Vanishing B.C. The Lawless Ranch near Anarchist summit

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This page last updated March 1, 2011

Note to readers: because of the amount of information I've moved everthing that isn't about the Lawless Ranch, including the Eek Ranch, to a separate page on Charlton's & other ranches and Bridesville

A 1995 watercolour showing the ranchhouse out in the middle of a vast grassland with, in the distance, the dramatic peaks of Cathedral Ridge.

Year 2002, in the sketchbook, a closer view.

Written 2001: The ranch just to the west of Anarchist Summit is known locally as the Lawless place. I was told by Fred Lawless of Cawston that it was built of squared and dovetailed tamarack timbers that have been sheathed with horizontal drop siding. It actually looks like a typical frame house, perhaps balloon-framed. The interesting point is the clear span across the living-dining room, supported by a major beam parallel to the side walls; that open room, together with the large kitchen and pantry (it must be a pantry as it's windowless) supports the notion of many ranchhands being fed, with the family's own quarters somewhat separate at the front and upstairs, where there are probably three bedrooms (it is only about 600 square feet).

The living-dining area is currently used to store some kind of rock or gravel, with the left of the house empty, very rickety and unsafe; ergo, I didn't enter it or climb the stairs to inspect the room layout on the second floor.

Note from Kathy Horrocks, 2010: My Mom was born in the farmhouse. Her maiden name was Bernadine Cecilia Lawless. She married and became Mrs. Bernadine Horrocks.

Note from Noelle Nicole, 2010: I am a daughter of Bernadine Horrocks who grew up in the yellow farmhouse near Bridesville. I saw your watercolour online and it spoke to me in a way that I can not properly express. As a little girl I spent my summers in the Okanagen camping with my parents and we always stopped and went through the house to visit it. At that time it was rundown and seemed somewhat abandoned – it was very haunting with dusty jigsaw puzzles left incompleted and dishes and pots and pans out as if people had just got up and walked out and never returned.

Note from Melanie Sawyer, 2010: Your site features my Great Grandmother's (Minnie May Lawless's) homestead in Bridesville. I have been to the homestead and have been able to take many pictures of it in its current state. I know that Minnie May was buried on the property beside her husband William Lawless somewhere under a tree? My Aunts and Uncle know where it is. In addition, I believe that Minnie has two surviving daughters who are my great Aunts, Mercedes and Bernadine. I have old pictures of people that I believe are the Tedrows, and I have the original marriage license for Sarah Hopkins and Lucien Tedrow. I am related to Minnie, because her youngest daughter Margaret (Skippy) Lawless married Reginald Rumley. They gave birth to my mother, Carole May Rumley. I am also second cousins to Josephine Lawless and Fred Lawless of Cawston.

Note from Josephine Lawless, 2008: My father and his brothers and sisters were born on the ranch. My father John Lawless and my mother and my 5 brothers and I lived in our house there until 1966, six years after my father sold it to the Lehmans.
My Grandfather William Lawless built the house in 1900. My grandmother, Minnie Tedrow's, mother and father and their children lived in a little log house down by the old barn. I don't think that my great grandparents, the Tedrows, ever lived in the house.

Note from Jill Kellerman, 2008: I am working on a project through the Bridesville Community Club and the Legion. We were wondering if any of the Tedrow or Lawless family members who are buried at the Sidley/Lawless cemetary were enlisted? The Legion will financially help restore graves and replace headstones (if needed) if the person was ever enlisted. This includes peacetime soldiers as well as people who fought in the wars. If you have any information it would be appreciated. (Contact me to get in touch with her.)

Note from Cheri Astrahan, amateur genealogist, 2008: Is the John Wilson Tedrow on your webpage the same one that married Mary A. Truelove and had five children, four living in the 1900 census where she is a widow? IF yes, I have a lot on this family even though I am not directly related. (Contact me to get in touch with her.)

Correspondence from Bill McFall: Our family has been researching Tedrow for about a year now. We find that Lucien Tedrow was married to Sarah Hopkins in Colfax, Whitman County, Washington Territory in 1885. The couple lived in or near LaCrosse, Whitman County, Washington Territory. Lucien and Thomas (sometimes James) Tedrow went over The Brigade Trail in 1891 and lived in British Columbia Canada. He is listed in the 1901 Census as 43 years old and Widdowed. All, he and his seven children, were listed as Canadian Citizens and His brother George is living with him. His wife died after 1900 and sometime later the children were sent to an orphanage.
I mention all of this data because we find the names of the Tedrow family and the name William Lucien are a strange coincidence on this Tedrow Homestead.

From the 1901 Census for British Colombia

SURNAME        GIVEN             BIRTH DATE     SEX       Race        OCC        BIRTH              Mar

TEDROW         Lucian               29 Apr 1857        M                 W      F              US                 W

TEDROW        Minie M              05 Nov 1885        F                 W                       US                 S

TEDROW        George E             08 Nov 1887        M              W                       US                 S

TEDROW        Jessie G              16 Mar 1891        M              W                       US                 S

TEDROW        Mabel                   01 Apr 1893        F               W                       BC                 S

TEDROW        Floied                   21 Jan 1895        M               W                       BC                 S

TEDROW       Clarence E              28 Oct 1898        M              W                     BC                S

TEDROW       Fredrick                 27 Jun 1900        M              W                       BC                 S
TEDROW       George W            01 Nov 1846        M                 W                       US                 S

In this 1901 BC Census, Lucian is about 43 years old and Widowed. All of them, him and the children, were listed as Canadian Citizens and his brother George is living with him

We wonder if the children were sent to an orphanage after Lucian died in 1902.

We have heard rumors that at least one of the children left the orphanage and moved to Kansas; but the family was not from Kansas; however, Sadie, Lucian's wife was from Kansas. J.W. and Rachel were both born in Ohio, married in Illinois and followed the Oregon Trail. Then they moved to the Palouse country, I believe, after J.W. died.

Among the things we do not know are when his brother, George H Tedrow died. George was born 01 Nov 1846 and is buried in this Sidney-Lawless Cemetery; George was reported blind in later years' censuses. We find the Sidley-Lawless Cemetery on line and wonder if the cemetery is on the Lawless Farm. It appears to be a small cemetery.

Sidley- Lawless Cemetery

COSS Charles Willard 1940
COSS Francis Johnston 1919
COSS Roy E. 1910
HORROCKS Albert W. 1992
HORROCKS Bernadine Cecilia 2003
JOHNSTON Ernest Stephen 1948
JOHNSTON Georgina Olive 1983
LAWLESS Elmer
LAWLESS John 1999
LAWLESS Joseph 1922
LAWLESS Josephine 1930
LAWLESS Linda Mae 1953
LAWLESS Minnie May 1970
LAWLESS Patricia Ann 1954
LAWLESS William 1941
LETTS Mrs William 1912
TEDROW George
TEDROW LUCIEN 1902
TEDROW Sarah E. 1900

Note that the earliest burials in the Sidley-Lawless Cemetery are the Tedrow clan. The Minnie May Lawless is most likely Minnie May Tedrow b 5 Nov 1885 in Washington Territory or in Oregon.

I wish I had been looking for these people in 1965. Minnie should have had a lot of stories to tell. We have particularly been looking for the connection to J.W Tedrow and his father, David Tedrow. In this search we are trying to uncover locations for all known relatives with the hope that something will lead to the proof. One missing data point is the death and burial place of Minnie May Tedrow (Lawless?) grandmother, Rachel (Chapman) Tedrow. Rachel was born about 1824 in Ohio. She and her husband J. W. and either 5 or 6 children came across on the Oregon Trail in 1852. They homesteaded (by Donation Land Claim) in Polk County, Oregon. They later (1860 & 1870 Oregon Census) moved to Douglas County, Oregon. About this time J W died and the family moved to Umatilla County, Oregon. J W does not appear with the remainder of his family in the 1875 Umatilla County Census or in later Washington Census. The family homesteaded again in Whitman County, Washington Territory before they moved up to Okanogan County, Washington.

My wife, Bette Ann Tedrow McFall is the great granddaughter of another of Rachel's sons, John Wilson Tedrow. John Wilson Tedrow was a cowboy in Tombstone, Arizona Territory and Cochise County, Arizona Territory. He was a stage coach driver and died in Prescott, Arizona in 1899. Do you know of anyone who would have any photographs of the Tedrow gravesites or of the Tedrows (including Minnie Lawless)?

***

Postscript: in 2008, Josephine Lawless contacted Bill McFall. She wrote to me: "It turns out that his wife is a Tedrow, her great grandfather was my great grandfather, Lucien Tedrow's brother." So some parts of this history have been sorted out.

A photograph marked "Larry Lehman Ranch," showing the property as it was in the 1960s or 1970s. It was submitted by Kathy Horrocks.

***

Note from Connie Kempter, 2006: I am originally from Berlin and bred Trakehner horses first in Hesse and Bavaria States, then in Echunga in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia (1980 - 1984) and since 1986 on the western outskirts of Montreal at Rappenhof, a 40-acre breeding farm and boarding barn/equestrian centre.

This September my boyfriend Steven Watson and I went on a roundtrip by rental car through Alberta, BC and Washington. Unexpectedly we fell madly in love with a loghome on 6 acres, right on the corner of Crowsnest Hwy (# 3) and Sidley Mountain Rd., a few hundred meters from Anarchist Mountain and purchased it to be our home as soon as we can sell here. We will still keep a stallion and three of our mares there, but run it a private stable. Apart from the 360-degree view of Mt. Baldy/Mt.McKinney, the Cascade Range and the Bridesville valley, the main attraction for me was that it reminded me so much of Australia! And I was always somewhat homesick for Australia ever since I left that beloved continent after a divorce....

With this new home comes the Bridesville Cemetery. It is a roughly half-acre-sized 'enclave' of land between the house and Hwy 3 with 'right of way' through our driveway. We have jurisdiction over it, but cannot use it. We found about 10 flat tombstones with the names of the original Bridesville settlers. Over the internet I also located a book by Susan Dahlo about this cemetery. There is one copy in the Canadian National Library in Ottawa. I don't know, if they would let me copy it, though.

I studied History at Freie Universitaet Berlin, but I was always more interested in the individual fate of the 'little' people, especially in the hardships endured by the early settlers of the North American West. (Karl May influence?)

I will try to learn as much as possible about the local history of the Osoyoos to Rock Creek area and the lives of the people buried at our place. We will for sure look well after our little burial ground in honor of the pioneers. There is a Bridesville Society and I met already the Harfmans, our direct neighbours. I would really love to contribute in the effort to keep the past of the area alive. I do hope there is a way to keep the Lawless homestead around and maybe restored and used one day, ideally for a local museum. But that is for the private owners to decide....

***

Thanks to Penny Dell and Arthur Harfman for the original contact information, and to Kathy Horrocks, a cousin of Josephine Lawless.

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