One of nine children, sixteen-year-old Catherine sailed to New York in 1850 to escape the terrible famine. She worked as a maid in Springfield, Massachusetts and taught herself to read.
Gold Rush in Canada’s Cariboo District
Augustus Schubert, born in Saxony, Germany in 1826, arrived in New York in 1854. After he and Catherine O’Hare married in 1855, the couple moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where she managed their grocery store and he worked as a carpenter. With their two children born in 1856 and 1858, they moved to Fort Garry (now known as Winnipeg in Manitoba).
In 1861 prospectors found gold on Williams Creek in the Cariboo district of interior British Columbia. A large group of men from eastern Canada arrived by paddle steamer at Fort Garry in May 1862. They planned to follow the overland route from the fort to the Cariboo gold fields.
Overlanders Plan Trek at Fort Garry
Augustus decided to join them. Catherine, who was pregnant, insisted that she and their three children would accompany him. In June, the large group set out across the prairies. Their numbers increased to about 150, organized into several groups. The Schubert family had one saddle horse and a Red River cart. The cart was pulled by a cow to supply milk and an ox. The trek was made more difficult by eleven straight days of rain.
Each day, the wagons pulled out at three a.m., stopped at 5, and again at 11, then camped at about 6 p.m. At Fort Edmonton, about 900 miles from Fort Garry, they spent several days resting and trading carts and oxen for horses.
Yellowhead Pass in Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountain Yellowhead Pass was their next great challenge at 3,711 feet (1,131 m) above sea level. The route included treacherous, narrow paths with high rock face on one side and steep banks on the other.
Having successfully moved through the pass, the travelers divided into two groups. The larger one chose to build rafts and canoes and travel the Fraser River to Quesnel. The smaller group that included the Schubert family decided to drive their horses across land. They encountered dense forest and rough terrain. Eventually, they built rafts and canoes for going down the Thompson River. Through three rainy days and a nine-mile portage, they persevered.
Hudson’s Bay Company Fort
The Schuberts and their party arrived at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Kamloops October 13. The next day, with assistance of First Nations women, Catherine O’Hare Schubert gave birth to a girl. The baby was named Rose Anne for the rosehips the travelers had eaten to survive. The family lived at the fort during that winter while Augustus worked as carpenter and cook.
Augustus Schubert mined for gold in the Cariboo for eleven years. Catherine (referred to as ‘lady overlander’) and their six children resided in Lillooet. When he left the search for gold, the family settled on a farm in Spallumcheen near the present town of Enderby.
Augustus Schubert died in Armstrong in 1908 and his widow ten years later. A statue depicting the Schubert family’s arrival on their raft stands in front of Kamloops City Hall. A memorial which honors Catherine as a “brave and notable pioneer” was unveiled in Armstrong in 1927.
Sources:
Yellowhead Pass and its People, Compiled and Published by Valemount Historic Society, 1984
Overland from Canada to British Columbia by Thomas McMicking, University of British Columbia Press, 1981
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