Meet more of our early French settlers
Last week’s local history article featured several francophone immigrant settlers who settled in the Central Okanagan in the early 1860s, prior to Kelowna’s founding in 1892.
The Oblate missionaries – Father Charles Pandosy, Father Pierre Richard and Brother Philippe Surel – and their small entourage arrived in the Central Okanagan in October 1859.
In that group were Quebec-born brothers Cyprien and Théodore Laurence, and William Pion, born at Fort Spokane to a Montreal-born father and Indigenous mother.
In 1861, the Lequime family – Eli and Marie and son Bernard – arrived in what is now Kelowna. They raised four children – Bernard, Gaston, Leon and Amenyada – in the Central Okanagan, becoming one of its wealthiest families.
Joseph Christien, born at St. Anicet, Que., arrived in 1861, settling in what is now Benvoulin. Widowed and left with a young daughter, Joseph Christien later moved to Ellison district, in 1890. He died in 1916, one of the last of the 1860s Central Okanagan francophone immigrant settlers.
This week’s article features several other Central Okanagan francophone immigrant settlers:
• August Calmels was born at
Tarn, France, on June 8, 1827. He arrived in the Central Okanagan, with his partner, Chapuis/Chapee, in 1861.
In his July 7, 1861 letter to Gold Commissioner William Cox, Calmels filed his claim of 160 acres on the east side of Mill Creek.
On Feb. 19, 1866 in Marion County, Ore., he married Marie Philomène Piette. They returned to Calmels’ Central Okanagan home and remained here until the 1870s, returning to Oregon.
August and Marie Calmels had five children: Marie Louise Julie (1869), Rosa Sarah (1873), August (1875), François (1880) and Justine (1881).
Calmels’ date and place of death have not yet been located. He probably died in Marion County, Ore., before 1888.
Marie Philomène Calmels, presumably widowed, married Mathias Goulet on Dec. 26, 1888 in Marion County.
• François Ortoland was born in France about 1820. By 1861, he was living in the Central Okanagan. He filed his claim for 160 acres in what is now Benvoulin, on April 21, 1861.
On Nov. 18, 1861, François
Ortoland married Catherine, widow of Pierre Patirvan. François and Catherine had at least three children, all born in the Central Okanagan: Clement Joseph (baptised Aug. 3, 1862), Joseph
(baptised Jan. 22, 1865) and Eli (baptised March 22, 1868).
Catherine Ortoland died in the Central Okanagan in late 1879, about 45 years old. Pierre survived her by many years, dying at Kamloops on March 17, 1910, age 90 years, one of the last surviving of the Central Okanagan’s 1860s francophone immigrant settlers.
• Jules Blondeau was born at Lille, France about 1824. About 1850, he went to California in search of gold. In 1860, Blondeau and his partner August Gillard made their way to Boston Bar, on the Fraser River.
Following altercations with others at Boston Bar, Blondeau and Gillard settled at Hope, where they encountered Father Pandosy, who persuaded them to come to the Okanagan.
In 1862, Blondeau and Gillard filed their claims: Blondeau’s claim included some of what is now downtown Kelowna, east of Richter Street. They farmed and raised cattle with Blondeau selling his land to Arthur Best in 1882.
Around 1890, Jules Blondeau returned to France, dying at Paris on Oct. 27, 1902.
• August Gillard, Jules Blondeau’s partner, was born in the Department of Le Doubs, France, about 1825.
Alongside Blondeau, Gillard was in California, on the Fraser River and finally in the Central
Okanagan (1862), where he filed his claim for 320 acres of land, including what is now downtown Kelowna and City Park.
Gillard did not marry. In 1884 his niece Marie Louise Gillard (18661936) and her brothers Frederick Joseph (c 1864-1928) and Leon
Isadore (1873-1965) came to live with Gillard; some of their descendants live in the Okanagan.
Gillard died at Kelowna on May 7, 1898. He is probably buried in the Casorso Road Immaculate Conception Cemetery.
• Isidore Boucherie was born in Segonzac Department, France, about 1815. He arrived in the Central Okanagan in 1862. In a Feb. 26, 1863 letter to Gold Commissioner Cox, Boucherie claimed 160 acres on Mill Creek, close to present-day Scandia.
On Dec. 25, 1869, Boucherie married Marianne Jenitit-k, born near present-day Penticton about 1845. They had no children, although Marianne had a son and daughter before she married Boucherie.
In 1890, Isidore and Marianne Boucherie sold their property to Alphonse and Susan (nee Walker) Lefevre and moved across Okanagan Lake, settling on the mountain now named for them.
Isidore Boucherie died on Nov. 2, 1894. Marianne survived him by many years, dying near Okanagan Falls.
• Other francophones came to the Central Okanagan in the 1860s and 1870s, including Pierre and Marguerite (nee Nilposen) Denis, William Lacerte and his several wives, Stephan Lambert and others whose names have been lost through time.
Recently, I borrowed some letters written by Frederick Brent, who established the area’s first grist mill at the south end of Duck Lake in 1865.
In a January 1893 letter, Brent mentioned Central Okanagan immigrant settlers who had died in here, rather than move elsewhere.
This list included the Laurence brothers (Cyprien and Théodore), August Gillard, Francois Ortoland, John McDougall and “Lissard.”
I have found references to an early Central Okanagan resident named “Lesard,” but incorrectly concluded that he left the area. Brent’s letter proves me wrong.
Now I need to research “Lissard” and his family, another part of the Central Okanagan’s immigrant settler history.