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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MENZIES, JOHN (1835-1910)

MENZIES, JOHN, liquor inspector; b. North Esk parish, 4 Apr 1835, s/o John Menzies Sr, a native of Jamestown, Westerkirk parish, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and Mary Ann Forsyth; m. 1st, 1858, Barbara McKay, d/o Robert McKay and Alice Parret, and 2nd, 1903, Catherine M. (Ferguson) Blackmore, d/o Daniel Ferguson and Elizabeth Hubbard, and wid/o David N. Blackmore, all of North Esk parish; d. Cassilis, 18 Mar 1910.

As a young man, John Menzies went to the United States to find a career in the lumber industry, but after spending a year in Maine and a year in Pennsylvania, he returned to the Miramichi. He engaged in farming and lumbering, and later in railway and bridge construction work, with Anthony R. Adams as partner. He and Adams had the contract for a major renovation of the Northwest Bridge about 1880, and in 1881 they rebuilt spans of the Bay du Vin Bridge.

Menzies's chief claim to remembrance rests on the last eighteen years of his life, in which he served as Canada Temperance Act, or Scott Act, inspector for Northumberland County. He was appointed in 1892, as successor to William S. Brown. The duties of the position were especially onerous because there were large profits to be made by persons who could successfully circumvent the act. While carrying out a raid on a private home soon after his appointment he was struck in the face by a woman wielding a flatiron. On another occasion he was offered a bribe larger than his annual salary if he would look the other way. Persons who cooperated with him were threatened with having their houses burned. Merchants who served on an advisory committee on the enforcement of the act had their stores boycotted.

In 1895 the County Council passed a vote of confidence in Menzies. The Sons of Temperance, of which he was a member, also approved heartily of his efforts. The press applauded him, and even his enemies had to admit that he was "a most efficient and incorruptible officer." He remained on the job until his death in 1910, being as successful, no doubt, as any appointee could have been in such a position.

As the leading Presbyterian church trustee at Whitneyville, Menzies shouldered the "main burden of the labor and responsibility" for the erection of St Philip's Church in 1886. He was later a church elder for many years and an active member of the Orange order. He was survived in 1910 by his second wife, Catherine (Ferguson) Blackmore, and his son Edward A. Menzies, as well as three other children from his marriage to Barbara McKay.

Sources

[b] church records [m] Gleaner 31 Jul 1858; World 7 Oct 1903 [d] Leader 25 Mar 1910 / Advocate 1 Jun 1881, 24 Nov 1886, 30 Jan 1895, 20 Oct 1897, 23 Jun 1937, 6 Oct 1937; Arbuckle; Biog. Review NB


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