James C. Kavanagh cashed in when Canadian National Railway took over most of his holdings in Langley Township, but two bits of property were left over, which might be worth something to his heirs now.
Author of the article: Derrick Penner
Publishing date: Sep 16, 2021 •
TMX Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project construction in May 2021 in the Fraser Valley near Popkum, B.C.
PHOTO BY TRANS MOUNTAIN CORPORATION /PNG
Pipeline builder Trans Mountain knows it isn’t going to find James C. Kavanagh. The financier and former hotelier died a century ago. But the company hopes his descendants will respond to a public notice the company published this week.
That is because the heirs still hold an interest in two odd slivers of land in the Township of Langley that Kavanagh bought in 1911 and which Trans Mountain wants to use for the right-of-way of its $12.6 billion expansion project.
Hence the publication of a four-page public notice in several newspapers, including The Vancouver Sun on Sept. 16, which lists Kavanagh as the registered owner and telling heirs that they have 10 days to file an objection.
If the energy regulator grants the right of way, the notice says Trans Mountain will pay $378,000 as a down payment for compensation for the inconvenience.
The notice was published as protests over the controversial project continue on Burnaby Mountain
Pipeline builder Trans Mountain knows it isn’t going to find James C. Kavanagh. The financier and former hotelier died a century ago. But the company hopes his descendants will respond to a public notice the company published this week.
That is because the heirs still hold an interest in two odd slivers of land in the Township of Langley that Kavanagh bought in 1911 and which Trans Mountain wants to use for the right-of-way of its $12.6 billion expansion project.
Hence the publication of a four-page public notice in several newspapers, including The Vancouver Sun on Sept. 16, which lists Kavanagh as the registered owner and telling heirs that they have 10 days to file an objection.
If the energy regulator grants the right of way, the notice says Trans Mountain will pay $378,000 as a down payment for compensation for the inconvenience.
The notice was published as protests over the controversial project continue on Burnaby Mountain
.
J. C. Kavanagh, Brandon’s first postmaster, detail, from Martin Kavanagh, The Assiniboine Basin: A Social Study of Discovery, Exploration and Settlement; November 2007.
PHOTO BY MARTIN KAVANAGH THE ASSINIBOINE /PNG
To date, Trans Mountain’s efforts, according to filings with the Canadian Energy Regulator’s predecessor, sent the company on an extensive search of land title documents, known wills and public registries in B.C. and California.
Trans Mountain did determine that Kavanagh died in 1922 in Los Angeles, leaving the balance of his estate to his wife, Helen (Nellie) Irene Kavanagh, but “has been unable to identify who the current executor or beneficial owner of the property is,” according to its 2017 filing to what was then known as the National Energy Board.
That document did say, however, that a genealogical consultant did identify his closest living kin, two now elderly granddaughters with one living in La Jolla, California, the other in Norwalk, Connecticut.
It is a quirky legacy that Kavanagh, who made a name for himself as a hotelier in Winnipeg, might not have known he left. Most of the property he owned was taken up by Canadian National Railway’s initial construction.
Two slivers on either side of that right of way remained, however, and Kavanagh, who was known to be living in Vancouver as of 1911, moved his family to California by 1915.
Kavanagh was born in Niagara Falls around 1850. By the early 1880s he had moved west, first coming to attention as Brandon, Manitoba’s first postmaster in 1881 and then alderman on Brandon municipal council in 1884, according to the report by genealogist Brian Hutchinson.
He was dismissed as Brandon postmaster in 1900 for “allegedly ‘offensive partisanship,'” according to the report, and moved to Winnipeg around 1902 to become proprietor of the Leland Hotel, which he sold by 1904.
By 1910, Kavanagh was living in Vancouver, where he was listed as having lived first on Chilco Street, then the Grosvenor Hotel on Howe Street, according to Hutchinson’s report. But he and his wife wintered in California where they settled by 1915.
To date, Trans Mountain’s efforts, according to filings with the Canadian Energy Regulator’s predecessor, sent the company on an extensive search of land title documents, known wills and public registries in B.C. and California.
Trans Mountain did determine that Kavanagh died in 1922 in Los Angeles, leaving the balance of his estate to his wife, Helen (Nellie) Irene Kavanagh, but “has been unable to identify who the current executor or beneficial owner of the property is,” according to its 2017 filing to what was then known as the National Energy Board.
That document did say, however, that a genealogical consultant did identify his closest living kin, two now elderly granddaughters with one living in La Jolla, California, the other in Norwalk, Connecticut.
It is a quirky legacy that Kavanagh, who made a name for himself as a hotelier in Winnipeg, might not have known he left. Most of the property he owned was taken up by Canadian National Railway’s initial construction.
Two slivers on either side of that right of way remained, however, and Kavanagh, who was known to be living in Vancouver as of 1911, moved his family to California by 1915.
Kavanagh was born in Niagara Falls around 1850. By the early 1880s he had moved west, first coming to attention as Brandon, Manitoba’s first postmaster in 1881 and then alderman on Brandon municipal council in 1884, according to the report by genealogist Brian Hutchinson.
He was dismissed as Brandon postmaster in 1900 for “allegedly ‘offensive partisanship,'” according to the report, and moved to Winnipeg around 1902 to become proprietor of the Leland Hotel, which he sold by 1904.
By 1910, Kavanagh was living in Vancouver, where he was listed as having lived first on Chilco Street, then the Grosvenor Hotel on Howe Street, according to Hutchinson’s report. But he and his wife wintered in California where they settled by 1915.
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