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Archives provinciales du Nouveau-Brunswick

Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MARTIN, JOHN STEPHEN (1880-1940)

MARTIN, JOHN STEPHEN, general merchant, musician, labor leader, and MLA; b. Chatham, 26 Dec 1880, s/o Maxime Martin and Catherine Stapleton; m. 1907, Mary F. Cassidy, d/o Charles A. Cassidy and Mary Hanlon; d. Chatham, 4 Jun 1940.

After working as a store clerk in Chatham for a number of years John S. Martin became a general merchant in his own right. He also pursued an interest in music, playing cornet and becoming a band leader at an early age. In 1915 he was on a committee established by the town council to reorganize the Chatham Citizens Band. During World War I he was a violinist with the Patriotic Orchestra, which was featured at events sponsored by the Red Cross Society and other organizations supportive of the war effort. In 1938 he was leading St Michael's Band.

Martin was a town councillor for a time and president of the Chatham Board of Trade. He played an important part in the promotion of industrial workers' unions on the Miramichi. Together with Henry H. Stuart, he was a spokesman for labor during a strike of Newcastle waterfront and lumber mill workers in 1919. In 1920 Stuart and he were elected first and second vice-president respectively of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour.

In the 1920 provincial election Martin ran as an independent labor candidate with the endorsement of an alliance of Miramichi rural and union interests. He was successful in that contest and occupied his seat until 1925. He did not reoffer. In 1922 he was appointed as the province's representative on the Employment Service Council of Canada.

Martin and his wife, Mary F. Cassidy, had eight children whose contribution to the Catholic church, the professions, and the intellectual and cultural life of the Atlantic region has been substantial. None was better known or more admired than Father George W. Martin, LLD, professor, registrar, and later president of St Thomas University.

Sources

[b/d] church records [m] PPMP / Advocate 16 Jun 1925; Chapman; Commercial World 25 Aug 1949; Graves; Leader 7 Jun 1940, 2 Apr 1970, 27 Jun 1995; World 11 Sep 1915, 20 May 1922


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