by Brenda Shaw

Pictures are of Jim and Nora Shaw (Jim standing-below) and Josias and Bessie Shaw

In 1921 James and Josias Shaw held a joint auction in Forestburg, Alberta and sold off all their farming equipment and the farms as well. The idea was to move to Oliver where Bessie Shaw, wife of Josias and Nora, wife of James would reunite with their mother and father William and Mettie Hill.

The auction was a huge success and both men managed to clear over $3,000 each. Bessie had made a pouch for Jos to put the money in and he wore it around his waist where he thought it would be safe. The families packed up the children and made their way to Edmonton where they stayed overnight with their cousin Fred Rowsom.

The next day they arrived at the train station and while waiting for the train, Josias was robbed at gun point and relieved of his money. He and a station guard chased after the robber and caught him but the money was never recovered and Jos and Bessie had to stay behind to testify at the trial.

Jim and Norrie and their three children, Earlis, Hazel and Everett (Sonny) boarded the train for Sicamous while Jos and Bessie headed back to Forestburg to start over again.
Jim bought land which is now the site of the Tuc-el-nuit Elementary School. He cleared the land and put in fruit trees but in the meantime he also put in ground crops. At this time the building of the Ditch was in progress so he got work enough to support his family.

By early 1926 Josias and Bessie had saved enough money and they too made the move to Oliver, buying the land next to Jim and Norrie. Their children were Gordon, Russell (my Dad), Arnold (Bill), Ernie and daughter Frances. Fran was just a few months old when they made the move. The original house that Josias built is somewhat still there and has been undergoing some kind of restoration for many years now! Jim and Norrie’s house and cabins are all still there.

Josias also planted fruit trees and ground crops and got a job on the Ditch as a Ditch rider…within a few years he was promoted to foreman with a crew of his own. He stayed on the job until his retirement in early 1950 due to ill health.

The Shaw boys, James and Josias were born in Castleford Ontario. In 1902 after the death of the family’s wife and mother, Josias, his father Henry and brother Hank came west to get in on the CPR land grants. They were eventually joined in 1910 by their sister Nell, her husband Rob and son Allan Shaw (she married her second cousin) and by their youngest brother and sister Jim and Sadie Shaw who were too young to come with their father. When Jim and Jos made the move to Oliver, the rest of the family stayed in Forestburg where their descendants still live and farm.

In 1937 an influx of women were brought in from Kelowna as the Oliver Packing House had a shortage of workers. In no time, Gordon married Jessie Luxton, Russell married Lina Pioli and Arnold (Bill) married Lillian Dalton….all Kelowna girls! Several years later, Ernie married Laura Burton and Frances married William (Bill) Taylor. Gordon moved to Winfield to manage the Packing House there and Russ, Bill, Ernie and Fran all made their home in Oliver.

Josias passed away in 1954 from heart failure; Bessie in 1976. Jim died in 1959 when he fell from a ladder in the orchard and Norrie in 1964 from cancer. All of their children are now deceased so it falls to my generation to carry on our name and our pioneer spirit.

Our roots in Oliver are deep; our families are far flung now but I know I speak for all my cousins….our home is and will always be Oliver. It is exciting to be part of the pioneer spirit that still lives in the second and third generations of families that no matter where they roam, they always make their way home now and then.