In 1905, when white settlers started coming to the area, there were only one or two native families still residing permanently in the vicinity and one of these was the Charles Nelson family. First they knew that someone else was in the area was when Emma and Charlie Nelson were out in their canoe, and saw smoke coming out of the bush near the site of the old Skeena Bridge.

It was from George Little's cabin, and Emma wondered at the time what anyone would want here, when there was nothing but bush.

The families living at Kitsumgallum left the valley each spring for the canneries at the lower Skeena. Charlie would be gillnetting during the salmon run, Emma worked in the canneries.

They would return back home in time to catch the last of the salmon run, smoke and dry meat caught on their traplines as well as berry picking, gathering and preparing of seafood traded while at the canneries, all this for the winter food supply.

After Charlie passed away, Emma worked for a few families in Terrace, as a housekeeper, washing clothes on a scrub board and scrubbing floors. Emma was a husky lady and was a very hard worker. Emma and Charlie raised nine children, daughters - Grace, Cecilia, Elizabeth, Josephine and Miriam, sons - Gordon, Charlie, Jr., Billy and Dave.

Emma (Starr) Nelson, was born in Port Simpson in 1854. She died in Terrace, BC on June 27, 1959 at the age of 105. Charles Nelson, Sr. was lame after he and his dogsled were lifted and thrown in a blinding snowstorm from the Grand Trunk Railway right of way by a snow plow. Charles Nelson died March 19,1930 at the age of 62. All the Nelson children are gone now, but some of the relatives are still living at Kitsumgallum and Terrace. - Grandchildren:  Rhoda Seymour, Winnie Wesley, Cissy Hare and Addie Turner, Gus Herbert Nelson, Roy Nelson and Sam Lockerby.  Cissy Hare is the oldest  of the grandchildren and the only one born at Kalum.  Addie and Roy were born at Port Essington during the fishing season.  Emma Nelson reached the age of 105.
 

                         Come walk with me by the Skeena
                        Just for an hour or so -
                        I'll tell you of Old Kalum,
                        And the life we used to know.

                        By the Kalum River Village
                        Where big salmon jump and play,
                         Chief Nelson and his wife lived there
                         Long before we came to stay.

                         Up the Skeena was Eby's Landing
                         Where riverboats brought in pioneers
                         A store, hotel and telegraph
                         Served the folks for just ten years.

                         Then the Grand Trunk Pacific whistled past
                         And the sternwheelers ran no more;
                         We got our mail from the station,
                         And not dog teams as before.

                         Oh, the letters the bachelors wrote
                         To the Family's Herald's Primrose page;
                         And the lovely widows responded
                         Bringing in children of school age.

                         Rev. Marsh brought us his message,
                         His sweet wife nursed us when ill;
                         From T. Eaton we ordered our clothing
                         And managed without the pill.

                         I still see Hell's Gate canyon
                         Where the devil dared to play
                         His nasty tricks on riverboats,
                         As they would buckle, bend and sway.

                         And there's our Sleeping Beauty -
                         She's one who will never change;
                         While guarding our Skeena Valley,
                         She rests on yon mountain range.

                         Come and drive above our valley
                         And admire the beauty below,
                         And think again of those pioneers
                         Who made trails through these woods and snow.

Dorothy (Frank) Smith in front of
Frank Family Home, Terrace's oldest heritage
house built by Henry Frank in 1908

I was born on July 4, 1913 - in the big house two miles west of Terrace - one mile from the Kalum School (now
the School Board Offices) and not quite a mile west of us was the Kitsumgallum Village.

In the days as I grew up, the Nelson family - my companions on my way to school, one mile up the road, the
road did not continue to the village as it does today but just as far as the crossing - Frank's Crossing as it is
known today.

Emma and Charlie Nelson's house was just across the Kalum River and to cross that bridge took a lot of
courage as the ties were spaced and you could see down to the water with every step.

My brother Jack and sister, Belle, used to take me there and we'd fish from what is now the boat launching.

My brother Jack was a very close friend of the Nelson boys. They taught him many things, how to handle a
canoe through the canyon and rapids on the Kalum River, what food you could find in the woods. He showed
me how tasty the tender part of the new shoots of the Thimble berry bush were.

When the salmon season came on, the Nelson family would leave and go to the canneries on the lower
Skeena. At that time there were many canneries and a row of small houses you could see from the train window
and the children waving as we went by.

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson used to come to our place to phone for a taxi in the summer to go up town.

In the winter Charlie had a big sleigh and dog team and he'd head up the track after the rotary plough went
through - as the snow would be packed and good going. One time Charlie was going up town and was just
across from the Skoglund property when the snow plough came (which he didn't hear) and it lifted him and the
sleigh and dogs and threw him over the bank toward the road. Thank goodness he was alright, as it was thick
slough grass and a soft landing.

The Nelson boys worked at Little's mill. Jack and Charlie, Jr. were close friends all those years - also Charlie
Richmond.