Barker, William "Billy"

BARKER, William "Billy," prospector (b June 1817, March, England; d 11 July 1894, Victoria). As a young man he worked as a boatman on the canals of Norfolk, England. With the arrival of railways in the 1840s, prospects for canal workers diminished and he immigrated to the US, leaving his wife and daughter destitute. He sought his fortune in the goldfields of California, then came to BC in 1858 when the GOLD RUSH began. By 1861 he was in the CARIBOO, prospecting along Williams Crk. In the summer of 1862 he and his partners struck pay dirt and he became very rich. He spent that winter in VICTORIA and married for a second time, then returned to the Cariboo with his wife and continued prospecting. By this time a town, BARKERVILLE, was springing up in the area of his big strike. He soon went through his fortune and spent the rest of his life in the bush, unsuccessfully attempting to repeat his success. He died a virtual pauper in the Old Men's Home in Victoria.