Who was Mr. Huble?

Have you visited Huble Homestead and wondered who first lived there?

Albert James Huble was born on September 4, 1872 to Nancy and Samuel Hubble in Oak Lake, Ontario. He was the eldest son of 11 children and supposedly left home at the age of 13 after an argument with his father. After spending five years in Chicago with an uncle, he headed west to BC and the Kootenays by the 1890s and worked on the Canadian Pacific Railroad for a short time before returning to Ontario.

In the 1900 census Al Huble was listed as a barber in Peterborough, Ontario and with a wife named Maria. Tragically, Maria died later that same year of tuberculosis. Al then returned to BC where he was recorded as working as a carpenter in Golden in 1901. Family history describes Al as an adventurous man who tried his hand at a variety of trades including prospecting and running a fishing schooner before he came to Fort George. He soon met Edward Seebach, and in 1904 the two men formed a business partnership.

When Al visited his family in Ontario over the winter of 1910 he met Annie Hart and he proposed to her on New Year’s Day 1911 after a sleigh ride that ended in an overturned sled. This was the second marriage for both Al and Annie. Al then left to return to Giscome Portage in March 1911 and Annie joined him in the summer, bringing along her youngest daughter Ada. The new family spent their first year in a small cabin that would later become the summer kitchen when the new house was built. It was in this little cabin that the couple’s first child, Bertha was born. Four more Huble children were born while they lived at the homestead.

Traffic over the Giscome Portage declined after World War I and in 1919 the Hubles moved to Prince George. Two more children were born while they lived in the city. The homestead became their summer home until 1929 when Al Huble sold the property to Josephine Mitchell.

Al Huble died December 29, 1947.