Guilby Park

       Probably should really be named Colby Park; unknown who Guilby was I have not been able to find out nothing about him / her.

But Guilby Park it is today

       The Colby’s received tentative approval to subdivide in May of 1953, and in July the planning department was okay with Colby’s 24-foot wide road around the park, by August a plan of the subdivision ( Plan 18364 ) had been created and deposited in the Land Registry office in September 1953, by January of 1954, approval was given to go ahead, with the Colby Subdivision with 16 lots, surrounding a central park was given.

      Rather nice when you look at the surrounding area today, that the park was part of the subdivision plan.  And lucky for the residents that the city did not sell it like they had with so many of the parks in the area prior to and including the 1950’s.


Guilby Street to the west; Richard Street to the east; Edgar Avenue is the southern boundary, and Shaw Avenue is the northern boundary (2014 aerial photo )

Clellan Lawrence Colby was born on the 16^th of January 1885 somewhere in Nebraska, U.S.A. -  and he died at home at 634 Rochester Avenue where he had lived since 1929, on the 17th of October 1960. He had retired in 1955, after being involved locally in trucking, and top-soil sales, for 25 years. He had lived in B.C. for 32 years, and been living in Canada for 50 years. His father was Ambrose Colby.   Clellan is buried in Forest Lawn cemetery, in Burnaby.

        The 1911 census finds Clellan  farming in the Tramping Lake --- Battleford, Saskatchewan  area, somewhere in Township 38 Range 22  W3

      By the 1916 census he is married to Bertha, and farming somewhere in the Township 36 Range 18 W3  Grandview, Saskatchewan area.
The census states that Clellan immigrated in 1909, and Bertha in 1908.
 
Bertha Elizabeth Richards; Bertha Elizabeth Colby was born on the 24^th of December 1885 in England – 13 August 1957 at home.   Bertha was also buried in Forest Lawn cemetery in Burnaby, by Bowell & Sons, funeral directors

Clellan and Bertha appear to have had two daughters:
 Betty Hazel Colby ( Mrs. Betty Hazel Dodd ) was married to Wilbert Ross Dodd (1900 - 1982)
and Nola Colby ( Mrs. Nola Cox ) who was married to John Charles Cox, they lived at 636 Shaw Avenue, which is part of the Colby Subdivision.

        So I guess the family gave up farming at the start of the Depression and moved to the Coast like so many of the Prairie peoples; and it is interesting that the family home appears to be still standing, and in good condition, if the outside is used as an indicator.