Lindsay Carter spent the first nine years of his life in Kimberley. He was born in a little house at the foot of the hill that came down from the Top Mine, into town. Kimberley was a mere cluster of scattered buildings in 1906.
His Mother, Cora Bartholomew, came over the Kalispell Trail in a covered wagon in 1895 and camped at Galbraith's landing for several weeks before moving onto Skookumchuck. They were waiting for a customs officer to clear their cattle. He never arrived and winter was almost upon them. They moved into a cabin at Skookumchuck that had been built by Col. Baker. She married Edwin Carter in 1904 in Cranbrook. The minister was a W.W. Fortune and his daughter "Miss Fortune" acted as a witness.
Mr. Carter was the Financial Secretary for the Kimberley Miner's Union No. 100 W.F.M. (Western Federation of Miners) in 1907-1908, Mr. Carter was working at the North Star wehn Lindsay was born. He later worked for Mr. Clayton in the store and Post Office and was appointed Post Master in 1908 and Mrs. Carter was assistant Post Mistress. This store was referred to as the old red store, as it was covered with corrugated iron that turned rusty. This next to the North Star Hotel and eventually became the Mark Creek Company store, now Fields. When Mr. Carter left Kimberley, Mr. Fisher took over as Post Master in the building across the street.
Lindsay remembers the first school in Kimberley. It was a small log building on Howard Street, about where the Elks Hall how stands. When it closed down, Lem Cue started up a laundry there for a short time. It later became the residence of Emil Louis. The second school was the one that used to stand where the Company offices are situated, and which Lindsay attended from 1913 to April 1915.
Lindsay's grandmother worked in the Ontario Hotel. This was built by James Carral, a man that had shot an entire family (the Black Donally murders) in Ontario before coming west. She quit the job when she found out she was working for a murderer. Her husband was Bill Bartholomew that owned a ranch in the Cherry Creek area. Bartholomew Lake was on this property and thus named after him. When his wife died in 1903 of diabetes, he remarried and his second wife, Francis was the well remembered "Selah" of Marysville. Her little column in the weekly Cranbrook newspaper was well known.
Lindsay had two sisters and two brothers that were born in the upstairs apartment of the little red store. There were six children in the family. His mother lost two infants, one was still-born and the other only lived a few hours. The boy, Allen, died in 1905 and the girl, Cora in 1910. They were both buried in a little cemetery where the Company office is now situated. When the Company built their offices, the little graves were moved across the road to a new cemetery.
The first Church in Kimberley was Methodist and built on the corner where the company office parking lot is located. The student minister was Joseph Herdman who came up from Cranbrook once a week on horseback, preaching in Marysville on his way up. One cold day he lit a fire in the stove, which was at one end of the building with the stove pipes across the ceiling to the chimney at the other end. While he was over at the North Star Hotel for dinner the pipes over heated and the church burned to the ground. Another fire Lindsay remembers was in the little house in which he was born. The family that bought it were away for a while and during their absence a pack rat built a nest next to the stovepipe in the attic. On their return they built a fire in the stove and when the nest ignited, the entire building burned down.
Lindsay also recalls his Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Wells, and receiving a prize from her, a book called "Bound to Rise" by Horatio Algers. Another memory is of the very first movie in Kimberley on July 1, 1914. It was shown in Handley's Hall and a man stood by the screen and explained the story as it was shown. He remembers how jerky and ridiculous the action was. He knew Harry Drew of the North Star Hotel and Mrs. Soper the housekeeper, as well as George Thrasher the bartender. Lindsay once turned the tap on a beer keg and couldn't turn it off, so he ran out, afraid to go back for days.
Another structure that no one else has mentioned it the flume along the foot ot the hill from the McGuinty Trail. The logs that ran into Taylor's Pond were flummed down from the top of the hill.
Lindsay's memories of his boyhood in Kimberley remain vivid. He remembers a man named McDonald who used to tease a bull calf in a corral back of Handley's livery stable. When it got older it was so vicious it had to be shot. He also recalls an old drunk by the name of Burmingham who was always threatening to commit suicide. One day Lindsay's sister Miriam and young Tommy Summers found him in a barn moaning, he had drunk a bottle of horse liniment. The children ran for help, but by the time they returned he had died.
Lindsay's father was appointed forest Ranger for the C.P.R. in 1913-14. He was transferred to Bull River in 1915 and later to Yahk where he quit the C.P.R. The family moved to Rossland in 1915 and then to New Denver iwhere Lindsay has lived since 1935. He made occasional trips to the place of his birth before he died in December 1978.
