Henry J. Friel
Written by Anthony "Tony" Butticci
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Image of Friel from Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec via Wikimedia. Public Domain, 1863.
Henry Joseph Friel was a Canadian politician, writer, and journalist. He is most well known for serving as the final Mayor of Bytown and the 4th mayor of Ottawa. He also bought the Bytown Packet newspaper a year after its founding, which later became the Ottawa Citizen.
Friel was born on April 15th, 1823, in Montreal, Lower Canada, in British North America. He is the son of Charles Friel and Cecila Brennan and was Irish Catholic. They moved to Bytown, Upper Canada in 1827.
His first political office was in 1847 when he was elected to the first Bytown town council as a representative for the North Ward. He later served as alderman in 1850, 1853, and 1854. His last year as alderman he also served as the last mayor of Bytown until it became Ottawa on January 1st, 1855. He served as an alderman for Ottawa from 1855 to 1858 and in 1864, 1865, and 1867. He served as the fourth mayor of Ottawa from 1863 to 1864 and again from 1868 to 1869.
As mayor of Ottawa he is most well known for his involvement with the investigation of Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s assassination. He put up a $2,000 reward for any information leading to the conviction of McGee’s assassination, along with $2,000 of his own money for it. He died of pneumonia while in office on May 16th, 1869.
Beyond municipal politics Friel was also involved with the Bytown Mechanics’ Institute, where he was on the executive. He also served as a member of the first Board of Police Commissioners for Ottawa during his first term as mayor of Ottawa. He was involved in 1849 rioting over a proposed visit by Governor General Elgin Bruce. He was one of the rioters arrested for his role aiding the looting of government weapons located in Hull to be used by Reform rioters.
As a journalist he, along with John George Bell, purchased the Bytown Packet newspaper from its founder in 1846, the year after its founding. They later sold the paper in 1849 where it was renamed the Ottawa Citizen. He later founded the Ottawa Union in 1858 before selling it to the Ottawa Times in 1866.
In 1848 he married Mary Anne By O’Connor. They had several children together with three surviving to adulthood. She went on to be a founding member of the Ottawa Historical Society after his death.
References
Capital History. “Henry J. Friel,” October 17, 2019. https://capitalhistory.ca/people/henry-j-friel/.
Cross, Michael S. “FRIEL, HENRY JAMES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 21, 2024, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/friel_henry_james_9E.html.
Haig, Robert. Ottawa, City of the Big Ears; the Intimate, Living Story of a City and a Capital. Ottawa, ON: Haig and Haig Publishing Co., 1975.
HSO 24: Scrapbook Bytown and Ottawa: [1863-1902], City of Ottawa Archives, Box A2009-0598 MG110-SBHS 07/09a
Wikimedia (for photograph).
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