Laviolette Cabin

English Signage

Richard and Sarah

Much of the history connected to this Turtle Valley homestead cabin comes from an oral tradition. Stories have been passed on from Sarah and Dick Lovelette to their children and grandchildren. Like bookends, information stored in the National Archives and BC Archives and Records Service confirms a range of dates in the family's oral history.

Although they had been a couple for years, Sarah and Dick officially married in 1901.* The 1911 census shows them living in Turtle Valley with children Eva (Evelina), Lottie (Charlotte), and George. Sarah's grandson Napoleon DeLeenheer and cousin (?) Beatrice Laurence also lived with the family. Four years after the census was taken, Richard "Lovellep" completed his homestead claim on the NE quadrant of section 26, Township 21, Range 12, West of the 6th M. in 1915. Few other government documents have survived.

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*We would be remiss if Sarah's previous marriages were not noted. At 18 she had a relationship with Daniel Foster and a daughter, Annie, was born in 1874. Later, Sarah's father gave her and three sisters to different westerners in marriage. Sarah's country marriage to Donald Grant McPherson resulted in two daughters, Alice and Lizzie (Mary-Ann). According to author Joyce Dunn, Sarah left McPherson for undisclosed reasons and her three daughters remained with him. McPherson moved to Pinantan to ranch there. Alexander Porteous was Sarah's next husband and the two had a daughter, Florence Blanch(e). Porteous moved to the West side of Okanagan Lake, married another woman, and appears on the voter's list in 1898.

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Family members give us insight into what brought the couple together. Richard Laviolette was born in Cornwall, Ontario and worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Family legend has it that Richard was on the crew that drove the last spike at Craigellachie. With his employment ending in 1885, the French descendant made it to Notch Hill, the Canadian Pacific Railway settlement, near Salmon Arm. Western Land Grants were being offered to both C. P. R. employees and settlers. The country was young, the Shuswap needed clearing, and Richard Laviolette was interested.

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The couple's descendants tell us that the land in Turtle Valley was a special place and a traditional land of the Secwepemc, the First Peoples of the area. Dick was interested in one special woman. Her name was Cinmenak. Settlers bestowed a nickname on her, Buckskin Sally. She was Secwepemc and a members of the Shuswap (Neskonlith) band, a sister-in-law to Whitfield Chase, and she knew the land. The meadow adjacent to the homestead was a sacred place to her people. The government called it Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band No. 3. It was a very small reserve with no one living on it. According to sources it was a favoured hunting and gathering ground for the three bands in the area.

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Sometime around 1890 Sarah met Dick, the man she was to spend the rest of her days with. According to provincial records, banns were read at Shuswap Little Lake Church and Father LeJeune married 41 year old labourer Richard Laviolette and 40 year old Sarah, a woman without a last name in a Roman Catholic ceremony on May 21, 1901. Witnessed by Andrew and Adeline Thomas, the marriage lasted another twenty years.

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The couple represented a blending of two very different cultures. Richard was born in Ontario to French immigrants. He used many variations on the name Laviolette, including Lovellette, Lovelet, and Lovellet. Although he never legally changed his name, family members say that he tried to Anglicise his name in order to fit into the New World, much like his wife Sarah, or Sally, and took on a western identity. Both were trying to find a way in an emerging society.

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In interviews with family members, the blending of cultures and people is emphasized. Three languages were represented in the home, French, Secwepemctsin, and English. The home is described as an oasis for visitors. People were taken in, fed, and made welcome. The family was generous, very social, and always shared laughter.

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When Sarah died at home in 1921, a coffin was delivered to Squilax. Curious to find his roots, great-grandson Craig Adams has walked the land, looking for Sarah's grave. When he'd found that the coffin was shipped from Kamloops, he knew Sarah had been buried at home. He didn't need to look any further, leaving her at peace in Turtle Valley.

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Dick continued on his own for a time, running into bad health. He contracted gangrene, had a leg amputated, and died in care in Kamloops in 1935. He is buried there in the Pleasant Street Cemetery. Richard Laviolette, a well-known and respected farmer for over fifty years, passed his property on to the next generation.

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Since Dick and Sarah's passing, other family members have come back to the Turtle Valley. They are people who have moved away, but return to understand their past. A Secwepemc saying explains. The First Peoples say when a woman gives birth and her child's dried cord, or "belly button," falls off, she plants it knowing the grown child will always know where it came from. A person belongs where he or she is created. At least one family member says he's found that sense of home in Turtle Valley.