Alice Jesse Weber - "Old Lady Jess"

Photo 2313.0347. Alice Jess, circa 1940

Rossland’s history is full of many notable characters. For the past year, we’ve been focused on learning more about some of the noteworthy women that make up the vibrant fabric of our city. In many cases, these characters are larger than life, and their stories are sometimes more fiction than fact.

“Jessie” was savvy in collecting rejected food for herself and her many cats. Instead of hauling everything in her arms, she pulled everything in a box with ropes tailing behind her.

One of the more mysterious characters is the eccentric Rossland old timer, Alice Jesse Weber. Alice is known by many names - Old Lady Jess, Old Jess, “Jessie”, Alice Jess, etc. and her story is mysterious because she kept it that way. In the archive, we have a bit of a history of Old Lady Jess written by Allan “Porky” Martin and Dagmar Hanson (nee Holm). Al Martin was a great supporter of the Rossland Museum, and it was during a walk through of the Museum in 1996 with Dagmar that the conversation of Old Lady Jess came up. Dagmar noticed the depiction of Old Jess in a mural in the J.D. McDonald Hall and thought it captured the caricatured nature of Jess, not her true character - Dagmar wanted to set the record straight.

Here is a summary of Dagmar’s memories of her neighbour, Old Lady Jess:

Alice Jesse Weber found herself in Rossland in the boomtown days of the late 1890s. She was raised in an orphanage in Kansas, and set off on her own as soon as she could. She headed west and rode the wave of gold rushes from California to Alaska. She married a Mr. Weber in Seattle and had a beautiful daughter; a picture of her daughter was one of her greatest treasures.  According to Jess, her husband had not treated her well, and she left her family and drifted across the border to British Columbia, eventually settling in Rossland.

Like a lot of young women, Jess found employment in the hotels. Al Martin wrote that Dagmar never outright said that Jess was a “lady of the night” but she would always warn young girls not to fall into that type of life. From working in this environment, Old Jess passed on some wise tips to Dagmar as a teenager saying, “you must watch out for the “Fancy Dans” who would buy you nice dresses and tell you nice things.” This could have come from experience as Old Lady Jess told her young neighbour that this is what happened to herself and other young women. Jess and her coworkers were trying to save their money when along came “investors” promising to turn their meager savings into riches. The cold truth was that their money was stolen.

Photo 2313.0348. Alice Jess, c. 1940.

From the RMDC Collection, digitized courtesy of Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History.

This would cause anyone strife, but as Jess’ neighbour, it helped Dagmar understand the hardships that Jess had encountered to become the eccentric character she was known to be. Suffering a mental breakdown, Old Lady Jess left hotel work and instead started cleaning offices of lawyers, doctors, and some private homes in Rossland, including W.K. “Billy” Esling. Her earnings were kept safe in a bank this time, and she had enough to care for the small old house with no running water located near the Holm’s house at 1270 Dunn Crescent.

Old Lady Jess made daily trips into town to collect the rejected fruits, vegetables, meat, and bones behind the grocery store. She often went over to the Holms’ house to get water and stayed for many lunches and tea with them. She was very savvy in collecting rejected foods for her and her many cats.  Instead of hauling everything in her arms, she pulled everything in a box with ropes tailing behind her and always offered the neighbourhood kids some fruit. As Dagmar entered her teenage years, she noted that Old Lady Jess became very concerned for her safety, saying “be very careful not to speak to strangers or accept gifts from strangers.”

Alice Jesse Weber became ill with pneumonia in February 1948, receiving medical treatment from Dr. Topliff at the hospital. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t recover. Dagmar noted that although Old Lady Jess was ridiculed by the community, she was a Christian woman and was a very well-read individual.

This story of Old Lady Jess was collected by Allan “Porky” Martin on November 5th, 1996 in Greenwood.

This painting of Old Lady Jess was donated by Catherine Jay (Klinzing) Duperon.

Contribute your own memories/experiences of Old Lady Jess:

The form below will email us your message. If you prefer to speak to us directly or have other questions or comments about this page, please call (250) 362-7722 or email the archives directly at archives @rosslandmuseum.ca