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November 2004:
Hudson's Bay Company Timeline for Nanaimo
1827 - A fur trading post was established at Fort Langley on the Fraser
River.
1835 - Coal discovered at Beaver Harbour at the northern end of Vancouver
Island.
1842 - Moved their headquarters from Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory to the newly established fort called Fort Victoria.
1846 - Oregon Treaty established that all land north of the 49th parallel
and all of Vancouver Island belonging to Great Britain; all land south
belonging to United States.
- The Hudson’s Bay Company requested jurisdiction over Vancouver
Island in exchange for promoting colonization.
1849 - May - Queen Victoria, granted the Hudson Bay Company “the island
called Vancouver Island together with all royalties of the seas upon the
coast thereof and all mines royal there to belonging.” The land was handed
over for ten year with the following conditions:
1. The crown could re-purchase the island form the HBC on the
termination of the trading license that would expire May 30, 1859;
2. HBC was required to develop and settle the island.
3. HBC could keep ten percent of all the money it received form the
sale of lands, coal, or other minerals, but it was obligated to spend the
remaining 90 percent on surveys, roads, bridges, churches, and schools
plus any other amenities for the settlers.
- September - The post at Fort Rupert is completed (August) and the
first miners arrive from Scotland.
- December - Snuneymuxw Chief Che-wich-i-kan (kist-sa-kum),
historically referred to as Coal Tyee, had gone to Fort Victoria to have his
rifle repaired by the blacksmith. Coal Tyee commented to the blacksmith
about the black stones being plentiful in his area.
1850 - Spring - Coal Tyee returns to Victoria with a canoe laden with coal.
It was tested and found to be of an excellent quality. Joseph McKay, a company clerk, was dispatched to Nanaimo.
1851 - August - Robert Dunsmuir, his wife, two daughters and one son (born on route at Fort Vancouver) arrived at Fort Rupert. The journey took eight months.
1852 - August - James Douglas Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island
and Chief Factor for the HBC, journeyed to Nanaimo to examine the coal
deposits.
- August 24 - Joseph McKay was appointed to be the HBC
representative in Nanaimo and take possession of the coal beds.
- August 27 - Building began on the first hut in Nanaimo.
1852 - September 3 - Muirs, McGregors and Raymond arrived on the Cadboro from Fort Rupert. They brought with them four pigs and one sheep. These were the first farm animals in Nanaimo.
- September 9 - Cadboro sailed with the first 480 barrels of coal.
The Snuneymuxw had mined and loaded the coal. Twenty barrels for a two and a half point blanket and other goods.
- November 5 - A HBC shepherd, Peter Brown, is murdered by the
son of the Snuneymuxw chief and a Cowechin First Nation male.
- December 9 - Fifteen miners and their families arrived from Fort
Rupert. They came by canoe and the S.S. Beaver. Included in this group
was Robert Dunsmuir and his family.
1852/1853 - Winter - The weather was severe - there was deep snow and harbour was frozen.
1853 - January 17 - Two men went one trial for the murder of Peter Brown.
The trial onboard the Beaver was the first by judge and jury under English
law. The men were found guilty, condemned and executed at Tide Staff Point (Gallows Point today) on Protection Island.
- February 3 - Joseph Robilliard and Versailles began squaring the
timbers to build the Bastion. French Canadians, Leon Labine and Jean
Baptiste Fortier are credited for the building but others also worked on
it. William Isbister, a stonemason, laid the foundation.
- March 16 - Mary McGregor gave birth to the first white girl,
Margaret.
- April - More men arrive from Fort Rupert, including Adam Grant
Horne, William Isbister, Jean Baptiste Fortier, and surgeon Dr. George
Johnstone.
- June 2 - McKay writes to Douglas, “the Bastion is nearly finished,
we have three dwelling houses 20 x 30 ft habitable, 4 houses 25 x 15 and
the wood raised for three houses 20 x 30 ft.
- Alexander Dunsmuir was born, the first white boy born in Nanaimo.
- August - 40 Scottish miners recruited for Nanaimo sailed on the
Colinda. They never arrived in Nanaimo; they mutinied in Valparaiso,
Chile, after running out of food on the voyage.
1853 - The Princess Royal, a barque, is constructed of solid oak. The total
cost of construction was 10,200 pound sterling.
1853 - The second government funded public school (common school) In the Colony of Vancouver Island is opened in Nanaimo. Mr. Charles Bailey is
transferred from Fort Victoria. The first school is believed to be a company
building near Commercial and Skinner Streets.
1854 - June 2 - at 6:45 p.m. “23 men and 23 women with a quantity of
children,” were received on board as emigrants.
- October 20 - The Princess Royal reaches Honolulu—140 days after
leaving London, England. The ships log recorded five deaths and two
births. Three more deaths occurred while the ship was being “provisioned
and watered” in Honolulu.
- October 31 - Set sail for Esquimalt. Two more deaths occurred on
this leg of the journey.
- November 23 The Princess Royal arrives in Esquimalt.
- November 25 - The Beaver and Recovery were brought alongside the
Princess Royal so that the passengers could be transferred. The next day
with a good supply of potatoes and fresh meat they departed for Colvile
Town.
- November 27 at 11:00 a.m. the travel weary group came ashore at
Pioneer Rock. It is said that the sun broke through the clouds at the
moment the first miner set foot on land. They had travelled for five days
of six months or 179 days to reach their final destination.
- December 23 - Governor James Douglas signed a treaty with the
Snuneymuxw, the last of 14 treaties negotiated on Vancouver Island
between 1850 and 1854.
1854 - a new school was built in the rear of the present St Paul Church on
Chapel Street. This building was used until 1867 when it was destroyed by
fire.
1854 - Joseph McKay is transferred to Fort Simpson when the Crimean War
Broke out.
Near the end of 1854, Governor James Douglas ordered the first
census of the colony. In Nanaimo, the white population was 151, there
were 52 lodging houses, 3 shops, 6 outhouses and 1 school with 29
students. No one was over 60 years old; 15 were between 50 and 60; and
nearly half were under 20.
1855 - Recruiters from the Puget Sound Coal Mine at Bellingham Bay lured a
number of the Royal Princess miners to Bellingham. They broke their
contract with the HBC and left for Bellingham leaving their wives and
families behind. The coal operation in Bellingham was not what they were led to believe and soon trickled back to Nanaimo. HBC reinstated them on “less favourable terms”.
1855 - July 6 - Captain Charles Edward Stuart replaced Joseph McKay as
officer-in-charge at the Nanaimo post.
1855 - October - Robert Dunsmuir and Edward Walker were granted the first free miners’ licences issued by the HBC.
1856 - August 14 - Cornelius Bryant, an eighteen year old is hired. His
daybook shows 34 students enrolled.
1859 - At a literary meeting forty four dollars was raised to start a
circulating library.
1860 - Colviletown is officially changed to Nanaimo.
1860 - (August) The name Colviletown was officially removed form maps and charts.
1862 - The Hudson’s Bay Company sold its Nanaimo property to the Vancouver Coal Mining & Land Company Limited. During its tenure the HBC fulfilled its contractual obligations to the miners, but also provided school and medical services.
