Early Spirits on Langley Prairie

B.C. was the first province to regulate the sale of alcohol through government liquor stores, beginning in 1921. Langley Prairie’s first store (today’s Langley City) operated from 1923 to 1933. Former B.C. Liquor Control board employee Ron Hyde helped oversee construction of stores around the province, and sent us these photographs that were destined for the trash heap when the B.C. Liquor Control Board split into the B.C. Liquor Control & Licensing and the Liquor Distribution Branch. A long time historian, Ron never throws away anything of value.   Ron says, "The second Langley Prairie store operated from this (above) location from 1933 – 1941. The liquor store is in the slanted corner of the building with some great views of businesses along the street with store signs etc. The liquor store windows have curtains on them which was a requirement by the B.C. Liquor Control Board on all their [...]

2024-11-22T05:18:46+00:00October 31st, 2018|

The Immigrant Shed

Between 1959 and 1966, CBC Radio’s Imbert Orchard travelled the province, interviewing nearly 1,000 B.C. pioneers, and in the process created the largest oral collection in North America. Some 2,700 hours of recordings with homesteaders, gold miners, road builders and loggers are now housed at the Provincial Archives. Some of his interviews were later published in the Sound Heritage series, including this entry from 1983 about the arrival of the Williams family in Langley in the late 1880s, when Langley was mostly forest. Bert Williams was four years when his family started homesteading in the hill country east of the Langley Prairie. They lived on what is still known as the Brown Road (240th Street), but it was then little more than a trail through the primeval forest. Here and there a settler was struggling to let in the sunlight and get a few acres on which to grow crops. Otherwise [...]

2024-11-22T05:09:32+00:00October 31st, 2018|

From Royal Engineer to Reeve

Langley pioneer Philip Jackman Philip Jackman was a young Royal Engineer with the Columbia Detachment who arrived in B.C. in 1859. The six month journey from England by ship was documented in the Emigrant Soldiers’ Gazette, a newspaper written during the journey (middle left).   Jackman’s life and work intersected with many aspects of the colony’s development: he helped build the Cariboo Wagon Road during the gold rush, was a night watchman who transported drunks in a wheelbarrow, a CPR employee who mutinied, an entrepreneur who operated a saloon and general store, and a fisheries guardian on the Fraser River. Phillip eventually settled in Aldergrove in 1886 with his wife. Philip Jackman Park honours him today.  He also served as reeve (or mayor) of Langley for three years (Council Minutes displayed lower right) and lived a long, productive life in his adopted country. Jackman died at age 92. Visit the Virtual [...]

2024-11-22T05:25:55+00:00October 31st, 2018|

James Douglas Descendants

The family story below is by Cynthia Fleming, great-great granddaughter of Sir James Douglas (Cynthia is pictured on the right with her sister Gloria Bushby at the National Historic Site in Fort Langley). This story was originally published in The Trail of 1858 (Mark Forsythe & Greg Dickson). "The Father of British Columbia' is acknowledged each year on or near Douglas Day (November 19th) by the Langley Heritage Society with a special dinner and guest speaker. “I was born in San Fernando, Chile, on November 18, 1939 and lived in Chile for the first 10 years of my life. My dad was John Sinclair Bushby. His mother, Violet Bushby (born in England), the widow of George Bushby, visited Chile shortly after I was born and stayed with us until we moved back to British Columbia in the summer of 1950. My grandfather, George Bushby was the son of Arthur Bushby and Agnes Douglas, daughter [...]

2024-11-22T05:03:40+00:00October 31st, 2018|

Honouring a Former Slave Family

All that remains of the Scott Family farm in Cloverdale is a small copse of old fruit trees. The 7 acres that Henry Houston Scott and his family farmed have been transformed into a subdivision and power transmission right-of-way.  The Surrey Historical Society has been working to honour this family that ventured north to the Fraser Valley, where they became respected farmers and members of the community. Henry was born a slave in 1854 in Fannin County, Texas. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, but it wasn’t until 1865 that slavery was finally abolished under the 13th amendment. Henry met Amy Florence Alridge of Mississippi and in 1905 the couple received a homestead grant in Oklahoma. Census records suggest they eventually had ten children. The Scotts and their three youngest children were drawn to the fertile lands of the Fraser Valley in 1912 where they grew hay and [...]

2024-11-22T06:12:10+00:00October 30th, 2018|

Tales From the Station House: Life Beside the Tracks

Not too many people practised Morse Code using their knife & fork at the dinner table, but Diane Simpson is one of them. Her father, Murray Williams, was a CN Station Agent who wanted his two children to know the basics of the code. Murray spent the last three years of his career (until 1968) at the Fort Langley CN Station with his wife Florence; today the station is the jewel of the Langley Heritage Society. Diane grew up in CN stations on the prairies and in Alberta, and has been one of our society's treasured volunteers. She has often been asked about the role of the station agent. Here’s what she told us in her story Tales From the Station House: The Williams Family on the Rails! The most obvious tasks of the agent are, of course, selling tickets and helping people plan their trips. Receiving, recording, billing and [...]

2024-11-22T05:42:57+00:00October 30th, 2018|

Royal Whistle Stops in the Fraser Valley

The Royal Tour of Canada in May and June of 1939 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was the first time a reigning monarch visited this country. They travelled west on the Canadian Pacific Railway and returned on the south side of the Fraser River on the Canadian National line  — with a brief whistle stop at Fort Langley (more likely a slow crawl by the train). The month-long visit to Canada was highly successful, with large crowds greeting them at every stop. It was also the eve of WW II and  the visit was part of an effort to cement relations between Great Britain and Canada, with hopes for a united “Empire”.  The photograph above hangs inside the passenger car at Langley Heritage Society’s Fort Langley CN Station. The late Langley historian, Norm Sherritt, recalled the visit in a 2002 interview with the Langley Times HERE.  Among those [...]

2024-11-27T06:24:35+00:00October 30th, 2018|

Old Friends & Local Heroes

Street banners in Fort Langley highlight some of our old friends — including the CN Station, 1920s caboose, rail car and the 1932 Community Hall. Designed by Fraser Valley artist April Lacheur, they are part of a Business Improvement Association project and can be seen on Glover Road and Church Street. Other images in the series include the National Historic Site and Fort-to-Fort Trail. Banners featuring local citizens are popping up in various parts of Fort Langley, including three local heroes: Judy Budo from Lee’s Grocery, Russ Townsend from the Lions Club and Jim Dyck the handyman, former owner of Frontier Hardware.  

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 29th, 2018|

100th Anniversary of Armistice: Langley Heritage Society Donates Important Resource to Local Schools

Langley School Trustee Chair, Rob McFarlane (left) and Jim Foulkes, Director Langley Heritage Society during the book presentation, on September 25, 2018 (Photo Credit:  Ken Hoff, Communications Manager, SD 35) The Langley Heritage Society has recently donated copies of the book, Canucks in Khaki: Langley, the Lower Mainland and the Great War of 1914 to 1918 to every school in Langley School District 35.  The book, written by BC author, Warren Sommer, is a finely researched documentation of the experiences of Langley participants in the First World War, both in the trenches of Europe and also on the home front.  Mark Forsythe, Langley Heritage Society Vice President, described the book as “a masterful survey of how British Columbia’s men, women, and communities rose to the greatest challenge of their lives.” This year, November 11, 2018 takes on special significance as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 23rd, 2018|

Royal Engineer to Reeve: New Online Exhibit

The Langley Centennial Museum's exhibit about the life and times of Philip Jackman, From Royal Engineer to Reeve, is now online via the Virtual Museum of Canada. From the website: "Jackman engaged in many ventures in the almost 70 years he spent in British Columbia. He sought fortune in the Cariboo gold rush, worked at the province’s first psychiatric institution, was a night watchman in New Westminster, mutinied while under the employ of the Canadian Pacific Railway, acted as a Fisheries Officer on the Fraser River, farmed and owned a general store in Aldergrove, served as Reeve of the Township of Langley, and outlived all other members of the Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers." For more, visit HERE.

2020-05-27T05:59:56+00:00October 23rd, 2018|

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