Collection of John Rochon.
I just found this photo in a box yesterday - I had forgotten that I even had it! And what a shame, it's such a wonderful portrait. It was taken by photographer T.A. Cairns of Sarnia and Forest, ON., so I presume that the chief is from either one or the other town - but which one? I'll delve into this further and post the results.
I went to the library today and looked in their copy of the Sarnia Old Home Week book of 1925 and found a couple of old photos of the Sarnia Fire Dept. The photos weren't very good, so the result was inconclusive however, I then looked in the index to the Holland-Paisley Historical Photograph Collection and found a couple of photos of Sarnia Fire Chief Joseph Breakey, and I am now confident that the gentleman pictured above is none other than Chief Breakey. He was born near Peterborough, ON on Jan. 18, 1859 and came to Lambton county with his family in 1866. He moved to Sarnia in 1892 and was hired on as the driver for the fire department, a job that he held until 1912, when he was made Chief. He held this post until his sudden death of Angina Pectoris, at the age of 59 yrs. 11 mos. and 11 days, on Dec. 29, 1918. He was held in high esteem by all who knew him and especially by the men of his department.
yes this is Joseph Breakey ,,He is my great great uncle,,his brother Willaim Breakey also worked for the city of Sarnia as a roads men.. Willams 2 youngest son's Joseph and Gordon where also on the sarnia fire deptment . Joseph later went to pollsar fire dept. Gordon retired from the Sarnia dept. Gordon's oldest son Gordon retired as fire chief from lanxess (pollysar)in 1993
ReplyDeleteRight on! Have you seen this photo before?
ReplyDelete