Kennedy Francis Burns (January 8, 1842 – June 23, 1895) 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 ...

businessman and politician of the Liberal party.

Biography

Born a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Thomastown Thomastown (), historically known as Grennan, is a town in County Kilkenny in the province of Leinster in the south-east of Ireland. It is a market town along a stretch of the River Nore which is known for its salmon and trout, with a number of ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

, he emigrated to

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...

. He worked as a clerk for a merchant at

Chatham, New Brunswick Chatham is an urban neighbourhood in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. Prior to municipal amalgamation in 1995, Chatham was an incorporated town in Northumberland County along the south bank of the Miramichi River opposite Douglasto ...

and was sent by the same employer to

Bathurst, New Brunswick Bathurst ( 2021 population; UA 12,157 ) is the largest City in Northern New Brunswick, it overlooks the Nepisiguit Bay, part of Chaleur Bay and is at the estuary of the Nepisiguit River. As part of the New Brunswick local governance reform , e ...

in 1861. There he bought his employer's store in 1863. On 26 September 1865, Burns married Harriet McKenna. After he acquired property at a place later known as Burnsville on the

Caraquet River The Caraquet River is a river in north-eastern New Brunswick, Canada which empties into the Caraquet Bay north of Caraquet. The river's name means "meeting of two rivers" in the Mi'kmaq language. River Communities *Bertrand * Burnsville River Cr ...

, including a hydraulically-powered

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

, he entered the lumber trade as K.F. Burns and Company. With his brother-in-law Samuel Adams he formed in 1878 the Burns, Adams and Company and built in East Bathurst a steam-powered sawmill, which entered production in 1880. Adams left the company in 1880, and it reverted to its former name. Initially, the company exported its Burnsville lumber from

Caraquet Caraquet ( ) is a town in Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada. Situated on the shore of Chaleur Bay in the Acadian Peninsula, its name is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for ''meeting of two rivers''. The Caraquet River and Rivière du Nor ...

to Britain, and then, after the 1885 opening of the

Caraquet and Gulf Shore Railway The Caraquet and Gulf Shore Railway was a short line railway on the south shore of Chaleur Bay in New Brunswick that ran for 75 miles between Bathurst and Tracadie with a spur line to Shippagan. Completed in 1890, it became part of the Canadian N ...

, all lumber was shipped from Bathurst. Burns was the instigator of the C&GS Railway, later serving as its president. Around 1890, Burns formed the St. Lawrence Lumber Company (SLLC), of which he was President. This company owned at Bersimis, Quebec a sawmill; and amalgamated the mills at Burnsville and Bathurst. It was financed chiefly by Novelli and Co., and when the London financiers went bankrupt in 1894, the SLLC foundered. Burns died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

at the age of 53 in Bathurst on 23 June 1895. He left four daughters.

Political career

Burns was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

in 1874 for Gloucester County, serving until 1878. As a Roman Catholic, he opposed the

Common Schools Act of 1871 The ''Common Schools Act of 1871'' (the Act) was legislation of the Canada, Canadian New Brunswick, Province of New Brunswick, passed by the 22nd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, which replaced the ''Parish Schools Act'' of 1858. The legislation ...

and formed a legal defence fund for the people who had been charged in the wake of the riots and manslaughter at Caraquet over the issue. He was first elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

representing the New Brunswick riding of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

in the 1882 federal elections. He was re-elected in the 1887 election and the 1891 election. Burns supported Prime Minister

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

’s

National Policy The National Policy was a Canadian economic program introduced by John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party in 1876. After Macdonald led the Conservatives to victory in the 1878 Canadian federal election, he began implementing his policy in 1879. The ...

, and in turn it led to his rise as railway industrialist. In 1893, he was summoned to the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

. He sat as a Liberal-Conservative and represented the senatorial division of New Brunswick. He served until his death at Bathurst in 1895.

Legacy

After the death of Burns and twinned with the disestablishment of Novelli & Company in March 1894, the ''Courrier des Provinces Maritimes'' reported 19 September 1895 that the Sumner Company from Moncton had purchased the SLLC, but two weeks later the same newspaper reported that the English shareholders had rejected the offer of $29,000, in favour of Adams & Co. of New York. Brother-in-law Samuel had combined with his own brother, Thomas D., Patrick J. Burns, Theobald M. Burns and John Flanigan to re-form Adams, Burns and Company. By November 1895 the assets in the county had been settled, and work advanced as planned over the winter of 1895. In 1914 after a period of fluidity in the region's establishment, the

Bathurst Power and Paper Company Established in 1914, the Bathurst Power and Paper Company was a combined logging, lumber mill and wood-pulp paper company that supplied its own electric power from Nepisiguit Grand Falls. Its operations were centred at Bathurst, New Brunswick. Aft ...

would emerge from the ABC amalgamated together with various local interests. In time, the result would come to be owned by the conglomerate

Power Corporation of Canada Power Corporation of Canada () is a management and holding company that focuses on financial services in North America, Europe and Asia. Its core holdings are insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment management, including a portfol ...

and later still the

Stone Container Corporation Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation was a global paperboard and paper-based packaging company based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, with approximately 21,000 employees. In 2007, Smurfit-Stone was ranked 13 in PricewaterhouseC ...

, which shuttered it in 2005 because of global overcapacity in the pulp and paper business brought on by the post-millennial trend towards a paperless office and the electronic newsreader.

Electoral record

References

Bibliography