1862 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1862 in Canada.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria^[1]

Federal government

• Parliament — 7th

Governors

• Governor General of the Province of Canada — Viscount Monck
• Colonial Governor of Newfoundland — Alexander Bannerman
• Governor of New Brunswick — Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon
• Governor of Nova Scotia — George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
• Governor of Prince Edward Island — George Dundas

Premiers

• Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada –
  • John A. Macdonald, Canada West Premier (until May 24)
  • George-Étienne Cartier, Canada East Premier (until May 24)
  • John Sandfield MacDonald, Canada West Premier
  • Louis-Victor Sicotte, Canada East Premier
• Premier of Newfoundland — Hugh Hoyles
• Premier of New Brunswick — Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Premier of Nova Scotia – Joseph Howe
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – Edward Palmer

Events

• April 7 – United Kingdom-United States treaty for suppression of African slave trade is signed.
• May 20 – Macdonald-Cartier government falls. Free interprovincial trade granted by the Crown.
• August 2 – Victoria, British Columbia, is incorporated as a city

Full date unknown

• The first female student is accepted into Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick
• The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic sweeps through Fort Victoria area and up the length of the northwest coast, killing an estimated 20,000 First Nations people
• William Duncan, an Anglican missionary on the northwest coast, establishes the village of Metlakatla with 50 Tsimshian followers, who adopt the Christian faith and a European lifestyle. By 1880, more than 1,000 converts live there.
• Construction begins on the Cariboo Wagon Road to link coastal shipping to Barkerville and the Cariboo goldfields.

Births

• January 9 – Joseph-Octave Samson, businessperson, politician and 28th Mayor of Quebec City (died 1945
• June 29 – William Johnston Tupper, politician, 12th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (died 1947)
• July 8 – Josephine White Bates, Canadian-born American author (died 1934)

Deaths

• August 8 – Allan MacNab, businessman, soldier, lawyer and politician (born 1798)
• August 18 – Simon Fraser, fur-trader and explorer (born 1776)

Historical documents

Published letter describes Fraser River riches in the Cariboo Gold Rush^[2]

Map of British Columbia gold regions, including "Routes of Communication with the Cariboo Mines"^[3]

Settling Indigenous people near Winnipeg is opposed by residents in published letter^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Queen Victoria The Canadian Encyclopedia . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . 5 December 2022.
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20171019010017/http://personal.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/goldbc1862.html "The Gold Diggings of British Columbia"
3. Gust. Epner, "Map of the Gold Regions in British Columbia" (1862), UBC Library. Accessed 24 October 2021
4. https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:2744694 "Settling Indians in St. Paul's Parish"