History of the Adams, Burns and Company which led to the purchase of the East Bathurst Sawmill by the Bathurst Lumber Company in 1912.
Kennedy Francis Burns, of Ireland, was working as a clerk for the firm John Burke, a general merchant in Chatham, NB. In 1861, he was sent to work in Burke's store in Bathurst. Two years later, in 1863, he bought the store and went on his own. He married Harriet McKenna in Bathurst, NB on the 26th of September 1865. In 1874 he bought 50 acres of land on the Caraquet River from Joseph Poirier of Grande-Anse who had a water-operated sawmill. Burns took over the operation of the sawmill and formed the K.F. Burns and Company. In 1878, Kennedy Francis Burns with his brother Patrick and his brother-in-law Samuel Adams, formed the Burns, Adams and Company and built a steam-powered sawmill in East Bathurst. It went into production in the spring of 1880. Adams left the company in 1880 and its name reverted back to K.F. Burns and Company. From 1877 to 1885 lumber from the water-operated mill in Burnsville was exported to Great Britain from Caraquet and the production from the steam-mill in East Bathurst was exported from Bathurst. "Le Courrier des Provinces Maritimes" reported on October 8th, 1885 that the King Oscar, a 356 ton ship, under the command of Capt C.L. Neilson of Norway, was loading from Caraquet for the KF Burns & Co. After the Caraquet Railway was opened in 1885 (it quickly became apparent that the railway existed chiefly to serve Burns' interests - the line made a 13-mile detour to reach his sawmill), all lumber was exported from Bathurst. The "Courrier" also reported on July 22, 1886 that the previous Sunday the blacksmith shop caught on fire around 6 in the morning and spread to the barn in the back of the shop. Twenty horses were saved. There were fears for the mill and the train station but they were spared. The damages were evaluated at $1200. That same year, the K.F. Burns and Company constructed a large building 85 X 28 near their mill in Bathurst for the repairs of engines and railway cars for the Caraquet Railway.
Around1890, Burns founded the St. Lawrence Lumber Company, of which he was President. This firm owned a mill at Bersimis, Que. The community is located 50 km from Baie-Comeau along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.
The mills in Burnsville and East Bathurst, established by Burns, also came under the control of the St. Lawrence Lumber Company. It was financed by British capital, and when the London firm of Novelli went bankrupt in 1894, the St. Lawrence Lumber Company collapsed. K.F. Burns died at Bathurst the following year on June 23, 1895 at the age of 53 years old. The newspaper "Courrier des Provinces Maritimes" reported on September 19, 1895 that the Sumner Company from Moncton had bought the St. Lawrence Lumber Co. for $29,000. But on October 3rd, 1895 it was reported in same newspaper that the offer made by the Sumner Company to buy the sawmill in Bathurst was not accepted in England. According to the newspaper report, the new owner, Thomas D. Adams, who paid cash, also bought the mill in Burnsville and the Ord property, situated 2 miles from Bathurst. The assets were actually bought from the receivers in London by Samuel Adams of Adams & Co. of New York. Samuel Adams, with his brother Thomas D. Adams, Patrick J. Burns, Theobald M. Burns and John Flanigan carried on under the name of Adams, Burns, & Co. Thomas D. Adams became the resident manager and Patrick J. Burns, who had been the superintendent of the East Bathurst mill for the St. Lawrence Lumber Company, continued in that position. The newspaper "Courrier" notes that on November 14, 1895, M. Novelli, from Liverpool is in Bathurst to settle the assets of the St. Lawrence Lumber Co. Thomas D. Adams and Samuel Adams now have all the assets of the company in the County. Operations will resume at the sawmill and the winter logging season will begin.
The "Courrier" notes on April 15, 1897 that the Adams, Burns & Co. will install electric lights in the sawmill so as to operate day and night. The lights were tried for the first time on the 14th of May, 1897. A total of 126 lights were installed in the sawmill and vicinity.
In 1898, the Adams, Burns & Co. had 250 square miles (64,800 ha.) of forest limits in the Bathurst region. The following year, the firm proposed to get involved into the production of pulp and received from the County Council an exemption from taxes for a 20 year period. The project however did not materialize. Also that year, 1899, the "Courrier des Provinces Maritimes" notes that the bridge,near the Adams Burns sawmill, burns on June 22 around 8 o'clock. The bridge has a wooden section of 350 feet on the east side while the rest is made of steel and stone. One hundred and sixty-four feet of the wooden section was destroyed by the fire. On Oct 25, 1900, the "Courrier" reports that Georges I Theriault & Co. is the new owner of the mill in Burnsville which has been closed for the past few months. The same newspaper indicates that the Adams Burns establishment of Burnsville is destroyed by fire on Thursday, February 7th, 1901.
On October 6th, 1909, the Adam, Burns & Company sold the East Bathurst Mill to the Nepisiguit Lumber Company. George W. Sisson, owner of the A. Sherman Lumber Company in the State of New York, with his sons, controlled a large interest in the Nepisiguit Lumber Company. Associated with the Sissons in the enterprise were others from Springfield, Mass. George Gilbert, a lawyer living in Bathurst at the time, indicates that Fred S. Morse of Springfield, NY (Mass.?), who was associated with the Racquette River Paper Company of Potsdam, N.Y., was also a partner. George W. Sission was the one who was largely instrumental in establishing the Racquette River Paper Company. It was noted in the Gloucester Northern Light of May 14, 1914 that a Mr. E.R. Safford of Potsdam, N.Y., formerly with the Nepisiguit Lumber Co., was in town (Bathurst) renewing old acquaintances for a few days during the week.
In 1909, the Americans also bought the assets of the O.F. Stacy Company, a shingle milling business, in operation since 1885, near the mouth of Carter's Brook on the Basin Road in Bathurst. The Nepisiguit Lumber Company now had control over a large shingle mill and saw mill plant, backed by 650 square miles of government timberland. They had a continuous supply of spruce and pine lumber, plus what they called "the celebrated New Brunswick white cedar shingles". The objective of the company was to attain a pulpwood supply. Following the purchase, the Nepisiguit Lumber Company declared their intentions to produce pulp. Again this project never got off the ground. They did however, rebuilt a sawmill in the same location as the Adams, Burns & Company sawmill. In the space of two years, the company, in 1911 went bankrupt and the assets returned to the Adams, Burns and Company . A bill of sale to Stephen Branch on Dec. 5th, 1911 for 33 ½ M. #1 Short Cedar Shingles $67.00 indicates the Nepisiguit Lumber Company, Limited in liquidation. The following year, in 1912, Adams, Burns and Company sold the mill and its assets to the Bathurst Lumber Company. This became the Bathurst Lumber Company No. 2 Mill. The Bathurst Lumber Company operated this mill for a number of years before dismantling it in January, 1928. From the newspaper clipping, it indicates that the mill was built around 1910 by Nepisiguit Lumber Company and had not been in operation for several years before it was dismantled.