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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MUIRHEAD, WILLIAM (1819-1884)

MUIRHEAD, WILLIAM, lumber company head, shipbuilder, JP, MLC, and senator; b. Pictou, N.S., 4 Apr 1819, s/o John Muirhead, a native of Dumfriesshire, Scotland; m. 1844, Ann Gray, of Aberdeen, Scotland; d. Chatham, 29 Dec 1884.

William Muirhead's father came to Nova Scotia in 1817 and was a merchant and shipbuilder at Pictou for a number of years. Around 1831 he and his family settled in Chatham, where William Muirhead completed his schooling and entered his father's field of business. In the 1840s William was a partner of his older brother James Muirhead, who had established himself as a merchant at Travellers' Rest, P.E.I., and engaged in trade by schooner with the Miramichi. The partnership was dissolved in 1848. James Muirhead was later a merchant and shipbuilder in Summerside and a member, at different times, of both the Island Assembly and Legislative Council.

William Muirhead also advanced in business on his own to became the largest of the Chatham shipbuilders. Between 1855 and 1869 he had at least thirty-five vessels constructed at his yard on the town waterfront, under the supervision of Elijah Parsons, William Sinclair, Patrick Carroll, James Desmond, and other master builders.

While Hugh F. Bain was still alive, Muirhead took over operation of a sawmill in Chatham in which Bain had the controlling interest. In 1871, this mill had an assigned value three times that of any other Chatham business, and before long, Muirhead was the leading manufacturer and shipper of lumber on the Miramichi. He became the sole owner of the mill in 1877 when he bought out the interests of the Bain heirs and one other shareholder. The mill burned in 1880. It was replaced the next year with "the finest two-gang steam sawmill in the Maritime Provinces," but by then the business had lost its place of primacy to J. B. Snowball & Co., which opened a huge steam sawmill on an adjacent site in 1872.

Muirhead was a director of the North West Boom Co. In 1872 he was president of the association which built the Chatham Driving Park. He was a shareholder in the Chatham Branch Railway when it was organized in 1873, and he was a director of several companies located elsewhere in the Maritime Provinces.

Muirhead became an ensign in the 1st Battalion of militia in 1850. In 1855 he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1868 he was named to the Legislative Council of New Brunswick. He retained his seat until 1873, when he was appointed to the Senate, as successor to Peter Mitchell.

Muirhead and his wife, Ann Gray, had seven children living at home when the census of 1861 was taken. The children included Agnes J. Muirhead, who later married John Sadler, and William W. and Henry J. Muirhead, both of whom became businessmen in Chatham. For several years William W. Muirhead took care of his father's shipbuilding interests, "both at home and in ports abroad." In 1884 he took over operation of the Miramichi Foundry, but by 1892 he was bankrupt. Everything he owned, including "Sunnyside," his splendid Chatham residence, passed into the possession of the Merchants Bank of Halifax.

Sources

[b] Graves [m] official records [d] World 31 Dec 1884 / Advance 29 May 1879, 10 Jun 1880, 28 Apr 1881, 2 Jun 1892; Advocate 19 Dec 1877; Arbuckle; Can. Parl. Guide 1874; Facey-Crowther; Fraser (C); Gleaner 30 May 1848, 11 Aug 1855; Guardian 16 Nov 1903; Manny (Ships); Manny index; Williston Collection


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