Allen Percy Brooks (1918 - 1987)

Born 11 Feb 1918 in Old Wives, Saskatchewan, Canada

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Jun 1987 at age 69 in Penticton, British Columbia, Can

Biography

Note

Note: First child born a year before they were married ??? [FD]

Allan was a smoker. He also had aneurysms and had one of his legs amputated. As a child he broke his left arm and it was never set properly worked fine but there was a bump by his elbow.

Allan Percy Brooks was born Feburary 11, 1918. He was the first child of Percy and Fanny Brooks. AS so many children of farmers at this time Allan was not born in a hospital but on the farm . Allan was born on his grampa Ridge's ,the Y C Ranch. Allan's grampa's Ridge was raising horses at this time and to his first born grandchild he was giving the first colt of the year.

Percy and Fanny first homestead was at Old wives Sask. and the family farmed here years of Allan's life. How ever Allan's dad Percy suffered from leaking heart valve caused from having rheumatic fever as a child and farm life was becoming vary hard. Percy though that moving into town ( Moose Jaw ) and finding a less phisical job would help. However with no formal education and with the depression in full swing the job he found (a traveling salesmen) was not the answer; the long hours, bad roads and the uncomfortable cars of the day where as hard as the farm life.

So in 1929 with his health failing Percy returned to farming this time near Mayveiw Sask. Starting all over on a new homestead was hard work for a health man so Percy would need help and as important as education was to Percy and Fanny Allan had to quit school to help on the farm.

In 1935 Allan's dad died, leaving Allan as the oldest the responsibility of taking care of the family and farm. With help from family and neighbors Allan managed to keep thing going. But by 1942 the war was in full swing and as so many young men Allan enlisted.

Allan had been seeing a girl named Evelyn for awhile and things where becoming vary serious now and before he was send overseas they where married.

Times where hard during the war years and by the time Allan returned from the war the farm was lost. Allan now had a wife and his first child Shirley to take care of and after a few years of working long hard days for someone else's farm he had enough and wanted a change.

Allan had been in contact with a longtime family friend who was living in Keremoes B.C. and the friend had always said to come out for a visit. it was fruit harvest time in the Keremeos area, so Allen decided to make the trip and look for work and he could always pick fruit for a month if nothing else came along.

While he was here in Keremeos, there was talk of the Nickle Plate mine not far from there. Allen was curious of what an underground mine was like and wanted to go on a tour. As it happened the mine was hiring and was suggested that the best tour was a working tour, so Allen hired on and began a thirty year career in mining.

His family followed soon after and moved right up to the town site of the Nickle Plate Mine which was on the very top of the mountain. A big change from the flat Prairies.

Allen and Evelyn fell in love with the Okanagan valley and Penticton. However, as mines do, the Nickle Plate closed. They moved to Penticton and bought a home and Allen tried road construction.

During this time that they were living in Penticton, his son Warren was born. This was too seasonal and mostly away from home. He soon went back to mining, but every time the mine would close the would return to Penticton for a short time but he always went back mining.

In 1978, Allen retired and moved back to Penticton where he continued to live until he passed away in 1987.

Sources

See also:

• "Canada, Prairie Provinces Census, 1926," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPLJ-58FL : 24 September 2020), Allan A Brooks in household of Arthur P Brooks, Moose Jaw No. 161, Saskatchewan, Canada; citing Census, Moose Jaw No. 161, Saskatchewan, Canada, Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa.

• Joseph W Pehousek. Descendants of Jones Dyer, Senior, Manuscript. (October 1999, and Feb.2006, Punta Gorda, Florida). Copy possibly located in St Stpehens Library in New Brunswick. Transcription/details available at Ancestors of Joseph William Pehoushek. Copy Unsourced. Created in 2014. Contact information available.

Acknowledgements

Allen Percy Brooks was created through the import of dyermaeettaaug2010.ged on 11 September 2010.

WikiTree profile Brooks-1326 created through the import of Foord Family Tree-2.ged on Jun 6, 2011 by Tom Foord.