Erwin Stoll, the youngest of five children, was born in Prussia, Germany in 1933.
His place of birth was located on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea which at the time was under Polish and German rule and included parts of present-day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
After the war his family lost all of their property as East Germany and Poland were taken over by Russia. His family moved to Flensburg, West Germany located in northern Germany about 180 km north of Hamburg. He has family history in Prussia that dates back to the 13th century.
He immigrated to Canada in 1952. He had studied the English language at school and had no problem reading and writing the language. His ancestors had been immigrating to Canada for the previous 200 years so he had relatives here.
He arrived in Osoyoos and worked for his uncle in the orchards; six months later he moved to Vancouver where one of his aunts was living and found work at Evenson Coleman Warehousing.
Erwin said, "I was 20 years old and full of energy. I liked my new job and my main goal was to make lots of money."
His warehousing job involved shipping lots of supplies into Kitimat where construction was booming. The population of Kitimat was 2,500 in 1953 and in the next ten years the town grew to over 13,000. Erwin saw a great opportunity, moved to Kitimat and found work as a camp cook.
He didn't waste any time and soon he started his own catering business procuring contracts with many of the huge construction companies. He formed a partnership with a friend and he was busy all the time.
In 1973 he had a heart attack and his doctor ordered him to slow down. It was at that point in time that he decided that he wanted to buy a small hotel and leave his fast paced life in the catering business behind. He was checking out real estate properties and came across a town that was for sale. This intrigued him and in 1975 he purchased the 600 acre town site of Sinclair Mills for $84,000 which was a huge amount of money 40 years ago.
The town site of Sinclair Mills was named after F.N. Sinclair, a railroad construction engineer, and is located 70 km east of Prince George on the Fraser River between McGregor and Longworth. All the surrounding small sawmills closed down in 1966 when the big companies bought up all the timber rights. Erwin said, "The closures of the sawmills was a tough blow to the community and changed the entire area forever. Giscome closed in 1976 and Upper Fraser closed in 2003; as a result there are no longer any industries and no employment in the area."
Currently there are about 50 people living in the quiet rural community of Sinclair Mills and they rely on logging, trapping, hunting, mixed farming and tourism for their livelihoods.
The town site was noted for the quality of its worker housing facilities, saw mills and the fact that it was a rail way station. The bunkhouse was relatively new so Erwin turned it into a small hotel and added a store. He named his hotel the Hide Away Inn and now the small town had everything they needed including a post office and a community hall all of which helped the community immensely.
Erwin said, "The Hide Away Inn was destroyed by fire in 1989. This was devastating to both me and the entire area. The hotel was the main gathering place and life in the community was changed again."
Erwin subdivided the existing good quality houses into four acre lots and sold them. He lived in the community from 1975 to 2011 and served as the post master for many years. He was elected to the Regional District Board in 1985 and served for the next 17 years; he is a former vice-chairman of the board.
He had another heart attack in 2000 and once again he was advised by his doctor to slow down so he decided not to run for re-election for the Regional District.
In 2012 due to his age and health issues he sold his house and put the remainder of his properties up for sale and moved into Prince George.
He made new friends and soon loved the fact that his social life came alive as he enjoyed his season tickets to the Prince George Symphony Orchestra and Theatre Northwest. He got involved and volunteered as a director on the boards of the Fraser-Fort George Regional Museum for ten years, the Art Gallery for four years and the Prince George Development Corporation for 12 years.
Erwin said, "I now leave all that volunteer work for the younger generation."
Over the years Erwin loved to cook and entertain. History was always his favorite subject. He traveled extensively and has been on nearly every continent in the world; he returned to Germany many times over and still wants to go back.
He explained, "I am no longer able to travel due to the fact that I can not get medical insurance coverage. I have slowed down quite a bit but I still miss traveling and seeing the world. Many times I just have the notion to get on a plane and go without the insurance and just let the chips fall where they may."
August birthdays that I know about: Rita Svatos, Diana Myers, Barb Claffey, Marilyn Goetjen, Carol Stewart, Helen Dery, Dawn Thesen, Judy Dix, Supi Peter, Faye Meierhofer, Jeannette Goossens, Don Grantham, Joyce Unrau, Gord Babcock, Doris Holzworth, Lorraine Knight, Heather Couch, Jan Thompson, Gary Drake, Ted Haugland, Betty Townsend, Dean Cole, Marlies Greulich, Eileen Hughes, Margaret Johnston, Elaine Lamb, Malcolm Lamb, Shafeed Rahman, Irene Stahl, Alan Idiens, Joy Warner, Sharon Stene, Joy McKeller, Lyn Thibault, John Reimer, Ray Demily, Walt Wessner, Betty Wessner, Donna Primrose, Joan Cleghorn, Deborah Tomlinson, Fred Buchi, Eva Buchi, Muriel Lank, Leila Davis, Millie Helin, Barbara Iwaskow, John Kuharchuk, Donald Jones, Jack Stock, Edward Normand, Raymond Jubb, Myrna Regiudel, Bob Horning, Wolfgang Jechow, Chris Hoath, Sandra Simola, Harold Iverson, Sean Morrison and Rose Gaal will be 94.
August Anniversaries: 70 years for Fred and Eva Buchi, 64 years for Lloyd and Barbara Iwaskow, 62 years for Laurent and Rita LeBlanc, 61 years for Bob and Marvina Nikkel, 60 years for Ron and Louise Backman, 57 years for Jim and Noreen Rustad, 56 years for Cliff and Sharon Dezell, 52 years for Colin and Judy Dix, 51 years for Gerry and Mai Dulmage, 51 years for Vern and Connie Lawrence, 44 years for Paul and Diane Duperron, 42 years for Lee and Wilma Davison, 36 years for John and Iris Frenkel and 23 years for Larry and Lucy Young.
