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Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics

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Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 92 Number 316

Date November 1 1894
County Charlotte
Place Saint Andrews
Newspaper St. Andrews Beacon

info The language of the text is the original used in the newspaper entry and as transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson. Records acquired by the Provincial Archives are not translated from the language in which they originate.

Most of the old residents of St. Andrews will remember Neil MORRISON, a curly-headed, close-fisted, good-natured, slow-going bg Scotchman who 25 or 35 years ago resided here and traded in a little schooner with St. John. He moved here with his family from St. George where they had lived a dozen years. Though he was as canny as Scotchmen usually are and as fond of the dollars - indeed, it is said, that on one occasion he sued his maternal ancestor who was departing for California without squaring up a little account she owed him - he was never able to make a pile and after running the schrs. "Snow Shoe" and "Spartan" several years, he concluded that he would abandon the life of a trader and settled down on shore. He thereupon removed to St. John and began stevedoring. But stevedoring did not prove a much greater business than trading, though it yielded him an easy and comfortable living and it is possible that Neil would have ended his days without knowing what it was to be a millionaire, if he had not happened to have an uncle. This uncle's name was Wm McKAY; he was his mother's brother. He was a Scotchman too. Early in life he emigrated to America and with his brother, Daniel McKAY, enlisted in a highland regiment stationed in Upper Canada. But the restraint of barracks life proved too irksome for them and one day Daniel and William did not respond to their names when roll was called. They drifted to Ohio where Daniel settled down. But William was a rover. When the California gold fever broke out, he was among those who went in search of the precious metal. He made some money there, but when the news of the rich diamond mines in South Africa reached his ears, Calidornia lost its attractions for him and it was not long before he was on board ship bound for Kimberley. As the story goes he became a money lender and a speculator in South Africa and when the grim messenger appeared to him a year or so ago and summoned him away from his money bags, it was found that he had left behind him some fifteen million dollars! He was never married so all his wealth will have to be divided among the surviving members of his family of whom Neil Morrison is one. This is the story, but it has not received full confirmation yet.

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