For Sale - MEMORIES OF THE MIRAMICHI - William Cleophas Gaynor was born in Chatham, New Brunswick in 1855 and spent his childhood and youthful years there and in several of the other communities which comprise the present city of Miramichi. He left home in the 1870s to study for the Catholic priesthood and was subsequently curate of St. John the Baptist Church in Saint John, N.B., as well as a sportsman, amateur photographer, author, and newspaper editor.

MEMORIES OF THE MIRAMICHI by William Cleophas Gaynor. Miramichi Books, Saint John, N.B., 2000. First edition, 56 pages. William C. Gaynor was born in Chatham, New Brunswick, in 1855 and spent his childhood and youthful years there and in several of the other communities which comprise the present city of Miramichi. He left home in the 1870s to study for the Catholic priesthood and was subsequently curate of St. John the Baptist Church in Saint John, NewBrunswick, as well as a sportsman, amateur photographer, author, and newspaper editor. In 1913, he published his Memories of the Miramichi in a series of thirteen articles in the Chatham World, and it is an edition of these lively, often humorous recollections which constitute the subject matter of this publication. The book also contains a photo and biographical sketch of the author and an index of surnames which occur in the text.

A Hard to find book.

Book 4066 - D $29.95 plus $ 8.00 shipping and handling within North America - good condition with very minor shelf and handling wear

Book 7042 -D $19.95 plus $ 8.00 shipping and handling within North America - book shows shelf and handling wear and one corner has a crease.

Book 8027 - D $39.95 plus $ 8.00 shipping and handling within North America Very good condition almost as new.

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William C. Gaynor decided in 1913 to share some of his stories. He was born in Chatham in 1855 and spent his childhood and youthful years there and in Newcastle and Douglastown. He left home in the 1870s to study for the Catholic priesthood and was later curate of St. John the Baptist Church in Saint John and a colorful and controversial figure in the city. He was also a sportsman, amateur photographer, author, and newspaper editor. In 1913, he published his memories of the Miramichi anonymously in a series of thirteen articles in the newspaper the Chatham World, and eighty-seven years later an edition of these lively, often humorous recollections has been published as a book entitled "Memories of the Miramichi".

In one of Gaynor's articles, he recalls that the three 'best men' of the Miramichi in the 1860s were John Tierney, John Gaynor, and Aleck Carrigan.... "I witnessed the famous fight between Tierney and a gigantic English sailor on the flats at Newcastle," he wrote," and saw him send the Englishman to the ground three times hand-running, and take a chew of tobacco while the other was struggling to his feet."

Father Gaynor also voiced his opinion of public figures of his time. Here he is speaking of Peter Mitchell, one of the Miramichi's two Fathers of Confederation: "In his palmiest days, when Northern New Brunswick was at his feet, Mitchell would quit the presence of the Governor General to shake hands with a Miramichi Indian. He never forgot his own, and whatever was Miramichi was his, Protestant and Catholic alike....He had risen, but it was by his own exertions, and he pulled no man down in the effort.... No massive tombstone, no eloquent monument marks his resting place, naught but a plain marble slab that bears those still magic words: 'Peter Mitchell'."