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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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CUNARD, JOSEPH (1799-1865)

CUNARD, JOSEPH, lumber and trading company head, shipbuilder, foundry and grist mill owner, JP, JCP, MLA, and MLC; b. Halifax, N.S., 1799, s/o Abraham Cunard and Margaret Murphy; brother of Henry Cunard; m. 1833, Mary Peters, d/o Thomas Horsfield Peters and Mary Ann Sharman; d. Liverpool, England, 16 Jan 1865.

A brother of Samuel Cunard of steamship company fame, Joseph Cunard arrived in Chatham soon after 1820 to start a branch of his father's Halifax trading business. Within a few years, Joseph Cunard & Co., of which his younger brother Henry Cunard was a minor partner, had become one of the largest firms in New Brunswick. Merchandising, lumbering, milling, and shipping were its main fields of activity, with stores, sawmills, a foundry, and other installations at Chatham and elsewhere in Northumberland, as well as in Kent and Gloucester counties.

Cunard was one of the leading shipbuilders in the province, having more than forty vessels constructed on the Miramichi and more than twenty at Bathurst between the early 1820s and late 40s. These were sailing ships except for the Velocity, the first steamboat built on the Miramichi, which was launched from his Chatham yard in 1846.

Cunard was a public-spirited man who was very much involved in local and provincial affairs. He was one of the first firewards with the Chatham Fire Company, which was formed in 1824. After the Miramichi Fire he was a member of the committee of merchants which attended to the needs of sufferers. In 1830 he was appointed a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Northumberland County. In 1833 he was named to the Board of Health for the port. He was a director of the Chatham branch of the Bank of British North America, which opened in 1839. In 1844 he was appointed chairman of the Northumberland and Gloucester Board of Health, which was created that year to monitor and manage the leprosy problem in the Tracadie area, and he played an important part in the establishment of the lazaretto on Sheldrake Island. In 1846-47 he was a founder and the first president of the Miramichi Mechanics' Institute.

In 1828 Cunard won a seat in the House of Assembly in a by-election, and he was returned in the general election of 1830. He resigned in 1833 to accept appointment to the Legislative Council, in which he retained a seat until 1850. From 1838 until 1846 he was also a member of the Executive Council.

Cunard was a flamboyant figure who lived on a grand scale. The home which he occupied in downtown Chatham from about 1833 was a palatial structure with a ballroom on the second floor. It attracted many distinguished guests, including Lieut. Gov. Sir John Harvey, who stayed overnight in July 1838. Cunard and his family rode to church in a coach with footmen in livery. When he arrived home from business trips abroad church bells would be rung in Chatham and large crowds would turn out to greet him, sometimes as participants in elaborate welcoming ceremonies staged by the Mechanics' Institute.

Throughout his years on the Miramichi, Cunard was a rival and combatant of the firm of Gilmour, Rankin & Co. at Douglastown, which was securely established in the lumber and shipbuilding industries. Relations became particularly strained during the election of 1842-43, when the Rankin firm supported the candidacy of John Ambrose Street, and Cunard that of his opponent, John T. Williston. When Street won the election and accused "a member of the Executive Government" of having failed to prevent the rioting that occurred, Cunard suffered a symbolic defeat. The more devastating defeat for him, however, was in the business realm. His company was in financial trouble by 1842, and through a combination of bad luck, reckless business practices, and successful maneuvering by his competitors, he was forced to declare bankruptcy in December 1847.

When news of Cunard's failure spread in Chatham a huge crowd gathered "under the impression that they were all ruined." Some of the men assembled threatened to ransack the company store, while others shouted death threats. When the crowd showed no sign of dispersing, Cunard mounted his horse and stuffed a loaded pistol into the top of each of his large bootlegs. "Now," he said, "let me see the man that will shoot Cunard." He then galloped through town to his sawmill and returned to his home without incident. When evening came, the crowd scattered.

Hundreds were thrown out of work by Cunard's collapse, and many left the Miramichi. After an unsuccessful attempt to get his business started again, Cunard and his family also departed Chatham in 1850 for Liverpool, England, where he entered the ship commission business. His debts were still not all paid off at the time of his death in 1865, but the family promised to make good on them and had done so by 1871.

Cunard was baptized in the Anglican church at Chatham at age forty-five, and the records show that he and his wife, Mary Peters, had four sons and a daughter baptized between 1840 and 1848. When he died in Liverpool, at age sixty-five, he was survived by his wife, Mary Peters, and two sons.

Sources

[b] Graves [m] Acadian Recorder 24 Aug 1833 [d] Gleaner 11 Feb 1865 / Advocate 2 Aug 1933 (re. Bank of British North America); Baxter; Cooney (H); DCB; Fraser (C); Gleaner 27 Apr 1830, 23 Apr 1833, 16 Feb 1836, 17 Jul 1838, 28 Jul 1843, 20 Jun 1846, 15 Aug 1846, 29 Aug 1848; Losier/Pinet; Manny (Ships); Wood Industries


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