Genealogy: May 2015

Robert Stevenson was my (Bradley Fulton's) great-great-grandfather and worked 
with "Cariboo" Cameron at Barkerville. Robert's son John Edison Stevenson was my

paternal grandmother's father. 

Robert also had a son named Robert R. Stevenson, which has lead to some
confusion.

This following is excerpted from "British Columbia from the earliest times to the present",
an OCR version at:

http://archive.org/stream/britishcolumbiaf00schouoft/britishcolumbiaf00schouoft_djvu.txt

ROBERT STEVENSON. 

The life history of Robert Stevenson if written in detail would present some 
interesting features of mining experience in the northwest. As a mine owner he 
is well known, having made extensive investments in mining property. His home 
is now at Sardis, British Columbia, and Williamstown, Glengarry, numbers him 
among its native citizens, his birth having there occurred on the 28th of July, 
1838. He is a son of Samuel and Susan Stevenson, both of whom are deceased. 
They were farming people and under the parental roof their son Robert spent 
his boyhood days, his education being acquired at the convent and grammar schools 
of Vankleek Hill, in Prescott county, Ontario. When his younger days were over 
he came, in early manhood, to British Columbia, arriving here in the month of 
May, 1859, during the time of the gold excitement in the northwest. He found, 
however, that reports had been much exaggerated and feeling that he could not 
obtain a fortune in the mines he proceeded to what was in those days called Wash- 
ington territory, now the state of Washington, in which he remained until he joined 
the celebrated Collins expedition bound for the Similkameen country and led by 
Captain Collins, a noted Indian fighter. The western country in those days was 
one vast, trackless forest, hence the difficulties to be encountered can in a measure 
be understood. The party had to make trails through unknown woods, had to 
cross rivers and climb mountains. This was the first white party to pass from the 
salt water to the interior, going in by way of the famous Snocolomie Pass. They 
crossed the pass on the 2d of June, at which time there was ten feet of snow, our 
subject trying to touch bottom with a ten-foot pole, but failing. That the party 
of thirty-four might proceed it was necessary to dig a ditch two and a half feet 
wide and two and a half feet deep and fill it in with brush to form a footing. The 
party proceeded down the Yakima river and crossed where the town of Parker is 
now located. During all the journey they were harrassed by unfriendly Indians 
who objected to the white men's intrusion into their possessions or hunting 
grounds. As Mr. Stevenson recalled this trip and in retrospect saw the country 
of those days he marvelled at the progress made. At that time between the Cas- 
cades and the present town of Midway, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, 
there was not a white settler. The party reached Fort Okanagan, the fort of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, on the i6th of June, 1860. Two days later this fort was 
abandoned and Mr. Stevenson is today the only living man who was present at 
its abandonment. The Indians were on the warpath and had Mr. Stevenson and 
his party rounded up for five hours, but they fought their way out without losing 
a man. They reached Rock Creek mines on the 22d of June, 1860, and there 
Captain Collins made a speech and left the party. 

Mr. Stevenson engaged in prospecting for some time and then occurred the 
Rock Creek war, the miners refusing to comply with the law by taking out a license 
or recording claims. Governor Douglas went to the locality to settle the trouble 
and in recognition of the part which Mr. Stevenson had taken all through the 
difficulty Governor Douglas appointed him customs officer at a salary of two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars a month. Then came the great Cariboo gold excitement. 
Mr. Stevenson sent in his resignation as customs officer and started at once for the 

Cariboo. He had received information that horses were in great demand there, so 
he bought a large number, drove them into the country and disposed of them at a 
handsome profit. He was one of ten men who took any money into the Cariboo. He 
bought into the Jordan claim in the fall of 1861 and on the 3d of November of 
that year left for Victoria, traveling with the party of the later Governor Dewd- 
ney, now a resident of Victoria, reaching Yale on the 5th of December, and Vic- 
toria on the 1 5th of that month. While in Victoria Mr. Stevenson met the famous 
"Cariboo Cameron," who had just landed in Victoria with his family. This was 
on the 2d of March, 1862. Mr. Stevenson intrpduced Cameron to Mr. Wark, the 
chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was instrumental in his getting 
credit for goods to the amount of two thousand dollars. Mr. Stevenson went back 
to the Cariboo on the 23d of April, 1862, Cameron following in July. The former 
had heard of unclaimed ground and was forced almost to drive Cameron to assist 
in staking this. However, on the 22d of August, 1862, the Cameron mine, one of 
the richest mines of the Cariboo, was staked by Mr. Cameron and Mr. Stevenson. 
Mr. Cameron wished to name it for Mr. Stevenson but the latter had his way 
and it was called the Cameron claim. On the 2d of December, 1862, there were 
seven shareholders in the mine: John A. and Sophia Cameron, Robert Steven- 
son, Richard Rivers, Allan McDonald and Charles and James Clendening, all now 
deceased except Mr. Stevenson. Mrs. Cameron died on the 23d of October and her 
body was placed in a cabin outside of Richfield to await a chance to take her home 
for burial. On January 3ist, at a temperature of fifty degrees below zero, Mr. 
Cameron had the body removed to Victoria, where a provisional burial was made 
until later in the year when the remains were taken to Cornwall, New Brunswick, 
Mr. Cameron almost spending a fortune in accomplishing his end. He was 
notably successful as a miner for a considerable period but eventually lost all 
he had, and drifted back to Cariboo, where he died poor and was buried in the 
old mining camp. It was on the 2d of December, 1862, that the rich gold strike 
was made on the Cameron claim, Mr. Stevenson rocking out one hundred and 
fifty-five dollars from thirty-five gallons of gravel. It was after this that Mr. 
Cameron took his wife's remains to Victoria, Mr. Stevenson accompanying him, 
and the burial there took place on the 8th of March. Mr. Cameron offered twelve 
dollars a day in addition to a sum of two thousand dollars to any of the men who 
would accompany him but all were afraid of smallpox. Mr. Stevenson, however, 
went and paid his own expenses. When they were on their way out of the country 
the -cold was intense and everywhere along the road they found many dying of 
smallpox. While en route they lost their food supplies and their matches and 
suffered untold hardships but at length reached Victoria on the 7th of March. 
On November 7th, the body of Mrs. Cameron was started for the east via Panama 
for final burial. 

After the funeral services at Cornwall Mr. Stevenson returned to the Cariboo 
in 1864 and took active part in mining affairs. During the stirring days from 
1861 until 1864 and even up to 1877 he held interests in various famous claims 
including the Cameron, Prince of Wales, Moffat, the Bruce and many others, 
and is so thoroughly familiar with the history of mining development in that sec- 
tion of the country that Sir Mathew Bigbee said of him that he was the best posted 
man in the Cariboo country. 

Mr. Stevenson went to Chilliwack and there married Miss Caroline E. Wil- 
liams on the 26th of July, 1877, since which time he has been engaged in farming 
and mining. He is the largest individual mine owner in the Similkameen country 
and has large holdings at Leadville, two groups of claims at the Great Nickel 
Plate and is an extensive owner at Copper Mountain, his claims amounting alto- 
gether to more than forty. 

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson have been born four children : Clarinda Eliza- 
beth, a teacher of Chilliwack ; John Edison, living on a farm at Chilliwack ; Roberta 
E. L., the wife of James Watson, B. A., principal of a school at North Vancouver; 
and Robert Bryant. 

Mr. Stevenson is among the very few now living who are entitled to be num- 
bered among the real pioneers of British Columbia, for he has endured innumerable 
hardships and gathered wide experience when the resources of the province came 
to the attention of the world. There is nothing which characterizes him better 
than the way the Indians called him, the "Man Afraid of Nothing." He climbed 
the most rugged crags and would enter the wildest canyons. He swam horses 
across the Similkumeen river hundreds of times and also across the Thompson and 
the Okanagan when there were dangers on every hand. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson 
now occupy a beautiful home on a farm of two hundred and fifty acres at Sardis, 
the large and commodious house being one of the landmarks of the region and 
the property- a show place famed as a model establishment of its kind. The history 
of both of them links the present with the pioneer days, and though both are 
advanced in age, they are still strong and robust, clear of brain and active bodily 
and mentally. Both are great workers in the Methodist Episcopal church. When 
a young man out among the hills, alone with his God and nature, Mr. Stevenson 
made a study of religious matters and has ever adhered to those deep-rooted con- 
clusions which resulted from his meditations. He has never dissipated, never 
used tobacco, and to these things and his life in the open air may be attributed 
his present splendid state of health. A man five feet seven or eight inches tall, 
he weighs over two hundred pounds and at the age of seventy-five has an energy 
and business acumen which many a successful man of half his age might well 
envy. In his political views he is a conservative. He belongs to Princess Lodge 
of Masons at Montreal and is a charter member of the Royal Order of Orangemen 
of Princeton. He also belongs to the Vancouver Mining Club. He is one of the 
few men remaining of the early days, a picturesque character because of his many 
and varied experiences in connection with the mining development of the north- 
west. He can relate most interesting incidents of the early days, of the life lived 
by the miners, and he is one of those who have prospered by labor and judicious 
investments, his mining and other properties being extensive and valuable.

Genealogy

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Stevenson, John Edson -- Chilliwack Progress 19 Oct 1949

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Links

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Robert Stevenson, b 1838

The Fultons: Scotland then Ireland then North America