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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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HENNESSY, PATRICK (1835-1924)

HENNESSY, PATRICK, grocer; mayor of Newcastle, 1906-07; b. Battletown, Co. Wexford, Ireland, 3 Mar 1835, s/o Michael Hennessy and Mary Hayes; m. 1866, Katherine Bannon, d/o Michael Bannon and Catherine Clarke, Irish-born residents of Rosebank; d. Newcastle, 16 Jun 1924.

Patrick Hennessy's parents came to the Miramichi in 1840, but he stayed in Ireland until 1853, when he was eighteen years of age. His father was a ship carpenter with William Abrams, and he also took up that trade, working first on Beaubear's Island and later at Rosebank. About 1873 he opened a grocery and provision store in Newcastle which he continued to operate for the next fifty years. He was also president of the Newcastle Steamboat Co., which was incorporated in 1910 to conduct a ferry service on the river, as the successor to John Russell & Co. The best known of the firm's ferries was the Max Aitken, which was commanded principally by C. Spurgeon Amos.

Hennessy was named an almshouse commissioner in 1883, and from 1906 onward he was chairman of the commission. He polled fifteenth out of sixteen candidates for places on the first Newcastle Town Council in 1899, when he ran on the rejected "People's and Temperance" ticket, but he was elected in 1900 and later served as the first Catholic mayor of Newcastle. In 1910 he was appointed to the original board of governors of St Thomas College. The next year, he was elected president of the Newcastle Board of Trade. He was also a member of the Newcastle School Board for many years. All in all, he was a successful and influential man, who was widely known for his generosity. In 1904 he contributed $500 to the building fund for St Michael's Cathedral.

Hennessy and his wife, Katherine Bannon, raised three daughters, as well as two adopted children. The daughters included Anastasia B. Hennessy, the wife of Dr Patrick F. Duffy, and Ellen K. Hennessy, the wife of Charles J. Morrissy.

Sources

[b/d] Leader 20 Jun 1924 [m] official records / Advance 24 Aug 1899, 19 Apr 1900; Advocate 11 Jul 1883, 27 Jul 1904, 20 Jun 1906, 28 Jun 1910, 12 Apr 1911; Leader 26 Jun 1974; World 28 May 1910


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