Susan Allison was designated a Canadian National Historic Person on June 8th, 2007. Born in 1845, Allison was the earliest woman memoirist of pioneer life in interior British Columbia who recorded stories and legends of the Similkameen and Okanagan First Nations. Spending much of the latter part of her life in the Princeton area, Allison died in Vancouver February 1, 1937 at the age of 91. She is buried in the
Allison Family Cemetery in Princeton.
A very remarkable woman, Allison is known as the "Mother of the Similkameen" for her perseverance, bravery and contribution to preserving the history of the area found in her memoirs.
Nearby, to the east, is a mural of Susan, on the front wall of the Legion building.
SUSAN LOUISA MOIR ALLISON
(1845-1937)
Pioneer, governess, teacher, wife, mother, and author, this British gentlewoman was one of the many female settlers who authorities believed would both stabilize colonial society and increase the Euro-Canadian population. The first woman to write a memoir of pioneer life in interior British Columbia, Allison showed unusual sensitivity to the lives of women, children, and Aboriginal people. This amateur ethnographer created the earliest written accounts of the Similkameen and Okanagan peoples and their stories, leaving an invaluable legacy, especially for First Nations, historians, and anthropologists.
Susan Louisa Moir Allison
Susan Louisa Moir was born on August 18, 1845 in Ceylon, where her father owned a tea plantation. When Susan's father died, her family, consisting of her mother, sister and brother, relocated to England, where she was educated. In 1857, Susan's mother remarried, this time to Thomas Glennie, a Scotsman. In 1860, when Susan was 14, Glennie moved the family to Hope, British Columbia.
However, in 1864, Susan's stepfather deserted his new family, leaving her to work as a governess. Using this experience, Susan established Hope's first school with her mother, and subsequently married John Fall Allison, one of the founders of what is now Princeton in 1868.
After their marriage, the Allisons moved to the Similkameen Valley, becoming the first non-Aboriginal settlers to live there. The couple, aided by John's knowledge of Chinook Jargon, a trade language, became close with nearby Aboriginal populations.
There, the two produced 14 children. In the Valley, Allison had what she described as her happiest days, traversing nearby mountains on horseback and establishing relationships with nearby First Nations. Allison claimed to have sighted Ogopogo, a cryptid lake monster similar to the Loch Ness Monster in Okanagan Lake.
In 1891, an ethnographic paper of Allison's was published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and another in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1900 she published a poem about an Aboriginal chief.
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