OLD NORTH
ESK
ON THE MIRAMICHI
by W. D. Hamilton
Cliff and I picked the tomatoes and
piled them into the wheelbarrow, as all signs pointed to the threat of
Jack Frost visiting the garden tonight. When we were nearing the
backdoor with our
load, Gramp and Gram drove into the yard. Within a matter of minutes
they
were sitting in the outside kitchen helping Mum and Dad slice green
tomatoes
in preparation for the making of chow-chow.
As they worked, the talk was of many things that happened in the past.
They chatted at length about the family and community connections of
the
people who were presently living in the area as well as those folk who
had
moved away in search of greener pastures.
A book just released by Miramichi Books, of Saint John, called OLD
NORTH ESK ON THE MIRAMICHI, is also all about past events,
community connections, and the greener pastures to which large numbers
of Miramichi people went
a hundred years or more ago. The book is by W. D. Hamilton and is
designated as the 25th Anniversary Edition of one first published in
1979. This edition deals with the same subject matter as the
first but is otherwise
a new book from start to finish, containing nearly twice as much text
plus
a selection of photographs and a 20-page glossary.
The book has two main sections - a shorter one on History, and a
lengthy one on Biography & Genealogy, with 298 sub-sections by
surname. Included among these are such well-known Miramichi names
as Allison, Ashton, Baisley, Brander, Cain, Chaplin, Connors,
Copp, Curtis, Estey, Ferguson, Fitzgerald, Foran, Forsyth, Gillis,
Goodfellow, Hare, Harrigan, Harris,
Henderson, Hill, Hogan, Holmes, Hosford, Howe, Hubbard, Hutchison,
Hyland,
Jardine, Johnston, Jones, Keating, Kingston, Lawlor, Leach, Matchett,
Matthews,
Menzies, Morrison, Murphy, Mutch, McAllister, McCoombs, McDonald,
McGrath,
McKay, McKendrick, McKenzie, McKibbon, McKinnon, McLean, McTavish,
Norton,
Nowlan, O’Brien, O’Shea, Parker, Parks, Payne, Rolfe, Russell, Ryan,
Sauntry,
Scott, Shaddick, Sheasgreen, Sherrard, Silliker, Simpson, Sinclair,
Smith,
Somers, Stewart, Sullivan, Sutherland, Taylor, Tingley, Touchie, Tozer,
Travis,
Tweedie, Urquhart, Walsh, Waye, White, Whitney, and Young.
Among new findings reported is the discovery of where different
settlers originated. We learn, for example, that Thomas
Blackmore, the founder of the Blackmore clan on the Miramichi, was
baptized in Devonport, Stoke
Damerel Parish, Devonshire, England, in 1788, the son of a family with
Welsh
connections, and that John Dunnett, the head of another large Miramichi
family,
was baptized at Bower, Caithness, Scotland, in 1797, a son of William
Dunnett
and Marjorie McIntosh. Another interesting discovery
concerns
John Mullin (b. 1762), a soldier with the Guides & Pioneers in the
Revolutionary
War, who came to Saint John with the Loyalists in 1783. He was
born
in Pennsylvania and his wife Elizabeth Connor (a daughter of Loyalist
Peter
Connor) in Rhode Island. They raised a large family in
Springfield
Parish, Kings County, from which many Kings and St. John county Mullins
are
descended, as well as hundreds of those who have lived on the Miramichi
since
John and Elizabeth’s son Thomas Mullin moved there nearly 200 years ago.
There is far more to be said about this book than space allows, but
maybe its most unique feature is the vast amount of information it
presents, not on where people came from, but on where their offspring
went - on the part the Miramichi lumbermen played, for instance, in
opening up the “Big Woods” of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, or
how they led the way in the harvesting of the white pine forests along
the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
The book, OLD NORTH ESK ON THE MIRAMICHI, has 593 pages
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