BENSON, JAMES FREDERICK (1874-1921)

BENSON, JAMES FREDERICK, newspaper publisher and editor; b. Chatham, 6 Jan 1874 (bap. 11 Mar 1874), s/o James Vallick Benson and Mary Ann Fish; d. Chatham, 15 Sep 1921.

A grandson of Dr Stafford Benson, who died before he was born, J. Frederick Benson became the Chatham agent for Yost typewriters in 1893, at age nineteen, and would do typing for a fee. He also worked for a time on the office staff of the Maritime Fibre Co. mill in Chatham. In 1897 he opened a job printing office, and on 1 December of that year brought out the first issue of a monthly newspaper called the Nugget. This was superseded on 1 September 1898 by The Commercial, a weekly newspaper which paid special attention to business activity on the Miramichi. He conducted this paper on a private basis, sometimes with the help of hired editors, until shortly before his death. At that time a joint stock company was formed which continued to publish it until 1929. It was then merged with The World as The Commercial and The World, which was later called The Commercial-World.

Benson was a Chatham town councillor for many years and a representative of the town on the County Council. He was elected warden in 1912. In 1913 he was a member of the board of directors of the Miramichi Exhibition Association. He was a vestryman of the Anglican church. When he died in 1921, at age forty-seven, his named survivors were a sister and a brother. His brother, William Fish Benson, was with the Bank of Montreal in England and later managed the bank's branch in Paris, France.