SOMERS, GEORGE RAYMOND (1892-1967)

SOMERS, GEORGE RAYMOND, lumberman and lumber company manager; mayor of Chatham, 1951/ 52; b. Lyttleton, 15 Apr 1892, s/o Elisha J. Somers and Ann Keys; m. 1913, Laura Eureta Taylor, d/o Milton Taylor and Annie McAllister, of Halcomb; d. Chatham, 18 Nov 1967.

G. Raymond Somers, a grandson of James A. Somers, was a lumber contractor and portable sawmill operator on the Little Southwest and Renous rivers until 1939, when he took a salaried position with the J. Leonard O'Brien lumber firm. He was manager of Chatham Industries Ltd before O'Brien sold the company in 1961, and he was later employed with South Nelson Forest Products Ltd. He resided in Chatham from the 1940s until his retirement in 1966 and then moved back to his former home at Sillikers.

Somers represented South Esk parish on the County Council from 1936 to 1943. He later sat on the Chatham Town Council and served two years as mayor. He was active in Conservative party politics and was an unsuccessful candidate in the provincial election of 1953. He was a member of the Masonic order and the Baptist church. He died two days before he was to be made a Freeman of the town of Chatham. He was survived by his wife, Laura E. Taylor, two sons, and four daughters. His son Arnold J. Somers of Sillikers was a lumber contractor, and author of the book, Memories of a Miramichi Lumberman.