John Muir: West Coast Pioneer

By Daryl Ashby

This historical biography based on the life of British Columbia pioneer John Muir tells the amazing story of a family from Scotland who came out to Canada in the late 1840s to work as "consignee" labourers for the Hudson's Bay Company. Ashby recreates the story of the Muirs' struggle to develop a place for themselves in the hierarchic colony ruled by James Douglas. With their vision of a country based on democratic principles, the Muirs fought to bring a new way of life to the West Coast. Drawing on the Muir family diaries, Ashby recounts the family's voyage from Scotland, their first years of toil in the coal mines near Fort Rupert on northern Vancouver Island, and their challenge to the Company when they initiated what may have been the first strike in Canada. Muir went on to become a magistrate with his own sense of justice for the working man, and later a Member of the first Legislative Assembly. So fascinating is Muir's personality and so intriguing is his struggle for a democratic way of life that his life's story reads at times like a novel. Ashby is to be commended for vividly bringing back to life this historic figure, a man who deserves to be better known in his own right and for his contribution to the development of the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronsdale Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2005
• ISBN: 9781553800903

Daryl Ashby

Daryl Ashby is an independent historian who has researched the lives of the Muir family for over a decade. He has searched out their original homesite at Fort Rupert on northern Vancouver Island and the site of their sawmill and home in Sooke. He is presently at work on a second book about early Canadian history. Ashby lives in Victoria with his wife and family.

Book preview

JOHN MUIR

JOHN MUIR

West Coast Pioneer

DARYL ASHBY

JOHN MUIR: WEST COAST PIONEER

Copyright © 2005 Daryl Ashby

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written

permission of the publisher, or, in Canada, in the case of photocopying or

other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright (The Canadian

Copyright Licensing Agency).

RONSDALE PRESS

3350 West 21st Avenue

Vancouver, B.C., Canada

V6S 1G7

Edited by Ronald B. Hatch

Typesetting: Julie Cochrane, in New Baskerville 11 pt on 15

Cover Design: Julie Cochrane

Cover Image: E.J. Hughes, Trees, Sooke Harbour (1951)

Frontispiece: John Muir, c. 1880, courtesy of Diane Alexander

Paper: Rolland Enviro Cream (100% recycled)

Ronsdale Press wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government

of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program

(BPIDP), and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia

Arts Council for their support of its publishing program.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ashby, Daryl, 1948–

   John Muir: West Coast pioneer / Daryl Ashby.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-55380-027-3

    1. Muir, John, 1799-1883. 2. Vancouver Island (B.C.). Legislative Council —

Biography. 3. Vancouver Island (B.C.). House of Assembly — Biography.

4. Legislators — British Columbia — Vancouver Island — Biography.

5. Coal miners — British Columbia — Vancouver Island — Biography.

6. Lumbermen — British Columbia — Vancouver Island — Biography.

7. Pioneers — British Columbia — Sooke — Biography. 8. Sooke (B.C.) —

Biography. I. Title.

FC3845.S6Z49  2005     971.1'2802'092     C2005-905900-1

At Ronsdale Press we are committed to protecting the environment. To this end

we are working with Markets Initiative (www.oldgrowthfree.com) and printers to

phase out our use of paper produced from ancient forests. This book is one step

towards that goal.

Printed in Canada by AGMV Marquis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A SINCERE THANKS goes out to Carol Punt, Val Gillespie and my mother Evelyn Ashby for enduring the pain of reading my first draft and having the courage to suggest I continue for no matter how long it took. Many thanks also to Diane Alexander the great-great-granddaughter of John Muir, Sr., who entrusted me with her personal archives of the Muir family’s history, for without her assistance this account would have been far less complete. Much credit goes to Darren Smith for his constructive criticism in the early stages of the manuscript; without it I would still be floundering in an ocean of disjointed thoughts. Audrey McClellan took the rough manuscript and steered me through far more redrafts than I care to remember. Catherine Whitehead did a final proofing. Possibly the most deserving of all is Ronald Hatch of Ronsdale Press. Where so many other publishers hesitated and procrastinated, Ronsdale stepped up to the plate and took control of the project, seeing it through the final editing process. Lastly and most importantly, my wife Wendy encouraged me on a day-to-day basis. When our social lives took a back seat to researching every aspect of the Muirs’ existence, she never complained but jumped into the trenches alongside me and helped unearth every fragment of the Muir family’s history we could lay our hands on.

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 CHEATING DEATH

2 OUR HOME FOR A SEASON

3 AWAY AT LAST

4 A STEP TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE

5 REAPING WHAT WE SOWED

6 COLVILLE TOWN

7 MOVING AHEAD

8 DO YOU TAKE THIS WOMAN?

9 THE PENDULUM SWINGS

10 SHALL THIS HOUSE COME TO ORDER?

11 YELLOW FEVER

12 CHANGING THE GUARD

13 SEAFARERS WE ARE

14 THE TIDES OF CHANGE

15 THE LEGACY CONTINUES

INTRODUCTION

John Muir’s contribution to the political maturity and commercial prosperity in the formative years of British Columbia has never been recognized for its importance. The Muir family, proud, independent Scots, with the capacity to dream, were raised to believe that they had to rely on their own abilities to get ahead in life. When they arrived at the end of the 1840s in what was then called Vancouver’s Island, they were determined to make a success of their new venture. John was already close to fifty years of age, but through determination and practical skills, and with the help of his wife and sons, he set British Columbia on the path that it has traversed to the present day. It might well be said that no other man in those early days did so much with so little.

In the 1840s John Muir was living with his wife Ann and their five children in the small town of Kilmarnock, Scotland, made famous through its association with Robert Burns. Nineteenth-century Scotland was not an easy place to make a living, especially if, like the Muirs, one eked out a meagre living as coal miners in a land where class boundaries were hard to break. But John Muir had imbibed the Burns’ sentiment of a man’s a man for a’ that, and to put the ideal into practice, he decided to emigrate to a land where there was more opportunity for the working man.

In late 1848 he responded to an advertisement for land in a place that he had never heard of: Vancouver’s Island, on the western edge of North America. The advertisement said that good land was available for £1 per acre, the minimum allotment being 100 acres. It sounded exciting, but £100 was far too steep a price for the Muirs, who were by no means of the gentry or landed class, and they decided on the other option offered.

This was to go out to the new land as consignee workers with the Hudson’s Bay Company. The agreement was that, in return for three years of work, they would be given a grant of twenty-five acres of land. As a mining family, the Muirs were extremely valuable to the Hudson’s Bay Company, for it was searching at this time for a source of coal at Fort Rupert on the north end of Vancouver Island. As consignees the Muirs would also have their passage paid. It was clearly the best way, perhaps the only way, for the Muirs to manage their emigration.

After a difficult voyage from Great Britain lasting some six months, which took them around the Cape, John and his family stepped ashore at Fort Victoria in early June of 1849. On their arrival, they found little in the way of a welcome. Certainly the situation was not at all what they had been led to expect. The colonies of the Maritimes and Upper and Lower Canada were relatively well established by mid-century, but the colony of Vancouver Island had been created only shortly before their arrival in 1849 — in fact after the time that the advertisement for land had appeared. What they came to was not an established colony, but a Hudson’s Bay Company fort designed for the fur trade, with no town yet in existence. Moreover, it was a relatively new fort, having only recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Aside from a few acres under cultivation and a couple of company farms to its credit, the settlement was still an outpost in its infancy.

At the time of the Muirs’ arrival, the fort remained the only evidence of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s occupation of the land. Any thought about roads, a permanent source of drinking water or any form of civilized housing would have been premature prior to the commitment of those like the Muirs who were to make the area their new home. Initially, there were no independent settlers, only Hudson’s Bay Company employees.

It took the Muirs some time to understand the political and social situation in which they had landed. Fort Victoria had been built as a kind of backup to the main trading post, Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River. The Hudson’s Bay Company had maintained a post on the Columbia since 1811, and in the beginning it had assumed that the area surrounding the mouth of the Columbia would remain British. But then in 1818 a convention had been signed by Britain and the United States, wherein the northwest coast of America . . . shall be free and open for both parties to jointly occupy. When American settlers began arriving in great numbers, and it became clear that the British were outnumbered, the Hudson’s Bay Company decided it was prudent to move further north.

In 1843 James Douglas chose the site of Camosun on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, and quickly the pickets of the palisade were going up to define the perimeter of the new outpost that was soon called Fort Victoria. In 1846 the British accepted the 49th parallel as the boundary between the United States and Canada, and it was clear that the Hudson’s Bay Company would have to evacuate Fort Vancouver on the Columbia for Fort Victoria. Fearing further expansion on the part of the Americans, the British government took preemptive action and on January 13, 1849 — some six months before the arrival of the Muirs — they leased Vancouver Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company for ten years, with the understanding that, in exchange, the Company would commit itself to colonization.

Thus when the Muirs arrived in the so-called colony, they were surprised to discover that it was a colony in name only, for the Hudson’s Bay Company was wholly in control, even of the distribution of land. The man steering the course of all that happened on the island was James Douglas. Douglas had risen to be Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver and had then been appointed the Hudson’s Bay Company agent on the island. He was a man determined to maintain an iron grip on the colony’s future, as the Muirs quickly discovered when they went north to mine for coal at Fort Rupert as part of their contract. Douglas was thoroughly imbued with the hierarchical principles of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and while such benign despotism was perhaps necessary in primitive fur-trading conditions, it was not what was needed or what the Muirs had been expecting in the new land with all its promise for the independent settler.

Another factor that the Muirs had not counted on was the attitude towards colonization held by the British government and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Whereas the Muirs looked forward to being able to own land and participate in the economic development of the region, those overseeing colonization believed that the new colony of Vancouver Island should replicate the class system of the mother country. In December of 1849, Archibald Barclay at the London office of the Hudson’s Bay Company (incidentally the same man that personally handed John Muir his commission as a consignee) wrote to James Douglas, emphasizing how he, as their agent, should view the process of colonization. Douglas was not to attempt to reorganize Society on a new basis . . . but to transfer to the new country whatever is most valuable and most approved in the institutions of the old, so that Society may, as far as possible, consist of the same classes, united together by the same ties, and having the same relative duties to perform in the one country as in the other. Such a class-based template for colonization reinforced what Douglas had learned in his duties as Chief Factor with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and it was this class system that he attempted to introduce in the new colony. Naturally enough, it flew in the face of everything that the Muirs, as freedom-loving Scots, were expecting to find in the colony once they had their own land and were no longer merely labourers. In the following years these two conflicting visions of Vancouver Island caused enormous problems for the new settlers.

For a short time, the Muirs took heart that there would be a change from the news that an independent Governor was being sent out by the British government to take control of the new colony. On March 9, 1850, the Queen’s representative, Governor Richard Blanshard, arrived to take over the helm of colonization, but his every move was thwarted by a cold and uncooperative group of hardcore Company men. Douglas had always considered himself to be the right choice for Governor, and he made it nearly impossible for Blanshard to make any progress in the colony. In short order, the Governor packed his bags and returned home a frustrated man.

Shortly thereafter, in October 1851, Douglas was appointed Governor of Vancouver Island. In the eyes of those seeking reform, of which John Muir was one, this only amplified the conflict between Douglas and the new settlers, for now he wore the hat of a Hudson’s Bay Company official and that of the Queen’s representative. To John Muir and his peers, changing the course of the colony from one so clearly aimed to benefit a private company to a truly democratic system of government, would prove a struggle unequalled to any they had witnessed prior to that date. Much to John’s credit, by 1856 Douglas had been instructed to establish an elected assembly for the island, of which John Muir was a founding member.

The struggle with James Douglas over the direction of the colony is, however, only a part of the Muir story. After Muir had shown that the venture into coal mining at Fort Rupert would yield little, he and his family returned to Fort Victoria where they purchased land at what is now known as Sooke. The land was far from the fort and the developing town — often a two days’ round trip with the Natives in their canoes. But they had been forced to travel this distance, since the Hudson’s Bay Company under Douglas had reserved all the land around the fort for its own use. Muir was in fact the first settler to succeed in what was to become the province of British Columbia. Although Captain Walter Colquhoun Grant preceded John as the first independent settler, he failed to make a positive impact and departed a broken man before the second anniversary of his arrival. Muir not only developed his land at Woodside, but he did so with full awareness that he and his family were farming land that had been used and inhabited for many centuries by the native T’Sou-ke, and he attempted to treat them equitably.

In the course of time, John went on to open up the rich coal fields at Nanaimo, he built the first successful steam-operated sawmill in British Columbia. He also built and operated the largest privately owned fleet of ships in the Northwest and was the first individual in the province outside the Hudson’s Bay Company to develop trade with South America, the Orient and Australia. He went on to provide spars for the world’s sailing ships, while supplying a large portion of the timbers required in the construction of the San Francisco wharves in the nineteenth century. John and his family succeeded through their own ingenuity and hard work. They hired newly arrived immigrant families to work in their many ventures and were instrumental in laying the basis for the economic growth of British Columbia.

Although fiercely independent, John was also a gentle man who possessed a generous character, giving to all who passed his way. He did not achieve prosperity by treading over his fellow man, nor did he leave bitterness or hatred in his wake as he passed through life. He looked upon each man as his equal, whether he was white, Chinese, or Native. He acted upon a strong personal desire to see his new home of southern Vancouver Island grow into a vibrant community unrivalled elsewhere along the West Coast. He dedicated hundreds of hours as one of its earliest reformers and participated in the first Legislative Assembly of what was to become British Columbia. In doing so, he was instrumental in setting the course for its future.

This account of John Muir is based upon Muir’s own diaries and fragments of history recorded in dozens of diaries, newspaper clippings, archival books and chronicles preserved since that day. The events described occurred in the order presented and they are all based on fact, but facts alone cannot possibly give the flavour of the man and his place in time. For this reason I have chosen to tell Muir’s story from his own point of view, through his own voice. I have developed the recorded situations by adding thoughts and conversations to enhance and bring to life what otherwise would simply have been a dry list of events. Wherever possible I have used the language found in his diaries, often taking over Muir’s own Scottish phrasing. My hope is that I have created a permanent record of the life of a courageous man and his family, who settled a new and often unforgiving land. I trust you will enjoy meeting this amazing gentleman as much as I have revelled in writing about him.

John Muir, c. 1853 (Nanaimo District Museum, I1-76)

1

CHEATING DEATH

As the morning sun creeps in through my bedroom window, I turn my eyes, still clouded with sleep, towards the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Through the haziness of my memory, for I am eighty-three years of age this year, I search in my mind for an image of the ship that held us captive for the better part of six months.

My wife Ann and I, along with our four sons, our widowed daughter Marion with her two boys, and our nephews Archibald Muir and John McGregor with his wife Mary and their three children, stepped into a new stage in our lives when we disembarked at Fort Victoria on June 1, 1849. The brig Harpooner brought our group to this new world in the company of seventeen other weary travellers. It was a trip I would not wish to repeat.

We bade farewell to our family and friends in Kilmarnock, Scotland, on the 10th of November 1848 and travelled by rail and steamer until we reached London eighteen days later. On the way, we took full advantage of a day’s stopover in Manchester to change our notes for gold, for we understood British currency would be of little value in the new Colony of Vancouver’s Island.

Our party arrived at the West India Docks on the River Thames only to find the facilities shut up for the night. Mr. Montague’s Jamaica Tavern stood alongside, and although seedy in its appearance, it provided acceptable lodging for a much-needed rest. On the morrow we rose early and trooped off to the docks with full expectation that we would soon be underway. Our ship, the Harpooner, had been commissioned eighteen years prior. It was a fine vessel with a displacement of 405 tons, three square-rigged sails, and passenger accommodation upon two decks allowing for the separation of social classes. Captain Lewis Morice, with a crew of eight, stood ready to receive us, as did the Captain’s wife.

Without delay, we were permitted on board. Being a consignee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with all its privileges, I was allotted quarters on the upper level, which Ann and I shared along with the others in our party. Following breakfast on board, my eldest son Andrew and I caught a short rail to Number 4 Fenchurch Street, the offices of the Hudson’s Bay Company. There Mr. Barclay, the secretary of the Company, received us warmly. It was he who provided us with our commission for employment once we arrived at the Colony of Vancouver’s Island. Barclay presented me with a letter of introduction, followed by a hearty pat on the back and the sincerest of best wishes.

We were the first group of immigrants to sign on for three years with the Company in the hopes of settling within the new colony located on the northwest coast of North America. We knew little about it, except that it was a continent away from the older colonies of British North America, although we soon learned that there was talk of joining with them. It was heralded as a place where fertile land was abundant and opportunities to harvest nature in its rawest form awaited all who possessed the courage to come. Our homeland of Scotland had been in a state of depression for some time, and there was no bright future for the common man, which is why Vancouver’s Island held such great promise. My sons and I considered ourselves stalwart men and we were eager to carve out our own niche in a new land. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s aggressive campaign enticed brave souls with promises of rich farming land, including the rights to any coal found within it, upon the payment of a royalty of two shillings and sixpence per ton, plus all the fish one could desire from the local waters.

Land was offered at one pound per acre, with a minimum parcel being 100 acres. With each 100-acre allotment, a man had to pay for the passage not only of himself and his family, but also of five single men or three married couples. This was rather an expensive proposition for one such as I, being of minimal wealth, and was clearly directed to those better heeled.

As an alternative, my sons and I had chosen to take employment with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Therefore our passage was paid and our needs provided for, so long as we completed the terms of our three-year contract. After our obligations were fulfilled, we would each receive a grant of twenty-five acres in a location of our choice and we would be free to do as we saw fit. At that time I feared a three-year delay in settling land might render it difficult to locate a choice parcel but, trusting in the Lord, we remained confident and awaited our departure with great anticipation.

As the ship’s manifest of passengers came on board it was apparent that the needs of the Hudson’s Bay Company reached far beyond that of miners such as myself and my family. Mr. James Yates held the distinction of being a fine carpenter, so he and his wife were going out together so that he could construct many of the new buildings required by the growth of the community. A physician was lacking about the colony, so Doctor Alfred Benson stepped aboard to care for the ills of all who needed his skill. We were mightily glad of his training on the long voyage. Mr. James Cathie came on board as the