“J. T. Oakley, mixed farming,” is mentioned in the 1918 Wrigley’s Directory under McBride. John Tom Oakley was one of the first homesteaders in the valley. With his wife, son and daughter, they lived on a farm 3 km east of McBride. He was the first to use power machines, and broke his land with a steam engine. A 1936 newspaper report states that “flooding of the Fraser obliterated Horseshoe Lake and flooded Oakley Island. A hay stack and a granary building at Oakley’s floated away.”

His son Harold was president of the McBride Farmers’ Institute in 1935. A history of the Institute published in the Robson Calley Courier, January 26, 1977, recognized John Oakley among the “Many faithful workers [who] have worked for the things that the organization has done for the valley.”