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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MCDONALD, HERBERT BURDEN (1880-1950)

MCDONALD, HERBERT BURDEN, businessman, undertaker, and hotel proprietor; b. Natick, Mass., 9 Feb 1880; adopted s/o the building contractor John McDonald; m. 1905, Alice Maud Lounsbury, d/o George Albert Lounsbury and Elizabeth Ann Clark; d. Chatham, 2 Mar 1950.

In 1896 Herbert McDonald went to Saint John to take a commercial course and pursue the study of the violin. He graduated the following spring from the St John Business College. Later he was also said to have been "a graduate of the offices of R. C. John Dunn," the Saint John architect. As a young man, he worked in his foster father's construction business in Chatham and was the designer of the first Lounsbury Block in Newcastle in 1901.

McDonald was a director of the Miramichi Steam Navigation Co., of which John P. Burchill was president, and by 1905 was acting as company manager on a part-time basis. In 1913 his name was listed as that of both manager and treasurer of the company. Meanwhile, in 1910, he opened a hardware, flour, and feed store in Chatham. He was also in the coal business, and for a number of years prior to 1920 had primary responsibility for the undertaking and embalming service introduced many years previously by John McDonald. Around 1927 he took over operation of the Hotel Touraine, which he had purchased in 1914. On 7 February 1951, less than a year after his death, the Touraine, which was the grandest hotel in Chatham's history, was destroyed by fire.

McDonald served on the Chatham Town Council and was active in numerous community organizations, including the Miramichi Exhibition Association, the Riverside Cemetery Co., the Miramichi Golf and Country Club, and the Presbyterian-United Church. He was an accomplished violinist and a well-known sportsman. He was predeceased by his wife, A. Maud Lounsbury. His survivors were a son and a daughter.

Sources

[b] official records [m] Advocate 8 Feb 1905 [d] Commercial World 2 Mar 1950 / Advance 15 Oct 1896, 3 Jun 1897, 2 Jan 1902; Commercial World 8 Feb 1951; Leader 29 Nov 1994, 20 Jun 1995; Martin; World 11 Oct 1905, 2 Dec 1914

Notes

See Edward A. Menzies.


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