Catherine O'Hare

Catherine O'Hare was the first European woman to enter British Columbia overland from eastern Canada. She was the youngest of nine children born in Ireland in 1835. At the age of sixteen, she sailed to the United States and worked as a maid for a wealthy family in Springfield, Massachusetts. She used her spare time teaching herself to read.

When Catherine was nineteen, she met a twenty-seven year old German carpenter named Augustus Schubert. Catherine married Augustus in 1855 and they moved to St. Paul, on the Mississippi River.

Catherine opened a grocery store and made bread while Augustus worked as a carpenter. Their son Gus was born in 1856 and their daughter Mary Jane was born in 1858.

A depression hit the area and the family packed up and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba (called Fort Garry).

In 1858, miners had discovered gold dust and nuggets in the lower Fraser Valley, in what is now the province of British Columbia.

A Sternwheeler of that Era,

SS Alexandra on the Fraser River

1864, A-08670

On May 26, 1862, 150 men arrived by paddle-steamer at Fort Garry determined to follow the "overland" route to the Cariboo.

The Overlanders of 1862 came west in search of gold. They endured many hardships and perils along the way. An account of the journey was written by Mr. Thomas McMicking of Queenston, and William Hind visually recorded the journey in his sketchbook

The Schuberts made a significant contribution to early life in their chosen new community, as did other members of the Overlanders party, including A. L. Fortune who settled in nearby Enderby.

The Armstrong Spallumcheen Museum & Art Gallery has significant archival resources that can provide additional information about the contribution of the Schuberts and other pioneer families to the growth and success of Armstrong and Spallumcheen. A visit to the Schubert house at the O’Keefe Ranch, located north of Vernon and south of Armstrong, will provide additional insight into the lives of our local pioneer families.

Trevor Schubert, descended from Francis Augustus Schubert and Catherine O’Hare has written the following brief account of the Schubert family’s journey west and eventual settlement in Spallumcheen.

1860 – they moved to Fort Garry with their three children

1862 – they joined the ‘Overlanders of 1862’ to travel from Fort Garry to the gold fields of the Cariboo. The group consisted of 138 people all of whom were men except for Catherine Schubert (who was pregnant at the time, unbeknownst to the others), and their three children, Augustus II, Mary Jane, and James.

           Thomas McMicking of Queenston was elected to be the captain, with 10 lieutenants (one of whom was Augustus I).  By the time the group reached Fort Edmonton, more people had joined, to total 150 in all.  It was decided that they would travel Monday to Saturday, and do only essential work/repairs on Sunday, so the day of rest could be observed.

June 2, 1862 – the journey started, heading for White Horse Plains (25 miles away). Their first night was at Sturgeon Creek, 7 miles away.

June 5, 1862 – after assembling at Long Lake, with some groups that were there, they organized in smaller groups with 97 carts and 110 animals. The Schuberts had a Red River cart pulled by a cow (which provided milk for the children) and an ox, as well as a saddle horse. Catherine rode the horse and the two older children sat in basket cradles on the horse. The youngest child was carried by Augustus, or one of the other men. At night, the camp was arranged in a triangle, with the carts on the outside and the animals encircled, to prevent them being stolen by native raids.

           Each day the camp left at 3 am and stopped about 5 am to feed the animals and the people, and then resumed about 7 am.  At 11 am they stopped for two hours again, continued, then camped for the night about 5-6 pm.  It is estimated that they traveled about 10 hours a day and went about 2 ½ miles an hour.

July 1, 1862 – arrived at Fort Carlton at the North branch of the Saskatchewan River (about 500 miles from Fort Garry).

July 10 – July 21, 1862 – they had about 11 days of rain, which would have been very gruelling for carts and travel.

July 21, 1862 – arrived at South side of Saskatchewan River across from Fort Edmonton (900 miles from Fort Garry). It took several days for the whole party to get across the river, due to a shortage of Hudson’s Bay boats. They rested and visited with the settlers at the Fort. Carts and oxen were sold/traded for pack and saddle horses. Andre Cardinal was hired as a guide to take them to Tete Jeune Cache, as no one knew the route through the mountains.

July 29, 1862 – arrived at St. Ann’s mission where there was Father Lacombe, another priest and four Grey nuns. The last of the Red River carts were left here.

August 19, 1862 – arrived at the Jasper House area with a treacherous narrow path with a vertical rock face on one side and a steep bank on the other. Several horses with their packs met their demise here.

August 27, 1862 – arrived at Tete Jeune Cache with almost no food left. They traded anything they had (clothing, ammunition, needles etc.) at the native camp there for dried salmon and berry cakes.

September 1, 1862 – the camp breaks up into 2 groups. The larger group decided to make rafts and float down the Fraser River to Quesnel. The smaller group, the “Thompson” party, was made up of 36 people (including the Schuberts) and 130 animals.

September 18, 1862 – reached Slaughter camp (60 miles from Tete Jeune Cache). They built rafts, killed the cattle, dried the meat, and abandoned the horses.

September 22, 1862 – left Slaughter camp. One man drowned at Murchison Rapids. They had to leave their rafts, and portage about nine miles over three rainy days, to get around the rapids to safer waters. Then they had to rebuilt the rafts. There were more rapids and more possessions were lost. They were desperately short of food. They came upon an abandoned native village (left/died because of small pox). There they found potatoes, and were able to be fed.

October 11, 1862 – the Thompson party starts arriving at Fort Kamloops, and they drifted in over several days.

October 13, 1862 – the Schuberts arrived at Fort Kamloops, apparently late in the date (six weeks after leaving Tete Jeune Cache). They landed on the west side of the North Thompson River, a short distance from the Hudson’s Bay fort. That night it snowed. With the aid of some local native women, the next day Catherine gave birth to Rose Anna Schubert, reputed to be the first European child born in the interior of B.C. The name Rose was chosen to remember the rosehips that they ate to survive along the journey.

           The Schuberts lived at Kamloops for that winter in a building in the Hudson’s Bay fort, where Francis Augustus worked as a carpenter and cook.

Spring 1863 – the Schuberts moved to Lillooet. Catherine ran a hotel there, and F. Augustus went to search for gold in the Cariboo, returning home to his family for the winters. This continued for about 11 years. They had 2 more children, Charles Tabor Schubert and Catherine Hernora (Nora) Schubert.

1877 – In 1877 she ran a boarding school at Cache Creek. That year, F. Augustus acquired land in Spallumcheen. He subsequently acquired other property there, and was back and forth between Cache Creek and Spallumcheen.

1883 – In 1883 Catherine and two children moved to Spallumcheen.

Augustus died in 1908 and Catherine moved into nearby Armstrong. She remained an important part of the community until her death on July 18th, 1918.