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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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KEY, ALEXANDER (1795-1851)

KEY, ALEXANDER, doctor; bap. Dundee, Scotland, 6 Dec 1795, s/o David Key and Margaret Reid; m. 1823, Margaret Henderson, d/o Patrick Henderson and Elizabeth Henderson; d. Chatham, 26 May 1851.

After spending five years in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he took his medical degree, Alexander Key came to Chatham in 1816 and established a practice. As elsewhere noted, the only other doctor known to have been on the river at that time was Dr Thomas E. Bell, and he died four years after Key's arrival. About 1817 Dr Alexander Stewart, a former army surgeon, established a practice at Newcastle. He treated victims of the Miramichi Fire in 1825 but died in 1827, at age forty-six. In 1819 Dr James Petrie came to Chatham from Scotland. His professional abilities were highly respected, but he gave up his practice and returned home in 1827. Other doctors came and went, but the next to put down roots were Dr Thomas P. Bourne, Dr John Thomson, and Dr Stafford Benson, all of whom opened offices in 1832.

Key was the senior health officer for the port of Miramichi throughout most of his career, having major responsibility for ship inspections and the imposition of quarantine. In a letter to The Gleaner in 1832 he referred to some of the quarantine cases with which he had been involved since 1827. He was still active in this work in 1847 when the passengers and crew of the barque Looshtauk were confined to Middle Island. It was his colleague Dr John Thomson who inspected the Looshtauk, but a few days later Key boarded the brig Richard White from Cork, Ireland. Some of the thirty-five passengers were ill, and he placed all on board in quarantine, separate from those of the Looshtauk. No vessel was to pass the quarantine station without submitting to inspection, and when the barque Bolivar did so, Key, who was "a little man and very passionate," fired at the ship with a musket, landing a ball in the mainmast. After the vessel hove to, he found sickness among the crew and ordered the captain to land his passengers on Middle Island as well. He also inspected the passengers and crew of the brig John Hawkes at this time and reported that all were well. Later he attended typhus patients on the island, including both Dr John Vondy and Capt. John M. Thain, of the Looshtauk.

Key was the first doctor to undertake a methodical study of the outbreak of leprosy in northeastern New Brunswick. However, while he was aware of the existence of the illness from the 1820s onward, it was not until 1844 that provincial authorities set about to determine "the nature, origin, and extent of the frightful and loathsome disease at Neguac, Tracadie, and Tabusintac." That year, a medical commission, of which Key was the only Miramichi member, conducted an investigation and confirmed that the disease was leprosy. There were more than twenty cases, all traceable, it was thought, to a single source. A special Northumberland and Gloucester Board of Health was created to manage the problem. Key was both a member of the board and the medical officer in charge of the lazaretto which was opened on Sheldrake Island for the incarceration of the victims. Much can be gleaned about his work and thought on the subject of leprosy from a report of his which was printed in The Gleaner in the spring of 1845. Unlike some of his contemporaries, who contended that leprosy was of genetic origin, he held that it was contagious, although he considered it possible that some persons were predisposed to contract it.

In 1830 Key was appointed surgeon of the 1st Battalion of militia, as successor to Dr Alexander Stewart. In 1838, in response to the troubles in Upper and Lower Canada, volunteer rifle companies composed of young men of fighting caliber were formed within the New Brunswick militia. Each company was to be headed by a captain capable of training and drilling the recruits. Key was selected for this role with the company, which was attached to the 1st Battalion.

Key was involved in a number of other activities in the community. In 1819 he was a member of Fortitude Lodge, the first Masonic lodge to be organized on the Miramichi. In 1830 he was one of a committee of three which organized a Reading Room in Chatham and subscribed to newspapers and periodicals for its members. In 1832 he was one of the trustees of a new school which was opened in Chatham under the auspices of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. In 1839 he presided over the St Andrew's Day celebrations in Chatham. He was a member of the Highland Society from the time of its organization in 1841 and was elected president in 1843, succeeding James Gilmour.

Key continued to fill most of the roles he had taken on until his death in 1851, at age fifty-five. In a eulogy published by the Highland Society it was stated that he had never ceased grieving over the death of his wife, Margaret Henderson, which occurred in 1845, and that his sorrow may have hastened his own end. "He has long been distinguished in this province," observed The Gleaner, "for his skill and ability as a physician," and he was "the ever ready friend of the needy and afflicted." No children were mentioned in his will, and no record of children has been found. The family surname does not appear in the Northumberland County census of 1851.

Sources

[bap] LDS-IGI [m] NB Courier 27 Dec 1823 [d] Gleaner 26 May 1851 / Baxter; Cooney (A); Facey-Crowther; Fraser (C); Gleaner 6 Jul 1830, 31 Aug 1830, 24 Apr 1832, 25 Sep 1832, 2 May 1837, 24 Apr 1838, 10 Dec 1839, 24 Jan 1843, 3 Apr 1844, 25 Mar 1845, 1 Apr 1845, 8 Jun 1847, 15 Jun 1847, 19 Jan 1852; Losier/Pinet; Manny Collection (F182); Mercury 8 May 1827; NB Almanac & Reg.; NB Courier 6 Sep 1845; PANB (files and Minutes of Session re. health officers of the port of Miramichi, quarantine, etc.); St Michael's Museum (copy of the will of Alexander Key)

Remarques

Undoubtedly, "A. S." and "K. A.," who are profiled in Robert Cooney's Autobiography, are Dr Alexander Stewart and Dr Alexander Key. "A. S. was a gentlemanly man of good parts, and of liberal education. He had been an army surgeon, and had seen some service. He enjoyed a lucrative practice and was deservedly a great favourite. A career at once useful and honourable lay before him; but he became intemperate; the writer of these pages often remonstrated with him, and elicited promises of amendment and he observed them at intervals, but would as often relapse again. At length he became a confirmed drunkard; fell into the most degrading habits, and into a state of the most abject poverty; and was found one morning lying dead at the public slip." For his part, "K. A. was quite an original and very clever in some respects. He was also a member of the medical profession, and was in great repute. He had two [hobbyhorses] nearly akin, and he almost rode the poor creatures to death - duelling was one - pugilism the other. I never heard that he ever engaged in either of these amiable or fashionable pursuits; but he was constantly talking of pistols - hair triggers - paces - boxing-gloves, &c., and being a small and very good natured looking man, he was obliged, when discussing these topics, to look ferocious and stretch himself in order to make a suitable impression. He contrived, however, to live in peace and good will with every one. His valour was never tested, nor his wrath provoked; exemptions which he ascribed to a formidable array of fighting weapons that he kept hung up in his surgery."


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