Morley, Christopher
Christopher Morley is one of the pioneers of 1862 to British Columbia, and his career since that year has been of varying prosperity during the first part, but of recent years he has attained to rank among the successful and worthy business men of Victoria, and is a citizen of known integrity and business capacity among all his friends and business associates. In business circles he is widely known in Victoria, as also in other parts of the province, as a manufacturer of soda water and other temperance drinks, and his own energy and business acumen have gone into this enterprise and broadened his trade to large proportions.
Mr. Morley is a native of Leicestershire, England, where he was born March 7, 1841. He is of good English stock, and is the only member of this branch of the family in British Columbia. He is one of the many who were attracted out to this coast country by the highly colored stories of gold discoveries. His faith had accepted these Eldorado pictures at their face value, and when he came out here expected to pick up gold under the trees as one would gather up fruit. So that as soon as he reached the country he began mining, and in a few days his disillusionment was complete — to get gold meant the hardest and roughest kind of labour, and then only in quantities which paid no more than ordinary manual toil. But if there is one characteristic more prominent in Mr. Morley's nature than another, it is a hopeful energy that cannot be cast down by one defeat, and so, not in the least discouraged by this one experience, he turned his attention to anything which would gain him an honest dollar. He cut cord-wood and worked out by the month for wages of twenty-five dollars a month, with board thrown in.
Then he got work in a soda-water manufactory. He continued at this long enough to learn the business thoroughly and by saving his money he was able to buy out the partner of Mr. John K. Greenwood and take a personal part in the business. This partnership continued for several years, and then Mr. Morley bought out his partner and has since conducted the enterprise alone. He built and is the owner of the nice structure in the business center of Victoria in which he carries on his manufactures. There is a large and increasing demand for his products both in Victoria and other places of the province, and his goods are well known, both by name and by quality. He keeps two wagons busy in the delivery and shipping of the products, and has four employees in the establishment.
Mr. Morley is a member of the Pioneer Society, and for a time served as its treasurer. His religious faith is that of the Church of England. He has lived a life of single blessedness, and by this course he feels that he has escaped much anxiety and trouble, and has retained to distribute among friends and associates the genial warmth of nature which would otherwise have adorned the domestic hearth.
R. E. Gosnell, A History of British Columbia, (Vancouver, B. C.: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906). pp. 735-736.