Huston, Nenian/Ninian/Neanin “Neil” “Nen”

Nenian “Neil” Huston was born on March 26, 1870 near the community of Pine River, in Huron Township, Bruce County, Ontario. Nenian Huston never married. He died January 24, 1945 in Princeton, BC.

He was the son of William Huston and Agnes (Moore) Huston. Agnes died giving birth to her son, Nenian. The Huston family settled in the Bruce region in 1852. 

According to the 1891 Canadian Census, Nenian Huston was in New Westminster in 1891, working as a labourer. By 1898, he was farming at Port Guichon (near Ladner’s Landing), BC. 

The Similkameen Star reported that he was in Hedley in April 1903, renovating “his block” into a hotel, to be known as the Commercial Hotel. His business partner was W.A. McLean. His name doesn’t appear in the “Hedley City” section of the 1902 Henderson’s BC Gazetteer and Directory but does in the 1903 directory as “Huston, Neil, news stand.” It seems the hotel business didn’t suit him and he sold his interest in the Commercial Hotel to McLean in August 1903.

He appears to have left Hedley and moved to Kamloops – the Similkameen Star reported that he had travelled to Princeton in April 1905 to see what business opportunities might be available prior to the arrival of the railroad.

He took over Hunter’s Feed and Livery from Thomas Hunter in Princeton in January 1907. Not long after, he was joined by his half-brother, John Leonard “Len” Huston, who arrived from Vancouver in February 1907.

The brothers became members of the Princeton Board of Trade in March 1907 and they formed a partnership in the livery business – The Princeton Livery and Feed Stables – that same month. The livery barn was on Angela Avenue to the west of Bridge Street and would have been centrally located near the Princeton Hotel and Tulameen Hotel, etc. Convenient for travelling passengers.

Neil and Len dissolved their partnership on September 3, 1910. Neil Huston sold the business in July 1915 and by that time had expanded into draying, coal and wood delivery.

 After he sold the livery business, he lived on his ranch at Summers Creek. He sold a horse to R.F. Bevan, the government purchasing agent for the front in June 1915 and made a good profit. Shortly thereafter, he began selling horses in Alberta (November 1915) buying and shipping horses to Saskatchewan (March 1916). With many young men enlisting, there was a labour shortage and in July 1916, a recruit from Vernon, Walter Maloney, was sent to help harvest his hay crop. 

He not only bought and sold horses, he also dealt in cattle. In September 1917, he shipped cattle to Vancouver to the Vancouver-Prince Rupert Meat Company. And in July 1918, shipped three carloads of cattle to Swift & Company in Vancouver.

He was installed as the Vice-Grand in the Princeton Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) No. 52 in January 1908 and he donated 541.65 toward the first payment on the land where the IOOF hall would be built in November 1913. He was “Nobel Grand” in August 1908. 

He also an executive member of the Princeton Liberal Association (1915) and he donated to the Hospital Fund (1910) and donated a large turkey in July 1918. In 1913, he was on the finance and race committees of the Dominion Day celebrations. Huston provided free transportation to and from an Anglican Church fund-raiser in Coalmont (1915). He was appointed secretary of the Princeton District Farmer’s Institute (taking over from J. Nathan) in June 1919. He also donated $5.00 to the Blakeburn Relief Fund in September 1930.

He spent some time prospecting (August 1914, August 20, 1915 to September 10, 1915), and he enjoyed hunting (ducks, geese, pheasant) and fishing. 

Huston purchased George Goldsborough’s place in September 1919 – 600 acres on Darcy Mountain. Six years later, in 1925, he was working with Ivan Paulson to put in a wagon road from the railway to the Tulameen Valley Coal Mine. 

He described himself as a carpenter in the 1931 Census of Canada. He was reported to have been in charge of the renovation and conversion work (1935) on the Commercial Hotel in Hedley (which was purchased by Kwong Chong Wing from R.E. Baxter). His obituary noted that he was working at Copper Mountain Mine before his death in 1945. 

He operated a piggery at Copper Mountain for Granby Co. [date?]

Neil Huston also freighted up to Copper Mountain. See photo here