The item appeared in the North Island Gazette on September 26, 2013.
North Islanders might not be aware that one
of the richest and most well-known industrialists in the history of Vancouver
Island was lured to Fort Rupert from Scotland, when he was hired by the Hudsons
Bay Company (HBC) to mine coal.
Robert Dunsmuir was born in 1825. His grandfather had success buying up coal
mines in Scotland at the time of the advent of the steam engine and for a short
while the family prospered, until most of Dunsmuir’s immediate family died in
1832, most likely of cholera. Dunsmuir
became a ward of his aunt in his youth, and went to school to train to carry on
in the family occupation of coal mining.
In 1850 Dunsmuir was newly married, when
his uncle, Boyd Gilmour, signed on with the HBC to manage mining operations at
Fort Rupert. When a number of the
original miners backed out of their contracts following communication from Fort
Rupert about the poor working conditions and hostile First Nations, Dunsmuir
signed on at the last minute. He took
his wife and two young daughters with him on the voyage by ship around Cape
Horn (the tip of South America), landing at Fort Rupert in August 1851. Along the way a son had been born at Fort
Vancouver along the Columbia River, who was named James Dunsmuir.
At this time miners were indentured to
their employer for the cost of their passage, which meant that they were not
free to leave employment with the HBC until their contract was complete. The miners contracts were a combination of
basic wages, and bonuses based on the amount of coal produced.
A previous group of miners, largely members
of John Muir’s extended family, had previously staged a strike at Fort Rupert,
deserted, were recaptured, and held in the bastion of the Fort after they
complained about their working conditions.
They said they were unable to find any viable coal worth mining. When the new Scottish employees arrived, they
didn’t find much better prospects.
Aside from the challenges of mining coal,
being the first white woman and children in the Fort excited much
curiosity. One afternoon Dunsmuir’s wife
Joan had put her son James to sleep, and was at the baking oven with her two
older children. When she returned, the
baby was gone. He was found being gently
passed around a group of interested Kwakiutl women at a campfire. They were fascinated with the baby’s blond
hair, and offered to buy him, thinking that he could one day make a great
chief. Joan convinced them to return the
child, but the story became a part of the Dunsmuir family folklore.
By 1852, the HBC had started mining more
lucrative coal deposits in Nanaimo. Gilmour,
Dunsmuir and their families moved down island.
Dunsmuir fulfilled his contract with the HBC, and then started working
for private coal companies. Eventually
he discovered some new seams of coal and, with private investors, started his
own coal mining company: Dunsmuir, Diggle, & Co. It eventually became Robert Dunsmuir and
Sons.
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| Robert Dunsmuir |
Dunsmuir was a shrewd businessman, and his
empire grew rapidly. He built the
island’s E&N Railway, through which he negotiated a land grant which
included the rights to 800,000 hectares: most of Southern Vancouver
Island. He fought vigorously against
unions, and was accused of operating with unsafe working conditions in his
mines. Dunsmuir built Craigdarroch
castle in Victoria, and eventually sat as a member of the provincial
parliament. His son James sat as Premier
of BC from 1900 to 1902 and Lieutenant Governor from 1906 to 1909.
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