Wednesday, July 30, 1975

THE REVIEW

Page 11

Ontario Winters Drove John Sluggett West To Saanich Peninsula

The long, cold, Ontario
winter drove John Sluggett to
make his home on the
peninsula a hundred years
ago.

John and Fanny Sluggett
were farming and keeping
store in Ontario when he
began to cast around for a
warmer climate.

In 1875 he heard about the
beautiful west coast and set
out to investigate. The next
year he returned to Ontario to
bring his wife, Fanny and
their seven children to the
farmland he had found in West
Saanich.

old ouple well, spending many
of his school years with them
when his own parents moved
to a town without a school.

In an interview with the
Review at his home on West
Saanich Road, he shared some
of his memories of the couple
and helped piece together
some of the details of the
Sluggett family’s early years
in this country.

He is full of admiration for
the old couple, and says, “I
loved them both dearly.”

John was “‘shrewd but

honest’, he said. ““You had to-

be careful. He’d skin you
quicker than you could say.”
1000 ACRES

It was this -quality of
shrewdness coupled with a
tendency to be “a bit of a

“HE'D SKIN YOU QUICKER THAN YOU COULD SAY!”

1000 Acres Purchased On Peninsula

sons, were more cautious. It
was they, with their mother,
who had to work to pay off
these mortagages.

It was Fanny who was the
“backbone and the mainstay”
of the family. It was her butter
and eggs that paid for the
land.

She made 30 to 40 pounds of
butter and gathered-20 to 30
dozen eggs a week, for sale in
Victoria. The income from
this kept the family going.

John, with one of the
younger family members
along to hold the reins while he
made his deliveries, would

hour and a half. If a cow was
sleeping in the middle of the
road, we had to go around her.
In later years, with a faster
horse, we made the trip in an
hour,” he said.

Fanny Sluggett was tough,
Lorne said, “a grand little
body.”

On the way out from On-
tario, he recounted, freight
handlers tried to throw her
feather bed off the wagon,
saying it was too bulky, She
wasn’t going to lose it after
bringing it all that way so she
hopped off and lugged it on
herself, giving the men a

~ + dressing-down in the process.

Fanny was devoted to her
| religion and lived closely by
its precepts. Sluggett

twelve miles would take us an |

By MARYHELEN VICARS

John, a carpenter, was called
upon at one point to go below
to make repairs.

They landed in Quebec then
made their first home in
Guelph, Ontario. They lived
there 18 months, with John
working as a carpenter.

They moved next to Owen
Sound, where John continued
to work as a carpenter, with a
few business interests.

In 1862, after six years in
Owen Sound, the family
moved to Elderslie, in Bruce
County. They started a
general store, operating the
small business on the barter

After a few years on this
well-established farm, the
family began to weary of the
harsh climate. The original
plan was for a move to the
southern United States, but a
friend presuaded John to
investigate the west coast of
British Columbia.

SEA
VOYAGE

In 1875 he took the trans
continental railway to San
Francisco and from there
travelled by boat to Victoria.

He lived in Victoria for some
months, working as a car-
penter while searching for
suitable land to settle.

-He eventually found a

| parcel of land near what is

now Benvenuto Road, for $7.50

and acre and returned for his
family.

The family spent eight days
crossing the continent, but
were a day late to catch a boat
from the mainland so they
entered Canada reached
Vancouver Island by a cir-
cuitous route via Portland,
Oregon.

Their first home on the
peninsula was a small frame
building they leased from
seorgeStelly There was room
for beds for only mother and
daughters, the rest sleeping on
the floor near the big
fireplace.

They spent their first winter

Once settled, the family’s

attention turned to schooling
for their seven school-age
children. George Stelly and
John Sluggett each donated
an acre of land to the
Department of Education so
that a school could be built,
the old Brentwood School.
’ The site is no longer being
used for school purposes, and
the family and Central
Saanich council have been
pressuring the provincial
government to turn the
property over to the
municipality for a pioneer
Park. -

Three post offices were
established in the area about
that time, one of which was on
the Sluggett farm. The other

two were closed eventually

and after a number of years
the Sluggett Post Office
became the present Brent
wood Bay Post Office.

John took an interest in the
politics of his new province,
and ran for provincial office
on the issue of the E and N
Railway.

“Tt was proposed to give a
company (Canadian Pacific
Railway a large slice of the
Island with a cash grant of
$750,000 for building a railway
from Esquimalt to Nanaimo.
With the Hon T.B. Hum-
phreys as running mate he
opposed R.F’. John and George
Anderson, but as is the case

This apparently ended the
formal politeal career of John
Sluggett.

Before the church in
Brentwood that took the
family name was built, the
Sluggetts helped establish,
the Calvary Baptist Church in
Victoria and organized ser-
vices in the Brentwood
schoolhouse.

John was also active in
organizing and building the
Saanich Baptist Church at
Shady Creek.

It opened in 1898 with 14
members, half of them the
Sluggett family.

Fanny died in 1904, and John
followed her five years later.
They are buried in the Shady
Creek cemetary of the church
they helped establish.

| SLUGGETT FAMILY HOMESTEAD. This photograph was taken about the turn of the
century. The family home on West Saanich Road stood until the 1940’s.

(Aymstrong

SELF-ADHERING
AUTOCOLLANTES

SALE
4 Patterns
(12” x 12”)

Regular
49°.

SPECIAL

Several generations of | load the butter and eggs ina | system, accepting butter, cc:
Sluggett descendents met democrat buggy and take | eggs and hides in exchange for | there, later moving to an usually with Raiway Policies, WEATHER
recently to celebrate the them to town. goods. abandoned log cabin refur- | the Bull (to grant the company
Teaetlany of tee event, | Lirte made te trp wit) | Another move tok the | nshed and patched to keep| th reer and mene) 2s | cufbimatletcetrnc wer | Taneecation van | unum eng.) 1.
Oldest descendent there was | John during the years he lived | family to the Chesley area | them a little more com- | endorsed by the electorate and | ending July 27. ee The fsliawitg is the | Minimum ongrass 4,44C
Lorne Thomson, grandson of | with his grandparents. where they acquired a section | fortable the next winter until Messrs. John and Anderson | Maximum Temp. (July 26) 29 | meterological for the week ending | Rain Pee
| the Sluggetts, a resident of LONG DRIVE of land, and combined store- | the big frame homestead was | Were elected,’ reported peu Ee Ue (July 21) ants ily a7 urnishe’ by the Research ela a
Central Saanich. He knew the | “It was quite a drive. The | keeping with farming. built the following summer. | George Sluggett.

LOGS
SUMMER
SALE

l2.

PICK UP —

plunger” that allowed him to Memorial Baptist Church was YOUTH

acquire almost 1000 acres of | dedicated in 1911 to S

land stretching from Saanich | Memory of the pioneer couple. DISTURBANCE F R E S H B A K E D CA K E S

Inlet to the East Road. After many years as a DELIVERED — c

This was one farm short of
his ambition of owning land
stretching from one side of the
peninsula to the other.

“Whenever he saw a piece
of land that he thought was
going for a good price, he'd
mortgage everything to get
it,”’ said Lorne.

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Spe

the Sluggett |

Holiday

IN STORE

Baptist, she later switched her
allegiance toa sect called the
Millenium Dawn.

Fanny’s strictness is the
source of many stories. Willie
Pitzer tells- how—Grandma
Sluggett caught two of the
younger family members
playing checkers on a Sunday.
She snatched the board off the
| table, sending checkers in all
directions.

The family didn’t play cards
either-“‘the devil’s books”’,
Fanny called the.When she
learned that Lorne, then a
teenager, had been going to
dances, “she had me going
straight to Perdition’, he said.

STRICT RULES

Even with these strict rules,
the Sluggett home was a
gathering place for young
people once the chores were
finished each day.

The Sluggetts had an organ,
and everyone gathered round
to sing and tell stories.

With the help of ‘A Sketch of
the Life of John Sluggett”
written a number of years ago
by George Slugget, Lorne
traced some of the details of
the Sluggetts earliest years.

John and Fanny were
married in England in 1855
and moved to Canada shortly
thereafter.

The voyage to Canada took
eleven weeks in stormy seas.

Clals

THIS WEEKEND

e MEAT
eGROC

e PRODUCE

ERIES

WE DO FREEZER BEEF & PACKS
CUT TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS

AT DURRANCE LAKE

A police report in the

Sidney RCMP offices,
prepared by a local constable,
is simply headed: “Problems
Problems Problems.”

An anonymous woman
caller complained to police on
July 27 that a number of
youths and vehicles were
crowding
Durrance Lake to a point
where cars could not pass.

When she asked one of the
bodies to remove himself from
the roadway soshe could pass,

she was threatened with a

closed fist, the woman said.

The problem had cleared up —
by the time police arrived,

however, an RCMP
spokesman said, although
there were nearly 50 youths in
the area.

The ‘Problems’ headline on
the report, he said, was a
reference to several previous
complaints from the same

the road near *

lynn
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ou've gotan

idea that will make

jobs,then you've got
therightidea
about L.LP

The Federal Goyernments Local Initiatives
Program is all about ideas that help fight un-
employment Canada’s Local Initiatives Program
has been praised by both the US. and Great
Britain fa has been adopted for use in Australia

In short, itworks. To keep it working, we
need your help If you've gata creative, original
and innovative idea that will make jobs where
there were no jobs before, drop by your Local
Canada Manpower Centre and pick up a
L|P application form
Your L|P pragramhas up to $150,000 for
every approved municipal project and up to
$100.000 for other approved projects

Want to turn that vacant lot into a safe play-
ground for the kids? Or make your old town
hall look like new again? Tell us about it But doit
now. All applications must be in no later than
September 12, 1975. The ideas you have this sum-
mer could create a lot of jobs this winter And
that's thebest idea of all

There are a few things
you should know about
the rent increase limit.

THE RULES:

e Effective January 1, 1975, residential
rent increases are limited to 10.6% of
the rent presently being charged. This
rule applies to any dwelling containing
two or more rented units, and will be
administered by the Rent Review Com-
mission. The rule also applies to single
family dwellings.

e Tenants can legally refuse to pay any
rent increase over the 10.6% limit, sub-
ject to the exceptions specified in the
legislation. Tenants cannot be evicted
for non payment of illegal rent
increases.

e There must be at least a twelve
month interval between one rent
increase and the next, and tenants
must be given at least three months’
notice of any rent increase.

e Notice of Rent Increase forms, sup-
plied to landlords by the Rent Review
Commission, must be used. These are
the only valid forms for notice of any
residential rent increase.

Questions relating to landlord-ten-
ant matters other than rent increases
should be directed to the Office of the
Rentalsman, 525 Seymour Street, Van-
couver, B.C. V6B 3H7. Telephone: 689-
0811. Out of town, call collect.

SOME EXCEPTIONS:

e Half aduplex, when the owner livesin
the other half (or basement suite, when
the owner lives in the remainder of the
house) is exempt from the 10.6% limit.

e Certain major renovations may
entitle an owner to increase rents over
the 10.6% limit. These improvements
must have been started since May 3,
1974, and do not include normal
maintenance and repairs. Landlords
may consult the Rent Review Commis-
sion for details, particularly if planning
renovations which might justify rent
increases.

e Residential premises, except mobile
home pads, being rented for the first
time on or after January 1, 1974, are
exempt from the 10.6% rent increase
limit for a period of five years.

e Premises renting for more than $500
per month are exempt from the 10.6%
increase limit.

e Mobile home pad rent increases may
exceed 10.6%, but only if prior approval
is received from the Rent Review Com-
mission.

A brochure titled The Rent Increase
Limit and its Exceptions is available

upon request, from the Rent Review
Commission office, or from your near-
est Government Agent office.

Main-d’ceuvre
et Immigration

Robert Andras, ministre

Manpower
and Immigration
Robert Andras, Minister

If you have questions about residential rent
increases, contact the

Rent Review Commission
P.O. Box 9600,
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 4G4
Telephone: 689-9361

Out of town, call collect

STAN’S
FOOD CENTRE
‘2471 BEACON AVENUE — 656-1731

sending ideas
pe work.

Applications available now
See your Local Canada Manpower Centre

THE GOVERNMENT OF
HUE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Pant Be ao ae Oe Od ee 0 ed ee ee