A Mill Behind Every Stump

By Marianne Van Osch

The story of one family's settlement in the Cariboo and the culture of early sawmills that developed around them.

In 1922, the Judson family arrived in the Cariboo by covered wagon. The stories of their life on the remote homestead at Ruth Lake is told through this humorous and heartwarming book by local historian and author Marianne Van Osch, as recounted to her by the Judsons' son, Louis, who still lives in the region. Louis tells of working at a gold mine in Bralorne at a young age, riding the rails, losing his foot in a milling accident, and witching for gold and water. But most of all, he tells the story of early sawmills in Cariboo forests, in an era before chainsaws and skidders, how they flourished and how they declined, and the men who worked so hard on them, often at great personal cost.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heritage House
• Release date: May 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781772031171

Marianne Van Osch

Marianne Van Osch is a Cariboo-based author and former teacher. Her work explores the experience of pioneers who grew up on remote homesteads when survival was a daily challenge, when neighbours were few and far between, and when mail service a full day's walk from home. Van Osch also contributes stories of local and historical interest to the 100 Mile Free Press and various magazines; visits elementary schools for interactive historical presentations; and presents short story and book readings.

Book preview

1. The Cariboo

My grandfather Noble Judson was born in Pennsylvania around 1855, Louis began. "Like so many people did at that time, his family came west to farm. They settled in the state of Washington, not far from the Canadian border.

"Noble met Chief Joseph, the great leader of the Nez Perce Indians, who was living on the Colville Indian Reservation at the time. Noble and Chief Joseph became friends. Chief Joseph designated his granddaughter Adeline as a wife for my grandfather. Adeline’s father was Sanford Newton-Jeffries. A man named Newton-Jeffries was said to be part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early 1800s. That would explain his connection to the Nez Perce and the Newton-Jeffries family living in that area. I have a document dated 1915 from the Superior Court of Whitman County, State of Washington, that proves my father was Sanford Newton-Jeffries’ grandson. My father received an inheritance from his estate.

"My uncle Matney Lewis was born in 1890. Shortly after he was born, Chief Joseph chose a home for Noble and Adeline on the reservation. My father, Marion Smith Judson, was born in 1891, the first white child to be born on that reservation. His Native name was ‘Saultees.’ He was called that in school. It’s written on his report card.

"Apparently other children were born—Horace, who passed away at ten from diphtheria, and Isaac, who died at five. Diphtheria was an illness that killed many children at that time.

Noble and Matney, ca. 1910. Matney’s peg leg is obvious in this photo.

"My grandfather was a traveller so he didn’t stay on the reservation. In the spring of 1910, when Matney was twenty years old and my dad, Marion, was nineteen, my grandfather decided to head north to BC with the boys to look for work and for land to homestead.

"My uncle Matney was an amazing person. He lost his leg when he wasn’t quite fourteen. He was going to town to get the doctor for someone who was sick. He had the horses hooked to a buggy and, instead of stepping on the little metal step on the side of the buggy to get in, he apparently stepped onto the hub of the wheel. The horses moved and Matney fell off. As he fell his hand came down on the whip socket, a holder for the whip. Well, when he put his hand on the whip socket the horses spooked and took off. Matney’s leg caught in the spokes and skidded the wheel for some distance until someone with a saddlehorse could stop the team.

They took him to the hospital in Omak. They had to amputate most of the leg. But gangrene set in so they had to remove the rest of the leg. Even so, when he recovered Matney could run faster on one foot on the way to school than the other kids with two legs. And he could ride as good as the best of them!

Noble and the boys travelled on horseback through forests, across the open sagebrush country of south-central BC, and up into the rolling hills of the South Thompson. As they made their way north along the Cariboo Wagon Road, pine trees covered ever higher hills until, by the time they reached the busy frontier town of Clinton, mountains rose in the background, still dusted with snow. From there the road climbed upward to the Fraser Plateau where the land levelled out. Noble and the boys rode around boggy stretches and greening sloughs dotted with waterfowl.

When they reached the 70 Mile roadhouse, they turned off the Cariboo Wagon Road and headed northeast on the 70 Mile Road. Other travellers may have told them of land that was available for pre-emption out that way, land that held a wealth of forests, animals, and fish. There were natural meadows to be found with plenty of grass for livestock and an abundant supply of water in lakes and streams.

An old Hudson Bay Company Brigade Trail wound north through that area. It was still used by trappers and settlers. There were also early surveyors’ trails to follow.

Marion at Copper Mountain Mine, 1912. SOURCE UNKNOWN

Noble applied for a pre-emption in the vicinity of a large, deep lake that the First Nations people called Fish Lake, because of the abundance of excellent fish that drew them there. When the Judsons arrived, their fish camps were still in use, just as they had been for hundreds of years. Eventually Fish Lake became known as Bridge Lake.

Louis is not certain of the exact location of the pre-emption that was granted to his grandfather. He does know that Noble and the boys built a cabin and cleared part of the land. The Judsons must have been there for some time as the trail that wound past the property became known as Judson Road.

Louis remembers a few stories his father told him about life on Judson Road. One such story described the unique method they used to catch fish in a small creek that tumbles out of Bridge Lake.

They would put a log across the creek like you would for a bridge, only with one stringer. Then they nailed smaller poles along the stringer about one and a half inches apart. The poles slanted down into the water. The fish ran up the poles with the current and into the grooves. They couldn’t back out. It was an excellent way to catch fish. That creek is now known as Bridge Creek.

From its modest beginning at Bridge Lake, Bridge Creek wanders through the high country into Horse Lake and on to 100 Mile House. After it plunges over a ledge, it winds through narrow valleys to its outflow on Canim Lake.

In 1912 Noble heard there was work available at the Copper Mountain Mine in the Similkameen country, south of Princeton. He and the boys rode to the mine where they worked on a hand-operated diamond drill. After several months they returned to Judson Road.

Around this time Marion heard that prospectors were finding gold on abandoned claims at Churn Creek, in the Chilcotin Country. Churn Creek empties into the Fraser River west of 100 Mile House. Marion decided to try his luck.

In the 1890s, after work on the CPR ended, a group of Chinese workers made their way to the settlement at Dog Creek, east of the Fraser, where they were hired as cheap labour to dig miles of ditches, from lakes and streams high above the river to placer mines along its banks. Some gold was found, but by 1910 it had petered out and most of the claims had been abandoned. However, stories persisted of gold yet to be found in the diggings at Churn Creek.

My dad didn’t find much gold, Louis said. The best thing he found was a large chunk of amber with an ant in it. For years and years he kept it in a glass test tube along with a perfect obsidian arrowhead that he found at the Bradley Creek homestead. Then one day he showed the amber to company we had and after they left, he realized the amber and the arrowhead had disappeared.

When he returned from Churn Creek, Marion set out on an adventure that could have ended in disaster. My dad and some other young fellows heard about this fine natural meadow of hay, up near the top of Timothy Mountain, Louis said. "They decided to go up there and cut the hay and bring it down to sell. Well, they were new to the area and didn’t realize what they were getting into. It was too late in the season to be up there.

They set up camp and started to cut hay. It began to snow heavily and suddenly they were trapped. They didn’t know that the slough hay they cut had no nutritional value for their horses. They began to run out of food. By the time they managed to get out of there, they and the horses were in very bad shape. They would never have lasted much longer.

2. The First World War

By the time the First World War broke out in Europe in 1914, Noble and his sons were back in Washington. In 1917 Matney and Marion received their draft notices, and they reported to the draft board. Marion was accepted and was sent to Fort Lewis, southwest of Tacoma. As expected, Matney was rejected.

While Marion was in training at Fort Lewis, he met a young woman, Lillian Opal Hoover. Opal, as she preferred to be called, was born in Green Ridge, Pettis, Missouri, according to a 1900 census. Her family moved west and settled in Riverside, Washington.

Opal had married when she was very young and had a son, Daymond Lee Morris, born in 1914. However, because she was underage at the time, her father had the marriage annulled.

Marion and Opal married on July 26, 1917. When Marion was called up for active duty, Opal and Daymond went to live with her family in Riverside. Marion was stationed at Fort Lewis for basic training.

Marion wrote to Opal often. In one letter he tells her that she will be getting a cheque and will not have to sell the horses for a while. In another he notes that he will be able to get her a room in a boarding house in Tacoma for $2.50 to $4.50 per week. He writes that the soldiers often went through ten to twelve hours of drilling. As a result his feet became so swollen that it was very hard to get his shoes on in the morning. He also spent several weeks in the base hospital with scarlet fever. He yearned to be home with Opal and Daymond.

Marion Judson and Opal Hoover were married on July 26, 1917.

In October 1917, Marion received a letter from his father. The letter is worn and faded:

Dear Son,

I just received your most ever welcome letter tonight. It found us well . . . Opal is here. She is a dandy little woman . . . It is awful dry here yet it snowed on the mountains today . . . It is pretty cold. I hope you will get to come home soon but if you do not get to come home don’t get blue. Cheer up and be brave. I would like to see you. As Matney and Opal has [sic]written and told you all I will close, hoping to hear from you soon.

So I remain as ever,

Your loving Father to my son Marion

Marion’s unit was shipped out to France before he could return home for a visit. Louis recalled what his father told them about his experiences overseas: "There was a terrible amount of mud everywhere, my dad said. It poured for days on end. They were constantly wet and cold and covered in mud. The mud around the trenches was littered with dead horses and other terrible things.

Marion’s service song book and pay record. COURTESY DORIS E. RUFLI

"My dad was a batman. That means he was assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant and assistant. In those days before there were trucks to move equipment around, the batman was also in charge of the officer’s horse. The horse carried the officer’s kit and supplies in a packsaddle. So the batman was always in the front lines of battle.

When the war ended, Dad came home on a ship that he described as anything but a luxury ship. The food was awful and the latrine was far back at the end of the ship. He always said, ‘If you weren’t sick before you got on board, you were plenty sick when you got off.’ Later on he found out that he had contracted malaria. He would get these high fevers, every year about the same time, and would be really sick for a while. There was nothing anyone could do that seemed to help.

After the war Marion worked with a crew harvesting grain near Riverside, Washington, ca. 1918.

3. Everything Nice

"When my father got home from overseas, he and Mother farmed at Omak, near Riverside. Dad said at first the crops were fantastic, higher than the horses’ backs. But as more timber was cut in the forests around the farms and more land was cleared, water became scarce, and it then became so dry that no crops would grow. It was getting harder for them to have a decent garden.

A son, William, was born in 1918. He apparently passed away as an infant. Two more children were born, my brother Alonzo and my sister Marjorie.

As farming conditions worsened in the State of Washington, Marion told Opal about the great forests and open spaces he, Matney, and their father had seen in Canada. He told her what he had heard about the vast grasslands of the Peace River country, and the many farmers from Washington who were heading to Alberta and Saskatchewan, where open rangeland was available.

He had to convince Opal that their future was to the north. I’m from Missouri, where you have to be shown something, she declared later on. Before we came up here Marion told me a lot about this country, how there was lots of feed for stock, and I wouldn’t have to do lots of work. He said we’d have everything nice up here.

Opal had been raised in a family of prosperous wheat farmers and perhaps thought life in Canada would be much the same as what she was used to.

Marion and baby Alonzo at Omak, Washington, 1919.

I remember my dad would never wear a pair of jeans with any holes in them, she said. He always had to have new ones right away.

However, by May 26, 1922, Opal had been persuaded, the farm had been sold, and the Judson family headed north.

Louis described their outfit. "They had eight horses. Dad drove a freight wagon pulled by four horses. It was filled with tools and all kinds of farming equipment. They had a crate of chickens tied on the wagon and one of them laid an egg a day, even while travelling.

"Mother drove a covered wagon with a milk cow tied behind. The wagon was filled with household things, and that’s where they slept. The wagon box was built out over the wheels to hold a bedspring. At night they camped