SMITH, HARRISON THATCHER (1879-1944)

SMITH, HARRISON THATCHER, fish processor and shipper; b. Bayside, 17 Mar 1879, s/o Bushrod Washington Smith, a native of Molus River, Kent Co., N.B., and Christianna Ann Williston; m. 1906, Annie Wathen Williston, d/o John G. Williston and Margaret Carroll, of Bay du Vin; d. Chatham, 27 Feb 1944.

For many years Harrison T. Smith was the principal lobster fisherman and lobster buyer in Glenelg and Hardwicke parishes. In 1915 he opened a factory at Escuminac at which lobster, salmon, and mackerel were canned. He moved this operation to Point Escuminac in 1922. He traded in smelts as well, which were frozen and packed at Bayside for shipment to the United States. At times, he had as many as seventy employees at work on shore and in the fishing boats which supplied his processing operations. He was also a fox rancher and farmer.

Smith was a member of the Black River Agricultural Society and the local school board. He gave the lot of land on which the Miramichi Rural High School was built in 1939. He and his wife, Annie W. Williston, were members of the Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist at Bay du Vin. They had no children.