LOUNSBURY, GEORGE ALBERT (1856-1902)

LOUNSBURY, GEORGE ALBERT, businessman; b. Prince William parish, York Co., N.B., 13 Feb 1856, s/o Charles Lounsbury and Phoebe L. Brown; m. Elizabeth Ann Clark, of Queensbury, York Co.; d. Newcastle, 23 Mar 1902.

George A. Lounsbury was living in his wife's home parish of Queensbury in 1886. Before moving to Newcastle he was a salesman in Fredericton for his brother-in-law John Thurston Clark, who had taken over operation of the Fredericton branch of Johnston & Co. This was a farm machinery distributorship which also had branches in Woodstock, Moncton, and Newcastle.

In 1891 Lounsbury and fellow salesman George N. Clark moved to Newcastle, where they acquired and operated the local branch of the Johnston firm. The business consisted of a warehouse on the wharf, from which "farm machinery of every description, carriages, sleighs, and pianos" were sold. Soon after their arrival they hired Johnston's former manager, George Hildebrand, a brother of Otto Hildebrand, to head up a second Clark & Lounsbury outlet in Chatham. Within a few years they also had agencies in Tracadie, Rexton, and Moncton.

In 1896 George N. Clark sold his share of the business to Lounsbury and moved to Rexton. From then onward the firm was known as G. A. Lounsbury & Co. Lounsbury endeavored to attract customers from throughout the eastern and northern regions of the province, and agencies were added at Bathurst and Campbellton. The business prospered, and in 1901 John McDonald & Co. was awarded a contract to erect a new three-storey Lounsbury Block in downtown Newcastle. In 1901-02 this structure rose on the corner formerly occupied by the Waverley Hotel.

Lounsbury took an interest in public affairs and was elected to a seat on the Newcastle Town Council in 1900. He also had sporting interests and went caribou hunting on the grounds of the Fur, Fin, and Feather Club with George Hildebrand and Charles Sargeant Jr as companions and James Waye of the Northwest as guide. He and his family were adherents of the Baptist church.

In March 1902, before the new company premises opened in Newcastle, Lounsbury died of cancer, at age forty-six. He had lived in Newcastle for more than ten years, but his funeral was held in Fredericton from the residence of his brother-in-law John T. Clark, with Premier Lemuel J. Tweedie and other dignitaries in attendance. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Ann Clark; a daughter, A. Maud Lounsbury, who married Herbert B. McDonald; and a son, G. Holland Lounsbury, who later made his home in Moncton. His estate had an estimated value of $75,000. The year after he died his widow sold her "handsome residence" in Newcastle and built a "cottage" in Fredericton. She was living in Malden, Mass., at the time of her death in 1909. In 1911, when the Newcastle Baptist church was renovated, a memorial window was given by the two Lounsbury children in memory of their parents.

G. A. Lounsbury & Co. was absorbed by the Lounsbury Co. Ltd, which was incorporated in 1902 and controlled by the Clark family of Fredericton; that is, by the family of Lounsbury's widow, who was a sister of John T. Clark. The Lounsbury Co. Ltd was a sister firm of J. Clark & Son Ltd of Fredericton, and John T. Clark's son, William G. Clark, was president of both companies from the time of their incorporation until his death in 1948. As elsewhere noted, Chester C. Hayward and Frederick E. Locke were longtime members of Lounsbury's board of directors.