Whonnock Notes No. 23: Letters from Mahonia Ranche

Mahonia Ranche, 1889. City of Burnaby Archives, Photo ID 477-896

Murdoch, Hannah, and Agnes Kirby settled in Whonnock in 1911.
The record collection of the Langley Centennial Museum in Fort Langley holds about thirty letters written between 1888 and 1895 by Murdoch and Hannah Kirby to sister Agnes, who then still lived with their parents in England.
BC Booklook writes: "The homesteading letters of Hannah Kirby and her brother Murdoch reveal the delights and drudgery of Fraser Valley pioneering at “Mahonia Ranche.” 
Click HERE to download and read transcriptions of the letters in Whonnock Notes No. 23. Or pick up a printed version at the Whonnock post office (Only $5.00). The link to the BC Booklook article is HERE. 

Whonnock Notes No 22 - In memory of Those who Fell

This plaque, dedicated in Whonnock in 1921, showing the names of  soldiers who fell in the war of 1914-1918 was once attached above the main entrance of the Whonnock Memorial Hall. Whonnock Notes No. 22 contains documents relating to the ten men named on this memorial plaque 

Messrs. Fletcher, Garner, Hackney, Harris and Sorenson are known to be residents of Whonnock at one time. Unfortunately that is not the case with Messrs. Davin, Hanna(h), Fraser, Snelling and Wilson. Any additional information about their connection with Whonnock would be welcome. 
Click HERE to download and read this issue of Whonnock Notes. Printed copy at Sue's: $5.00.

Council Minutes Maple Ridge

Without much ado Council Minute books from 1874 up to and including 1930 have been made available in digital format on Maple Ridge’s Web site. Click here for the links.  
Note that the minutes from 1892 to 1909 are absent.  

Ruskin Store 1975

From The Outpost May 1975. Click on image to enlarge.

Coldrick

Arthur and Mabel Coldrick called their house on 104th Avenue “Wilmington” after the place where they had lived together in England. They had spent many years the Yukon before settling in Whonnock in the mid-1920s. Their quiet life escaped the attention of their contemporaries in Whonnock and information about these two kind people is scanty to say the least. 
We know that Arthur Coldrick joined the Whonnock Detachment of the Pacific Coast Rangers and he is on the photo of the members taken at Silverdale. The late Brian Byrnes said of him that he was a “very nice old boy, deeply interested in local history.”

Both Arthur and Mabel are buried in the Whonnock Cemetery. He died in 1952 and she three years later. Their graves are as forgotten as their lives.

Attached is a draft note about the Coldricks. If you have anything to add please send an e-mail to webmaster@whonnock.ca

A Hoax?

The photograph shows a horse tied to a lever on the Mission bridge in 1907. Allegedly the horse was used to open and close the bridge as for instance described as follows: 

The swing span opened and closed by horsepower, and the horse's name was "Charlie." The animal was harnessed to the mechanism in the centre of the swing span and walked around in circles, opening or closing the bridge as required. Charlie was stabled in a shed attached to the side of the swing span in winter and in a field on the south bank of the river in summer. Whenever a sternwheeler whistled, Charlie went to work. 

This quote is from Postcards from the Past: Edwardian Images of Greater Vancouver etc. The authors did not show this picture. It is evident that there was no space for a horse to walk around in circles. The story is repeated by other authors but, frankly, I think it was a well-staged hoax. 

Whonnock outside Whonnock

The other day I was asked to find out where a man called Henry Foster had farmed in Whonnock. 

His name appeared on the 1921 Canada Census as living in Haney. He is then 65 years of age. 

His wife, Margaret, died in 1932 in Haney. Why would Henry and his two unmarried daughters, after Margaret’s death have moved to Whonnock? He was by now an aged man. Did he move at all? 
His name did not appear in the directories as a Whonnock resident in the years following Margaret's death. But then, as from 1939, his name started showing up as a Whonnock resident in the directories.

The answer was that in 1938 rural postal delivery started from the Whonnock post office. The first rural route stretched all the way to where the Fosters lived at the north end of 234 Street in Albion. They had never moved to Whonnock. 

Before home delivery the Fosters would have picked up their mail somewhere else, but after 1938  their address became part of the mail was from Whonnock and their postal address was Whonnock. That was the reason their name was included as a resident of Whonnock in the directories.