The Tait Brothers

Pioneer Oak Bay / Vancouver Dairymen

photos courtesy Carol Cannon, great granddaughter of Robert John Tait

James Tait 1850-1901 Oak Bay dairyman Alexander George Tait 1858-1935 Oak Bay dairyman Robert John Tait 1862-1930 Vancouver dairyman

	Two Scottish brothers, James and Alexander Tait, were pioneer dairymen in Oak Bay long before the municipality was incorporated in 1906. A portion of their farmlands became playing fields for both Willows School and Oak Bay Junior High School. A third brother, Robert, was a pioneer dairyman in Vancouver.
	With family roots in Berwick, Scotland, their grandparents immigrated to Canada about 1830.
	* * *
	About 1830, William Tait and his wife Elizabeth and their four sons emigrated from Scotland to Canada and settled in Quebec.
	The oldest son, Thomas, was about 13 when they emigrated.
	In 1846, when he was about 29, Thomas married Mary Cheyne in Montreal, where they had nine children including three sons; James (b 1850), Alexander (b1858) and Robert (b1862).
	In 1879, James married Normanda Mckenzie in Glengarry, Ontario.
	With both his parents now deceased, James and Normanda relocated to Manitoba. His two brothers, Alexander and Robert likely travelled with them.
	Robert married Jessie Garvie in June, 1883, and they had three children in Manitoba.
	Alexander married Christina Sutherland in December 1883 and they had three daughters in Manitoba: Flora May (b1884), Annie Lillian (b1886) and Jennie (b1889).
	The three brothers and their families probably moved to Victoria about 1890, as Robert John Tait's third child was born in Manitoba in 1889 and his fourth child, Robert Ernest Tait, was born at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria on June 4, 1891.
	ROBERT JOHN TAIT.
	A year or two later, in 1892 or 1893, Robert John Tait and family moved back to Manitoba, and then returned to British Columbia in 1895, settling in south Vancouver (Sea Island) and retiring in Marpole.
	The Robert J Tait Elementary School in Richmond (Sea Island) sits on his former farmland.
	Robert was a dairy farmer, but he was also an entrepreneur.
	He built houses which he rented, and also started the building of the Marpole Theatre (now the Metro Theatre). He died in 1930, before the theatre was finished, but it was completed by the family and operated by his wife Jessie.
	Jessie ran it herself for a while and used to let the grandkids in the back door for free. Unfortunately I've been unable to get a photo of the original theatre. — Carol Cannon Great granddaughter of Robert John Tait
	After Robert died, Jessie collected the rent from the rental houses.
	On one occasion she was robbed of $7,000 and badly beaten but survived to live almost ninety years.
	ALEXANDER GEORGE TAIT.
	After arriving in Victoria about 1890, Alexander Tait established a dairy farm in Oak Bay on Milton Street. His property extended from Milton Street to Bowker Creek — immediately south of the junior high school
	In 1892 a fourth daughter was born, Violet Maud
	In 1901 Alexander and Christina adopted William Douglas Tait after Alexander's brother, James, died that year.
	In 1902 a fifth daughter was born, Alexandrina Belle.1
	The family employed Willima Vye and Tim Ah as domestic help.
	The farm was originally a dairy farm. One of my great aunts, Maude, used to tell us tales about delivering milk to people on Oak Bay Avenue at the turn of the century. The farm was bordered on the west side by the houses on Foul Bay Road and the couple of small side streets. One of the old Chinese workers' shacks was still on the west side of the property. My dad and my spinster aunts had an enormous garden at the south end of the property below their house. The old house had been lifted in the thirties and one level taken off it. The milk rooms were still very deep under the house and none of us children would go down there alone. A couple of old out buildings were still there when I was a child but they were torn down when I was in my mid teens. [We'd go] down to the creek to see the muskrats, fish and ducks and to make small boats to sail. [There was] a trap line for otters in the creek. — Tom Miles, Great grandson of Alexander GeorgeTait and OBHS class of 1960
	In 1906 Alexander Tait was one of the signatories on the petition to incorporate Oak Bay as a municipality. He was a founder of the Presbyterian Church and one of the elders who built Oak Bay United Church.
	Alexander's wife, Christina, died in January, 1913.
	The family dairy farm operations continued into the early 1930s.
	Alexander died in November, 1935.
	A portion of his property was purchased by the school board to extend the junior high school playgrounds. A small bridge over Bowker Creek accessed this playing field.2
	JAMES TAIT.
	After arriving in Victoria about 1890, James and Normanda Tait settled in Oak Bay with their seven children. He built their house3 in 1893 and established a dairy farm in the Estevan area.
	In 1894, their eighth child, William Douglas Tait, was born in Victoria.
	James' wife, Normanda, died in September, 1897.
	James died in January, 1901. His youngest son, William Douglas Tait, was then adopted by James' brother, Alexander.
	Willows School is built upon former James Tait farmland.
	1 Alexandrina shortened her name to Ina and was Miss Tait, the art teacher at Oak Bay Junior High School. She died in 1979.
	2 On the north side of the creek, before Oak Bay Junior High was built, was the dairy farm of Alexis Casanave, which began operating in 1875.
	3 James Tait's house at 2435 Musgrave Street is standing today, and is a surviving example of a tradesman's house in late 1800s Oak Bay.

Our gratitude to Tom Miles and Carol Cannon
for sharing their family histories

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