Joseph Henry Hughes

Joseph Henry Hughes (April 14, 1857 – August 5, 1917)^[1] was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was the mayor of Brandon, Manitoba in 1914.

Born on 14 April 1857 at London, Ontario, a son of Joseph C. Hughes and Jane McAndless, brother of Anthony James Hughes and Thomas Alfred Martin Hughes. His father farmed in Middlesex County until 1903 then retired to Brandon. J. H. Hughes was educated at Middlesex County and the Toronto Normal School (1874). He taught school in 1875, then went into business as a general merchant at Iderton. He moved to Brandon in 1882, joining in partnership with T. H. Patrick of Souris in a lumber business, operating yards at Brandon and Souris. The partnership dissolved in 1886, and Hughes went on to establish mills at Rainy River, Ontario. He disposed of his mills in 1901 and established a wholesale and retail lumber business in Brandon on 10th Street, between Rosser and Princess Street. He also owned most of the property between 10th and 11th Streets, Rosser & Princess. He erected a brick block on 10th Street, as well as the Strathcona Block. He employed over 40 men to manufacture sash doors and builders' supplies.

In 1883, he married Anna Maria Hughes of Middlesex County (near Strathroy), daughter of Thomas Hughes of Metcalfe, Middlesex County. They had five children: Alma Hughes (b 1885), Maggie May Hughes (b 1887; attending Alma College, St. Thomas, Ontario, 1906), Percy Cooper Hughes (b 1889), Harley Moody Hughes (b 1892), and Ruth Alida Hughes (b 1894).

He died in Brandon on 5 August 1917.

Hughes is the great-grandfather of Aqua Books founder Kelly Hughes.

Footnotes

 This article incorporates text from A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People, by Prof. George Bryce, a publication from 1906 now in the public domain in the United States.