There's nothing better than getting together as a family. This summer my cousin organized a family get-together for the Gilbert Inkster side of the family, some of whom I had never met before.
In preparation, I created two 24 x 36 posters. The first profiled our shared Shetland Inkster ancestors, while the second highlighted their ancestor, Gilbert Inkster, who was the older brother of my great-grandfather, Peter Inkster. Here is a portion of his story.
Shetland Sailor
Gilbert Inkster was the second son and the first to emigrate. At fourteen years of age he worked in the North Sea fishing, then sailed aboard the English coasters. After a couple of years, he had saved enough money to travel to Glasgow where he signed on with the Clan line as an ordinary seaman.
Gilbert had learned to cut hair and mend shoes at a young age, and these occupations kept him busy during his spare time while at sea. His father had likely warned him of the foibles of human nature as well as the need to set money aside for a rainy day. “On board ship not knowing who to trust [Gilbert]… hollowed out a space in the heel of one of his shoes and kept a $10.00 American gold coin in it so that if he fell on hard times he always had a nest egg to fall back on.”
Gilbert arrived at Vancouver Island in 1888 after a five-and-a-half-month journey that took him around the notorious Cape Horn. “The winds were so fierce during those winter months it seemed as if the ship sailed one mile and slipped back two.” The coal industry had created a boom in Nanaimo, and there were many jobs for hardworking young men. Gilbert decided he wanted to stay. He and three shipmates broke their contracts and “jumped ship” at Victoria. His son, Doug, explained: “At that time there were no roads… from Victoria and up island, so they packed what they could carry and walked the beaches and trails. It took them about three weeks to reach their future home [at Nanaimo]. On arrival, they began to work in the coal mines.”
Gilbert joined an enclave of Shetlanders who had made the western shores of Canada their home. Younger brother, Samuel, joined Gilbert in 1892. In 1894, Gilbert married Margaret Jane Meredith, a young Welshwoman. The coal mines were dirty and dangerous, but the work provided a modest livelihood for the couple and their growing family. At times “work in the mines was sporadic—only when ships came in to load—so there were a lot of no work days.”
When gold rush rumours spread, Gilbert and his friends left their families and headed north to claim their share. In 1896 they headed to Cook Inlet, and again in February 1899 to Skagway, Alaska, bound for the Klondike. They painstakingly relayed their 4,700 pounds of gear by hand sleigh through the White Pass on the US-Canada border. Gilbert’s brother-in-law recalled, “We had to fight the storms of snow and wind and frost every day. Our whiskers would be frozen when we arrived at Atlin.” The trip paid off. Having struck “pay ground,” they “sailed to Seattle with [their] gold and sold it to the mint. After eight months away, they returned to their homes and the coal mines.
Family Man
The sea and survival skills Gilbert had learned as a boy in Shetland served him well as he adapted to the local geography. Hunting and fishing helped keep food on the table. Sometimes he and his friends rowed to Texada Island—more than thirty kilometres away—to hunt for deer. His son, Gil, recalled, “They had at one time nine deer hanging in the basement of their home being skinned and cleaned and cured for their winter food.”
Each year Gilbert earned two weeks of unpaid vacation, which he took at the end of July and beginning of August. The family would sail to a nearby island and share a rare holiday. But even on vacation, Gilbert’s sons remembered working. A transport ship had shipwrecked off the coast years earlier, and they would go down to the beach to pick up coal that drifted in on the tide. These buckets of coal were carried home to supplement their meagre supplies.
Vancouver Island Coal Miner
On September 12, 1907 Gilbert and his shift crew were digging coal when a buildup of gas suddenly exploded. He and five others were badly burned on their faces and arms and became trapped underground. It took Gilbert nine months to recover from the burns he sustained in the explosion. His brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Mary nursed him in their home and his injuries were so severe that Maggie “was not allowed to see her husband” for the first three months. Gilbert’s vision was impacted and he visited the eye specialist in Vancouver for treatment.
This accident foreshadowed an even worse tragedy. Just two years later, on October 5, 1909, a gas explosion and its accompanying afterdamp killed 32 miners at the Extension mines. Among the dead was James Molyneux, one of the men who had rescued Gilbert.
Gilbert had loaned $60 to help his younger brother, Peter, emigrate in 1901. Both were eager to leave the mines, so started a livery business together. But 1912 would prove difficult. The local miners went on strike to protest unsafe working conditions. Rather than allow the workers to unionise, the mine owners locked the workers out. The strike dragged on for nineteen months, and Ladysmith was rocked by riots, militia, and arrests. Maggie hid her seven boys underneath their beds to protect them from rocks after the house next door had every window broken. With the miners out of work, the economy declined, and Peter and Gilbert’s business suffered. To save money, they moved their premises from the stable on First Avenue to a barn on Peter’s property. But with “practically no intake,” and unable to feed the horses, the animals and equipment were sold, one-by-one, until “at a heavy loss,” there was no business left. Gilbert had to return to the mines.
His family contributed to the household income by delivering newspapers. Gilbert worked at the Granby mine at Cassidy from 1920 until he was again injured in 1927 at the age of 59. Although he didn’t enter public life or participate in many clubs—he was too busy raising his sons, he said—Gilbert was well-respected. The Granby mine was unionised while Gilbert worked there, and he was elected chairman to help negotiate one-year and two-year contracts between the workers and the mine owner. Maggie and Gilbert actively participated in the Methodist (later United) Church. The couple celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in December 1959. Gilbert died a few months later, and Maggie the following year.
Read more about the Inkster family and their Shetland community in Voices from the Past: Stories of North Roe.
Comments