My parents, Michael and Karen Wickheim, arrived in Sooke, immigrants from Norway, in November 1922. They had managed to pay for four acres on Parkland Road, and their first shelter, for themselves and baby daughter Nan (my eldest sister), was a tent.
Their acreage was in the new subdivision of Saseenos, gradually starting to fill up, mainly with immigrants from Europe looking to make a better life, buying on the upper side of Sooke Road, while on the waterfront side the lots were generally smaller and were purchased by people of means, such as retired diplomats.
Neighbours were few and far between and folks generally tried to help each other out. Correspondence I found in my father’s handmade desk indicated he had written to Anthony Kohout for advice as he was working to establish a subsistence farm.
Mr. Kohout had arrived a few years earlier from Austria and was busy establishing a motor camp of cottages near the end of Whiffin Spit Road, one of our first tourist establishments. This is the reply he sent to my father’s query:
Sooke – July 5, 1923,
"Dear Mr. Wickheim,
I was kept so busy during the last week that I really could not find time to answer your letter. I am going to ship the hens to you tomorrow Friday or Sat 7th.
It is not advisable to let a rooster run with more than 15 to 20 hens. The young roosters which you are raising now, will be quite ready for service by next January or February. A bird six months old, as a rule, is in good condition to serve a dozen hens.
Wishing you the best success.
Yours sincerely, A. Kohout”
My father started with a small flock of chickens and a couple of milk cows on his small farm. Getting beyond a tent, my parents raised six children. Anthony Kohout developed his cottage enterprise into a small inn with four rooms and a dining room, Sooke Harbour House, right at the end of Whiffin Spit Road, in 1929.
Elida Peers is the historian with Sooke Region Museum.
