The Prince George history of volunteer extraordinaire Shirley May (Campbell) Gratton goes as far back as 1910 when her maternal grandfather Gustave Hiller, an immigrant born in Lutz, Poland in 1870, was encouraged by a Baptist preacher from Edmonton to go to the wild wilderness of Fort George in northern British Columbia to assist in the development of a German speaking farm settlement
He took the train from Edmonton to McBride which at the time was the end of the railroad line. From there he loaded his farming machinery, animals and household effects on a large barge on the Fraser River and went down stream to the Fort George slough area near the native reservation. The plan was to build a house and the rest of his family would follow in the spring.
He met and married Shirley's grandmother Ernestine (Falkenberg) Hiller who was born in Wlhynien, Russia in 1873; her family came to Canada when she was 16. They were married in 1892 in Leduc, Alberta which at that time was part of the Northwest Territories. Both lived to an old age and died in Prince George.
Both paternal grandparents, James Arthur Campbell and Lovisa Hughena (Oldfield) Campbell were born in New Brunswick.
Shirley's mother, Martha Hiller worked for Mr. and Mrs. William Pitman, who had a music store on George Street. She met Shirley's father, Arthur Curtis Campbell from Sussex, New Brunswick at a dance in the Ritts-Kifer Dance Hall. They were married in 1928 in the old part of the Knox United Church.
They had four children Curtis Murray Campbell born in 1929 and deceased in 1933 due to a drowning accident in the Fraser River; Robert Allan, Shirley May Campbell Gratton and Elizabeth Barbara Jean Campbell Domonkos.
Shirley reminisced and said, "Back in 1930 my parents lived in a small farming community at Mud River. A forest fire destroyed the family home and in 1932 they moved to Salmon River/Valley. Their homestead was on the edge of the Fraser River and was only accessible by water until a proper road was built several years later.
"I was born in 1934 at the old Prince George hospital and was the first white child to be born in Salmon River now known as Salmon Valley.
"Three weeks later, when my mother was well enough to travel and go home, we boarded the train in Prince George and had the engineer, Mr. Rodgers stop between Shelley and Willow River to let us off. My father came to get us in a handmade canoe carved from a cotton wood tree from the natives from Shelley.
"My father was gone from home most of the time working at logging camps and leaving my mother to work the quarter section homestead.
"Some of the memories I have as I grew up on the Fraser River go back to 1942: My brother Allan was nine years old and I was seven. We were just kids and we crossed the river with the canoe and went for the mail and supplies at the Willow River store; on the way home on the railway track, we met the native lady called Six Mile Lake Mary. She asked who we were and we told her. She said our mother was a 'Crazy women, crazy women'. She meant that no woman would paddle across that Fraser River with the channel currents, sand bars, floating logs and whirl pools and not to mention the dangerous rocks. She didn't say anything about us kids doing it so I guess for kids it was OK.
"The Fraser River was our fuel line and enabled us to bring in trees from the islands in the Fraser River for firewood.
"The Fraser River was our food chain where we fished and put fresh fish on our table and the Fraser River was our entertainment. We used to count the box cars on the railroad track across the river; during the war years we would count the army tanks and small airplanes on the rail cars. We always knew when the black smoke bellowed out of the steam engines that they were pulling a heavy load and that we would have lots of cars to count. Many times, we would get a big wave from the engineers.
"It seems like just yesterday that as kids we would sit on the edge of the river bank in the middle of June with our bare feet tucked into the warm sand, like it was a front row seat in our Fraser River theatre as we watched the mighty Fraser River float down large trees roots and all. We saw hay barns and buildings bobbing down the river, especially when the mountains had lots of snow for the spring run-off."
Shirley was born, raised and educated in Salmon Valley, Beaverley, the Sprucedale area in Leduc, Alberta and Prince George. She worked for her room and board throughout high school and went home to work on the farm during the summer.
When she left high school she first worked at Blair's Outfitters and then went to work at the Government Agent's office.
She remembers things like the wooden sidewalks on Third and Fourth Avenue and that the Correction Centre was in the Alexander Hotel (the old government building) and their recreation centre was a large hole west of the building.
Her favorite restaurants at the time were the Blue Bird Tea Room, Jimmy James, Club Café, Shasta, Shakies, Chuckwagon and the Purple Lantern.
She met and married Eugene Gratton. They partnered and formed Gratton Holdings Logging Ltd. from approximately 1965 to 1985.
They had three children, Shirli Gene (Richard) Sadowick, Terri Lee (Mike) Rollings and Darryl (Fran) Gratton who in turn gave them eight grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
Shirley worked as a janitor and a substitute teacher at Kelly Road Secondary followed by 17 years at the BC Power Commission (BC Hydro). She managed the Hart Centre Mall for five years, acted as the Mardi Gras director for two years and served as a councillor with the City of Prince George from 1992 to 2002 and 2005 to 2008. She worked with the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George as a director for 15 years.
Shirley has tirelessly given back to her community all of her life. Fifty years ago, she was one of the ten founding members of the Hart Ski Hill. She has volunteered for the annual Festival of trees for the past 25 years.
Her community work has been extensive both with her volunteer work and her fundraising efforts. From 1948 to 2018 - a period of 70 years - she received a total of 45 awards of merit, service and appreciation awards, honorable mentions and several lifetime memberships. In her spare time Shirley edited eight fundraising cook books.
She received the Eagles Mother of the Year award in 1973, the Governor General's Confederation Medal in 1992 and was named Citizen of the Year in 2004.
Shirley was presented with the Queen's Jubilee Commemorative Medal in 2003, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and named Freeman of the City of Prince George in 2013.
Her work has touched the history of Prince George in many ways from sports, the Arts, youth groups, senior centers, the Heritage Commission and her work with the Prince George Power Pioneers.
Her participation in the Communities in Bloom and the Highway 97 Adopt-a-Basket projects were intended to make our City more beautiful to the eyes of both the locals and the visitors to our City. She even went so far as to fertilize the lawn at City Hall with the help of a local milk cow; all to raise awareness for the BC Northern Exhibition in 2013!
Shirley ended by saying, "Prince George has been a great place to grow up and then raise a family of my own; a place where everyone helps one another and gets involved in their community.
"I always laugh and say that I am old as the cut banks, born in Prince George and came home in a canoe. This last sentence is my story in nutshell."
