William Barker (prospector)
- William Barker (prospector)
Infobox Person
name = William (Billy) Barker
image_size = 150px
caption = William Barker
birth_date = ?feb,jan?1817
birth_place = Cambridgeshire, England
death_date = July 11, 1894
death_place = Victoria, British Columbia
education =schools
occupation = prospector
spouse = Jane Lavender (years married unknown) Elizabeth Collyer (1863-1865)
parents =???
children = Emma Eliza
William Barker (baptized 7 June 1817 – 11 July 1894) was a Canadian gold prospector and miner who participated in the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858 and the Cariboo Gold Rush in 1862 in the modern province of British Columbia.
Early Years
William (Billy)Barker was born in March, Cambridgeshire, England and followed in the footsteps of his father and worked as a waterman on the canals. He married Jane Lavender and had a daughter, Emma Eliza.
In the 1830's when railways were beginning to make canals obsolete, William left England for the USA where he participated in the California Gold Rush. [ [http://www.quesnelbc.com/billybarkerdays/history.htm Welcome to BC's Favorite Family Festival ~ Billy Barker Days July 17-20, 2008 ] ]
After California, Barker head north to the new Colony of British Columbia, among many other Britons who had been in California to do so, and was among the group who first staked Williams Creek in the emergent Cariboo goldfields after another of his party, Wilhelm Dietz (known as "Dutch Bill") discovered the rich underburden of that creek valley. Barker's claim turned out to be the richest of the group, and the settlement which grew up around his claim became known as Barkerville, which became the most prominent of the Cariboo goldfield towns and was the "de facto" capital of the Interior of British Columbia until the coming of the railway in southern BC in the 1880s led to the development or urban centres there. Though Barker's claim was rich, he himself wound up dying in poverty.
Notes
External links and references
* [http://www.barkerville.ca/ Barkerville Historic Town]
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5947 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
* [http://www.quesnelbc.com/billybarkerdays/history.htm History of Billy Barker Days at Quesnel, British Columbia]
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