James Dunne Family
Told by Frances Dunn to Baeda Feuz for Golden Memories 1958
James Dunne – of Irish descent was born in Timaru, New Zealand. He came to the Columbia Valley in 1912 while working his way around the world. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Calgary 31st Battalion and after the war returned to settle in the valley.
In 1919 he married Eveleen Barry, the Barry family having moved from Eastern Ontario in 1897. Eveleen’s maternal grandfather Doyle set up construction camps during the building of the CPR.
The Barry family came to Golden in 1897 moving to Spillimacheen in 1900 where they managed a hotel catering to boat travelers. The hotel was located on the banks of the Columbia River below the present Forestry site. When the CPR bought the property for the Kootenay Central Railway right-of-way, the hotel was torn down. The Barry family then moved to a home about a mile away. Eveleen was educated at the Sacred Heart Academy in Calgary, coming and going to school through Golden. After her schooling, Eveleen Barry came back to the valley and married Jim Dunne who was working for the BC Forestry Department at that time.
Jim Dunne, being a returned soldier, obtained the Carlyle property through the Soldier’s Settlement Board. The “Carlyle Home,” which still belongs to the Dunne family, was built for the son of Sir Hildred Carlyle in 1912 with the intentions of farming the land but at the outbreak of the war he returned to Britain and was killed in service. Anyone frequenting the valley in the early days will remember the house and its beautiful setting.
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Dunne had five children: Barry, 1920, Michael, 1921, Betty, 1922, Frances 1923 and Jean, 1934. Barry and Michael attended grades nine and ten at a residential school in Vancouver. The Dunne children came to Golden to High School. Barry graduated from Golden High School.
After Barry graduated from Golden High School, Mrs. Dunne moved the children to Cranbrook to finish their schooling – managing a motel in Cranbrook for Tom Alton, of Parson Saw mills, to finance the endeavor. The family returned from Cranbrook in 1939.
Both Barry and Michael enlisted in the RCAF at the onset of World War II. Barry was killed on active duty with the Pathfinder Squadron in 1944. Michael, making it through the war, joined the Benedictine Fathers at Mission, BC.
Betty trained as a registered nurse in Cranbrook and Frances joined the army in 1944. Joan, the youngest daughter, took grade one to ten by correspondence, moved to Edmonton for grade eleven and Victoria for grade twelve.
Betty and Joan are married and living elsewhere with their families and Frances lives in the family home. Michael is still with the Benedictine Order in Mission.