Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fisher with their son and daughter arrived in Canada from England in 1908. After a short stay in Alberta, and then Moyie, B. C. they moved to Kimberley in 1910. The North Star Mine had closed down by this time due to a shortage of ore, however, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada had purchased the Sullivan Mine in 1910 and the future of Kimberley looked promising to the Fisher family. Mr. Fisher opened up a general store on Spokane Street, where Weir's Flower Shop is now located, to take care of miner's needs.
In the early days, government appointed positions such as Post Masters, changed with the change of governments. Mr. Tom Summers, Sr. was Kimberley's Post Master in 1911-1912, but with a change of government he lost his job and the new government appointed Jack Fisher as Post master in 1913. Jack operated the Post office in conjunction with the store for several years with Jessie Bonner (Mrs. Puffy Kemp) as Assistant Post Mistress. In 1929, a new Post Office was built on the corner of Deer Park Avenue and Spokane Street, where Mr. Fisher continued as Post Master until his retirement in 1944.
Their youngest daughter, Louise, was born at home in Kimberley in 1911.She attended the one room school where one teacher taught all the grades. Sleigh riding and skating were the favorite pastimes for the children in the winter. Louise remembers sleigh riding down the road from the Townsite and through the town without being concerned about any traffic. They took full advantage of the outdoors during the summer when the family would go fishing, or just going out on picnics to the many lakes in the area.
Louise thought that Kimberley was a very pleasant place to grow up in, although there were some near tragedies. She clearly remembers the forest fire of 1919 that threatened the town and how it was saved at the last moment by a change in the wind. In the meantime a special train had taken most of the people to Cranbrook.
Louise married Bob Affleck in 1936 in Kimberley. Bob was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and came to Kimberley in 1930, having worked for the Company in Northern Saskatchewan. Bob and Louise operated an appliance store in Kimberley until they moved to Kamloops in 1942.
