1932, Archibald Fraser Fatally Stricken on Holiday Trip

From the archives, here is a transcription from the newspaper The Montreal Gazette, published on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1932:

archibaldfraserfatallystricken“(By the Canadian Press.) Edmundston, N.B., October 10.––Victim of a sudden heart attack, Archibald Fraser, Edmundston, president of Fraser Companies, Limited, and a director of the Royal Bank of Canada and other financial organizations, dropped dead four miles from his hunting lodge at Nictau, on the Tobique River in Victoria County, at 1 p.m. today.

Mr. and Mrs. Fraser had left their home in Edmundston to spend the Thanksgiving holiday at their hunting lodge, which is about 30 minutes from Plaster Rock. Mr. Fraser had been in good health and spirits and had anticipated his holiday with much pleasure. While in the woods, four miles from his lodge at one p.m. today he shot a bird, took two steps towards the fallen creature and dropped dead before the horrified eyes of his nephew, Mac Fraser, aged 17, and a guide, John Clark. They hurriedly placed the body in the canoe and paddled the four miles down river to the camp.

The funeral will be held at Fredericton on Wednesday at 2.30 p.m. from St. Paul’s Church, with burial at the rural cemetery at Fredericton. The body was taken to Fredericton tonight and will be taken to the church at 10 o’clock Wednesday morning, where it will lie until the services.

Mr. Fraser is survived by his wife, formerly Miss Evelyn Whyte, of Edinburgh, Scotland, formerly stenographer with the legal firm at Fredericton, N.B. of Hanson and Dougherty (R. B. Hanson, K.C., M. P. for York–Sunbury and C. L. Dougherty). They were married on June 25, 1930, in London, England, returning to New Brunswick in July, 1930 after a honeymoon in Paris, and taking up residence at Edmundston.

For many years Mr. Fraser made his home at Fredericton, N.B., before taking up residence at Edmundston. His first wife, Miss Agnes Dunbar, Woodstock, N.B., whom he married in 1902, died in 1911.  Surviving are two sons by that marriage, Donald and Archibald, both of Edmundston, and one daughter, Nan, whose husband, Hugh Kennedy, of Montreal, died suddenly in New York a few months ago while on a business trip to that city. Mrs. Kennedy had been at Edmundston at her father’s home for the last several weeks. One brother, Donald Fraser, lives at Plaster Rock,. N.B.

In Business with Father

Mr. Fraser was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on April 22, 1869, son of Donald and Ann (Reith) Fraser. His family came to New Brunswick as Kincardine Scotch colonists, his father opening, a short time later, a lumber mill at River de Chute, Carleton County, where the young Fraser began his apprenticeship at the age of 14, to learn the business from the ground up. He entered into partnership at the age of 21 with his father and his brother. Donald, Jr., under the firm name of Donald Fraser and Sons. Years later Archibald Fraser organized the present Fraser Companies, Limited, one of the largest and most far-flung lumber and pulp and paper firms on the North American continent. The manufacture of pulp was commenced by the Fraser Companies, Limited in 1915.

Mr. Fraser’s rise to his present eminent position was meteoric. He started on the bottom rung of the ladder and by sheer zeal and ability forced himself to the top.

The man’s prominence in the industrial and business life of the Maritimes and the Dominion was exemplified by the following offices he held:  President of Fraser Companies, Limited; president of Fraser Paper, Limited; president of the Restigouche Company, Limited; director of the Royal Bank of Canada; director of the New Brunswick Telephone Company, Limited; president of Snowflake Limited, Saint John; director of the Maritime Trust Company, Saint John, and director of Rolland Paper Company.”

See the story here.