FVC History Edition - Jan. 31, 2025 - The life and rivalry of Edenbank Creamery

🌧 High 5C | Special weather statement

Good morning!

Happy Lunar New Year—and welcome to the year of the snake! Although the new year technically began on Wednesday, I think we can take a little time today to celebrate a year symbolizing rebirth and renewal.

The Fraser Valley was home to many Chinese immigrants who established their own communities within places like Chilliwack and Agassiz in the early 20th century. You can learn more about Chilliwack’s Chinatowns—there were two of them—thanks to this digital exhibit by the Chilliwack Museum and Archives. (You can also check out Chad Reimer’s book on the subject.) At the Agassiz-Harrison Museum, which we visited for our main story today, an in-person exhibit on Agassiz’s Chinese community is under development. It features beautiful clothing made for and worn by the Fong family.

I’m so grateful to have a chance to explore the history of some of the Fraser Valley’s amazing communities with you. If you have an idea for a future story for our History Edition, don’t hesitate to give us a shout by replying to this email. (Especially if it’s about Langley—we’ve been spending a lot of our History Editions out east so far.)

– Grace

P.S. We missed announcing our Current Cam winner yesterday. Congratulations to Ron and Dianne, who were the first to identify the image as a housing development in Sardis.

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope 

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 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

Bringing Agassiz’s history into the digital age

On a chill day in early January, the sometimes-bustling interior of Agassiz’s historic train station-turned-museum is quiet and empty. The banner for a half-finished Lunar New Year display hangs on a wall between two windows. But on the second floor, museum manager Maria Martins is busy working. Around her, tucked away inside closets, cupboards, and shelves throughout the Agassiz-Harrison Museum are thousands of physical reminders of the community’s history.

Martins is ready to usher those artifacts into the digital age.

“The amount of information that has been able to be captured here over the years is incredible, but it's just not accessible to the public,” Martins told The Current during a visit to the historic train station that houses the museum and its archives. The goal is to change that.

Digitization. System alignment. Volunteer development. Those activities may not sound glamorous, but they form what Martins believes are the most important responsibilities of her position. And her work is already showing fruit.

A newspaper digitization project that began before her time at Agassiz has just become public, allowing residents and researchers to read some of the Fraser Valley’s earliest newspapers from their homes. Even more digital projects are in the works that could help make Agassiz’s history more accessible to people in the Fraser Valley and beyond.

• Today, join Grace at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum as she talks to Martins about bringing a community museum into the digital age.

• You can find all the newspapers digitized so far on the Agassiz-Harrison Museum website here.

• You can find select headlines from the Agassiz Record and Agassiz Advance in our Links to the Past section below.

Related

🧊 Jan. 14, 1892: Ice blocked the passage of the steamer ship Gladys, which was making her way into Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]

🏫 Jan. 20, 1911: The town of Abbotsford took control over its school affairs, separating from the Matsqui school district and forming its own board [Abbotsford Post]

👞 Jan. 5, 1912: A Chilliwack shoe store caught fire before Christmas; many shoes were damaged, and the whole stock was sold at bargain prices [Chilliwack Free Press]

💨 Jan. 2, 1924: A three-day windstorm destroyed an Agassiz barn and damaged telephone lines [Agassiz Record]

🩹 Jan. 3, 1933: Local contractor James Riddle was injured when the scaffolding of a building collapsed [Agassiz Advance]

🏙 Jan. 23, 1958: BC’s deputy minister of municipal affairs said the whole Fraser Valley would be an urban area under his government’s new act [Aldergrove Herald]

🚌 Jan. 11, 1965: A Greyhound bus driver sped backwards away from the Hope Slide, saving the passengers in his vehicle [Vancouver Province]

💬 Jan. 29, 1999: The Cheam Band considered conducting treaty talks with the provincial government separate from the Stó:lō Nation [Chilliwack Progress]

New in history

✈ A historic plane returned to the air and landed back at the Langley airport earlier this month [Langley Advance Times]

🙌🏿 Abbotsford is celebrating Black History Month this February with a series of free events [Abbotsford News]

⛔ Vancouver’s Marijuana Museum had been a store, a drug dealing HQ, and a place of protest; now, it’s been boarded up [The Tyee]

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The life and rivalry of Chilliwack’s Edenbank Creamery

At the start of the 20th century, Chilliwack was renowned for its butter—both for its quality and its quantity. The reason was Edenbank Creamery.

Established in 1886 by A.C. Wells, a prominent settler and dairy farmer near Sardis, the creamery originally processed milk from five farmers. Wells had travelled to Ontario to bring back an expert cheese- and butter-maker; upon their return, he launched the creamery. It was the first farmers co-operative in BC, according to Milk Stories, and helped cement Chilliwack’s place as a dairy mecca.

By 1901, the co-operative had grown to 72 members. But competition appeared on the horizon. In 1902, the Chilliwack Creamery was established on the north side of the community. The new creamery approached Edenbank, asking if those members wanted to amalgamate.

The answer was no. Wells believed there should only be one creamery in Chilliwack, and by then the Edenbank brand was so well known he was loath to give it up. Chilliwack’s two creameries continued to compete until the mid-1910s. By then, Edenbank Creamery had tried to expand its market into Vancouver, and was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1918, the fledgling Fraser Valley Milk Producers Association took over both the Edenbank Creamery and its now-more-successful rival, the Chilliwack Creamery.

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Turn-of-the-century Chinese trunk

This storage trunk was brought to Canada from China circa 1900 by a member of the Chung family. The donor's father Bing Kee Chung came to Canada in 1896, arriving in Victoria in April. Her mother, Lim Shee Chung arrived in Vancouver on February 10, 1912. The couple was married February 15, 1912 and were living in Chilliwack by 1916. Bing Kee Chung was one of the first Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Chinatown South, and eventually bought land east of Young Road. They were one of only two families who stayed in the community after the devastating fires of 1932 and 1934 that destroyed Chilliwack’s Chinatowns. According to Wally Chung, Bing Kee’s son, nearly all of their possessions were lost in the fire, except for a trunk with some papers and heirlooms. It is likely, but not certain, that this is the same trunk.

This artifact is courtesy of the Chilliwack Museum and Archives.

Earlier this month, we asked you about your memories of the Hope Slide, which destroyed the Hope-Princeton highway and killed four people on Jan. 9, 1963. (You can read our story about the slide here.)

Sharon Syrette sent the following:

“I was travelling back to Vancouver, with a group of university students who had just finished practice teaching in Prince George. We had not heard anything about the slide, and were shocked, amazed, horrified!! We were among the first cars that were let through after the crews opened a very rough and narrow road through - no stopping!! just had to observe as we slowly followed the lead truck past the debris - rocks larger than houses!! this stands out in my memory as a vivid reminder of the potential danger when travelling in BC.”

Have a story or photo you want to share? Fill out this form, and we may feature it in a future edition.

Family day: The Fort Langley National Historic Site celebrates biodiversity on Family Day (Monday, Feb. 17). The day features an owl meeting, Indigenous teachings from two Kwantlen elders, wildlife photography tips, and more. Admission is free for kids 17 and under. Details online.

Heritage week: The Langley Heritage Society kicks off BC Heritage Week with an open house at its historic CN station in Fort Langley on Monday, Feb. 17. Details online.

Pop-up exhibit: The Mission Museum hosts a pop-up exhibit at the Mission Library about the importance of leisure through the years from Monday, Feb. 17 to Sunday, Feb. 23. The exhibit is also available virtually. Details online.

Clayburn opens: Abbotsford’s Clayburn Village Museum will open from Wednesday, Feb. 19 to Saturday, Feb. 22 for Heritage Week. Details online.

Have a history event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

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