RUSSELL, MATTHEW (1833-1908)

RUSSELL, MATTHEW, businessman and steam ferry builder and owner; b. Lower Newcastle, 28 Feb 1833, s/o John Russell and Margaret Miller, natives of Scotland; brother of William Henderson Russell; m. 1859, Sarah Ann Ingram, d/o George Ingram and Mary Russell, natives of the north of Ireland; d. Newcastle, 17 Jan 1908.

Matthew Russell began his working life as a ship carpenter at the Gilmour, Rankin & Co. shipyard at Douglastown. In the 1860s he was head of the firm of Matthew Russell & Bros, which managed the Newcastle Gas Works in collaboration with Robert R. Call. In 1871 the brothers had a shipyard and lime kiln in the town. In 1874 they launched the steam ferry Lady Dufferin, which was in service on the Newcastle-Nelson crossing for many years. Vessels owned by Russell after he was no longer in partnership with his brothers were the Rustler (1891), which was among the best-known Miramichi riverboats of its time, and the schooner Maggie B. The year before he died he personally supervised the construction of the Dorothy N., which was built by George Henderson and named in honor of his granddaughter Dorothy Nicholson.

It was rumored in 1875 that Russell had been left a sizable fortune by an uncle in Britain, and when he made a trip overseas in 1877 it was speculated that he had gone to secure the inheritance. He took a new business initiative soon afterwards when he and his eldest son, John Russell, as M. Russell & Son, joined with Scottish businessmen in the establishment and operation of a spool factory in Newcastle. The plant, which manufactured finished spools for thread and twine from local birchwood, was opened in February 1882 and had a capacity of 400 gross, or 60,000 spools daily. It was lost to fire in December 1882 but was rebuilt after Russell went to Scotland again and made the necessary arrangements. It was then in operation until it fell victim to another fire in 1891. Two years later a spoolwood plant owned by Clark, Skillings & Co. was erected on the same site.

As a younger man, Russell was an ardent political supporter of Peter Mitchell, and as elsewhere noted, his zeal at the polling station in the federal election of 1878 provoked a strong response from George Brown. In the same period, he was an officer of the Mechanics' Institute. He was also a Mason, and he taught Sunday school at the Presbyterian church. He and his wife, Sarah A. Ingram, had six children living in 1908, including John Russell and Margaret I. Russell, the wife of Dr Robert Nicholson, both of Newcastle; and Joseph A. Russell and Finley R. MacD. Russell, both of British Columbia. Joseph A. Russell was "the best known of all leading lawyers in Vancouver," and as revealed in the Canadian Who's Who, his lawyer brother Finley R. MacD. Russell was also a prominent figure in legal circles, both provincially and nationally.