150 Mile House

Thomas Davidson
Originally from Montecristo, California, Thomas Davidson was an experienced miner who first gained recognition for a gold discovery he made just north of Victoria in 1858. He was later a partner of G.B. Wright in a transport company at Port Douglas, the head of the old Douglas Trail. While packing goods north to Alexandria in 1859 he came across arable land on Williams Lake, where he began to build a farm, roadhouse, and store on lots 11, 12, 13, and 14. Because of the recession of 1863 Davidson faced serious financial difficulties, leading him to leave the country in the spring of 1864 and causing him to default on the mortgage he had taken out from Edward Tormey.

Edward Tormey
Tormey sold the roadhouse but not the land in 1869 after a fire in a tannery and slaughterhouse he owned set him back financially. He continued to run the ranch at 150 Mile until 1871, when he was killed in San Francisco.

Samuel Adler BC Archives H-06259

Samuel Adler and Thomas Barry
bought the roadhouse in August 1869. The two had run the Gazelle Saloon in Barkerville, where the great fire of 1868 was believed to have started. After Tormey's death in 1871 they, along with Tormey's brother, decided to sell the roadhouse and ranch.

Aschel Sumner Bates
Bates bought the ranch and roadhouse in 1871 and added them to his list of properties that he owned in the Cariboo. Originally from Boston, he was one of the first American miners to take part in the Fraser gold rush. Switching from mining to freighting, he soon had the wherewithal to invest in several enterprises, including roadhouses, hotels, and sternwheelers. He sold the property at 150 Mile just before his death, on New Year's Day 1879 from a heart attack at age 50.

Gavin Hamilton BC Archives A-05197

Gavin Hamilton
Hamilton bought the 150 Mile ranch and roadhouse from Bates in 1878. Born in the Orkney Islands of Scotland in 1835, he had just retired from the Hudson's Bay Company after thirty-five years service, most recently as Factor at Fort St James. He and his wife Margaret, one of Peter Skene Ogden's daughters, moved south so that their children could attend St Joseph's Mission School at Williams Lake. After several tragedies at the ranch, including fires, floods, and the mysterious death of their youngest daughter, Hamilton sold the ranch in 1883.