Fonds MG 2 volumes 224-368 - James William Carmichael

Businessman, militia officer, and politician James William Carmichael was born at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia on 16 December 1819, the son of James Carmichael and Christian (McKenzie) Carmichael. He attended Pictou Academy and then worked as a clerk in his father's store. By the early 1850s he had taken over his father's mercantile and shipping interests. By 1854, the firm was known as J.W. Carmichael and Company. His first vessel, Helen Stairs, was registered in 1851, and from 1857 to 1869 he built fourteen more ships. Carmichael also held agency for the Bank of Nova Scotia from 1866 to 1886 and took part in lumber export, establishing the first steam sawmill in Pictou County in 1874. Between 1883 and 1892, he operated the New Glasgow Tannery Company in partnership with James McGregor. He also financed and supported various local industrialists. Carmichael entered politics in 1867 when he was elected a Member of Parliament for Pictou, as a liberal and opponent of Confederation. He lost his seat in 1872, was re-elected in 1874, and was defeated in 1878, 1881, 1882, and 1896. In 1898, he was appointed to the Senate and resigned just prior to his death in 1903. Carmichael was active in the community life of New Glasgow; he was lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment of the Pictou militia and a member of several civic, charitable, and religious organizations. He died 1 May 1903 at New Glasgow. He and his wife, Maria Jane (McColl), whom he married 5 June 1851, had six children.