Bradner – 1911 From The Place Between Volume 1
Grocer George Foster Pratt (1876-1967) was born in England & married Anna Maria McLean. They had 2 sons, George Foster Jr (1899-1994) & William Percival (1905-1935).
In 1911, George came to Canada & opened Bradner's 1st store & post office where the BCER crossed Bradner Rd, with Mr. J. Pennington as a partner. George later bought out his share. Maria & the boys joined George in 1912; sadly she passed away in 1913 & was buried at Aberdeen Cemetery. George Sr later married Alice Gillard (1874-1960).
In 1911 with few families in the area, the log school doubled as a church until 1913, when St. Margaret’s Anglican Church was built. George Sr led services until an Anglican priest was available.
Bradner Mill was about 1 mile east along the BCER tracks. Many of the mill workers were East Indian folks & were store customers. The store sold in 1915 to Mr A M Sparling.
George Sr was active in politics & local affairs. He was the district’s 1st justice of the peace, a school trustee & a clerk at Matsqui Municipal Hall.
George Jr attended Bradner School, with Mrs. Loach as teacher. He also went to Matsqui High School, where he & Tom Carmichael cleaned classrooms for $5 per month. In 1914 when many farm labourers went to war, school boys worked on farms & received Soldiers of the Soil medals from the government.
George & his father played football, baseball & also hockey with sticks made from local vine maple trees. George recalls fishing in a local creek, easily getting enough trout for dinner. Winters in Bradner were cold with 3-4 feet of snow & summer brought mosquitoes so women wrapped newspapers around their legs to avoid bites.
George Jr worked at Annadale Grocery Store in New Westminster for $24 per month; room & board was $20. Later he was a boiler stoker for the CPR Hotel at Glacier, where he met CPR waitress Emily Greaves (1903-2006). They married in 1927 at Edward MB. George became an Anglican priest, serving the church in Alberta & the US before returning to Abbotsford.
