This is an excerpt from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context paper, ‘Early Homesteaders and Pioneer Settlement (1883-1907)’ section, p. 11. The Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context Paper was prepared in 2021-2022 by Marilyn Williams and Gillian Sissons to read more about this project, visit HSCA’s Historical Context Paper page.

When viewed in terms of the Dominion Land Survey, today’s Hillhurst-Sunnyside covers much of the southeast quarter of section 20, the parts of section 21 and the southwest quarter of Section 22 that lie north of the Bow, and the parts of the northwest quarter of Section 16 and northeast quarter of Section 17 that lie north of the Bow. The Township map below shows some of the early homesteaders of those lands, including BM Godsal, Philip Van Cortlandt and Felix McHugh.

Well-known pioneer rancher and contractor Felix Alexander McHugh (1851-1912) came west in 1883 shortly after his marriage to Florence O’Doherty (1861- 1933). Both were of Irish descent and born in Ontario, he in Ottawa and she in Gloucester. He arrived with his Clydesdales, vehicles and farm equipment at the end of the rail line in Maple Creek, and continued on to the Bow River. That summer21 he established his 21-acre homestead in the southeast part of Section 21 on the north bank of the Bow across from Prince’s Island, his dwelling just west of today’s 3rd Street. Together with his brother Thomas, he cultivated about 8 hectares east of 10th Street in today’s Sunnyside22. Since his land claim was located on an odd-numbered Section and all of Section 21 was allocated to the Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CPR) subsidiary, the Canadian North West Land Company, and formally granted to them in 1889, McHugh’s claim was disputed by the CPR and Felix was obliged to relinquish most of his claim. However, as settlement he later was awarded an acre of land at 9A Street and Memorial Drive (named Boulevard at that time) where he built the family house (non-extant)23. He began logging on leased land upstream of Calgary on the Elbow River, and was awarded a substantial contract with the NWMP. In 1885 he went into partnership with brothers John Joseph (JJ), who first came west in 1878, and Thomas as the JJ Ranch24, which they established near the Blackfoot (Siksika) Reserve. Florence was still living there in 1929 when her youngest daughter, actress Florence McHugh Piercy, visited from London, England.

Section 21 (north of the Bow) was acquired from the CPR by The Calgary and Medicine Hat Land Company in 1890 and by James Heath of London, England in 1904. Later in 1904, Ezra Riley obtained the west half for his Hillhurst subdivisions. In 1905, Heath sold the south half to two gentlemen from Wichita, Kansas, who in turn sold it to a gentleman in North Dakota in summer 1906. That same summer, Arthur Bennett and William Ross acquired the southeast quarter and registered Plan 2448O ‘Sunnyside’25 later that year and its addition, Plan 1948P, in 1907. New Edinburgh was part of this subdivision plan. The natural area bluff between 10th Street NW and Centre Street was named ‘McHugh Bluff’ in summer 1990 in recognition of the pioneer’s connections to the area.

21 Per McHugh’s claim in homestead application file 43503.
22 Peach (1982); Zakrison (2012).
23 The Calgary Daily Herald, December 6, 1929; Zakrison (2012).
24 This subdivision also includes a very small portion of the northwest quarter of Section 16.
25 This subdivision also includes a very small portion of the northwest quarter of Section 16.