Edward Mahon

Edward Mahon (1862–1937) was born in Rawmarsh, England to Sir William Vesey Ross Mahon (1813–1893), who became Fourth Baronet in 1852, but chose not to abandon his Yorkshire parish in favour of Castlegar, the ancestral Mahon family residence in County Galway, Ireland.

Mahon and his siblings thus grew up in England. He was educated at Marlborough College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in law in 1884. He opened practice in Dublin, but was not satisfied with his chosen profession.

The Mahon clan had been influential in Anglo-Irish politics, but the real impetus to greater fame was provided by John Ross Mahon (1814–1887), Sir William’s younger brother. He was a very successful land agent and founding partner in Guinness Mahon, a merchant bank. When he died a bachelor in 1887, his very substantial personal wealth as well as his interest in the bank passed on to his protégé, John FitzGerald Mahon (1858–1942), an older brother of Edward. Following an exploratory world trip, John settled on the Vancouver area of British Columbia as a suitable place for investment, and delegated Edward to look after his business interests there. Edward arrived in October 1890, and soon gravitated to the opportunities for growth on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, as well mining opportunities in the West Kootenay region.

In 1891, he purchased a pre-emption from Albert McCleary near the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay rivers, and on it, platted a town-site that he named Castlegar, in honour of his ancestral home in Ireland. He sought out a partnership for its development with Augustus Heinze, who was in 1897 constructing his Columbia & Western Railway northward from his Trail smelter operation. Edward’s plans for a showcase Kootenay city collapsed when Heinze sold out all his interests to the CPR early in 1898, and the railway effectively blocked the development of his city in favour of Nelson. Heinze retreated to his operational base in Butte, Montana, and later New York, where he was instrumental in precipitating the financial Panic of 1907.

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