From 1862 the dairy was mostly supplied by Gordon Mitchell’s cattle and the small herd of Durham cattle that arrived in the spring of 1863 from Victoria. William Blaksley and John Baily walked to Victoria and procured a herd of young cattle and brought them back to Comox by boat.
George Drabble applies for 100 acre pre-emption (Section 29) which was land that had been vacated by Mr. Harney. Subsequently, Drabble vacated the land a few months later and sold his claim to Robert Ritchie. He left Comox and got work in Nanaimo as a farm bailiff.
Comox people went to a great potlatch at Cape Mudge.
Most of the early settlers were single men and most of them stayed that way. Isabella Robb was the first white woman in the settlement. Mary Harmston was the second.
John Marwick (Section 9), Patrick Murphy (Section 10 & 11), James McNish (Section 12) and Charles Fletcher (Section 13 & 46) held their lands in “The Swamp” in a partnership and one of the four, as Drabble recalls usually Murphy, looked after the claim while the others were away hunting gold.
The Puntledge people living on Denman Island abandoned their village and moved in with the Comox. It is believed that there were about 10 families left.
The first team of horses arrives owned by William Charworth Musters.