Sarah Jameson Craig an Okanagan pioneer
Sarah Craig (nee Jameson; also spelled “Jamieson” or “Jamison”) was an Okanagan pioneer. She arrived in the Central Okanagan in March of 1910, the final leg of her journey from Saskatchewan being on the “SS Sicamous”, from Okanagan Landing to Kelowna.
She lived in the Rutland district from 1910 until her death, on April 20, 1919. Her obituary is on page 1 of the Thursday, April 24, 1919 edition of “The Kelowna Courier and Okanagan Orchardist”: Old Timer Passes Away in General Hospital “At the General Hospital on Sunday morning, Mrs. Sarah Jamieson [Jameson], relict of Joel Bonny [Bonney] Craig, who predeceased her by over 30 years, died after a brief and painful illness. She was almost 79 years of age, having been born in St. Andrews, N.B., in which province the major portion of her life was spent. Nine years ago she came here to join her son, who had settled in Rutland district. She was well thought of by her many friends. She leaves to mourn her departure, four sons and three daughters, Albert Jamieson Craig, of Midland, Ont.; J. B. [Joel Bonney] and W. R. [William Rupert] of Rutland, and C. H. [Charles Henry], recently returned from Overseas; Mrs. [Esther Victoria] W. Wigglesworth and Miss [Lucy Emma] Craig, of Rutland, and Mrs. [Sarah Florence Myrtle] E. J. Blenkarn, of Kamloops. Funeral service was held in the Baptist Church on Tuesday afternoon, conducted by Rev. H. E. Riggs, in the absence of Rev. W. Arnold Bennett, the burial taking place in Kelowna Cemetery. Many friends from Rutland and Kelowna were present.”
This tribute provides Sarah Craig’s biographical information: her age, place of birth, and the names of her late husband and seven of their thirteen children.
Her British Columbia Death Registration records her date and place of birth: June 10, 1840, at St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Her parents were Charles Jameson and Alice Woodin, both natives of New Brunswick. Sarah Craig’s death, April 20, 1919, was attributed to arterial thrombosis. Joel Bonney Craig, her seventh child, was the informant of her death.
Sarah Jameson Craig’s obituary and BC Death Registration provide important biographical information about this early resident of the Rutland district but there is so much more to her life.
It is therefore very fortunate that a biography about Sarah Jameson Craig – “Seeking Our Eden / The Dreams and Migrations of Sarah Jameson Craig” – was written and published (2015; McGill-Queen’s University Press) by Joanne Findon, Sarah Jameson Craig’s great granddaughter. Joanne Findon has graciously given me permission to quote from this book.
An introduction to Sarah Jameson Craig’s remarkable life, much of it before she came to the Okanagan Valley in 1910, is found on the back cover of “Seeking Our Eden”:
“Although few nineteenth century rural Canadian women could read and write well, Sarah Jameson Craig (1840-1919) was not only literate but eloquent. Unlike many women writers of her time, Craig lived at the bottom of the economic ladder. Nevertheless, she dared to dream the utopian dreams more commonly associated with educated women from the middle and upper classes. Craig vividly documented her attempt to run away [from her rural home] at age fifteen, her plans to found a utopian colony based on alternative medicine and women’s dress reform, and her lifelong crusade for women’s equality.
Even today, when the way women dress remains an issue, and skepticism about conventional medicine still fuels alternative health movements, Sarah Craig’s early feminist voice from the margins of Canada continues to be relevant and compelling."
Sarah Jameson was one of the eldest of thirteen children – nine of whom lived to maturity – born to Charles Jameson and Alice Woodin. Charles Jameson was a sailor, shipbuilder, and farmer. Sarah spent the first two years of her life in the small New Brunswick seaside town of St. Andrews. In 1842, she and her family moved twenty miles north of St. Andrews and settled on one hundred acres of crown land which Charles Jameson had purchased in 1841.
Living with her family on a rural and isolated farm, Sarah was unable to attend school. Her parents, however, firmly believed in the value of education and so Sarah was taught at home. She was a competent and dedicated student and, from a very young age, she aspired to be a writer. Running away from home, at age fifteen, was Sarah’s attempt to further enhance her chance to be a writer. Realizing the folly of this action, she returned home.
Sarah Jameson was not a typical mid-Victorian woman. She and her cousin and future husband, Joel Bonney Craig (January 27, 1835 – October 7, 1886), rejected many of the medical practices of the day. They were both devotees of phrenology and hydropathy, the latter also known as hydrotherapy or “water cure”. Phrenologists advocated that much can be learned about an individual through the shape of their head, while hydropathists felt that water has powerful restorative and healing properties. They believed that diseases pass out of our bodies through our skin and this process can be enabled and encouraged through the judicious use of water, water wraps, and sweating. Hydropathy adherents were encouraged to further help their bodies through healthy living, personal hygiene, and diet. For many years, Sarah and her husband Joel were vegetarians, eschewing the consumption of meat in favour of a vegetable-based diet.
Arguably, Sarah Craig’s most drastic deviation from Victorian norms was her dress. She rejected the then-current formal and impractical attire – corset and long skirt – expected of Victorian women and opted for the more practical and comfortable “reform dress.”
Designed for men and women alike, reform dress typically consisted of trousers and a loosefitting blouse or jacket. Reform dress was employed by many Victorian reformers, including hydropathists. Sarah wore reform dress, at the cost of public ridicule, as she went about her daily life in rural New Brunswick. When Sarah and Joel Bonney Craig were married – in Calais, Maine in late January 1860 – Sarah wore a reform-style wedding outfit, which she made herself.
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society.