McBride, Hattie

Hattie McBride arrived from Greenwood after leaving her husband in 1912. She had lived in Coalmont for 8 years and owned three lots upon which she built her own house and two rental houses assessed at $1 500. She purchased Lot 25 of Block 1 from Emma Miller and Marie Adkins (the Red-Light District).  The next year she purchased Lots 23 and 24. She was reportedly “a woman of considerable means, owning $15,000 worth of bonds,. . .[and] $5000 in Victory Bonds” and had approximately S5000 in the bank.’ In August 1920 she was officially charged and convicted for “being keeper of a Bawdy House in Coalmont”. Hattie worked as a prostitute until her death under suspicious circumstances on the night of November 21, 1920.

You can read more about Prostitution in BC around the 1900s, and Hattie’s role in particular here (There are a few errors in the thesis including when Hattie arrived in Coalmont. Also the photo that is in the thesis was not property owned by Hattie. Hattie’s house would have been to the north of it.  There is nothing to photograph today as it was all burned.)

On the night of her death, two men arrived at her place for her services. She knew one of them well. He was surprised that she didn’t answer their knocking on her door. They eventually left and shortly thereafter flames were spotted at her home. Norman McDonald (a close friend) tried to put the flames out and was burned in the process. In the morning, when the fire had died out, he sifted through the ashes. Very little was left of poor Hattie. It was determined that she had been set on fire and the house burned down around her. At the time there were robberies in Coalmont. Perhaps she was being robbed when her customers knocked at the door and this prompted a panic and she was killed. The murderer was never found. She was not allowed to be buried in the cemetery proper, she is buried to the left of a gravel pathway. Hattie and the Chinese were buried just outside the consecrated ground; however, the cemetery has since expanded and now includes that area. Hattie donated generously to town fundraisers and she was known to lend money to locals who needed it.

Hattie died intestate (no will). Her estate was valued at $6,964.21. After funeral and legal expenses there was $6,316.45 left. In May of 1921, Norman McDonald retained a lawyer in Princeton to petition the courts for part of her estate. He had given Hattie his money less than one year before her death, and after witness testimonies, it was agreed Norman would be paid $4,023.69. He also received title to her property but lost that after he defaulted in the taxes owing on it.