What's in a Name? Sloman Island

by Adrienne Mason, Tofino

A young girl clutches her father's hand on the porch of their family store and fur trading post. She looks out at the young schoolmaster, Bert Drader, as he records a moment in Tofino history. A lifetime later, on April 5, 2007, this same person-- Lillian--celebrates her 101st birthday in Campbell River.

Lillian's parents, James and Clara Sloman, came from the Somerset area of England. The young couple made the journey to North America in the late 1880s, after James finished his service with the British army and navy. They moved from place to place on the continent. Their son Raymond was born in 1897 in Bute, Montana and by 1900 they had settled on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

At first, the Sloman family lived at Nootka Sound, where they operated the first trading post at Friendly Cove. James was employed by Walter Dawley, who owned the trading posts at Clayoquot and Ahousaht as well. These trading posts were the backbone of the flourishing maritime fur trade on the coast. Sealing ships would sell their pelts at the trading posts and stock up with supplies. Traders often served as a link between the local native people and the sealing ships they crewed aboard. In one letter, presumably to the captain of a sealing schooner, James offers $15 - 22 per fur seal pelt, and warns him "...do not shoot any [seals] as it is against the law and if the policeman that lives at Dawley's should find them shot, he would probably seize them." (Native people were permitted to harpoon the seals.)

When Clara became pregnant with daughter Lillian in 1905, she travelled to Victoria for the birth. The family didn't return to Nootka Sound, and instead moved to Clayoquot where James helped run the trading post there.

James was a bright, adventurous man, and his grandson, Russell Motion, remembers that his grandfather always "dressed like a businessman." It was no surprise then that Sloman wanted to be his own boss. In 1907, in a move that no doubt angered Walter Dawley who was incensed by any competition, Sloman purchased a store and fur trading post in Tofino. (The store was originally opened in 1901 by miner Sing Li.) Native people would pull up on the shore in front of the store to trade with James, and settlers in the area would travel in for supplies. Sloman's store was located on what is now Grice Road, near the present location of the Tibbs Building.

As in any small community, the store was an important gathering place. A wharf was built near Sloman's store in 1908 and soon ships bringing supplies, mail, visitors, and new settlers would pull in near the store, the hub of the growing community.

Son Harold attended the local school and when he was just 17, joined the army and served during the First World War. Lillian did not go to school in Tofino, but moved with her parents to Victoria where she attended St. Ann's Academy.

After the war Harold made his way back to Tofino where he began to fish commercially. In Victoria in 1923 Harold married a classmate from Tofino, Alma Arnet, daughter of one of Tofino's first settlers, Jacob Arnet. The couple moved to Courtenay, where they started the first bus service between Nanaimo and Courtenay. After three years with that business they moved to Victoria to run a gas station. Soon, though, the couple was enticed back to the coast when Alma's father promised them a piece of property if they came home. It was an easy decision for the Slomans, who missed the west coast.

Harold took a position as skipper of the Coast Guard lifeboat, which he held under his retirement. He also had a troller. The couple raised two children, Raymond and Marjorie, and were active members of the growing community. Harold was one of the first people in Tofino to have a car. Grandson Jamie Sloman remembers standing in the back seat of the big white car as his grandfather drove him the Lone Cone Cafe (where the Schooner is now) for ice cream. Lillian had tea every afternoon, at their home at the corner of Main and Second and Jamie and his brothers, Doug and Harold Jr., were frequent visitors at tea time. Jamie recalls that his grandpa also could forsee the real estate potential of Tofino. "I remember hearing him tell my parents to buy property here. Grandpa said that one day this place will boom. Was he ever right."

Lillian also remained on the island and met and married Gordon Motion in Port Alberni. They raised two children, Yvonne and Russell. The Motions would often visit Tofino in the summer, travelling up by fish boat or by speed boat from Port Alberni. Cars also figure in their memories and Yvonne can still remember when her cousin Raymond got his car stuck in the sand at Long Beach.

Almost all of James and Clara Sloman's descendents still live on Vancouver Island. To date their connection to the coast is linked by five generations of Slomans: two children, four grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, 23 great-great grandchildren and 7 great-great-great-grandchildren. As well, the family has been given a permanent spot by the Canadian Hydrographic Service: Sloman Island at the entrance of Lemmen's Inlet.

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Adrienne Mason is a Tofino writer. You can reach her at amason@seaviewcable.net