SIMPSON, WILLIAM A. (1862-1921)

SIMPSON, WILLIAM A., hotel keeper and tugboat owner; b. Neguac, 25 Aug 1862, s/o Simon F. Simpson and Ellen Morrison; m. Jane McLean, d/o Andrew McLean and Marjory Murray, of Tabusintac; d. Millerton, 21 Mar 1921.

As a young man, William A. Simpson made his way to Colorado, where he spent a number of years working in the mining fields. He had returned to the Miramichi by the 1890s and was living at Tabusintac with his wife and family in 1901. Soon afterwards, they settled at Millerton, where their large home doubled as a hotel. Previously, John Graham, an uncle of Simpson's by marriage, had conducted the only hotel at Millerton. He died in 1906 and his widow in 1908.

Simpson also worked as a steamboat engineer and was owner and master of the tug J. C. Miller. He was a member of the board of managers of Grace Presbyterian Church at Millerton and of the Oddfellows fraternity. He was survived in 1921 by his wife, Jane McLean, and several children. A lifelong friend of the family was the industrialist Kenneth ("K. C") Irving, who became acquainted when he lived at Millerton for a time as a boy with his half-sister Jennie Irving and her husband, the Rev. Alexander R. Rettie.