The Ugly Reality of Nineteenth Century City Life: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “In the City”

Fire, Smoke and Soot: 

Life in the City of Coatbridge/Airdrie, Scotland

John Sutherland 1813-1892

Bethia Muir: 1815-1894

Margaret Sutherland Shields, Bruce’s second great grandmother, was born May 25, 1837 in the town of Coatbridge in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Her parents, John Sutherland and his wife Bethia Muir Sutherland, had grown up in the area. The years after Margaret’s birth saw dramatic changes in both the city of Coatbridge and in her parents’ circumstances.

John Sutherland came from humble beginnings and moved up in the world through hard, brutal work in the Coatbridge area. According to information John Sutherland provided on census records, he was born around 1812 or 1813 in either Barony, Old Monkland or Rutherglen, all towns or parishes in Lanarkshire near Glasgow. His father, John Sutherland, was a coalminer. His mother was Annie Jean Smith. He had several siblings.

Old Monkland Parish, 1816

John married Bethia Muir in June, 1834. She was the daughter of Robert Muir and Margaret Anderson Lauder of Old Monkland. She was born October 29, 1815; the birth record states that at the time, her father was working as a weaver.

John Sutherland had followed his father into the mines. The 1841 census lists him as a coal miner, with the family, now including two children, John, 6, and Ann, 2, (Margaret’s whereabouts are unknown. She would have been age 4) living at “Allan’s Place, Langlone” in the Old Monkland parish.

According to the 1851 census, John Sutherland had completely changed careers at some point during the 1840s. In 1851, he supposedly was working as a bookseller—quite a contrast to coal mining. The family, now with six surviving children, was living on Church Street in Old Monkland. I have some doubts about the accuracy of his occupation—could this be a transcription error?-- but the family seems to be moving up in the world a bit.

By 1861, the family’s fortunes were definitely improving. They now lived in a home with a name—The Old Manse in New Monkland, and John’s new occupation was “ironstone centresictor”. I have no idea what a “centresictor” might be, nor does Google or the dictionary. I suspect this is a transcription error—perhaps ironstone contractor? I suspect he was brokering the sale of iron ore to foundries for processing.

I was able to track down photos of the Old Manse. There were two homes by that name, both quite large and grand for the area. The first was torn down around 1870 or shortly thereafter, so I believe the photo of this original home shows the building the Sutherlands called home in 1861, the year Margaret married Thomas Shields.

By 1871, the family had relocated to a home at 60 WellWynd in Airdrie, and John Sutherland was listed as an “iron forge master”, which could indicate he was the owner of the business or at least a manager. According to Ruth McNiven her grandmother Margaret’s family owned a foundry in the town of Airdrie, and were quite wealthy. She said the Shields boys could ride their bicycles around the Sutherland billiard room. As the 1871 census shows Margaret and Thomas Shields and their five young children also living at 60 WellWynd, the Shields boys would have had many opportunities to ride around there.

1858 Airdrie Ordnance Survey Map showing Wellwynd and the Airdrie Foundry

I have tried to find information about the foundry. Histories of the area describe several foundries in and around Airdrie, but the Sutherland name has not turned up in connection with any of them. However, another Ancestry tree that includes the Sutherlands connected the Airdrie Iron Foundry to them, posting the following document, which I believe was a stock share of some sort.

Note that the document has an address, 72 WellWynd, printed at the top. Interestingly, this is just down the street from the Sutherland house. It would make sense that John would live near his business. In addition, the document references a Smith family member. As I mentioned earlier, John Sutherland’s mother was a Smith. Perhaps he was related to the foundry’s owner or previous owner.

An ordnance gazetteer from 1885 has an entry for the Airdrie Iron Foundry, stating it was owned by David Smith. As I have been unable to identify Annie Jean Smith Sutherland’s extended family, I don’t know if David Smith is a relative or not. He may have purchased the foundry from the Sutherlands, as John Sutherland was retired by that point.

Ordnance Gazetteer entry for Airdrie Iron Foundry

So what was this area of Lanarkshire like in the mid to late 1800s? Airdrie lies just outside the larger town of Coatbridge, and both communities were only ten miles from Glasgow, with Old and New Monkland in their midst. The entire area is now part of the greater Glasgow metro area, but in the mid-1800s, they were all still separate communities. Here is a description of Coatbridge in 1846 by Samuel Lewis:

“Coatbridge, a village, in the late quoad sacra parish of Gartsherrie, parish of Old Monkland, Middle ward of county Lanark, l 1/2 mile (NW) from Airdrie, containing 1599 inhabitants. This is a very thriving place, which has more than doubled in extent and population within the last fifteen years, owing to the extension of the iron trade in the district, and to its being in the vicinity of valuable coal-mines; the Dundyvan and Summerlee iron-works in the neighbourhood are conducted on a large scale, and afford employment to a great part of the population. The village is on the road from Airdrie to Glasgow; and the Monkland canal also affords facilities of communication with the adjacent towns. A post-office has been established here, and there is a place of worship for members of the Free Church.”

Here is his description of neighboring Gartsherrie, where the Shields boys attended the Academy:

“Gartsherrie, 2 miles W from Airdrie… is a considerable mining district, in the works connected with which the chief of the population are employed: the ironworks are of great magnitude, and include a number of blast-furnaces for the smelting of the ore. The coal-mine here is also worked on a very extensive scale; there are five strata of coal, between each of which is a stratum of sandstone and shale : the seams of coal vary in thickness from one foot four inches to four feet. The Glasgow and Garnkirk railway, which starts from St. Rollox, in the north-east quarter of the city, joins the Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway at this place. …The church, erected at a cost of £3300, is an elegant structure, with a tower rising to the height of 136 feet, and contains 1500 sittings. Near it is the Academy, erected in 1844, at cost of £2300; and there is a large Sabbath school in connexion with the Establishment.”

From these descriptions we can tell the area had grown quickly due to the coal mining and iron foundry businesses, but the area still had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. However, for the time period, it qualified as a city. The size of the church alone attests to that—seating for 1500 people! Wow!

As the mining and iron foundry businesses grew, there were impacts on the towns. During the last decades of the 19^th century, Airdrie and Coatbridge/New Monkland were hardly garden spots. Here is a description from the 1880s by Francis Groome:

“The Airdrie and Coatbridge district comprises 21 active collieries; and in or about the town are 5 establishments for the pig-iron manufacture—Calder, Carnbroe, Gartsherrie, Langloan, and Summerlee—of whose 41 furnaces 29 were in blast in 1879, when 8 malleable iron-works had 113 puddling furnaces and 19 rolling mills.

“Coatbridge, in its growth, has absorbed, or is still absorbing, a number of outlying suburbs-Langloan, Gartsherrie, High Sunnyside, Coats, Clifton, Drumpellier, Dundyvan, Summerlee, Whifflet, Coatdyke, etc.; and the appearance of the whole, redeemed though it is by some good architectural features, is far more curious than pleasing. Fire, smoke, and soot, with the roar and rattle of machinery, are its leading characteristics; the flames of its furnaces cast on the midnight sky a glow as if of some vast conflagration.”

Summerlee Iron Works with Gartsherrie Burn at left foreground (stream) and Monkland Canal at the right

Another writer describes the town as follows:

"Though Coatbridge is a most interesting seat of industry, it is anything but beautiful. Dense clouds of smoke roll over it incessantly, and impart to all the buildings a peculiarly dingy aspect. A coat of black dust overlies everything, and in a few hours the visitor finds his complexion considerably deteriorated by the flakes of soot which fill the air, and settle on his face.”

The writer goes on to describe the night sky lit with a “lurid glow” by the fires of over 50 blast furnaces belching “great tongues of fire”.

Summerlee Iron Works Coatbridge, with smoky sky

Findlay notes in his History of the Iron and Steel Industry in Scotland:

“The iron industry peaked by about 1871, at which time it employed nearly 40% of the Scottish workforce, and 25% of its steam power. In Coatbridge the ground vibrated from the pounding of steam hammers and a forest of chimneys spewed soot and grit across Coatbridge, which had become the most polluted town in the UK, if not the World. At times it turned day into a night, lit by the blast from the furnaces.”

No matter the size of the Sutherland billiard room during the family’s most prosperous times, the noise, water and air pollution must have made life difficult. It is hard to imagine raising small children in such an environment, especially when the Sutherlands and Shields families lived just a few steps down the street from one of those fire and smoke belching foundries. While they had come up in the world, they were paying a price for their success.

Anderson St. in Airdrie, near the 60 WellWynd house owned by Sutherlands

Perhaps this is why, by the time of the 1881 census, the Sutherlands had moved back to New Monkland, where they were living in the more modestly named “Muirshill Cottage.” John Sutherland’s wife was born a Muir, so perhaps they lived in a Muir-owned property. John was now listed as a “portioner”, which I assume is similar to “pensioner”. He was 68 years old, so was no longer working.

A few years later, the Sutherlands had moved back into Airdrie. The 1891 census finds them living at 2 Inglefield Terrace in Airdrie. John is listed as an 80 year old “retired iron forger”. It appears his second son, William, had taken over the foundry and the house at 60 Wellwynd.

John Sutherland died August 25, 1892 at age 79 or 80. His wife Bethia died April 3, 1894. The iron and coal industries in Scotland and the Coatbridge area went into decline as other areas of Great Britain became more dominant. The skies above Coatbridge and Airdrie are far cleaner today.

 

Sources:

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Francis H Groome, 1885

http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/34.html

 A topographical dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis, 1846 http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/34.html

Article titled “History of the Iron and Steel Industry in Scotland” by C. Findlay. Scottish Steelworks History website: https://cfindlay17.wixsite.com/clydebridge/history-of-iron-and-steel-in-scotla

National Library of Scotland ordnance survey maps. https://maps.nls.uk/townplans/coatbridge.html

Lord Kelvin’s Bright Young Man:52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “School”

Youngest Graduate of University of Glasgow and Assistant to One of Physics’ Greats

Thomas Shields: 1867-1936

            Great-granduncle Thomas Shields was a scholar extraordinaire, succeeding both as a student and as a college professor. His life story has some fascinating details and some interesting missing pieces.    

Thomas Shields was the second youngest child of Thomas and Margaret Sutherland Shields, and was born June 28, 1867 in New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like his older brothers, he attended Gartsherrie Academy. However, he did not choose to follow in his father’s footsteps as a mechanical engineer. He enrolled at the University of Glasgow and studied electrical engineering and physics.  

Univ of Glasgow in 1880s

According to Ruth McNiven, Thomas became “Lord Kelvin’s bright young man.” Yes, the “degrees Kelvin” guy, the Scottish physicist who, among other achievements, helped develop the second law of thermodynamics; the absolute temperature scale (measured in kelvins); the dynamical theory of heat; the mathematical analysis of electricity and magnetism, including the basic ideas for the electromagnetic theory of light; the geophysical determination of the age of the Earth; and fundamental work in hydrodynamics. That Lord Kelvin.

Ruth was proud of her uncle, noting that Thomas became the youngest graduate of University of Glasgow, a record unbroken for half a century.

I found these claims a little hard to believe, so I set out to investigate them. To my delight, Ruth was telling the truth. 

I was able to locate Thomas’ Graduate Record at the University of Glasgow, and it confirms he received his MA in 1885, which made him only seventeen years old when he graduated. Lord Kelvin was a professor at the University of Glasgow for over fifty years, and 1885 was in the center of that timespan, when Kelvin was already renowned in the field of physics.

As you can see from the University record I found, Thomas held the position of “Assistant to Lord Kelvin” while at the university. Quite amazing!

Univ. of Glasgow Chemistry students and Laboratory Assistants, 1884-1885

By age 23, according to the 1891 Scotland Census, Thomas was working as a “Demonstrator in Physics” and living in Glasgow with some of his siblings. His employer was not listed, but was probably still the University of Glasgow. However, as we can see from his Graduate Record, at some point he moved on to a position as a Lecturer in Technical Electricity at Yorkshire College, Leeds.

However, Thomas moved on from Leeds fairly quickly, and spent part of his career as a Demonstrator in Physics and Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the Royal Indian Engineering College. The RIEC was a British college of Civil Engineering run by the India Office to train civil engineers for service in the Indian Public Works Department. It was located on the Cooper's Hill estate, near Egham, Surrey. Thomas’ employment there was confirmed by British census data as well as his Graduate Record.

Royal Indian Engineering College where Thomas worked for ten years or so

            Thomas married an Englishwoman named Hilda Finch Paine on August 28, 1897. Hilda and her family lived in Egham at the time of the 1891 census, so it is likely Thomas met her when he took the position at RIEC.

Following their marriage, Thomas and Hilda moved into a house in Egham charmingly called Holly Cottage, and were living there at the time of the 1901 England Census. The census shows that two of their three children had been born by then, Colin, then age two, and infant Hilda. The young couple also had a servant living with them, so they must have been fairly comfortable financially.

1911 Census record for Thomas Shields and family

Sadly, REIC closed in 1906, moving operations to India. Thomas remained in England, but the family moved from Egham to West Byfleet in Surrey, a distance of about ten miles. The 1911 England Census shows them living in The White House in West Byfleet. I believe I have found records of that house, which is on the historical register in England. Here is a photo of the house today.

I have been unable to find any further information about Thomas’ later career. Ruth claimed that he ended up working as a patent attorney—seems an odd change from engineering professor—and had a beautiful home. However, Ruth said, he lived beyond his means for years, and his mother made up the difference. I wonder if there was miscommunication regarding who Ruth was discussing—this doesn’t seem to match with census records for Thomas at all. It seems unlikely that a man in his forties would go back to school to radically switch careers from physics professor to attorney. However, until the 1921 England census records are released in 2022, I will not be able to investigate further.

I wrote about Thomas’ son Colin in a previous post—he was an RAF pilot in World War I and died at 21 in an aircrash. Thomas’ two daughters, Hilda and Cecily, grew up in an era when young ladies rarely attended a university, so they did not follow their father into a science career. Cecily married a military officer, Gustaf “Cherry” Baker. Hilda married Donald McIntyre, a factory manager for several factories in Argentina and Uruguay, so she spent much of her married life abroad before her early death at age 38 in 1938.

Thomas preceded his daughter in death. He died September 19, 1936 at the age of sixty-nine. He left an estate valued at 11,900 pounds. The equivalent value today is 856,800 pounds, which works out to $1.189 million in U.S. currency—a substantial estate.

Probate record for Thomas Shields

I wish someone in the immediate family had been able to talk to Thomas while he was still alive about his university days. What an exciting time to be studying physics, and to be working with a man who made such a broad and lasting impact on the field! I’m sure Thomas had some amazing stories.

Sources:

1884-85 Students and Assistants of Chemical Laboratory, Univ of Glasgow. https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/chemistry/abouttheschool/history/archivegroupphotos/

Graduate Record and Graduate Bio of Thomas Shields https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH16276&type=P

Robert Shields’ Heroic Death: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Tragedy”

Heroic Death Far From Home

Robert Shields: 1875-1901

 

            When John and Laurel Aird visited John’s aunt Ruth Shields McNiven several decades ago, they spent time discussing the history of the Shields family. Ruth’s brief summary of her youngest uncle’s life caught my attention: “Robert was a chemist. Died in Burma at 26, in an oil company fire, saving others.”

            A tragedy in two short sentences. So young. So heroic. And sadly, so dead. So what else can we learn about Robert Shields? How did a young Scotsman end up in Burma?

            Robert Shields, youngest in the family, was born to Thomas Shields and Margaret Sutherland Shields in either 1875 or 1876. No one has found a birth record for him yet. He first appears in records in the 1891 census, living with his siblings Thomas and Effie at 12 Kings Crescent in the Cathcart area of Glasgow. He is listed as a “scholar”. Then age sixteen, he may have already been enrolled at the University of Glasgow. That would explain why he was living with Thomas Shields, who was working at the University as a “demonstrator in physics”. Presumably Robert had followed his brothers to Gartsherrie Academy for his pre-university education.

            I have reviewed graduate records from the University of Glasgow, but found none for Robert. I believe that “graduate” records may refer only to advanced degrees, however. It is also possible that Robert could have followed Thomas when he became a lecturer at Yorkshire College in Leeds, and Robert could have completed his degree there. His degree was probably the British equivalent of an undergraduate degree in the field of either chemistry or chemical engineering. I base this hypothesis in part on Ruth’s claim that he was a chemist, in part on another relative’s claim that he was an engineer, and in part due to his employment at an oil refinery, an appropriate job for a chemical engineer.

So why did Robert take a job in Burma? It turns out that Scottish companies were investing in Burma in the late 1800s. Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History notes”

“[In] 1876 David Sime Cargill, after visiting Burma, purchased the Glasgow-based Rangoon Oil Co Ltd, which had failed because the King of Upper Burma was using his monopoly power to overcharge for crude oil found in his territory…Over the next ten years Cargill supported the loss-making refining and distribution activities from his own pocket, to the extent of £100,000.”

Burmah Oil Company fields--early 1900s

The pandaw.com blog further described the history of the Burmese oil fields and refineries:

“Since 1858 there had been a small refinery at Rangoon, using Yenangyaung crude as feedstock and exporting products to Europe and India. By 1871 it was in financial trouble and its assets were bought by a group of Scottish businessmen who registered a new company in Edinburgh, the Rangoon Oil Company…The annexation of Upper Burma in the 1886 Third Anglo-Burma War meant that the whole country, formerly the Kingdom of Ava, was now a part of British India administered locally by a Chief Commissioner in Rangoon.

It was a major milestone in the evolution of Myanmar's petroleum industry, ushering in the modern era. In that same year, 1886, David Cargill, who was the principal shareholder of Rangoon Oil Company, sold it to another Scottish-registered company founded in the same year, Burmah Oil Company, which had technical links back home to the East Midlothian shale-oil industry. Cargill thereby acquired an interest and became Chairman of the new company.

With new deep wells and even the helmet-equipped well-diggers contributing to production growth, Burmah Oil's refinery capacity needed to expand. Its original refinery was at Dunneedaw near Rangoon, but then a second was built at Syriam, south of Rangoon, which in due course became the company's main refinery. Later a pipeline from the oilfields to these refineries was built in 1908.”

Moving machinery at Burmah Oil Co. fields near Rangoon--1910s

With his background in chemistry and/or engineering, Robert would have been a valuable addition to Burmah Oil’s refinery staff. Here is a transcription of a job posting for such a position, showing that the company was looking for responsible, experienced, single Scotsmen.

Photos from the era show large groups of young, male, British employees at the Syriam refinery and in the greater Rangoon area, so he would have had a pleasant ex-patriate lifestyle with plenty of friends. Robert’s father and siblings had set a precedent of working abroad, so I’m sure Robert saw employment in Burma as an attractive opportunity.

Tennis players in Syriam, site of a Burmah Oil refinery. All young British men.

It is unclear at which of the two Rangoon area refineries Robert was employed, nor is it clear how long he had been in Burma before his death. I found no records online regarding his employment. The only record I have found is the death record, stating he died May 8, 1901 in Rangoon. Nor have I found a record of an explosion or fire in Rangoon in May 1901; the accident apparently did not rate a mention in the international press. I don’t know how many people were injured or killed in the refinery fire in addition to Robert, or whether he was successful in saving any others. Laurel and John never asked Ruth how the family found out about his fate or whether there were any other details regarding the fire. I found photos of a similar disaster at a Texas refinery in 1901; the photo below shows how terrifying and devastating a fire at an oil processing facility can be.

Refinery fire in Texas, 1900.

The death record states that Robert is buried in “Rangoon, Bengal, India”. This makes no sense, as Rangoon is in Burma/Myanmar, while Bengal, India is over 1,300 miles away. I am hypothesizing that the office that processed death records for British citizens in the Asian and Indian colonies was located in Bengal, India, and that Robert actually died and was buried in Rangoon. I have been unable to learn the location of his grave.

I wish there was more information about this young man. I also wish there was a photo of him. His death was tragic enough, but having his whole brief life summarized in a couple of quickly forgettable sentences is even more of a tragedy.

 

Sources:

Rangoon Oil Co. History https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rangoon_Oil_Co

https://www.pandaw.com/blog/cruise/history-of-oil-production-in-the-irrawaddy-valley

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/1a/6a/611a6aa2fa48393fa3ff19406627e72c.jpg

Photos of Burmah Oil Company oil fields taken by Alfred Knight in 1920s. From family history blog: http://www.hotten.net/open/pages/families/knight/photoalbums/burma/homebuilding.htm#row4

A Fashionable Wedding: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Fashion”

Wedding Write-ups from the 1950s: Fashion-Magazine-Worthy Descriptions

Eleanor Birk Sutton: 1929-Present

 

            While researching family members, I occasionally run across newspaper write-ups of their weddings. Most are fairly straight-forward: who, when, where, neatly tied up in a single paragraph. But the period from the 1920s through the 1950s produced far more elaborate articles describing the décor, the music and especially the clothing worn by the bride and her attendants. Some of the descriptions were fashion magazine worthy! The wedding write-up for Bruce’s second cousin Eleanor Birk’s wedding to Harry Sutton is the perfect example of one of these fashion-rich news articles, providing descriptions of the dresses worn by the bride, maid of honor, bridesmaids, mothers of the bride and groom, and the bride’s going-away outfit. So many adjectives! So many fabrics! What a delight!

            To provide a little background, Eleanor was the daughter of William F. Birk and Daisy Smith. She was born August 8, 1929 in Daviess County, Kentucky. Eleanor’s mother, Daisy, was Lorene Smith Jandy’s niece, the daughter of Lorene’s eldest brother, James Frampton Smith.

Eleanor Kirk before her marriage

            Eleanor grew up in Owensboro and attended Owensboro High School, followed by time at Gulf Park College in Gulfport Mississippi, a women’s college, and then some time at the University of Kentucky. She may have met her future husband, Harry Shelby Sutton, at the university. While he was also an Owensboro High grad, he graduated eight years ahead of Eleanor, and then spent three years in the Marines during World War II before attending the University of Kentucky for an engineering degree. By the time he was engaged to Eleanor, he was employed by General Electric in Owensboro as an engineer.

            The Owensboro Messenger newspaper did an excellent job covering the social life of the community. Engagements and weddings received lavish write-ups, and parties and showers honoring brides were also covered. There were several social column items about Eleanor and Harry’s upcoming nuptials before the article that described the main event.

            The descriptions of the dresses follow. The detail makes it easy to imagine how the ladies looked as they came down the aisle:

“The bride…wore an ivory satin wedding gown made with portrait neckline, banded with illusion and seed pearl trim, with fitted basque, long sleeves with points over the hands, and panniered skirt, with long train. Her fingertip veil of illusion was held in place with a half hat with seed trim. She carried a white Bible, topped with a white orchid, and show of stephanotis.”

I have attached a sketch of a 1950s wedding dress that has many of those features—the portrait neck, fitted basque or bodice, the long sleeves coming to a point over the back of the hands, and the full skirt. Eleanor’s skirt would have pouffed out more with the addition of the pannier—a sort of hoop skirt contraption—beneath it. The illustration also features the half-cap with veil, although Eleanor’s veil would have been slightly longer since it was finger-tip length.

“Mrs. Stavis, matron of honor, wore a bronze satin and net dress, the bodice being of satin and skirt of net over taffeta. Her headdress was a bandeau of bronze satin, with mask veil. She carried an arm bouquet of Sunburst roses.”

“The five bridesmaids wore identical dresses to…the matron of honor, and carried arm bouquets of large bronze chrysanthemums.”

Here are two vintage 1950s satin dresses with net skirts that gives an idea of what the bridesmaids dresses may have looked like, but in a bronze color. They must have been striking—bronze would have been a perfect fall shade, especially with the addition of bouquets of lovely fall flowers.  

“The candlelighters…wore aqua faille dresses, in ballerina length, with matching double net capelets.”

“The mother of the bride wore a lilac faille taffeta gown, with bouffant skirt and sweetheart neckline. Her corsage was of violets and tiny rosebuds.”

“The mother of the groom wore a charcoal crepe dress, with black accessories and a white orchid corsage.”

“The grandmother of the bride, Mrs. J. Frampton Smith, wore a black crepe dress, with a beaded lace yoke, matching accessories, and a gardenia corsage.”

“Mrs. Sutton (the bride) for traveling wore a gray two-piece wool suit, with black accessories and a white orchid corsage.”

The poor groom and his attendants received no attention from the reporter; their clothes were apparently unremarkable. This was typical for wedding articles of the era.

My only regret is that we have no photos of what was apparently a very stylish wedding.

Eleanor and Harry Sutton’s marriage lasted an amazing 65 years, until Harry’s death in 2016. The couple were the parents of two sons and had numerous grandchildren.

Sources:

Newspapers.com – Owensboro KY Messenger-Inquirer - 30 Sep 1951 - Page 20, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72365152/eleanor-birk-wedding/?xid=637&_ga=2.44693089.479190359.1625623453-557144419.1581562418

Freeing George Leachman’s Slaves: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Free”

Too Little Too Late: Leachman Slaves Freed Months After Civil War’s End

George Leachman: 1794-1866
 

After President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday last month, Americans are being forced to finally recognize that the Emancipation Proclamation, enacted on January 1, 1862, wasn’t an immediate Get Out of Slavery Free card. Actual implementation of Lincoln’s proclamation relied on Union Army enforcement. That didn’t come for months or even years to large parts of the Confederacy. Now with the new holiday, people believe that slavery’s end came on June 19, 1865—Juneteenth-- when Union forces publicized the act in Texas following the end of the war. However, there were regions where freedom came even later than Juneteenth. I didn’t discover this until I found the will and probate records for Bruce’s third-great-grandfather George Leachman.

George Leachman appears to have been born in Prince William County, Virginia, to parents Sampson Leachman and Nancy Ann Davis. All of George’s siblings were born in Kentucky, so it appears Nancy had returned to Virginia briefly before giving birth to George, perhaps on a visit to family members--she too was born in Prince William County. She returned to Kentucky, however, and George grew up near Atoka in Boyle County, Kentucky. (Note: there are errors in this section of tree regarding George’s siblings that must be investigated.)

After a brief youthful marriage that ended with the death of his wife Polly Crow Leachman in 1817, George married Mathilda Robertson on October 28, 1819. George and Mathilda had ten children over the course of thirty years of marriage. Mathilda died April 23, 1849 giving birth to their tenth child, Samuel Leachman. Little Samuel lived for ten months after Mathilda’s death before he too died in February of 1850.

George remarried for a third time on December 4, 1856 when he was 62 years old. His bride was Permelia Murray Davis, a widow of about 46 years old. They had no children.

While George and his family apparently lived on the same farm from 1819 onward, the federal census moves him from Daviess County to McLean County, beginning with the 1860 census. Wikipedia helped to explain this discrepancy. In 1854, Daviess County ceded some land to McLean; apparently the Leachman property was part of the land ceded to McLean County. The 1840 census listed the farm as part of the community of Panther Creek; later census forms stated the post office used by the rural residents was in Calhoun, Kentucky. These two communities are about ten miles apart to the southwest of Owensboro. Presumably the Leachman farm lay somewhere between the two towns.

The 1840 census did not identify individuals by name other than the head of household. Family members were only distinguished by category—age, sex, and whether they were free or enslaved. That is how I first discovered that George Leachman owned two slaves.

The next two censuses in 1850 and 1860 included separate Slave Schedules, where the homeowner identified the slaves by age and sex. George had fewer slaves than most of his neighbors—three neighbors had 14, 15 and 20 slaves respectively, and several others had four to six. George’s two slaves in 1850 are listed as a 47 year old woman, and the other a 27 year old man.

In 1860, George still owns the same two people, now listed as being 55 and 33. It is unclear which set of ages was incorrect, or if George really knew how old these people were. It is interesting to note that some of the Leachmans’ neighbors had acquired more slaves between 1850 and 1860—William Johnson started with four slaves, and by 1860 had 22. Other families no longer appear on the schedule—did they leave, or sell their slaves? Many of the slaves listed on the schedules were children—Kentucky had outlawed the importation of new slaves from out of state, so growing numbers of slaves often reflected the formation of slave families on the farms and plantations.

George was too old to fight in the Civil War when it broke out in April 1861. However, the war apparently came to him. A battle was fought at Panther Creek on September 19, 1862. The Confederate Army had taken the town of Owensboro, and Union forces from neighboring Indiana crossed the river and attacked them. Despite being outnumbered nearly two-to-one, the Union forces prevailed and drove the Confederates back. I’m sure the Leachman family could hear the battle raging; they were at most five to ten miles away.

George died just thirteen months after the Civil War ended. He died at age 71 on May 2, 1866, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in McLean County. 

George’s will was probated May 4, 1866. The provisions included $1000 to his widow Permilia “in accordance with my agreement with her before marriage”, with the remainder of his property divided equally between his nine surviving children; each child was identified by name in the will.

The will’s final provision was the shocker. “My slaves Eliza and Ben I wish freed or manumitted, but with the provision that Eliza shall be under the guardianship of W.P. Leachman.”

How can this be? The will was probated in 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War and four years after the Emancipation Proclamation. How could George still own slaves? Did he actually still own slaves at the date of his death, or was the will just written years earlier and never updated to reflect their free status?

I started researching, and was shocked to discover that in the slave states of Delaware and Kentucky, the Emancipation Proclamation hadn’t applied to slaves held there. The Proclamation was only directed against states that seceded from the Union. Delaware and Kentucky never seceded, so their slaves were not freed by Lincoln’s proclamation!

As Tim Talbot noted in his paper cited below, “…slavery only truly ended in Kentucky with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which the state chose not to ratify.”

The 13^th Amendment wasn’t ratified until December 6, 1865, months after the end of the war, and since Kentucky refused to ratify the Amendment, it is hard to say exactly when the remaining slaveholders in the state actually freed their slaves. So it is possible that poor Eliza and Ben were still working involuntarily for the Leachmans when George died. However it is equally possible that they had been freed either at the end of the war or in December 1865.

At least George had planned for Ben and Eliza’s freedom at his death and hadn’t intended to pass them on to his children along with the furniture, land and livestock.

I don’t know if Eliza and Ben were mother and son or unrelated, and I am not sure what surname they chose to use following their emancipation. I wonder if Eliza really remained under the “guardianship” of W. P. Leachman, or if she preferred to make her own way in the world. She was not a member of William Parker Leachman’s household on the 1870 census, but that could mean she had died. Since George felt she needed protection, Eliza may have been in poor health.

As for Ben, I found a mulatto farmer named Ben Leachman on the 1870 census living with another black family in McLean County. The age listed, 42, would be close to the right age for the Leachman’s slave Ben. Since Ben Leachman is listed on the 1870 census record as a mulatto, it occurred to me that George Leachman might actually have been Ben’s natural father as well as his owner. I found a black man named Benjamin Leechman on the 1900 census—a widower born in 1825 in Kentucky to a father born in Virginia—that would fit with George Leachman, born in Virginia, being his father, and the slave Eliza his mother. However, these details, while suggestive, are not proof of any parental relationship.

1870 census

I hope Ben and Eliza had a good life wherever they ended up, but sadly, freedom often meant a life of poverty and difficulty for former slaves.

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daviess_County,_Kentucky

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/battle-at-panther-creek-kentucky.146816/ Battle at Panther Creek Kentucky. By Taylin.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/juneteenth-holiday-five-myths/2020/06/18/4c19fff8-b0e1-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html

Tim Talbott, “Slavery Laws in Old Kentucky,” ExploreKYHistory, accessed July 3, 2021, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/180

Bolt of Lightning Sparks Shocking Disaster: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Shock”

Young Marine Trumpeter Dies in Shocking Munitions Explosion

Mason DeWilton Eidson: 1904-1926
 

One of the best parts of genealogical research is learning about some forgotten but fascinating historical event—the sort of thing you never learned about in History Class in school because it was embarrassing or ugly and didn’t fit the history class narrative of American exceptionalism. The fate of Bruce’s third cousin once removed Mason DeWilton Eidson led to one of those discoveries. Mason died at the shockingly young age of twenty-two in something called the Lake Denmark Explosion.

Mason Eidson was born on July 22, 1904 in Kentucky to parents Charles Eidson and Cora Belle Phillips. He was the grandson of Bruce’s first cousin thrice removed Matilda Houston, a Leachman grandchild. Mason was the third of the six Eidson children, and was only thirteen when his mother Cora died after a long illness. After her death, the family moved to Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

Mason joined the Marine Corps, and became a corps trumpeter. In 1926, he was stationed in New Jersey at the Naval Ammunition Depot at Lake Denmark. A severe thunderstorm moved through the area on the evening of July 10. A bolt of lightning struck a tree overhanging a Depot storehouse which held a large amount of munitions. The building caught on fire, and the Marines, including Mason, were sent to fight the fire.

Within a short amount of time, a huge explosion rocked the area, followed within thirty minutes by two more explosions. The first storehouse alone housed 300,000 kg of explosives, while other buildings were filled with yet more munitions. The devastation was immense and widespread.

Rachel Wilson, who wrote an article for the journal NJS (citation below) about the 1926 Lake Denmark disaster, described the explosion as follows:

“The direct effect of the blasts caused the complete and total annihilation of structures within a radius of 2,700 feet and damaged buildings up to 8,700 feet away. Nineteen people died, mostly Marines, while fighting the various fires. Over 50 more were injured from the blasts. The damage to munitions and other stores exceeded $40,000,000. These intense explosions and fires also devastated the adjoining Picatinny Arsenal and caused major damage to most of the buildings.”

Mason died in the explosions. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery. The citation read,

“The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Trumpeter Mason D. Eidson (MCSN: 170349), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and fearless devotion to duty on the occasion of the explosions from lightning at the Naval Ammunition Depot, Lake Denmark, New Jersey, on 10 July 1926. Although he fully realized the imminence of great peril, Trumpeter Eidson continued at his post of duty in an endeavor to check the spread of the disaster, thereby losing his life.”

 

Explosion aftermath at Lake Denmark Ammo Depot

The Lake Denmark explosion was a huge news event. Every major newspaper of the era covered the disaster, providing photos of the wreckage and lists of the dead. The event prompted investigations and criticism, resulting in changes in how and where the military stockpiled and stored munitions.

Despite the loss of so many servicemen and some civilians, this event has been forgotten by modern Americans. Until I read a small news item about Mason’s grandmother attending his funeral, I had never heard about the Lake Denmark explosions and deaths. I am glad I rediscovered this piece of our American history and learned how an electrical shock on a stormy evening led to the deaths of nineteen people.

Mason was buried at Alexander Memorial Park Cemetery in Evansville, Indiana.

Sources:

https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/2020/02/28/unexploded-ordnance-found-picatinny-may-1926-deadly-explosion/4906353002/

Aftermath of the 10 July 1926 explosion at the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot at Lake Denmark. Courtesy of the National Archives, photo no. 71-LD-121.

NJS Presents Museums, Archives, Artifacts, and Documents. NJS: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Winter 2021. Pg. 345. “The 1926 Lake Denmark Explosion: An Extraordinary Mishap That Changed Military Safety Standards” By Rachael Winston. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14713/njs.v7i1.230