Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (1890)
Kurtz, John (Victoria), one of the most enterprising of the early pioneers
of British Columbia, was born in Pennsylvania, United States of America in 1831,
and educated there. In 1850 he came to the Pacific coast and engaged in mining in
California. During the early days of the gold excitement in 1858 he came to British
Columbia and engaged in steamboating and mining. He was chairman of the Yale Steam
Navigation Company and was interested in other enterprises. In 1860 and the two
following years he owned and operated mines in Cariboo, and was again engaged in
that industry in 1870. In 1878 he established the Pioneer White Labor Cigar Factory
which he still conducts.
[Dictionary, pp. 213-214].
Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians. With a Historical Sketch. By J.B. Kerr (Vancouver, B.C.: Kerr & Begg, 1890).