At the age of 20 in 1908, Alfred Ormond Braisher left home in Middlesex, England to seek his fortune in Canada. He worked for a time in Peterborough, Ontario before travelling west to Golden. He first found work driving a horse-drawn mail stage down the valley.

When WWI broke out in 1914 he enlisted in Cranbrook and was shipped back overseas to England with the Canadian 54th Infantry Battalion. He saw action at Ypres, Vimy Ridge and Mons and was wounded at the Somme. Prior to being shipped back to Canada in 1917, Alfred found time to

Mons and was wounded at the Somme. Prior to being shipped back to Canada in 1917, Alfred found time to marry his sweetheart, Edith. In 1919, Alfred’s mother, his wife and her son, Sidney from a former marriage all arrived to start their new life on Alfred’s homestead at the end of Campbell Road on the east bench.

Ormond Braisher is holding a family photo of his parents Edith and Alfred taken in 1950. Ormie married Kay Waldron and they took over the family farm in 1946. Ormie is backed by his four children (l to r) Dugan, John, Alice (Dahlberg), and Bob. Working together,

the farm flourished. In his 80s now, Ormie is still up and out before 8 each morning feeding the cattle.

The photo in behind was shot in 1920 of swimmers in a skiff on Phantom Lake. Called Reflection Lake now, and much smaller due to the landfill needed for the CPR development, the unknown photographer would have been standing where the Hwy 95 overpass is today near the foot of the trail that leads up to Cemetery Hill. That’s the Kootenay Central Railway on the causeway.