Mayors History
Hiram Carney
Hiram Carney was the mayor of Prince George in 1919. Carney was born in Ottawa and was raised in Calgary and the Kootenays. As a youth, Carney learned to shoot grouse, play hockey, handle a gun and to cruise timber. Carney was described by Citizen reporter Gwen Cash as a "short, shrewd, square-rigged, knowledgeable n-tan". In 1915, he was elected to the first school board of Prince George. During 1917 and 1918, Carney worked as a city clerk. Hiram Carney also worked in and ran our city's first telephone company: The Fort George Telephone Company. Telephone operators had many unique duties, including: delivering customers' grocery orders, providing weary train travelers with wake-up calls in the middle of the night, and even helping citizens with crossword puzzles! For many years, Carney worked with the Provincial Government. In 1953, Carney worked as the secretary of the Victoria branch of the B.C. Government Employees'Association. Prince George's popular landmark Carney Hill is named in honour of Hiram Carney. Carney Hill (once called Carney's Hill) is crowned by a city reservoir and lies alongside Highway 16 and Highway 97. An interesting fact about Hiram Carney is that in 1911, when asked to travel to Moose Lake by the late Martin Burell, Carney made the nearly 400 mile journey by canoe and on foot!!