Category: Social History

“Old-timers” of the Okanagan

Isidore Boucherie is seated second from the right. Luc Girouard, the first European settler at Vernon stands second from the right. Bernard Lequime, son of Éli Lequime, the […]

Éli Lequime

No photo exists of Éli’s wife, Marie-Louise. Éli, Marie-Louise and the family of their daughter Aminade eventually settled in San Francisco, leaving behind the flourishing town of Kelowna.

The Lequime ranch house

The residence on the Lequime ranch, beside their first general store, 1872.

Gloves from the Lequime general store

The source’s cataloging information is as follows: “The gloves worn by Indians and cowboys were so striking for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria East that he bought no […]

The Versepuech family

Mootla was the daughter of Koteminak and Cormenaskat of the Dog Creek Band (today, the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation). Mootla and Isidore’s son Édouard became a champion golfer […]

The Versepuech house

Joseph Pigeon

Born in 1843 in Roxton Pond QC, died in 1935 in Agassiz BC.  Though illiterate, Joseph was a tailor then a hotelier in Roxton Pond QC. In retirement, […]

Joseph Pigeon’s house

The two-storey ranch house above burned down, so the family had to move into a storage building while a new house was being built. When Joseph retired, he […]

Family of Moïse Pigeon

While the family’s sons worked mostly on the ranch, Teresa sent her daughters to school in New Westminster to ensure their education. When Moses died, Teresa passed the […]

Ranch house at Grandview ranch

Frontier architecture in the Cariboo