Daniel Cummings and Samuel Hugh Monahan oral history interview conducted by Don Waite in 1976.

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Object Description

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Object Name

Oral History

,

Recording

Object ID

SR-027

Title

Daniel Cummings and Samuel Hugh Monahan oral history interview conducted by Don Waite in 1976.

Extent

1 audio cassette.

Date

1976.

Description

SR-027: Tracks 1 - 2 discuss railroad work, including logging.
Track 3 discusses World War I, naming Langley men who fought overseas and describing their training.
Tracks 4 - 11 discuss pioneer families in Langley, including the Murrays and the Cummings. John Jolly's property and family are discussed. The Murray family, the Poppy family, the Selby-Hele family, and the Olson family are discussed.
Tracks 12 - 13 describe Fraser River steamboats such as the Favourite. The local postal system is mentioned.
Track 14 discusses the Monahan family history.
Track 15 discusses the Murray family history and the family hotel.
Tracks 16 - 17 discuss railroad work, logging work, and mills in early Langley.

People/Subject

Cummings, Daniel, 1889-1989

Daniel Cummings was born on 18 July, 1889 to Roderick Cummings and Flora Matheson. He married Rizpah Selby-Hele on 25 March, 1914. Daniel died on 27 November, 1989.

Daniel Cummings was interviewed by the museum in 1976. It can be found at SR-026 and SR-027.

Term Source: The Langley Story, pg. 251 (Waite), Cemetery Report - Murrayville Burials pg. 14 (Township of Langley)

Cummings, Rizpah (nee Selby-Hele), 1893-1982

Rizpah Cummings (nee Selby-Hele) was born on October 30, 1893 in Whonnock, British Columbia to parents Rose Harding and Henry George Selby-Hele. In 1902 the Selby-Hele family moved to a log cabin in Langley on 2nd Avenue near 224th Street, where they farmed for 65 years. Rizpah had four brothers, Herbert (1896-1923), William (1905-1912), William Horne (1913-1967) and George Percival (1915-1989). Her father, Henry George, was a councillor in Langley for 15 years. Rizpah attended the West South Aldergrove school, which was a one-room schoolhouse on Otter Road. On March 25, 1914, Rizpah married Daniel Cumming at the First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver. During the First World War she worked with the Red Cross and became a member of the Murrayville Royal Canadian Legion Auxiliary. She was a resident of Langley for 80 years, 68 of which were in Murrayville. She was an active member of Langley Pioneer’s Association and devoted member of the Sharon United Church. Rizpah passed away on September 3rd, 1982 and is buried with her husband of 65 years, Daniel (1889-1989), in the Murrayville Cemetery.

Jolly, John

John Jolly was born in about 1839 in Cornwall, England. As a young man he left England for the Untied States Familiar with the tin mining in Cornwall, Jolly found wok in the tin mines of Michigan before travelling on to the gold rush town of Grass Valley, California. Jolly left California and headed for the State of Victoria, Australia. Here Jolly met the James family, also from Cornwall. In 1866 Jolly married James James' daughter, Mary. The whole family then decided to move back to Grass Valley, California. Unsatisfied, James James and John Jolly headed north to B.C. in 1869 and found good farm land in Langley. The family lived in the manse beside St. John the Divine in Derby before building their homes. They sent for their wives in 1871. James Kennedy met the two women upon their arrival in New Westminster, and escorted them in a canoe manned by 14 First Nations paddlers to Fort Langley. For the next five years, these two women - and Mrs. James Kennedy - were the only white women in the area. John Jolly was the Reeve of the Township of Langley from 1882 - 1883. He died March 6, 1912, at the age of 72, in Vancouver.
Term Source: The Langley Story, pg. 63 (Waite)

Monahan, Samuel Hugh

Samuel Hugh Monahan was born on 14 July 1892 to Robert Monahan and Ellen Nelson. He married Nellie Robertson on 13 October 1914. Samuel died on 7 May 1978.

Samuel was interviewed by the museum in 1976. His interview can be found at SR-027.

Murray family.

Olson, Frank

Term Source: HPC Record (HPC-157/955)

paddle steamer (see boats)

Telegraph Trail

The first overland telegraph system in the Canadian West was undertaken by the Collins Overland Telegraph Line, located and constructed through the lower Fraser Valley by Edmund Conway in April to May of 1865. The Telegraph line was commemorated with a cairn and plaque in 1958 in Northwest Langley. Telegraph Trail follows the original alignment of the trail at several places in the municipality; it is designated as a heritage site between 72 and 80 Avenues and 240 and 248 Streets. Telegraph Trail was not improved, and lost its main function when the telegraph line was moved to the Yale Road in 1880.
Term Source: Township of Langley Heritage Listing.

World War, 1914-1918

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