What's in a Name? The MacLeods of Tofino.
by Adrienne Mason, Tofino
When I began this column, I used local place names on our streets, charts and maps as a starting point to explore local history. Over the years, however, I’ve kept an ever growing list of pioneer families with no such landmarks named in their honour. MacLeod was one of the first names on my list. The MacLeods were among the area’s early pioneers and many of their descendents still reside in Tofino yet, surprisingly, they have no permanent physical record in the area save MacLeod Court (451 Main St.), owned by Ann MacLeod, granddaughter of one of the original MacLeods. A beach on Vargas Island, sometimes referred to as Sand Dune Beach or Paradise Dunes, was called MacLeod Beach by Harold Monks Sr. and other early Vargas settlers, but to date there is no official landmark for this large family that has contributed so much to the area over the past century.The MacLeod family came from the Isle of Raasay, which lies between the Isle of Skye and the mainland of Scotland. The family of seven children had once lived on a part of the island with fertile soil and ample graze land, but the landowner wanted to make the island a game preserve so moved the family to the rocky, infertile north end of Raasay. “They lived in abject poverty,” says descendent Ronald MacLeod. And it became even harder when the patriarch, Iain, died at age 35. Still, Mrs. MacLeod took on four other children—orphaned relatives—to raise and the family did the best they could to support one another. For some, that meant leaving their home.
Ewen was the first of the family to come to the west coast. He left Scotland in 1903 and first stopped in the Ottawa area where he worked on a farm for a year. The farmer offered Ewen his daughter and some land if he would stay, but Ewen declined the offer and headed west instead. By January 1905, Ewen was in Victoria and signed onto the roster of the sealing schooner Carlotta G. Cox. En route to the Pribilof Islands off the Russian coast, the schooner called in at Clayoquot, as many schooners of the era did. According to family, Ewen was captivated by the area, and felt it was similar to Raasay. When the schooner called back at Clayoquot in the fall, Walter Dawley suggested Ewen apply for a job as a policeman, a position he had some experience with having served as a constable in Glasgow for a year and a half. Although Ewen hadn’t been enamoured with life as a policeman, it was employment in Clayoquot Sound, so he applied and was accepted.
While awaiting his official appointment, Ewen joined his older brother, Murdo, in Bamfield. Murdo had made his way to Canada in 1906. The brothers helped build a road to the cable station but before long Ewen was settling into a small cabin at Clayoquot, with office and jailhouse attached. In Settling Clayoquot, nephew Ian remembers his uncle Ewen as a very powerful man who excelled at sports, especially feats of strength. He recalled, “[Ewen] could jump 22 feet, 11 inches and he could stand with his two hands in his pockets and jump on a chair.” Ewen met an American girl, Mabel, who was visiting family friends at the Mosquito Harbour sawmill on Meares Island. They were married in 1910.
Murdo eventually came to Clayoquot Sound as well, where the brothers were joined by their cousin Jack in 1910 and their younger brother, Alex in 1911. Jack had been raised with the MacLeod brothers and their siblings on Raasay after his parents died and Jack was taken in by Mrs. MacLeod. Jack left Raasay as a young man, only 13 or 14 years of age. For years he worked on tea clippers and ships bound for Australia, before joining his cousins in Canada. (Another MacLeod, John, also arrived in Clayoquot Sound about this time. John was not related to the MacLeod brothers or Jack, but they had known one another in Scotland. John came from the Isle of Fladda, which was connected during low tide to Raasay. John’s sister, Julia, would eventually marry Murdo.)
Canada provided the MacLeods with employment opportunities their homeland could not. Soon after they arrived, Jack began working at the new lifeboat station, where he served for decades. Jack married Jenny Grice, daughter of another pioneering family, in 1915. Their marriage was the second in St. Columba Church. Alex was employed by the Dominion Hatchery at Kennedy Lake for 16 months before returning to Scotland in 1913 to marry his sweetheart Catherine MacLennan. (The couple would return in 1925.) Murdo took odd jobs for his first few years here, which included working at Mosquito Harbour mill and a stint as a road foreman. Ewen and Mabel eventually moved to the interior so Ewen could take a position as Indian Agent in the Lytton area.
Alex, John and Murdo joined up for service in the First World War. Alex, then in Scotland, worked on a munitions ship and also worked as a guard on Raasay, where German prisoners were held. Sadly, John was killed in Mesopotamia. Murdo was badly wounded twice, at Courcellette and the Battle of the Somme. While recuperating in Yorkshire, Murdo had a surprise when he met two people from Tofino, Lillian and Noel Garrard. Lillian was a nurse, and Noel (who had also joined up) had called to visit his sister. Murdo wrote to the Garrards’ father, Frank: “…what a surprise I got when I met Lilly, didn’t know she was over on this side of the water, was awful glad to meet them. Noel stayed on one night and we compared notes on various subjects, you may be sure, some of them very thrilling at least it seems that way now as we have time to reflect over the past couple of years.”
Murdo also spent time convalescing in Glasgow, where a visiting cousin encouraged him to correspond with Julia MacLeod (John MacLeod’s sister), who was then working as a nanny in Australia. His letters must have made an impact: Julia and Murdo were married in Victoria July 15, 1919. Murdo soon began working as a fisheries officer and the couple raised two sons, both of whom also worked in fisheries: Ian Charles was a fisherman (“and an incredible piper, too” recalls his brother Ronald), and Ronald became Director General of Pacific and Fresh Water Fisheries. He also started the Salmonid Enhancement Program.
Alex and Catherine returned to Canada in 1925 with five children in tow: Ian (8), Murdo (6), twins Donald and Norman (3), and Mary (1H). Catherine was also about six months pregnant. The MacLeods landed in Montreal and then made the difficult journey by train across the country, during a hot summer. Daughter Islay, recalls her mother telling her that by the time they hit the prairies, she’d had enough. “Mother just wanted to go back home,” she said. “It took her years to get over it. She told me she used to cry every time the Maquinna went south.” Margaret was born soon after they settled in Tofino, and Islay followed in 1927. The family settled near the water, close to where the Naachaks Adventure Centre sits today. A boardwalk connected their home and others along the water’s edge to the Lifeboat Station. As with other pioneer women, Catherine’s life was one of heavy labour. “She never, ever stopped working,” recalled Islay.
Alex began to work for the Department of Transport at the lifeboat station in 1925, first as a leading seaman, and then as coxswain, a position he held for 21 years.
Alex left detailed notes of his crew’s activities over the years, including entries such as this one from 1927:
Distress call, 13; hospital trips, 4; attending to lighthouse, 69 times; attending to navigation lights, 40 times; sailing practice, 3 times; trial runs, 13; logging and cutting firewood for station, 16 times; miscellaneous, 11. Miles run, 2,621; hours at sea, 438.35 minutes.
At the end of his career Alex was awarded the Imperial Service medal in honour of his years of loyal service.
Alex’s daughter, Mary Hardy, remembers her parents and relatives laughing and joking in Gaelic when they got together. “When we asked what was so funny, they would say that it’s never as funny in English.” The children were taught English and were not encouraged to speak Gaelic. The family was proud of its roots, but also ready to embrace and contribute to life in Canada. Ronald MacLeod thinks that his family’s experiences in Scotland affected how they related to the native people in Clayoquot Sound. “My father had great respect for native people,” said Ronald. “He saw that native people here were subject to similar conditions as the MacLeods had been in Scotland. Our family had been isolated in terms of language and displaced from land, too. He sympathized with them and respected them and demanded the same of his children.”
Today, the MacLeods and their descendents are remembered for many things – their service with the lifeboat station (and subsequent Coast Guard), their fishing and boating skills, their athletic ability (particularly Murdo Jr., who had a black belt in judo and taught this skill to many young children), their military service in both world wars, and, like so many pioneering women and men, their perseverance and determination to make Canada and Tofino home.
Adrienne Mason is a Tofino writer. You can reach her at amason@seaviewcable.net.
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