Meldrum Family Profile
Thomas Meldrum was the first white man to permanently settle in the Chilcotin.
This pioneer family profile is being compiled from public records. Family members have not been contacted. Please forward any comments/corrections or additions to Wanda Story.
1821 - Thomas Meldrum was born.
1860 -Thomas Meldrum came to the Williams Lake valley. It is believed that he came with the groups of people that are referred to as the Overlanders, coming across Canada to the Gold Rush.
-Thomas Meldrum applied for pre-emption on 40 acres of the southwest corner of the Alexandria District.
1861 - Thomas Meldrum partnered with William Pinchbeck and took up land half a mile south of the Davidson farm near Williams Lake. They built a roadhouse and operated a store. Later William Lyne arrived and the three partners formed an alliance known as Pinchbeck & Co.
1863 - Thomas Meldrum applied to pre-empt 160 acres, fifteen miles from Williams Lake on Brigade Trail towards Alexandria
1867 - Meldrum, Thomas was granted a pre-emption on what would become Meldrum Creek and he moved from the Williams Lake valley to become the first permanent white settler in the Chilcotin region.
-Thomas took a wife from the Shuswap Native band. A portrait was taken.
1868 - A daughter Mary Meldrum was born.
1870 - A son Thomas Meldrum was born in June.
1874 - A daughter Anne Meldrum was born.
1875 - The BC Voters list show Thomas Meldram as a farmer on a land pre-emption living west of the Fraser near the Chilcotin.
1876 - A daughter Maggie Meldrum was born.
1881 - John Thrift Meldrum was born on June 12th. In the census of Williams Lake-Canoe Creek, Thomas is listed as 55 years old, a Presbyterian from Ireland and a farmer. He is listed as married but no wife is listed. Native peoples were censused separately. He is listed with 5 children; Mary 13 years, Thomas 11 years, Anne 7 years, Maggie 5 years and John an infant.
1884 - John Meldrum was born on June 13th.
1887 - Thomas Meldrum is listed in the Williams Lake Directory, as a farmer living in the Chilcotin.
1889 - Thomas Meldrum died on October 4th at the age of 68. The death was registered as having occurred in the Quesnel District. (BC Death Registration Number 1889-09-233167)
-Thomas, his wife and children are buried in a family plot on the ranch of the former Meldrum Moon Ranch.
1891 - Eunice Meldrum married Frederick C. Copeland on May 24th. The marriage is listed as taking place in the Clinton District. (BC Marriage Registration Number: 1891-09-175269)
1896 - Thomas Meldrum cancelled a Hay/Meadow Lease from the Government on February 14th.
1898 - The BC Voters list shows Thomas Meldrum as a farmer living in the Chilcotin.
-Eunice Copeland, nee Meldrum died before 1901.
1901 - Three Meldrum brothers are listed in the 1901 Census of the Chilcotin. Thomas 28 years, is listed as the head of the family and a farmer, and Thrift 19, and John 16, are living with him. The three declare to be of Shuswap Band origin and that they belong to the Roman Catholic church.
1910 - Otto Joseph Meldrum was born.
1917 - Frances Hall, 58 years old, died on 24 Feb. 1917 and was buried on the Meldrum Creek Ranch. John Meldrum's Probabte and Estate files were processed in the Supreme Court in Quesnel.
1922 - Richard Stowell married Emily Kostering on 5 October 1922 at Meldrum Creek (BC Marriage Reg. Number: 1922-09-251798)
1923 - No teacher is listed as instructing in the Meldrum Creek area.
1925 - Thomas Meldrum married Emily Charly on September 8th at Meldrum Creek. (BC Marriage Registration Number 1925-09-297036)
1928 - Alexina Rae is listed as the teacher for the Meldrum Creek area.
1937 - Fred Thrift Meldrum died on December 21st at the age of 1 at Meldrum Creek. (BC Death Registration Number: 1937-09-539540)
1948 - Thrift Meldrum died on December 26th in Williams Lake at the age of 66 years (BC Registration Number: 1948-09-011741). According to Faith Moosang's biography of Pioneer Chow Dong Hoy, Meldrum took portraits of the Tsilhqotin (Chilcotin) people and White settlers. Based on the two privately owned photographs the author saw, he also took landscape views. Moosang (in 1999) states that his photographs are now lost.
1955 - Thomas Meldrum died on July 1st, in Williams Lake at the age of 82 years. (BC Registration Number: 1955-09-007486)
1964 - Florence Meldrum died on December 21st at the age of 49 years in Williams Lake. (BC Registration Number: 1964-09-016885)
1971 - Otto Joseph Meldrum died on October 23rd at the age of 61 years in Williams Lake. (BC Registration Number: 1971-09-015058)
1974 - Irvine Rupert Meldrum died on November 4th at the age of 48 years in Williams Lake. (BC Registration Number: 1974-09-016923 )
1975 - Elizabeth Anna Meldrum died on February 28th at the age of 64 in Williams Lake. (BC Registration Number: 1975-09-004490)
There is a Cemetery on the Meldrum Creek Ranch:
Frances Hall, died at Alexis Creek on 24 Feb 1917,
Aged 58, Female (Death Reg. Number: 1917-09-241424)
Thomas Meldrum died on October 4th at the age of 68. The death was registered as
having occurred in the Quesnel District. (BC Death Registration Number 1889-09-233167)
Thomas's Shuswap wife and children are buried at the Meldrum Creek Ranch.
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Last updated 30 December, 2004
