MENZIES, FRANK ARCHIBALD (1882-1951)

MENZIES, FRANK ARCHIBALD, farmer, lumberman, and high sheriff, 1948-51; b. Whitneyville, 24 Sep 1882, s/o Peter Menzies and Thirza Sinclair; m. 1909, Bessie Grace Curtis, d/o Patrick Curtis and Jane Mullin, of Sunny Corner; d. Whitneyville, 26 Aug 1951.

Frank A. Menzies had a farm at Whitneyville and operated lumber camps and portable sawmills at more remote locations in the county. He was successful in this work and also in public affairs, in which he was exceptionally active. He was a Boom Road school trustee when the new superior school was built there in 1918. In 1924 he began a twenty-four-year career as county councillor for North Esk parish, and he served as warden twice during this period. In 1937 he was elected to a one-year term as president of the Union of New Brunswick Municipalities. In 1942 he was an incorporator and the first president of the Northumberland Co-Operative Creamery. He was president of the County Liberal Association from 1944 to 1948, and in 1945 was appointed as the first chairman of the Northumberland County School Finance Board. He was made a director of radio station C.K.M.R., Newcastle, in 1949. He was a Baptist and an active member of the Orange order.

In 1948 Menzies who, in the words of The Commercial-World, was "noted for his stability, sound judgment, and foresightedness," was appointed high sheriff of Northumberland County, as successor to Alexander H. MacKay. Three years later he died suddenly of a heart seizure. He was predeceased by his wife, Bessie G. Curtis, and survived by two daughters and a son. His daughter Doreen (Menzies) Arbuckle wrote the book, The North West Miramichi, which is a combination local history and Menzies family genealogy. His son, Clarence S. Menzies, was his successor in business and sat as a Liberal member of the New Brunswick legislature from 1960 to 1974.