William Towner

BCA A-01954

    William Towner is considered Vancouver Island's pioneer hop grower. 

    Born in London, he moved to Ontario as a boy and worked in the hop fields.  From Ontario, Towner moved to California and eventually to North Saanich on Vancouver Island.  In the 1870's, he and a business partner, Isaac Cloake bought 318 acres of land at the foot of Mt. Forsaken; they planted four acres of hops which quickly grew to 15 acres. 

    Towner was a knowledgeable but traditional hop farmer.  His business methods are hinted at in an interesting story in the Daily Colonist in October 1928.  It is mentioned that in an aphid outbreak in 1896, Towner was the only hop farmer who knew the effective spray for the pests.  He kept the remedy a secret from other farmers, leading a couple of them to go down to Washington to learn what the farmers were doing there.  On their visit, the men learned new, innovative methods of hop farming and they brought back new equipment and ideas that ended up cutting their labour expenses in half.  It seems that Towner's secrecy did not serve him as well as he anticipated (Daily Colonist, Oct 7, 1928).