Period 1837 – 1862

Period 1837 – 1862 for South-western Canada

• 1837
  Recession year.
• 1837
  Joe Kipp born at Fort Union on the Missouri River.
• 1837 June 20
  William IV of England dies.
• 1837 June 24
  St. Peter’s arrives at Fort Union on the Missouri River carrying small pox. The Mandans quickly infected and soon the horror spreads through surrounding tribes killing between two-thirds to three-quarters of the population.
• 1838 May 30
  Westminster renews Hudson’s Bay Company’s chartered privilege of exclusive trade rights in Rupert’s Land and Athabaska, and guarantee of exclusive trading rights west of the Continental Divide, for 21 years.
• 1838 Sep. 16
  Wellington County, Upper Canada (Ontario): James Jerome Hill born.
• 1838 Oct. 10
  Wednesday. Hudson’s Bay Coy. party with Fathers François Blanchet and Modiste Demers crest the Rocky Mountains.
• 1838 Oct. 14
  Blanchet and Demers celebrate mass at the Big Bend of the Columbia River.
• 1838 Nov. 11
  Blanchet and Demers arrive in Ft. Vancouver after travelling overland from Hudson Bay via the Columbia River.
• 1839
  George Simpson confirmed in his appointment as Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land.
• 1839
  John Galt dies. A.T. Galt to London?
• 1839
  Governor Geo. Simpson creates the post of “Recorder of Rupert’s Land” to adjudicate legal disputes in the HBC’s holdings.
• 1839
  Jesuit father Modeste Demers leaves his post at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver and made his way up the Columbia and the old Brigade Trail into the upper Okanagan valley.
• 1839 Sep. 13
  John George “Kootenai” Brown born in County Clare, Ireland.
• 1840
  Father Modeste Demers again visits the upper Okanagan.
• 1840
  Fort Langley burned and rebuilt.
• 1841
  James Sinclair guides some 200 settlers from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s settlement on the Red River to Oregon via the Columbia River.
• 1841
  George Simpson knighted.
• 1841
  George Simpson begins a year-long tour of Hudson’s Bay Company’s dominions, and continues on westward, overland across Siberia to London.
• 1841 Feb. 10
  Royal assent given to the Act of Union uniting Upper and Lower Canada.
• 1841 Feb. 22
  At Rocky Mountain House the Methodist missionary Rob’t Terrill Rundle meets his for Blackfoot.
• 1841 Oct. 18
  Jesuit fathers P-J. de Smet and Nicholas Point established St. Mary’s Mission to the Flatheads in the Bitterroot Valley in what is now western Montana. Begins a four-year program of annual visits into what is today British Columbia.
• 1841 Nov. 20
  Wilfrid Laurier born in St. Lin, Canada East.
• 1841 September
  A resolution passed by the Legislature of the Province of Canada ear-marked money for the creation of the Geological Survey of Canada.
• 1841 Dec. 25
  “Wolf’s Son” and son Sata of the Inuk’sik Blackfoot band baptised at the Jesuits’ St. Mary’s Mission as “Nicholas” and “Gervais,” respectively.
• 1842
  Father Modeste Demers again visits the upper Okanagan.
• 1842
  Eugene Sayre Topping born in New York state.
• 1842
  Geological Survey of Canada established.
• 1842 Apr. 14
  William Edmund Logan appointed director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
• 1842 Aug. 9
  Ashburton-Webster Treaty concluded. Proclaimed November 10, 1842. Establishes the north-west corner of Lake o’ the Woods as latitude 49º23’55” north and in longitude 95º14’38” west, determines that the Boundary runs south from that point to the 49th degree of parallel and and re-iterates that it runs westward along said parallel to the apex of the Rocky Mountains.
• 1843 Feb. 3
  William Cornelius Van Horne born.
• 1843 July 5
  United States citizens declared a provisional government in “Oregon.”
• 1843 October
  A.T. Galt returns to Canada. Sherbrooke.
• 1844
  Archibald McDonald retires as the factor of Fort Colvile.
• 1844
  Pierre Chouteau orders Ft. McKenzie abandoned and Ft. Chardon (“Ft. Brulé”) built.
• 1844 Spring
  Sherbrooke, Lower Canada: A.T. Galt appointed Commissioner of the British American Land Company.
• 1844 March
  Fr. Nicholas Point of St. Mary’s Mission travels the eastern slope and baptises the first Niitsi-tapi on the Tribe’s home territory.
• 1844 September
  Archibald McDonald sees “the Ledge” on the eastern shore of Kootenay Lake.
• 1844 Oct 22
  (or 23) Louis Riel born at St. Boniface, Rupert’s Land.
• 1845
  Jesuit father John Nobili carries on Father Modeste Demers work among the Okanagan Peoples.
• 1845
  Lower Canada: Edwd. Hale and Sam’l Brooks organize the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company.
• 1845
  Small Pox on the Plains reduces the Niitsitapi Inuk’sik (“Small Robes”) band to but 12 families.
• 1845 June 16
  Lieutenants Henry Jas. Warre and Merwin Vavasour depart Fort Garry overland for Fort Edmonton, cross White Man’s Pass by horse, to Fort Colvile and on to Fort Vancouver.
• 1845 August
  Jesuit father Pierre-Jean de Smet first visits Ktunaxa territory. Hikes over Whiteman Pass to winter at Rocky Mountain House and proselytize among the Niitsitapi.
• 1845 Aug. 12
  Warre and Vavasour arrive at Fort Vancouver.
• 1846
  British Army posts 350 to Fort Garry. Mainly 6th Royal Regiment of Foot, with sappers and artillery units. Red jackets.
• 1846
  St. Louis, Missouri: Horace E. Dimick casts the “Fort Whoop-Up canon.”
• 1846
  The Hudson’s Bay Company builds Fort Kootenay on the Tobacco Plains just below the Boundary. Abandons Kootenai Falls House which Finan McDonald established in 1808 on the Kootenay River near the Jennings Canyon.
• 1846
  Pierre Chouteau orders Ft. Chardon (“Ft. Brulé”) abandoned and Ft. Lewis built farther west.
• 1846
  U.S. Army builds Ft. Kearny, first of the Oregon Trail posts.
• 1846 Apr. 27
  U.S. Congress votes to terminate the “joint occupancy” agreement on Oregon.
• 1846 May 28
  A.C. Anderson, tasked by the Hudson’s Bay Coy. with finding a new Brigade Trail to Fort Kamloops, heads inland from the confluence of the Fraser and the Coquihalla Rivers.
• 1846 June 9
  Anderson arrives at Fort Kamloops.
• 1846 June 15
  Oregon (Buchanan-Pakenham) Treaty concludes, ratified copies exchanged on July 17, proclaimed August 5. Establishes the 49th degree of Parallel as the Boundary west from the Rockies.
• 1846 Dec. 18
  Paul Kane arrives at Fort Vancouver having travelled overland via the Columbia River.
• 1847
  Pierre Chouteau orders Ft. Lewis dismantled and Ft. Clay (renamed “Fort Benton” in 1850) built nearby.
• 1847
  Rob’t Terrill Rundle shatters his arm, forcing him to retire to England whence he never returned to the West.
• 1847 Nov. 6
  A Saturday.
• 1847 Nov. 23
  Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and 12 or 13 others massacred by Cayuse at the Waillaptu Mission in Oregon.
• 1848
  British Army replaces regular troops in Red River with 200 irregular pensioners. Supposed to be soldier-settlers.
• 1848 Summer
  Hudson’s Bay Company clerk H.N. Peers establishes Fort Hope and sets off to refine the route of Anderson’s Brigade Trail from what is today Hope, B.C., to Fort Kamloops.
• 1848 Aug. 14
  The U.S. Congress creates Oregon Territory with the previously-elected George Abernethy remaining as governor.
• 1849
  Eden Colvile named associate Governor of Rupert’s Land. Takes up residence in Old Fort.
• 1849
  Peers’ alignment of the Brigade Trail between Forts Hope and Kamloops adopted for Hudson’s Bay Company service.
• 1849
  Niitsi-tapi kill 50 Assiniboine hunters.
• 1849
  Lower Canada: A.T. Galt to serve a year in Montréal as Sherbrooke’s Member of the Legislative Assembly of the colony of the United Province of Canada
• 1849 Jan. 13
  Vancouver’s Island declared a British Colony under stewardship of Hudson’s Bay Coy. Jas. Douglas, chief factor of Hudson’s Bay Company’s Pacific district is appointed acting governor. Royal Grant.
• 1849 May
  HBC brings suit against P.G. Sayer for poaching furs in Rupert’s Land. The Recorder of Rupert’s Land, Adam Thom, finds Sayer guilty but has no power to enforce a sentence. Watershed case: With no constabulary to carry out Thom’s sentence, HBC loses de facto legal authority in Rupert’s Land.
• 1849 July 16
  Richard Blanchard appointed governor of the Colony of Vancouver’s Island.
• 1849 Aug. 1
  George Mercer Dawson born in Pictou, Nova Scotia. (1901)
• 1849 Aug. 14
  A Monday. Oregon declared a Territory.
• 1850 Mar. 11
  Richard Blanchard arrives in Victoria to assume his duties as the Colony of Vancouver’s Island’s first governor.
• 1850 May 24
  Montréal: Elliott Torrance Galt born.
• 1850 Sep. 7
  Blackfoot party attacks the the Jesuits’ St. Mary’s Mission in what is now western Montana, running off horses and killing several Native retainers.
• 1850 Sep. 9
  Utah Territory declared.
• 1850 November
  Richard Blanchard resigns as Governor of Vancouver’s Island but stays on until replaced.
• 1851 Jan. 5
  At Purbrook, Ontario, Samuel Benfield Steele born.
• 1851 Aug. 27
  Council of Vancouver’s Island created.
• 1851 Sep. 1
  Jas. Douglas appointed governor of the Colony of Vancouver’s Island
• 1852
  Angus McDonald appointed factor of Fort Colvile (to 1871).
• 1852 September
  Gold rush to Queen Charlotte’s Island.
• 1852 September
  James Douglas appointed lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Queen Charlotte’s Island.
• 1852 Nov. 10
  Grand Trunk Railway of Canada incorporated.
• 1853 Feb. 8
  Oregon Territory split into Oregon and Washington Territories. Isaac Ingalls Stevens appointed governor of the latter, John P. Gaines remains as the elected governor of the former.
• 1853 Oct. 6
  Thomas Geo. Shaughnessy born in Milwaukee, Wisc.
• 1854
• 1855
  Hudson’s Bay Company servant Joseph Morrell finds gold in the Columbia River near Fort Colvile.
• 1855
  Begins the two year-long “Cayuse War” between the Natives of the Northwest and the United States. Military Waggon Roads built from Wallula on the Columbia near the mouth of the Snake River, to Forts Okanagan and Colville.
• 1855 Oct. 17
  Judith River (Lame Bull, or Fort Benton) Treaty negotiated between the United States (as represented by Washington territorial governor Isaac I. Stevens and A. Cummings) and the tribes of the “Blackfoot Nation,” “Gros Ventre,” “Nez Percé,” and “Salish,” assigned territories to the Tribes.
• 1856
  Gold found near the mouth of the Pend d’Oreille River in what is now southern BC.
• 1856
  First gold rushers arrive in New Caledonia, today’s British Columbia.
• 1856 Apr. 15
  U.S. Congress ratifies the Judith River Treaty.
• 1857
  British Army’s Canadian Rifles stationed at Upper Fort Garry until 1861.
• 1857
  Hudson’s Bay Coy. begin to build Fort Pend d’Oreille (later, Shepherd) on the Columbia River near the Boundary, opposite the mouth of the Pend d’Oreille.
• 1857 Feb. 10
  David Thompson dies at Montréal.
• 1857 May 4
  Charlotte Thompson dies at Montréal.
• 1857 Dec. 27
  Hudson’s Bay Company Governor James Douglas of the Colony of Vancouver’s Island proclaims the illegality of mining without a licence in British territory.
• 1858
  Fraser, Cariboo gold rush begins.
• 1858
  Henry Youle Hind and Simon James Dawson lead the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploration Expedition to the junction of the Qu’Appelle and Saskatchewan valleys.
• 1858
  A.T. Galt, a Unionist, appointed to the cabinet of John A. Macdonald’s and George Étienne Cartier’s Grand Coalition government.
• 1858 Jan. 1
  Province of Canada declares all accounts to be kept in Canadian dollars equal to $US1.00, or 23.22 grains of gold (1.505 grams).
• 1858 Mar. 5
  Pioneer and Democrat of Olympia, Washington Territory, first reports the discovery of gold in the Fraser River.
• 1858 Spring
  General Joel Palmer et al drive a herd of cattle and thirteen waggons full of supplies up the old Brigade Trail to Fort Kamloops to sell to Cariboo gold rushers.
• 1858 Apr. 5
  The Columbia reaches San Francisco with news of gold in the Fraser River.
• 1858 Late April
  The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Otter arrives in San Francisco with a shipment of gold for the mint: the City explodes in excitement.
• 1858 May 8
  James Douglas proclaims the Colonial right to seize any ship on the Fraser River and all its goods found lacking either a customs inspection certificate or Hudson’s Bay Company licence.
• 1858 June 6
  S.S. Surprise arrives at Fort Hope loaded with gold rushers.
• 1858 June 30
  Colonial authorities in Victoria proclaim that all miners in British territory had to obtain a licence and define the size of a “claim.”
• 1858 July
  The lead elements of the Royal Engineers land at Esquimalt near Victoria.
• 1858 August
  Lieutenant T.W. Blakiston of the Palliser Expedition crosses the North Kootenay Pass into the Rocky Mountain Trench. Names “the Steeples” Range.
• 1858 Aug. 2
  An Act to provide for the Government of British Columbia, 1858 (21 Vict., c.99) passed by Westminster creating the Colony of B.C. Resolution published and proclaimed on November 3rd. New Westminster named as the capital. Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly in New Caledonia cancelled.
• 1858 Aug. 3
  Lieutenant Blakiston severs his association with Palliser and sets off to explore southward along the “eastern slopes” of the Rockies.
• 1858 Aug. 13
  Commissioners begin surveying the International Boundary from Robert’s Point.
• 1858 Aug. 14
  Seven Salish killed by gold rushers at “The Battle of Boston Bar” near Fort Hope.
• 1858 Aug. 30
  Governor Douglas appoints Richard Hicks and O-J Travaillot as Gold Commissioners at Fort Yale and Fort Dallas (Lytton), respectively.
• 1858 Late Summer:
  Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Clement Moody instructs some troops of his Royal Engineers to establish a camp near Fort Hope
• 1858 Nov. 19
  Governor James Douglas proclaims the English Law Act creating the Colony of British Columbia at Fort Langley, briefly the capital. Matthew Baillie Begbie, Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, in attendance. Also, Hudson’s Bay Company’s exclusive privelege to trade in New Caledonia proclaimed revoked.
• 1859
  The Jesuits accept the offer of the Congregation of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate to assist in the running of the missions in the Pacific watershed.
• 1859
  Father C.J-B.F. Pandosy of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate establishes the Okanagan Mission at L’Anse au Sable near what is today Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley.
• 1859
  Geologist Dr. Hilary Bauerman describes “the Ledge” on Kootenay Lake. The Royal Engineers raise the Church of St. John the Divine at Fort Langley. (In 1882 it was dismantled, made into a raft, floated across the Fraser and re-assembled at Maple Ridge.)
• 1859
  U.S. Army establishes Fort Colville on the Colville River just upstream from the Columbia.
• 1859
  The Earl of Southesk, hunting his way through southern Rupert’s Land, noted the dearth of bison. Due to hide hunting to supply the American market.
• 1859
  Rupert’s Land: Fa. Pierre-Jean de Smet last visits the Ktunaxa.
• 1859
  Grand Duchy of Baden: Fritz Sick born.
• 1859
  Canada: Eastern Townships Bank founded. A.T. Galt.
• 1859
  East Kootenay, B.C.: Oblate fathers Memetrey and Bellecouer venture from their mission at St. Mary’s to visit the Ktunaxa on the Tobacco Plains.
• 1859
  Angus McDonald, chief clerk at Fort Colvile, completes building Fort Shepherd.
• 1859 Feb. 14
  Oregon becomes a State.
• 1859 May 13
  Edgar Dewdney arrives in Victoria, Colony of Vancouver’s Island.
• 1859 May 22
  Hudson’s Bay Company’s licence to trade in North America expires. Allowed to continue to administer North American possessions for the British crown.
• 1859 June
  J.F. Allison arrives on the Fraser to pan gold.
• 1859 Summer
  Royal Engineers lay out a townsite around Fort Hope and possibly remake a few miles of the old Brigade Trail up the Nicolum Creek valley from Fort Hope.
• 1859 Aug. 31
  Gold Fields Act for British Columbia set size of placer claims (25 lineal feet between high and low-water marks), created post of Gold Commissioner to act as all round government official to enforce laws, adjudicate cases, collect taxes, etc.
• W.G. Cox, J.C. Haynes, J.B. Gaggin, A.C. Elliot, Thos. Elwyn, Peter O’Reilly, E.H. Sanders, P.H. Nind, H.M. Ball, Chartres Brew (Chief Gold Commissioner).
• 1859 September
  Captain John Palliser and (later) John W. Sullivan canoe down Kootenay Lake seeking an all-British route to the Coast.
• 1859 Sep. 7
  Gold Fields Act proclaimed.
• 1859 Sep. 17
  Royal Engineer Lieutenant H.S. Palmer, commissioned to roughly determine an alignment for a trail to Rock Creek, leaves Fort Hope in company with the Chief Factor of Fort Colvile, Angus McDonald.
• 1859 October
  Adam Beaur discovers gold on Soldiers’ Bar in the stream now called Rock Creek.
• 1859 October
  Lieutenant Palmer arrives at Rock Creek.
• 1859 Nov. 19
  Hudson’s Bay Company signs Deed of Surrender turning Rupert’s Land over to the Crown.
• 1860
  Gold discovered in the Idaho District of Washington Territory.
• 1860
  Hudson’s Bay Coy. closes Fort Okanogon, instructing factor François Deschinquette to remove his stores and build a post on the Similkameen River in British Columbia.
• 1860
  Boundary Commission surveyors named Observation Mountain in today’s Grand Forks and named the region “Grande Prairie.”
• 1860
  Gold Rush on lower Fraser River peters out.
• 1860
  Riverboat service established to Fort Benton, Nebraska Territory.
• 1860
  Circa Last hunt conducted at Head-Smashed-In buffalo jump in what is now the Province of Alberta.
• 1860 January
  The Colony of B.C.’s Legislative Council passes a comprehensive land ordinance which claimed for the Crown all lands within the Colony’s boundaries.
• 1860 April
  Gold rush to Rock Creek and neighbouring streams fairly underway as Captain Collins leads in a troop of 34 prospectors.
• 1860 June
  J.F. Allison and party arrive in the Similkameen.
• 1860 June
  General Joel Palmer delivers a herd of beeves to the Cariboo gold camps.
• 1860 June 30
  Wm. Fernie arrives in Victoria from San Francisco.
• 1860 July
  Edgar Dewdney awarded the contract to improve the old foot trail into a horse pack trail from Hope into the Similkameen River valley in the Colony of British Columbia. Sets to work with Walter Moberly. Quit in November due to lack of funds.
• 1860 July 16
  New Westminster incorporated as a City.
• 1860 Sep. 1
  Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, dedicates the cornerstone of the Parliament Building in Ottawa.
• 1860 Sep. 7
  George Simpson dead.
• 1860 Sep. 20
  J.F. Allison files a pre-emption on a quarter section of land in the Similkameen valley near today’s Princeton.
• 1860 Sep. 20
  John Marston, Royal Engineer, retired, files a pre-emption in a quarter section on what is today the townsite of Princeton.
• 1860 Autumn
  Sergeant William McColl and his party of Royal Engineers complete Dewdney’s trail to the confluence of the Similkameen and the Tulameen and lay out “Prince’s Town” townsite on today’s Allison Flats near Princeton.
• 1860 Sep. 24
  Governor James Douglas of B.C. arrives at the Rock Creek gold camp on his tour of inspection, resulting in immediate instructions to W.G. Cox to establish a Customs Post there.
• 1860 Oct. 15
  J.C. Haynes arrives to assist W.G. Cox in the Customs House at Rock Creek.
• 1860 December
  Southern Boundary Act sets import-export duties in the Colony of British Columbia.
• 1861
  Joint Boundary Commission completes it survey of the forty-ninth degree of Parallel from the “Gulf” of Georgia to the Great Divide.
• 1861
  William Shanks Gladstone leaves his employ with the HBC as a boat-builder at Fort Edmonton.
• 1861
  B.C. colonial government instructs Captain J.M. Grant and the Royal Engineers to improve Dewdney’s trail into an all-weather waggon road.
• 1861
  Hudson’s Bay Coy. prohibits its servants from supplying liquor to Natives.
• 1861
  Our Lady of Good Hope Roman Catholic church in Hope is dedicated.
• 1861 January
  The Colonial Land Ordinance of 1860 modified to allow settlers to buy additional acreage to expand their homesteads to an even square mile.
• 1861 Feb. 28
  The U.S. Congress splits Colorado Territory from Kansas Territory’s Arapahoe County.
• 1861 Mar. 2
  U.S. Congress creates Dakota Territory from the Territory of Nebraska. Included what is now North and South Dakota, and Wyoming and Montana east of the Great Divide.
• 1861 Mar. 10
  Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) born near Brantford, Ontario.
• 1861 April
  W.G. Cox registers land pre-emptions in the Okanagan valley for himself and J.C. Haynes.
• 1861 Apr. 12
  Fort Sumner shelled; American Civil War begins.
• 1861 July
  J.F. Allison takes a Colonial contract to build a trail into the Okanagan Valley from the end of the Royal Engineers’ waggon road near today’s Princeton.
• 1861 August
  Dewdney and Moberly complete the Trail from Fort Hope to Rock Creek.
• 1861 Nov. 8
  Designed by Captain J.M. Grant and raised by his Royal Engineers troops, Christ Church Anglican in Hope is consecrated.
• 1861 December
  Having obtained permission, W.G. Cox builds a Customs outpost on the old Brigade Trail overlooking the narrows of Osoyoos Lake.