Langley Township

By 1838 the fort had become too small and was rebuilt upriver. Destroyed by fire in 1840, it was rebuilt once again at the site of the current National Historic Park. In addition to the fort itself, many of the names associated with it are preserved throughout Langley, primarily through street names: Yale, 1840s postmaster Ovid Allard and B.C. Governor James Douglas among them. Responding to problems caused by a huge population influx (primarily Americans) during the Fraser Gold Rush, Fort Langley was the site of the declaration of B.C. as a Crown Colony on November 19, 1858. The fort was the colony’s first capital until just after Christmas when, against James Douglas’ wishes, Col. R.C. Moody chose Queensborough (New Westminster) because the fort on the south side of the Fraser River would be too hard to defend against American attack.

Langley Township was incorporated as a municipality in 1873; James Mackie was the first reeve (mayor). The area filled up quickly through the latter part of the century. John Jolly (reeve, 1883) came from Australia. Paul Murray came from northern Scotland to set up at Murray’s Corner (now Murrayville). Joseph Michaud arrived from France to settle in Langley Prairie (which became Langley City after the 1955 secession). George Blair came from Ireland to settle in Milner. Henry Davis, another Irishman, built many of the roads which were named after his fellow pioneers. The Medds left England for Ontario and eventually ended up in the Livingston area. David William Poppy another Englishman, was reeve from 1908-1913 and again from 1919-1923. His son D.W. Poppy served as reeve from 1956 into the 1970s. The family settled on Otter Road (originally Warwhoop Road, renamed after Col. W.D. Otter, a prairie Indian fighter not believed to ever have set foot in Langley). The Mufford family, also still prominent in the area, came from England via the California gold fields. Among those who settled in Aldergrove (originally Alder Grove) were the Jackmans, the Shortreeds, the Murchisons, and in the County Line district, the Vanettas.

Most of the names of the pioneers are preserved in names of districts, geographical features (such as Murray Creek) and roads, although the latter have been obscured in two ways: street and avenue numbers have replaced most of the names in the municipality and many of the names that remain honor not pioneers, but local boys killed in World War I. (An example is Carvolth Road, which has become 200th Street and one of the most prominent streets in the area�it was named after a young man who had lived in Langley only a few weeks before joining the armed forces and going overseas to his death.)

The aboriginal people of the area were Stalo (which is a Halkomelem word meaning “river”) of the Kwantlen band; they still live on McMillan Island next to Fort Langley.

Fort Langley was the economic centre of Langley Township for many years, followed by Murrayville and then Milner through the turn of the century and into the 1920s. When Langley Prairie took over as the business centre through the Dirty Thirties, business people there began to express concern about the taxes they were paying compared to the amount actually spent within their community. By the 1950s the unrest had grown enough to become a popular movement and Langley Prairie split off on its own to become Langley City in 1955.

In the past five years Langley Township’s population has grown 19 per cent to nearly 81,000. Huge influxes have occurred in the Walnut Grove and Murrayville areas, and a decision is pending on whether Brookswood or Willoughby will be next to undergo massive development. While a large part of the local economy is rurally inclined (it is the horse capital of B.C., for example, and poultry farming accounted for $170 million in 1995), there are important industrial areas such as those in North West Langley and the Gloucester Estates north of Aldergrove. Langley Township has an airport and numerous tourist attractions, including the National Historic Park in Fort Langley and the Greater Vancouver Zoological Centre (formerly the Vancouver Game Farm) next to Aldergrove.