Wedding Road Trip: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Road Trip”

Thomas Sutherland: 1891-1946
A “Gretna Green” Wedding

 

I had heard other genealogists talk about American “Gretna Greens”—towns just across state borders that were popular wedding sites for eloping couples either due to lax rules for obtaining wedding licenses or immediate issuance of licenses. Those genealogists suggested that when a wedding record can’t be found in the expected community or state, that you look for a record across state lines. Until I started researching my husband’s first cousin-three-times-removed, Thomas Sutherland, I had never found a Gretna Green marriage in our families’ trees.

Thomas Sutherland was born March 6, 1891 in Coatbridge, Scotland to parents Thomas Sutherland and Jeanie Spence Sutherland. He was the eighth of their nine children (the sixth to survive past the age of two).

Thomas’ father Thomas was an iron forgeman working in the family forge business in Airdrie. He died at the young age of 50 when Thomas was only thirteen years old. Perhaps finances were tight after his father’s death, for five years later in 1909, Thomas’ eldest brother John and wife emigrated to the United States, settling in Detroit. Three years later, Thomas decided to join his brother in America, setting sail on the ship Cassandra in April 1912. He landed in St. John’s, New Brunswick on April 30, 1912, stating on the passenger arrival form that he was headed to Detroit, presumably to stay with John Spence Sutherland. According to information provided on his naturalization documents, he traveled by train from New Brunswick to Detroit.

Thomas' arrival in New Brunswick

Thomas must not have enjoyed Detroit or perhaps wanted independence from his brother, for he quickly relocated to Pennsylvania. On his World War I draft card, Thomas states that he was working as a millwright for the McKay Chain Company in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania, and he was living at 746 Thomson Avenue. He was drafted into the army, serving as a mechanic in the Seventh Division Transportation Company from Dec. 5, 1917 to July 30, 1919, with one year of his service spent in Europe.

Upon returning to McKees Rock after the war, Thomas returned to his job at McKay Chain, and rented a room at the home of Herman and Pauline Schuette, where he appears on the 1920 census. The Schuettes’ divorced daughter Catherine Hough and Catherine’s eleven-year-old daughter also resided in the home. Thomas and Catherine were both 28 years old and probably spent a lot of time together. Apparently familiarity turned to love, for on July 6, 1921, the couple married in Youngstown, Ohio. (See Naturalization Papers)

But why Youngstown? The location confused me. At first I thought Thomas might have changed jobs and moved to Youngstown, but there was no evidence of that; he was still employed by McKay Chain at the time of the 1930 census, where he appears living with his wife Catherine and stepdaughter. There was no indication that Catherine Schuette Hough had any connection to the town either. The towns were about 65 miles apart. Why would they choose to get married there? I suddenly realized that they might have eloped—as a divorcee, Catherine might have preferred a quick wedding, and her first wedding was also performed in Ohio. I decided to do some Googling to see if there was any mention of Youngstown being a “Gretna Green” for Pennsylvanians.

To my delight, I found a wonderful You Tube presentation sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society and the Tyler History Center in Youngstown called “Bites and Bits of History: Youngstown as a Gretna Green”. The speaker and researcher, Roslyn Torella, explained that Ohio became a popular wedding spot for Pennsylvanians because Pennsylvania required that both the bride and groom be at least 21 years of age, while Ohio permitted 18 year olds to marry. A veritable marriage industry grew up in Youngstown, which became known as the “Marrying City.” Most couples arrived by train, and cabbies were good at identifying prospective couples, and would drive them to the license office at the courthouse, and then to a minister who would give the cabbie a kickback from the marriage fee. Two ministers, the “Marrying Parsons” of Youngstown, married 12,000 couples over a fifteen year period!

The “Gretna Green” industry came to a halt in late 1910, when an Ohio judge enforced Ohio laws requiring wedding licenses be issued only to brides who were residents of the county issuing the license. The courthouse in Youngstown then began turning away Pennsylvania couples.

So how did Thomas and Catherine manage to get married in Youngstown in 1921 when neither of them were residents of Mahoning County? Perhaps Catherine produced her original marriage license from her first marriage to Percy Hough in 1907, which claimed she was a resident of Mahoning County (and also claimed she was 18 even though she was only 16 at the time). On that certificate, she said she was born in what looks like “Louisville, OH” although records suggest she was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Or perhaps she just lied on the license in 1921 and made up an address in Mahoning County that she claimed as her residence. I can’t find Thomas and Catherine’s license or marriage record online, so can only speculate about how they managed to marry.

Sadly, Thomas and Catherine’s marriage didn’t last. While he claimed they were still married when he filed his naturalization papers in 1934, Catherine, now calling herself Pauline, had already married again around 1931 to an Anthony Woolman. She had a daughter with him named Jessica who was three years old in 1935 when they made the newspapers after having seen a suspected murderer. She filed for divorce from Woolman in April of 1943, stating in court that she married him in 1930 after divorcing her “first” husband. Presumably she means poor Thomas, but he was of course her second husband.

Thomas also eventually remarried. At age 55, he married Florence Sweet on March 11, 1946. The marriage record is rather interesting. He states he had never been married before, conveniently forgetting his nine-year marriage to Catherine/Pauline. He also swears he has no communicable disease. Florence states that she is a widow—as far as I can tell, she was a several-times-divorced woman, who most recently had gone by the name Florence Nagel, her third husband’s surname. In addition, both Thomas and Florence list the same home address, so were either both boarders in the same home, or were living together before the marriage.

Shockingly, Thomas is dead just months later at a Veterans hospital. The death certificate also contains some interesting information. The VA doctor reported that Thomas died from cerebral arteriosclerosis caused by “syphilis tertiary” and “acute and chronic cystitis”. Syphilis tertiary refers to the third phase of syphilis, which is neurosyphilis. So Thomas was untruthful in his marriage license when he said he had no communicable disease. The death certificate also stated that he had been under the doctor’s care in the Veterans hospital for these conditions from March 19, 1946 until the date of death on August 28, 1946. That means he sought treatment for third stage syphilis eight days after marrying Florence.

Did Florence know about his condition when she married him? He must have been in poor shape, after all. Perhaps the marriage was a practical arrangement, guaranteeing that she would care for him until death in return for inheriting his estate. Or perhaps he suffered a stroke or something shortly after the marriage that brought his condition to light.

Thomas was buried in the Union Dale Cemetery in Pittsburgh. His headstone shows the dates of his WWI military service.

Gretna Green elopements often sound very romantic, but in reality very few impulsive marriages are successful or lasting. Poor Thomas Sutherland may have thought he’d found the perfect partner in Catherine Schuette Hough, but like so many road-trip weddings, Thomas and Catherine’s journey together was a short one.  

Sources:

Divorce Court Double Play: Woman and Daughter Apply on Same Day. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh PA, 23 Apr 1943. Page 13. Accessed on Newspapers.com https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92181952/catherine-pauline-schuette-sutherland/

Headstone photo by Rob and Debi Felton, Findagrave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99022523/thomas-sutherland

Naturalization record from Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2717/images/47295_302022005557_1077-00540?pId=696092

Death Certificate from Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42410_2421401696_0668-02910?pId=6382158

The Sutherlands Hop the Pond: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Branching Out”

John Spence Sutherland: 1878-1965
The Sutherlands Branch Out Across the Atlantic

 

I made the mistake of assuming all my husband’s Sutherland ancestors remained in Scotland, as Margaret Sutherland, my husband’s second-great-grandmother, did. The family, after all, was quite successful. They owned an iron forge business and mostly lived in nice homes. Emigration was usually the choice of families who were struggling to make a living. However, several of Margaret’s nephews ended up branching out across the Atlantic to build lives in the United States. Margaret’s nephew, John Spence Sutherland, was one of those adventurers.

John Spence Sutherland, named for his mother’s father John Spence, was born on July 4, 1878 to Thomas Sutherland, Margaret Sutherland’s brother, and his wife Jeanie Spence. He was their second child and their oldest son. According to the 1881 Scotland census, Thomas was working in his father’s iron forge business as an iron forger. The family lived at 58 Wellwynd in New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Thomas and Jeanie’s family eventually grew to include four daughters and three sons (two additional daughters died as toddlers), and they moved from the Wellwynd home to a fine home at 8 Victoria Place in Airdrie, a home known as Marchmont.

John’s father, Thomas Sutherland, died June 25, 1904. He was only fifty years old, so the loss was likely an unexpected shock for his wife and children. John was only 25 years old, and was left as the head of the family. His youngest sibling, William Spence Sutherland, was only nine years old, and even John’s oldest sisters were still unmarried. John had followed his father into the family business, and as of the 1901 census had been working as an “iron forgeman”. He probably continued in this position following his father’s death.

Marriage record for John and Isabella, posted on another tree on Ancestry.

John married two years later on December 21, 1906. His wife, Isabella Gardner, was 26 years old, and he was 28. A year later their first son, Thomas Sutherland, was born on October 3, 1907. His birth record lists the young family’s address as what appears to be “Amberside, Cary Street, Airdrie.” I can find no record of such an address, so I have probably misread the entry.

John and Isabella’s second son, Andrew, was born April 3, 1909 in Airdrie, but John was not there to witness the birth. He had left aboard the ship Ionian on January 31, arriving in Boston on February 10, 1909. He planned to go on to Detroit to find a job. What happened in Airdrie that motivated him to abandon his wife, however temporarily, just weeks before she was due to give birth? I would think the family faced some sort of financial pressure that caused him to act so precipitously. The address on baby Andrew’s birth record was different than just two years before—the handwriting appears to say Isabella was living at Greenvale on South Nimmo Street in Airdrie. Did the family fall on hard times?

John must have found work in Detroit quite quickly, as well as a place for his family to live, for Isabella and her two sons arrived in Quebec on July 29, 1909, also aboard the ship Ionian, just five months after his arrival. Imagine Isabella’s courage, traveling alone with a two year old and a new baby not yet four months old! The trip, as we see from the information on John’s naturalization papers, took at least ten days. Ten days with two tiny children, probably in shared quarters! I feel she must have been fairly desperate to undertake such a risky, long trip on her own.

Passenger list from the Ionian, July 1909 showing Isabella and two sons

The young family reunited in Detroit, and by the 1910 census they were living in a rented home at 24 Putnam Street (now the location of Wayne State University), and John was working as a “steam fitter” at a machine shop, a job that apparently involves installing piping.

By the 1920 census, the family had grown by one—daughter Isabella had been born June 29, 1920—and now lived in their own home at 320 King Street in Detroit. While the home no longer stands, similar homes remain on the opposite side of the street and were large, two-story brick homes—John was earning a good living to support his family, working as a machinist at an auto factory. The family also had three boarders sharing their home—all were machinists like John, so were probably co-workers.

The family’s financial situation had improved even more by 1930. John was now a foreman at the auto factory, and the family had moved to a more expensive neighborhood, owning a $9500 home at 2564 Elmhurst Avenue. The family was still there in 1940 as well, although John was now only a “production man” at an auto factory making a more modest $1200 salary.

John’s World War II draft card provides a little more information. John worked at the Highland Park Ford factory. The building is shown below during the war, with a note that Ford changed production at the facility from cars to tanks to support the war effort. John was probably proud to serve his country at work even though he was too old at 60 to go to war.

Records relating to the deaths of John and Isabella have been difficult to locate. I only found John’s Social Security Death Record, which states he died “Jan. 1965”. John and Isabella’s three children all went on to lead stable, middle class lives, so John’s choice to branch out from the life he knew in Scotland to unknown possibilities in a new country seems to have paid off.

Sometime in the 1920s, John became a naturalized American citizen. His application for naturalization can be seen below. Becoming a citizen seems appropriate for a man with a July 4 birthday. Perhaps he was fated to become an American.

Sources:

Information and document images from Ancestry.com

Onward to 2022: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Future”

I am so pleased with my progress in 2021. I only need to complete one more post, and I will have answered all 52 prompts! And I wrote extra blog posts as well—the final tally was 36 posts for my Aird family tree blog, “Another Tree to Climb”, and 25 posts for my Peterson/Macbeth family tree blog, “Twigs on the Family Tree”. That’s a total of 61 posts this year!

I discovered so many interesting stories—stories I would have failed to pursue or would have quickly forgotten if I hadn’t been motivated to research them further and write them up. Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for organizing this wonderful challenge.

So what does the future hold? Yes, I am going to work on 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks in 2022. This will be a challenging year to find time to write and research. There are a lot of family obligations and joyous but time-consuming events, so I have decided to be realistic—I will answer as many prompts as possible, but I know I won’t be doing all 52 this year and I will be content with that.

I plan to once again split my responses between the blog for my family, and the one for my husband’s family. In addition, I will post the prompts out of order, answering the prompts when I run across the perfect story rather than marching along in the order Ms. Crow has set them out. For example, my first post of 2022 will be a response to the prompt for Week 5, February 1-7. I like to do this challenge my way—it’s been working so far, so why rock the boat?

So Happy New Year, and Happy Researching!

John Aird Runs for School Board: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Voting”

Progressives vs. Conservatives in School Board Race

John Aird: 1919-2005

 

            In 1970, many parents with children attending schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, were concerned about a slate of candidates running for the school board. The four candidates, calling themselves PACE—Positive Action for Children’s Education—were running in opposition to what they saw as “progressive” trends in education. John and Laurel Aird were among those concerned parents, and John Aird decided that he needed to act if the PACE group was to be defeated. He filed to run as a school board candidate.

            PACE was opposed by the Citizens Choice slate, which was comprised of Rosemary Hilberg, the president of the existing board, and two other men, Arthur Korotkin and Pat Dougherty, the only black candidate running. John Aird chose not to align himself with this “progressive” group, choosing to run as an independent instead. According to the local newspaper, the election was “one of the most highly contested and one which could cause the greatest upheaval in the county.”

            I am not sure what “progressive” trends the PACE group opposed, but the late 1960s and early 1970s saw Montgomery County’s population changing, becoming less white and more diverse. I suspect the word “progressive” was in part dog-whistle racism, and in part a reference to larger social and cultural changes including the anti-war movement, environmentalism, and the women’s movement that were being embraced by young people, including middle and high school students in Montgomery County. The local newspaper noted that:

 “Student involvement in political elections reached a head in 10 high schools, which last week endorsed the liberal slate, thereby expressing their approval of Mrs. Hilberg’s methods of operation. The student newspapers editorially endorsed Aird as well. The school papers voiced objection to the PACE slate candidates who call for increased discipline ‘over learning’.”

            John Aird’s oldest son, Steve, was involved in student government at his own high school, so was probably one of the students encouraging support for the more liberal candidates.

            John Aird ended up winning election to the board. Frederick, Maryland’s The News reported that with one third of the precincts reporting, the winners of the four seats were Hilbert, Dougherty and Aird, with only one PACE member gaining a seat, a man named Thomas Cooke.

            School board terms ran for four years, and John served one term, leaving office in 1974. John was a powerful voice on several hot-button issues facing the board. Immediately after his election, John was involved in a strangely contentious issue about the role of the district ombudsman. The Board wanted to have the ombudsman report to the board rather than to the district superintendent. This upset the district employees’ unions for some reason—I think they must have feared the ombudsman could be used to attack teachers or school personnel. John tried to act as an intermediary, crafting some sort of compromise between the two groups. 

In 1972, John was elected as the Board vice president. The News reported on March 4, 1972 that:

“Last month, Dr. John S. Aird, vice president of the Montgomery Board of Education, appeared at a public hearing before the state board of public works. He urged its reconsideration of 12 of the 26 projects in Montgomery’s fiscal 1973 capital budget that were not recommended for funding by the inter-agency on school construction.”

John was also quoted in a Baltimore Sun article on the same topic.

“Dr. John Aird, vice president of the Montgomery County Board of Education, told the public works board he felt the state’s school construction agency was ‘interposing its judgment on priorities submitted by the local boards.’”

The construction issue apparently revolved around a change in laws requiring that new schools contain attached gymnasiums. In the past, Montgomery County schools had been built without gymnasium space. The district wanted to use capital funds to equalize the schools, adding gyms to older buildings. I am guessing, once again, that minority and poorer residents of the school district tended to be assigned to the schools lacking gyms. The state was rejecting the construction requests, arguing that Montgomery County had unused classroom space and didn’t need new buildings and additions. Montgomery County had failed in the past to separate classrooms used for specific activities, such as art, music and shop, from their regular classroom count, so that it appeared their schools were not using classroom space efficiently. Other districts counted only rooms actually being used for class instruction in their classroom count.

During this period, the board was also negotiating compensation for teachers and staff, another contentious issue. Bruce remembers having teachers make snarky remarks about his father during tense times while the teachers were considering a strike. Once again John tried to strike the middle ground, noting that the board’s closed door meetings on the issue were creating suspicion. “The credibility of this body should not be treated this way.” He expressed regret for the conflict that had arisen over the decision to change the way teachers were compensated for extra duties. “Perhaps our approach has been wrong. Maybe we have lost our perspective.”

Although John did not serve a second term on the board, in May 1977 he was appointed to a Blue Ribbon Commission charged with studying how the school board “is managing its time, relating to the public and using school staff.” The school board selected eleven citizens for the panel, with John named chairman.

John’s experiences are a reminder of the importance of local government officials. We tend to take school board and city council elections for granted; they seem less important than state and federal elections. However, these bodies administer our tax dollars and determine how essential services are administered. The conflicts the school board faced while John was running for and serving in office show how the decisions made by local officials have real world consequences that provoke strong passions.  

Note: When John began writing his memoirs, he stated that he would talk about his service on the school board. Sadly, he never had the chance to write about that period. He brought his memoirs to an abrupt conclusion when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. It would have been wonderful to read his personal perspective on running an election campaign and the issues the board faced.

Sources:

The News. Frederick, Md. Issues: Dec. 14, 1970. Dec. 21, 1970. Nov. 2, 1970. Nov. 4, 1970. Feb. 12, 1971. March 4, 1972. May 19, 1977.

Baltimore Sun. Baltimore MD. Issues: Dec. 21, 1971. May 27, 1972.

Sugar Cane Farming in Suriname: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “On the Farm”

Alliance Plantation: Farm Operation and Production
Suriname: 1890s-1950s

 

Previous posts on Alliance Plantation focused primarily on the Shields family and their personal histories while they were running and managing Alliance Plantation. But exactly what was involved in sugar cane production in Suriname in the early 20^th century? What did Alliance produce?

Alliance's location, with the river at the top and the Kreek running parallel to the plantation buildings.

Here is the text of an advertisement that ran in the Surinaamsche Courant en Gouvernements Advertisement Sheet, a Paramariblo newspaper, in issue no. 14, Thursday, April 9, 1879 (translated from Dutch):

“ADVERTISING:

The civil-law notary E. A. CABELL will be present on Tuesday the 30th. September, selling at 9 am:

The sugar plantation ALLIANCE in full operation in the district of Matappica. Approximately 1350 acres with all their buildings, machinery, factories, vessels and the accompanying adjacent grounds, New Acconoribo, large 2000 acres, Sunflower, large 1000 acres, Catharinasburg, large 212 acres, part of the Jonge Bijenkorf, 750 acres, belonging to the estate of Mr H. WRIGHT.

In cultivation are 500 fields of sugar cane.

Population: 195 coolie immigrants, 38 free coolies and Chinese under contract, and 332 uncontracted free workers.

The plantation works with a vacumpan machine and also has a wood sawmill.

The aforementioned plantation and land are now for sale out of hand. Information to be obtained from Mr. A. STIRKING. Paramaribo September 3, 1879.”

The property described in this sale comprised the plantation Alliance, which was purchased by Thomas Shields a little over a decade later. The property description helps to explain the plantation’s name: it was created from the union or alliance of five smaller plantations: Sunflower, New Acconoribo, Catharinasburg, Jonge Bijenkorf, and the original 1350 acres that formed the heart of the plantation.

A man named Knott bought the property in 1879. Thomas Shields originally came to Suriname to work for Knott, running and maintaining the plantation’s sugar mill, the “vacumpan” equipment mentioned in the sale advertisement.

Alliance's sugar mill or factory in 1890

Obviously, the plantation needed a large number of workers to plant and harvest the sugarcane, and to operate the sugar mill. Surinam’s sugar plantations used slaves until 1863, as noted by A. van Tran:

".....the abolition of slavery in 1863 greatly reduced the number of sugar plantations, due to the shortage of labour, and at the beginning of this century there were still only seven plantations in operation, two of which soon fell off. The quintet of factories that remained survived until the crisis that began in 1929, and today are only two left, viz. Marienburg, and Alliance…”

Records show that Hugh Wright, as the previous owner of Alliance, was paid “150,600 guilders for the 508 enslaved people on Plantage Alliance” in compensation for their freedom in 1863. Presumably this money came from the colonial government. By the time Alliance was sold to AK Knott in 1879, owner Wright’s 565 workers were a combination of indentured or “contract” workers described as “coolies” (which suggests they were brought from India) and “uncontracted free” workers, who were probably freed slaves who now worked for wages.

While I am sure the Dutch word that Google helpfully translated as “free” had a more nuanced meaning, it does reflect the difficult position of non-free, indentured workers. They could not leave their jobs until their contract was fulfilled, so they were barely better off than slaves, trapped in often miserable conditions under cruel and demanding overseers. There were frequent worker uprisings among the indentured as a result.

Javanese contract laborers on Marienburg Plantation

According to the website SurinamePlantages.com, Alliance grew in size and production under Mr. Knott and during the transition period to Thomas Shields’ ownership:

“The plantation was 642 hectares large, of which 140 hectares produced sugar cane. Alliance produced 314,900 kg vacuum pan sugar, and 33,720 liters of rum. …In 1894, Knott was still the owner of Alliance. The plantation had grown considerably and was now 1,860 hectares large with 192 hectares devoted to sugar cane culture. 760,000 kg vacuum pan sugar and 74,233 liters of rum were produced. That is therefore a doubling of the production compared to 3 years before. There were 662 workers; Alliance was a large plantation.”

Cutting cane at plantation in Suriname approx 1910

The site goes on to explain the labor situation and the growing numbers of contract laborers recruited from Java and India.

“Between 1873 and 1929, Alliance grew into a very large company, recruiting a total of 2016 British Indian and 2,136 Javanese contractors.

The arrival of the immigrants was accompanied by bickering over (too) low wages and poor working conditions. It was inevitable: the aim of the plantation enterprise, especially in the 19th century, was to maximize profits, and one means was to minimize wages with the highest possible labor tax. Already in 1878 there was a strike against these harsh working conditions. The management of the plantation was supported by the government and was repressive: 58 workers were arrested, of which 10 were convicted. Working conditions remained unchanged. In June 1902 - after Alliance's new executive made a pay cut - British Indian worker Jumpa Raigaroo led a strike for better wages and treatment. It again turned out to be a major confrontation with the government. But now the workers were right: wages were increased again and the director replaced. Even now the price was high: 17 workers were sentenced to 6 months hard labor. Three weeks later, the great uprising at Marienburg followed, with 18 dead (including the director) and 39 wounded.”

The plantation grew in size of cultivated land and production under Thomas Shields’ ownership and his son Archie Shields’ management. Dutch researchers wrote that around the turn of the century,

“The plantation covered an area of 1,860 hectares and produced sugar (1,668 tons) and rum (86000 liters). 350 hectares were under cultivation. 828 workers worked on the plantation, including 673 immigrants. A. Shields was the captain.”

Archie Shields at far right, with other government figures. About 1910-20.

The site also noted that the plantation continued to improve the sugar mill equipment. Presumably Thomas Shields’ connections with McConie Harvey, the sugar mill production company he once worked for, helped him keep abreast of innovations in equipment.

“From 1860 to 1953, the sugar-taking Alliance has undergone a continuous process of scaling up and innovation. That the company was successful in doing so is evident from the fact that it was able to survive until 1953, and thus the second to last sugar company of Suriname. (Marienburg was the last). The details of the business operations are not exactly known. Just like the others sugar companies switched to sugar processing at some point using the vacuum pan method, and has been continuously modernized.” (translated from Dutch)

Sugar mill at Marienburg Plantation--similar to Alliance's

Interior of Marienburg sugar mill--similar to Alliance's mill

Thomas Shields’ grandson and granddaughter, Jack McNiven and wife Ruth Shields McNiven, took over management of the plantation in the 1930s when Archie Shields neared retirement. Ruth wrote in a memoir about how the plantation shipped off the sugar it produced. She did not mention rum production; perhaps that had been halted by the 1930s.

“… during much of my time at Plantation Alliance our sugar was shipped with the Norwegian bauxite freighters: the Dalvangen, Vestvangen, Sorvangen, Lindvangen, etc. which, being about three thousand tons, were too big for the Matapica Kreek. Actually, they reversed in the Commewijne and backed up to our stelling, since the kreek was not wide enough for them to turn there… The Captains and their passengers were always welcome guests. The latter were fascinated with this stop at a working plantation, by the glimpses of tropical life afforded them, by the local drinks and dishes we served, the garden of exotic flowers and trees, the vista of the cane fields stretching away to the distant bush ….”

The photo shows the Dalvangen. The other three ships Ruth mentioned were built by the same company and were nearly identical. I am amazed a ship of this size was able to navigate the Commewijne River. The river must have been quite deep to handle a ship with this draft. The Lindvangen was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942; luckily the ship’s captain, John Einar Nelson, survived; he was probably one of the captains who enjoyed the McNivens’ hospitality.

Archie sold Alliance to the government of Suriname in 1953. At the time of sale, the plantation was described as follows:

On November 12, 1953, the Sugar Company Alliance was sold to the State. Hereby the following lands were transferred:

Lodewijksburg 500 acres

Sporksgift 500 acres

Alderat 340 acres 2 parts of the young beehive 918 acres

Vlaardingen 500 acres

Catharinenburg 212 acres

New: Acconoribo 1000 acres

Sunflower 1000 acres

1 part of Constantia 779 acre. In total 5749 fields or 2466 hectares.

While the Surinamese government originally intended to divide up the plantation into smaller farms to be farmed by Alliance’s former employees, that plan was eventually scrapped. According to the Dutch history of the plantation,

“Instead, by state decree of January 29, 1973, the State Enterprise Alliance instituted as part of the "national companies regulation" (G:B: 1971 no. 181), with….the aim of "planting citrus and other crops on a commercial basis”.

Remains of boiler from Alliance's sugar mill.

Government management has been poor. The citrus farm project has not been profitable. The sugar factory on site fell into disrepair and was torn down. The plantation house and the overseer houses were allowed to crumble. Sugar production has moved to other countries, and is no longer a significant part of Suriname’s economy.

Remains of the foundation of Alliance's sugar mill. 1980s.

Sources:

Surinaamsche Courant en Gouvernements Advertisement Sheet no. 14, Thursday 04-09-1879 no. 107 (N.A.S.)

 Suriname 1900-1940, A. Van Traa, W. van Hoeve; 1St Edition (January 1, 1946), p. 54

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146646367

https://www.surinameplantages.com/archief/a/alliance

“Vignettes of plantation life” by Ruth Shields McNiven, as quoted in De Suikerplantage Alliance aan de Matapica kreek .aan de uitvloeiing van de Matapicakreek in de Commewijne. Auteur: Philip Dikland, 2003, aangevuld 2004, 2010, 2011.

 

 

David Aird-- Fresh Off the Boat to Employed: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Working”

Working from Day Three In America
David Aird: 1897-1975

 

I was delighted to discover a news clipping about David Aird, my husband’s granduncle, that provided some background on how he came to get a job at the Detroit Free Press. The story was a perfect illustration of how David and his brothers came to America ready to work hard and build a new life, and how they arrived at just the right time to make that dream come true.

David Aird was born September 12, 1897 in Dundee, Scotland to parents James Aird and Jane Ann Robertson Aird. James worked as a cabinetmaker; David was the youngest of seven children. The family lived at 14 Peddie Street in Dundee, just down the street from Jane’s brother Thomas, whose family had lived at 10 Peddie in 1891, and at 12 Peddie after 1901.

Peddie Street in Dundee, early 1900s

According to John Aird’s memoirs, his grandfather James Aird was “evidently quite skilled at his trade, but he became an alcoholic, drank up much of his wages, and the family lived in poverty. They seldom entertained friends at home because [Jane] could not be sure in what condition her husband would come home from work. Sometimes the children had to be sent to retrieve him from the tavern. Eventually his drinking led to cirrhosis of the liver, and he then stopped drinking, but the damage was already done, and in two years he was dead. My grandmother later said those final two years (of sobriety) were the happiest of her life.”

To help support the family while her husband’s earnings were erratic, Jane arranged for the oldest boys to be apprenticed in a trade—James and William as electrician apprentices, and Harry first with a greengrocer and then with a hardware store owner.  William, the oldest son, married in 1904, and soon had a son of his own to support. Looking for new and better opportunities, he left Scotland for America in 1907. He, his wife and little son arrived in New York on May 12, 1907, a year before his father James died back in Scotland.

David was only ten when his father died in 1908. The family was left impoverished. Jane took in washing to support her children, and soon her children began emigrating one by one to America, following in William’s footsteps. John Aird said that each of them would arrive in America with “a handful of gold coins, required proof that they were not indigent. Once established in the new country, the coins were sent home so that the next brother cold use them to gain entry.” Harry was the first to leave, arriving in New York on November 13, 1910 at age 24. The eldest child, Isabella, followed, arriving July 17, 1911 at age 31, already an old maid. James followed May 2, 1913.

By 1914, the four oldest children were gainfully employed in the Detroit area, and were able to afford to send for their mother and the remaining siblings. Fortuitously, Jane and her children arrived in New York aboard the ship Campania on June 1, 1914, just barely a month before World War I erupted and made sea travel perilous. Sister Jean Aird was 22 years old, Andrew Aird was 19, and young David was 16.

RMS Campania

David described his arrival in the news article, remembering that they arrived on a Monday, and

“Friends met them and took them to Jersey City for Supper. Then they were put aboard a Detroit-bound train.

‘We arrived here (Detroit) Tuesday morning,’ Aird said. ‘That night there was an ad in the paper for a boy to work in the Free Press composing room. William told me how to get to the Free Press. I went down the next day and was hired. I had a job on my second day in Detroit and only my third in the United States.”

David worked for six years as an apprentice in the composing room, learning the linotype machine and other newspaper composition skills. He left the newspaper for a year but returned in 1921 and worked there until he retired. What an amazing story! His siblings had similar experiences, quickly finding gainful employment that provided opportunities for advancement into a middle-class life.

Detroit News Composing Room, painting by James Scripps Booth. Where David Aird worked.

David married Laura Streng on October 17, 1923. He was 26 and she was 24. They had two children, Kenneth, born June 13, 1925, and Marjorie Laura, born February 16, 1934. John remembers that David loved his children.

However, David’s life in America was not perfect. John Aird recalls that David got a reputation in the family as a bit of a mooch, never contributing to summer camping trip supplies or helping with fruit canning, but expecting to share in the products of his siblings’ efforts.

John also wrote:

“Uncle Dave seems to have been basically a weak person. In his middle years, he became addicted to slot machine gambling and loved to tell us how he walked up to a certain machine and put a nickel in it and pulled the lever and at first crack got back so many dollars’ worth of coins.”

John’s mother pulled John aside to explain that Dave’s attempts to repeat that little miracle led to dollars and dollars of losses thereafter. David’s poor wife, Laura, came to talk to John’s parents “about the fact that Uncle Dave was losing so much money at the slot machines that they hardly had enough to live on. She could not even get an accounting of his losses…she would have left him if she could, but had no way of supporting herself and the children without him. She asked my father to have a talk with Uncle Dave and try to straighten him out. Of course it did no good.”

After that point, David and his family pulled away from the other Airds, rarely joining family celebrations or visiting his mother. John and his side of the family knew very little about David, Laura and the children. Presumably David got his gambling problem under control at some point, as he continued to hold his position at the newspaper, and was admired in the community and in the St. Andrews Society enough to receive the award of merit and appreciation from the mayor of Detroit.

David retired from the Detroit Free Press in 1964 after thirty years with the company. He moved to Livonia, Michigan in 1973, and died there on March 12, 1975. Laura preceded him in death.

David’s story of how he got a job three days after arriving in a new country shows that he and his siblings arrived at a very welcoming time for American immigrants. David had no papers, no experience, and no references other than immediate family, yet even so, a large, respectable company like the Detroit Free Press immediately hired him. They trained him in a trade that would support him and his family for his entire life. 

I don’t believe that could ever happen in present-day America. Even the most menial jobs now require some sort of credentials. Companies would never hire a new immigrant today until the immigrant obtained a green card that would permit them to work in the United States. The only businesses that would hire someone fresh off the boat in this day and age would be businesses operating illegally, paying in cash under the table. Those jobs are only the most menial and most dangerous types of labor. And of course now immigrants are looked upon with disdain and anger by a large segment of the American public which makes their lives even more difficult. The “Build the Wall” people speak so disdainfully of how today’s immigrants expect a handout, ignoring the fact that our country now refuses to allow them to legally work. These people forget how just a century ago their own immigrant ancestors had opportunities that our country has now closed off to today’s immigrants. How quickly we forget.

Sources: 

Detroit Free Press, accessed through Newspapers.com

John Aird Memoir

Down a Rabbit Hole: Tracing a Robertson Great-Grand-Uncle

Thomas Robertson: 1851-?
Albert Cameron Robertson: 1897-1917

 

I often make discoveries about ancestors unexpectedly, while looking for someone or something else. I pull one thread, and a whole set of mysteries unravels. It’s a bit like falling down the proverbial rabbit hole into a whole new world. That happened today, while tracing the Robertson branch of the Aird family.

My husband’s grandfather, Harry Aird, was born to James Aird and Jane Ann Robertson Aird. Jane was the child of Hellen Wood and William Robertson; she was born in Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland on June 30, 1857. Jane had three siblings, Thomas, James and Mary Ann, and today I decided to search for their death dates, as well as any other information about spouses or descendants I might turn up on the way. Thomas and his children proved to be of special interest.

Jane’s eldest brother, Thomas Robertson, was born around 1851, also in Dundee. He appears on the Scottish census records in 1861, living with his parents. But by 1871, now twenty years old, he was living on his own on Millars Wynd in Dundee as a boarder in the home of Charles Marie and family. Thomas was working as a baker, possibly nearby at William Coupar’s bakery at 51 Perth Road, near the University of Dundee.  

Intersection of Millars Wynd and Perth Road, Dundee, early 1900s

Millars Wynd intersected with Perth Road, which was where a 20 year old nurse by the name of Jessie Galletly lived, caring for someone in the Andrew Hendry home at 245 Perth Rd. Since Thomas and Jessie lived and worked in the same small neighborhood, it’s not surprising that they met. They married sometime between the 1871 census and the birth of their first child, Isabella Anderson Robertson, March 6, 1873.

Three other children quickly followed: Helen or Hellen Wood Robertson, born September 1, 1874; Wilhelmina “Nellie” Robertson, born in 1877, and finally Alexander Robertson, born sometime in late 1879 or possibly early 1880. I discovered all four of these children living with their father Thomas in his parents’ home in Dundee on the 1881 census. Also living there were James and Jane Ann Robertson Aird and their newborn, Isabella Aird. But no sign of Jessie. Obviously something had happened to Thomas’ wife, leaving him a widower with four young children. Perhaps Jessie died giving birth to young Alexander.

Census record, Robertsons and Airds 1881

                

By the next census, Thomas had acquired a new wife, Margaret Smith, and the first two of their eventual four sons had been born, Thomas Smith Robertson in 1887, and William Robertson in 1890. Father Thomas was still working as a baker, and the family was living at 10 Peddie Street, just north of Perth Road.

Peddie Street where family lived in 1890s

By the 1901 census, they had moved to 15 Forest Park Road, still in the same Dundee neighborhood near Perth Road where Thomas had first met and married Jessie. Now the family included the two youngest sons, Albert Cameron Robertson, born in July or early August of 1897, and Norman McLeod Robertson, born June 8, 1900. 

Robertson residences over course of 30 years: 1. Forest Park Dr.; 2. Peddie Rd.; 3. Millars Wynd/Perth

Wilhelmina/Nellie was still living at home, now 25 years old and working as a domestic nurse, while her brother Alex, 21, was employed as a drapery warehouseman. Thomas’ two other daughters, Isabella and Helen, had moved out. I have been unable to locate any further records for Isabella; she may have married, died, or moved somewhere unusual. There are a couple possible records for Helen, but nothing verifiable. The two young women essentially disappear.

15 Forest Park in Dundee today

I have found no 1911 census records for Thomas, Margaret or their four sons. They, like Isabella and Helen, might have mysteriously disappeared but for one important record: the military records for young Albert Cameron Robertson.

Albert enlisted in the army on August 5, 1916 at the age of 18 years and four months, joining the 11^th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, otherwise known as the Princess Louise Regiment, which saw action on the Western Front in Europe with the 9^th Scottish Division.

Hatpin for Albert's regiment

Military records show that Albert died April 23, 1917, in the Second Battle of Arras. The British Army suffered 10,000 losses in an attempt to take the high ground near the French city of Arras; Albert was one of those losses.

One of the Argyll & Sutherland battalions in WWI

His army paperwork provided a treasure trove of information. First, he provided two addresses: his family’s home when he enlisted, No. 12 Peddie Street, one building down from where they lived at his birth in Dundee, and the family’s new address in Perthshire, in the Campbells Buildings, a large apartment complex, in the town of Stanley. I’m not sure what caused his family to move there—perhaps his father retired from his bakery job, or lost his job, or perhaps there was some other motivation. But at least I know why I could no longer find them in Dundee.

Albert’s army papers also provided a hint of a rupture between his half-siblings and the rest of the family. He was asked to list all siblings: he wrote he had no sisters, and only three brothers, Thomas, Willie and Norman, all of whom were in the army. Of course in reality he had three half-sisters and a half-brother, but even though there was a section on the form for “Full-blood” and “Half-blood” siblings, he ignored his half-siblings. There’s a story there that, sadly, we’ll never learn.

Albert was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal for his service and ultimate sacrifice in battle. The medals were sent to his father Thomas, who signed for them, so while we have no photos of Thomas, we have his signature from a century ago.

In summary, I failed in my goal for the day: to find death dates and records for Jane Ann Robertson’s siblings. Her oldest brother Thomas’ death date remains a mystery, although I was able to confirm he was still alive in 1918. However, my unsuccessful search for that piece of information led me to some fascinating new discoveries: Thomas’ long-time job as a baker, the decades his family spent in one small neighborhood in Dundee, his two wives and his eight children, and the tragic loss of his young son Albert Cameron Robertson in World War I. After learning so much about Thomas and his family, it’s hard to see the day’s research as a failure!

Now I’ll need to burrow further down my research rabbit hole to find out what happened to Albert’s three soldier siblings: did they make it home from the war or did they die like Albert? Every new discovery always leads to new questions. And who knows—perhaps my research on Thomas Jr., Willie and Norman will lead me to my research Holy Grail: Thomas Robertson’s date and place of death! I can dream!

 

Sources:

Photo of Millars Wynd and Perth Rd, Dundee.http://www.leisureandculturedundee.com/photopolis/millars-wynd-and-perth-road-dundee

K, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920 for Albert Cameron Robertson. Ancestry.com.

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1219/images/30974_185764-01093?pId=1651322

Information and photos, Battle of Arras. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917)