In a city like Merritt where the streets and avenues bear the names of those who pioneered the area, it’s hard to forget about history, especially when many of the pioneers’ descendants still reside in the Nicola Valley.
Merritt’s 100th Anniversary Homecoming Week began yesterday, quite fittingly, with a day to honour the people who first settled the area and helped the City of Merritt grow to what it is today.
Festivities kicked off at the Baillie House with a tea during which pioneer families were recognized with certificates.
Mary Dickie, a resident of the valley for 61 years, was amongst the group. Mary’s husband, Alan Dickie, was born and raised in the area and his grandfather Andrew Dickie moved to Merritt in around 1907 to work for the Middlesboro Mine. Alan’s father, also Andrew, worked for the highways department and his mother, Dorothy Pooley, was matron of the nurses at the old hospital.
Originally from Clinton, Mary met Alan in Lower Nicola where he was hauling Christmas Trees. Six months later, she married him, moved to Merritt and never left. She raised four children in the area and helped Alan with his construction business, A.S. Dickie Ltd.
“My husband did a lot of work for the city,” Mary says proudly.
With his trucks and loaders, Alan helped build the arena, the swimming pool, the golf course and the rodeo grounds. Beyond the labour, he helped raise money by playing the accordion at the local dances.
And today, 61 years after arriving in town, Mary is still striving to support the City of Merritt any way that she can.
“I still shop downtown, not up on the hill,” she says. “I try to keep the downtown area alive – I even buy my gas downtown.”
Caitlyn Grimshire and Kristian Froment were also present at the tea. Both are summer students at the Nicola Valley Museum and Archives and both have pioneer heritage.
“It’s good to learn about the history of the valley, especially having roots here because it’s so familiar,” said Froment who has been researching the history of his Cleasby relatives in the archives.
Grimshire has also been able to learn more about her family and even took a field trip to the old Grimshire Homestead on Swakum Mountain.
To give people a bit of insight into the people behind the street names of Merritt, the pair prepared a poster board that was on display at the Baillie House during the tea.
“The whole idea was to include as many names as we could and get some conversation going,” said Froment.
Grimshire and Froment are hoping their display and the 100th Anniversary events will inspire people to discover more about their own family history.
“We’re hoping people will come down to the museum and we can give them a hand finding the history of their family,” said Froment.
