Susan Louisa Moir Allison

Susan Louisa Moir Allison (August 18, 1845 – February 1, 1937) was a Canadian author and pioneer. In 2010 Allison was designated a National Historic Person by the Canadian Government.

Early life and education Susan Louisa Moir was born on August 18, 1845, in Ceylon, where her father owned a tea plantation. When Susan's father died, her family, consisting of her mother, sister and brother, relocated to England, where she was educated. In 1857, Susan's mother remarried, this time to Thomas Glennie, a Scotsman. In 1860, when Susan was 14, Glennie moved the family to Hope, British Columbia. However, in 1864, Susan's stepfather deserted his new family, leaving her to work as a governess. Using this experience, Susan established Hope's first school with her mother, and subsequently married John Fall Allison, one of the founders of what is now Princeton, British Columbia, in 1868.

Similkameen Valley After their marriage, the Allisons moved to the Similkameen Valley, becoming the first non-Aboriginal settlers to live there. The couple, aided by John's knowledge of Chinook Jargon, a trade language, as a result of his previous marriage to an Indigenous woman, became close with nearby First Nations populations. There, the two produced 14 children. They ran a trading post that welcomed both Canadian and American visitors, including, in 1883, William Tecumseh Sherman.

Her earliest known publications appeared in the 1890s. In 1891, an ethnographic paper of Allison's was published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and another in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 39 years after her death.

Further writings attributed to Allison, including poems and retellings of Indigenous stories she learned in the 1800s, were later compiled in the collection In Her Words'' (2010), some of which were published under the pen name Stratton Moir.