Lambly Lots: Interview with Mary Woolam

Tracy:	So this is where the river is?
Mary:	Yes, that's where the bridge is.
Tracy:	And this is where they built the warehouse?
Mary:	No, the first warehouse was on lot 3. And there's nothing on that lot yet, they have built only on 4 and 5.
Tracy:	Where's that thing beside the bridge where there's that little building and there's parking?
Mary:	I'll tell you where it is exactly. When you're on the bridge looking south you know there is an island there, all of this was just a little south of that. That island didn't used to be there, there used to be a bay in the river and that's where the early steamboats pulled into and the beach shed was right there. Really, when we talk about the Lambly Bros. we are talking about the first lot this side of the river where now today, the wood workshop is.
Tracy:	The Trading Post?
Mary:	Yes, but anyways, the first land that isn't occupied in the south. Right in there. Well this is where we are talking about mostly you see that land the Lamblys were on they ultimately bought it but then the C.P.R. took it over. This is Cliff St. do you see. And when they described this, it is as coming halfway across Cliff St. that would be halfway across the bridge entrance and most of this I've worked out for you occurs here because most of this, lot 2 was really where Robert Lambly built his house and his stable, lot 3 is where he built his wheat shed, and lot 4 is where, I'm pretty sure now, was where the first Post Office was. The first school was maybe in there too.
Tracy:	In where?
Mary:	The very first lot, the first school was immediately south of the bridge. Right practically where that pumphouse is right now. You know that cement pumphouse?
Tracy:	Was it a school for everybody?
Mary:	Yes. It was built quite late on in the Lambly Bros. These books here(the Okanagan Historical Society) shows the relation of Enderby to what the Lambley Bros. owned. Lot 150, and this other thing they owned that the C.P.R. took away from them. Onto these other maps...this shows where the C.P.R. ran through. The bridge built by the C.P.R. was only 280 feet long and the present one is well over 300 feet long. I met an old timer who knew when this junction of land went off on our side of the bridge. Do you see the height of the land here? And there's water running through it and I might be referring to it when I talk about it all. When I got into the books Robert's wife was talking about the family that came out here in 1872, now it's funny, she mentions Robert Lambly's brother and her own brother, but she never mentions herself as being married to Robert Lambly or where he was when the Lamblys came in the long way. 1872, apparently is when these people, the Postills and Lamblys maybe came out from Ontario, to New Westminister, while Robert Lambley was in Ontario, or the East as he calls it. It was Mrs. Lambly who identified it as Ontario, Robert worked with his uncle, who was a surgeon, and travelled a lot in the country back there. He set a lot of bones and did some operating which comes into the story. Did you hear that story?
Tracy:	Yes, we did.
Mary:	They were pretty crude looking things.
Tracy:	And he even did it all right too.
Mary:	Yes, they gave some woman a lot of credit for the aftertreatment of the stump in saving the man's life. In 1872 we know that the Lamblys and Postills arrived in New Westminister. At that time, New Westminister was the head gov't in B.C. 1872, his brother who they seem to call T. McKee on everything [on paper], but his name is Tom. He and Alfred Postill came to the Okanagan and his partners, bought a ranch from Simpson at the South end of Postill Lake. And they returned the same year to New Westminister and Tom opened a book store. Then 1873, was the year the Postill family came back. They come somehow up from Kamloops then to Sage and that was the year the road was built from the Head of the Okanagan to the Prairies and there connected with some kind of a rough road to Kamloops. We're following more or less how these people became interested in Enderby. Mrs Robert Lambly quotes the fact that the Postill family there were 3 boys and the mother, her father died coming out here. She always quotes "we" but never mentions her name "Lucy" as being part of them. If we means Lucy and Robert, I don't know if they are married at this time or where he is. Anyways, before they got to New Westminister, they met A.L. Fortune and he was on his way to the East to pick up his wife. So I think that's what centered them off. They had walked and bought some land down by Kelowna, and then maybe it was A.L.Fortune who interested them in Enderby. In the summer of 1876, Robert Lambly and cousin of Postills, Will Stillwell, walked into the Okanagan from Hope over the Dewdney Trail and the same year Robert Lambly pre-empted the site of Enderby. There's a note that in 1877 Tom sold his bookstore and moved to Enderby. At that time, there was also a rugged road used between Sicamous and Enderby. The towns went by other names at the time. Right after Thomas Lambly got to Enderby he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Land and Works in the Okanagan and Robert Lambly built a freight shed in 1878 that was big enough to hold all of the wheat south of the area. It was mentioned that Thomas Lambly had his office in the shed and it was much later on that Mr. and Mrs. Lambly and 3 children lived in there as well. They had parties in there too. February 1881, Robert Lambly was able to move into his new home, it was the first frame home in the area and they transported the lumber from the Postill's in Kelowna. The guy who built it came in from there too. The lumber for the freight shed came from Kamloops. The first boat came up the river in 1872, and it was a steamship. Lambly's stables were closer to the river than the house and this was on Lot 2 where the railroad tracks are now. Thomas Lambly was made a Chief License Inspector for the government. He was much more a bookish man than his brother. In 1882 the post canal was surveyed, and, from 1880-something, the area was just the height of excitement and the surveyors were very busy. When the railway went through everything had to be moved. June 1883, Robert Lambly got his Crown Grant to say this land was his that was all of Enderby. The Lot went all the way up to today's Sicamous Street and south to the Indian Reserve. It took seven years to get it properly surveyed and they sold 10 acres to the flour mill in 1886, January 29, the gov't moved in and put more land for sale and the Lambleys bought it. A.Postill bought lots 9-13. (October 23,1880 was when Robert Lambly amputated that arm). From 1880-1891 Enderby was cited in an Okanagan newspaper as being the most important busy place in the Okanagan at that time. 1889 the first school was opened, 1890 the first telephone line came into Enderby, and then in May 14,1891 Robert Lambly's house was moved from Lot 2 to Lot 150 on Cliff Street. It was located across from City Hall. The house was a real sprawling house. He moved his barn to the Bank of Montreal corner. The Enderby Hotel is where the Health unit is now. The Belvedere Hotel is built where Sloan's parking lot is now. The C.P.R. bought the Hotel. It was used as a station. November 27, 1890, I have it written down that they held a big concert held in their hotel where 280 people attended to raise money for a church organ. In 1894, 50 acres of land was cleared for the Lamblys where a racehorse track was built. I read somewhere the had a ranch somewhere. Somewhere in one of those books it names the Lamblys as being ranchers. I never came across the ages of the Postill children so it's hard to figure out when they were marked. Enderby was incorporated as a city in 1903, I think it was in March.
Tracy:	It says he died in 1940, is that true?
Mary:	I don't know.
Tracy:	Did you know the Lamblys?
Mary:	I'm sorry. I never met them. Robert Lambly died before my time. I think.
Tracy:	After their bankruptcy did they lose everything?
Mary:	I don't know that either.
Tracy:	Well did they stay there until Robert Lambly died?
Mary:	I think they moved away, I'm not sure. It's funny why should they go bankrupt.