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By Al Sholund
Port Moody resident and Freedom of the City honouree |
 St. Johns Street was meant to be John Street, but a clerical error occurred when the name was registered and 'St.' for 'Street' became 'St.' for 'Saint.'In 1879, the Federal government declared Port Moody the Western Terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although it was unoccupied, Admiralty charts clearly identified Moody Arm at the eastern end of Burrard Inlet.
In 1882, a dock and the first CPR station were built near the present Reed Point Marina in preparation for receiving supplies for construction of the rail line between Port Moody and Yale. A land boom was speculated by many centering on the rail terminal. The Port Moody Station Museum has a copy of a 1884 survey predicting 25,000 residents for this area.
Two men who had very high hopes for Port Moody's future were John Murray Sr. and Captain J.A. Clarke. John Murray had been a sapper in Colonel Moody's Royal Engineers, whose one task was to build the North Road between New Westminster and Burrard Inlet in 1859.The regiment returned to England in 1863. Any sapper who chose to remain in Canada was given a land grant of 150 acres. Murray and three others chose Port Moody, although nobody lived here.
Captain Clarke was a sailor and very well known in New Westminster. In the late 1860's he bought one of the Port Moody land grants from a former sapper. Mr. Murray and Captain Clarke continued to live in Sapperton-New Westminster with their families until moving to Port Moody in 1883.
In 1882, Murray and Clarke requested a subdivision survey of their two District Lots (a total of 300 acres). John Murray Jr. had participated in the survey and was asked to name the streets.
John Jr. was born in 1859 on the ship which took more than five months to sail from England to Victoria with the Royal Engineers. John Jr. was very patriotic and family loving as shown by the names he chose for the streets.
When the names were forwarded to Victoria for registration St. John and St. George were registered. This was done inadvertently, because the abbreviated "St." in front of the Street names were confused as Saint John and Saint George Streets instead of John Street and George Street.
When the rail line was extended to Vancouver in 1887, the dream of 25,000 people living in these subdivisions ended.
John Jr. spent most of his life in Port Moody. He was elected to the first City Council in 1913. He spent the last quarter of his life as a game warden and very lenient school truant officer.
St. John – father
St. George – brother-in-law
Jane – mother
Kyle – brother-in-law
Mary – sister
Queen – Queen Victoria
Sarah – sister
Albert – Queen's Consort
Hugh – brother
Elgin – Governor General
William – brother
Douglas – Governor- Crown Colony
Henry – brother
Clarke – father's partner
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