Chilliwack author pens book about 3 entrepreneurial sisters’ journey from Denmark to B.C. in 1870s

A book tracing the lives of three entrepreneurial, business-class sisters from Denmark who moved to the Cariboo 150 years ago has been released by a Chilliwack author.

Linda Peterat tells the story of Laura, Caroline and Christine Lindhard who arrived in the Colony of British Columbia in the 1870s.

The sisters left their home in Stege, Denmark, due to war, political turmoil and limited opportunities, and sought out new lives in the Cariboo. Coming of age in Europe, they had aspirations that were restricted by societal norms about what women could and should be and do.

“When Laura and Caroline came in 1870, the road to the Cariboo began in San Francisco. The Transcontinental Railway had opened across the United States the previous autumn and almost everyone travelled on it to San Francisco then up the coast to Victoria, to New Westminster, Yale and then by stagecoach into the north. The newcomer population was small, and everyone knew or knew about everyone else,” Peterat said.

She will be speaking to the Chilliwack Heritage Society on Dec. 1 about her book, an event which is open to the public.

“Laura and Caroline arrived on the steamer The Active from San Francisco on April 10 and on board were many who had wintered away and were now returning as was their cousin Joachim Lindhard who had accompanied them from Denmark. On the same boat was Laura and David Miller and George Chadsey and his wife Eliza Jane Thorne who he had married only days before in Hilton Ontario. Being of the same age and circumstance the two families would have met on this occasion but the men were likely well acquainted before. Both had been in the Colony for years and Lindhard was now a merchant in Van Winkle, near Barkerville and would have sold the Chadsey dairy products in his store.”

The Lindhard sisters quickly fit into the entrepreneurial class of newcomers; a group that has not been extensively written about in the gold rush era. Their sister Christine joined them in 1874. The women married, had children, were widowed, remarried, and chose divergent paths as adults.

Peterat tells the story of the women’s lives through their years in British Columbia and beyond.

“The challenge in writing this book was to build the women’s stories from the few sketches we have of activities in the time. The early newspapers did not report on women’s activities and when mentioned they were usually identified as ‘Mrs. Hamilton’ for example which made it difficult to know exactly who was referred to. Nevertheless, newspaper reports, birth, marriage and death certificates, obituaries and wills were all fragments that when assembled revealed enough of a story worth telling,” she said.

The sisters’ stories illustrate the importance of family and community relationships as support structures for women entrepreneurs who combine family responsibilities with earning a living. While they were not heroic in the traditional, patriarchal sense of the word, the Lindhard sisters were powerful, influential members of their families and their community, and their lives reveal much about the complex social fabric of early British Columbia and the unsung contributions of women.

Peterat will be in the Homestead Room of the Royal Hotel in downtown Chilliwack (45886 Wellington Ave.) speaking to the Chilliwack Heritage Society during their regular meeting on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. She will also be signing books. The public is welcome to attend and there is a suggested donation of $2 from non-members.

For more information, and to buy the book, go to heritagehouse.ca/book/from-denmark-to-the-cariboo.

Copies are also available locally at Coles; can be ordered through any bookstore or online from Indigo or Amazon. All profits from the book will benefit Barkerville Archives.

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More about Linda Peterat:

Peterat has published other books and articles in her position as Professor of Curriculum Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Her active research interests include food history, skiing history and women’s history in British Columbia.