S. D. Levi was part of a Jewish, merchant community that supplied goods to the
Cariboo gold fields. Originally from
San Francisco, Levi partnered with
John Boas, as general-provisions merchants, and he made his fortune in the famished
Cariboo region. A letter from the area described the conditions:
People above are nearly starving, and thousands are rushing back to save them[selves]
from famine. The only parties that have anything to sell are Levi and Boas, and they are making a heap of money.
As one of the few vendors with provisions, Levi left
Barkerville as one of the richest merchants, with $20,000 in
1862, but the journey back was difficult. When he left
Quesnel Forks for
New Westminster, the temperature was at -27 degrees Celsius and a metre of snow forced him to follow
the trail close to the
Fraser River.
After leaving the
Cariboo region and
New Westminster, Levi moved his family to
Nanaimo, where he was a charter member of the
Nanaimo Freemasons Lodge, no. 3, and Caledonia Lodge, no. 6. Unfortunately, three of Levi's four children died within nine days of each other
in
1875, and were brought down to
Victoria to be buried in the Jewish cemetery.
- 1. Marie Elliott, Gold and Grand Dreams (Victoria: Horsdal and Schubart, 2000), 13.
- 2. Robie L. Reid, Historical Notes and Biographical Sketches: 1848-1935 (Vancouver: Chapman and Warwick Ltd.), 16.
- 3. William Henry Knight, Hand-book Almanac for the Pacific States: an Official Register And Business Directory…for
the Year 1864 (San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft, 1864), 420.
- 4. Elliott, Gold and Grand Dreams, 52.
- 5. Ibid., 59.
- 6. Ibid., 44.
- 7. Reid, Historical Notes and Biographical Sketches: 1848-1935, 16.