Grubb Family Tree

Rotary club article

George C. Grubb
The committe selected one of the older rotarians to be honored in this week's bulletin. Here are a few facts about the type of life George has led. You can read plenty between the lines. Sit with him next time you come to thr rotary.

Born: Pachehco. California. Nine brothers and sisters, all of whom were born in Ireland except for himself. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in Engineering in 1911. He went to work with his brother for Canadian Explosives Limited in British Columbia. He met his wife while working there, and married here eight years later. His wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Maynard and is a native to San Jose, born and raised on her father's ranch on Stevens Creek. She is a graduate of Stanford University.
During the First World War, George designed and built one of the first TNT plants in North America. In 1921 here turned to California as Purchasing Agent for California Prune and Apricot, later known as Sunsweet, and there purchasere for 70 plants. In 1928 he returned to work for Canadian Explosives Limited and continued with them until his retirement in 1946 at which time he returned to San Jose.

Some recollections to accompany Looking Back on James Island by Bea Bond, Sidney, B.C.

My father, George C. Grubb, lived and worked on James Island from 1913 until 1920 or 1921. As Mrs. Bond records, he was engineer in charge of the construction of the World War I explosives plant, and continued after the war until economic conditions looked doubtful and salary cuts and lay-offs began.

In 1919 G. C. Grubb and Elizabeth Stanley Maynard were married in San Jose. They had met at Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island during one of Elizabeth's visits to her cousins of the Scott family, the children of H. J. Scott, who married Elizabeth's aunt Eva Maynard. My second cousin, Blayney Scott of Victoria, is H. J. Scott's grandson.

In 1920 or 21, George and Elizabeth returned to San Jose, where I and my sister were born, in 1923 and 1927, respectively. We all returned to James Island in 1927 or 28, remaining about a year before moving to New Westminster and, in 1930, to Montreal.

While on the island, we lived in "The Village", in a house such as those on page 19 and 43. I remember gardens just like that of Mr. Tyre (p. 19) behind our house. There was a board walkway about 6 feet wide that led from the village to the plant at the far end of the island. My father used to bicycle to work on the boardwalk; I remember going out with my mother and ister to meet him at the end of the day. Our kitchen looked right onto the beach. An Indian woman, Mrs. Pelkie, helped my mother with the housework; she would paddle over from Sidney in her canoe. I remember going with her in her canoe to catch crabs. Sitting in the bow, I was fascinated to see her rake them up and dump them in the middle of the canoe.

See especially pages 15, 16, 18, 19-23, 30, 32, 33.

All is gone now. My father was grievously disappointed when the village was dismantled. He thought it was an ideal place to live, and of course he was right!

George C. Grubb Jr
Olympia, Washington
November 1991