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1950: 1950 - Clement Road

The Clement family is well known in the Central Okanagan and has two roads named after the family, one in Kelowna and one in Winfield.

The first of the Clement families, William and Matilda, came to Kelowna from Ontario in 1898, bringing with them their youngest son, Ernest, who was 15. Ernest took up carpentry soon after his arrival here and became a skilled carpenter. At the age of 26, he married Margaret Whelan, the daughter of pioneers from the Ellison area, George and Lucy Whelan. Lucy was also the niece of Thomas Wood, a Winfield pioneer.

Ernest and Lucy had three sons. Leslie was the eldest. He completed his education in Kelowna and worked at a variety of jobs. When the store at Eldorado Ranch on Duck Lake came up for sale in 1931, Les, with his father, bought the store from Ernest Lawley and renamed it The Winfield General Store.

In the 1940s the Clements built a cabin north of the Carr’s Landing wharf. Later the cabin was moved to the south end of Wood Lake and Clement Road was established there at this time.

In 1947, Ernest passed away and his son took over the store which also became the library and post office for the area.

Source: Baughen, Penny. Carr’s Landing. A History. Carr’s Landing, BC: Carr’s Landing Community & Recreation Association, 2006; Lake Country Museum archives.

For more information on the Clement family (plus photographs) see History of Thomas Wood and “The Clement Brothers” by Ettie Adam (daughter of Charles Clement) in Okanagan History. The fifty-fourth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1990, pp. 130-133.