Elizabeth-(McGee) Wilson

Elizabeth (McGee) Wilson was born into an important Klahoose family sometime during the early 1880’s.  Elizabeth’s father, George McGee, was said by anthropologist Homer Barnett , to have been among the most knowledgeable of the Klahoose elders living in the 1930’s.  Her great –grandfather Opanius, was identified in Barnett’s records as the hereditary owner of the Upper Toba River watershed.  Little information is available about Elizabeth’s mother, Susan, who passed away in 1936.

In the 1880’s, when Elizabeth was born, the Klahoose had not yet established the permanent settlement in Squirrel Cove where Elizabeth’s parents lived in the 1900’s. We don’t know where Elizabeth spent her childhood years.  Her family is not listed among those owning houses at Salmon Bay - a major Klahoose community in the late 1800’s. They may have lived in K’ák’ik’i  the large mainland Comox settlement at Grace Harbour or perhaps the village of Nish7uuthin near the confluence of Filer Creek with the Toba River which was within the traditional territory of her great grandfather Opanius and his descendents.

By 1901 Elizabeth had married Jim Wilson from a large Homalco family and was living in Church House.  The couple had 2 boys. More children followed.  At least one, a daughter Adeline, became a basket maker like her mother.

Elizabeth died in 1944, the same year as her father George McGee.