Revisiting Julia Smithson
I have long been interested in the Smithson family, residents of the Central Okanagan since 1869. I first became aware of this family more than 40 years ago and have devoted much time to researching William Cross and Julia Smithson and their family. It is now time to revisit Julia Smithson’s life, perhaps eliciting a response from someone who knows about her and her family.
Much is known about William Cross Smithson. He was born in Yorkshire, England about 1830, son of John Smithson and Sarah Cross. He came to North America as a young man, living in various locations in the United States and Canada, acquiring land near Pavilion, B.C. about 1862, then moving to the Cariboo where he worked as a school teacher at Richfield.
Sometime in the 1860s — exact date and place unknown — William Cross Smithson met Julia, an Indigenous woman. By 1869, William and Julia Smithson and family were living in the Central Okanagan, farming on property east of present-day Orchard Park Shopping Centre. The Valley’s first public school — Okanagan School — was located on the Smithson property, opening its doors in 1875. William Cross Smithson, Frederick Brent and Joseph Christien were that school’s first trustees.
William Cross Smithson penned his will on May 12, 1879. In that document, Smithson acknowledged by name his wife Julia and their five children: Rosa, Eusebe, Adaline, William Cross and Fred[e]rick, specifying that his possessions should be divided between his widow and children “in equal divisions share and share alike until either of the sons William Cross and Frederick attain the age of seventeen (years) then the land to be divided between the aforesaid William Cross and Frederick.”
According to William Cross Smithson’s 1879 will’s instructions, Julia could be landless and homeless by the early-to-mid-1890s, when their sons William and Frederick Smithson attained the age of 17 years.
In his will William Cross Smithson also wrote “I hereby appoint Frederick Brent and Thomas Wood my executors and guardian(s) of my children until they come of age.” Although Julia was the mother of their six young children, she did not have legal guardianship of them and thus had limited say as to how they would be raised. We must hope that Frederick Brent and Thomas Wood — the latter being the author’s great great uncle — were judicious in their decisions, allowing Julia to act wisely on behalf of her children.
In 1879 William Cross Smithson resigned as Okanagan School trustee. He soon after left the Okanagan, his wife and young family. On Aug. 27, 1880 Smithson entered B.C.’s recently-established Provincial Asylum for the Insane at New Westminster. He lived there for 2 ½ months.
William Cross Smithson died at New Westminster on Nov. 11, 1880, age 50 years and was buried in the nearby
Douglas Road Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Julia and their five children. A sixth child, Peter, was born to Julia in February of 1881, three months after William’s death.
In contrast to her husband, little is known about Julia’s origins. A native woman, born in present-day British Columbia about 1852, there are few records which provide information about Julia’s exact date and place of birth, her pre-marriage given and forenames or her parents and siblings.
The 1881 Canada Census (British Columbia, Yale County, Okanagan Division), conducted on April 4, 1881, enumerated Julia as widowed and living with her six children:
Smithson, Julia, 30 years old, Catholic, Indian, born in British Columbia Smithson, Rose, 13 years old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia Smithson, Usivia (Eusibia), 10 years old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia Smithson, Adaline, 9 years old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia Smithson, William Cross, 6 years old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia Smithson, Frederick, 2 years old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia Smithson, Peter, 2 months old, Methodist, English, born in British Columbia
Also living in Julia’s 1881 household were 27-year-old William Jones and 19-year-old David Jones, Canadian-born carpenters of Welsh origins. They were probably boarders, providing Julia
with much-needed income with which to support herself and her six children.
The 1881 Canada Census is typical of other censuses. Children of mixed origins — Indigenous and non-Indigenous parents — were identified by the ethnicity and religion of their nonIndigenous parent. Julia’s six children, born in B.C. to an Indigenous and Roman Catholic mother, were listed as Methodist and English . . . their late father’s religion and ethnicity.
Canada Census records provide scant pre-marriage information about Julia Smithson.
An article about Frank Bouvette, who married Julia and William Cross Smithson’s eldest daughter, Rose Evelyn (born in 1868), in part reads as follows:
“While working (in the Central Okanagan Valley) for (Eli) Lequime, Frank (Bouvette) met Rose Evelyn Smithson, who he fell in love with and later married in 1886. Her father, William John (Cross) Smithson came from England to the Cariboo in 1862. He went up the original Cariboo Wagon Road from Lillooet to Richfield, intending to take part in the gold rush taking place there. Instead, he being an educated man, was pressed into service as a school teacher . . .”
Julia Smithson is not mentioned in this article.
The sad reality is that we know little about Julia Smithson, wife of immigrant settler William Cross Smithson and resident of the Central Okanagan for more than 40 years, prior to her Oct. 18, 1912 death.
To date, I have been unsuccessful in my quest to locate photographs of Julia and William Cross Smithson or any of their children.
Next week’s column features Part II of the examination of Julia Smithson’s life.
The Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society operates on the unceded traditional territory of the Syilx people. It gratefully acknowledges their traditional knowledge, the elders and all those who have gone before us.
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society. Additional information would be welcome at P.O. Box 22105, Capri P.O., Kelowna, B.C., V1Y 9N9.