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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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PARK, WILLIAM (1819-1896)

PARK, WILLIAM, sawmill operator and retail merchant; b. Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 1819, s/o Adam Park and h/w Jane; m. 1848, Margaret MacLaggan, d/o Alexander MacLaggan and Catherine McNabb; d. Newcastle, 25 Nov 1896.

William Park came to the Miramichi with his parents as an infant and grew up at Douglastown. His father died around 1828, and in 1830 his mother was married to William L. Scott, a Douglastown innkeeper.

Park was enumerated as a shopkeeper in the census of 1851. In 1852 he entered into partnership with John Alexander in the erection of a steam-powered sawmill at Murray's Cove in Douglastown. When Alexander was killed accidentally in the mill that year, at age thirty-four, Park formed a new partnership with his father-in-law, Alexander MacLaggan. MacLaggan & Park were in business until 1866, and then Park was on his own. The mill was employing twenty-six men and fourteen boys on a seasonal basis in 1871 and was one of the principal businesses in Newcastle parish. The mill was still in Park's name in 1878, but by 1881 it had been taken over by D. & J. Ritchie. In the census of that year Park was enumerated as a merchant. In 1891 he had a dry-goods store. When he died in 1896 it was noted that he had been a mill owner and later a merchant.

Park and his wife, Margaret MacLaggan, had two daughters and five sons who lived to adulthood. Their daughter Catherine Park was the first wife of Dr William J. Dawson, who practiced medicine in Newcastle in the 1870s, and their daughter Christina A. Park was the wife of Dr William P. Bishop. The sons included William A. Park; James Park, who studied medicine at McGill University but did not become a doctor; and Charles P. Park, who conducted a store on the Newcastle wharf.

Sources

[b] tombstone [m] Gleaner 14 Mar 1848 [d] church records / Advance 14 Jul 1881; Advocate 23 Jun 1870 (marriage Dawson/Park), 1 May 1878, 2 Dec 1896, 31 Dec 1918, 14 Jul 1925; Gleaner 14 Jul 1855, 20 Oct 1855, 6 Oct 1866; Manny Collection (F6); Mercury 27 Jan 1829; official records (marriage Scott/Park); PANB (petition #973)


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