Adelaide Simpson - The Baker's Wife
When the Norman Morison arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in a snowstorm in January 1853, Henry and Adelaide Simpson were among the many passengers aboard.
Other families such as the Skinners and the McKenzies were also aboard to take up positions as farm managers for the Puget Sound Agricultural Company and had been ensconced in cabins on the long journey from England. The Simpsons had travelled steerage as befitted their station in life but at least they had secure jobs at Fort Victoria waiting for them, he as a baker and she as a laundress. They too had been hired by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company and would be working at Constance Cove Farm in Esquimalt for the Skinner family.
The Simpsons were, however, an ambitious young couple, and after their five-year contract was completed, they decided they wanted their independence. They were a very adventurous pair.
Taking the bull by the horn, Adelaide agreed to bravely uproot her family (they now had a 2-year-old son) and accompany her husband on foot to the “wilds” of Central Saanich where Henry had purchased 300 acres at the foot of Little Saanich Mountain from money he had saved. Knowing nothing about farming, they cleared some of the land, built a house, a barn, and some other outbuildings and named their property Stream Farm.
In the coming years. Adelaide supported her husband’s many entrepreneurial endeavors such as starting a postal service and investing money in road building. By far the most popular endeavor was the building of a tavern in the wilderness for weary travelers who were venturing back and forth from Central Saanich to Victoria. It was not long before Adelaide’s homemade baking, especially her bread, became renowned far and wide. She was no longer simply the baker’s wife. She was the baker!
The tavern quickly turned into a place where Adelaide also entertained many important people of the day at dinner parties. In 1864, the tavern also received a liquor license. Henry’s entrepreneurship and Adelaide’s cooking established a tradition of good, old-fashioned hospitality which has continued down through the decades.
In addition, Henry is credited with organizing trained horses (equivalent to today’s designated drivers) who would transport passengers back home and then return to their stables on their own. This was much appreciated by customers in the tavern who had imbibed a little too much cheer.
Today, the third version of the original tavern, the oldest of all the watering holes in Greater Victoria at 7806 East Saanich Road, still stands and is better known as the landmark Prairie Inn in Central Saanich.
Adelaide Simpson died at the age of 85 in July of 1910 and is buried in the cemetery at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. Many descendants from the Simpsons’ fourteen children still live on the peninsula.