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Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History (CBIRH)
0050
James Ryan Interview
Found 1

James Ryan Interview

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0050.0001: Cockwell's Furniture

Newspaper article continually expanding furniture store keeps pace with needs of public.

0050.0966
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0050.0967: R.E. Beattie Interview

Cranbrooks first and present postmaster and owner of Beattie & Atcheson drug store.

PROMINENT CITIZENS – One of the best known men in Cranbrook today, a pioneer of the town is James Ryan, for several years proprietor of the Cranbrook hotel.  Mr. Ryan was born in Kings county, New Brunswick, the birth place of many good Canadians who have helped to build up the west, in the year of 1847.  Like many boys reared as he was reared, he went to school, worked on the farm and made himself generally useful until he was twenty years of age, then he entered the employ of the European and North American railway, now the Intercolonial, as station agent at Apohaqui.  For five years he remained in the railway service and then quit, for the reason that there were too many bosses, so the friends of Mr. Ryan in Cranbrook can see that the characteristic that marked him as a young man has remained with him through life.  For a few years he clerked in stores in different towns in the east, and then thought that he would follow the advice of Horace Greely and go west, which he did, arriving in Calgary in 1887.  He stayed there three years and then returned east, remaining most of the time in Boston.  In 1893 he returned to Calgary and took the management of the Royal hotel for Mrs. Clark, now proprietress of the Queens hotel at Nelson.  After a year of that he went to West Kootenay and was in the feed business at New Denver with Frieze & Co., but in 1895 he returned to Calgary and again took charge of the Royal hotel that had become the property of James Reilly.  After two years he concluded to come to East Kootenay that was just getting the first taste of its boom, and located in Fort Steele and took charge of the meat market for M. McInnes.  That was in the spring of 1897, and on December 3rd of that year he came to Cranbrook and took charge of the hotel that had been built by the townsite company.  The hotel was about the only building on the flat at that time and most of Mr. Ryan’s friends said that he was crazy to come to a place like this for business in the hotel line.  At the first Mr. Ryan was associated with Angus Morrison in the hotel, but later bought out his partner’s interest and up to a year ago had charge of the hotel.  Every traveling man from Montreal to Vancouver knows “Uncle Jim” and his twelve o’clock rule is talked of to this day from one end of the country to the other, for it was well known that the house closed at 12 o’clock at night, no matter how much money was being taken in or how many people might be talking in the office.  And the man who came around after that hour to get in generally found it easier to look for a bed somewhere else.  At present Mr. Ryan is not engaged in any active business.  He holds substantial interests in the East Kootenay Lumber company, the Standard Lumber company, the Cranbrook Brewery, the Water Works company and several other smaller institutions.  He takes life easy, has a comfortable home and enjoys his friends, who wish for him many more years of happiness and prosperity.
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Title: James Ryan Interview
Internal ID: 0050.0966
Medium: Newspaper
Date: June 29th 1905
Collection: 0050
City: Cranbrook, BC
People: Clark, McInnes, Ryan, James, Morrison
Publisher: Cranbrook Herald
Pages: 2
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Description:
Newspaper interview with one of the best known men in Cranbrook, a pioneer of the town and for several years proprietor of Cranbrook Hotel.
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Explore this collection:
More From 0050
0050.0001
Cockwell's Furniture
0050.0002
Cranbrook Cartage Ad
0050.0003
First Election Results
0050.0004
Haddad & Gartside Ad
0050.0005
Kootenay Auto Supply
0050.0006
Laurie Signs Ad
0050.0007
Mountain Gas Ad
0050.0008
Scenic Photo Studios Ad
0050.0009
Shell Canada Ad
0050.0010
Silver Ridge
0050.0011
Moir Park & Horsemen
0050.0012
Post Office Building

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