Pitka article | The Society For The

ETHNIC VOICE/L’ECOUTE DE L’ETHNICITE

Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka and his Estonian Settlement at Stuart Lake, B. C.

by Juta Kõvamees Kitching

ABSTRACT

Johan Pitka, Rear Admiral of the Estonian Navy and a hero of the Estonian War of Independence of 1918-1919, was knighted by the British for services as an ally against the Bolsheviks. He emigrated to Canada in 1924. Sir John and his party settled on the southern shore of Stuart Lake, B.C. and struggled against the wilderness for eight years; they tried cattle-raising, farming and lumbering. However, markets were lacking and transportation was difficult without a road. The settlers had to move elsewhere in Canada or return to Estonia. When Estonia offered Pitka a pension, he decided to visit his homeland but eventually stayed. His family soon followed, and the last settler left Stuart Lake in 1932. Pitka was last seen in 1944 in Estonia; his fate is unknown. His three sons, arrested on June 14, 1941, were probably shot. His wife and two daughters with their husbands escaped to Sweden in 1944, re-emigrating to Canada in 1948.

The settlement history of Estonians in Canada has an undeveloped chapter, the subject of which continues to interest to Estonians everywhere and the story of which deserves fuller explanation in Canada’s and British Columbia’s immigration history than it has received so far. Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka’s courageous venture to establish a colony in British Columbia deserves assessment from today’s perspective and should be granted its rightful place among accounts of other brave failures in the province by settlers of North European background, such as the Finns in Sointula, the Danes in Cape Scott and the Norwegians in Bella Coola and Quatsino. (1)

Sir John Pitka and his party settled on the southern shore of Stuart Lake, B.C., near Fort St. James, the pre-Confederation capital of New Caledonia. His Estonian colony (2) lasted eight years, from 1924 to 1932, and left a legacy of place names to this day, such as Pitka Mountain, Pitka Lake, Pitka Creek, Lind(a) Lake (3) , Paaren Beach (4) and Colony Point. By the end of 1932 all the settlers had either moved to other places in Canada or returned to Estonia, as did Pitka and his family.

Sir John Pitka was born in the province of Järvamaa (Jalgsemaa village, Ansomardi farm), Estonia on the 19th of February, 1872 and christened Johan. The date and circumstances of his death are not known; he was last seen by his family in 1944 and is assumed to have perished in Estonia or the Soviet Union.(5) Six family members pioneered with him in the B.C. wilderness: his wife, Lady Helene Mari Pitka, his sons Edward and Stanley, his daughters Saima and Linda and the latter’s husband, Aleksander Päären. All became Canadian citizens; Edward and Saima were British subjects by birth, their birthplace having been Liverpool.

Pitka’s sons, Stanley and Edward, returned to Estonia in 1930 and 1931 respectively. They were arrested on June 14, 1941 (6) following the Soviet annexation of Estonia. Their fate is unknown. In 1948 Mrs. Pitka returned to Canada with Linda and Saima and their families. They established their home in the Vancouver area in 1949. Of the family members who returned to Canada after World War II, three (7) have died in Vancouver. Linda Päären and Saima Joasalu have been my major informants, as well as Mr. Mart Saar, another member of the original Stuart Lake Estonian Settlement and later a Vancouverite (8). Also, Captain Evald Past, a friend and seafaring colleague of Sir John Pitka and publisher of his memoirs (9), has given me valuable information pertaining to the settlement and the character of the man who led it. Interviews with the above informants, along with Canadian government documents, newspaper articles from the 1920’s to the 1980’s, as well as British and Estonian historical accounts (10) have helped to create a portrait of Pitka as a man of courage and resourcefulness, both when he was a settler fighting against B.C.’s merciless mother nature and when he was fighting for Estonia’s freedom against the Bolsheviks.

Politically, Estonia still belonged to tsarist Russia in the early 20th Century, but in practice the country was governed by its German landlords. The indigenous population thus had two overlords, yet its desire to become free grew ever stronger. Thanks to the victories in the war of 1918-1919 an independent Republic of Estonia was created. It was in this Estonian War of Independence that Johan Pitka rose to fame, became a national figure and was appointed Rear Admiral of the Estonian Navy. One of the three top men in this war, he was able to conquer both the Bolshevik forces and the German Landeswehr— with the help of the British Navy (11) — and to assure the establishment of an independent Estonia. Einar Sanden places Pitka beside Päts, who later became the President of Estonia, and beside Laidoner, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, when he writes: “Johan Pitka must be recognized beside Konstantin Päts and Johan Laidoner as our most important great figure in the organization of the War of Independence which resulted in the birth of the Republic of Estonia.”(12)

Johan Pitka had founded the Estonian Navy. (13) The first armored railroad cars in Estonia were constructed under his leadership and proved decisive in the battle on land. (14) Pitka also established and organized the Estonian Home Guard, a non-military institution with important functions in the pursuit of independence. (15) He gained the respect of the British Naval Officers in the Baltic, particularly of Admiral Alexander Sinclair, Admiral Sir Bertram Thesiger and Rear-Admiral Sir Walter H. Cowan, First Baronet of the Baltic. Captain J. E. Cameron was impressed by Pitka as: “... a man of very considerable energy and character." (16) Sir Cowan writes about the battle with the Bolsheviks at Narva on May 13,1919, that he, Cowan, “Maintained a constant watch on the Bay whilst the Estonians were in contact with the Bolshevik troops, bombarding and pushing forward here and there and landing more men, under the direction of Admiral Pitka, who has always shown a most correct instinct for war, both on land and sea." (17) Pitka’s prowess was recognized, upon Cowan’s recommendation, by the British award of the K.C.M.G., Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George, an honor that General Johan Laidoner also received. Henceforth, he became known as Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka.

In the early 1920s, in spite of having been recognized by his native country for his services to Estonia, (18) Pitka grew dissatisfied with the political situation and economic conditions in young Estonia. The country was not developing as he had envisaged it. His daughter, Saima Joasalu, indicates that her father decided to seek a fresh start after experiencing very frustrating times in Estonian politics. He found there was too much favoritism in government; he thought those in power were too interested in personal financial gain. Mrs. Joasalu also states that Pitka expressed these frank opinions at the time in his newspaper, Valve, (“Guardian”) and in so doing, made enemies in the Estonian government and consequently failed to win election to political office. (19)

More light is shed on the same subject in my interview with Mart Saar. (20) He was an Officer in the War of Independence, and later became a member of the Pitka settlement in British Columbia. He refers to the Estonian Armed Forces, to which he belonged in the early 1920s, as consisting of two groups, marked by considerable friction in peacetime. Firstly, there were the older men, whose code of ethics was in keeping with their training in the Russian tsarist army prior to World War I. The second group consisted of the young men who had been shaped by the Estonian War of Independence. They had their own pride and values, marked by a sense of their individual worth and new hopes for Estonia. Saar must have been seriously bothered by such friction because he left the military and emigrated to Canada. (21) Pitka, for his part, had given himself so totally to the creation of a free Estonia, that he needed to regain spiritual equilibrium and physical health away from his homeland. (22)

In the 1930’s, after his return from Canada to Estonia, he wrote the following about his B.C. experience:

The primeval forest of Canada and beautiful Stuart Lake, they gave me
back my health, which was being ruined. Hard physical work in the good,
dry mountain air and the golden sunshine (which is there all year around)
got rid of my bothersome arthritis in one year and healed my destroyed
nerves. Even if my family suffered a lot materially, life there was spiritually
good for them too. (23)

Because of Pitka’s personal and political dissatisfaction in Estonia in the 1920’s, he was especially receptive to the beckoning calls from Canada. Much promotional work was done at that time by the Canadian government, Canada’s individual provinces, the Canadian railways and other business organizations in an attempt to recruit new settlers. This was accomplished by distributing printed material and by showing films in Europe about Canada and its agricultural, social and educational conditions. The Annual Report of the Canadian National Railway System of 1924 writes about colonization and development in these terms: “During the past year, efforts were made to obtain land settlers not only from the British Isles but also from other European countries, particularly Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland. Additional branch agencies have been opened at Oslo, Copenhagen and Rotterdam." (24)

The fact is that Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka was the Canadian Pacific Railway Company’s representative in Tallinn, probably since the beginning of 1923, perhaps earlier. Thus, he was in a favorable position to establish contacts abroad: he received the information about Canada firsthand and he already knew the English-speaking world, having lived in England where he had cofounded an Estonian-Latvian Ship Chandler Agency in 1907. From the Canadian point of view, Pitka was a desirable settler, a recognized personality with a British title, who could bring a group of people with him and help develop Canada. He set up an inspection trip in the autumn of 1923 (25) in order to explore some territories open for settlement in Canada.

Pitka travelled extensively by train in the Western Canadian provinces from Manitoba to British Columbia. Estonian sources and interviews with his family members indicate that he liked B.C. best because of its mountains, forests and climate. (26) In B.C. he visited the provincial capital, Victoria, and sought advice from the appropriate government representatives. Two locations, Nelson and Fort St. James, were recommended to him and he chose the latter. Fort St. James is situated in central B.C., at the southern tip of Stuart Lake, between 54° and 55° north latitude, and 124° and 125° longitude. It is an early Hudson’s Bay Company Trading Post, established as Fort St. James in 1828. Before Confederation in 1867, it was the capital of an area then called New Caledonia. Nevertheless, in 1923, the region had only between 40 and 50 whites and about 500
Indians living in two villages. The great attraction for Pitka, apart from the natural beauty of the area, was the availability of land: each settler was allowed to claim as much land as he wanted for $5 per acre; also, he could choose his location — the land was to be paid off in 15 years in such a way that no payment was required during the first 5 years, whereupon 10% of the total was to be paid annually in each of the remaining ten years. Payment of interest was not required. An added future prospect was the government’s plan to build a railway from Prince George to the Peace River areas, which meant that the line would pass through Fort St. James.

Johan Pitka returned home in December 1923, full of enthusiasm and expectation. According to Mart Saar, who joined Pitka’s settlement in December 1924, much of Christmas 1923 was spent discussing plans for Canada with friends and visitors. (27) Even if some of Pitka’s original followers had changed their minds about emigrating, new requests poured in. The newspapers in Estonia reported Pitka’s experiences in Canada and the place he had found there for an Estonian settlement. More emigrants announced themselves than Pitka could accommodate at the outset, as evidenced by a senior resident in Vancouver, Walter Paakspuu. His application to join Pitka’s party in 1924 could not be accepted, and he had to wait several years before coming to Canada on his own. (28) A group of sixteen settlers, including Pitka, left Estonia on the 10th of March, 1924. The send-off in Tallinn must have been a memorable one, because one participant (29) at the Rear Admiral’s farewell ceremonies still remembers an Air Force fly-by in his honor. (30) She was there in a group of noored sepad (“The Young Smiths”), a youth organization that Pitka had encouraged in Estonia, possibly on the model of the scout movement in Britain. Pitka’s party left Tallinn by train for Liepäja (Libau), Latvia. There they boarded a British passenger ship on March 12, 1924 bound for London. The journey continued by train to Liverpool, whence they travelled by ocean-liner to Saint John, New Brunswick.

According to Saima Joasalu’s recollection, they sailed on the S/S Montcalm of the Cunard Lines. (31) Upon arrival in St. John, they were met by a B.C. immigration official or land agent from Victoria, a certain Mr. Smith. (32) He accompanied them on the train all the way across Canada to Vanderhoof, B.C., the closest railway station to their destination, but not on the horse-wagon-sled trip from Vanderhoof to Fort St. James, which took another three days. There is speculation why a government official needed to be with them across Canada: was it only a friendly gesture to the newcomers who appreciated help, or were they being guarded against the enticements by other provinces to settle there instead? Whatever the reason, they were officially escorted to their end railway station, Vanderhoof, where they arrived on April 1, 1924. (33) The people of Vanderhoof received the Pitka party very well, remembers Mrs. Joasalu. Coffee, sandwiches and cookies were served. A group welcomed her father by singing “For he’s a jolly good fellow!” All newcomers were received in this welcoming manner, according to Saima Joasalu.

From Vanderhoof it was still 48 miles to Fort St. James. Since it was the time of the Spring thaw, it took three days to travel these last miles. On the first day only 10 miles were covered by four teams of horses and wagons; as the snow deepened and it became dark, overnight shelter was found in the shed of a road crew’s camp in the fresh hay. For the remainder of the journey, the wagons had to be exchanged for sleds. The second night was spent in beds in a roadhouse. On the third day, April 3, 1924, the settlers arrived by horse and sled at Fort St. James, the Hudson’s Bay Company Trading Post. It consisted of the Hudson’s Bay Co. Store complete with Post Office, Dickenson’s General Store and Ryall’s General Store, a school and a row of log houses inhabited mostly by trappers and gold panners. The Report of the B.C. Department of Agriculture for the year 1924 records the following: “On April 3rd the first party of the Esthonian settlers arrived under the leadership of Sir John Pitka. We accompanied them to Vanderhoof, where they detrained, and spent several days with them, assisting them to purchase supplies, tools, clothing, machinery, and live stock." (34) Further on in the same report one reads: “In the Vanderhoof District the reputation of the Nechako Valley and the publicity given by the coming of the Esthonians have had a good effect." (35)

The original group that arrived at Fort St. James on April 3, 1924 was made up of Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka, his wife Lady Helene Mari Pitka, his sons Edward and Stanley, his daughters Saima and Linda with husband Lieutenant Aleksander Päären, Mr. and Mrs. Nilk, Mr. and Mrs. Pärtelson, Mr. Kuusk, Mr. Olem, Mr. Puhm, Mr. Sulakatk, Mr. Georg Vaimel. Their arrival was important enough for a community celebration on the first evening. The younger daughter, Saima, who was sixteen at the time, described her impressions in a lecture given at the Estonian-English Cultural Society in Tallinn in 1935: (36)

The dance was held in a little schoolhouse, around which gathered curious Indians. They pressed their dark faces against the window panes to see better what was going on inside; we were dancing in full swing to gramophone music. Those present formed a motley group in all kinds of dress, ranging from Sunday suits to colorful shirts and work pants .... I had my first dance with a young trapper... he wore a jacket of moose hide and moccasins which had both seen better days. But he was an interesting man from the woods, who spent 6-8 months alone on his trapping line more than 75 miles from Fort St. James. (37)

At first, the women and children stayed in Fort St. James, the men went six miles across the ice of Stuart Lake to its southern shore, where their colony was to be located in an untouched forest wilderness. Mr. Smith, the government official, had provided them with large tents in which they could live. Pitka and Päären erected the tents and stayed. They chose their land sites and began to build Pitka’s log house with two young settlers, Kuusk and Olem, as helpers. Pitka had paid for their crossing on the understanding that they would work for him during the construction of his house. Pitka claimed 640 acres, Päären 229 acres. Most of the other men also made their land claims but stayed in the village at first. Pitka’s house, a two-story structure with seven rooms, was ready to move into by autumn 1924. The following year Päären built himself and his wife a three-room house on the lakeshore in the vicinity. Sulakatk and Vaimel also took land. The District Agriculturist from Prince George, R. G. Sutton, has so much praise and support for the establishment of this Stuart Lake settlement that he includes a separate section in his lengthy government report of 1924, entitled “The Esthonian Settlement.” It reads:

Before concluding we would like to draw your attention to the Esthonian
settlement at Stuart Lake. There are now six families there, as well as a
number of single men whose families are still in the Old Country. Three
more families have come out since the first party came. There are six new
houses either built or in the process of building. Sir John Pitka has a fine
log house now and in it he and his family are sheltering the families of new
arrivals until their own houses are ready. Sir John’s plan is to have a few
new families come each year at intervals, so that those already settled can
accommodate the new-comers until they can build for themselves.
These people are unfamiliar with our laws and customs, with the
various departments in charge of works in the district, and they
quickly look to some one on whom they can depend and through
him they learn the v/ays of the land. We have tried to give them to
understand that this office was always ready and willing to do all
possible to help them, whether it be in getting a new road or a
school, a cow or the name of the best variety of grain for their
district. We are in continual correspondence with them and believe
we have established a good understanding between them and this
office. Respectfully submitted. (38)

Of the original group at Stuart Lake, Puhm left immediately for the U.S. (39) The Pärtelsons also left right away, Mrs. Pärtelson having been disappointed to tears, and arranged for land elsewhere. But new settlers joined. Among those who established themselves for a period of time during the eight years that the settlement lasted were V. Rosin with his wife and two daughters, and Mart Saar with his wife and six-month old daughter. The Saars had landed in Quebec City on Nov. 16,1924 and arrived at Stuart Lake in time to celebrate Christmas with the Pitkas again, as in the previous year in Estonia. (40) Somewhat later came Officer Georg Andrekson, whose wife and two children followed. Others to join were Peter Unger, Mr. Wilmanson and Colonel and

Mrs. Steinman.

After permanent shelter had been provided during the first summer, serious thought had to be given to how to make a living. Economic conditions in Canada had already begun to deteriorate. The Report of the Department of Immigration and Colonization of 1923-1924, makes specific mention of the devaluation of money. Even if it may not refer to the Pitka colony as such, it is proof of how very difficult life was for many newcomers at the time. In it N. J. Egan writes:

Money had some stability in the years prior to the Great War and could be

exchanged, without much loss in the transfer from Europe to Canada.

An illustration of existing conditions is furnished by the
story of a recent colony movement from the borders of the old
Russian Empire to the interior of British Columbia. The money
belonging to these colonists shrank from fifty dollars to fifty cents
in the process of exchange. (41)

Those were dire straits for the new immigrants. The Estonian settlers at Stuart Lake made brave attempts to provide for themselves — but one failure followed another. Pitka, locally known as Sir John, first began experimenting with cattle raising, but did not expand this attempt: it was clear that neither cattle nor dairy farming had sufficient markets for various milk and meat products. His attempt at raising sheep must have been short-lived because one day the animals escaped through the open gate never to be seen again. Only some remains were found later in the woods. The Pitka family also raised hogs, but only for their own use; these were black, a kind that they were not used to. Then Pitka tried agriculture; he cleared land (here the provincial corresponding department helped out by providing a stump puller) and planted many kinds of crops. The first year’s yield was poor, the second year’s so good that it was beyond imagination in Estonia —but again, there was no market and the harvest rotted in the root cellar. In 1927, Pitka started his sawmill operation. He bought the machinery at Dickenson’s in Fort St. James and set up the mill; since transportation by road was still a problem, he built a ramp and invented his own system of moving his products across the lake. As evident from Stanley’s diary, the Pitka family mill produced a nice variety of wood products, for example lumber, shiplap, window casings, door casings and strips, siding, and rough boards. However, transportation remained a tremendous difficulty, especially of bigger loads and for longer distances.

Aleksander Päären built up a chicken farm; however, not only were the eggs hard to find, since the chickens would lay anywhere in the woods — there was no market for them either — and feed was too expensive. His trapping and gold panning expeditions were even less successful. Once, he returned from a trip which had lasted several months with only three tiny gold nuggets as his reward. Construction work on government roads was the best occasional job. It paid about $3.50 per day; a summer’s harvesting on the prairies produced the income of about S60.00. (42)

Vaimel tried growing oats, barley and summer wheat, but early frosts destroyed the crop, and the wild animals ate what remained. Then, he also planned to cultivate a health plant called hydrastis canadensis — he was a pharmacist by profession — but it turned out to be a plant for more southern climes.

Sulakatk had hoped to raise fur-animals but there were plenty of wild ones. Nilk was a shoemaker, first in Fort St. James, and later in Prince George where he stayed until his death. (43) Saar, who rented rooms at the old Catholic schoolhouse in the village (as did the Rosin family), repaired rifles. His customers were mostly Indians who paid in kind. By spring he had more moose meat than he could store— which led to experimentation in sausage making. (44)

Socially the whites and the Indians did not mix. According to Mart Saar, he was warned by the Scottish janitor in the school where he lived never to let Indians into the house or he would be ostracized by the white people. But Saar, the Pitkas and the other Estonians had good relations with the Indians. Mr. Saar revisited their Chief, Louis Prince, in 1962. The Chief remembered him, blessed him and prayed for him in his own language. It was an intense and highly moving experience for Mr. Saar, an experience that he counts among the finest moments in his life. The Chief also enquired about Queenie, which is Saima’s second Christian name and which was the one used for her there. Mr. Saar had forgotten this name and was impressed by the Chiefs memory. (45)

The frustrations in the Estonian colony grew. The occasional jobs on road construction came to an end, the promised railway did not materialize, there was no market for products and the Depression set in. The people had to leave and did so, one by one. Saar went to Vancouver already in August 1925 and worked mainly in construction. He became an active community worker, serving as a parent representative on the School Board and on committees of his daughter’s schools. He also organized an Estonian Society in Vancouver, with some interruptions, from 1925 to 1940. This ethnic activity, however, came to an abrupt end when it was prohibited at the onset of World War II.

Rosin left for Winnipeg where he established a successful dry-cleaning business and founded the Winnipeg Estonian Society; in 1953 he retired to Vancouver. Nilk moved to Prince George; Andrekson went to Alberta in 1929; Peter Unger started a fur-farm near Vancouver; and Vaimel took a farm near Toronto. The Päärens also lived in Vancouver for a time, as living conditions and job opportunities were somewhat better there than in the Stuart Lake settlement and its surrounding area.

In Estonian sources, Pitka has been criticized for having misled people who had hoped for a better life. Alfred Kurlents, for example, belittles Pitka and implies that he jeopardized the future of many people just for his own personal desires and his claim that B.C. was good for his health. (46) Canadian accounts relieve Pitka of such a burden of blame. It seems that another party bears most of the responsibility for failure, namely the Provincial Government of the period. Its lack of good judgement in the choice of location for settlers was criticized in the B.C. newspapers, and more seriously, its attitude towards the so-called colony settlements was of a negative nature. According to Luke T. Johns, it was common knowledge that the government and the Minister of Lands did not favour colonization settlements and that they sent such settlers to remote places. Already on August 22, 1926 Mr. Johns publishes in the Vancouver Sunday Province, complete with photographs, a remarkable description of Sir John and his wife, making some astute observations:

Anyone who would tackle the tremendously heavy clearing on this
Esthonian place must have patience and physique in unusual degree.
Eight families there were originally as the nucleus of a larger
colony. Only three families remain, the others having become
discouraged. Why the Provincial Government permitted them to
settle in such an out-of-the-way spot is a puzzle to me. It is seven
miles across the lake from anywhere, and though the government
promised to build them a five-mile road to connect with the main
Vanderhoof road as soon as their first spring arrived, only this year
is this promise being fulfilled, according to Sir John.... I have heard
it said that the Provincial Government, or at least the minister of
lands, does not favor “community” or “colonization” settlement. If
such schemes are to be launched in remote and almost inaccessible
areas like this I am not surprised. I came away from the Pitka place
with a feeling of regret that so much energy on the part of a fine

citizen like Sir John, and of his compatriots, should not be put to
better purpose in some more easily developed portion of this huge
province. (47)

It seems that a man of Pitka’s energy and skills, and his followers’ various abilities, could have contributed greatly to the development of B.C. if the provincial government’s officials had wanted to pay attention and if they had cared to recognize his potential. On the other hand, one may ask that if his potential actually was recognized, could the likelihood of his becoming too successful have posed some concern? One cannot help but wonder why a Rear Admiral of the Navy, who could build ships and direct shipping trade, was asked to settle in the forest of central B.C., isolated and out of the way. “One would hardly expect to find an admiral of the fleet who was knighted for his services, operating a humble sawmill in the wilderness of northern British Columbia... " (48) Why did the province not make use of his skills? Why did it not offer him better opportunities? How wisely had it invested its own manpower, time and funds? Many issues point to the fact that the burden of failure cannot be placed on Pitka or the settlers without examining the local situation and the generally held view of group immigration —according to Mr. Johns, a view which even B.C. government leaders held. Government Reports tend to include information on the Estonian settlement only in times of growth and success. The Annual Reports exclude information on the Stuart Lake Estonian Settlement when it begins to decrease in size. Many events point to a general abandonment of official interest in or feeling of responsibility towards these settlers: for example, the road which the government had promised to put in immediately, took a couple of years longer to start; the railway which in initial negotiations was sure to come, was never built. Some changes in government staff seem to have taken place, for example, in the post of the District Agriculturist, but this fact did not bring any improvement to the Stuart Lake settlement. Thus once more, the Estonian sources which criticize Pitka for having embarked upon an unsuccessful venture should not omit essential information about local conditions and attitudes in B.C. at the time.

In 1929 Pitka received word from Estonia that he had been awarded a pension by the Estonian government. In 1930 he left for Estonia to arrange this pension and to visit his oldest son, Andreas, who had not come along to Canada. He was received formally and with great fanfare. An honor guard was present, as a photo in Eesti Päevaleht of April 4, 1930 proves. The same newspaper records an interview with Pitka, in which he describes Canada as a land of the future, but believes that he went there 40 years too soon. He says he was impressed by its natural beauty; its climate was like a sanatorium for him. (49)

Pitka ended up staying in Estonia, although this had not been his intention. He was offered the directorship of Eesti Tarvitajateuhisus, the head office of a national retail co-operative chain. His wife and younger son, Stanley, joined him the same autumn (1930); Edward came the following year. In 1932 his daughter Saima, who had married the assistant manager of the Hudsons’ Bay company at Fort St. James, Alfred Smith, on Dec. 15, 1927, left for Estonia with her young son, Harry, to pay a visit but ended up staying. Linda and Aleksander Päären returned at the same time with the intention of staying in Estonia. Others originally from the Stuart Lake settlement (some of whom had already moved elsewhere in Canada), who returned to Estonia were: Sulakatk, Puhm, Kuusk, Vilmanson, the Pärtelsons and the Steinmans. In 1932 the last settlers left Stuart Lake. This date marked the end of an eight-year long attempt to establish a thriving settlement in a hostile wilderness. With the onset of the Great Depression, life grew ever more difficult and it was impossible to make a living in such an isolated place with its subsistence economy.

In the 1930’s Johan Pitka published in Estonia four volumes (50) of his memoirs which he had planned to complete in nine volumes; the title of the fifth volume could be rendered as “In the Canadian Primeval Forest.” The manuscript was finished, corrected and illustrated. However, the Soviet occupation of Estonia started and the publication of such a book was no longer possible. In the confusion of war and flight even the completed manuscript was lost. (51) The decline of Estonia as a nation and of one of its well known families began in 1939 with the establishment of Soviet military bases in Estonia. Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka, the hero of the Estonian War of Independence, had reason to fear for his life. He sought protection at the British Embassy in Tallinn and hoped to leave Estonia for England. As a Canadian citizen, a man with British honors and two of his children having been born in Britain, he was entitled to some form of protection by the British government: he received a British passport in the name of John Smith. With this document he was able to escape to Finland in 1940. He had to go alone and leave his family in Estonia. His three sons, Andreas, Edward and Stanley, were all arrested by the Soviets on the 14th of June, 1941 52 and never heard from again. It is believed that they were interrogated concerning the whereabouts of their father and that when no information was forthcoming, they were shot. It should be noted here again that Edward and Stanley, who had been at Stuart Lake, were Canadian citizens; Edward was also a British subject because he was born in Liverpool (as was Saima).

Pitka lived incognito in Finland for four years. When he returned to Estonia in 1944, he vowed to defend his fatherland once again — as evident in an interview published by the newspaper "Eesti sõna" on April 25, 1944: “My position and principles have not changed. They are the same as in the days of the previous War of Independence, namely: everything has to stay in the background if destiny demands participation in the protection of one’s fatherland and its people.” (53)

Despite his seventy-one years he saw an opportunity to be of strategic help again: he set out to organize the Estonian men who were hiding in the forests as a kind of auxiliary defence force. According to his daughters his plan was to detain the advancing Soviet forces from the East for as long as possible in order to enable more Estonians to escape to the West. To his family he is known to have said: “I can save myself anytime. You must leave.” The remaining family escaped to Sweden in 1944. Pitka himself was never heard of since; his destiny is unknown. When Lady Pitka, her daughters and their families returned to Canada in 1948, they came as returning Canadians — except for Saima who had married Andres Joasalu and renounced her Canadian citizenship. However, they had to be sponsored like other post World War II refugees. Their old friend and co-settler at Stuart Lake, Mr. Rosin of Winnipeg, became their sponsor. In 1949 the family moved to B.C. and soon settled in Vancouver. (54)

Their homes at Stuart Lake were not waiting for them; the fields they had once cultivated had become forest again. Their efforts, and those of Sir John, some twenty-five years earlier were of no avail and they had to start from the beginning again. The events of World War II, the loss of family members and the hardships of the refugee years had humbled them, to be sure, but their endurance and graceful acceptance of their destiny points to former greatness which had also demanded sacrifices but which in the process had made history. Rear Admiral Sir John Pitka, who had performed legendary deeds during the Estonian War of Independence, had again sent vibrations through Estonia, now with his Canadian settlement story! Thereby he contributed a new chapter to Estonia’s emigration history. His story, the history of the Stuart Lake Estonian Settlement — even if by now non-existent except for some monuments in the form of place names — deserves equal recognition in the immigration history of B.C. and Canada.

Postscript: Stuart Lake Revisited

In 1951 some members of the Pitka family revisited their Stuart Lake settlement of the 1920’s. Having arrived in Vanderhoof, they recognized the old bank building and found that the town had become a dusty place because of all the traffic. At a gas station they were told that Vanderhoof had become one of the liveliest centers of northern B.C.: a dam was being built some 60 miles away. There was a new road between Vanderhoof and Fort St. James and along the road was a welcome view of farms and grain fields. This time the travelling party reached Fort St. James in a little over an hour from Vanderhoof, not in three days as 27 years earlier. Fort St. James was hardly recognizable: lots of houses, three sawmills, a couple of churches, several gas stations, half a dozen stores, a hotel and motels! There were about 500 white inhabitants, i.e, ten times more than in 1924, and about the same number of Indians as in the 1920’s. And moreover, a good road led to the Estonian settlement across Stuart Lake; the house Pitka built for his family had been dismantled but the foundation beams were still in place; the ladder leading from the kitchen into the cellar below was still intact; the door to the potato cellar was still in position but why were its iron hinges missing? The size of the foundation, which measured 40 feet by 20 feet, indicated that the house had been quite large. A post sticking up in the lake still marked the place of the boat ramp the Pitkas had built. Some clover patches in the aspen forest reminded the visitors of a formerly cultivated field. And to everyone’s surprise three clumps of rhubarb — which they had originally planted — were still growing! 55 A stranger passing by would not recognize from these remaining signs that there had once been an inhabited place there, but for the pioneers who after more than twenty years revisited their homestead in the B.C. primeval forest where they had spent so much of their energy, youth, strength, tears and laughter, it was gratifying to discover at least some traces of their original Estonian Settlement at Stuart Lake.

NOTES

1. Several bibliographical references are of interest: Anderson, Aili. History of Sointula, a booklet
of 19 pages [n.p.: n.d.] possibly published in B.C.; Fish, Gordon. Dreams of Freedom. Bella
Coola, Cape Scott, Sointula, Sound Heritage Series, Number 36, Ministry of Provincial
Secretary and Government Services, Victoria: Provincial Archives of British Columbia, 1982;
Hardwick, Francis C., ed.. The Return of the Vikings, Canadian Culture Series 7, Vancouver:
Tantalus Research Limited, 1978; ZTarjedalsgillet, compiled by a book committee, Vancouver:
Hhrjedalsgillet, 1983; Laine, Edward, ed.. Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Ottawa, 1983;
Peterson, Lester R.. The Cape Scott Story, Vancouver: Mitchell Press, 1974.
2. “Colony" and “colonization” seem to have been well defined terms at the time. Note the

SIR JOHN PITKA AND HIS ESTONIAN SETTLEMENT
government report entitled Canada Department of Immigration and Colonization Report, 1924-
1925, Ottawa, 1926, where Deputy Minister N.J. Egan writes on p. 6: “An interesting
development in the past year or two is the growth of group movements, especially from Europe,
and the formation of organizations in Canada and abroad, religious, racial or philanthropic, to
encourage migration and assist in caring for the newcomer.” Pitka’s daughters, Linda Päären
and Saima Joasalu, do not remember their father ever having mentioned that he wanted to
establish an Estonian colony. This information is from my interview with them in May 1986.
3. Linda Päären, the older of Pitka’s daughters, and her husband were among the original settlers of
Stuart Lake.
4. The lakeshore where Linda and Aleksander Päären built their cabin was named after them.
5. The Estonian-language press in the West has released many accounts over the past 45 years about
Pitka’s last days. These are often speculative and conflicting in content. Some representative
articles are, for example: Teataja, "Kuhu jai Admiral Pitka?", Stockholm, Dec. 2, 1944;
Stockholmstidningen. “Uut Pitka saatusest,” Stockholm, (Apr. 11, 1950; Vaba Eesti Sõna, "Pitka
pääsenud, kadunud aga merel” and “Kurbi teateid kodumaalt,” New York, March 22, 1956;
Välis Eesti, “Admiral Pitka saatus,” Stockholm, June 23, 1975; Vaba Eesti Sõna, “Pitka põrm
jaljetus hauas,” New York, Feb. 15, 1979.
6. In a single night between June 13and 14,1941 about 10,000 people were arrested by the Soviets.
Pitka’s oldest son, Andreas, who had not accompanied his parents to Canada, was arrested
along with his brothers in Tallinn; they all met an unknown fate.
7. Helene Mari Pitka, nee Neuhaus, was born in Estonia June 13, 1870 and died in Vancouver July
10, 1954; Aleksander Päären was born in Estonia December 9, 1897 and died in Vancouver July
1,1975; Andres Joasalu was born in Estonia September 21, 1907 and died in Vancouver
December 25, 1980. All three are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Burnaby, B.C.
8. I interviewed Mart Saar, Officer of the Estonian Armed Forces before 1924, on November 7, 1984
in Maple Ridge, B.C.. He was very impressive in appearance and manner, tall and straight of
bearing despite his 91 years of age. His officer’s training and social graces had obviously
remained with him all his life.
9. My interview with Evald Past of North Vancouver was in the summer of 1986. The following
volumes of Pitka’s memoirs have been published: Johan Pitka, Minu mälestused I, Tallinn:
Laevandus, 1937; Johan Pitka, Minu mälestused II, Tallinn: Laevandus, 1938; Johan Pitka,
Minu mälestused III, Tallinn: Laevandus, 1939; Johan Pitka, Rajusõlmed, Stockholm: Free
Europe Press, 1972.
10. No publications on Pitka appeared in Estonia in the period after World War II. Only in the last
two years have a few newspaper and journal articles appeared there. My printed Estonian
sources for information before World War II are from both Estonia and the West; the post World
War II sources are only from Western publications.
11. See Geoffrey Bennett, Cowan's War — The Story of British Naval Operations in the Baltic —
1918-1920, London: Collins, 1964.
12. Einar Sanden in the introduction of Johan Pitka, Rajusõlmed, Stockholm: Free Europe Press,
1972, p. 3. Translation by the present author.
13. See for example Eesti Vabadussõda, 1918-1920, vol. II, Kultuuri Kirjastus, reprint 1951, p. 86
ff. and K.A. Hindrey’s Admiral Johan Pitka, Eesti Vabadussõja hing, Tallinn: Kooli-
Kooperatiiv, 1938. Evald Past writes in his book Maalt ja merelt, Vancouver, 1984, p. 112: ..
kõik meie laevanduse tegevuse teed viisid admiral Pitka juurde,” in translation .. all the roads of
our shipping activity led to Admiral Pitka.”
14. See Eesti Vabadussõda, 1918-1920, vol. I, Kultuuri Kirjastus, n.d., p. 231.
15. At first Pitka assisted in the organization of Omakaitse in 1917 — see Eesti Vabadussõda,
1918-1920, vol. I, pp. 51, 109 and later he founded Eesti Kaitseliit in Tallinn on Nov. 11,
1918— ibid., p. 179.
16. Geoffrey Bennett, Cowan's War — The Story of British Naval Operations in the Baltic — 1918-
1920, London: Collins, 1964, p. 82.
17. Op. Cit., p. 110.
18. Pitka received Lohu Estate as a reward for his services during the War of Independence.
19. My interview with Saima Joasalu in May 1986. See also K.A. Hindrey, Admiral Johan Pitka,

CANADIAN ETHNIC STUDIES/ETUDES ETHN1QUES AU CANADA
Eesti Vabadussõja hing, pp. 42-46.
20. My interview with Mart Saar, Nov. 7, 1984.
21. Mr. Saar indicated in our interview of Nov. 7.1984 that he had refused to convey the traditional
Easter greetings to a superior — which had to be done personally — and was promptly
dismissed from the Army on Easter Sunday 1924. However, he had also told me that he made
his decision to emigrate to Canada already at Christmas time 1923. Another reason, in addition
to being enlisted, for not being able to join the original Pitka Party in March 1924 to travel to
Stuart Lake was that his wife was expecting their first child.
22. See Johan Pitka, Minu mälestused I, Tallinn: Laevandus, 1937, pp. 53, 123.
23. Quoted from K.A. Hindrey, Admiral Johan Pitka, Eesti Vabadussõja hing, p. 46. Translation by
the present author.
24. The Canadian Railway System, Annual Report, 1924, p. 64.
25. Some sources claim the trip took place during the Spring of 1923, but Pitka’s daughters, Linda
Paaren and Saima Joasalu, indicate — in my interview with them in May 1986 —that it was in
the autumn because their father was back home just in time for Christmas 1923. See also
Läänekaare postipoiss, a bulletin of the Vancouver Estonian Society, December 1954, p. 2; and
Minevik on tuleviku isa, Toronto: Kanada Eestlaste Ajaloo Komisjon, 1965, p. 59.
26. Alfred Kurlents, ed., Eestlased Kanadas, p. 72; and the Estonian newspaper Eesti päevaleht,
April 4, 1930.
27. My interview with Mart Saar on November 7, 1984.
28. This information is from an unpublished essay by Eric Paakspuu, November 1985.
29. A Vancouverite of Estonian origin, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported this in Spring
1986.
30. Hindrey writes about the tragedy of the farewell in Admiral Johan Pitka, Eesti Vabadussõja
hing, pp. 44-45.
31. My interview with Saima Joasalu and Linda Päären, May 1986.
32. Neither Mrs. Joasalu nor Mrs. Päären remembered the title of the official. The name Smith is
mentioned in the Estonian sources but not in the Canadian government documents. (There the
names Healy and Sutton occur.) Mr. Smith visited the settlers often and praised them a lot, says
Mrs. Joasalu. She remembers him by his favorite saying: “This is all good chocolate silt. Grows
everything.”
33. See Läänekaare postipoiss, bulletin of the Vancouver Estonian Society, December 1954, p. 2.
34. See R.G. Sutton’s “Report of the District Agriculturist, Prince George,” in British Columbia,
Department of Agriculture, Annual Report for 1924, Victoria, 1925, p. K56. Note also that the
arrival date is given as April 4, 1924 in Eestlased Kanadas, p. 72.
35. Sutton, ibid., p. K60.
36. A clipping from an unspecified Tallinn newspaper in 1935 announcing the lecture reads in
translation “Mrs. Saima Smith-Pitka will speak on Monday evening in the Blue Room of
‘Estonia’ [Theater] for the Estonian-English Cultural Society’s lecture series about British
Columbia. The lecture will be illustrated by slides arid native artifacts which Mrs. Smith has
brought along from Canada.”
37. See Alfred Kurlents, Eestlased kanadas, p. 73. Translation by the present author.
38. Sutton, op. cit., p. K60.
39. Mart Saar indicated in my interview with him on November 7,1984 that Mr. Puhm had entered
the U.S. without a visa, been.caught and sent back to Estonia; his Estonian boots gave him
away! Saar thought that Puhm emigrated again to Australia or South America. According to
another report he stayed in Estonia.
40. Information from my interview with Mart Saar, Nov. 7, 1984.
41. Canada, Department of Immigration and Colonization, Report for Fiscal Year Ended March
31,1924, Ottawa, 1925, p. 6. When I asked Pitka’s daughters whether this could be a reference
to their settlement, they could not say because financial matters were handled by their father
alone.
42. Läänekaare postipoiss, a bulletin of the Vancouver Estonian Society, Dec. 1954, p. 3.

SIR JOHN PITKA AND HIS ESTONIAN SETTLEMENT
43. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to track down the exact dates of the life, death and
moves of all the members of the settlement.
44. Information from my interview with Mart Saar, Nov. 7, 1984.
45. Information from my interview with Mart Saar, Nov. 7, 1984.
46. Alfred Kurlents, ed., Eestlased Kanadas, p. 77.
47. Luke T. Johns in The Vancouver Sunday Province, Magazine Section, Vancouver, B.C., Sunday
August 22, 1926.
48. See the Hi-Baller, The Magazine forB. C. 's Forest and Construction Industry, “Knight of the
B.C. Woods!”, January 1961.
49. Eesti Päevaleht, April 4, 1930.
50. See footnote #9.
51. This information is from my interviews with Linda Päären and Saima Joasalu in May 1986 and
with Evald Past in the summer of 1986.
52. See footnote #6.
53. Eesti sõna, April 25,1944: “Minu seisukoht ja põhimõte pole muutunud. See on sama, mis
eelmise Vabadussõja paevil, nimelt: kõik peab jääma tagaplaanile, kui saatus nõuab kodumaa ja
rahva kaitseks kaasalöömist.”
54. Lady Pitka’s 80th birthday is remembered in two paragraphs in the Vancouver Sun, June 14,
1950.
55. From the Estonian

Originally published in "Canadian Ethnic Studies", XXIII, 1991.