In honour of Father’s Day, Trail Blazers takes us back to our city’s fair beginnings and the man history has deemed the “father” of Trail.
While many of us know the story of Eugene Sayre (aka Colonel) Topping, many are less familiar with his transition into fatherhood (well, step-fatherhood).
Topping’s move to Trail Creek Landing was accompanied by his business partner, Frank Hanna, who was a blacksmith by trade.
Both saw the lucrative potential of the land immediately off the river as a the gateway to the profitable mines in Rossland.
And they were right!
At the time of their move from Nelson to Trail Creek Landing in 1890, Frank and his wife Mary Jane had four young children: Frank Jr., Maud, Olive, and Sophia.
In March 1891, Mary Jane delivered twin girls, Molly and Lydia.
In 1895, another daughter, Estella, arrived. They had a mighty brood, indeed.
The family, including Topping, resided in Trail House, built to operate as a lodge complete with rooms and a dining room for travelers to the growing settlement.
Mary Jane owned the home in which they lived and Topping resided their as a tenant.
Both he and her husband Frank paid her room and board.
The year 1896 was a rough one.
Topping and Frank’s booming business relationship sadly disintegrated and Frank left the family home, despite the success of town lot sales and the newly operating copper smelter.
They were also mourning the loss of young Frank Jr. to typhoid fever at the unjust age of 16.
While it is unclear in the written record what occurred between them, records of the 1897 divorce proceedings that took place in Rossland give us an indication (for a wonderfully written creative non-fiction narrative of Mary Jane’s divorce experience based on court records, check The Trials of Mary Jane Hanna, written by W.J. Sullivan, KC, available at the museum).
Frank departed for the US, then eventually Mexico where he remarried.
Topping and Mary Jane’s relationship clearly blossomed following this ordeal.
Now a single mother, with an infant, Mary Jane’s security and progressive economic status given the day (as a woman) was jeopardized and threatened.
Topping’s companionship and devotion to her and her children was admirable. Their families even connected when Maud, 17, married Topping’s nephew, Jim Worth in 1899.
A year later, their son, Eugene Frank Worth (known as Dickie) was born.
Six days later, Maud died from complications during delivery and Jim passed a year later following an injury at the mines in Rossland. Dickie’s care would fall to Mary Jane and Topping.
Throughout it all, Topping’s dedication to the city he founded continued to deepen, as he rallied supporters and successfully secured incorporation for Trail and served as its first mayor in 1901.
His art of negotiation, which earned him the LeRoi Mine in Rossland and gave Trail a productive (and still active) smelting operation, can rightfully secure his place in history as Trail’s founding father.
Topping remained a tenant in Mary Jane’s home, the property at the centre of her divorce proceedings.
In 1906, they eventually married quietly in Rossland and departed immediately for Victoria with Dickie, the twins, and Estella. Topping died there in 1917.
Mary Jane would move to California to live with her youngest daughter, Estella.
She died in 1930.
Both are buried in the beautiful Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, with Estella; the website states their burial is unmarked, something we plan to rectify.
He died nearly broke.
He was, however, loved dearly by the family that embraced him and that city that revered him.
Happy Father’s Day, Colonel Topping.
