Haslam's Mill

In the early 1890s, Andrew Haslam's Nanaimo Saw Mill Company was the second largest employer in Nanaimo. Haslam's mill employed 66 men and was located on the south side of the Millstone River in Nanaimo's North Ward. This was an industrial part of the city: a tannery (the British Columbia Tanning Company) and a gas works (Nanaimo Gas Company) were located nearby.

Irish born Andrew Haslam immigrated to Canada in 1861. Haslam worked in various lumbering jobs across North America before establishing the Nanaimo Saw Mill Company in 1885. He was residing on Mill Street with his wife and two sons at the time of the 1891 census; however, soon after the census was taken, Haslam and his family moved to an opulent house a few blocks away on the corner of Comox Road and Fraser Street. The Haslam residence was built at a cost of $6000 and was considered to be one of the finest homes in the city. Tax assessment rolls for the period indicate that Haslam also had extensive property holdings throughout Nanaimo.

The British Columbia Directory identifies 66 employees at Haslam's mill. Many workers (at least 39 in number) were living in a boarding house adjacent to their workplace on Mill Street. These men may have been transient workers, or they may have had permanent homes in other parts of Canada, because they do not appear on the 1891 census. Most of the men were probably general labourers in the mill.

The British Columbia Directory also identifies fifteen skilled employees - such as planer man, stationary engine operator and wood-turner. The Directory and tax assessment rolls indicate that these men lived close to the mill but owned their own homes. Since these men also appear on the 1891 census, we have some record of their households.

Most of the skilled employees - twelve out of fifteen men - were married. Although these skilled men lived near the mill, they were slightly more geographically removed from their workplace than the single men who lived in the boarding house on Mill Street. For instance, planer man John Bertram had a home on Second Avenue. Bertam, who was twenty-six years old, lived with his wife and one-year old son. Twenty-nine year old James Marshall, a sawmill gang runner, lived in a house on Fraser Street with his wife and two small children. Thirty-one year old Daniel Galbraith lived with his wife and infant son on Stewart Avenue. Lumberman Peter Smith, who was forty-seven years old, lived with his wife and nine children on Newcastle Avenue.

Most of the Nanaimo Saw Mill employees who appear on the census were of Anglo-Saxon descent. The most common religions were Methodist and Presbyterian. Haslam's employees documented in the 1891 census were younger men, between the ages of 19 and 35. No women were recorded as employees of the Nanaimo Saw Mill Company. The census records and surnames in the British Columbia Directory suggest that only Caucasian men worked at the Nanaimo Sawmill; however, archival records indicate that one Chinese man worked as a cook at the boarding house located at the mill yard.

Additional Sources:
British Columbia Archives Vertical Files [microfilm], reel 60, frame 110.
Nanaimo Community Archives. Research Files. Lumber Mills: Box 4, folder 9.