Joseph Ogle Trethewey, one of the three Trethewey brothers who purchased the Abbotsford Lumber Company in the early twentieth century. Photo courtesy of The Reach Gallery Museum. P1920.

In the early 1900s the mill, on what was then called Abbotsford Lake, was purchased by the wealthy Trethewey brothers. They named their new operation the Abbotsford Timber and Trading Company Limited. Joseph Ogle Trethewey, more commonly Joe, was the principal shareholder, Sam Trethewey invested in the operation, and their brother Arthur Trethewey managed the day-to-day running of the mill. Its location in central Abbotsford had access to the B.C. Electric, Canadian Pacific, and Great Northern Railways. Logging operations took place in the local forests and the timber was brought to the lake and mill site for sorting and processing. The brothers increased the mill’s output to 75,000 board feet per day and added a steam-powered shingle mill which produced as many as 100,000 shingles per day.1 By the 1920s they were producing 20 million feet of lumber and 15-20 million shingles annually.2 There were dry kilns, a horse barn, a blacksmith shop, and buildings for the mill’s operations.

All this work required a large amount of labour. By the 1920s the Abbotsford Lumber Company employed as many as 230 men,3 many of whom were recent immigrants to Canada. There were Chinese, Japanese, and South Asian men working alongside the European employees at the mill. The first of these groups to arrive in Canada were those from China, who came to British Columbia in 1858 during the Fraser Gold Rush. The Chinese were soon employed in many low skill jobs, which angered European settlers in Canada who felt entitled to those jobs. In 1884 the government implemented a $10 head tax, but by 1904 this was raised to $500.4 In 1923 the Chinese Immigration Act was passed which made immigration from China almost impossible, but many industries still wanted Chinese employees. The Abbotsford Lumber Company employed the services of Charlie Yung, who would recruit employees in China, and have them brought to Canada, sometimes illegally, to work at the mill.5 

Photo of the mill operations. Photo courtesy of The Reach Gallery Museum. P983.

Arriving at the turn of the century, additional immigration groups significant to the mill were the Japanese, and South Asian populations. The first Japanese immigrants in Canada arrived in British Columbia and worked mostly in the fishing and agricultural industries. Many of these early migrants only intended to work temporarily in Canada and return home with the money they saved.6 The Japanese workers at the Abbotsford Lumber Company didn’t always return home, as they worked dangerous jobs on the site. Also arriving in the early 1900s was one of Canada’s first Indo-Canadian communities. In 1902 on a visit celebrating the coronation of King Edward VII, the Crown Colony of Hong Kong’s army regiments which included some Sikhs and Muslims travelled through British Columbia.7 Upon return to India, members of the regiment shared their knowledge of the Canadian province, and in the years following the visit, more immigrants from India came to B.C.. Many became employed in the forestry industry. At the Abbotsford Lumber Company, the Sikh employees formed a strong community, and became pioneers in the City of Abbotsford.

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NOTES

1. Daphne Sleigh, Go Ahead or Go Home: The Trethewey Story (Abbotsford: Vicarro Publishing, 1994), 103.

2. MSA Museum. “Miltown to Mill Lake: The Trethewey Brothers and the Abbotsford Lumber Company.” Forest History Association of British Columbia, No 48, 1996, 2.

3. Sleigh, Go Ahead or Go Home, 119.

4. Jin Tan and Patricia E. Roy, The Chinese in Canada. Canadian Historical Association Booklet No. 9 Ottawa: (1985), 8, https://cha-shc.ca/_uploads/5c37480746ab8.pdf.

5. Clarke Trethewey, interview, August 22, 1985. The Reach Gallery Museum.

6. W. Peter Ward, The Japanese in Canada, Canadian Historical Association Booklet No. 3, Ottawa: (1982), 5. https://cha-shc.ca/_uploads/5c365d73ec34b.pdf.

7. Satwinder Kaur Bains and Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, “Sustaining Echoes of the Past: Building a Future – 100 Years of Indo-Canadian History,” in Abbotsford From Villiage to City: A Commitment to Excellence and Innovation, ed. Robert Martens and Anneleen Van Dijk. (MSA Museum Society, 2015). 123.