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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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DUNCAN, ANDREW (1799-1882)

DUNCAN, ANDREW, stagecoach owner and operator; b. Scotland, c1799; m. Sarah - ; d. Chatham, 24 Jun 1882.

Andrew Duncan entered the province in 1835 and settled on a farm at Chatham. In 1851 he was working as a constable. In 1853 he introduced a twice-daily summer stagecoach service between Chatham and Newcastle. By 1859 the business was sufficiently successful to permit him to purchase an expensive new "Omnibus." Duncan's Stage became an institution. "If we went on pleasant trip," wrote Hedley Parker, with reference to the late 1860s, "we went on Duncan's stage." The principal competition at the time was Ullock's Stage, which William Ullock was running three times daily on the Newcastle-Chatham route in 1868.

In 1872 Duncan's stage was involved in an accident in which a passenger was seriously injured. In spite of this and of the fact that he was about seventy-four years old, Duncan offered the service again in the summer of 1873. It was around this time, however, that the Newcastle-Chatham stagecoaches were superseded by the passenger steam ferries. The first of these was Call & Miller's NEW ERA, which was placed on the river in 1872 and was running between Newcastle and Chatham on a regular schedule by 1874.

In 1848 Duncan was a charter member of the Chatham division of the Sons of Temperance. He was a trustee of the Methodist church in 1885. He and his wife had no children living at home when the various census enumerations were done.

Sources

[d] Advocate 28 Jun 1882 / Advocate 21 May 1873; Gleaner 16 May 1853, 7 May 1859; Parker; World 13 Jun 1885 (re. new Methodist church)


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