Maclure/McCall/McLagan family portrait.  +

John Cunningham Maclure (centre row, 3rd from left), Mrs. Martha Maclure (centre, 4th from left), and children, Fred (back 3rd from left), eldest daughter, Sara McLagan ( back, 4th from left), John Charles ( back 2nd from right) and Samuel (back, right) and daughter Susan McColl (centre, 5th from left).

John Cunningham Maclure arrived with the detachment and surveyed Sapperton and Queensborough.  He was working on a team that was installing a telegraph cable through B.C. to Alaska when he arrived in Matsqui.  Like many settlers who would follow, Maclure was taken by the beauty of the country calling it “the promised land,” and vowed to return to make his home in Matsqui when his term expired.

Martha Maclure and the couple’s infant daughter, Sarah Ann made the journey to reunite as a family.  John chose the ridge of land west of Matsqui Prairie on which to settle giving it the name Hazelbrae in recognition of the many hazel trees that grew there. 

The Maclures literally put Abbotsford on the map, pre-empting the townsite and giving it the name of family friend, Henry Abbot, Western Superintendent of the CPR.  They discovered fireclay, established the Vancouver Fireclay Company and built the company town, Clayburn, to provide a home for the families that arrived in the area to work the clay mines and manufacture bricks.