Skip to content

Vernon's Lost Street Names

Swift Street (45th Ave.): Duteau ad in the paper: 'Wanted - a white man to marry my daughter,' drew Reuben to town
250116-vms-swift
Reuben and Mary Swift

Born in Nottinghamshire in 1865, Reuben Swift was the sixth son of a small landholder.

At the age of 14 he was indentured to a local farmer.

Forced to continue working while ill, he ran away twice (then a criminal act).

The second time, he fled to London, where he found work with a railway.

When he made a switching error in the fog, causing a train to derail, Swift immediately bought a steerage ticket on a ship bound for Canada.

He was then 17.

Swift worked his way west, and was stationed at Rogers Pass when he first heard about the Okanagan.

Intrigued, he took the train to Sicamous, and walked to Vernon.

He cut ties for construction of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway between Sicamous and Okanagan Landing in 1891.

Then he saw an ad in the paper: "Wanted - a white man to marry my daughter."

Vincent Duteau had married a First Nations woman and had five children. No one, it seemed, wanted to marry his daughter, Armina – hence the advertisement.

Reuben Swift answered the ad and commenced work on Duteau’s 940 acre ranch.

He married Armina and soon became foreman.

When Duteau died about 1895, Swift became guardian of Armina's sister.

Mary Baron, an Austrian girl from Stony Plain, AB., travelled to Duteau’s ranch to help Armina with childbirth, anticipated to be difficult.

When both mother and child died, Mary stayed on as housekeeper.

Reuben and Mary were married in 1901. They had 11 surviving children.

Armina’s death gave Reuben a two-fifth share of the ranch. He then purchased the shares of his three brothers-in-law, making him sole owner.

Shortly afterwards he sold it to Sir James Buchanan, who named it the Lavington Ranch.

Reuben then purchased a prime building site in the new City of Vernon and built the Royal Hotel (later the National) in 1906.

He soon disposed of half interest and the proceeds allowed him to buy the Vernon Hotel, which stood on the site of FreshCo.

The family lived in the log building built by Peter Anderson that had been the original Vernon Hotel.

Swift served as a city alderman for nine years. Swift Street was named for him in recognition.

Reuben Swift died Jan. 3, 1949 at age 83, leaving his widow, six sons and four daughters.

Reuben's wife Mary died when struck by a car crossing Schubert (32nd) Avenue in 1961. She was 79.

Born in Vernon, Terry Hurst has had a life-long passion for Vernon’s history. She is author of Vernon and District Pioneer Routes, the stories behind the area’s street names, published by the Vernon Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society in 1996. Watch for future columns recounting the origins of road and street names in the BX, Coldstream and Okanagan Landing.