Noel Bowman Booth 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-032

Title

Noel Bowman Booth oral history interview conducted by Don Waite in 1976.

Extent

1 audio cassette.

Date

1976.

Description

SR-032: Track 1 is a brief description of street numbering systems.
Track 2 describes the first community library in Langley, and Booth's work for the Fraser Valley Regional Library.
Tracks 3 - 5 describe Booth's experience in municipal politics and as school trustee. He discusses political problems in Langley.
Track 6 is a discussion of Booth's family and his business, a travelling store.

People/Subject

Booth, Gertrude Lillian (nee Osterberg)

Gertrude Lillian Osterberg was born August 21, 1900, in Gleichen, Alberta. Travelling as a young person, she returned to Vancouver in 1916 with her family and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper at a wholesale jewelry company in Vancouver. In 1918 she began a four year courtship with Noel Booth, who she had met through her father. On June 1, 1921 Noel and Lillian were married at the First Lutheran Church in Vancouver. The newly weds arrived in Fern Ridge in the fall of 1921 by the B.C. Electric Interurban Railway and were assisted by local farmers over the rough roads to their new home. Mrs. Booth began running the Fern Ridge post office when they arrived, while Noel commuted to his plumbing business in Vancouver until the mid-1920s. By that time a small store was added to the post office, and eventually the Booths' developed a small fleet of travelling stores. By all accounts, Mrs. Booth was the one that ran the show, as Mr. Booth concentrated on his political career. The couple had two children: Mark and Valara. Gertrude Booth died in Langley on October 13, 1973.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"

Booth, Noel Bowman

Noel Bowman Booth was born in Nottingham, England on May 23rd 1897. He came to Canada as a 14 year old. He travelled a bit, became a commercial fisherman on the B.C. Coast and he served in the First World War. He married Gertrude Lillian Osterberg (1900-1973) in 1921 and they moved to Langley to operate the Fernridge post office. He grew the general store which was attached to the post office, expanding it to a fleet of five mobile stores. The Booth General Store was a community hub. Booth ran a library from his store, let adults and children gather around its fire, and for a time he had the only phone for miles. His business closed in 1970.

Outside of work Booth was a Reeve (1933-35, 1946-47), Councillor (1945, 1949, 1956, 1959, 1967), Alderman (1968) and School Trustee. Booth initiate the local Douglas Day celebration during his term in office and he started the Fraser Valley Regional Library. Booth also donated the land on which Glenwood School stands. He became a Freeman of Langley Township in 1977.

He had a daughter, Valara (Val) Nichols (1928-1994) and a son, Mark (d 1970). A local park and school are named in Booth's honour. He died on May 22,1979.

Fraser Valley Regional Library

Langley Community Library

The Langley Community Library was run by Hilda Dale from 1945 to 1967. In 1967, the Langley Centennial Library was built.

Nichols, Valara (nee Booth)

Valara Booth was born in Langley on May 15, 1928, to parents Noel and Gertrude Booth. She assisted in the operations of the family business (the Noel Booth Store and travelling stores) as a clerk in the store and travelling stores, and pumping gas. After finishing school, Valara travelled to Smithers and Terrace to begin a teaching career. She stayed in the Northern part of the province during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1954 she married Frank Nichols, and in 1960 the couple and their four children moved to Edmonton. Valara returned to Fern Ridge with her six children in 1970 after a divorce with Frank. A building at the back of her parents property was turned into a residence for Valara and her kids. Back in Langley, she renewed her teaching certificate and taught as a substitute teacher for a number of years in the Langley School District. Valara had already retired by the time she passed away on September 25, 1994 in Langley.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"

Noel Booth Bus

The Diamond T Bus was once part of a fleet of vehicles operated by the Noel Booth General Store in Langley. Mr. and Mrs. Booth took over the operation of the Fernridge Post Office in 1921, then later expanded to include a General Store. During the Second World War, the Booths began delivering and selling goods through a fleet of mobile stores. They equipped their vehicles with shelving and an icebox, and staffed them with a driver and clerk. The Diamond T Bus was purchased in 1941. The vehicles took orders, delivered groceries, and sold groceries they carried with them. The vehicle was in operation from the 1940s to 1963. The bus was donated by the family of Noel Booth to the British Columbia Provincial Museum in 1985, and in 1987 became part of the collection of the Transportation Museum of British Columbia in Cloverdale. The Noel Booth Bus was part of the Transportation Museum of British Columbia's collection until the museum closed. Efforts were made to return objects from the collection to their communities of origin, and the Noel Booth Bus returned to Langley in 1993, becoming part of the collection of the Langley Centennial Museum & National Exhibition Centre. A restoration project was undertaken by a skilled and dedicated group of volunteers who work for the Township of Langley. Bill Hughes, Jim McRobbie, Norm Morgan, Dave Clift, Wayne Randell and Dave Garrett (employees with Public Works, Equipment and Buildings, Operations, and Utilities departments) met Wednesday evenings to work on the project, and raised most of the original funding themselves. They stripped the bus to its frame, took apart and inspected the transmission and differential, and rebuilt the engine. Jim McRobbie's active membership in a truck restoration club helped them find parts, and he also traveled to Washington State to purchase a second bus for parts. The group was also helped through donations from B&B Tire of Langley and Alder Auto Parts in Aldergrove. The project was completed with the support of the BC Heritage Trust and Township of Langley.
Term Source: based on museum research on the bus.

Noel Booth Store and Gas Station

The Booths arrived in Fern Ridge, south Langley, in the fall of 1921 to continue operating the local post office there. Mrs. Gertrude Lillian Booth assumed the role of postmistress while Mr. Booth commuted to Vancouver to his plumbing business until the mid 1920s. The Booths expanded the services of the post office soon after (a temporary partition was built to accommodate two services, the post office and a small grocery store). Initially a limited number of goods were offered for sale, due largely to the limited floor area. The post office ceased operation in 1926. The gas station at the Booth Store was built in the early 1930s, a small building with a covering for the pumps. There were two pumps - gas and coal-oil. Coal-oil was used extensively for lighting and heating prior to electricity in rural Langley. The store underwent a major renovation in 1936 when the Booths contracted the services of the Smith Brothers, a local construction company. The renovation changed the store layout from an "L" to a linear design. After the renovation the store was now called N. Booth's General Store. The Booth's expanded in 1940 and 1941, adding stores in Whalley and White Rock. The White Rock store closed for economic reasons, and the Whalley location after its manager enlisted in the army. During the Second World War the Booths' established a fleet of mobile stores, at the height of their use between 1946 and 1947. The service was decreased to a one vehicle operation in 1947, and the last remaining vehicle, a Diamond "T", remained in service until 1963 when the traveling grocery was cancelled.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"; Inventory of Historic Buildings in Langley by the Langley Heritage Society.

Poppy, David William, Jr.

David William Poppy was Mayor of the Township of Langley from 1967 - 1971, Reeve 1956 - 1967 and Councillor in 1944, 1946 - 1955.
Term Source: Roads & Other Place Names in Langley, B.C. pg 41(Pepin).

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