From Denmark to the Cariboo

A captivating account of the lives of Laura, Christine, and Caroline Lindhard, three sisters who left their home in Stege, Denmark, in 1870 due to war, political turmoil, and
limited opportunities, and sought out new lives in the Cariboo region of
British Columbia.

There are few stories of
entrepreneurial, business class women in nineteenth century BC. They
didn’t keep diaries or save letters like the ruling class women often
did, and they were usually overlooked in newspaper reports. Yet many
came into British Columbia in the early years of the gold rush and
helped build and sustain the developing communities. This book tells the
stories of three sisters—Laura, Christine, and Caroline Lindhard—who
arrived in BC from Denmark in the 1870s. Coming of age in Europe, the
Lindhard sisters had aspirations that were restricted by societal norms
about what women could and should be and do.

This is a story
of how each of the sisters made a life for themselves: marrying and
having children, becoming single parents at an early age, marrying again
or not, working together, providing for their children, and making
choices that set them on different paths. While their lives diverged at
various points, their commitments to each other and the next generation
remained strong.

The sisters’ stories illustrate the
importance of family and community relationships as support structures
for women entrepreneurs who combine family responsibilities with earning
a living. While they were not heroic in the traditional, patriarchal
sense of the word, the Lindhard sisters were powerful, influential
members of their families and their community, and their lives reveal
much about the complex social fabric of early British Columbia and the
unsung contributions of women.