CHALMERS, JOHN (1827-1859)

CHALMERS, JOHN, doctor; b. Douglastown, 1827, s/o John Chalmers Sr and Ann Buchanan; unmarried; d. Douglastown, 30 Apr 1859.

John Chalmers's father, a native of Paisley, Scotland, came to the Miramichi around 1820. After conducting an inn at Douglastown for a number of years he became an importer and auctioneer. His wife, Ann Buchanan, died in 1838, leaving him with six children, all under thirteen years of age. He and the family were residing on the Miramichi in 1851. His death occurred in Demerara, British Guiana, in 1857, possibly while he was there on business.

John Chalmers Jr attended the Newcastle Grammar School when it was conducted by John H. Sivewright and had qualified as a physician and surgeon by 1851. He practiced on the north side of the Miramichi, visiting patients as far east as Tabusintac. A silk top hat and leather hat case of his, which came into the possession of his Buchanan relatives, are now in the Tabusintac Museum. His name is also associated with a mineral collection which he amassed and cataloged, and which later came into the possession of the Miramichi Natural History Association.

Before Chalmers died in 1859, at age thirty-two, his parents' family had already been decimated by four premature deaths. Three sisters survived him, one of whom was Susan D. Chalmers, who later married the lumberman Alexander Morrison.