Notes about MacBryer property

About the property on the south side of 96th Avenue between 272nd Street and the cemetery.

The original house was probably built ca. 1920 by carpenter Alexander Thomson MacBryer (or McBryer) for himself, his wife Helen and three sons Alexander Ainslie, George and William.

Alexander Sr., was born in Scotland and migrated in 1910 to Manitoba with his first wife Catherine and their newborn son Alexander Jr.  Catherine died in 1911.

In 1912 Alex Sr. married Helen. In November 1914 Alex Sr. joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The family then lived in Vancouver where son George was born in 1915. Not certain when and where William was born.

After the Fist World War ended the family moved to Whonnock where they lived until 1958 when the couple and son William moved to a place near Gibson. By that time Alexander Jr, and George had moved away. AT drowned near Gibson in 1961. Helen died in 1964 in Vancouver, George died in a plane crash near Alert Bay in 1966. Alex Jr. in Maple Ridge in 1989. William also rests at the Maple Ridge cemetery.

Plan to wreck a train

Vancouver Sun, 17 December 1912

Looking Back

This new book containing a collection of Fred's contributions about the past of Whonnock and Ruskin to the "Looking Back" column of the Maple Ridge News, is for sale at the Whonnock post office.
5.5 x 8.5 inches, 170 pages.

REPRINTED BY POPULAR DEMAND
For sale at Black Bond Books, Valley Fair Mall, Maple Ridge

Forest fires

From the MR Museum and Archives a map showing the location and years of the forest fires from  1919 to 1987. Click on image to enlarge.

Heritage Resources

This is a wonderful updated version of the 1998 Heritage Inventory. 

Of interested to anyone who wants to know more of the remnants of the past all around us. Click here. 

Bell of St Paul’s now at Holy Spirit Anglican Church

On page 49 of Maple Ridge: A History of Settlement you’ll read of the (1912) improvement of the church “… by the handsome gift of a bell and belfry from the Percys….” 

Those Percys were Mary Anne (Legge) Percy (1840 – 1926) and three of her children: her daughter Ethel Langfield 1870 – 1951) and sons Percy Hugh Jocelyn (1867 – 1951) and Harry Alfred Reginald (1874 – 1962).  Mary Anne Percy was the widow of the Rev. William John Edward Percy, who died in 1876. 

The Percys came from Devon. Harry was the first to land in Canada in 1896, followed by the others in 1897. As from 1896 they were the taxpayers/owners of a quarter section (160 acres) along the west side of 272nd Street above 104th Avenue.

The Percys are all buried in the Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster. 

War Dead WW II

There is no list of those from Whonnock and Ruskin who lost their lives in the Second World War. So far I have only been able to collect the names of four from Whonnock who died in the 1940s. If you happen to know someone else not listed here please let me know:

Derwood William SMITH, 1917-1944 

Leonard Allan SCUTT, 1923-1944

Reginald Frank WILLIAMS, c 1920-1943

Mervin Clayton BOND, 1923-1944

Edward Alan SPROULE, 1919-1943