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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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THOMSON, JOHN (1808-1884)

THOMSON, JOHN, doctor and druggist; b. Auchtergaven parish, Perthshire, Scotland, 16 Jun 1808, s/o James Thomson and Catherine MacKay; brother of Samuel Thomson; m. 1835, Mary Ann Abrams, d/o William Abrams and Sarah Triglohon; d. Chatham, 13 Feb 1884.

John Thomson was eight years of age when his family settled in Chatham, and he was twenty-four in 1832 when he was admitted to membership in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He announced in The Gleaner in October 1832 that he was starting a medical practice at John Hea's hotel in Chatham, but when Dr Stafford Benson also opened an office at the hotel that fall he moved to Newcastle.

Thomson was a health officer of the port of Miramichi and one of the doctors who treated patients at the Seamen's Hospital. At first he attended in company with Dr Alexander Key, the senior health officer, but he was later the hospital's designated physician. In 1840 he became surgeon of the 2nd Battalion of militia. After Dr John Vondy's death from typhus in 1847 he agreed to visit the sick at the quarantine ground on Middle Island once a day in his capacity as a health officer. His colleague Dr Key visited those in quarantine too. Understandably, none of the doctors wished to occupy a station on the Island as Dr Vondy had done, and they all declined to do so.

During his residency in Newcastle, Thomson maintained links with St John's Presbyterian Church in Chatham, and he was ordained a deacon in 1848. He returned to Chatham to live in 1851, and on top of his medical practice and responsibilities as a health officer, began to operate drug stores in both towns. Later he and his son William A. Thomson, who received an MD degree from the Massachusetts Medical College in 1857, took over the drug business formerly owned by William Forbes. After their partnership was terminated a few years later Thomson continued to conduct "Thomson's Drug Establishment" in Chatham, and his son the "Newcastle Drug Store." It is unclear if he withdrew from the drug business following his son's death from diphtheria in 1863, at age twenty-eight. In 1867 he was named a coroner.

Thomson was still acting as physician to the Seaman's Hospital in 1879 when the Miramichi Advance published a devastating editorial on its "uncleanly and slovenly" condition. The hospital had a full-time caretaker, in the person of John Gallagher, and while no blame was specifically assigned to him or the attending physician, the implication of the editorial was that he was not performing his job properly and that no doctor should have been tolegrating the conditions described. In a curious letter of defense Thomson characterized most of the statements made in the Advance's editorial as "false" and as "no doubt got up for party purposes." The Advance was unrelenting, however. "What the doctor means by attributing 'party' motives we are at a loss to conjecture," it stated. "We were asked to visit the place and report upon what we found and we did so in the public interest without reference to 'party' or any other improper consideration." The editor's criticism was reiterated by Jabez B. Snowball, MP, who informed the House of Commons that the hospital was in "a most disgraceful condition." The minister of marine and fisheries ordered an inquiry, but in the meantime the Advance revealed that those responsible for the hospital had quietly set about correcting some of the worst of the situations which had been reported upon. Later the legislators approved an increase in the hospital's operating budget.

Thomson retained his appointment as physician to the Seamen's Hospital until forced to resign by illness shortly before his death. He and his wife, Mary Ann Abrams, had nine sons and a daughter.

Note re. later publication - after entry on James Thomson.

Sources

[b] Thomson family data [m] Gleaner 24 Feb 1835 [d] Advocate 20 Feb 1884 / Advance 13 Feb 1879, 20 Feb 1879, 20 Mar 1879, 14 Jul 1881; Advocate 13 Feb 1879; DCB; Gleaner 12 Jun 1832, 2 Oct 1832, 13 Nov 1832, 29 Jun 1847, 31 Jul 1848, 26 Apr 1851 (re. assembly debate), 2 Jun 1851, 28 Mar 1857, 24 Oct 1857, 1 Jun 1861 (ad), 24 May 1862 (ad), 9 Mar 1867; Hutchison papers; JHA 1867 (appendix re. militia); NB Courier 12 Sep 1863; PANB (files and Minutes of Session re. health officers of the port of Miramichi, quarantine, etc.)


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