McGowan's War

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Yale, British Columbia was the site of a war that was never quite fought but which, in its critical moments, posed a threat to newly-minted British authority on the British Columbia mainland, which had only just been declared a colony the previous summer, at the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. More of a farce or a fiasco than a real threat, though, it was called Ned McGowan's War or McGowan's War after one of its main protagonists and took place in the fall of 1858.

McGowan was one of a group of associated miners at Hill's Bar, the richest and first gold-bearing bar of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush at which a ramshackle "town" had sprung up 5 miles below Yale, the constabulary of Yale and the magistrates of the two places. Hill's Bar was under the control of McGowan's party of ex-San Franciscans, who had flourished from the claim they had named "The Boatmen of San Francisco". All had been firemen in San Francisco, and had been associated with the Law and Order Party. Yale, on the other hand, had fallen into the sway of members of the notorious Vigilance Committee which had ruled San Francisco by terror, and were also the arch-enemies of the Law and Order Party - and of Ned McGowan especially.

This comedy of errors took on great importance to colonial authorities as soon as it was known that Ned McGowan was a part of it, as his reputation in the San Francisco papers had preceded him to British Columbia - so much so that when he first arrived in Victoria he was summoned by Governor Douglas and instructed to conduct himself accordingly in the Queen's domains. It seems that Mr. McGowan, a US miner, had fled California in somewhat of a hurry . After a respectable career as Philadelphia lawyer and erstwhile state politician in Pennsylvania, which ended in a scandal from which he was later absolved, he moved to California and became a judge of the Barbary Court, an Associate of the Court of Sessions, and other juridicial positions, but California being the way it was in those days his associates there were gamblers, thugs and worse. McGowan and his friends became involved with the Law and Order Party and ran afoul of the powerful and even more dangerous Vigilance Committee.

A violent personal quarrel with a member of the latter precipitated a meeting in the firehall which was the Law and Order group's headquarters, at which they chose to make their sudden departure to the newly-found Fraser River goldfields in what was then called New Caledonia. They were among the first San Franciscan parties to reach the river, and their claim at Hill's Bar proved to be one of the richest. But also in the great mass movement of men to the Fraser from California were many members of the Vigilance Committee, including the individual McGowan had had the violent personal conflict with in San Francisco (a Danish doctor and dentist, Dr. Fifer). For their part, the Vigilance Committee did what they could to subvert civil authority in Yale and had come to own the corrupt British officials who ran the place, just as the Law and Order Party had brought under their sway the town's magistrate Perrier, Governor Douglas' appointee to the bench in Hill's Bar.

The incident that provoked the war took place when one of the men from Hill’s Bar assaulted Isaac "Ikey" Dixon, Yale's American black barber; Dixon was a voluble wag and wit, and in time would become one of the favourite newspaper columnists in the British Columbia papers.

The two magistrates, Whannell of Yale and Perrier of Hill’s Bar entered the fray when Whannell, induced by the men of the Vigilance Committee, issued a warrant for the arrest of the Hill's Bar man and ordered that it be served in Hill’s Bar. Perrier, the magistrate of Hill’s Bar took exception to this and issued a warrant for the arrest of the barber Dixon in Yale. The constable who served the warrant on the barber interrupted Whannell’s court and was promptly thrown in the Yale jail.

The angry Hill’s Bar miners, headed by McGowan, set out with a warrant from Perrier to arrest Magistrate Whannell for contempt of court by arresting the constable who was serving the warrant.

Due to McGowan’s unsavory reputation, the importance of the incident, which had the two communities up in arms, was blown all out of proportion in the colonial capital of Victoria. The story as relayed to Victoria by Vigilance Committee messengers was that , Ned McGowan had launched an attempt to overthrow the British authority in the new colony and declare the goldfields to be part of the United States.

Governor Douglas mobilized what few troops he had, sending a party of Royal Engineers to Yale while another group of Marines remained stationed at Fort Langley in case of any action by the nearby troops of the US Border Commission, then stationed in nearby Whatcom County. Accompanying them was Justice Matthew Baillie Begbie. After an arduous slog up the river by canoe, and across wet, half-frozen snow the twenty miles from Fort Hope to Yale, where Begbie convened court to hear the tangled web of cases and charges that had sprung up, thanks to the misconduct of both justices Perrier and Whannell. , ending the war without a shot being fired.

McGowan was fined for assault and the magistrates were dismissed from their posts. The bloodless war became a famous tale and was known as the Ned McGowan War.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

McGowan's War, Donald J. Hauka, New Star Books, Vancouver (2000) ISBN 1554200016
British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871: Gold & colonists, Helen and G.P.V. Akrigg, Discovery Press, Vancouver (1977) ISBN 0919624030
Claiming the Land, Dan Marshall, UBC Ph.D Thesis, 2002 (unpubl.)