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Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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ATTRIDGE, RICHARD D. (1836-1907)

ATTRIDGE, RICHARD D., farmer, prospector and adventurer; b. Bathurst, N.B., 1836, s/o Arthur Attridge and Margaret Dawson; m. 1st, 1867, Jane Freeze, d/o Hiram Freeze and Margaret (Doak) Robinson, and 2nd, 1889, Anne W. Perley, d/o William Bryant Perley and Mary Jane Manderson, of Chatham parish; d. Doaktown, 6 Oct 1907.

As a young man, Richard D. Attridge made his way to California in search of gold, and he later "roamed through all parts of North America." While in British Columbia in the 1860s he prospected for gold along the Fraser River. In 1867, at age twenty-nine, he settled down to raise a family at Doaktown. He conducted a small store, lumbered, and farmed. In 1881 he began raising Ayrshire cattle.

Attridge was the superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school of Blissfield parish and a school trustee, almshouse commissioner, and county councillor. He was one of the correspondents who submitted "Doaktown Notes" for publication in the Miramichi Advance, and he wrote an interesting article on the Cains River for that newspaper. He prospected extensively along the Cains and other streams and always contended that there was gold to be found on the Miramichi. The North Shore Leader described him as "a strong personality," who was known throughout the district.

One of three children to survive from Attridge's marriage to Jane Freeze was a son, Melvin Herman Attridge, who was a general merchant and railway express agent at Doaktown for thirty-five years. There were also several children born of his brief second marriage to Annie W. Perley, who died in 1897, at age thirty-nine.

Sources

[b] Perley Genealogy [m] official records [d] Advocate 16 Oct 1907 / Advance 26 May 1881, 4 Mar 1897, 4 Nov 1897; Advocate 14 Jun 1898; Freeze Genealogy; Leader 18 Oct 1907; World 17 Jul 1886


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