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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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FOLEY, THOMAS (1868-1913)

FOLEY, THOMAS, hotel owner, businessman, and sportsman; b. Pokeshaw, Gloucester Co., N.B., 4 Dec 1868, s/o Patrick J. Foley and Ann Barry; m. Julia Fitzgerald, sister of Thomas J. Fitzgerald; d. Chatham, 8 Jan 1913.

Thomas Foley's mother, Ann Barry, was a sister of Bishop Thomas F. Barry of Chatham. His father, Patrick J. Foley, was the postmaster and collector of customs at Pokeshaw.

Foley operated the Prospect Place Hotel at Burnt Church until 1899 and then took over the Commercial Hotel in Newcastle. In March 1904 it was stated that he would be demolishing the Forbes house, a landmark in Newcastle, to make room for the erection of a large new hotel. The structure which rose on the site that year was the Hotel Miramichi, one of the most luxurious and up-to-date hotels in the province. Unlike most of its predecessors it had a central hot water heating system and private baths in a number of its guest rooms, which were attractively furnished with "elm and mahogany pieces of the Isabella period." There was a good livery stable behind for those driving horses, while guests travelling by train or boat were shuttled back and forth at no charge in a hansom cab. Thomas Gorman, formerly of the Hotel Brunswick in Moncton, was the first manager.

On opening day, 3 January 1905, while an admiring throng from Newcastle, Chatham, and surroundings roamed the corridors of the hotel, an orchestra under James Copeland, the bandmaster of the Newcastle Orange Band, played "sweet airs," and a "bang-up" dinner, "the most elaborate...ever served on the North Shore," was consumed by more than 200 guests. The Union Advocate called the affair "a magnificent tribute to a magnificent man."

For the next few years Foley played the part of the rich man to the hilt. He had boxes of choice cigars made up with his own monogram to pass out to special guests, and he bought the latest cars, a steam-powered yacht, and a trotting stallion named "Buz Fuz." In 1907 he had a wing added to the hotel, but he was restless for change, and other business possibilities soon captured his interest. In 1908 he leased the hotel on a five-year contract to James P. Whalen.

In the summer of 1908 Foley introduced the first bus service on the Miramichi when he bought "a large touring car with a canopy to run for the public between Newcastle and Chatham," and in a departure from his earlier enterprises he signed a contract to supply stone for the construction of the bishop's residence in Chatham. The previous year, he and Adam Hill of South Esk had bought the Allison stone quarry on the Northwest Miramichi and formed the Maritime Stone Co.

In 1912, after failing to negotiate an end to James P. Whalen's lease of the Hotel Miramichi, Foley became the proprietor of the Commercial Hotel for a second time. In July 1912 he was seriously injured when his automobile was in collision with a streetcar in Portland, Me. He recovered from the accident but died in January 1913, at age forty-four, while a patient at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Chatham. He was survived by his wife, Julia Fitzgerald, two sons, and a daughter. The Chatham World observed that he had been "a genial, gentle man, greatly liked by a host of friends and acquaintances."

When the lease on the Miramichi Hotel expired a few months after Foley's death, his widow took possession of it and hired Ernest Howes, formerly of the Park Hotel in Saint John, to run it. She owned it until 1920, when it was sold to J. Edward Dalton.

Sources

[b] census (day and month); tombstone [d] World 8 Jan 1913 / Advocate 6 Jun 1900, 30 Mar 1904, 28 Dec 1904, 4 Jan 1905, 27 Dec 1905, 20 May 1908, 2 Sep 1908, 9 Nov 1920; Arbuckle (re. stone quarry); Leader 30 Aug 1907, 31 Jan 1908, 8 May 1908, 22 May 1908, 6 Sep 1912, 10 Jan 1913


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