Читать книгу A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography - Various - Страница 179

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Humphrey, John Albert, M.P.P. for Westmoreland, New Brunswick, Moncton, was born at Southampton, Nova Scotia, in 1823, and is the second son of William and Mary Trueman Humphrey. The father and mother of William Humphrey, the grandparents of the subject of this sketch, came from Yorkshire, England, in 1775, to Halifax, and purchased a farm at Falmouth, near Windsor, Nova Scotia, and remained there until 1797, when William Humphrey died. Three years afterwards his widow and five children removed to Sackville, New Brunswick, where William, her second surviving son, married in 1821, Mary, daughter of William Trueman, who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1775, and settled at Pointe du Bute. The young couple resided at Sackville after their marriage until 1822, when they removed to Southampton, Nova Scotia, and here John Albert first saw the light. Here, and subsequently at Amherst, and at the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, he received his education. After leaving school he went into business, and from 1845 to 1849 conducted a general milling business for his father, when he purchased what is now known as the Humphrey’s Mills, at Moncton, and removed there. In 1872 he was elected to represent Westmoreland county in the legislature of New Brunswick, and again in 1874 he was returned by the same constituency, but in 1878 he was defeated. He, however, again presented himself for parliamentary honours in 1882, and was elected, and at the general election in 1886 he was honoured once more by being made a member of the Provincial parliament. Mr. Humphrey is now, and from the inception has been, a director in and one of the largest stockholders of the Moncton Gas Light and Water Company, organized in 1878; is a director in and one of the largest stockholders of the Moncton Sugar Refining Company, organized in 1880, and a director and large shareholder in the Moncton Cotton Manufacturing Company, organized in 1883. Mr. Humphrey is also the chief owner of the Moncton woollen manufactory, at Humphrey’s Mills, started in 1884. In religion, he is an adherent of the Methodist church, as nearly all his father’s family have been for the past three generations. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and a strong supporter of the school system, of the union of the provinces, and of the national policy. In 1855, Mr. Humphrey married Sarah Jane, eldest daughter of Michael S. Harris, shipbuilder and merchant, of Moncton.