Okanagan historian Ken Mather.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED:  Heritage House Publishing

Okanagan historian Ken Mather spent 20 years living on the O'Keefe Ranch and now, more than 40 years after he first began working there he's penned a book about the historic site.

"(It's) a very significant place in terms of the history of the Okanagan Valley," Mather told iNFOnews.ca. "It was the end of the wagon road into the Okanagan Valley for several years, and had the first post office and general store in the entire Okanagan Valley."

The O'Keefe Ranch was founded by Cornelius O'Keefe in 1867, the son of a penniless Irish immigrant who'd arrived in Canada 50 years earlier.

Cornelius became a prosperous rancher, farmer and developer, but Mather doesn't shy away from the reality of what the O'Keefe Ranch also was.

"(It) represented the beginnings of colonization," Mather said.

As a historian, Mather said he takes no moral stance on what took place and doesn't romanticize settler history.

"What I want to do is tell an accurate story and let people make the assumptions they need to make," he said.

Mather said history is not black and white and is far more nuanced.

"The Indigenous people were treated very shabby but that doesn't necessarily mean that Cornelius O'Keefe was one of the ones who did that. He had an Indigenous wife, he had Indigenous cowboys, he was a neighbour to the Indigenous people at the head of the lake," Mather said. "He's tarred with the same brush as the people who were in power in British Columbia who basically divested the Indigenous people of their lands."

As was typical at the time Cornelius originally married an Indigenous woman, Alapetsa, whose descendants are still living in the North Okanagan.

Once he had enough money he travelled back to Ontario and found an Irish Catholic wife who he brought back to BC in 1880.

The arrangement may seem odd by today's standards, but Mather said Cornelius still looked after his Indigenous family.

When his Indigenous daughter married, Cornelius gave them land and helped them build a house.

"I don't think anyone's saying that they're proud of the fact that the Indigenous wives were discarded. But that was the way it worked," Mather said.

Other aspects of Cornelius' life would also raise eyebrows in today's society.

When his Irish Catholic wife died, he married a woman 40 years his junior – fathering his last child when he was in his late 70s.

While he became one of the wealthiest people in the Okanagan his idea of running for political office was quickly shut down, as society's attitudes towards Irish Catholics would never have seen him elected.

Outside of the story of the family, the O'Keefe Ranch was the site of the first post office and general store in the Okanagan Valley.

"There are a lot of old ranches in British Columbia, but none of them have the original founding buildings. It's unique in the fact that the buildings still stand, and they're still the original buildings," Mather said.

Starting in 1984, Mather was the live-in manager of the O'Keefe Ranch for 20 years, raising his children there. While he's published multiple books this is his first book about the ranch. The O'Keefe family approached him about writing it.

The book's title, The O’Keefes of O’Kanagan, is a take on Cornelius' Irish heritage as he was often called O’Keefe of O’Kanagan in the 1800s.

"I'm proud of the book," he said. "It took me 40 years to get to it."

The O’Keefes of O’Kanagan: The Five Families of O’Keefe Ranch is out April 15 from Heritage House Publishing.

For more information and to purchase a copy go here.

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