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Corporal John Jane, R.E., British Columbia Land Surveyor.
This geocache has been set out to show appreciation to a very early British Columbia Land Surveyor and to one of Savona’s early settlers and businessmen.
John Jane was born in Lanbyrock, Cornwall, England on March 3, 1833 and he came to British Columbia in 1857 as one of the Royal Engineers working on the Boundary Commission surveying the international boundary. Later he surveyed various roads and boundary lines in the Fraser Valley.
In 1865, after his discharge from the Royal Engineers, he worked as a police constable in Derby (old Fort Langley) after which he then moved to Fort Shepherd where he was the police constable and postmaster for several years. Still later he worked with Walter Moberly surveying the CPR through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains and then afterwards surveying mineral claims and roads in the Rock Creek area.
In 1874, while working with Edward Stephens, LS, he was involved in the first surveys of the Nicola Valley and in 1877, he was the surveyor in charge for the Government surveys in the Savona area. In 1880, when the construction of the CPR started in Yale, numerous people thought that Savona's Ferry would be the main city in the interior. John Jane was one of those and in 1881 he decided to give up his surveying career, became a general merchant, and eventually built up an extensive trade. In the early years of his store, he received payment from the Indians with furs and from the miners with gold dust.
When the railway did come through, the rails were laid on the south side of Kamloops Lake, on the opposite side from the village. This proved to be an inconvenience and so Corporal Jane closed his store in 1891 and moved with the rest of the population of Savona's Ferry to a new community near the CPR station known briefly as Van Horne, after the President of the CPR. They also took the old name of Savona with them.
In September 1889, at the age of 56, he married Miss Harriet McNeill of Victoria and took his new bride back to Savona. He was well acquainted with the country and highly respected by everyone and it was undoubtedly because of this excellent reputation that he was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1893. In 1905, just two years prior to his death, he brought into the area one of the newest inventions, the cash register.
Early in 1907, John Jane became ill and spent some months at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Later he returned home to Savona, going home for the last time, as he and his family and friends knew that the end was not too far away. Corporal John Jane, of the Royal Engineers passed away in his 74th year on Monday, July 8, 1907 and was laid to rest two days later in the small Savona cemetery overlooking Kamloops Lake.
John Jane was a quiet efficient pioneer who helped lay the foundations of prosperity for the young British Columbia. His obituary, in part, in the Kamloops Sentinel of July 9, 1907 probably best summarized his character:
"John Jane was a man of kindly disposition, somewhat self-contained, and possessing a fund of information about the Province; knowledge gained during his journeying through it in years gone by. While taking a keen interest in public matters he took no active part in public movements, but attended strictly to his own business. He had many warm friends, but no enemies."