While many of us knew her as Grace Horgan, the kindly woman who along with husband Ray, owned the resort called Seagirt, and later owned Glenairley, and was involved in affairs of the community and of the Catholic Church, Grace had started life quite differently.
Grace McKenna was a daughter of Commissioner McKenna, head of the McKenna-McBride Commission which had been tasked by the federal Department of Indian Affairs to hold hearings throughout British Columbia, and which had met on Sooke Indian Reserve No 1 in 1913.
Trained as a schoolteacher, Grace grew up to teach in the Cariboo, in the Quesnel district. Like many a teacher in remote areas, Grace rode horseback to school from the family home she was boarding with, and learned to shoot grouse on the way, which would become the next day’s meal.
Ray Horgan, an easterner with a hotel background, had been travelling in the Klondike when he met Grace, and they decided to go into the resort business. Acquiring a structure called Seagirt in East Sooke in 1935, they added a two-storey addition with five bedrooms, and a large dining room and kitchen, along with two guest cottages. At the time there was no electricity in East Sooke, and few telephones, which meant that they sometimes walked a distance to deliver messages to neighbours. One of their employees who remembered them fondly was Flora (Brown) Manion.
Their business doing well, in 1950 the couple bought Glenairley (originally the Alexander Gillespie homesite) and sold Seagirt. It was the spaciousness of the resort, which included a badminton court and guest cottages, that attracted the couple to purchase Glenairley. They had many modernizing renovations made, employing Sooke carpenter Bob Waters to do the work.
With her educational background, Grace sometimes wrote articles for the Victoria newspapers, and even taught school again when a substitute was needed. Grace was a particular supporter of the Catholic Church.
Operating their new resort for 10 years, in 1960 the couple turned most of the property over to the Sisters of St. Ann, retaining only an acreage for themselves. The sisters used the place as a weekend retreat, and much later, the property became the base for the Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue. Grace continued her involvement in community work, becoming president of East Sooke Ratepayers Association in the 1970s.
Her husband gone, Grace lived alone but was still contributing to the community when she passed away in 1988.
Elida Peers is the historian with Sooke Region Museum.
