Stephen Daniel Pope (1842-1910)
Notes
1Victoria Daily Times (19 December 1910), p. 6. S. D. Pope's father, John, was the son of Daniel Pope and Hannah Carey. One of nine children, Stephen Daniel was baptized on 26 June 1808 at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England. Thanks to Kathleen Maxwell, for her kindness of checking the International Genealogical Index for this information.
2S. D. Pope's older brother, Egbert, was born in Philadelphia in 1840. His sisters, Amelia (b. 1845) and Anna (b. 1848), were born in Norwood, Peterborough, Canada West. Pope's father, John Carey, died of consumption in 1850. His mother, Maria Pearce taught school in Peterborough before she remarried in 1853. She married a school teacher, William W. Daunt, who afterwards took holy orders and entered the Anglican church. Pope's mother was seventy-two years old when she died in 1892; his stepfather, the Rev. Wm. Daunt, was seventy-nine years old when he died in 1907.
Biographical details on S. D. Pope's family were determined by Brad Morrison, after an extensive and exhaustive search of census records for 1851 and 1861, Crockford's Clerical Directory, contemporary newspapers and business directories, and local histories, such as Norwood Then & Now (Peterborough, Ontario: Maxwell Review Ltd, 1978).
3Canada School Journal, reprinted in (Victoria) Daily British Colonist (24 January 1885), p. 3. Brad Morrison has found considerable evidence of Pope's scholastic abilities in the Calendars of the University of Queen's College, Kingston, c, 1859-1862. In 1860/61, for example, Pope earned honours in classics and mathematics, as well as a prize for natural philosophy. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Arts in 1861.
4Henry James Morgan, Canadian Men and Women Of The Time: A Hand-book of Canadian Biography, (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), p. 827.
5British Columbia Archives, Old Manuscript Collection, E/D/P81, Charlotte L. Pope to Madge Wolfenden (3 March 1935).
6Charlotte Larissa Buck (called Lottie) was born in Oregon City on 12 February 1853. She and Pope were married in her father's residence in Oregon City on 28 December 1868. The groom was identified as "Prof. S. D. Pope, Principal, Oregon City Seminary." (Morning Oregonian [Portland], 31 December 1868, p.2). Three of their children were born in Oregon City: William Forbes Carey Pope (b. 10 November 1869), Jennie Maria Harcourt (b. 4 January 1871), and Selina Carlotta Ruth (b. 10 December 1874). According to Charlotte's obituary, her parents "had crossed the plains to Oregon City in a covered wagon." Victoria Daily Colonist (13 February 1944), p. 9.
7The post, and the salary it carried, was advertised in both the British Daily Colonist and the Victoria Daily Standard on July 12, 1876, p 2.
86th Annual Report of the Public Schools of the Province of British Columbia, 1876-77, p 15.
9Jean Barman, 'The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia,' in Jean Barman, Neil Sutherland and J. Donald Wilson (eds.), Children, Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 1995), p 30.
10Victoria Daily Standard (11 September 1876), p 3. The full text of Nicholson's resignation was published in the British Colonist on September 15th.
11Victoria Daily Standard, (13 September 1876), p. 3; (14 September 1876), p. 3; Daily British Colonist (13 September 1876), p. 3.
12BCA, GR 1468, British Columbia Board of Education, 1872 - 1884, Minutes, Fol. 125; Daily British Colonist (16 September 1876), p 3; Victoria Daily Standard (16 September 1876), p 3.
13BCA, GR 1445, British Columbia. Superintendent of Education, Correspondence Inward, 1872-1897, File ?, microfilm reel B2017. George V. Le Vaux was appointed Second Master at the Victoria High School effective 1 January 1877.
14BCA, GR 526, British Columbia. Provincial Secretary. Correspondence Inward, 1872-1892, File 171/76, microfilm reel B11318.
15Peter L. Smith, Come Give a Cheer. One Hundred Years of Victoria High School, 1876-1976, Victoria: Victoria High Centennial Committee, 1976, p.10. Dr. Smith provides a detailed summary of the controversy surrounding the dismissal of the first principal, Alexander Nicholson, in this admirable history of Vic High; curiously, though, he makes no mention of the controversy surrounding S. D. Pope's dismissal. Dr. Smith does, however, include a picture of Pope (p. 10) and he hints that the position of principal was precarious: "In its first sixteen years, to June 1892, the school had no fewer than eight principals; this may be an index to the problems and frustrations of the job" (p.16).
16Three of Pope's children were born in South Saanich: Charlotte Louise Maude (b. September 1879); Marion Aimee Bernice (2 April 1881); and Fannie Gill Campbell (28 October 1882). Charlotte died in infancy on 2 March 1880 and was buried in St. Stephen's Church cemetery. The Popes' seventh and youngest child, Stanley Douglas Harold, was born in Victoria on 13 June 1885.
