The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-08-12
A A HISTORY.
The Romantic Career of an Old British
Columbian Settler.

THE newspapers have printed the
news of the death of old John Sander
son, the pioneer farm settler of the
British Columbian coast, but somehow
none of them have referred to his
strange life romance" said William
Mclaughlin, a longtime resident of
V~ancouver's island. Il knew Sander
son well, and have heard him tell the
story more than once, although there
was an incident in it Of which he was
ashamed, and he always referred to it
with regret.
"Sanderson was a native of the
Scotch Hebrides. When he was be-
tween thirty-ive and forty he fell in
love with a young girl not yet sixteen
The girls name was Margaret Find
lay. She accepted Sanderson's atten-
tions. and they became engaged, but
a dashing young fellow, a sailor,
named George Rothrock, came into the
locality where they lived. and won the
girls heart away from the plodding
farmer, Sanderson. 1t happened that
the latter knew hat Rothrock had at
one time in his life been engaged in
smuggling. Smarting under the loss
OF his intended bride, Sanderson laid
information of Rothrock's crime be-
fore the authorities of the island. In
some way the young sailor received
warning that he had been betrayed,
and he escaped from the island lust in
time.
He was extremely popular. and
when 1T came out that John Sander
son was the person who had informed
on him the people generally made it
SO unpleasant for Sanderson that he
resolved to emigrate t. the Pacific
coast, news of the discovery Of gold in
California having reached that out-of-
the-way corner of the earth. Before
going. however, he married, out of
pique, a woman who had always been
the especial aversion of the Findlay
girl, but, as the latter was almost
heartbroken over the loss of her young
sailor lover, this marriage of her old
lover was far from having the effect ON
her that Sanderson had intended.
This was early in 1851. Sanderson
and his bride reached San Francisco
after a voyage of eight months. The
outlook there did not suit Sanderson,
and, hearing that there were rich agri-
cultural lands on British territory fur
Their northward along the coast, he and
his wife continued their journey
thither. They settled in the fertile
valley a few miles south of Fort Langly,
and by the time the gold excitement
had broken out in British Columbia in
1856 Sanderson had a splendid farm.
He stuck to his farm through all the
gold fever and by supplying mining
camps and immigrant trains with pro-
duce had made a large fortune when
his wife died in 1861, leaving him sew
eral children. He remained a widower
for ten years, adding to his wealth, and
then he made up his mind to have an
other wife, and that he would like her
to come from his old island home off
the barren coast of Scotland.
He had a sister there, and he wrote
to her, asking her to look about and
try and get him a suitable person for a
wife. Margaret Findlay still lived at
Sanderson's old home, very poor and
still unmarried. She had never heard
of her lover Rothrock since he fled the
islands twenty years before. Sander
sons sister went to her, told her the
word she had received from her brother,
and gave her the first chance for his
offer. Margaret, weary of life of toll,
consented to become her old lovers
second wife if he so wished. Sander
sons sister sent that word to her
brother on the other side of the world.
and it pleased him. He replied to that
effect, and sent money TO pay Margaret
Findlay's passage to his home on the
far Pacific Goa st.
Margaret arrived in San Francisco
in the fall of 1872. While waiting there
for the steamer on which she wa to
proceed up the coast, she heard her
name called. Looking up in surprise,
she saw and recognized, in spite of the
changes of twenty years, her fugitive
lover, George Rothrock. The old love
for him, never dead, burned anew On
the instant, and the meeting was
mutually happy. Rothrock had been
leading the life of a miner in California
and had accumulated considerable
money, and was eve then making ar
engagements to return to Scotland. He
wanted Margaret to become his wife at
once, but she replied that her duty
would not permit her to do so. She
had given her promise to John Sander
son. He was expecting her. She
would go TO him. If, after she
had told him of her unexpected
meeting with Rothrock and the
revival of her love for him,
he was m%agnanimous enough to release
her from her promise to become his
wife, she would return and marry her
| lover. If Sanderson insisted, however.