Material Type

Biographical Sketch

Date

1879-

Synopsis

The Colpitts family was a pioneer family in West Vancouver. With family roots in New Brunswick dating from 1775, Ella May Teare (née Colpitts) and her husband John George Teare (known as Jack) moved to Vancouver and then to West Vancouver in 1908. Standford Russell Colpitts (known as Russell) moved shortly after in 1908, soon followed by Ella's brother Frank Payson Colpitts (known as Payson) in 1910, and then by Payson's wife, Janet (née Robertson). Jack Teare was West Vancouver's first police constable, and Ella Teare was West Vancouver's "Lady with the Lamp," bringing medical aid and assistance to the sick. They lived at 1244 Inglewood Avenue and had one daughter, Harriet Massilla Teare, who married Russell Colpitts in 1911. Russell worked for the McNair and Fraser Logging Company for a short time before being hired as the first foreman of the roads department when the West Vancouver Council was established. Harriet and Russell had a son named George Standford (known as Stan) on February 17, 1912, and a daughter named Winnifred (Winnie) May on June 1, 1913. Payson Colpitts worked for a number of years in the logging industry in New Brunswick and the state of Maine before moving to West Vancouver where he worked for McNair and Fraser Logging Company, on the PGE Railway construction, and in Lyall's Shipyard in North Vancouver. Eventually he worked for the West Vancouver Board of Works and later the West Vancouver School Board as janitor of Hollyburn School for twenty-five years. Payson and Janet lived at 1263 Fulton Avenue and raised eight children: Helen, Frank, Evelyn, Lorne, Eunice, Mary, Agnes, and Ella. Members of the Colpitts family continue to live in West Vancouver.

Repository

West Vancouver Archives

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