McIlmoyl, James Thomas
James Thomos McIlmoyl, grand recorder of the Ancient Order of United Workmen of British Columbia, is a resident of more than forty years' standing in this province and for many years has been prominently identified with the agricultural, business and public affairs of his community and province. He has had a varied experience, in the latter part almost uniformly successful; from his early years of mining he turned to farming and stock raising, which he followed for many years with prosperous results, and in addition to the many duties laid upon him by his private business he has devoted much of his time to fraternal and political work, and is well known throughout the province in these connections.
Mr. McIlmoyl arrived in Victoria in May, 1862, when he was a young man of about twenty-two years. He was born in Ontario, Canada, August 24, 1840, and his lineage goes back in old Scotland for three hundred years, the family seat having for many generations been located in the vicinity of Edinburgh. His grandfather McIlmoyl was born in Liverpool, England, and emigrated to this side of the Atlantic while the colonies still adhered to the king, and for this reason left the colonies and moved to Upper Canada, where he obtained lands from the government. His son, James Disert McIlmoyl, was born in Ontario. He followed farming and lumbering. He was a Presbyterian and his good wife a Methodist. They both attained advanced age, he passing away when eighty-two and she in the same year and aged seventy-six. They were the parents of nine children, of whom three daughters and the son, James Thomas, survive.
Mr. McIlmoyl is the only member of the family in British Columbia. He was educated in the public schools of Ontario, and afterward served and apprenticeship in a general store. After he came out to Victoria in 1862 his first destination was the Cariboo mining district, and for the following five years he prospected and mined in that region before he became fully satisfied that mining was not his forte and that he could make a surer livelihood in some other way. He then returned to Victoria, and in 1870 purchased the farm of one hundred and fifty acres which he still owns. He improved this property, and was a successful grain and stock farmer hereon for many years. In 1897 he leased the farm to his son, and since then has been retired from the more strenuous occupations of life.
He had not been long in this province before he became interested in public affairs. He was elected and served for four years as the representative of the eighth district of Victoria in the provincial legislature, his district including his own home. He was also a prominent official of the agricultural association for sixteen years, and was secretary of his school district during the entire period of his residence in the country. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1873, and this appointment has never since been revoked. In 1883 Mr. McIlmoyl became a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, in the ranks of which order he has faithfully worked ever since. He has almost constantly held some of the offices of the order, and has passed through all the chairs. He was elected master workman of his lodge at the meeting by which it was organized. He has been through all the chairs of the grand lodge of the province, and has been a representative to ten sessions of the supreme grand lodge. In 1895 he was elected grand recorder, the office which he is still filling to the fullest satisfaction of the entire order in this province.
In 1870 Mr. McIlmoyl was happily married to Miss Ann Simpson. She was born in Esquimalt, being a daughter of Mr. Henry Simpson, an honoured pioneer to the northwest coast, having arrived in 1852. Mr. and Mrs. McIlmoyl had eleven children, all born at the home place near Victoria. The eldest, James H., is now running the farm; Nellie, now Mrs. Charles Post, resides in Victoria; Charles W. and Walter are also farmers; Frank, who was an upholsterer, died at the age of twenty-five; George A. is a bookkeeper, and Frederick is in the upholstering business. The following are at home with their father: Ernie A., Alma Beatrice, and Bertram and Robert, twins.
In 1895 Mr. McIlmoyl suffered a sad bereavement in the death of his wife, who had been his devoted companion for a quarter of a century, and both family and community felt a deep personal loss in her taking away. Mr. McIlmoyl holds firmly to the faith of the Presbyterian church.
R. E. Gosnell, A History of British Columbia, (Vancouver, B. C.: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906). pp. 348-350.