Headstone of BC Penitentiary Prisoner #5603, October 2003. Copyright © 2003 Deborah McIntosh

Stephen Poole (c. 1909 - 1946)

Eva and Ashley Poole lay flowers on Stephen's grave, January 5, 2008.
(Copyright © 2008 Deborah McIntosh.)

Stephen Poole was born around 1909, however his exact date of birth is unknown. His mother was Martha Tehanawa Poole from the area around Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, and his father was James (Jimmy) Poole from Fort Graham, BC. The Poole family were members of the Fort Graham Indian Band, and lived on reserve in the village of Fort Ware, approximately 600 km north of Prince George. To this day, Fort Ware remains one of the most isolated communities in British Columbia (travel time from Prince George is 8 - 10 hours by road, depending on conditions). In the 1940s, Fort Ware consisted of a Hudson's Bay Store, a fur cache and warehouse, and a cabin for stopover trappers.

Mr. Poole, who spoke Sekani, made his living as a trapper. He and his wife Margaret (nee Massitoe) had four children: Tommy (b. 1931), Anne, Danny and William.

In January 1943, when Mr. Poole was thirty-four years old, he was charged with the murder of his wife. A second-hand account of his arrest and incarceration by northern outfitter Skook Davidson (who had reportedly been deputized for the purpose by Prince George RCMP Sargeant George Clark) is included in Frank Cooke's memoir Wild & Free. According to Cooke, Poole was tried for his crime in a "long drawn out trial" which took place in either Prince George or Vancouver, and did not conclude until ten months following Margaret's death.

Although Mr. Poole's family understood he had been sentenced to hang, his sentence was in fact commuted to one of life imprisonment. He was transported to the B.C. Penitentiary in late 1943, and died of tuberculosis and lung cancer at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, British Columbia on June 28, 1946 at the age of thirty-seven. He had been ill for six months. Mr. Poole was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the BC Penitentiary cemetery on July 2, 1946. He was survived by all four of his children, who following their mother's death were taken to live at the Lejac Indian Residential School.

Mr. Poole is survived by his brother John Poole, the oldest living elder of the Kwadacha First Nation, by one son, Tommy Poole, and by Tommy's wife Eva and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Although some have moved away, many of Mr. Poole's descendants are members of the Kwadacha Nation.

References

RG10 Stuart Lake Agency Reel C-14772, Vol. 7474, File 19163-4.
British Columbia Division of Vital Statistics, call number: 1946-09-095314, Microfilm number B13376 (see BC Archives online Vital Event Indexes)
Dominion of Canada Registration of Death of an Indian -- Registered No. 095314
Website of the Kwadacha Nation
Teachers of the Aatse Davie School, Fort Ware, BC
Wild & Free, the memoirs of guide/outfitter Frank Cooke as told by Jack Boudreau, Caitlin Press Inc. 2004.

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