The History of Lumby - First Child Born

Joseph and Elmire LeBlanc's fifth child was born in 1891. His parents named him Anicet, the first white child to be born in Lavington and the first child to be baptised in the Catholic Church by a priest who came to Lumby once a month from Kamloops.

Cleophas and Josephine Quesnel's son Armand was born on August 31st,1893 just six days after the village was officially named Lumby. The Quesnels could rightfully claim that their son was the first child born in Lumby.

It was during these early days that Mrs. Elizabeth Inglis was doctor, nurse and mid-wife to practically the whole of Lumby district. In the days before there was a doctor in that part of the valley, mothers would go to her home for a week or so to have their babies and Mrs. Inglis would nurse them. It was said that she delivered well over one hundred babies.

The original school near the cemetery was moved to Blue Springs (Blue Springs was named for a roadside spring which wore out a small basin in the ground in which the water looked blue.) when a new one room school was opened in Lumby with Pete Catt as teacher. In 1912 a new two room school was built by land donated by Will Shields. A few years after completion, another room had to be added. Many of the girls, both Protestant and Catholic, were sent to convents in Kamloops, New Westminster and Victoria. Those wishing to enter high school had to do so in Vernon where they boarded with family or friends. The first high school in Vernon was opened in 1902 with 14 pupils attending. It was the second high school to be opened in the interior, the first being at Nelson. At first classes were held in an empty commercial building on main street, then in 1904 a brick building was erected for the high school. But to accommodate the growing population a larger brick building, known as Central School was built on 27th Street in 1909. With ten well lighted classrooms and an assembly room on the top floor, it was considered one of the finest schools in the province at the time. The stucco wings on either side of the building were added later.