FVC History Edition - Feb. 28, 2025 - Kwantlen's Catholic history

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Good morning!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I am reminded of the truth of that old adage whenever I put together this special edition of our newsletter. In the Links to the Past section, I invariably find old stories that echo the same issues facing the Fraser Valley today. Today’s top stories focus on the American tariff threats to local businesses. Tariffs also made the front page in 1907, although the environment seemed a little less hostile then. You’ll also find stories about school budgets, riverbank protection, land acquisition, and other perennial problems in our communities.

Some things, however, are not quite the same. For example, we would be unlikely to publish news of an extremely large litter of piglets in Agassiz—although I suppose I shouldn’t rule it out.

– Grace

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🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

HISTORY

The fascinating, and ridiculous, histories of Abbotsford’s school names

What do an Indigenous teacher, a hockey star, a school superintendent, a mill foreman, a British prince with a troubled marriage, and three Alexanders have in common?

It’s not the start of a bad joke. Each of those individuals is immortalized on a school somewhere in Abbotsford—and the stories surrounding each school’s naming range from heartwarming to ridiculous.

• Today, Grace shares the history behind a few of the most interesting names crowning Abbotsford’s schools.

• The histories were compiled by Abbotsford’s Retired Teachers’ Association, as a gift to the school district on the association’s 50th anniversary. You’ll be able to find links for the histories of every school at the bottom of the story.

Related

🔥 Feb. 4, 1892: A ‘defective chimney’ started a fire in Chilliwack’s rectory, although the recently renovated building did survive [Chilliwack Progress]

🪓 Feb. 23, 1907: Rat Portage Lumber Company purchased new equipment for its mill, with promising results for Harrison Mills [Fraser Advance]

💸 Feb. 10, 1911: American President William Taft changed tariffs on goods passing between Canada and the United States as part of a reciprocity agreement [Abbotsford Post] / You can read Taft’s January message to his senate about the agreement here [The American Presidency Project]

💰 Feb. 20, 1920: The federal government wanted BC to pay for land included in the Sumas Lake drainage plan [Abbotsford Post]

⚒ Feb. 18, 1932: Ottawa sent word the feds had paid for their portion of riverbank protection in Agassiz, and Kent council agreed to begin work immediately [Agassiz Advance]

🚂 Feb. 18, 1942: A engineer fell out of the cab of a moving train in Harrison Mills, but survived thanks to the efforts of Dr. McCaffrey [Agassiz Advance]

🌳 Feb. 9, 1945: A Chilliwack politician said he was ‘smothered with requests’ to remove trees [Chilliwack Progress]

🏫 Feb. 27, 1958: An increase in teachers’ salaries helped pushed the Langley School District budget over $1 million for the first time [Aldergrove and District News]

🏗 Feb. 7, 1990: A local business owner said Chilliwack’s Five Corners should become a development showpiece, and local politicians squandered their chances [Chilliwack Progress]

New in history

⚰ Agassiz residents are starting a new group to help preserve the town’s Old Cemetery on Limbert Mountain [Fraser Valley Today]

👐 Langley’s salishan Place by the River held its grand opening this month [Langley Heritage Society] / You can read our story on how far in the museum you can go here [FVC]

👉 Non-profit society New Pathways to Gold has plans to rehabilitate Alexandra Bridge near Spuzzum, create a memorial for a Lytton chief, and restore part of the Cariboo Waggon Road [New Pathways to Gold]

🚂 Hope council will spend $100,000 on an archeological assessment of the new Hope Station House site [Hope Standard]

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Kwantlen church connected to St. Mary’s Mission

For more than 100 years, the Church of the Holy Redeemer has stood on Kwantlen land. The church was built on the Kwantlen First Nation’s McMillan Island reserve in 1897 by both the Kwantlen members and the Oblate of Mary Immaculate—the same group that built St. Mary’s Mission three decades earlier.

Roman Catholic presence in the area had begun in the 1840s, when missionary Modeste Demers visited Fort Langley because of his fears that Protestants were evangelizing the region. During his visit, he baptized 400 Stó:lō children and decided the region needed a stronger catholic presence. Demers was largely responsible for the Oblates moving into British Columbia in the 1860s.

Converting Indigenous people to Catholicism was an important mandate for the Oblates and they built a number of churches and missions throughout BC with that goal in mind. By the time the Kwantlen church was built in the 1890s, the federal government had made attendance at residential schools mandatory for Indigenous children, and RCMP force was used to take the children away if necessary.

The Kwantlen Church of the Holy Redeemer was built with logs cut from the band’s Whonnock reserve land, and floated down the river to New Westminster to be turned into lumber.

The church still stands on Kwantlen land today, making it the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Langley. It has seen many marriages over the years, and although it is now rarely used for religious ceremonies, it is a popular location for filming.

The building has undergone several renovations over the years, including the installation of a new steeple in 2019.

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TuneDin Game

The game was developed in Abbotsford and manufactured in Lynden, Wash., by Friends Across the Border Inc. in 1988. It was promoted as an “exciting board game that everyone is humming about!” The "key" to this fast-paced game is to try and communicate your song to opponents in only 60 seconds. You can hum, la-la-la, whistle the tune, add hand and/ or body motions—in short, do anything needed to get the song named. You can not say, sing or write the actual song title. Production was discontinued although some copies of the game can still be found online through sites like eBay.

This artifact is courtesy of The Reach Gallery Museum. BC Heritage Week took place this month with the theme “Pastimes in past times.”

Film screening: The Chilliwack Museum and Archives hosts a screening of Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of The Witness Blanket on three Saturdays: March 8, March 29, and April 12. The 90-minute film shows how the museum’s newest installation on residential schools and the children who survived them was created. Details and tickets online.

Nature adventure: The Fort Langley Historic Site hosts a spring break nature adventure from Saturday, March 15 to Sunday, March 30. The site has daily events from 10:30am to 5pm, along with a different guest presenter each day. This is not a spring break camp, but admission for kids 17 and under are free. Details online.

Harvest heroes: The Agassiz-Harrison Museum hosts a food-focused heritage day on Wednesday, March 19. Attendees can do crafts, check out interactive artifacts related to farming, and leave with a food package supplied by the Fraser Cascade School District. Details online.

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Catch up

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