Miss 'Goodie' McKenzie

Goodie McKenzie
Circa 1868. Courtesy BC Archives: A-07887

Born the same year that the McKenzie family left their Scottish home in the East Lothian district, Wilhelmina spent most of her life on Vancouver Island. Though she was less than a year old upon arriving in the early fort at Victoria in January of 1853, her later reminiscences of her family's arrival at the fort and the early days on the farm are quite detailed and undoubtedly based on the oral accounts of her immediate family.

Growing up on the farm, she later remembered several curious encounters with the local natives--some of whom worked on the farm--and recounts numerous details of the social life surrounding the farm, filling out the accounts of fellow Craigflower denizens Robert Melrose and Lt. Verney. In fact, there is some evidence pointing to a romantic interest between young Miss McKenzie--who was 14 at the time--and the young Royal Navy Lieutenant. While this is somewhat speculative, based partially on Miss McKenzie's reputation for being "as lovely as a Greek goddess and the belle of many a ball", and perhaps the Lieutenant's supposed dashing nature, there is apparently a record of correspondence between the two dating after Verney returned to Britain. [note]

The only evidence uncovered for this story is a telegram from the Lieutenant to Miss McKenzie in 1865, after Verney left to return home, sent from Salt Lake City and addressed to Miss McKenzie alone. It reads:

"Arrived yesterday well and frisky. Remember me to all friends. Edmund Hope Verney, Lieut. R.N." [more info]

As none of the later correspondence is available for examination at this point, this telegram can only be attributed to a familiarity between the two as part of the very friendly relationship that characterized the Verney-McKenzie encounter.

Miss McKenzie never married, and died on the family farm at Lakehill, the last surviving member of the original Craigflower McKenzies.