Joseph Merrill Currier was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 member of parliament and businessman.

He was born in North Troy, Vermont

North Troy, Vermont

North Troy is a village in Troy, Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 593 at the 2000 census.-History:There were Winter Carnivals from 1940 to 1942. In 1942, 4,000 people attended...

 in 1820 and moved to Canada in 1837, where he began work in the timber trade. Around 1850, he set up a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 and gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

 operation at Manotick, Ontario

Manotick, Ontario

Manotick, Ontario is an exurb in Eastern Ontario on the Rideau River, located on the south edge of Ottawa's urban area. Manotick is located immediately south of the booming suburbs Barrhaven and Riverside South and is about from downtown Ottawa. It has been part of the City of Ottawa since...

 with Moss Kent Dickinson

Moss Kent Dickinson

Moss Kent Dickinson was a Canadian businessman, mayor of Ottawa from 1864 to 1866 and member of the Canadian Parliament from 1882 to 1887....

. He also operated his own lumber business in New Edinburgh

New Edinburgh

New Edinburgh is a small neighbourhood in Ottawa, Canada. It is located to the east of the downtown core. It is bordered on the west by the Rideau River, to the north by the Ottawa River, to the south by Beechwood Avenue, to the east the border is less regular but is marked in part by Springfield...

 from 1853 to the late 1860s and was a partner in the Wright, Batson and Currier Company with Alonzo Wright

Alonzo Wright

Alonzo Wright was a Canadian member of Parliament and businessman commonly known as "King of the Gatineau".He was born in Cantley, Quebec in 1821. He was a grandson of Philemon Wright, and son of Tiberius Wright...

 which operated a saw mill at Hull, Quebec

Hull, Quebec

Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...

. In 1868, Currier built a house at 24 Sussex Drive

24 Sussex Drive

24 Sussex Drive is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada, located in the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario. Built between 1866 and 1868 by Joseph Merrill Currier, it has been the official home of the Canadian prime minister since 1951.-History:The house at 24 Sussex...

, for his third wife Hannah, which is now used as the official residence for the Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

. Currier named the house Gorffwysfa, Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 for place of rest.

Currier became a member of the city council for Ottawa in the 1860s. In 1863, he was elected as a representative for Ottawa in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada

The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...

. He supported Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

 and continued to represent Ottawa

Ottawa (City of)

Ottawa was a federal electoral district in the province of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1935.It was created by the British North America Act of 1867. It consisted of the city of Ottawa...

 in the Parliament of Canada

Parliament of Canada

The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...

 until 1882. During that period, he was forced to resign on April 16 1877 because his firms had done business with the government of Canada; he was re-elected in a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 on May 9 1877.

From 1872 to 1877, he was president of the Citizen Printing and Publishing Company which produced the Ottawa Daily Citizen

Ottawa Citizen

The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...

. He also was president of two railway companies in the Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 area, the Ottawa and Gatineau Valley Railway and the Ontario and Quebec Railway

Ontario and Quebec Railway

The Ontario and Quebec Railway is a historic Canadian railway located in eastern Ontario.The railway had received a charter in 1881 and the Canadian Pacific Railway gained control, building the O&Q line between Perth and Toronto...

. He was also connected with many other companies in the construction, banking and insurance industries. He began encountering financial problems in the 1870s and, in 1878, when the saw mill in Hull burned, he was bankrupt.

He was appointed postmaster of Ottawa in May 1882. He died in 1884 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and is buried in Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery is the National Cemetery of Canada. Because it is located in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, it is the burial site for a number of statesmen as well as a large number of mayors of the city. A woodland cemetery founded in 1873, it is 160 acres and is the largest cemetery...

.

Currier had three wives: Christina Wilson who he married in 1846 and who died in 1858; Anne "Annie" Elizabeth Crosby; and Hannah Wright, daughter of Ruggles Wright

Ruggles Wright

Ruggles Wright was a Canadian lumber merchant, the youngest son of Philemon Wright.He was born in Woburn, Massachusetts but moved to Canada with his parents while still young. He later joined the family business in the timber trade. In 1829, he built the first timber slide on the Ottawa River to...

, who he married in 1868. He married his second wife in January 1861 and brought her to Manotick a month later. While viewing the machinery in the mill, Annie's dress became caught in the turbine shaft and she was thrown against a post and died. Currier is said to have never visited Manotick again and he cut his ties to the business there in 1863. According to local legend, Annie's ghost continues to haunt Watson's Mill

Watson's Mill

Watson's Mill is a historic gristmill in Manotick, Ontario, Canada. It was built as the Long Island Flouring Mills by Moss Kent Dickinson and Joseph Merrill Currier. It was one of a series of mills constructed in the area using power from the Rideau Canal. It earned its current name when it was...

in Manotick.