Prince George, B.C. - There’s something extra special at the Theatre Royal in Barkerville this year. The play being offered this year at the historic town is Fire Storm, a musical drama based on the Great Fire of 1868 in Barkerville.

 

Playwright Richard Wright chose Mrs. Catherine Parker as one of the four main characters. At the time of the fire Parker and her husband Samuel were running a boarding house, had three young children, including two-year-old Sarah and she was eight and half months pregnant. The Parker’s, like so many, lost everything in the fire and had to start all over again. However, despite much research in Canada and the UK, Wright had made no family connection and had no idea what Catherine looked like.

 

Meanwhile in Vancouver, Anne Clark and Arthur Ross were house cleaning.

 

Arthur says, a photo had been kicking around their basement for 5 or 6 years after moving Anne’s mom out of her apartment.  “We did not have any idea who the woman in the picture was and frankly came to the point of lost curiosity, thinking that anyone who would have known who she is was long since gone.  So it was rather neglected, to the point that in cleaning up the basement in the spring, I put it outside where it was exposed to the elements. The next stop was the garbage dump.”

 

Fortunately someone came by for a garage sale and wanted to buy the frame. Clark declined but decided to take it inside, and then noticed faint writing on the back of the photo. “My grandmother Catherine Parker - Jeanne Clark”.  Jeanne is the mother of Anne. They knew of a Barkerville connection so did some Internet searching and were soon in touch with Richard Wright and Barkerville’s Theatre Royal, who were presenting part of Catherine’s story in this year’s play.

 

The newly found and identified photo will  hang in a prominent position in the Theatre Royal for the rest of the season as Clark and Ross offered to loan the photo.

 

“It really is the circle of history,” says Wright “It shows why we have chosen to represent real people on the Theatre Royal stage, and why it is important to remember these folks. Here is a woman who was a mainstay of the Williams Creek community whose family include a Governor General Award winning playwright, a Brig-General who fought at Vimy Ridge, an NHL hockey player, a Nobel Peace prize winner, several lawyers, a doctor and so on. Catherine Parker left quite a legacy. It really is the circle of history.”