Harry Allen Corey (March 12, 1901 – January 20, 1989) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

entrepreneur and politician. In 1924, he married Nelda Stairs, daughter of Ernest W. Stairs, a prominent Southampton, New Brunswick,

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

er and a member of the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

. Corey entered the

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

business in his early twenties, first working in forestry in his home area in northern York County, New Brunswick before settling in

Millinocket, Maine Millinocket is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census. Millinocket's economy has historically been centered on forest products and recreation, but the paper company closed in 2008. History ...

, where

Great Northern Paper Company Great Northern Paper Company was a Maine-based pulp and paper manufacturer that at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s operated mills in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, and Wisconsin and produced 16.4% of the newsprint made in the United States. It was also ...

owned vast timberlands and operated the second largest newsprint mill in the state. Unusual for the time, his wife Nelda played an active role in the creation and development of the family's lumber business which led the couple to the small community of Harvey, New Brunswick, where they made their permanent home in the 1930s. Highly successful, Corey's lumber operations grew to employ more than five hundred people. Introduced to politics by his father-in-law, in the

1944 New Brunswick general election The 1944 New Brunswick general election was held on August 28, 1944, to elect 48 members to the 40th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The incumbent Liberal government was re-elected ...

, Corey was elected to the

40th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly The 40th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly represented New Brunswick between February 20, 1945, and May 8, 1948. It was elected in the 1944 New Brunswick general election and subsequent by-elections. William George Clark served as Lieutenant-Gov ...

as the Liberal Party's candidate for York County. He was returned to office in the 1948 election. Following his party's defeat in the 1952 election, he was voted President of the

New Brunswick Liberal Association The New Brunswick Liberal Association (french: Association libérale du Nouveau-Brunswick), more popularly known as the New Brunswick Liberal ''Party'' or Liberal Party of New Brunswick, is one of the two major provincial political parties in New ...

, a position he held from 1953 to 1959. Corey died in 1989 and is buried in Harvey.

Antecedents

He was a fifth generation descendant of Loyalist Gideon Corey of North Kingston, Washington County, Rhode Island, who came to Canada at the peace in 1783. He was a fifth generation descendant of Donald MacDonald, native of the Isle of Skye, who migrated to New Brunswick prior to 1790 first settling in the Moncton area and marrying Ann Smith and later moved to New Canaan, Brunswick Parish, in Queens County where he acquired and operated a grist mill and farm. He was a sixth generation descendant through Ann Smith aforesaid to planters James and Martha Smith who arrived in the Moncton area from Philadelphia in June, 1766, having arranged to take up land granted to a Philadelphia syndicate that included Benjamin Franklin as one of the owners. James Smith is thought to have married Martha in Halifax after he arrived there in 1749 with then-Colonel Cornwallis. After the hostilities with the French ended in 1760, he was released from further duty, and he and his family hitched a ride on a British transport or supply ship headed to the British headquarters in Philadelphia. He was living there when this Moncton opportunity appeared. He was a third cousin once removed to Richard Chapman Weldon QC, PhD (Harvard), MP, Albert County Politician and co-founder and first dean of Dalhousie Law School in Halifax through his great-great-grandmother Ann Smith whose sister Martha Smith married John Geldart and in time became great-grandparents of Dean Weldon.

External links

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corey, Harry A. 1901 births 1989 deaths Members of the United Church of Canada Canadian businesspeople in timber New Brunswick Liberal Association MLAs People from York County, New Brunswick People from Millinocket, Maine 20th-century Canadian businesspeople Burials in Canada