Alex Code was organizing the archival records and minutes in PoCo Heritage’s collection last summer when the museum manager and curator opened an old court book.
The page he landed on, with a case described in ink handwriting, caught his eye.
On May 12, 1919, shopkeeper Dan Chong was fined $35 plus costs — or 21 days of hard labour in default — after he was found guilty for contravening the new Municipal Act.
His crime? Employing a white woman, Maggie Gill, who happened to be Chong’s wife.
For months, Code pored over the magistrate’s book, as well as a police log, to stitch together an exhibit that focused on crimes in Port Coquitlam from 1910 to 1940.
On Thursday, Sept. 26, PoCo Heritage will open the show, titled Crimes, Fines & Hard Times, at the McAllister Avenue museum. The free reception is from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The display centres on the criminal activity, vagrancy, discrimination and Prohibition during those early years, shortly before and after the municipality incorporated in 1913.
In the 1910s, the courthouse was in the old downtown, along Kingsway Avenue, in Kelly’s Hall, which included the local government, police station and police chief’s home.
Using the archival records and articles from The Vancouver Sun and Coquitlam Star, Code tried to fill in the gaps with stories about misdeeds committed by PoCo residents or on PoCo soil.
Cow at large
While some themes are similar today, others tell of violations now considered antiquated.
For example, on Jan. 10, 1921, Alderman R.C. Galer was convicted of allowing his cow to run at large, “doing damage by eating Mrs. Marino’s cabbages.” He was fined $2.50.
Four years later, Code highlights in the PoCo Heritage exhibit, Albert Thomas and John Henry were thrown in “gaol” for seven days for trespassing on CPR land; alternatively, they could avoid jail if they purchased tickets “and leave town on the first train” out.
Code presents the tales using crime investigation red lines to connect the stories on cork boards, and with memorabilia from PoCo Heritage’s and Coquitlam Heritage’s collections.
The well-worn wooden baton and badges worn by Emeri Paré, Coquitlam district’s police chief from the 1910s and 1930s, are on display as are the keys to the first Port Coquitlam jail.
There are also old alcohol bottles that were discarded from Wing Lee Wai’s commercial premises and black and white photos showing prominent drinking establishments in PoCo like the Junction Hotel, Myrtle Hotel and Central Hotel, where working class people would meet.
According to the records, T.E. Denny, the Myrtle proprietor, was fined $400 plus $3.50 in costs on April 11, 1921, for breaking the B.C. Prohibition Act, in effect from 1917–21.
Code said, at the time, officials believed alcohol fuelled violence in the city and the bars and pool halls attracted the “hobos” and “vags” (vagrants), leading to unsanitary sites.
“There was some strong rhetoric from folks about the transients around PoCo,” he said, noting many themes like attitudes toward unhoused people and mental health continue to linger.
Code said more history and policies about the era will be on the PoCo Heritage website.
For free tickets to attend the launch of Crimes, Fines & Hard Times at PoCo Heritage (150-2248 McAllister Ave., Port Coquitlam), go to Eventbrite.ca or visit the website.
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