Viewing Object

Object Description

Object Name

Oral History

Object ID

SR-281

Title

Interview of Bill and Mary Twemlow conducted by Warren Sommer on 11, 17, and 22 Feb. and 7 Mar. 2016.

Date

7 Mar. 2016.

Description

SR-281 is an oral history interview of Bill and Mary Twemlow, conducted by Warren Sommer on the 11, 17, and 22 of February, and 7 March 2016.

William Wynn Cory Twemlow, known as Bill, was born March 2, 1930 in New Westminster. His family lived in the Coghlan community, and he was raised on his parents' farm there. He took over his uncle's farm at the age of about 16 when his uncle passed away, and later worked for Mr. Fowler at about 216 Street and 80 Avenue. He left school at this time, in the middle of grade ten, to help his uncle's widow and go on to work for Mr. Fowler. He worked as a logger, mechanic, and car salesman, having a business at Fraser Highway and 200 Street in the 1960s. He met Mary Church when she was 15 and he was 17, at the Coghlan Community Hall. They were married in November 1951 at St. Alban's Anglican Church on 248 Street and Fraser Highway. Their reception was at the Coghlan Community Hall, and had about 100 people. They were meant to get married in September, but Bill had been injured in a logging accident so they had to wait until two months later. Bill and Mary moved into his parents' home and took over their dairy farm, owning dairy cows until 1959. Bill then got rheumatic fever and they sold the herd. It was after this that he worked as a mechanic. Later, he began to raise and breed beef cattle. He was an active farmer until age 86, nearly all his life, even while working at the mechanic shop. He passed away June 29, 2018 at the age of 88. Bill and Mary had three children: Kathy, Roger, and Ron. He had five grandchildren: Cory, Kerri, Willie, Jordan, and Eric, and seven great-grandchildren.

Mary Twemlow (née Church) was born in 1932. She grew up in Stavely, Alberta, and moved to the Coghlan area of Langley in 1945. She met Bill Twemlow at the Coghlan Community Hall when she was 15 and he was 17. They were married November, 1951 at St. Alban's Church, on 248 Street and Fraser Highway. They were supposed to be married in September, but Bill was injured in a logging accident and they had to wait two months. They had the reception at Coghlan Community Hall, and about 100 people attended. Bill and Mary moved into his parents' home in Coghlan and ran a dairy farm until 1959, when Bill got rheumatic fever and they sold the herd. Mary graduated high school in 1950, and four days after graduating she got a job at the Royal Bank in Langley as a secretary, where she worked until her marriage to Bill. She then worked in Gibson's real estate and insurance office until 1966, when she got a job for the provincial government working in social welfare. She remained at that job until her retirement in 1987. Bill and Mary had three children: Kathy, Roger, and Ron. She has five grandchildren: Cory, Kerri, Willie, Jordan, and Eric, and seven great-grandchildren. Mary was involved in the Coghlan branch of the Women's Institute, in addition to being involved in the community more broadly. She also helped Bill with the farm whenever was needed. Bill retired from actively farming in 2016, and they remained living on his parents' property. Bill passed away in 2018.

SR-281.1:

Track 1 – Warren introduces Bill and Mary Twemlow. Bill talks about his father’s life before he came to Canada.

Track 2 – Bill talks about his father’s education in England.

Track 3 – Bill explains how his father came to Canada and began shipping freight in the Prairies. He goes on to talk about his father moving to northern B.C. to trap furs.

Track 4 – Bill explains how his father met his uncle (his mother’s sister’s husband), Leslie Miles Homan, and by extension, how his father met his mother. He talks about his father and uncle going into the egg business together.

Track 5 – Bill and Warren talk about his father and uncle’s disagreement that had his father step away from the egg business. Bill’s uncle sold the chicken farm in 1937 and moved to Milner, going into independent dairy farming. Bill’s father stepped away from the egg business in 1929.

Track 6 – Bill talks about some of the processes involved in shipping milk on the train, how feeding the cows worked, and having Jersey cows and letting them graze in the forest.

Track 7 – Bill talks about some of the foods he ate while growing up, and how his family’s farm mainly provided what they needed.

Track 8 – Bill explains how his father seldom left the farm. He remembers going for an annual trip to the dentist in Vancouver with his mother and brothers. He also remembers one camping trip he took with his father, when they went into the bush up in the Stein River Valley.

Track 9 – Warren asks Bill about his father’s land, and Bill talks about his father clearing and using cedar for shakes and fence posts.

Track 10 – Bill talks about the process of clearing the land, which took several years, and the methods used to clear. He also begins to talk about hay and the different types of grass seeds.

SR-281.2:

Track 1 – Bill explains the process of growing hay and how to silo it properly. He explains different methods of putting hay in a silo. He also discusses getting pea vine in Ladner to use for hay and feed.

Track 2 – Bill talks about problems experienced due to the cows grazing in the bush, and explains how to resolve common issues such as scratches and mastitis. He goes on to discuss milk fever, and how to treat it, and Jersey cows’ milk production.

Track 3 – Warren asks Bill when and where he was born, and what the boundaries of the Coghlan community were. Bill talks about Coghlan as a community, and Mary mentions the Skea family and Spence family being part of the community.

Track 4 – Bill explains where East Langley begins, and they all talk about the roads through the Coghlan area and which ones do and do not go through.

Track 5 – Bill explains why he refers to his father as “the old man,” and goes on to describe downtown Coghlan, with the general store, community hall, rail station, and substation. They talk about businesses such as mobile stores and libraries waning as more people got their own cars.

Track 6 – Warren asks Bill to describe his parents’ house. Bill explains the interior of the house, the amenities the house had and did not have, and the wallpaper on the walls and ceiling.

Track 7 – Warren and Bill talk about electricity to the house. There was no electricity to Bill’s house until 1946. They were building power lines but that stopped during the war. Bill’s uncle did have power. Warren also asks about telephone service, and Bill explains where they went to use the phone.

Track 8 – Bill talks about getting into an accident in a logging camp at Harrison Lake in 1951, two months before he and Mary got married. He talks about the process of building a well on his property when he got out of the hospital after that incident.

Track 9 – Bill talks about some of the horses his father had when he was a child.

Track 10 – Bill tells Warren about his father being ill from having a duodenal ulcer, how it was treated, and how he and his brothers began milking while their father was sick. Bill explains how they milked by hand and then had a milking machine.

Track 11 – Warren asks Bill about chickens on the farm. Bill explains they had about thirty to fifty chickens, and they had a method of preserving eggs so they could use the bulk of what their chickens produced.

SR-281.3:

Track 1 – Warren asks Bill about some of the land in Coghlan being soldier settlement land. Bill talks about his uncle, and talks about men working off their taxes during the Depression. Mary talks about her family, and why they left Alberta and came to B.C. in 1945.

Track 2 – Bill talks about “bootlegging potatoes” for a time, and some of his experiences selling potatoes to restaurants and cafes around the Fraser Valley.

Track 3 – Bill and Mary talk about recreational activities that Bill did when he was a child, Mary’s parents playing whist, and how Bill’s family did any shopping at the general store, or would buy from people driving through and vending different products like fish.

Track 4 – Bill and Mary explain the interior of Peterson’s General Store in Coghlan: there was a post office in it, and they sold anything from corned beef to candies.

Track 5 – Bill explains modes of transportation in the 1930s, and going to the Durham family to have any motor vehicle fixed.

Track 6 – Bill talks a little bit about the Interurban train, and they talk about hair cuts at home, Plewes Drug Store, and shopping in New Westminster and Vancouver.

Track 7 – Bill talks about the orchard trees they had on their property, including the different apple varieties, and their kitchen garden.

Track 8 – Bill talks about going to school at County Line with principal Hilda Jude. Before the war, John Leonard was their music instructor. Bill talks about his thoughts on school, and tensions between the English heritage children and the German heritage children because of the war. He talks about going to Langley High School on the bus as well.

Track 9 – Bill explains how he left school halfway through grade ten to help his aunt after his uncle passed away. He then went on to do more work. He talks about working in the logging camp, and how unions were just starting at that time.

Track 10 – Bill and Mary talk about religion in the Coghlan area, and how Mary was involved in the choir of the Anglican church, St. Alban’s. Bill explains how his father didn’t really press religion because when he was a boy he was held to such strict rules, so he was more relaxed with his children.

Track 11 – Bill talks about leisure time including swimming in the local swimming hole and the creek, and going to White Rock.

SR-281.4:

Track 1 – Warren asks Bill and Mary about the different fall fairs: the one in Langley, and the one in Aldergrove. They also talk about the Pacific National Exhibition (P.N.E.). They talk further about leisure time.

Track 2 – Bill and Mary explain social life in the Coghlan community, including the gymnastics nights at Coghlan Community Hall. They talk about Bill getting into breeding and raising beef cattle.

Track 3 – Bill tells a story about going to see the Royal visit of 1939 through Fort Langley, and the adventure he had coming home from that event. They talk further about the war, and the tensions between English heritage people and German heritage people in Coghlan.

Track 4 – Bill talks about the community’s reaction to Pearl Harbour, including the creation of the Pacific Coast Rangers and how there was a section in Coghlan that his middle brother was part of, that would meet at Coghlan Hall. They speak about Japanese internment. Bill explains how his brother Ted enlisted in World War II and landed at the Dieppe raid.

Track 5 – Bill talks about hearing about the Dieppe raid on the radio while milking with his uncle. He explains how his brother was captured at Dieppe and kept in the same Stalag as the Dunkirk men for three years.

Track 6 – Bill talks briefly about the Cadet corps and the naval radio station, and then explains how rationing affected his family.

Track 7 – Bill talks about not being too serious about blacking out their windows, and the war ending.

Track 8 – Bill talks more about the war, including keeping up on news about the war, censorship, and propaganda.

Track 9 – Warren and Bill talk about the 1948 flood.

Track 10 – Bill and Mary talk about how they first met, and what kind of dates they went on.

SR-281.5:

Track 1 – Bill and Mary tell the story of Bill teaching Mary how to drive in his 1930 Plymouth. Mary talks about her job at the Royal Bank. Bill and Marry talk about their wedding and honeymoon.

Track 2 – Bill and Mary talk about moving into his parents’ house after their marriage, and his parents moving. Mary talks about Bill being sick with rheumatic fever, and getting help on the farm during that time. She also talks about her job at Gibson’s Real Estate and Insurance.

Track 3 – Bill and Mary talk about building the new house, and healthcare while Bill was in the hospital.

Track 4 – Bill and Mary talk about the community’s response to the freeway being built (Trans Canada Highway 1). They explain how the Coghlan community was split by the freeway, and people couldn’t get through to the community hall, for example, as easily as they used to. Bill talks about clearing his land by the freeway, and losing six acres in the corner of his property to the freeway.

Track 5 – Bill talks about his time working as a mechanic and selling gas and cars. He mentions Langley Chrysler. Mary talks about all of the activities she was involved in, including working, taking her children to activities, helping on the farm, and entering her flowers into the Aldergrove Fall Fair. Bill recounts a story of a dog attacking one of his calves.

Track 6 – Bill remembers the effects of the coyote population on cows in the area, and his beliefs on protecting livestock.

Track 7 – Bill talks about getting licensed to work as a mechanic, and teaching adult night school for small motors at Langley High School. He remembers selling Studebaker cars before the company stopped production.

Track 8 – Mary talks about her experience as a part of the Coghlan branch of the Women’s Institute.

Track 9 – Bill and Mary talk about their lifestyle, and they talk about parenting, including a tough time when their daughter was experiencing seizures for many years after brain surgery for a hemorrhage.

Track 10 – Bill and Mary conclude by talking about Coghlan as a community, and what it’s like now; for example, the Aldergrove Rotary Club managing Coghlan Community Hall. They talk about selling acres off their property to downsize.

People/Subject

British Columbia Electric Railway Company Ltd. (BCER)

The British Columbia Electric Railway's interurban passenger service for the Fraser Valley, B.C., area came through Langley in 1910. The company was building rail lines into Langley as early as 1906, when they signed an agreement with Langley government. The company itself began as a merger of the National Electric Tramway and Lighting Company (Victoria), Vancouver Electric Railway and Light Company Ltd., and Vancouver & Westminster Tramway Company, and was responsible for hydroelectric power generation, power transmission, and electric rail lines on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. All three companies had gone into receivership in 1895, and the BCER was met with receivership in 1896, following the Point Ellice Bridge Disaster in Victoria. The company was only able to survive through assistance from London financers, and began operations in 1897 as an English-owned company. A station built at 240 St. in the general area formerly known as Harmsworth in Langley was named after Rochfort Henry Sperling, general manager of the B.C. Electric Company, and the area subsequently came to be known as Sperling community. In 1910, a substation was built at Coghlan, and still stands (2021). The substation stepped the voltage from the power transmission lines down for use by the trains passing through. It did not provide power to the surrounding community. Interurban passenger services on the B.C.E.R's Fraser Valley Line ceased in 1950. The company ended all service in 1958, and broke up into the branches it is modernly: BC Hydro, Translink, and BC Transit.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Electric_Railway

cattle/cows

Coghlan

Coghlan BCER Substation

One of five substations on the Interurban line between New Westminster and Chilliwack: the others being at Sumas (Vedder Mountain), Chilliwack, Clayburn (Abbotsford), Coghlan (Langley), and Cloverdale (Surrey). Only Coghlan and Sumas remain (2019). The Coghlan substation was built between 1909 and 1910, and was named for Nathaniel and Henry Coghlan, who supplied approximately 20,000 ties for this route. H. B. Watson was the architect of the building.
Information source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spetersongallery/17180131337.

Coghlan Community Hall

Coghlan Hall is located at 6795 256th Street, and was built in 1920. Joe Fukumoto told Warren Sommer in 2011 that a Rev. Ikuta, a Buddhist minister from New Westminster, taught Japanese kids at Coghlan Hall.

Coghlan General Store

The Coghlan General Store was built on Coghlan Road in 1912 by Pete Spence for Mr. and Mrs. Petersen who operated it until 1939 when it was taken over by Mr. E.P Rowe and his son Alan Rowe. The father and son ran a delivery service up and down Coghlan Road as far as the Fraser Highway. The building had living quarters as well as the store and a post office. It was a place for people to gather and photos show some arriving by horse and carriage over the years. There was a sign over the front door that read “Pioneer General Store” and General Store was painted on the side of the building.

Once the trams with BC Electric Interurban discontinued running, in about 1950, business dropped off and the Rowe’s closed the store.

Coghlan Presbyterian Church

Coghlan Presbyterian Church opened on Sunday, December 11, 1921. Formerly the Beaver School, the building was purchased from the Langley School Board. Although the weather was inclement, several adults and children attended the first service presided over by Rev. William Wilson, D.D.

Cows, Milking

dairying

See Also: dairy cattle
Term Source: Sears List of Subject Headings (16th. Ed.)

Gibson's Real Estate, Insurance & Auctioneers

Joe Gibson started his business ventures in the 1920s. His first was an electrical supply shop that he opened in the Theatre Block in 1922. By 1925 Joe was involved in real estate, and in 1926 he expanded the electrical shop to include hardware. In 1931 he sold the store, but built a new building supply store in 1932 that was run by his son Colin until his death in 1933, when the store was closed. In 1937 Gibson added insurance to the services he offered at his location on the corner of Glover Road and Fraser Highway (then Yale Road). At this point, Gibson reopened the Langley Theatre and his wife Olive ran it until 1944. In 1938 the Gibsons entered the auction business, running the weekly Thursday auctions that became an important part of Langley's routine. It turned out to be the most successful of all of his enterprises. Gibson sold the real estate business to Len Goble in 1945. Gibson's son Mickey Bladen Gibson ran and owned the Gibson's Auctions after his father retired in 1958. The site was rebuilt as The Auction Centre in the 1970s and later the building housed Fraser Valley Auctions.

Opens in a new window.

Argus v4.4.2.32 - Langley Centennial Museum