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Page last updated July 26, 2021

© Michael Kluckner

The green dots added to the 1920s map above for clarity show Dewdney on the left and Deroche on the right. The City of Mission is just to the left of the edge of the map. Dewdney, named for surveyor Edgar Dewdney who was the namesake of the Dewdney Trail amongst other achievements, was one of the early agricultural municipalities in the Fraser Valley, settled about 1867 by N.C. Johnston and Robert Grenville McKamey. Incorporated in 1892, it was bankrupted by the stupendous 1894 floods and disincorporated itself in 1906. By that time, the riverboat era had ended and, with improved roads and the beginning of the automobile age, the store at the old Johnston's Landing, dating from 1891, was closed and the business re-established next to the Dewdney CPR station. A man named Cox bought it in 1908, then the Watson family bought it in 1911. The Watsons' store became the post office, and in 1917 Ida Kate Watson became postmistress, serving in the position until shortly before her death at the age of 93 in 1948. Her son Morton, who operated the General Store, then apparently took over from her. Her predecessors as postmaster were A.W. McIntosh in 1891-2, J.J. Barker from 1892-1911 and his daughter (?) Miss A. Barker from 1912-1916. *** From Anthony Horn, 2021: I live in West Australia and I worked on a farm near the Dewdney G Store in 1960.  I notice that a barn can be seen on Google Earth and I have a photo of it. I think the farmer’s name was Withington or something like that. On Google Earth the site is ;   49°09'38.82" N 122°11'08.46" W     This can be copied and pasted on Google Earth. About .5 mile from the Dewdney Store. From Eleanore Dempster, 2021: I am the keeper of the Dempster photo archive, in which there is this photo of the Dewdney Store dated 1905.  The photo was recently posted to the facebook group Old BC: The Way It Was. l-r: Arthur Haine, Mary (Dempster) Haine and Gladys Haine in buggy, unidentified woman on porch, Boy Dempster, Bob Dempster.  Kitty Dempster may be hidden from view by Arthur’s horse. The posting generated a question about whether or not the 1905 building is part of the existing store.  An internet search brought me to your remarks about the history of the store, and comments made on your web page by Keith Wilson, all of which lead me to think that the 1905 store in our photo is not part of today’s structure - or is it? Journals kept by Arthur Haine, my husband’s step grandfather who farmed at Dewdney, indicate that the family shopped at John Barker’s store from 1904 to 1910; in January 1910, they started buying groceries from McIntyre Bros. in Mission and moved to North Kamloops in 1911.  Directories indicate that John Barker operated a general store and post office at Dewdney from 1894 to at least 1910.  I believe his is the store in our photograph. If you can confirm or add anything to this story, please get in touch with me.  The Store at Dewdney is a tiny piece of our Dempster family history that is left dangling and it would please me immensely to wrap it up and put it away. From Peggy Adams, 2020: you mentioned John and Alice Barker in your book.  They are my great, great aunt and uncle.  My great, great grandmother was Sarah Barker (Alice and John’s sister) who moved out to Dewdney around 1901 or 1902 and died in 1906 and is buried along with Alice, John and John’s wife in the New Westminster cemetery. If you have any information regarding these relatives, I would appreciate any information.  The Barker family were raised near Belleville, ON.  Sarah married Samuel L. Adams who died shortly after they had a child, Clarence Thomas Adams.  Samuel died but we don’t know how and I can’t find records of his death.  Sarah married his brother William and they moved to Sault Ste. Marie, ON with Clarence, shortly after Samuel’s death.  For some reason Sarah left William and moved to Dewdney to be with her family members.  Apparently she had T.B., and perhaps that was the reason for her death in 1906. From Keith Wilson, 2019: Ida Kate Watson was my great-grandmother who lived behind the Dewdney Store and her son, my grandfather, Henry Morden Watson took over the store on her passing in 1948. Ida’s husband, William Henry Watson both moved to Dewdney from Highgate, Ontario and took over running of the Dewdney Store. Unfortunately, William died in December 1918 leaving his second wife, Kate to managed the store and post office. Not sure exactly when my grandfather, Henry Morden came from Saskatchewan to assist in storekeeping but the earliest I have him living in Dewdney is 1921 on the voters list that year. My Aunt Phyllis, his second daughter was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1918 so presumably he moved to Dewdney to help his mother between 1918 and 1921. You can see by the spelling of my grandfather, his middle name and the name everyone called him was Morden, not Morton. I should also add that the original Dewdney Store, the one facing the railway tracks, was our home having been converted into a home in which we lived when the 1948 flood happened. We had to move out of the home as the water was so high it lifted the floor boards of the house even though the old Store was built several feet off the ground. I’m not sure when the old store, our home, was demolished, but is no longer at least the last time I was in Dewdney which was a couple of years ago.

Two photos from Deroche, the left one from 1914, the one above from 1947. I gather that the store was demolished not too long ago for a road widening that never actually happened. Stores such as these used to dot the Fraser Valley along the Lougheed Highway and Dewdney Trunk Road. Another survivor is the store and post office at Whonnock. Photos courtesy of Mission Community Archives. The two small parapeted stores in the middle of the photo above still exist.