Person:Robert Dunsmuir (1)

Dunsmuir was born in Hurlford, Scotland to 20 year old James Dunsmuir and his wife Elizabeth[2] in 1825. At the time of his birth, his family was engaged in the coal business in his native Ayrshire. Dunsmuir's grandfather, Robert, had leased coal properties and bought out local competitors in the days before the arrival of the railway in the 1840s permitting him to increase prices. In 1832, in the midst of this prosperity, Robert's mother, father, grandmother and two of his three sisters died within days of each other in a cholera epidemic which swept the area. Three years later, grandfather Robert died a relatively wealthy man, leaving a third of his estate in trust for his orphaned grandchildren. Dunsmuir was schooled locally at the Kilmarnock Academy and then at the Paisley Mercantile and Mechanical School, a training helpful in the coal business. He then went to work in local coal mines under his Aunt's husband Boyd Gilmour.

On September 11, 1847, at the age of 22, Dunsmuir married 19 year old Joan White. Eight days later, their first child, Elizabeth Hamilton was born. Under the strict rules of the Presbyterian Church, Robert and Joan(na?) were required to confess their sin of sex prior to marriage before the whole congregation to have their daughter baptized in the Kirk. Their second child, Agnes, was also born in Scotland in 1849.

At the end of 1850, Dunsmuir's mentor, and his aunt's husband, Boyd Gilmour, had signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company to exploit a coal finding on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert (near present day Port Hardy). Because some of those who were to travel with him decided not to go upon hearing news of the conditions and prospects there, Gilmour sought replacements for his party at the last moment. On 24 hours' notice of this opportunity, Dunsmuir signed on. They sailed on the Pekin, for Fort Vancouver, via Cape Horn, on December 19, 1850. It took 191 days for them to arrive. Eight days later, on July 8, 1851, Joan Dunsmuir gave birth to their third child, James Dunsmuir. Early years in British Columbia

On July 18, 1851 they set sail for Fort Rupert,[3] and when they arrived on August 9, the three-year term on the contract with the Hudson's Bay Company began. Gilmour struggled unsuccessfully to develop a producing coal operation at Fort Rupert until August 24, 1852 when Governor Douglas instructed them to move on to Nanaimo where a coal seam had been discovered. Work proceeded but living conditions were difficult. In 1854 when the term of their HBC contracts came up and Governor Douglas refused to increase their pay rates, Gilmour left to return to Scotland. Dunsmuir stayed on. He went on to propose to Douglas that he carry on personally with the operation of a seam that Gilmour had thought was played out. On October 12, 1855, Dunsmuir commenced work on his own account and within a month was producing seven tons of coal a day. This venture was a modest success, but as the seam ran out, Dunsmuir was again employed to operate a new pit that the HBC opened in 1860.

According to a census taken in 1854, the white population of Nanaimo was 151. There were 52 dwelling houses, 3 shops, and 1 school with 29 students, including the Dunsmuir children. Dunsmuir impressed James Douglas, the Colonial Governor and Chief Factor of the HBC, as a stable and hardworking man who could be relied on to complete a task with a minimum of trouble. Dunsmuir was given a longterm contract with the HBC’s coal company.

By 1863, development at Nanaimo proceeded at a fast pace as the coal-mining operations expanded.

The Dunsmuirs were prospering. Robert and Joan now had six children, ranging from Elizabeth, 17, to newly born baby Mary.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Robert Dunsmuir , in English Wikipedia
   6 March 2012.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Dunsmuir&oldid=461386894

2.   Additional information from "The Esquinalt & Nainomo railway & Robert Dunsmuir", Bob Reid, History of B.C. (www.notaries.bc.ca/resources/spring 2009)