After 72 years, Edward Mulvehill finally gets a headstone

Ada Domke Jarvis, author of 12 Mile Remembered: Our Lives Before They Burned Our Homesteads, poses with the mannequin she built to help her sell special buttons and fridge magnets at Homecoming 2009. The proceeds from the sale went towards purchasing a headstone for Edward Mulvehill, the first operator of the 12 Mile Ferry beginning in 1923. He died in 1938 and although Mulvehill Creek and Falls were named in his honour, he was buried without a grave marker at Mountain View Cemetery in Revelstoke. David F. Rooney photo

By David F. Rooney

Edward Mulvehill, the long-time 12 Mile ferryman who was buried in 1938 without a memorial of any kind ,will finally get a headstone,

Ada Domke Jarvis, author of 12 Mile Remembered: Our Lives Before They Burned Our Homesteads said Friday (August 6) that she has now raised enough money to ensure that the English immigrant will finally have a stone to mark his grave.

“It has been a long time coming,” she said Friday.

Indeed it has. 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.

Although no stone marks his final resting place, his name is attached to placed like Mulvehill Creek and Mulvehill Falls.

Jarvis raised the money to pay for Mulvehill’s stone through the sale of fridge magnets during Homecoming 2009 and the profits from her book, which chronicles life in the area south of Revelstoke before BC Hydro flooded the farms and homesteads that dotted the it.

The ceremony will be held on August 26 at 11:30 am at Mountain View Cemetery. A potluck for friends of 12 Mile will be held at the home of Ada and Bill — 4050 Airport Way — at about 1 pm