
The Kootenay Columbia Preserving Works is seen at 601 Front St. in Nelson, ca. 1911. This building was erected in 1909 for the Kootenay Jam Company. Courtesy Pete and Dasha Hadikin and Marlene Anderson shipping to the Nelson factory, and after 1915, for use at the Brilliant factory. It was a 30 by 90 foot structure clad in shiplap wood siding with a gable roof and full concrete basement equipped with two lifters; • in 1915, a plant for the manufacture of tin cans was erected. It was a brick three-story 60 by 40 foot structure with a gambrel roof built as a wing of the jam factory to form an L-shaped complex. From 1916 onward, it supplied the factory with 150,000 cans per season; • a three-story 30 by 60 foot brick structure with a gambrel roof and dormers housed a cafeteria on the main floor and boarding rooms on the upper floors for the Doukhobor workers at the jam factory and other CCUB enterprises; and • a two-story 30 by 40 foot brick building with a hip roof and dormers built by 1912 contained the central offices of the factory managers and other CCUB officials on the
main floor. The upper floor was the residence of company President Peter V. Verigin, and subsequently his successor, Peter P. Verigin. In the spring of 1915, the Kootenay-Columbia Preserving Works erected a fruit evaporating plant at the jam factory. Once dehydrated, fruit was preserved without spoilage at one-tenth of its original weight; when it was to be used, the dried fruit was soaked in water for several hours, after which it returned to practically its original state with all its colour and nutrients retained. During the First World War, from December 1916 to January 1918, the company donated four railcar loads (84,000 pounds.) of jam to Canadian soldiers at the front as well as those convalescing in military hospitals and their dependent families. The donation was widely applauded in the press for assisting the war effort “with good honest jam.” In July 1923, the Kootenay-Columbia Preserving Works doubled the length of the can-manufacturing plant and built a tomato cannery as an adjacent wing to form a U-shaped complex. The cannery was a four-story 60 by 120’ foot brick structure with a monitor roof. Constructed at a cost of $60,000, it was operational by that year’s tomato season. As early as May 1924, the company received arson threats against the factory by radical elements. In July 1931, a bomb exploded under the loading platform at the factory with 300 Doukhobors narrowly avoiding injury. Property damage from the arson attempt (attributed to Sons of Freedom) was negligible. In November 1927, compaContinued on A3