Quennell, Edward
Edward Quennell, as a citizen of Nanaimo for some forty years has played a conspicuous part in business, industrial and civic affairs, and is universally esteemed as one of the foremost men of the city. A long and varied career has been his lot. Beginning when he was a lad hardly emerged into his teens, he has kept up a persistent activity in numerous enterprises until the present time, and during his lifetime he has journeyed to various parts of the globe, has endured and enjoyed life both as a seaman and as a landsman, and through adversity and prosperity alike he has retained an un-ruffled courage and high purpose, from which have resulted the comfortable circumstances and the esteem of fellows which he at present enjoys.
Born December 16, 1846, in Sussex, England, where his parents, Walter and Catherine (Crocker) Quennell, were thrifty farming people, he was privileged during his tenderest years to attend the schools of Sussex, but spent most of his time from the age of ten at work on the farm. He longed for a seafaring life, and, getting his first experience when about fourteen years old, he was with the British navy four years altogether.
In September, 1864, being then eighteen years of age, he arrived in Nanaimo, and this place has ever since been the central point of his residences and business. For the first two years he worked in the coal mines, and during the seven years following was mate and purser on the vessel Sir James Douglas, which was engaged in the coasting trade. In 1873 he started a butcher business, and this has continued as the principal line of his business activity with the exception of a period of three years, during which he devoted himself exclusively to ranching, and he still owns his ranch property. His further business connections are as president of the Union Brewery and as president of the Nanaimo Fisheries Company.
Mr. Quennell has been a prominent factor also in the official and public life of his city and district. He served as mayor of Nanaimo for two terms, and for fifteen years as an alderman. His interest in education is shown by the fact that he is at this writing chairman of the school board and has served as a member of the board for twenty-five years. He was incumbent of the positions of Pilot Commissioner and of Harbour Master for eighteen years.
Mr. Quennell was first married in 1870, to Miss Julie S. Wilcox, by whom he had three children: Catherine, deceased, married and had one child. Edward James married Mary Ann Wearing. Annie Jane is the wife of Malcolm McCrea, of Nanaimo, and they have two children. In 1875 Mr. Quennell was married to Miss Maria Biggs, a daughter of John Biggs of Nanaimo. There were ten children by this marriage, as follows: Mary Elizabeth, the wife of Andrew J. Smith, of Nanaimo, by whom she has four children; Eliza; Margaret, who is the wife of J. C. Thomson, of Nanaimo, and has two children; Louisa, deceased; and William, Agnes, Nora, John, Edith and Charles. Mr. Quennell affiliates with Black Diamond Lodge, I. O. O. F., at Nanaimo, and in politics is a Conservative, and is a member of the Church of England.
R. E. Gosnell, A History of British Columbia, (Vancouver, B. C.: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906). pp. 457-458.