| The winter of 1893-94
had been particularly long. The following spring
had been cold, resulting in very little melting of snow
in the mountains. When it did warm up in the latter
part of May the fast melting snow caused the Fraser to
overflow its banks. It came to be known as
the Great Flood of 1894.
Rowboats were able to tie up at the post supporting the
elevated sidewalk to Taylor's Fort Langley
Hotel. The waters rose halfway up the windows in
Towle's Commercial Hotel. Luckily
both hotels remained in place. The flood water did
not reach the Hudson's Bay Company Store as it had been
built well up on the slopes. The Roman Catholic
Indian Church on McMillan Island stood
in water halfway to the bell tower.
The embankment of Otway Wilkie's farm gave way and
inundated 1000 acres of prairie behind his farm in five
minutes. Wilkie and his family watched as the
waters carried away his prized Berkshire pigs, his
fences, orchard of 70 trees, and topsoil to Langley Prairie.
The Wilkie family managed to escape by boat.
The crops of Robertson and Baker on the Albion
flats across the river from Fort Langley were completely
submerged.
(154)
The flood waters also gave Fred McLellan's
pregnant wife troubles. The living level of their
home was completely engulfed forcing Mrs. McLellan to flee
upstairs with her one year old son Neil. All the
excitement brought on the termination of the woman's
pregnancy and she went into labour.
Fortunately Mrs. Stanley Towle was
on hand and able to act as midwife. She (155) tied
Mrs. McLellan's youngster to his bed to make sure he
would not fall into the swirling waters and then
proceeded to deliver his brother. The baby came
into the world amid all the confusion on May 20, 1894.
Four days later, in celebration of the Queen's Birthday,
a school picnic was being held in James Mackie's
Grove. The mothers present talked continuously about
the rising water and their anxiety conveyed itself to the
youngsters. The picnic ended well before sunset and
the children were instructed to go straight home.
A few of the children instead walked from the picnic site
to the bank of the Fraser. At the riverside were
several grave- faced men. All of a sudden one of
them ordered everyone to clear out. They did.
Where the group of men and children had stood no other
person has stood since. Before midnight the
swirling waters of the Fraser were out of bounds.
For several hundred yards back of the original shoreline
the bank was washed away over the length of more than a
mile.
The flood caused the Michaud family great concern.
The settlement of the Fraser Valley by land hungry
easterners following the completion of the Canadian
Pacific Railway had done them out of the Hudson's Bay Company
Farm at Langley Prairie.
They were forced to look elsewhere for pasturage for
their growing beef herd. Michaud had
chosen Sumas Prairie and had his sons Zotique and Maximilian Junior
drive the three or four hundred head of cattle up-river
and establish a ranch. When the area flooded during
the spring run off the cattle made for the higher
ridges. The flood put these ridges under
water. Thomas York sent word to
Michaud that his cattle would all be drowned unless he
did something.
The two Michaud boys and all the help they could muster
spent two weeks rounding up the herd. Once this was done Old Joseph Michaud arrived on
the scene in a row boat. He managed to coax a few
of the heifers to take to the water and swim behind the
boat. Soon the entire herd was in the water
swimming towards the mountainous terrain above the water
level two miles away. All the cows and their calves
made the arduous (156) swim although once in
awhile a calf would take a rest by swimming piggy-back on
its mother's back. Not one bull made the swim.
The flood made John West, captain
of the Defender, a local
hero. His scow bottomed boat was able to navigate
through the shallow water and rescue stranded farmers and
their stock. The Defender was not the only boat
built at the West Mill. In
the late 1890's William West
built the Royal City. He took
one year to build the boat which was launched during the
spring freshet. He did all the work himself except
the planking. He got the 120 foot long planks from
the Brunette Saw Mill in New Westminster. He bought the engines for the Royal
City in Seattle cheap because the
former owner could not make them run. William's
father fixed the governors once he got them home and they
worked perfectly. William was only able to insure
the steamer for $7,500. The Royal City was used in
1899 to bring New Westminster people to the Chilliwack Fair for
half fare.
It was this steamer that blew up at Mission City in 1902
killing one person. In 1903 the Defender was sold
to the Harrison River Mills Timber and
Trading Company. In 1904 the Pheasant, 112 feet
in length, was built for George Majors at the
West Mill. He immediately sold it to J. A. Cunningham
at Port Essington on the Skeena.
In 1897 Davis Moss Coulter stopped off
at Fort Langley enroute to the Yukon goldfields to
visit with former school chums Hugh Davidson
and Robert Riddell. Coulter, from Milverton, Perth County,
Ontario, had taught school for 15 years at $400 per
annum, before coming to British Columbia. The two
store keepers suggested that he buy their Murray's Corners
Store. Coulter wrote back east to school teacher
friend John Walter Berry and asked if
he was interested in the venture. Berry replied in
the affirmative without ever seeing the store. As
early as 1894 Davidson had left Langley to work for
the Rithet Wholesalers on the
Skeena. Upon selling the store, both men went to
work for the Victoria merchant. Leaving the Rithet
Company Riddell went to Coleman, Alberta, to
manage its coal mines. In 1905 Davidson began
farming on the Salmon River flats. He
was among the first (157) Fraser Valley farmers to
have Ayrshire cattle in the
province. He later went to Vancouver to work in
the Hastings Shingle Mill.
Berry, like Coulter, had taught
school in Ontario before coming to British
Columbia. He was from Mildbay, Bruce County,
Ontario. His wife, the former Lydia Bowman, had been
raised in Berlin (Kitchener). They
had been married in 1890 and had started their family in
Ontario. Shortly after Berry's arrival the pair
bought the general store at Fort Langley. Coulter
ran the (158) store at Fort Langley while Berry operated the one
at Murray's Corner. Soon afterwards Berry's sister Mary, and her husband, Michael B. Carlton,
came out and purchased the general store in Haney. The three
store keepers, all friends, were now in an excellent position to fix prices and swap inventory back and forth
between stores. Berry used a high-wheeled wagon to
freight his supplies across the Salmon River flats
during highwaters from the fort store to his Murray's
Corners store. Sometimes the road was under several
feet of water and Berry had to drive between sticks which
had been driven into the mud on either side of the road
as markers. Berry's wagon for years doubled as the
village hearse.
(160)
Michael Charlton lost his life
shortly after his arrival while skating across the river
from Port Haney to the fort store
with his young son. Both the father and son fell
through an air pocket in the ice and were drowned.
Other pioneers to die were John Jackson and John William
Best. Jackson died Christmas day, 1892, when a tree
he had drilled and fired fell on him. A native of Greenock, Ontario, he
was the first man to be buried in the cemetery plot
donated by William Murray.
His stone reads:-
Remember now as you
pass by,
As
you are now so once I was,
As I
am now you soon shall be,
So
now prepare to follow me. |
John William Best died
after being crushed between two logs in the Baumgardner and Bovill
Mill at Murray's Corners in
1900. He too was buried in the Murray's Corners
(now Murrayville) Cemetery. Robert Monahan was the
first caretaker of this cemetery.
Paul Murray passed away in
1903. Although the oldest, he was the last of the
first three elders to be ordained on the mainland of
British Columbia. He, along with Alexander McDougal
of Mud Bay, and James McAdam of Surrey, were ordained
by Reverand Dunn in 1876 in the
school house at Innes' Corners.
About the turn of century the Charles Henry Walworth
family, located in southwest Langley, contracted smallpox.
Walworth had founded Walworth Settlement in the
1880's and had a small gold mining operation, complete
with a Cornish wheel, located on his farm.
Upon contracting the disease the Walworth family,
together with Thomas James Fielding
and William Charles Graham escaped
the dread disease, and as the story had been handed down,
buried the four that died. They then burned the
house and all its contents, including their clothes, and
the walked to a neighbor's place stark naked to get a
disinfectant bath and new wardrobe before associating
with any other people.
(161)
Apparently members of the Jason Samuel Lewis
family are buried in the same grave site. When road
crews years later decided to complete North Bluff Road a
relative of the Lewis family, the residing in California,
objected to the possible disturbances of the
graves. As a result North Bluff Road when built
took a jog to bypass the graveyard.
As the nineties drew to close the population growth in
the Fraser Valley justified new and faster modes of
transportation.
(162)
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