Miller.
Born at Banffshire, Scotland on 27 July 1854, son of David Innes and Janes Macgregor, he went to Glasgow at the age of 13 years where he learned the milling trade. He continued this business until July 1878 when he emigrated to Canada where he worked as a miller.
In the summer of 1897 he moved to Hartney and purchased a mill which he operated until 1903 when he organized the James Innes Milling Company, a joint stock company with himself as President and General Manager. With a staff of ten men, the mill produced 200 barrels of high-quality flour daily. In September 1907, the firm’s mill and its associated grain elevator were seized by the Union Bank of Canada when Innes was unable to pay off grain loans. In May 1908, a group of local farmers formed the Hartney Flour Milling Company in hopes of buying the mill from the bank to keep it operating. The bank refused their offer. In 1912, Innes moved to Brandon and later to Broadview, Saskatchewan. In time, the bank sold the milling machinery and demolished the mill and elevator buildings.
On 6 December 1887, he married Catherine Jane Creighton (1862-1949) at Oxford, Ontario. They had a son, David Alexander “Alex” Innes (1888-?). He was a member of the AF & AM (Hartney Lodge No. 52) and IOOF (Corinthian Chapter No. 101 of Boissevain).
He died at Broadview, Saskatchewan on 21 May 1935 and was buried in the Brandon Cemetery.
See also:
TimeLinks: Mill and Elevators, Hartney
Ontario marriage registration, Ancestry.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.
The Mere Living: A Biography of the Hartney District by Hazel McDonald Parkinson, 1957, pages 167-168.
Grave transcriptions, Brandon Municipal Cemetery.
We thank John Everitt for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 August 2023
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