From Heritage Tree to Memorial Bench

When the Great War finally ended, local veterans including Dr Benjamin Marr and Archie Payne decided to honour the fallen by planting trees, changing street names and building cenotaphs at Murrayville and Fort Langley. The sacrifice of William Arthur Wilson, a Fort Langley farmer who was killed at Passchendaele by a sniper’s bullet, was commemorated with the planting of an Oregon maple tree at the corner of Glover Road and 96th Avenue. One hundred years later these maple trees had started to die and many were cut down; hardier sugar maples were then planted at these commemorative sites. In the case of W.A. Wilson’s tree, the Langley Heritage Society’s Fred Pepin milled wood from the old maple to create sturdy planks. They were transformed into a bench by carpenter Kevin Terpstra and that bench now rests in front of Heritage Manor bearing his name. Lest we forget.

2024-11-27T04:19:37+00:00November 27th, 2024|

Paddle Into the Future: McMillan Expedition

McMillan Expedition Journal It was 200 years ago in 1824 that a band of 41 men journeyed from the Columbia River to the Fraser River and back. They left Fort George (Astoria, Oregon) on November 18th in three canoe-shaped Columbia River boats, led by Scotsman and Hudson’s Bay Company employee, James McMillan. Their mission: find a suitable location for a new HBC fort north of the Columbia on the Fraser River. They were running out of beaver; this was also following the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804 - 1806) and Americans were settling in the region. It was getting crowded. Most members of the expedition were French Voyageurs, but there were Iroquois, Kanakas, Englishman, American and Metis, including Francis Noel Annance, a clerk with the HBC, who kept a journal.  Three days into the journey he writes: “Again a most fearful storm of thunder, rain and lightning! The ground groaned [...]

2024-11-27T06:05:48+00:00November 27th, 2024|

Francophones: Backbone of the 1824 McMillan Expedition

Maurice Guibord, Executive Director of Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique has done extensive research into Francophone history in British Columbia. The excerpt below is from his presentation to the Langley Heritage Society in spring 2024.   "The beginnings of Francophones in the area that became Langley go back to the beginnings of colonization. For the continental fur trade to be fully controlled, the HBC established forts throughout the territory, staffed by Kanakas (Hawaiians), Orkneymen, Englishmen, and a majority of French-speaking Canadiens (the term then used for French Canadians), Métis and First Nations men from Lower Canada. In 2010, historian Bruce Watson researched and published his three-volume compendium Lives lived west of the divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders working west of the Rockies 1793-1858, which clearly indicates that over 60% of the fur trade employees on the Pacific coast were Francophones. While the Chief Factors were Anglophones, they [...]

2024-07-18T03:16:10+00:00July 17th, 2024|

Mapping Local History

What's in a name? Kwantlen translates as "Tireless Runner" in the h?n?q??min??m? language. Langley was named after Thomas Langley, a director with the Hudson's Bay Company that established the fur trading post in 1827. Murrayville, originally called Murray's Corners, got its name from Paul & Lucy Murray, first settlers in the area. Aldergrove was named after the great stands of alder trees on rolling hills near the Bruskey farm. Otter was named after Colonel William Otter, commander of the Canadian contingent in the Boer War. Matsqui translates as "Easy Portage" in Halq'eméylem. Willoughby got its name from Willoughby Singer whose family operated a store and post office beside the Willoughby Hall on 208th Street in the 1920s. Milner was named after a British statesman and colonial administrator, Lord Alfred Milner. An excellent source of information about local names is: Roads & Other Place Names in Langley, B.C. by the late Maureen [...]

2024-03-09T19:30:24+00:00March 9th, 2024|

Early Internet: Telegraph Trail

This marker stands near the intersection of Glover Road and Telegraph Trail and commemorates the first telegraph line built in the west in 1865 by Collins Overland, in partnership with Western Union and the California State Telegraph Company. They were in a race to link North America with Europe from Los Angeles, through British Columbia to Alaska, then across the Bering Strait, and through Russia. It would have been a 10,000 mile link (6,000 km). They lost the race after a line was laid across the ocean floor between Ireland and Newfoundland that same year. For a while Telegraph Trail was an important transportation route in the Langley region. The line made it as far as Alaska, but was mostly abandoned, except in parts of southern BC. The telegraph line was eventually moved to the Old Yale Road; there was a telegraph office in the Shortreed store west of Aldergrove. [...]

2024-03-11T17:21:26+00:00March 9th, 2024|

The Flying Seven

Photo: Pictured (L-R): Jean Pike, Tosca Trasolini, Mrs. E. Flahery, Alma Gilbert, Elianne Roberge (President), Margaret Fane, Rolie Moore. Courtesy of Township of Langley  The famous Flying Seven have been honoured with a massive mural on the exterior wall at the new Langley Regional Airport (YNJ). Each of the female pilots flew out of Langley at one time or another, and each had a dream to put women at the forefront of aviation.  They formed their own flying club in 1936 and staged a dawn-to-dusk flying patrol above Vancouver to promote women in the skies through an entire day with women in the air. During World War II, they tried to enlist, were refused, and then launched a campaign to drop pamphlets for a 'Smash the Nazi' initiative. They successfully raised $10,000, which allowed the purchase of eight aircraft for pilot training. Ahead of their time, the Flying Seven had [...]

2023-09-22T03:06:10+00:00September 22nd, 2023|

Christmas Telegram: A Fantasy

Click. Clack. The telegraph jumped to life, catching Richard Simpson snoozing in his chair. He reached for the pencil tucked behind his ear and began transcribing. “On my way…need hot rum.” Agent Simpson chuckled as he rolled a fresh sheet of Canadian National Telegram paper into the typewriter. "Frank's coming home." The station house shuddered as another blast of wind swept in from the north. A skim of snow was creeping under the freight room door. Agent Simpson shivered at the thought of delivering a message on such a night.  Frank Forster chased work wherever it was to be found. Earlier that fall he had journeyed to the Thompson Valley for a logging job deep in the bush, but a big part of him was still at home, 350 miles away as the crow flies. Each day he marked an X on on the calendar pinned beside his bunk, and penned a letter [...]

2022-12-13T03:56:24+00:00December 13th, 2022|

SS Beaver’s Bell

The Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post at Derby Reach on the Fraser River in 1827, and 9 years later, the London-built SS Beaver went into service. It carried furs, food, supplies and people to forts along the coast for almost 40 years and has been described as, "a floating HBC trading post".  (See HERE)  The steam-driven paddle wheeler was eventually sold to a Victoria merchant who converted it into a tug-boat; its bell was then put into storage until Henry Wark (HBC factor and Fort Langley postmaster) spotted it and asked to have it for St Andrew's Church in Fort Langley, built in 1885. Read more about the bell's story below. (Information from Tribute a book about St Andrew's United Church by Marjorie Rosberg)   SS Beaver (photo UBC) Fort Langley Advance 31 December 1964.    

2023-09-22T02:32:13+00:00October 18th, 2022|

Fort Langley’s First Community Centre

Above photo: Frank Leonard, 1924, from Vancouver Public Library collection. Thanks to Trinity Western University student Sophia Kutney who shared her paper on the Fort Langley CNR Station. This has been edited for length. In the heart of Fort Langley, the earliest agricultural centre in British Columbia and the first permanent European settlement in the Fraser Valley, lies a 107 year old train station that represents the visionary expansion of travel opportunities and the importation and exportation of freight around Canada and within Langley. While this train station underwent many transitions since 1915, being owned first by Canadian Northern Railway, and secondly Canadian Government Railway for a half year, and finally the Canadian National Railway in 1918, the train station remained a central place of opportunity for the Langley community. The CNR Station was run by the Station Agent who lived on site with his family on the upper floor, constantly [...]

2022-01-10T20:42:34+00:00January 10th, 2022|

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