122 Mile House

John and Thomas Walters
Originally from Haldimand County, Ont., the two brothers went to California in 1856. John had trained as surveyor, but with Thomas started a farm with Thomas near Marysville with an eye to supplying the miners with their crops. However, flooding due to the release of reservoirs water into the Sacramento River by the miners ruined crops for three successive years. Both men married: John to a woman he had known in Ontario, Mary McDonald, in 1859; and Thomas to a Californian, Mary Flanders, in 1861. In 1862 the brothers and their wives left California to join a third brother, Richard, who had been in British Columbia working for G.B. Wright. Richard, with John Saul and Robert Beard, had pre-empted land between the 83 and 84 mile posts, which is where John and Thomas joined him. It was not long before the brothers operated other roadhouses, including those at 93, 105, and 122 miles, the latter from the spring of 1867. Little is known of Richard, other than that he died early in January 1867. John and Thomas and their families left for Ontario in 1870 to care for their blind father after their mother died.

Thomas Roper
Roper was a brother of James Roper, the original proprietor of the 108 Mile House. Thomas bred horses which he raced throughout the Cariboo, while his wife, Nellie, ran a school which accepted both day students and boarders. In 1875 the Ropers left for Kamloops where they settled on a ranch.