William Pinchbeck (1831 – July 1893) was one of the original settlers in the
Cariboo
The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region.
The Cariboo was the ...
region of
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. He was a member of the
British Columbia Provincial Police
The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950.
One of the first law enforcement agencies in North America, the British Columbia Provincial Police was formed ...
and owned a
roadhouse and many other properties in
Williams Lake, British Columbia
Williams Lake is a city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, in the central part of a region known as the Cariboo. Williams Lake is the second largest city, by population of metropolitan area, in the Cariboo after neighbouring Quesnel. ...
.
Early years
Pinchbeck was born in
Great Steeping, Lincolnshire, England in 1831. He was the fifth of the 13 children born to Robert Pinchbeck and Jane Anne Anderson. At the age of 18, he moved to
San Francisco, United States
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of California cities by population, fourt ...
where he operated a roadhouse during the
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
. He later traveled north to
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, where he joined the British Columbia Provincial Police.
[The Pinchbeck Family](_blank)
/ref>
Williams Lake
In 1860, during the Cariboo Gold Rush
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later joined the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River, ...
, Pinchbeck accompanied Gold Commissioner Philip Henry Nind
Philip Henry Nind (7 April 1831 – 9 March 1896) was an English rower and gold commissioner in colonial British Columbia. He was also a politician in Queensland, Australia, where he was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Early ...
to Williams Lake to create a local government and bring law and order to the area. Nind had originally considered Fort Alexandria
Alexandria or Fort Alexandria is a National Historic Site of Canada on the Fraser River in British Columbia, and was the end of the Old Cariboo Road and the Cariboo Wagon Road. It is located on Highway 97, north of 100 Mile House and south of Qu ...
for this purpose but chose Williams Lake instead as it was at a junction of two main pack trails: one from the Douglas Road
The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...
and another through the Fraser Canyon
The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...
.
Like many provincial policemen of the era, Pinchbeck had to fulfill a variety of duties including Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
, lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
, judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
, and jailer
A prison officer or corrections officer is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have been ...
.
Throughout 1861-1863, Pincheck, in partnership with Thomas Meldrum and William Lyne, formed Pinchbeck and Company and built a roadhouse, a general store, a sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
a flour mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
, a distillery
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...
and a horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
. The horse races often drew large crowds of spectators and on some of the biggest races the stakes could be as high as $100,000.
Although the Cariboo Road
The Cariboo Road (also called the Cariboo Wagon Road, the Great North Road or the Queen's Highway) was a project initiated in 1860 by the Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas. It involved a feat of engineering stretching fro ...
bypassed Williams Lake in 1863, Pinchbeck stayed on in the area and continued to prosper and his roadhouse suffered no lack of business, particularly in the winter when it catered to local miners who stayed there until they could return to the goldfields in the spring.
Pinchbeck's company eventually owned most of the Williams Lake Valley and his roadhouse prospered and became famous for its "White Wheat Whiskey" which came from Pinchbeck's own distillery and sold for 25 cents a shot.
Domestic life
In 1863, Pinchbeck began a common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...
with Chulminick, a local First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
Shuswap woman, who may have been the daughter of Chief William, for whom Williams Lake is named.
Their home was located where the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds are today. They had two sons, William Felix, born in 1867 and James, born in 1872.
In 1884, after returning to England, Pinchbeck married Alice Elizabeth Kilham and returned to Williams Lake where he built his new bride a ranch house on the lake, which they called the "Lake House" and was one of the finest homes in the Cariboo.
The couple had three sons: Robert in 1885, Fredrick in 1887, and Cyril in 1889.
By the late 1880s both William Lyne and Thomas Meldrum had left the partnership and Pinchbeck had sole ownership of the entire valley. However, the Cariboo region's economy was by then beginning to decline. The initial excitement over the gold rush was long past and with no major roads running near Williams Lake, Pinchbeck's ranch and businesses were no longer profitable.
Pinchbeck died on July 30 or 31st,
1893, and was buried in a plot overlooking Williams Lake.
Notes
Further reading
* ''Cariboo Chilcotin People and Places'' Irene Stangoe
External links
William Pinchbeck Family Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinchbeck, William
Canadian police officers
Cariboo people
English emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia
1831 births
1893 deaths