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BIRTH: February 9th, 1867 (St. Anicet, QB) | ||
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Thomas Christien came
to White Valley with his father Alex in 1889. On May 7th, 1890, Tom applied
for 160 acres at the junction of Rawlings Lake Road and Highway 6, on
the western side. With so many relatives already settled in the valley,
he soon met a distant cousin, Marie Deschamps. Tom and Marie were the
first local couple to be married in St. Anne's Church at O'Keefe Ranch
on February 1st 1892. They settled on their farm with their six children,
Emery, Ernest, Aldea, Marjorie, Blanch and Diana.
Tom had a sawmill on his farm for a few year, but sold it with the
land around 1912 to Cleophas Quesnel
and moved into Lumby. Their house in Lumby was later known as the Eatmore
Cafˇ. Tommy built a large livery stable out of which he ran a taxi service.
He would use a horse, a buggy in summer and a cutter in the winter.
He also drove the mail and passenger service to Vernon. One day while
in Vernon he met a man named Mr. Schultz who wanted a heavy team of
horses for bush work in the north. Tom delivered the horses by boat
and when he got there Mr. Schultz was so impressed that he offered Tom
a job hauling wood across Atlin Lake.
Tom lost his life doing his job. One day while hauling logs on his sled, the cinch broke and the logs rolled over him, when the man following the sled found him with a laying on the ground with a broken neck. He was buried on January 28th, 1918.
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