Murchie, James

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: T. W. Acheson, “MURCHIE, JAMES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/murchie_james_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, businessman, jp, militia officer, and politician; b. 16 Aug. 1813 in St Stephen (St Stephen-Milltown), N.B., son of Daniel Murchie and Janet Campbell; m. first 1 Nov. 1836 Mary Ann Grimmer, and they had six sons and five daughters; m. secondly January 1860 Margaret Jane Thorpe, and they had two sons and one daughter; d. 27 May 1900 in Milltown (St Stephen-Milltown).
    • Shortly before the American revolution, James Murchie’s grandfather Andrew Murchie left Paisley, Scotland, with his wife and sons and settled in the American colonies. Following the revolution they moved to New Brunswick and by 1789 had taken up land in St Stephen Parish. 
    • Murchie realized that power and independence of operation depended on ownership of the timber land. Traditionally, access to timber in New Brunswick was obtained by the lease of substantial tracts of crown land. After the House of Assembly acquired control of the crown lands in 1837, five-year leases were normally granted in return for a payment of ten shillings a square mile and a small stumpage fee for each ton of timber cut. Murchie claimed that he built his initial capital by acquiring leases in the 1840s, beginning with small tracts and gradually expanding to the point where he was leasing several thousand acres of woodland and employing crews to cut there.
    • Murchie built his fortune slowly. For 17 years he remained a farmer and small lumberman, working in the woods with his crew and selling his logs to sawmill owners in the St Stephen area. By 1853 he had accumulated $20,000, and that year he decided to make the transition to timber merchant. He acquired a sawmill in the Milltown area of St Stephen Parish and opened a general store, through which he participated in the truck trade. In the process he abandoned his farm and moved to Milltown, where he eventually built a fine three-storey wooden mansion to accommodate his growing family.
    • In addition to running his firm Murchie moved to the centre of the major corporate activities of the leading timber merchants of the St Croix. The economic life of the region was dominated by a dozen families drawn largely from the extended clans of Todds, Eatons, Porters, McAllisters, Marks, and Chipmans. This group controlled the St Stephen’s Bank, the notes of which provided the principal circulating medium of western New Brunswick and eastern Maine. Murchie served as a director of the bank for more than 20 years. He was a promoter of local railway lines in New Brunswick and Maine, and he served as vice-president of the New Brunswick and Canada Railroad and trustee of the St Croix and Penobscot Railroad. He was also president of the St Croix Lloyds Insurance Company.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6113
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/161283157/james-simpson-murchie