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MC1847: An account by Alexander Machum of New Jerusalem, New Brunswick: [1893]

Dates of creation: Photocopied [ca.1990]

Physical description: 18pp. of textual records

Biographical Sketch / Administrative History

Teacher, merchant, and farmer, Alexander Machum, the son of Margaret Carson (1796-1878) and Alexander Machum, Jr., (1797-1868) was born 5 September 1819 in Saint John, New Brunswick.  Alexander and Margaret Machum left County Derry, Ireland, for Saint John aboard the "Aurora" in May 1819.  The family settled first at Belleisle, Queens County, until November 1824 when Alexander Machum, Jr., obtained a land grant in Jerusalem Settlement, Queens County. In addition to Alexander Machum III, the creator of this record, they had 6 other children:  Martha (Hutchinson, 1822-1876), Ann (Kerr, 1824-1862), James (b. 1826), Samuel (b. 1829), John (1832-1856), and Mary Jane (Brown, b. 1835). 

In 1839, following completion of his early schooling, Alexander Machum became a school teacher.  In the early 1840s, he received formal teachers' training in Fredericton at the Normal School.  Alexander Machum taught at Hampstead and Jerusalem, in Springfield Parish, and elsewhere until at least 1848.  He then returned to New Jerusalem where he ran a general store and operated a farm.  He went back to the classroom in 1872, teaching at Jerusalem, Welsford, Hampstead, Coote Hill, and Nerepis.  

Alexander Machum married Elizabeth Frances Inch (d. 1891), the daughter of Nathaniel Inch, of Jerusalem, on 18 January 1849, and they had no fewer than eight children:  James Alexander (b. 1849), Thomas William (b. 1851), Eliza Ann (b. 1853), Amelia Jane (Nugent, b. 1855), John Samuel (b. 1859), George Alfred (b. 1862), Edwin Robinson (b. 1864), and Harry Wilford (b. 1868).  Alexander Machum died on 27 March 1897.

Source:  An Account by Alexander Machum of New Jerusalem, New Brunswick (1819-1897)

Scope and Content

In 1966 D. A. Machum transcribed and typed Alexander Machum's account of his life and family history, written in July and August 1893.  Alexander Machum offers a brief history of the Machums of Ireland and Queens County, ending in 1893.  He discusses his years as a teacher and his formal education in some detail, and touches on the Miramichi fire, New Jerusalem's early history, local churches, and his family's religious affiliations.

 

INVENTORY

MS1    An account by Alexander Machum of New Jerusalem, New Brunswick (1819-1897), written July-August 1893. (Photocopied typescript, 18pp.)