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 [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+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 [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 31st, 2018|

From Royal Engineer to Reeve

Langley pioneer Philip Jackman, pictured in the lower left of image. The Jackman exhibit was featured earlier at the Langley Centennial Museum. Researched by Shea Wind (upper left) it's now available online at the Virtual Museum of Canada.  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 (lower middle photo) with his wife. Philip Jackman Park honours [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00October 31st, 2018|

Seeing Langley Through the Lens of Neville Curtis

NC912 Pagoda Restaurant and neon sign, Langley 1962 City of Surrey archivist Chelsea Bailey presented photographs to our society members that were taken by Neville Curtis (1892 – 1969). Curtis freelanced with newspapers in Vancouver, New Westminster, Surrey and the Langley Advance from the 1940s into the 1960s. His family also owned and operated a grocery store in Cloverdale and Neville took over the store from his father.   The Curtis collection of almost 5,000 negatives was donated to City of Surrey Archives by Neville’s wife, Amanda Curtis. NC1196B Opening day at Langley’s new Royal Bank branch in July 1961 NC1495 Constable Harvey Wolf, Langley RCMP detachment 1962 NC883B Old store house, Fort Langley National Historic Site 1960    

2021-10-18T15:29:40+00:00October 31st, 2018|

We Are Kwantlen

Kwantlen and other Coast Salish peoples have direct links to this land, reaching back millennia.  Step inside the Visitors Centre at the Fort Langley National Historic Site and you’ll discover three unique artifact displays that hint at at least 12,000 years of history.  A delicate, 800 year old cedar cradle basket discovered in the mud at Stave Reservoir (traditional Kwantlen territory) has been carefully restored by utilizing Japanese paper and glue techniques. The baby basket has been returned to its original shape. Baskets, hats and headbands demonstrate the powerful influence of cedar in the lives of Kwantlen people. Cedar was used to create canoes, clothes, dwellings and various ceremonial objects. Cedar hats are now seeing a revival among the Kwantlen, and the woven hat pictured below is being used by the family of its maker, Hazel Gludo. Imagine the feast of salmon, eulachon and cranberries that might have filled the [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+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 [...]

2018-10-31T02:37:36+00:00October 31st, 2018|

Honouring a Former Slave Family

(Photo: Jim Foulkes) 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 [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+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 [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+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 [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:55+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|

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