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Roderick Cumming took up a homestead in Langley in 1888, with his wife Flora Matheson, and began slaughtering hogs and cattle to supply meat to district logging camps and then opened the Cumming’s Meat Market at Murrayville’s Five Corners.

Rod Cumming and his son Daniel Cumming owned and operated the meat market together and photos show them working a meat stall at the New Westminster Market, known as the “City Market”, from 1898-1906. Daniel took over the meat market in 1953 when Roderick passed away at the age of 90.

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)

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.

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)

Term Source: dhv