Camera Workers, 1858-1950

The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950

1848 - 1929 (80 years)

Name	Brock, John Allan
	VARIANT NAMES: Brock, J.A.; Brock, John A.; Brock, John Alan; Brock, John Allen.
Birth	Aug 1848	Murray, ON [7, 8]
Gender	Male
Marriage	30 Oct 1870	Hastings, ON [8]
	Bride: Sarah S. Higgins
	His residence at the time of his marriage was Trenton, ON, his occupation was photographer and his age was 22.
Business Address/Year	1869-1871	Trenton, ON [9, 10]
	Address undetermined
	He may have operated as Brock and Brown in 1869. [9]
Business Address/Year	1875	Port Hope, ON [11]
Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	1877-1886	Belleville, ON [12]
	Address undetermined
	He operated under his own name between 1877-1878 and as J.A. Brock and Company from 1879-1886. Since he was working in Brandon, MB, between 1882-1895, perhaps he left his Belleville business in the hands of another photographer. During part of his time in Brandon, he also worked briefly out of Vancouver as J.A. Brock and Company.
Business Address/Year	1-13 Jun 1886	Vancouver, BC
	Address: Cordova and Abbott Sts. Vancouver, BC Canada
Business Address/Year	23 Jul-Aug 1886	Vancouver, BC
	Address: 13 Cordova St. Horne Block Vancouver, BC Canada
Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	1882-1895	Brandon, MB [13]
	Address: Fleming Block Brandon, MB Canada
Business Address/Year	1897	Los Angeles, CA
	Address: 43 1/2 South Spring Brock and Company Los Angeles, CA USA
Home Address/Year	1899	Los Angeles, CA
	Address: 936 Hinton Ave. Los Angeles, CA USA
Business Address/Year	1895-1900	Los Angeles, CA
	Address undetermined
	He became a naturalized US citizen on 2 May 1895 in Los Angeles, CA. His occupation on his voter registration record of 1896 was photographer. [14]
Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	Aug 1886-1890s	Brandon, MB
Death	17 Feb 1929	Glendale, Los Angeles County, CA [15]
Burial	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles County, CA [15]
Association	J.A. Brock and Company (Relationship: Partner)
Association	Devine, Harry Torkington (Relationship: Partner)
Person ID	I443	Camera Workers \| B, vol. 1, 1858-1900
Last Modified	25 Jul 2023

Documents		J.A. Brock ad, Vancouver News, 23 Jul 1886. The first ad by this company appeared in the 1 Jun 1886 issue of the same paper.
Documents		H.T. Devine news, Vancouver Province, 23 Nov 1935, Sunday Magazine, p. 10. In his letter to the editor, Devine introduces a few inaccuracies of his own into the historical record.

Notes

STATUS: Commercial.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: He began working as a photographer on his own in his early 20s in Trenton, ON, then moved on to Port Hope around 1875. He was in Belleville, ON, about 1877 to 1882, then moved to Brandon, MB, around the same year. His next move took him to Vancouver around May 1886 where he ran J.A. Brock and Company in partnership with H.T. Devine. Brock apparently returned to Brandon on 17 Aug 1886 where he ran his old studio until the mid-1890s. He relocated to Los Angeles, CA, and was listed as a photographer there in 1897 and 1899 city directories. At the time of the 1900 US census he was still working as a photographer, married, with two daughters and his sister living at home; he was also a naturalized US citizen. At the time of the 1910 US census he had turned to farming, an occupation he still claimed a decade later in the 1920 US census.

Sources

[S950] Brandon Mail, 1883-1886.
[S673] Vancouver News, May-Aug 1886.
[S969] Vancouver Daily Advertiser, Jun 1886.
[S692] Correspondence, David Mattison.
Letter, Joan Schwartz to Mattison, 1978 01 04
[S582] David Mattison, Mattison (1979 11-12), (Photo Communique 1, no. 5 (November-December 1979):16-21).
[S651] (Vancouver) Sun (Newspaper), 18 Dec 2021.
Mackie, John. "This Week in History, 1938: The Brief Career of Pioneer Vancouver's First Photographer"
URL (accessed 19 Dec 2021): https://vancouversun.com/news/this-week-in-history-1938-the-brief-career-of-pioneer-vancouvers-first-photographer
[S985] United States Census, 1900.
State of California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Township, Enumeration District no. 10, sheet no. 1, line 55
[S924] Ancestry.ca (Web site).
Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938
[S395] Glen C. Phillips, Phillips (1990), (Sarnia, Ont.: G.C. Phillips, 1990; 2nd printing, 2003.), 88.
[S924] Ancestry.ca (Web site).
1871 Census of Canada for John Brock
Province of ON, District no. 60 West Hastings, Sub-district B Village of Trenton, p. 14, line 18
[S395] Glen C. Phillips, Phillips (1990), (Sarnia, Ont.: G.C. Phillips, 1990; 2nd printing, 2003.), 65.
[S395] Glen C. Phillips, Phillips (1990), (Sarnia, Ont.: G.C. Phillips, 1990; 2nd printing, 2003.), 7.
[S483] Manitoba Historical Society, Manitoba Photographers, 1858 to Present (Web site), (Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Historical Society).
[S924] Ancestry.ca (Web site).
John Allen Brock
Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Voter Registers, 1866-1898
[S832] Find a Grave (Web site).
John Allan Brock
URL (accessed 24 Jul 2023): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237869832/john-allan-brock

Brock, John Allan[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Brock, John Allan^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]}