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Charles Reid emigrated to Canada in 1908. Two years later he settled in Fort Langley and took over Medd's blacksmith shop. Later, he became one of the first machinist shop operators in the area. A fire destroyed the blacksmith shop in 1922, and the new one was built, which increasingly acted as a garage, not a blacksmith shop. Charles was the first chief of the Fort Langley Volunteer Fire Department, a charter member of the Fort Langley Community Improvement Association and an early member of the Board of Trade. Charles married a pioneer Fort Langley girl, Olive Carter, and raised a family of three children, including son Don and daughter Helen Gardner (husband Bill). He was in the business for 60 years; he saw it change from horse shoeing and wagon repairs to motor mechanics and heavy equipment repairs. Son Don took over the business from him, but it believed to have closed down in the 1990s. Later, the garage was used to store canoes for the Fort Langley Canoe Club.
See Also: Reid, Charles
Term Source: HPC Record (HPC-273/1069)