By David F. Rooney
Ada Domke Jarvis, the author of 12 Mile Remembers: Our Lives Before They Burned Our Homesteads, is a woman with a mission: she wants to right a wrong by raising enough money to erect a headstone for Edward Mulvehill, the first ferry operator at 12 Mile who was — despite local landmarks being named in his honour — buried without a grave marker.
“I think it’s time he was properly recognized and we need to do it now before he is forgotten completely,” she said in an interview.
Jarvis has taken it upon herself to ensure Mulvehill is memorialized by producing fridge magnets and buttons decorated with paintings of local landmarks from the long-vanished villages south of Revelstoke. Places like the school at Arrowhead, the 12 Mile Ferry and the Sidmouth Post Office have been captured in paint by this writer who is also a very accomplished painter.
Mulvehill was an immigrant from England who lived at 12 Mile and operated the cable ferry for 15 years until his death in 1938 at the age of 76. A bachelor, he logged, farmed and trapped in the area until his demise. He was buried, without a grave marker, at Mountain View Cemetery in Revelstoke.
Jarvis said the memorial she has designed will cost $1,150 to carve and Gary Sulz at Brandon-Bowers Funeral Home is working with her “to obtain the best deal we can get” on an individualized marker.
Local residents and people attending the 2009 Homecoming celebrations can help her out by purchasing a button or a fridge magnet at the table she will be setting up near the registration area at the Regent Inn on Thursday, July 23, and Friday, July 24.
Cheques or cash donations will also be accepted and can be dropped off with the Homecoming Committee. They should be marked Attention: Mulvehill Fund, Box 2909, Revelstoke, BC V0E 2S0. People wishing to help out can also contact Ada Jarvis directly during Homecoming or by e-mail at adacanada@yahoo.com.
