Alfred Harry Roper

Alfred Harry Roper

1903 - 1983

Alfred Harry Roper was born at Lac La Hache Indian Reservation # 4, 20 September 1903. His father was Harry Roper who by Alfie’s description had no specific occupation but “worked all around.” His mother was Christine Johnny Haynes [Haines] who made buckskin clothing, wool coats, sweaters and socks in her spare time. Alfie at some point gave his father $396 which he had earned while working at the Mission in Williams Lake. With this money his father who purchased calves and some sheep from a ranch near Alkalai Lake. It was from the wool of these sheep that Alfie’s mother was able to make wool clothing.

Alfie went to the Mission School at Williams Lake for 8 years but was taught the alphabet and to count to 300 by his mother before he was sent off to school. He recalls the days at school as being very long. General clean-up occupied the time between breakfast and 10 am. Then there was school to 11:30 am and after lunch school began again at 1 pm lasting until 3 pm. He recalls attending church 2 or 3 times in a day – morning, afternoon and evening. When classes ended for the summer Alfie continued to work at the Mission at a variety of tasks including, carpentry, mechanic and ranch hand.

When he finished at the Mission School, at the age of 17 or 18, he returned to Lac La Hache where he worked at Ogden’s store. He recalls that he ran the store when the “old man” was not well. The “old man”,as Alfie calls him, was Isaac Ogden who according to Alfie was his grandfather on his father’s side of the family. His tasks included picking up the mail at Exeter station a task that sometimes required a wait of as long as 9 hours. The Lac La Hache store was well patronized in these years particularly by the local natives as there was no store at Canim Lake. He remembers Tommy Archie arriving at the store with $2500 worth of furs which he used to purchase a horse. Alfie worked an 8 hour day at the store and earned $2.50.

It is not clear just how long Alfie worked at the store but when he finished this job he went down to the Canim Lake Indian Reservation where he trapped and worked for Lester McNeil in the summer and in the fall of the year. The work was mostly on the ranch owned by Benji McNeil although by that time there was a store where presumably Alfie also worked. The McNeil ranch was right at the south end of Canim Lake on nice land that was supposed to have been part of Indian Reservation. The work was varied and included land clearing, stump removal, using stumping powder, and getting rid of rocks. This work carried on all of one spring and into the summer. For fun in the evenings there was always music and dancing. He can’t recall who, but someone was able to play the piano. He recalls fishing for lake trout from an old boat in the summer and in the winter with set lines.

When he finished working for the McNeil’s he went trapping with Peter Christopher and another man whose name is not clear (Sepson Geek?) By Christmas he had earned $800 and he went to Alkalai Lake where he gave some of the money to his parents who he says had always been good to him. The years that followed were spent living both at Canim Lake and at Lac La Hache.

On 11 May 1929, he married Mary Frank at the Mission in Williams Lake. They returned to Lac La Hache and acquired some land about two miles out of town near Spout Lake. It was good land and they soon had two or three cows and a couple of horses. There is a suggestion that the land was provided by Mary’s mother who offered more to keep Alfie and Mary in the immediate area but the Chief on the Canim Lake Reserve (Isadore) asked Alfie to come there to help look after 30 head of cattle. Old Isaac Ogden also did not want to see Alfie go but it appears that he accepted the Canim Lake offer. Mary joined him but later returned to Lac La Hache as her mother was alone and presumably in need of help.

On the Canim Lake Reserve Alfie fixed up an old house originally built, but not finished, by Chief Isador. It had been derelict and required roofing as well as other work. It was a good sized house 24’ by 27’ and had 5 bedrooms upstairs. Alfie recalls that the house had high ceilings and steps inside. He was not sure in what year the house had been built but it had been sitting for some time without a roof. It was eventually taken down [after old Antoine died] and the logs –still in good shape- were bucked up for firewood.

Alfie eventually moved on from the cattle project at the Canim Lake Reserve and went to work for Gordon Graham on the Lloyd Place. This would probably have been the land which had originally been the homestead application of Marie (Phillips) Lloyd. Gordon Graham had a mill there and Alfie moved into a cabin on the property – which he purchased for $2400 and later sold for $4000. He worked for Gordon Graham for thirteen years both at the local mill and at Enterprise.

It was during this time that Alfie was asked by Chief Christopher to take on the task of Reserve policeman. As a policeman he looked after various “troubles” most of which were dealt with on the Reserve by the chief and the band councilors. The most common problem was excessive drinking and sometimes the drink of choice was lemon extract. He recalls that it was sometimes necessary to tie up the drunks until they sobered up. There were two other native policemen in addition to Alfie and they were all small men. To manage a larger angry drunk they had taught themselves the Japanese art of Judo which they learned from a book. He indicates that they practiced on each other. He remembers dealing with Wilfred Emiel who was drunk and looking for a fight one Sunday morning.

During these years a large irrigation ditch was constructed from the Auld property down to the Reserve and Alfie helped in this process by driving teams of horses which pulled a scrapper that he describes as a kind of bucket or shovel. Part of this ditch was constructed as a flume and the rest was dug into the ground. It took 3 years to finish the project during which time Alfie worked on it off and on. In the end he wasn’t convinced that the project had been a great success. Some of the Reserve land got ample water while other areas received very little. It seems that it was very hard to get water everywhere. He remembers that at various times they were able to grow good oats and even some wheat.

Alfie was asked if he had ever done any “company work” for the Reserve. This was an employment scheme in which the Reserve employed as many of the men as it could on band projects. Some of this work was on the “ditch” and even the women worked as cooks. Other jobs involved fencing and looking after the Reserve ranch. Thos who did not work for the “company” were charged $2.50 a day for groceries which presumes that those who did work received their food as part of the employment contract.

It was his time as hunter and guide that Alfie remembered as his most enjoyable years. He had 9 horses and an “an A guiding license.” He guided all over the country including Mica Mountain, the Clearwater and Big Timothy. His hunters were looking for grizzly bear, moose and caribou. He later obtained a “B License.” He recalls a close call with a grizzly which cost him a knee cap. He mentions Deception Mountain as a good place for grizzly bear. He sometimes guided with Hector Borthwick in the area around Murphy Lake.

On one occasion he set off with an American called Steve Daniels to hunt grizzly. There were three in the hunting party and eight or nine horses. They hunted a wide area and camped on Deception Lake. On the 1^st day they ran into a mother bear with two – two year old cubs eating huckleberries. They were out in the open with only small trees to hide behind. The hunting party tied up the horses and tried to move in closer without scaring the bears. Herman Powers a hunter from Bremerton got off a shot at about 75 yards as the bears began to move out and brought down one of the two year olds. The other young bear went over a log but Alfie fired and hit it only to have the bear turn on him and close to within 25 or 30 feet. Eventually they got all three bears but it was hot work. Later that day they saw another grizzly but there wasn’t much interest in shooting it given the amount of follow up work. The following morning after the bear experience they spotted seven big bucks all in a group and it was decided to shoot the largest. In the end they shot the two big deer and later in the morning a mountain goat. They had an awful time bringing their game down the mountain to where the horses had been tied. During the descent Alfie stuck a .22 rifle he was carrying for willow grouse in a tree and left it behind. It was a new rifle but he had no intentions of going back for it. “God I didn’t want to pack them down.”

Hunting trips could last as long as two weeks and Alfie was paid $5 a day for each horse and he received $9 a day. It was, however, hard work as the bears had to be skinned and the hides dried out. The only wild meat that Alfie did not eat was grizzly bear because the flesh was too gamey or strong to be good eating . He said that the old people would dry smoke or roast meat over a fire to cook it. Alfie was asked what parts of the moose the “old people” ate. He mentioned the nose, liver, heart and tongue.

He mentions the death of his daughter Lorraine in 1959 but does not explain what happened. Lorriane was eighteen years old and the place of death indicated by the Vital Event Death Registration was Mile 134 of the Cariboo Highway. It may have been a car accident.

Vital Event Death Registration

Name: Lorraine Kathleen Roper

Event Date: 1959 9 25 (Yr/Mo/Day)

Age: 18

Gender: female

Event Place: Mile 134 Cariboo Highway

Reg. Number: 1959-09-012383

B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13244

GSU Microfilm Number: 2033301

He tells a story regarding the capture of two Shuswap women by Cree Indians and how they were recovered. He heard this story from the “old people.” The essence of it was that nine Cree Indians “all in a bunch” took the women away over around Big Timothy. They walked in a line with the women between them. When they came to a camp all of the men went to sleep and while they were asleep one of the Shuswap men who had followed the party crept into the camp and mixed up all their snowshoes so when the women made their escape the Cree could not put them on. They then killed all of the Cree except for and old man and a boy so that the news would get back to the Cree and encourage them to stay away.

He tries to give Indian names for places but he can’t recall them. Buster Hamilton was supposed to have writen them all down because Buster’s mother spoke “our language.” He said he would bring some back the next time he went to Murphy Lake. Buster Hamilton was a Sushwap native who with his wife Milly built a cabin in 1942 called Ten-ee-ah on Spout Lake as a hunting base camp and operated it until 1970. A wagon trail led from Lac La Hache to the camp. At the beginning Buster Hamilton and his wife were the only ones to provide a guaranteed moose hunt. Buster Lake was named After Buster Hamilton.

He tells a story about Antoine Daniels who was given a rifle by his father (Old Man). When he went hunting up on the Rancheree Hill he came upon a white goat. He was so astonished that he thought the goat was the devil and raced off home without firing a shot. His “old man” went up on the hill and shot the goat. Alfie is a little uncertain about the origin of the goat but thinks that it must have come from the Deception Lake area. He had never seen any on Boss Mountain but had counted 14 to 20 at Decption Lake. He adds that fishing at Deception Lake is very good.

He recalls a similar event with his wife, Mary, and his daughter when she was five years old. They were camping on Baldy Mountain (Mica Mountain) and in the morning Lorraine went out to play. She had previously seen domestic sheep at her grandparents place but was confronted here by two goats. She ran back to her mother shouting “Whose Sheep?” “Whose Sheep mommie?” It was pointed out to her that these were not sheep but goats.

Alfie and his family used to spend Christmas and Easter Sunday at Alkali Lake.

He tells a very confused and convoluted story about a trip through difficult country near Baldy Mountain where he saw lots of moose, at least 10 or 11 in a burn. He was with Tommy (Archie) and Tommy said that they had to rush home because a relative had died. How did Tommy know this? They hurried to finish scrapping some hides and came on as fast as they could for two and a half days to Eagle Creek where they camped to rest the horses. The camp site was about nine or ten miles from the Canim Lake Reserve. When they arrived at the reserve everyone was gone to Alkali Lake to attend the funeral.

He remembers a number of Indians who went off to fight in the war and mentions, among others, Morris Dixon, Eddie Dixon, Peter Dixon and Paul Theodore. They all came back but Morris Dixon spent time in a German POW camp. He had been inside German lines planting mines when he was captured.

He recalls coming across an old pit house. It wasn’t a big one but it looked OK inside. There was a rock fireplace and a round hole on top to let the smoke out. The house wasn’t quite round but rather more square. There were no logs inside because it had been dug into the ground a long time ago. He was just a kid at the time and had been out chasing horses.

He speaks a little about his days as an Indian policeman and stopping a bunch from making homebrew. Joe Archie was part of this group and they had tried to hide it behind the lilacs that used to be in front of the church.

Jacob Roper, his brother lost his wife died in childbirth leaving him with four girls. She was bleeding to death and no one would cooperate with the idea of a blood transfusion.

He recalls treating a bad cold with teaspoon full of mustard. This leads on to a discussion of the medicinal plants used by the Indians. One such plant is put in hot water and used as an eye wash. The liquid is a reddish colour but he can only remember the Indian name and this is unintelligible.

Apparently there is a tree down by Ruth Lake and by Lang Lake that looks like some kind of fir tree. Someone mentions balsam fir and he says, “That’s the one.” It is used for coughing and a bad chest. He asks his wife and she tells him that you boil the balsam bark and keep drinking it for a month. “I wish I could get some right now.” Much coughing…. Someone says that “Balsam bark has lots of pitch on it.” “There are big balsams at Lang Lake and using a spoon it once took two days to collect the sap.” It was even used to treat TB and it helped old Antoine who was very sick but got well enough to go back to feeding his 70 head of cattle.

There is another mention of Buster Hamilton and his place at Two Mile Lake. There are some additional references to Rail Lake and Spout Lake and to the fact that Buster really knows the country.

The Indian name for Lac La Hache –translated- is Pretty Water. He does not know the Indian name.

Vital Event Death Registrations

Name: Alfred Harry Roper

Event Date: 1983 9 4 (Yr/Mo/Day)

Age: 79

Gender: male

Event Place: 100 Mile House

Reg. Number: 1983-09-014072

B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13633

GSU Microfilm Number: 2073150

Name: Mary Roper

Event Date: 1976 6 22 (Yr/Mo/Day)

Age: 76

Gender: female

Event Place: Quesnel

Reg. Number: 1976-09-013443

B.C. Archives Microfilm Number: B13354

GSU Microfilm Number: 2050567

The Roper, Mckinley, Ogden Connection

Alfie Roper in his interview by the 100 Mile House Historical Association states that Isaac Ogden of Lac La Hache was his father’s father which would make him Alfie’s grandfather. This is difficult to prove but can be examined in terms of the history of the Ogden, Hamilton and McKinlay families of Lac La Hache.

Archibald McKinlay was the son-in-law of Peter Skene Ogden by virtue of his marriage to Ogden’s daughter, Julia Sarah Ogden, aka Sarah Julia Ogden, 15 June 1840, at Fort Vancouver. Sarah Julia was born abt 31 July 1826 possibly in British Columbia but the records are unclear. She died in 1892 in Savona’s Ferry, Kamloops District, BC at age 66, and was buried in Savona Irrigation District, Savona, BC.

Sarah Julia Ogden McKinlay’s mother was Julia Rivet the daughter of Francois Francis Rivert. They were “Flathead” Indians. She died in Lac La Hache 21 January 1886, supposedly, at the age of 98. In addition to her daughter, Julia, she gave birth to the following children.

Michael Ogden b. 1824

David Ogden b. 1828

Euretta Ogden b. 1836

Isaac Ogden b. 1839

Peter Skene Ogden had children by at least three other women. Charles Ogden may have been the child of an unkown Cree woman. Cecelia Ogden was the daughter of Marie Comptois

In addition to the children listed above Sarah Julia appears to have assumed responsibility for Peter Ogden a child born to Peter Skene Ogden’s Cree “country wife”, Marie Comptois of Ile a La Crosse, Saskatchewan. Peter Ogden was later to marry Phrisine Brabant. Their daughter Margaret Julia Ogden married Gavin Hamilton the Chief factor of Hudson’s Bay at Fort St. James who took over the property at 150 Mile in 1867 so that he could move his large family closer to the Mission School at Williams Lake. (They had 16 children, although 2 died very early in life.) See http://www.fortlangley.ca/Hamilton.html Gavin Hamilton.

Archibald McK+inlay had been attracted to the land along Lac La Hache during various trips between 1835 and 1840 while Factor at Fort St. James and Fort Alexander. He staked land about 1862 and at the east end of the lake he built a cabin for his wife Julia Sarah, his 3 sons and 2 daughters, as well as his mother-in-law Julia (Rivet) Ogden.

In his book They Call it the Cariboo Robin Skelton (p. 96) states: “In 1870 he was joined in the area by his nephew by marriage, Isaac Ogden, who opened the only general store and fur depot of any importance between Clinton and 150 Mile. Isaac also acted as Indian Agent in the area.” Aside from the indicated year, 1870, this makes reasonable sense. However, according to various records (BC Archives Vital Death Registration 1927-09-39422) Isaac Ogden was born about 1862 and would have been 8 years old in 1870 an unlikely to have opened a general store. This aside, he may well have come to live with his uncle and mother/step mother in 1870 and later opened the store. The 1901 Census for Yale and Cariboo confirms Isaac Ogden’s birth date as the 13^th of April 1862. The IGI for Isaac Ogden states that he married Rose Agnes Eagle, 29 June 1899, presumably at or near Lac La Hache. There is no record of this marriage in the vital records of the BC Archives. The same record states that Rose Agnes Eagle was christened on the 17^th of March 1872 at the Onward Ranch. At the time of her marriage to Isaac Ogden she would have been 27 years old and Isaac 37.

Rose Agnes and Isaac Ogden appear to have had 3 sons prior to their marriage in 1899:

Peter C Ogden b. 1893

Percy W Ogden b. 1895 (married Elizabeth D. Nicholson)

Moffatt H Ogden b. 1896

Rose Agnes died in Williams Lake about 1900. The IGI record actually states that she died 17 Nov 1898 but she would have had difficulty getting married in 1899 if this was in fact the case. Clearly there are some difficulties with the dates surrounding poor Rose. There is no death record for either Rose Ogden or Rose eagle held by the BC Archives but this is not surprising given the year.

We know that in 1901 Isaac Ogden was a widower with 3 sons. (1901 Census of Canada, Yale and Cariboo, Isaac Ogden). We also have the good fortune know the full names of two of his sons, John Moffatt Ogden (married Wilhelmenia Boitano) and Percy William Ogden (married Elizabeth D. Nicholson), both of whom went overseas with the BC Regiment in World War 1. Their attestation records survive and are available from the National Library and Archives in Ottawa. Peter Charles Ogden died the 22^nd of November 1913 (BC Archives Vital Event Death Registration 1913-09-028685.) We also do not know who Isaac Ogden’s father was. We can, however, make an educated guess based on the information available.

It seems likely that Isaac was the son of Peter and Phrisine Ogden and brother to Margaret Julia Ogden who later married Gavin Hamilton. One clue is the name Peter given to Isaac Ogden’s eldest son. Usual naming patterns support the theory that oldest male is given the name of the father’s father. This is a little nebulous but the 1901 Census for Isaac Ogden offers an additional snippet of information under the heading of Tribal where it states Cree followed by two meaningless letters “eb.” Peter Ogden’s mother, Marie Comptois, was a Cree whereas Julia (Rivet) Ogden was a Flathead. Online family records held by Ancestry.com may support this conclusion and state that Isaac Ogden was born in Fort St. James in 1862 the second youngest child of Phrisine Brabant and Peter Ogden.

All of this brings us no closer to Alfie Roper but it does establish a framework of relationships. In his interview Alfie states that after he finished at the Mission School in Williams Lake he went to work for Isaac Ogden in the general store. As previously indicated he also states that Isaac was his father’s father. Harry Roper was the name of Alfie’s father and according to the 1911 Census for Yale and Cariboo he was born in 1886 at Alkali Lake. In 1886 Isaac Ogden was 24 years of age and had probably been living in the area for a number of years. He does not get around to marrying Rose Eagle until she had born 3 of his children and then most probably when she was on her deathbed. It is well within the realms of possibility that Isaac Ogden could have had any number of relationships resulting in children. In these years when there were very few white women around it was very common to take a native women as a wife although the term wife must be used loosely. It is also a fact that Isaac Ogden’s bloodlines were hardly pure Anglo-Saxon no matter who his father might have been. Harry Roper’s mother probably went back to her people at Alkali Lake when she learned she was pregnant knowing full well that marriage to Isaac was unlikely. It is difficult to account for the name “Roper” given Shuswap Indian naming practices but it may have been a surname in use in her family. It is worth noting that 108 Mile Ranch was pre-empted by William Roper in 1863 and sold to C.M. Beak in 1868.

It is difficult to draw precise conclusions but it is probably a given that many of the Indian people of the area like Alfie were not full blooded Indians. The intermarriage of Ogdens, Mckinleys and Hamiltons with native women was more the norm than not.

Corrections and additions to this document were provided by Diane S. Dickert a direct descendant of Peter Skene Ogden and Julia Rivert.