PHINNEY, JAMES HALEY (1841-1928)

PHINNEY, JAMES HALEY, tinsmith and hardware merchant; b. Boston, Mass., 1 Jul 1841, s/o Timothy Phinney and h/w Zeruiah Phinney; m. 1st, 1874, Mary L. Call, sister of Robert Randolf Call, and 2nd, 1896, Euphemia Flett, d/o Enoch Flett and Mary Wilson, of Nelson parish; d. Newcastle, 20 May 1928.

In the census of 1861 J. Haley Phinney, aged twenty, was enumerated in Richibucto as an apprentice in the home of the tinsmith Zacharius Phinney. He came to the Miramichi around 1867 and entered into partnership with Harvey Phinney in a Newcastle tinsmithing business known as H. & J. H. Phinney. When Harvey Phinney moved to Sackville about 1874 the business was continued in the name of J. H. Phinney.

Phinney prospered both at tinsmithing and in the sale of stoves and accessories. After his shop was destroyed by fire in 1897 he erected the Phinney Block on the Town Square in which he opened a new store. He was advertising as a hardware merchant in 1906. He continued in business until 1912, when he sold out to D. William Stothart and retired.

Phinney was a failed candidate for a seat on the first Newcastle Town Council in 1899, when he ran on the "People's and Temperance" ticket, but he won election in 1900. In 1907 he was one of the twelve trustees of St James Presbyterian Church. No children were mentioned in a death notice for his first wife, Mary L. Call, in 1895. He and his second wife, Euphemia Flett, had an adopted daughter.