Beginnings of Sointula: Coal Miners and Their Search for a Better Life

 

This is part two of this series of blog posts where we explore how the community of Sointula came to be. Last time we looked into why the Finns came to Canada and who exactly was the visionary Matti Kurikka, who helped to establish the colony of Sointula. Now we are going to discover what happened to those Finnish settlers once they had arrived in Canada and why they wanted to create their own community.

By the late 1800s, after fleeing Russian rule in Finland, many Finns had settled down in Canada, with concentrations of them in parts of British Columbia. Most of them worked in Robert Dunsmuir’s coal mines. Not only were conditions dangerous, there was little pay. Dunsmuir, though regarded as a successful coal mining entrepreneur, was not sympathetic to workers’ demands for better pay and better working conditions. In 1877, all Vancouver Island coal miners went on strike, demanding a pay increase. Dunsmuir had the police evict people from their homes. He used the threat of workers becoming destitute to his advantage, forcing many to return to work. Dunsmuir reduced their pay to $2.50 per day, a rate one third less than what his highest-earning employees would have received before the strike. His ruthlessness meant workers lived in fear of striking again, and no strikes did indeed occur after this one.
 
Dunsmuir also owned coal seams in Wellington, a bustling coal mining town with a diverse population including Italian, Finnish, Belgian and Chinese immigrants. There was a methane gas explosion in a mine there in 1888, claiming 77 lives. Afterwards, coal seams dwindled and people moved away. Wellington’s population dropped significantly and later the town merged with Nanaimo.

Photo #38 Kalevan Kansa Leadership. Carol Potts Collection. Sointula Museum.

These events are just examples of what British Columbia coal miners would have experienced in the late 19th century. It is not surprising that many coal miners, not just Finnish ones, were disillusioned and unhappy, some turning to alcohol. Violence among the workers was encouraged by mine owners to undermine organised labour. These sentiments led to some Finns wanting to establish a community free of local government and the freedom to do things your own way. Around this time, coal miners near Nanaimo contacted Matti Kurikka. When he arrived in British Columbia in 1900, they formed the Kalevan Kansa Company. Named after the Finnish epic story Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot – a symbol of Finnish identity during Russification – the company looked to create a colony of working people, leading them on a journey to Malcolm Island.

Part 3 will look at the first few years of what it was like to live in the community.

About the Author
This blog post was written by Anna Leppänen, the Sointula Museum’s first remote volunteer. Anna lives in Birmingham, UK, where she works as a museum learning officer. With Finnish parents, she grew up in London while spending summers in Finland and a few years studying in Helsinki. She has a special interest in the experiences of Finnish identity abroad and was excited to learn about Sointula’s unique history. Volunteering with the Museum has given her the opportunity to explore the stories of Finnish settlers in British Columbia and share them through this blog series.

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