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.
|