Notes on the Golden Mountains

This was the house the Downies built 

Charles Miller mentions an Abraham Downie as the discoverer of the “Prosser” mine. 

In fact his name was not Abraham but William. He owned a quarter section of land near Rolley Lake. where he and his sons built a substantial house. After William died in 1896, 67 years of age, his family settled in the United States. The 1898 BC Directory shows sons William (Jr.), Daniel, and Hugh as loggers for the Ruskin Mill and their oldest brother John Downie as a carpenter. The 1899 Voters list shows William as a logger and Hugh as a “common labourer” for Ruskin Mills.
The Downie house was where "Mr Wilson" lived later and where Charlie Miller’s father built a chimney of rocks with pyrite crystals.