JACK"SLIM"ASHLEY | the-last-whistle

JACK "SLIM" ASHLEY

Jack Ashley's Invention

Jack died in 1978 in Surrey while living with his son Cecil. Jack was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Duncan. His family put a plaque in his name at the Forest Worker's Memorial Park in Lake Cowichan BC.

This is my favourite photo of my dad. It was actually taken at the Sidney Sawmill BC in 1924, shortly after he came out to the coast from Perdue near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was 21 years old at the time. The machine he is driving is called a Jitney. It was chain driven with hard rubber tires, and often the trailer or lumber cart had all steel tires. He told me he had to wear a wide leather kidney belt to protect his back from all the jarring. The Jitney's often had early Ford motors. Because dad was raised on a farm around machinery he quickly learned all there was to know about being a mechanic on these machines which held him in good stead when he went to work for Hillcrest.

In June 1935 he started work at Hillcrest as a Jitney driver but quickly went into the garage as a foreman mechanic, a job that he held for the next 30 years until he retired in 1965.

He was self trained as a mechanic and was always upgrading himself with new books and literature.

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Inflation with Safety by Will D. Jenkins

This article appeared in the British Columbia Lumber Manufacturer's Association Report in August 1948.

Since the advent of pneumatic tires there have been innumerable accidents, some even fatal, caused by rims of tires flying off when the tube was being inflated. The safe practice, of course, is to inflate the tire slowly and continually check the rim for danger signs, but, even with these precautions, accidents have been known to happen. A number of mechanics have developed several different devices to prevent injury to workmen should a rim fly off a tire.

One system in fairly general use is that of putting a chain or chains around the tire and rim before inflating. This practice is quite safe and commendable but the extra time involved eventually becomes a chore to the workmen who cannot take the time to do the job safely.

With the overcoming of these downfalls in mind we were favourable impressed with the device illustrated here which was built and used by Jack Ashley, head mechanic at Hillcrest Lumber Company, Mesachie Lake, BC.

The construction is 2 pieces of 1/4" plate, 40" by 42" with a hole 14" in diameter in the centre. The distance between the 2 pieces of plate is 12" to allow the largest tire sufficient room so it can be quickly rolled into place. 3 pieces of 1/4" x 2" plate hold the top in position, whereas the bottom is solid steel and bolted to the floor.

With such a device as this no extra time is required and the workman is quite safe if the rim of the tire should fly off.

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Jack "Slim" Ashley (on left) shown below in this photo with Paul Stone in the early 1940's. It was taken at Sahtlam Hillcrest and was probably the very first lumber carrier purchased by the company. This photo was sent to me by Al Stone and was discovered in Norman Stone's photo collection.

A.A. ASHLEY

BILL ASHLEY

Alpheus Armet Ashley (father of Jack Ashley) worked at Hillcrest ( Sahtlam) as a watchman in the early 1930's. Ruth Buckham, daughter of planer foreman Adam Dickson lived in Hillcrest in 1933 and can remember AA and his wife Maude living in a company house not far from the office. At left is a photo of AA Ashley standing on a log that is ready to go up a jackladder into the sawmill. This is one of two man made ponds made for storing and moving logs around. This photo was taken in approximately 1933. Three generations of the Ashley family worked for Hillcrest Lumber Company, with an accumulated seniority time of over fifty years. When Sahtlam moved to Mesachie Lake A.A. decided not to commute so he stayed in Duncan and worked as the gardener for Carlton Stone on his estate on Gibbins Rd. in Duncan

Bill started working at the Hillcrest Mill in 1953 when he was fifteen years old. He started clean up in the Swede mill and eventually worked up to loading the chip trucks from the chip bunkers. Bill left for awhile to go on the tug boats but returned shortly to commence working at the mill. Bill worked for a total of ten years at Hillcrest.

Bill also worked for Slegg brothers sawmill at the Cowichan Bay site where the old Doman's sawmill is located today. He drove lumber carrier and was the plant chairman for the IWA. Bill also worked for Doman's sawmill division in New Westminster operating boom boats. Bill was also IWA chairman at this plant. Bill passed away in Oct. 1990 while still working for Doman's.

Bill died in 1990 in Surrey. Bill was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Duncan. His family put a plaque in his name at the Forest Worker's Memorial Park in Lake Cowichan BC.

Here is an old newspaper photo of Bill talking with Fernie Viala 1st Vice-President of Local 1-80. This was during the 1970 contract negotiations with Slegg brothers.

In the 1950's Bill worked with Fernie Viala at the Hillcrest Sawmill.

CEC ASHLEY

I started working at Hillcrest in 1959 on the old timber sizer working with John Peters who was the head feeder. Also feeding was Git Badal. My job was to keep the lumber straight as it went into the planer. In the winter time when there was snow and ice frozen to the wood I had to bang the pieces through the planer. Shortly after I started at the mill I wrote for my Lumber Grading Certificate and the next year I wrote for my Industrial First Aid Certificate. When an opening came on the Woods 132BM Sticker (moulder) I went feeding it for a few years until an opening came on the big Stetson Ross which I fed for a few more years. I was training to set up the Stetson Ross at the time. At one point I went to work in the Sawmill running the pony saw for a short while. I left Hillcrest shortly before it closed to take a welding course and moved over to the mainland. I worked at Hillcrest for about seven years. I worked for Acorn Forest Products for 13 years as sawmill/planer mill foreman and headrig sawyer. I joined Stagg Timber in 1980 for the next 26 and a half years as a double cut band sawyer. I retired in June of 2006 after 47 years in the forest industry.

While working in the lumber industry I met some Japanese lumber buyers and I began selling lumber to them. I sold mainly to the Fuji area at the bottom of Mt. Fuji. There are many paper mills there that required lumber for pallets to load their paper products on. In 1993 I made a trip to Japan to tour various manufacturing plants and paper mills. I made many friends in Japan and they would come and stay at our home in Mission when we lived there. This continued for a number of years until the Japanese lumber market fell off and it is just starting to recover from it's former hay day. I retired in June of 2006 and moved to Gabriola Island where we built our retirement home.