Life of Patriarch John Sutherland Shields: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Father’s Day” Part 2

 Struggling for Success in Suriname and America: Father’s Day Part II

John Sutherland Shields: 1865-1959

Item from the Paramaribo Newspaper De West-Indier : dagblad toegewijd aan de belangen van Nederlandsch Guyana, 24-08-1892, Dag ; no. 68 (KB),  translated from Dutch to English:

The saw mill business lately carried on by Mr. Andrew Mc Connachie at Plantage Alliance, will be continued under the management of Mr. John Shields who will receive and execute orders. Mr. H. Mc. Robertson, 49 Domine St. Paramaribo, will continue to act as Town Agent and will also receive orders.

All accounts must be paid to Mr. John Shields at Plantage Alliance, or to Mr. Robertson , Paramaribo.

A.G. Knott & Co.

Alliance, August 13th 1892

 

            John Sutherland Shields and Jane Pollok married in Glasgow on June 1, 1892, and by August 13, they were living at Plantage Alliance with several Shields family members, including John’s father Thomas, John’s older brother Archie, and quite possibly his sister Bethia’s family. As we can see from the newspaper notice, Thomas Shields was still working for A. G. Knott—he wouldn’t buy Alliance from Knott until a few years later. But Thomas had enough influence over the plantation’s management that he was able to hire his son to manage the sawmill, a position for which John had no experience.

            There is little information about John and Jane’s time at Alliance. Ruth Shields McNiven told John and Laurel Aird that John Shields chafed under his father’s and brother’s direction and control. Laurel’s notes read, “John’s father and brother Archie both authority figures and John didn’t get along with either. John became same sort of father—hardest on Archie.”

 

            Jane got pregnant while in Suriname, and gave birth to Mary “May” Seller Shields in Paramaribo on May 14, 1893. By this point, the relationship between John and his father was deteriorating. I can find no records to indicate whether John quit his sawmill job, or whether his father fired him. All that I know for certain is that John, Jane and May appear on the 1900 U. S. census, living in Hamilton Ohio, and they responded to the census question about when they immigrated by saying they arrived in 1893 and had been in the U.S. as “aliens” for six years. This suggests an arrival date late in 1893—they probably waited to travel until May was at least several months old.

                 Why did they choose to travel to the United States to live instead of returning to Scotland where they had family members and friends? I don’t believe they knew anyone in Ohio, so how and why did they end up there? And why did they resist becoming citizens for so long? Did they still consider heading back to Scotland? They didn’t become naturalized for decades.

           John worked as a machinist in Hamilton. The family grew while they lived there. Margaret Shields was born October 15, 1896. Archibald Shields was born September 7, 1899, and Bethia Jane Shields was born Octobert 31, 1901.

 

Jane and John Shields and their children, early 1950s

            John and Jane’s youngest daughter, Ruth Shields, was born in Detroit on October 2, 1904, so we know the family moved at some point between July 20, 1904 when Jane’s sister Maggie wrote to her in Hamilton (see next post which includes letter), and October, when Ruth was born.

Hamilton Ohio house the Shields family rented

            So why did the family move 250 miles north? Did John get a better job opportunity in Detroit? By the 1910 census, John is working as a machinist at a “jobbing shop”. The family was living at 190 Horton Avenue, and had two lodgers, both machinists working at an auto plant. (Note: I think the actual street name was Horton Street, not Avenue. Today the 100 block of Horton has been razed, but the 200 block still has several sizeable two-story homes, probably similar to the one the Shields family lived in.)

           In 1911, John took out a patent on a mechanical movement for engine valves, sharing the patent with a W. Lamb. Obviously John was still using his engineering skills.

 

            At some point, John invested in a monkey wrench company in the town of Howell, Michigan, about fifty miles from Detroit. Ruth mentioned it in passing when she talked to John and Laurel, noting, “John Shields started a monkey wrench business in Howell, and his partner absconded with all the funds.”

 

            I found several articles in the Howell newspaper about the wrench factory. John Shields’ role is rather murky, but despite Ruth’s claim, he was not one of the founders. The company was called the Ewer Wrench Company, and E. A. Bowman and M.J. Ewer appear to be the initial investors and founders. The company began building a factory in 1911, but ran into financial problems and had to take out a sizable loan as well as sell stock. The founders claimed at the time that the company already had orders for 25,000 wrenches.

 

            John Shields was elected to the Board of Directors of Ewer Wrench on January 17, 1912 (see article below). Perhaps he bought some of the stock sold in 1911, giving him a partial stake in the company. It is unclear if he was also working for the wrench company, or if he was still a machinist in Detroit. Ruth implied that the family had moved to Howell, but the article states the new board members were all from Detroit.

            The company was failing by early 1913. A scathing article about Ewer Wrench’s closing ran in the April 2, 1913 Howell newspaper. The article noted that after $15,000 was raised through stock sales and an additional $3500 in loans were taken out, “still no wrenches were put on the market. Finally work stopped and a few thousand wrenches were almost given away and that money was dumped somewhere so that it did not go to pay debts. Things went from bad to worse until the special meeting Monday night voted to wind up things and go out of business; that is if they were ever in business.” The article also noted that the investors lost nothing but the face value of their stock—which means they lost everything they had invested.

 

            According to Ruth, the Shields family suffered a serious financial setback from the wrench factory failure. Laurel’s notes state “Neither our May nor Margaret allowed to finish high school. Had to go to work to help out…” Ruth also told the Airds that, “When the family moved again, May stayed with the Bowmans, boarding. Still very much docile. Dated a boy who later became leader of the Howell Band. Bruce something?” I was interested to note that one of the two initial investors in the Ewer Wrench was E. A. Bowman. Obviously John Shields didn’t blame Mr. Bowman for the company’s failure if May ended up living with the family. It sounds as if the Bowmans lived in Howell. I believe the “Howell Band” is a reference to the Plymouth Brethren church.

            By the advent of World War I, John was working for the Maxwell Motors Co. in Detroit. A Detroit news article recognizing contributions to a fund for area soldiers printed John’s letter on behalf of his fellow workers:

“John S. Shields sent the following letter with the big Christmas gift [of $272.94]: ‘We of the Maxwell Motor company, Oakland Avenue, have come again with our bi-monthly contribution to the Tobacco Fund for our boys at the front. We have chipped in a little extra this time for a Christmas special.’”

 

1915 Maxwell Motors model John Shields may have worked on

            Maxwell Motors ended up being bought out by Chrysler after the war. By the time of the 1920 census, John reported that he was an engineer at a “foundry”. That doesn’t sound like Chrysler, but since the 1930 census finds him at age 65 working as a machinist at an “auto factory,” it might have been. The family was still renting a home in 1920, but by 1930, they finally owned their own home—the first property they owned in nearly 40 years of marriage. John probably bought the house, located at 8939 Mendota in Detroit, new since it was built around 1920. John told the 1930 census taker it was worth $10,000. The house still stands today.

 

8939 Mendota, Detroit

            After John’s retirement, he and Jane moved to Zephyrhills, Florida, near Tampa. Jane died June 21, 1954, and John died January 9, 1959 at the age of 93. The brief obituary noted he was grandfather of 19 and great-grandfather of 10. His eleventh great-grandchild, Bruce Aird, was born seven months later in August 1959.

            John Sutherland Shields chose to forge his own path. He broke free of his father and brother’s expectations and made his own way in America. Ruth told John and Laurel that “his own family considered him a rolling stone.” Ruth implied that he was not the best provider for his family, pointing out that her oldest sisters had to forego attending high school to help support the family. She also noted that when John’s mother died in Scotland, Ruth’s husband Jack McNiven paid John’s travel expenses so that he could attend the funeral. However, she neglected to note that John had just traveled to Scotland a few months earlier to attend his mother’s 100^th birthday celebration, so it is not surprising that a retiree might not have the funds for two trips to Scotland in one year. John managed to achieve the American Dream, buying a home and enjoying two decades of retirement in Florida. His large family of descendants can be proud of his persistence, independence and accomplishments.