John Sullivan Deas
John Sullivan Deas was born in South Carolina
around the year 1838. Early in his teens, he advertised himself as a tinsmith in
Charleston's directory. In 1860, he moved to California, where he had relatives.
In San Francisco he plied the same business, working part of the time for Martin
Sprag, a dealer in stoves and tinware. Sprag also owned an establishment in
Victoria, where eventually Deas moved and fell in love. In September, 1862, he
married Fanny Harris of Hamilton, Ontario, in a ceremony performed by the Rev.
Edward Cridge. Deas was soon in business for himself, stretching his efforts
from Victoria to Yale, his hardware and stove business based at the comer of
Fort and Broad Streets in Victoria.
In the meantime, the Fraser River excitement was fading. The "bumptious" Captain Edward Stamp, a man of free enterprise, left the sawmills on the Burrard Inlet to pioneer the salmon-canning industry, on pioneer land, in pioneer waters, with pioneer optimism. At that time, cans were made virtually by hand, and it was an art. Sump approached Deas with a view to using his tinsmithing skills in the business. The first season was encouraging, and following the practice of the rime, Stamp traveled to London to raise financing for a large-scale canning enterprise. Unfortunately, he died before returning with the money.
Deas took over the business as his own, with the same pioneer optimism. In Stamp's original venture, the company of Findlay, Durham and Brodie, merchants in Victoria, was supposedly the shipping agent for England, and also supplied, it seems, some of the financing. Deas made a deal with the company in which he became the sole owner and operator of the business, but Findlay, Durham and Brodie gave him what amounted to a mortgage, a guarantee that they would remain the exclusive distributor of the canned salmon, in the only market existing for such a product – England.
Business was good. In the next year, in April of 1873, Deas felt the need to expand and improve and took over the sixty acres of empty island near to his plant at Cooperville. Among other facilities, the island offered deep-sea berths, and before the end of the 1874 season. a complex of buildings was well in place: the two-storey cannery, the associated warehouse, dwellings, bunkhouse, smaller buildings and a substantial wharf. By the end of the 1874 season it was known as Deas Island.
Of course, Deas and his financial backers were not alone in seeing the prospects of such an industry Following Captain Stamp was the association of Messrs. Loggie, Ewen, Wise and Hennesy. For a few years Loggie and Co. was the only competition. In 1874, Deas became worried about excessive catches and allocation of fishing areas. By 1877, he was still ahead of his competitors, hut the competition for the fish was fierce and his plant needed to be modernized. Moreover, the long practice of the craft of tinsmithing had ruined his health. He bought a rooming house for his wife and children in Portland, Oregon, and the following year sold everything, as the industry was marred by disputes among all the parties concerned. When his family moved to Oregon he stayed another year on the Fraser, to ensure an orderly termination of his business, and then joined his family.
On July 22, 1880, John Sullivan Deas died in his new home in Portland at the age of 42, leaving a widow and seven children.
The pioneer, John Sullivan Deas, suffered seven years to create an industry where, ten years before his retirement, any such venture would have been considered pure lunacy. During his lifetime he was well-known and popular with his colleagues and employees. He never did become very rich, though was considered well-off in Victoria and New Westminster. John Deas was the first to champion the unpopular cause of preserving and regulating the salmon and through his efforts did not fall into oblivion, but left his name on Deas Island, Deas Slough and the now re-named Dias Tunnel.