STABLES, JAMES MACALLISTER (1879-1953)

STABLES, JAMES MACALLISTER, grocer; b. Newcastle, 2 Jun 1879, s/o George Stables and Isabella MacAllister; m. 1903, Katherine Josephine Fleming, d/o John Smellie Fleming, railway station master at Newcastle, and Lorena Katherine Weldon; d. Montreal, 9 Jan 1953.

James M. Stables joined his father's grocery business at an early age and succeeded him on his retirement in 1918. In 1923 he had a new store erected in Newcastle by the building contractor Byron A. Tozer. This was at the standard of "the most up-to-date, sanitary grocery stores in the large cities." Groceries were stocked on the main floor. The second floor had a cookeryware department and offices, while the basement was used for heavy stock and storage. For several years the store won first prize in a display-window contest sponsored by the Canadian Grocer magazine.

Stables served as president of the Newcastle branch of the Retail Merchants' Association and as vice-president of the provincial body. He was president of the Miramichi Hospital Board from 1933 to 1936. He was a member of the Highland Society for more than fifty years and president in 1943. He was also elected to the presidency of the Newcastle Curling Club and the Newcastle Agricultural Society. He displayed a keen interest in agricultural matters after he retired from business in the 1930s. He was a "dynamic figure" in the Northumberland Agricultural Council and served for a number of months in 1943 as the first manager of the Northumberland Co-Operative Creamery.

Stables and his wife, Katherine J. Fleming, raised two daughters and a son. Their daughter Margaret I. Stables was an outstanding student at Dalhousie University in the late 1920s. A teacher, her first position was on the staff of Edgehill School in Nova Scotia. From 1937 until her retirement in 1972 she was head of the commercial department of Harkins High School in Newcastle. In 1967 she was a recipient of the Centennial Medal.