Viewing Object

Eva May Berry (nee Williams) was born on January 14, 1895 in Otter B.C. Her family were homesteaders in Langley. She married Owen James Berry (1886- October 6, 1964) on July 24, 1916. Eva owned and operated the Maternity Home in Langley. With her husband she had a son named Rowland. Eva died on December 25, 1982.

The Sperling area was historically in the Harmsworth district but got its name in 1910 when the B.C. Electric Railway arrived and a station was built where the Interurban line crossed Brown Road (240th). The station and surrounding area were named after R.H. Sperling, the general manager of the BC Electric at that time.

Charles Hubert Williams was born in England on August 7, 1861. He married Emily Powell, who was born November 28, 1862 (according to the 1901 census, or 1858 according to her death certificate). They had a son in England, Charles John Albert (Bert), who was born September 15, 1885. In 1887 they sailed to Halifax, then moved to Ontario, where he worked for two years as a stonemason. Son Stephen Raymond was born there on October 11, 1887. The family came by CPR train to Vancouver in 1889, where, as a stonemason, Williams helped lay foundations after the 1886 fire. The family then moved to Langley, settling in the Otter District near what is now Fraser Highway and Brown Road (240th Street). Other children born in Langley include George Leonard (born September 5, 1890), Haydn Oswald (born July 5, 1893), Eva May (born January 14, 1895), and Trueman (born May 1902). Charles and his family cleared land and farmed in the Sperling district, B.C., in the 1890s. The family built a sawmill, known as the Salmon River Lumber Company, on the area now called Williams Park at what is now approximately 238th Street and 67th Avenue in an area known as Sperling, in 1904-06. Lumber from the mill was used to build the Sperling Church. It is unclear when the family closed the mill and sold the property. Charles Hubert Williams passed away on March 26, 1932 in Sperling, at the age of 69.

Emily Williams was born Emily Powell in England. She came over with her husband Charles Hubert Williams, and her parents, arriving in Langley in 1889. She raised her family on Yale Road, just east of Murray's Corners. She died in 1947.