Countless thousands of Abbotsford residents drive along Maclure Road every day, passing Maclure Park on the eastern edge of Townline Hill, as they start their workday while a hundred-plus children scurry into John Maclure Community School in Clearbrook Centre as the bell sounds the start of another day.
But who was this man named John Cunningham Maclure and how was he connected to development of what is now the Historic Downtown Abbotsford over 130 years ago?
Local historian Graham Evan MacDonell will provide a PowerPoint presentation and display his collection of archival materials on the Abbotsford pioneer at the Clearbrook Library (32320 George Ferguson Way) on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 1 to 4 p.m.
“Maclure, a former Royal Engineer surveyor,” MacDonell said, “homesteaded on the southern end of the Matsqui Prairie in September 1868, after having seen a section of land that he fell in love with while surveying the Fraser Valley between 1858 and 1863 as part of the Royal Engineers Columbia Detachment.”
It was not until 1889, when he learned about the CPR being told to construct a railway line from Mission to the international border, that he bought a quarter section of land that would become the village of Abbotsford in 1924 and become the catalyst to develop parts of Matsqui and Sumas prairies.
Three of MacDonell’s eight grandchildren are descendants of Maclure.
The presentation is a sneak preview of the book MacDonell is writing on Abbotsford’s premier pioneer family, its family tree and how they were involved in putting Abbotsford “on the map.”
MacDonell plans to publish the book next year to mark the 150th anniversary of the Maclure family’s move from New Westminster to their Abbotsford homestead, “Hazelbrae.”