DUNSMUIR, ROBERT, coal-miner, entrepreneur, and
politician; b. 31 Aug. 1825 near Kilmarnock (Strathclyde),
Scotland, the son of James Dunsmuir; m. in 1847
Joanna (Joan) Olive White, and they had ten
children; d. 12 April 1889 at Victoria, B.C.
Robert Dunsmuir was the son and grandson of Ayrshire
coal-masters. He received his early education at the
Kilmarnock Academy and at about age 16 entered the
mines as an apprentice to his uncle and guardian,
Boyd Gilmour. By 1850 Gilmour was overman at the
Hudson’s Bay Company coal-mine near Fort Rupert
(near present-day Port Hardy) on northern Vancouver
Island. On Gilmour’s urging, Dunsmuir indentured
himself to the company, arriving at Fort Rupert with
his wife and three children in September 1851.
Dunsmuir entered a difficult situation, for despite
dedicated efforts by men such as Gilmour and John
Muir the mines were failing. The coal was limited in
extent and quality, poor management by the HBC
officers in charge had caused much unrest among the
miners, machinery and skilled labour were in short
supply, and hostile natives were a continual threat.
During 1851–53 the HBC transferred its mining
apparatus to the newly discovered coalfields at
Nanaimo. The Dunsmuirs joined in the move to
Nanaimo, though several miners, including Gilmour,
soon returned to Scotland.
In
1855 Dunsmuir refused to join a strike of dissident
miners, earning for his apparent loyalty to the HBC
a free-miner’s licence to work an abandoned HBC
shaft. In 1862, when the HBC sold its coal mining
operation to the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land
Company, he contracted to work as a mines’
supervisor for the new firm. Two years later, his
record of independence, initiative, skill, and
productivity brought him to the attention of Horace
Douglas Lascelles* and three other naval officers at
Esquimalt who persuaded Dunsmuir to become resident
manager of their newly formed Harewood Coal Mining
Company. The company encountered difficulty in
starting production, chiefly because of lack of
capital, and was absorbed by the VCMLC; Dunsmuir,
recognized as the most knowledgeable miner on the
island, was hired once again by this company as
mines’ supervisor.
After
joining the VCMLC Dunsmuir conducted clandestine
explorations for coal on surrounding lands. He
continued his secret surveys until 1869 when he
discovered the Wellington seam, five miles northwest
of Nanaimo harbour, the thickest and most extensive
of the coal measures found until then in the Nanaimo
basin. After laying claim, he was able to arrange
short-term financing from San Francisco but was soon
forced to seek more capital. He obtained£32,000 to
develop the colliery from another group of naval
officers, which included Lieutenant Wadham Neston
Diggle. In addition to the claim Dunsmuir’s
contributions to the enterprise would be his
expertise and his willingness to build and operate
the colliery. He insisted upon and received half the
shares plus full control over all operations. In
1873 the mine was incorporated under the name
Dunsmuir, Diggle Limited, a ten-man partnership that
included the naval officers, Dunsmuir, and his sons
James* and Alexander.
Dunsmuir’s first years as a colliery owner were
devoted to establishing a basic mining operation – a
high risk venture given the economic recession of
the time. He had to take into account the VCMLC’s
large plant, and to create the vital elements of
several shafts for mining, a skilled work-force, and
an efficient three-mile transport link from pit-head
to wharves, which after 1870 meant a steam railway.
Newspapers reported each step in the colliery’s
advance, and editorials were soon stressing the
significance of Dunsmuir’s efforts to the region’s
economy. By the end of 1874 the British Columbia
minister of mines, John Ash, reported that “The
Departure Bay [Dunsmuir] Mines are now in full
operation,” the returns from which “illustrate the
value of the seams.” That year Dunsmuir’s coal
output totalled 29,818 tons, of which only 2,384
tons were unsold. This production figure was more
than half the VCMLC’s output, and in the following
year Dunsmuir’s operation came within 10,000 tons of
its chief competitor. By 1878 Dunsmuir had overtaken
the other colliery’s production, raising 88,361 tons
of coal compared to 82,135.
Although the company had had sufficient financial
backing from its partners to begin mining, it was
mainly Dunsmuir who had taken the risks, and who had
provided the management necessary to create,
maintain, and expand the operation from a mere claim
to British Columbia’s foremost colliery. Until 1878
it appears that Dunsmuir ploughed most of the
profits back into the firm; no additional shares
were issued and there is no evidence indicating
other sources of financing were necessary. His
business success is even more impressive when it is
realized that he kept pace with technical
developments. Dunsmuir described his works in 1879
as having “4 3/4 miles of railway; 4 locomotives;
over 400 waggons; 4 [hauling] engines and 2 steam
pumps; 3 wharves for loading vessels, with bunkers,
etc.” In 1879 Dunsmuir, Diggle Limited purchased
another colliery in the same seam, the South
Wellington, to the south of Nanaimo. Together, the
two operations provided underground access through
one pit (160´ deep) and two main shafts (one
reaching 310´). The purchase gave the firm a further
“4 1/2 miles of railway; 1 locomotive; over 50
waggons; 1 steam pump; 2 large winding engines; 1
small engine”; the combined labour force was now
418.
The
purchase of the South Wellington proved both a
logical and a profitable move, as the output,
workforce, and plant value of Dunsmuir, Diggle, all
rose sharply. In 1881 Dunsmuir claimed that his coal
operations were worth $245,000. Equally significant,
he was by then employing 547 men (more than half of
whom were Chinese) and his annual output had reached
181,048 tons of coal, fully 84.4 per cent of which
was exported. Further expansion occurred in 1882
when Dunsmuir sank two additional main shafts;
eventually a total of five mines were in production
on the Wellington deposit. What probably gave
Dunsmuir his greatest satisfaction, however, was his
step-by-step purchase of the holdings of the
non-family partners. Before the 1870s had ended, he
had bought all but Diggle’s interests. Then on 14
Sept. 1883 Victoria’s Daily British Colonist
reported that Diggle had sold his holdings to
Dunsmuir for $600,000, and that henceforth the firm
would conduct business “under the name and style of
R. Dunsmuir & Sons.”
Dunsmuir was a shrewd and opportunistic coal
proprietor. Compared with other coal entrepreneurs
of the 1870s and 1880s, he was not particularly
lucky or especially ruthless, but he made the most
of the important advantages he had over his
competitors. He had been a thoroughly knowledgeable
coal-miner and a highly experienced mines’
supervisor before starting his own colliery, and by
being the sole claimant of the island’s richest coal
seam when he began his first venture as a coal-mine
proprietor, Dunsmuir’s potential as a producer was
the greatest on the island. Furthermore, although he
was a latecomer to the province’s coal trade, his
entry occurred at a time when speculative coal
enterprises were most profitable. What distinguished
him above all from other promoters, the majority of
whom failed to secure sufficient start-up capital,
was hip astute move in turning for support to the
naval officers who had both an awareness of the
value of the coalfields in the region and the
financial means to make substantial investments.
Also important was Dunsmuir’s proximity to the
colliery: as his usual residence was Nanaimo,
nothing to do with the operation escaped his
attention and day-to-day management decisions were
made with ease. Finally, he was able to recruit and
train as his chief subordinates his two sons, who
were also in the original partnership, and a
son-in-law, John Bryden; not only did he fix the
colliery’s management in the family’s grip, he also
ensured that as the company prospered the financial
position of the family was correspondingly
strengthened. Thus it was that most of Dunsmuir,
Diggle’s power and wealth came to be concentrated in
the Dunsmuir family’s hands. He was dedicated to the
new coal industry and determined to dominate if not
monopolize it.
Within ten years of starting operations Dunsmuir had
generated sufficient capital from sales to build a
colliery operation that surpassed in size and output
the combined value of all other British Columbia
coal mines, to purchase extensive holdings of
coal-bearing lands in the Comox district, and to
construct and operate a fleet of colliers; he also
invested heavily in real estate on Vancouver Island
and in an iron foundry, a theatre in Victoria,
agricultural lands, and a mainland diking scheme.
Most of Dunsmuir’s wealth was in the form of equity
capital, but it none the less gave him all the
security he needed to continue making acquisitions
whenever and wherever he chose. This was, after all,
a time in Canadian history when neither corporate
nor income taxes existed, and what coal royalties
there were had little impact on profits. Indeed, it
was a period in which governments appeared more
eager to give money to men like Dunsmuir than to
take it from them. A case in point is his
involvement in the building of a railway on
Vancouver Island.
A
rail link between Nanaimo and Victoria had been
planned as early as 1873, but no serious effort to
start construction was made until December 1883 when
the province transferred to the federal government
sufficient crown lands for the project. To safeguard
control of the island’s economic future, and prevent
the possibility of the Northern Pacific Railroad
gaining the contract, many businessmen and
politicians urged Dunsmuir to build the line.
Dunsmuir was reluctant to accept the task, thinking
it of little benefit to his colliery operations. He
submitted a proposal to the Canadian government,
however, and despite the severity of his terms he
emerged as the sole acceptable alternative to
foreign builders. After much shrewd bargaining in
Ottawa Dunsmuir agreed to construct the railway in
return for a subsidy of $750,000 in cash and a
parcel of land comprising some two million acres –
fully one-fifth of Vancouver Island. Significantly,
the land grant came with “all coal, coal oil, ores,
stones, clay, marble, slates, mines, minerals, and
substances whatsoever in, on or under the lands so
to be granted.” He received also all foreshore
rights for the lands, all mining privileges
(including the right to mine under adjacent
seabeds), and the retention of all coal and other
minerals taken from the land. Additionally, as
contractor he was permitted to cut whatever timber
and erect whatever structures he saw fit to build
the line. To promote settlement, provision was made
for the sale of farmlands to homesteaders at one
dollar per acre. Squatters of at least one year’s
residence were allowed to buy up to 160 acres, and
those settlers with title were allowed to retain
their holdings, but virtually all else would go to
the contractor in right of performance. It was, in
short, a major give-away of British Columbia’s
natural resources.
Although Dunsmuir had been chosen to prevent the
Americans from gaining control of the railway, the
lands, and the area’s mineral rights, he was not
averse to exploiting American talent and experience
in constructing the railway. The contract which
Dunsmuir drew up for the Esquimalt and Nanaimo
Railway named himself, his son James, and his
son-in-law John Bryden as contractors, and Charles
Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Collis
Potter Huntington, all officials of the Southern
Pacific Railroad, as subcontractors. Construction
began at Esquimalt on 26 Feb. 1884 and proceeded on
schedule. Sir John A. Macdonald*, prime minister of
Canada, drove the “last spike” at Shawnigan Lake on
13 Aug. 1886, and by September trains were running
into Victoria along lines laid from Esquimalt across
Indian lands Dunsmuir had managed to have
expropriated for his use.
Building the railway was Robert Dunsmuir’s last
major entrepreneurial effort. James Dunsmuir and
John Bryden were now the driving forces behind
further expansion of the family’s business, and
their time was filled with consolidating and
operating the huge industrial, transportation, and
commercial activities created chiefly by the elder
Dunsmuir. Robert was content to leave such matters
to his successors, busying himself more with his
other investments, particularly those in Victoria
where he then resided. He had already built a
mansion in Nanaimo; he now busied himself with plans
to build a sandstone castle (Craigdarrock), a task
that both challenged his remaining energies and
suited his image as British Columbia’s leading
19th-century industrialist.
Part
of Robert Dunsmuir’s notoriety stemmed from his
business acumen, but a greater part resulted from
his approach to labour relations. He believed the
mines he owned were his to do with as he chose. In
his mind, he alone had been responsible for raising
the capital, building the collieries, opening the
markets, and maintaining the plant. He had tended
always to pay lower wages than his competitors, and
he hid preferred to employ Orientals who were
willing to work for half the pay other miners would
accept. His coal operations were generally safer
than those of his main competitor, the VCMLC, though
like all colliery owners of the time the Dunsmuirs
resisted many of the demands for safety improvements
made by provincial inspectors of mines, thereby
perpetuating the hazardous conditions that led to
accidents, including the 1876 disaster at
Wellington. In 1877 when all the island colliers
were threatening to strike over wages [see Samuel H.
Myers], Dunsmuir was to be struck first, but before
the threatened work-stoppage could spread to
Nanaimo, Robert locked out his employees, claiming
he alone would break the resistance. Four months
were lost before the miners, harassed by both police
and militia sent north from Victoria at Robert’s
demand, and plainly destitute, agreed to return to
work. Yet Dunsmuir, clearly victorious, chose also
to be vindictive, and offered the men a maximum
daily wage of $2.50 – a rate one-third lower than
his best-paid employees were earning before the
strike. He effectively had broken the most
significant attempt up to that time to organize mine
workers in British Columbia, and he never faced
another major rebellion by labour. For this action
especially, Robert Dunsmuir gained a reputation as
the province’s most ruthless, avaricious employer.
Yet,
to the middle and upper levels of island society,
Dunsmuir symbolized wealth, success, and moral
authority, a circumstance which encouraged him when
he was extricating himself from direct management of
the collieries to pursue new interests. He entered
politics in the provincial election of 1882 as a
candidate for Nanaimo. He was elected and returned
again in July 1886, but, apart from becoming
president of the Executive Council in the
administration of Alexander Edmund Batson Daviein
1887, Dunsmuir left no appreciable mark as a
politician.
For
much of his later life, Robert was alienated from
his wife, though she inherited his entire estate.
The Dunsmuir children were educated and treated in a
fashion befitting their father’s wealth. He made the
collieries a family business, drawing the menfolk in
first as workers and then as managers. They, in
turn, retained control until 1910, when the main
Dunsmuir interests were sold to William Mackenzie*
and Donald Mann*. James Dunsmuir was premier of
British Columbia from 1900 to 1902 and lieutenant
governor from 1906 to 1909.
Robert Dunsmuir was and has remained the most
controversial person in the province’s history. He
has been recognized by most historians as a great
builder, a pioneer industrialist intent upon shaping
his province as much as increasing his personal
fortune. He has, on the other hand, been more
recently presented, by writers probing the
province’s early industrial activities, as British
Columbia’s chief symbol of unbridled capitalism, and
a ruthless exploiter of men and material. The most
recent research reveals that neither view is fully
accurate, and suggests strongly that a full-scale
study of his personal and business career and the
social context in which he lived is needed.