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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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FRASER, GEORGE BEANE (1846-1917)

FRASER, GEORGE BEANE, lawyer; b. Cross Point, Canada East, 7 Feb 1846, s/o John Fraser and Elizabeth Ferguson; m. 1st, 1880, Blanche Louise Hockon Jack (a d/o Dr William Brydone Jack, president of UNB), and 2nd, 1900, her older sister Georgina Rosa Jack; d. Chatham, 30 Aug 1917.

Although George B. Fraser and his wives were not natives of the Miramichi, they had historical and family connections with the community. His father, a native of Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, was settled at Chatham for a time and sat on the Miramichi Fire relief committee in 1825. His mother was a sister of Daniel Ferguson of Chatham, and Blanche and Rosa Jack's mother was a sister of Charles J. Peters.

Fraser first came to the Miramichi for the 1861-62 school year to continue studies at the Presbyterian Academy which he had begun at the superior school in Campbellton under William Crocket. He was a prize-winning student at the Academy that year, at the High School of Montreal in 1862-63, and subsequently at McGill University. Some years later, he returned to the Miramichi to study law with William Wilkinson. He was admitted as an attorney in 1874 and opened an office in Chatham in 1875. The next year, he became a partner of Andrew H. Johnson. He was soon practicing on his own again, but in 1882 he was sharing an office with Michael S. Benson. He reported unusually small earnings from his law practice in 1901. At the time of his death he was county registrar of probate.

Fraser became librarian of the Miramichi Natural History Association in 1898. He was also secretary for some years of the local Board of Health and a member of the Highland Society. His second wife, Rosa Jack, played a leadership role in various charitable organizations in Chatham, including the Red Cross Society, of which she was president during World War I.

Fraser's first wife, Blanche L. H. Jack, died following childbirth in 1894, leaving eight small children. There were several sons, both the eldest and youngest of whom were killed in action in France in World War I. No children were born of the second marriage.

Sources

[b] tombstone [m] Freeman 17 Jul 1880; World 10 Feb 1900 [d] Advocate 6 Sep 1917 / Advance 21 Sep 1893; Advocate 24 Jun 1874; Fraser (C); Gleaner 5 Jul 1862, 25 Jul 1863, 14 Jul 1866; Manny index (re. John Fraser); MacMillan; official birth records of children; Times 24 Dec 1930; World 30 Dec 1882


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