In 1860, at the age of fourteen, Susan Louisa Moir left England for British Columbia. After settling initially at Hope, she lived briefly in both Victoria and New Westminster, then BC's two most important settlements. Returning to Hope, she helped her mother open the community's first school. In 1868, she married John Fall Allison and, on her honeymoon, rode over the Allison Trail into the unsettled Similkameen Valley.Her record of the voyage, of Victoria, New Westminster, and Hope and her memories of the isolated but fulfilling life she, her husband, and their fourteen childeren led in the Simlkameen and Okanagen valleys provide a unique view of the pioneer mind and spirit.