Viewing Object

The Township of Langley, B.C., comprising Langley, Fort Langley, Murrayville, Langley Prairie, Derby, Milner, Aldergrove, Otter, Salmon River Uplands, and Glen Valley, was incorporated in 1873. The City of Langley, B.C., covering the Langley Prairie region, was incorporated as a separate entity in 1955.

Born in Hunter's River, PEI, in 1863, Roderick Cummings arrived in Vancouver, BC in 1886. He married Flora Matheson on November 11, 1886, in New Westminster. They took up homesteading in Langley in 1888. He subsequently began slaughtering hogs and cattle to supply district logging camps and opened a butcher shop at Murrayville's Five Corners, on the west side of what is now 216th Street, north of Sharon United Church and the Old Yale Road. Rod had an artesian well on his property at the Five Corners, directly east of the Sharon Church. After the construction of Belmont (later Murrayville Elementary) School was built up the hill to the east in 1911, Cummings entered into a 99 year lease to provide water to the school, and the municipal hall across the road. This agreement resulted in the community’s first multi-user water system. The pressure needed to pump the water up the hill (now 48th Avenue) from the source was supplied by a hydraulic ram pump. This provided sufficient water service until demand started to increase following the First World War. An electric pump was installed in 1928, and the pumphouse structure (still standing) was built to shelter it. Flora and Rod had one son, Daniel Cummings who took over the meat market from them. Rod passed away at the age of 90 in 1953.
Source: The Langley Story, pg. 251 (Waite)

Fort Langley Elementary School was located in the Langley School District, later School District 35 (Langley).

The Langley School District administered schools in the Langley and Fort Langley areas. It later became part of School District No. 35 (Langley).
See Also: School District No. 35
Term Source: BCAUL