MACMILLAN, MILES (1810-1876)

MACMILLAN, MILES, lumberman, mill owner, general merchant, and JP; b. Williamstown, near Cornwall, Ont., 1810 (bap. Charlottenburgh, Ont., 14 Oct 1810), s/o Alexander MacMillan and Grace MacLaggan; m. 1836, Sarah Catherine Pond, d/o Abel Pond and Sarah Estey; d. Boiestown, 13 Mar 1876.

At the time of Miles MacMillan's birth his father was serving in the army in Upper Canada, but both his father and mother (a sister of Alexander MacLaggan) were former residents of the Nashwaak, and they returned to New Brunswick in 1818.

MacMillan worked in the lumber industry on the upper reaches of the Southwest Miramichi from an early age. In 1850 he acquired the former Thomas Boies lumber, grist, and carding mills from Gilmour, Rankin & Co., and he operated these in conjunction with a general mercantile business from that time onward. He was appointed postal way office keeper at Boiestown in 1852, as well as a justice of the peace.

MacMillan and his wife, Sarah C. Pond, had a large family, which included Daniel MacMillan, who kept the Boiestown post office from 1876 to 1881; Alexander MacMillan, who with his wife, Janet MacKay, ran "a very nice hotel" at Boiestown; Margaret MacMillan, the first wife of the Rev. Isaac N. Parker; Elizabeth M. MacMillan, the wife of James A. Rundle; and M. Herbert MacMillan, the proprietor of a boot and shoe store in Newcastle from 1897 to 1905.