William Tannahill

By Ron Sharpe, Fraserburgh, Scotland from extensive information provided by the late Marilyn Harrison, USA.

William Tannahill on the Cumnock Connection tree

from Marlyn Harrison

   

William Tannahill was born in Cumnock on the 8th of March 1819, the seventh child of John Tannahill, a Fenwick born weaver and ex soldier, and Janette Sharp, the daughter of farm servants James Sharp and Isabel McMillan.  Almost nothing is known of William's early life in Cumnock, except for the fact that he, along with his parents and eight siblings, emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s.

William, along with his siblings had worked hard to establish the family farm in Huntingdon, Quebec, and as he grew older, he had started courting Janette White who was living on the same settlement.

As time passed the couple decided to get married. The couple, along with some close friends travelled the twenty three miles across the border to the town of Malone, in Franklin Co., New York State, where they were married in the home of the pastor on the 17th of April 1844.

The couple returned to Canada and moved into their first home in Huntingdon. They remained there to establish their farm for a further ten years, and their first six children were all born there, John, Janet Elder, William, James, Annette and Ann.

In early 1856 the couple and their family decided that their future looked brighter across the border in the United States.

William bought a team of horses in Canada and drove them to the fledgling town of Bradford in Chickasaw County, Iowa. On arrival in the May of 1856 they bought 40 acres of land and started another fledgling farm. The journey from Canada must have been a huge expedition for the young family, as the distance between Huntingdon, and Bradford, Iowa was almost 1200 miles. Unfortunately, within a few months of living in their new home, fate dealt them a crushing blow when their horses were stolen. So, with no way to till the soil, or haul their produce, they were forced to give up farming altogether. But with a family to feed and care for, William had to diversify some way, and he managed to obtain work as a day labourer. But the work could be sporadic, and William diversified by sometimes,working as a carpenter, or by making a living as a shoe cobbler. He seems to have tanned his own leather and travelled around the local area making shoes for anyone who needed them.

The newspapers of 1860 only seemed to carry bad news about the situation in the southern states of America, and by April of 1861 the whole situation boiled over when confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and lit the fire that would claim thousands of lives and almost bring America to its knees.

William would have read about these political disputes, and they must have had a profound effect on him. He had only been a resident in America for around five years, and yet he felt the need to stand up and be counted.

On the 8th of July 1861 he was one of the first to enlist in Company B, of the 7th Iowa Regiment, of the Union Army. He was 41 years old, married and a father to eight children, with one more on the way. He was mustered soon afterwards on the 24th of July 1861 and he became Private William Tannahill. Life was never going to be the same again.

After a few months, William found himself and his comrades helping to set out battle lines close to the banks of the Mississippi river. And on the morning of the 7th of November 1861 he was in the thick of the fighting. He had always had a luxuriant long beard and it was "shot off" as he stood beside his fellow soldiers. The union army attack had been a sudden surprise, and they quickly overran the rebels. It was initially thought that the battle had been quickly won, but the enemy soon regrouped and counter attacked. By the end of the day William found himself in the custody of the Southern army.

William was one of 104 union soldiers who had been captured by the rebels that day. They were transported by rail in cattle trucks to  Columbus, North Dakota, probably for processing, the cattle wagons were so badly maintained that the prisoners were soaked to the skin from the leaking roofs. When drier weather appeared the men were carried out and laid over the railway sleepers and between the railway lines, to dry off in the sun.

They were then taken on to Memphis,Tennessee. It's written that they were given the chance of being released, but only if they would agree not to re-enlist. Not a single man accepted this offer.

They were then moved on to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and then on to the infamous Andersonville prison, Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. This was to be their final destination for a while at least. The conditions of this prison camp were appalling. It had previously been a tobacco warehouse and was totally unsuitable for its new purpose. The windows were barred and had no glass, so it would have been extremely cold, but at the very least it was well ventilated. Space was very tight and one inmate told of having to sleep on the bare floor in a head to toe pattern with no blankets.

The food that was given to the prisoners, whether they were sick or well was said to be so bad it would have nauseated a carrion crow. However it must be remembered that the city of Richmond was more or less besieged, and food was in short supply for everyone. This meant that the Yankee prisoners were well down the "who should we care for first” group. One survivor lived on a quarter of a pint of corn meal a day.

There are many well documented stories from inmates, who recalled the conditions in the camps. One story described how the only drinking water available to the troops was being supplied from a putrid creek, which also served as a sewer for 35,000 prisoners. William, who had been brought up in a strictly religious home, was known to be a man of prayer. When some of the men were dying for the lack of fresh water, and seeing the men slowly walking towards the "dead line" to be shot, rather than endure the suffering. He called them together for prayer, asking for water. As the story goes, an hour after their prayer, the rain came and gave them the desperately craved water. Sometime later a spring broke through the sandy soil inside the stockade. The starving and filthy prisoners regarded this miraculous appearance of fresh water from the hillside as a miracle, an "Act of God".

William and many of his comrades were held in prison for around eleven months, this was probably because the rebels didn't want to be responsible for feeding them any more. And they would have known that these men were so sick, they would never again raise arms against the Confederacy.

In all the time they had been imprisoned they never had a change of clothing, and were wearing the same clothes that they had been captured in, but by now they were no more than rags, and in tatters. These prisoners had been subjected to starvation, exposure, filthy and wretched conditions. And notes from the time mention that William was one of only a few that could walk up the gangplank and out of the hellhole that he had been incarcerated in for almost a year. He was liberated from the Libby Prison in Richmond Virginia on the 19th of September 1862. The men were embarked on a steamer and shipped up to the Annapolis hospital in Maryland, via the James river. This would prove to be convenient for embarking the former soldiers, as a loading dock was situated close by the former tobacco warehouse, that had served as their prison. Most of the men were gravely ill, and they could not walk towards the boat that promised their freedom.

Only one wagon was available to convey the men and William gave up his place to those he felt were worse off than he was.

On reaching Annapolis hospital he was given a meal, probably his first since being confined, but because of the emaciated condition of his body, he was unable to consume it properly, and he became sick and died in the Annapolis Hospital, on the 28th of October, 1862. He was 43 years old.

William Tannahill's friend Andy Feldt, who had stood beside him when his beard was shot off at the battle of Belmont, and had shared the experience of being  taken prisoner and held at Libby prison with him, wrote to William's wife Janette, of his death. She had not heard from William since shortly before he went into battle at Belmont almost a year earlier. This last  letter was read as a tribute to Private W Tannahill, at a Commemorative Funeral Services held in his adopted home town of Bradford, Iowa on the 12th of December 1862.

Dear wife:

                    I hardly know what to write to you, as I do not know how you feel. I believe you feel as though you had a burden too heavy to bear; I do not doubt it, but you must try to keep up good spirits. Do the best you can and put your trust in that God who will not suffer anything to come upon them that trust him to their spiritual advantage. Hath he not said he will never leave nor forsake you?  And if it is so that I never come home He hath promised that he will be a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. And now, dear wife, commit yourself and our dear children to the care of that God that never slumbers. If it is his will that I should come home we will praise his name and if not, let us be resigned and say, "Not my will, but Thine be done, O God!" Look forward to the time when there shall be no more parting, neither sorrow nor sighing, when all tears shall be wiped from our eyes. Put your trust in the Lord, for they that put their trust in Him shall never be moved nor put to shame. I hope the children will be good and kind to their mother.

Yours in Love,

William Tannahill

William Tannahill had another claim to fame, as the man who had three tombstones.

On his passing he was buried in the military cemetery at Annapolis and a military headstone was erected, but this was just one of three, that were erected in his memory. He left nine children.

George W Tannahill was one of William's sons, and was a successful farmer and stockbreeder, as well as being active in US politics. George served as a representative in the Kansas State Legislature for three terms, in the early part of the twentieth century.

At some point George travelled to Washington to enquire about having the body of his father, moved from the military cemetery at Annapolis in Maryland, and brought to Nashua County Cemetery near the Little Brown Church, which he had helped construct. But he was informed that once a body was interred it could not be removed from the national cemetery. He returned to Iowa and arranged to have a headstone erected in memory of his father, along with carved inscriptions remembering his elder brother James Tannahill, and his baby sister, Ella, who died, without ever knowing her father.

When George's mother Janette died in March 1908, she was living in Phillipsburg, Kansas, and was subsequently laid to rest in the Iowa Union Cemetery, Phillips County, Kansas. George then arranged to have another headstone erected in memory of both his mother and father as well as his sister Ann.

The young boy who left Cumnock was well remembered by his family.

The Murdochs - Carpenters, Stonemasons and Bridge Builders in the Carolinas

 by Roberta McGee

In order to explain the connections between the carpenter/stonemason/bridge builder Murdochs who emigrated to the Carolinas in the 1800s we have to go back to Andrew Murdoch and Elizabeth Baird of Ochiltree Mill who married on 5th June 1784. They had at least seven children:

John Murdoch who was born in 1785 and who married Jacobina McCulloch

Andrew Murdoch who was born in 1788 - not verified

Alexander Murdoch who was born in 1789 and married Helen Peden

William who was born in 1792

Hugh who was born in 1793 and married Isabella Fernie

Margaret who was born in 1795 and married James Paterson

Sarah who was born in 1797 and married Arthur Miller

Andrew and Elizabeth's son Hugh emigrated to the USA in 1835 with his wife Isabella Fernie and their six children who were all born in Old Cumnock. Hugh was a cabinet maker and became an American citizen in 1848. According to the US Federal Census Hugh and Isabella settled in Fairfield, Connecticut where they both died - Hugh in 1864 and Isabella in 1867.

THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER MURDOCH AND HELEN PEDEN

Alexander Murdoch, the third son of Andrew Murdoch and Elizabeth Baird, married Helen Peden in 1810 in Ochiltree. 

Their first son was WILLIAM MURDOCH, who was born in the Knowe, Auchinleck in 1811. He emigrated to New York in the early 1830s, then moved to Raleigh to work on the North Carolina State Capitol. In 1831 a fire had destroyed the North Carolina State House and William Murdoch was one of a group of Scots-born stonemasons and stonecutters who were recruited to work on the new State Capitol reconstruction. He married Sarah (Sally) Colburn, the sister of a fellow stonemason, while working there in January 1838. The couple then moved to Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, where William worked on the construction of the massive United States Arsenal which, incidentally, was destroyed in 1865 by General Sherman's troops during the American Civil War.

North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, NC
Image - The Built Heritage of NC: NC University Libraries

Grant’s Creek Viaduct - Contractor Wm. Murdoch 1856/57
Image NC Architects & Builders

At the time there was a rapid expansion in railroad construction and William moved into planning and constructing stone bridges for numerous railroad companies. By the 1850s William and his family were settled in Salisbury where the railroad brought new prosperity and opportunities. He successfully continued with bridge building and other businesses. Between 1858 and 1860 he was involved in building the Gothic Revival brick Thyatira Presbyterian Church.

Thyatira Presbyterian Church - Image SHPO, Raleigh, NC

Everything changed on 12th April 1861 when Fort Sumter in South Carolina was bombarded by the Confederates signalling the beginning of the American Civil War. Over the next four years much of the infrastructure was destroyed and by the end of the war on 26th May 1865 the Carolinas lay in ruins. New railroads and bridges had to be built and this was where William's skills came into demand. 

The Ayr Advertiser of 24/2/1888 reports: 'Mr Murdoch has been a worker in stone for the last sixty years, and we do not think we say too much when we state that Mr Murdoch has constructed more stone-work than any man in the United States.' 

Read more details about William Murdoch's long and successful working life in the USA here.

William and Sarah had four children - Miriam, born 1838 in Fayetteville, who married Samuel H. Wiley, Helen Peden born 1841 in Raleigh and who sadly died aged two years old, William Alexander born 1844 in Charleston who became a medical student in Glasgow and eventually became a doctor in Waynesville, North Carolina and Lemuel who was born in 1846 in Graniteville, South Carolina and died aged sixteen years old in Chatham County, North Carolina.

In 1868 William and his wife Sally sold their house and lot to their daughter Miriam and her husband Samuel H. Wiley, a successful businessman, and the foursome replaced the old frame house with a large brick residence with Italianate features and a rooftop cupola. This became the home of both families and was known as the Murdoch-Wiley House.

The Murdoch-Wiley House
Image - NC Architects & Builders

William liked to travel and he visited Scotland a few times. The Glasgow Herald of 9/5/1874 reported his attendance at a meeting in Glasgow for the Glasgow Institution for the Deaf & Dumb and the Ayr Advertiser on reporting his Golden Wedding of 16/1/1888 wrote;

 

'Through frequent correspondence and occasional visits to his old home, he still maintains a warm friendship with many there.'

Ayr Advertiser 24/2/1888

William Murdoch died on 30th December 1893, his son-in-law Samuel Wiley died on 2nd July 1894 and William's wife Sally died on 14th January 1895.  Samuel and Miriam's daughter Annie Shannon Wiley married the Rev. John Fairman Preston in 1903 and they served as Presbyterian missionaries in Korea from 1903 to 1940. They were appointed by the Presbyterian Church in the US to serve in Mokpo, Kwangju and finally Soonchun from 1913 to 1940. Miriam decided to join her daughter in Korea and spent three years there arriving back in the USA in May 1907. Miriam died at her house in Salisbury, Rowan County in May 1912. 

Miriam's son William Murdoch Wiley was born in 1863 in North Carolina. In 1887 he married Marion Easton Paterson, by Declaration, in Glasgow. On his marriage certificate he described himself as a journalist living in Inns of Court, London. In 1900 he was a gold miner in Rowan and in 1910 he was a mining engineer in Manhattan, New York. Marion's father was Andrew Paterson from Ochiltree and her mother was Marion Merry from Catrine. So Marion E. Paterson was the grand-daughter of Margaret Murdoch from Ochiltree Mill whose parents were Andrew Murdoch and Elizabeth Baird! William and Marion went on to have a son Samuel Hamilton Wiley who became the American Consul in Oporto, Portugal and later in Cherbourg, France.

Another of Alexander Murdoch and Helen Peden's sons was HUGH MURDOCH, who was born in 1819. He was a joiner to trade and married Margaret McLaughlan (various spellings) in 1847 in Ochiltree. In November 1851 Hugh, Margaret and their two young sons, Alexander and John, set sail on the 'Harmonia' from Glasgow to New York. Accompanying them were Hugh's brothers Alexander and Andrew. Hugh obtained work with the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company and the family moved to New Bern where he supervised the building of a bridge over the Trent River. The family then moved to Morehead City, Carteret where he continued his work as a bridge builder and bridge inspector. Hugh fought in the American Civil War (1861-1865) on the Confederate side and after the War he bought a farm at Wildwood, Carteret County, Connecticut where he died in 1898 just over a year after celebrating his Golden Wedding.

ANDREW MURDOCH, who was born in 1828, was the fourth son of Alexander Murdoch and Helen Peden. He emigrated along with his brothers Hugh and Alexander in 1851. In 1860 he was living in Dutch Fork, Lexington, South Carolina. He had married Tirzah Theresa Epting and was working as a carpenter. Much of the town of Lexington was destroyed by Union Forces in 1864 during the American Civil War and on the 1870 census they were living in Fairfield, South Carolina where he was working as a house carpenter. By 1880 they were still in Fairfield and Andrew had moved into bridge building. Andrew died in Lexington, South Carolina in 1890.

ALEXANDER MURDOCH, who was the youngest son of Alexander Murdoch and Helen Peden, was born in 1830. He emigrated with his brothers in 1851. In 1859 he married Minnie Peterson and 1860 finds the couple living in an hotel in Salisbury. Alexander's occupation is given as bookkeeper. On 27th May 1861 Alexander enlisted in the Confederate Army firstly in Company 'H' of the 2nd North Carolina Infantry as a sergeant and from 1863 he was 2nd lieutenant with the 38th North Carolina Infantry Regiment.

A description of a  letter from Alexander to his brother (doesn't say which one) on 10th August 1863 is as follows:

'Description: Ordinance Sgt. Alexander "Sandie" Murdoch, Co. H, 2nd North Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Camp near Orange C.H., August 19 1863, to his brother. Murdoch mentions that he has been on the sick list since the 26th July but not off duty. He has been making inquiries about John D. Scott and a man named Steel who were missing with varied reports of dead and buried together, only wounded etc. Murdoch then begins a narrative of the actions of the Iverson and Ramsay Brigades of Rodes'....

Musselman Library's Special Collections and College Archives Catalogue

Alexander Murdoch died from typhoid fever at the General Hospital in Staunton, Virginia, on 1st July 1864.

Moving on to Andrew and Elizabeth Baird's oldest son John Murdoch who was born in Ochiltree and who married Jacobina McCulloch in Ochiltree in 1809. Their eldest son was Andrew Murdoch of Gallowlea Cottage and later quarrymaster of Coalburn, New Cumnock. He married Agnes Wallace.

JOHN ANDREW MURDOCH was born in 1840 at Gallowlea Cottage in Ochiltree. He was the oldest son of Andrew Murdoch,  stonemason, and Agnes Wallace.  He married Margaret Kennedy Baird in 1868 at Ochiltree. Margaret was the daughter of farmer Thomas Baird who was born in Old Cumnock. He farmed at Nether Heiler and then South Logan Farm, Sorn. In 1871 he was a grocer in Main Street, Ochiltree and retired to Windyside Cottage, Glaisnock Street, Cumnock where he died in 1882. Margaret's mother was Margaret Kennedy, a farmer's daughter, born in Farden Farm, New Cumnock. 

John and Maggie had nine children. The 1871 census finds the family living in Back Street, Cumnock with their first two children, Margaret aged 1 year and Agnes who is only 6 days old. Daughter Isabella was born at Ayr Road, Cumnock in 1874 followed by Jacobina in 1875, Lizzie in 1877 and son John Wallace Murdoch in 1879. John's skills as a stonemason had him working on many important local building contracts including St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Cumnock with stone supplied by his father Andrew from his quarry at Coalburn. 

The family then moved to England and in April 1881 they were in Islington where John was working as a credit draper. Another son, Ebenezer, was born there that same year. Margaret's brothers James Kennedy Baird and Ebenezer Baird were also drapers in Islington. In October 1881 John, Maggie and their seven children emigrated to North Carolina, USA where their son William Wallace Murdoch was born in 1883. Daughter Mary Baird Murdoch was born in Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina in January 1891. According to the Irvine Times of 27/3/1891 John then spent three months in Scotland. He was, at that time, an overseer at Biltmore Estate and when he returned to Asheville he resumed his duties there. 

Biltmore Estate, which nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, was constructed between 1889 and 1895. The lavish 250 room mansion was commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt II. a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family which amassed a huge fortune through steamboats, railroads and various other business enterprises. The project was immense and John, being such a skilled stonemason. was employed there for many years. John was also a champion draughts player.

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald 18/1/1895

By 1887 John was in partnership with another ex-Cumnockian, James Colvin. He was the son-in-law of John Kay, Tanyard, Cumnock. Messrs Murdoch & Colvin secured some large contracts for the stonework on some of the bridges of the three C's road in Lancaster County, South Carolina.

Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald 28/10/1887

According to a newspaper report in the 1880s half a dozen young masons were selected by Andrew Murdoch of Coalburn to accompany him from Scotland to fulfil a contract in South Carolina. James Colvin and William Thomson arrived there in June 1880. George Davidson, Hugh Crawford (young mason from Roadside) and William Findlay arrived there in 1887.

Asheville had quite a colony of Cumnockians according to the Irvine Times of 27/3/1891:

Alex Colvin, James Colvin, Douglas McKinnon, William Findlay, George H. Davidson, Hugh Crawford, John Miller (son of Robert Miller, Tanyard) and Robert Mair. 

In 1891 John was employed as a street inspector. In 1900 John and Maggie were living in Asheville, Buncombe in a farm named Wallace. John was working as a stonemason. Maggie died of pneumonia in January 1901 in Asheville. She was 54 years old and left John her 25 acre farm in Hazel Township and two other properties in the city. Around 1894 John had transferred his property to his wife. When his brother David died in 1891 John was made executor of his Will. He was charged with mis-appropriating David's estate for his own use and a restraining order was made against him to prevent him from selling the land.  To safeguard his assets he transferred his properties to his wife declaring himself insolvent. A complaint was made against him and he was removed as executor of David's Will because he unlawfully disposed of the assets of his estate. 

North Carolina Estate Files 1863-1979 - March term 1895 - Complaint 

John A. Murdoch is charged with mis-appropriating estate to his own use and refused to account to HB Stevens, administrator, for about $10,000 or more. John had sold off 20 lots and was taken to court. He conveyed all his property to his wife and refused to give David's widow any money. Statements were taken from several acquaintances, eg George Davidson, Douglas McKinnon and James Colvin, saying that John had a drink problem both in Scotland and the USA and was so drunk at times that he was unfit for business. When his brother David died John took possession of all the rights etc of the estate. John borrowed $600 from his brother Andrew but never repaid him. He was unfriendly towards his brother's widow and her child and often cursed and abused her and told her she was not entitled to the legacies in her husband's Will. Lillie, David's widow, said there was enough money to pay the legacies to David's children in Scotland and to repay the $600 debt to brother Andrew.

On 29th September 1909 John's grand-daughter Catherine was shot by her father. She was only five years old and her father, hotel keeper Arthur Allen, was found guilty of second degree murder and received five years imprisonment.  John returned to Scotland in August 1911 residing firstly in Old Cumnock, then New Cumnock and finally moving to Inverleith Gardens, Edinburgh, where he died in 1919. His brother Andrew from Coalburn, New Cumnock was the informant on his death certificate.

DAVID MURDOCH, the younger brother of John, was born at Gallowlea in 1842. He was also a stonemason. In 1864 he married Mary Meikle at Rigghead Farm, New Cumnock. Mary's parents were Hugh Meikle, farmer and Marion Boyd. Their first child, Eliza, was born and died in 1864. Their second child was Eliza Meikle Murdoch who was born in 1865 in Ochiltree and their third child was Andrew Murdoch who was born in Rigghead in 1868. Three months later Mary died of puerperal mania, a condition linked to childbirth. 

After his wife's death David emigrated to North Carolina. He left the children with their grandparents and made a new life there. The name of his farm was 'Annandale' although in his Will he referred to it as 'the Jarrett Place'. In December 1886 David married Lillie Ann Brooks, who was 22 years younger than him. Their son David Scott Murdoch was born a year later. 

David died of consumption on 11th February 1891 and his funeral service was at Wallace Farm the residence of his brother John. In his Will David left his daughter Eliza and son Andrew, who still lived in Scotland, $3000 each. In 1894 the Asheville Baseball Club announced it had leased Allandale Field from the heirs of David Murdoch. The local newspaper, the Asheville Citizen, reported:

'The name has long attached to the grounds as the domain of the Murdochs'

In 1897 the Superior Court of Buncombe County requested that Eliza and Andrew appear in person at the Superior Court, Buncombe, to finalise the administration of David's estate.

Ashfield Citizen 1887

ANDREW MURDOCH, third son of Andrew Murdoch and Agnes Wallace, was born in 1845 at Gallowlea in Ochiltree. In 1861 he was living in Ochiltree with his parents and siblings. He doesn't appear on the 1871 census but in 1881 he is found visiting his late sister's family in Ochiltree. He had, most likely, been in Asheville, Buncombe Co., South Carolina. He had secured a large contract in the Carolinas and had selected half a dozen young masons from Cumnock to accompany him there. It was reported in the Irvine Times of 27/3/1891 that he had returned to Asheville after a year or more spent in Scotland and was intending to remain there. However, in 1901 he was back in Scotland living in Old Coalburn, New Cumnock with his father who was 84 years old. His father died in 1906. In 1911 Andrew was still living in Coalburn. In 1919 his brother John died in Edinburgh and Andrew was the informant on his death certificate, giving his address as Coalburn, New Cumnock. Andrew died in Dalricket Mill, New Cumnock in 1927 with his usual residence being Coalburn. His brother Alexander, who lived in Paisley, was the informant. 

Irvine Times 27/3/1891

 

 

From Glengyron Row, Cumnock to the Lady of the Manor - Mary Rogan (1857-1950)

By Alexandra Watson

William Armstrong was born in Portpatrick, SW Scotland in 1802. His parents were from Drumbeg and Drummore in County Down, Ireland.  He was one of 8 children and married a local girl Mary Bryden, whose parents were also Irish. William was an Ironstone Miner. Mary and William moved to Ayrshire living first in Troon, then Irvine and by 1851 settling in the Beith area. Their daughter Mary Armstrong married Thomas Knox in Dalry on 29 April 1864 and then the Knox family moved to Lethanhill, Dalmellington. It would appear in due course Mary and William Armstrong followed the Knoxes to Dalmellington.

By 1881 William is retired and he and Mary are living in Glengyron Row, Cumnock, a miners' row of 44 2-roomed houses. Both live to a good age, William dying in 1882 at Glengyron Row and Mary passed away in 1900 at the age of 84.

Another of their daughters, Agnes married Bernard Rogan from Ireland but sadly Bernard died at the young age of 35.   Bernard and Agnes had 5 children and this story focuses on Mary Rogan – one of Agnes Armstrong’s daughters with Bernard Rogan. The family also used the name Logan, less Irish sounding?

Link to Mary on Cumnock Connections tree

Mary Rogan appears next appears in the 1861 Census with her mother and father Bernard living in Dalry, Ayrshire. Following Bernard’s death Agnes re-married a John McCulloch also Irish. Then Agnes and John and all the children also moved to Dalmellington and then Cumnock to join her sister and her parents the Armstrongs.  By the 1871 Census Mary Rogan aged 14 is a servant for a cattle dealer and his family in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire but by now she is registered as Mary Logan. Is this a transcription error or a fashion of the time/ economic imperative revising her surname to make it sounds more Scots?

Apparently not an error, as Mary Rogan in all official documents from now becomes Mary Logan, as again in the 1881 census Mary by this time 23 year old is still registered under the name of Logan. In 1879 Mary Rogan/ Logan has had a daughter Mary to a miner who was killed in a pit accident. That daughter is living with her grandparents William and Mary Armstrong (mentioned above) at 43 Glengyron Row in the 1881 Census.  

Meanwhile Mary Logan/ Rogan now 23 has found employment as a servant far away in the north east of Scotland and her employer is Mr William Aiton, a Land Owner aged 57 resident at Sandford House, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 

1881 Scottish Census
Sandford House, Peterhead

William Aiton 57 landowner

Mary Logan 23 servant b Dalry

Mr William Aiton her employer is a very interesting character. Looking back over previous census while Mary Rogan was a 4 year old living in Dalry with her parents in 1861 William Aiton in his census return is a Railway Contractor age 37 with 5 children and a wife 16 years older than himself living in Crow Road Glasgow, a leafy west end suburb. 

The career of William Aiton was quite astonishing - among his many exploits

• Built railways in Ayrshire

• Surveyed the Pyramids of Giza

• Went to Paris & negotiated a large contract with Ferdinand De Lessops and the Suez Canal company.

• Was contracted to build 46 miles of the Suez Canal. This contract was so lucrative        for Aiton the Suez company had to terminate it and compensate him to the tune of £20,000

• Travelled widely in the Middle East with many adventures (some drunken)

• Returned to Scotland and bought an estate in Aberdeenshire from the Earl of Aberdeen

• Became a Justice of the Peace for the County

• Funded numerous improvements to the local economy including the building of the Harbour at Boddum, Aberdeenshire. 

The Boddam Estate comprised not only Sandford House but many acres, a ruined castle, lighthouse, and other properties.

Image of Sandford Lodge built about 1800

Sadly the roof of the fine Georgian house is now off. And it is situated right beside Peterhead Power Station

In the 1891 census Mary is still registered as Housekeeper at Sandford House but they had a daughter Barbara in 1888, registered as Logan. On 15 December 1891, in Edinburgh, she officially becomes Mrs Aiton.
In innumerable articles William Aiton is referred to as the Laird, so Mary the servant from Glengyron Row married her “prince” (after the death of his estranged wife Marion) and became the Lady of the Manor. Although from the many newspaper cuttings over the years “Mrs Aiton” had been a regular attendee at functions and regularly “handed out the prizes” at the picnics and events held in the grounds of the house.  When her husband William died in 1893 he left Mary his entire estate.
Mary gave birth to their son William in May 1893 - 3 months after the death of her husband in February. After her husband William died Mary bought and became a lodging house keeper in Aberdeen.
Note that her oldest daughter Mary (junior) who had been left with her grandparents the Armstrongs also moved to Aberdeen and on her marriage, in March 1901, is actually using the name Aiton.
THOMPSON-AITON By special licence, at Aberdeen, on 4th Inst., George Thompson, clerk, to Mary Logan. daughter of the late William Aiton, Sandford, Peterhead. 

Barbara Aiton married schoolteacher William Brebner in 1919 in Aberdeen. Her address was 74 Ferryhill Road, Aberdeen. At the time of their silver wedding anniversary their address was 33 Marchmont  Crescent, Edinburgh.
Son William born 1893 moved to Canada, married and had a large family. He died at Owen Sound, Ontario in 1970.
Mary Aiton nee Logan/ Rogan moved from Aberdeen to Edinburgh dying at 33 Marchmont Crescent, (the  home of daughter Barbara) Edinburgh, in 1950 aged 93...53 years after the death of William.  

 

Extended family of McGlashan, McCowan & Dalglish to Australia and New Zealand

by Kay McMeekin

Archibald McCowan and wife Sarah Hair and their children emigrated on the Hurricane, Glasgow to Port Phillip (Melbourne) in June 1853  as a farmer.

Gilbert McGlashan, son of Dr Gilbert McGlashan in Cumnock was born in East Kilbride on 24 Oct 1835  and died on 7 Feb 1918 in St Arnaud, Victoria, Australia. Gilbert named his house Glaisnock in St Arnaud, New Zealand 

He was an engineer, operated a foundry and engineering works and designed agricultural equipment. 

He emigrated about 1859 and married Agnes McCowan daughter of the aforementioned Archibald McCowan in 1862 in Melbourne,

Meanwhile Gilbert's sister Eliza Woodhead McGlashan born 1833 married in 1861 and emigrated to New Zealand with her new husband James Dalglish and his brother.

James Dalglish was born in Barn Street, Strathaven, on 28 Feb 1834 to William Dalgliesh and Catherine Currie. In 1841 he was living in Lanarkshire, but by April 1861 he had moved to Old Cumnock. James lived in Glaisnock Cottage, Old Cumnock, working as a woodcutter with his brother, Hugh.  

painted by Marie Benseman  Dalglish, married to James’s grandson, Ken Dalglish

    

James Dalglish

On 27 June 1861, James married Eliza Woodhead McGlashan, the daughter of a surgeon, who had moved to Old Cumnock after his first wife, Eliza's mother, had died. 

After the wedding, James and Eliza sailed to  New Zealand on the Asterope with Hugh Dalglish, arriving in Wellington on 11 Oct 1861.James and his brother worked as woodcutters in New Zealand, and James purchased a large block of land in Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula.Together they set up a sawmill on the land and felled the trees to make a sheep farm, where they lived. James became a significant landowner and businessman, and was a prominent figure in politics in the Canterbury Province.

Letters to Elizabeth Woodhead McGlashan from her brothers Alexander and William from 1846 -1870 have been transcribed.

William McGlashan enlisted about 1850 for 14 years as a gunner in 1st Company 2nd Battalion Artillery and was sent to East India on the ship “Camperdown”. He served in Lahore, Scutari and Dalhousie, Punjab. He suffered numerous bouts of ill health, and is presumed to have died there.

Brother Alexander McGlashan left Cumnock to become an accountant in Glasgow. In 1846 he was working in a Customs House in Liverpool (from correspondence with sister Eliza). In August 1847 a 21 year old Alexander McGlashen was jailed in Liverpool for embezzlement for 3 months. There was no letter to Eliza until November 1847. So it is likely the same man. He likely lost his job and that would be the reason for joining the army,

He joined the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons, and went to fight in Crimea, where he had cholera tended by Florence Nightingale and her nurses in Scutari Hospital. He was also in Bengal and Lahore in 1853. He survived to serve around Britain in Newbridge, Newcastle, Exeter and Aldershot.

He married widow Annie Rowlinson in 1868 (his father's name and occupation on the marriage certificate confirms this) and he died in 1891 in Salford.

Information, in particular the letters, from descendant of Eliza, Kathryn Dalglish Chandler. Letters transcribed 1998 by Margaret Frampton.

From Cumnock to Cumberland

By Elaine Corbett

Mary Smith, Still an Enigma.

My great grandmother Mary Smith was born from a union of two farming families; the Smiths of Whitehill, Ochiltree, and the Osbornes of Killoch. Her parents were farming at Drongan House when Mary, then her brother Robert were born. When Mary was five, her father died suddenly and the little family moved to Kilmarnock where their mother rented out rooms to her brother, Matthew Mair Osborne - later to become the editor and owner of the Kilmarnock Standard.  

When Mary was eleven years old tragedy struck when her mother died leaving the two orphaned children in the care of their aunt Agnes Osborne, now married to farm overseer Robert Wallace of Piperhill. They brought them to Townhead of Drumley, near Mauchline.

All seemed normal until my story really begins. In 1896 Mary, aged twenty and unmarried, stepped off the train in Keswick, and went to a boarding house to give birth to my grandfather, Robert Smith.

 She had him adopted by a family in Workington, a thriving port on the west coast rich from mineral mining. The man of the house was a coal miner. A year later, she placed her second child, Victor James, with the same family.

With her third child, she found that her lodging house in Keswick had closed, and her landlady/midwife had retired to Toxteth in Lancashire so she was forced to make other arrangements, finding a family in Cockermouth to adopt little Kenneth.

Child number four was left with the sister of Kenneth’s adoptive mother, Sarah Briscoe. This lady was to be the saviour of all Mary’s children, for she made a home for all eight of them, apart from Kenneth who remained with her sister in Cockermouth. Mary had removed Robert and Victor from the care of the Workington family and placed them all together with Sarah. Far from an absentee parent, Mary visited often, bringing cheeses and money to pay for their upkeep. She would arrive in a buggy laden with goodies, and cash secreted in her petticoats to prevent thieves taking it on her journey. None of the children really knew where she came from, but they knew she was Scottish from her accent, and she spoke a lot about Islay, where her aunt and uncle had taken them to live when Robert Wallace found a new job overseeing farms on the Laggan estate. Islay would have been a rare and exotic place to those children, and it wasn’t until his eighties that my great uncle Fred made the journey to see Laggan Farm - the only one to do so - and greatly thrilled he was!

Life for the extended family Briscoe had its ups and downs. John Briscoe was a farmer when Sarah and he were married, and two of Mary’s children were born at their farm in Edderside. John then left farming and went to work at the steel works in Workington. That is when the children went to St Michael’s school where we researched their records. The school was overcrowded and conditions were poor, so poor in fact that my grandfather never did learn to read or write until he married at the age of twentyfour.

They finally settled back into farming in Lorton Vale and raised the children in healthy country air. Workington was heavily industrialised at the time and childhood diseases were commonplace.

But what of Mary?

Census records show her living with Robert and Agnes Wallace along with her brother. Robert and Agnes had no children of their own. Robert Smith was a bookeeper for the farms under Robert Wallace’s stewardship. Of course, there was no indication of who the father of the children was, or how keeping the secret of her pregnancies had been accomplished.

After the deaths of Robert Wallace, Agnes, and her brother Robert, Mary came back to Drongan as a housekeeper at Lane Farm and at the age of 56, married David Knox, finally moving to live with Smith relations in Twynholm after she was widowed. She died in 1947.

It wasn’t until I did a DNA test with Ancestry that the potential father - at least in my line of descent - became clear, when lots of DNA links to Wallaces popped up. So the question now arose, did she do this of her own volition?

 What we knew of her personality from what her children and grandchildren saw, she was a very self assured and confident character. It seems likely that she was hiding her relationship with Robert Wallace, but how they did that in a house of servants seems impossible. Whether aunt Agnes was accepting of that situation we can’t know, but when she died in Islay in 1918, the monument on her grave placed by Robert Wallace was flamboyant and expensive.

This is it, taken from the back. There is inlaid brass lettering ‘Wallace’ on the plinth, and a memorial inscribed in the column to Agnes. It is noteworthy to observe that the houses in the middle distance would not have been built at the time of her death (1918), and there would be a commanding view of the sound.

Her sons and daughter made their lives in Cumberland, with farming at the core, and Granny Briscoe lived out her life as a treasured matriarch, Mary never playing a role for them apart from an occasional mention of the enigma that was their mother. She never did tell them who their father was.

WW1 War bride to Canada

 Jeanie Kelso Cochrane, the step-daughter of George Bradford, married James Penney, a Canadian soldier from Newfoundland, on 14th January 1916 in Glasgow. There's a record of her sailing to Canada on the California in 1922 but she is with her daughter who was born in Canada. They must have been home visiting her family. Her husband James Penney was living at 209 Parker St in Newark, New Jersey and that was their intended permanent home.

James Penney born 26th Dec 1894 in Ochre Pit Cove, Newfoundland was a Private with the 1st Newfoundland Battalion attached to the British army. The were camped at Ayr (old) Racecourse for training. In March 1916 he was on active service in France but by 1917 he was invalided out. 

Jeanie married William Spurgeon Kennedy a carpenter in 1928 in Jersey City. It looks like Jeanie and James Penney divorced as he married Viola E Friedrichs in 1927.

William returned from Glasgow to New York in 1930 on the Transylvania after visiting mother in law Jeanie Bradford in Cumnock. His wife wasn't with him, on the return trip anyway.

Mother Jeanie Bradford age 77 flew KLM from Prestwick  to visit them  in 1947 at 80 Melrose Avenue Arlington.

In 1930 William's brother Bertram married another lass from Cumnock Mary Stewart Cameron and they lived next door to William in the 1940 and 1950 censuses in Arlington.  Mary travelled alone to New York on the Cameronia in 1929. She was 29 a shorthand typist going to her brother Robert Cameron in Kearney, New Jersey. 

William Kennedy and Jeanie ended up in Pasco, Florida, where they both died in 1975

Mary Cameron Stewart died at the age of 102 in Missouri.

Sailed to Australia

By Kay McMeekin 

John Caddies on the Cumnock Connections family tree. See the article towards the end for his experiences in his own words.

David Murdoch and his son in law John Caddies sailed on the Austral from London to Sydney on the 22nd February 1889. They soon found work in the mining town of Minmi, New South Wales and sent for their wives and children. They paid their deposit in March 1889.

The extended family of Murdoch/Fleming/Caddies sailed on the Cuzco arriving in Sydney on 6th August 1889.

They moved to Cessnock and David Murdoch junior became under manager at Aberdare Colliery. David Murdoch senior returned to Scotland at some point where he died in 1899 in the Poorhouse Ayr of "cardiac" aged 62 a stone breaker, husband of Elizabeth Fleming. The death certificate was signed by the Governor and his usual address was Dalrymple. Not found his passage home or any sign of him in Dalrymple. The poorhouse served as a hospital.

His wife Elizabeth Fleming was born in Beith  about 1843. They married in Cumnock in 1863, and they had 8 children between then and 1881. 

Their daughter Elizabeth Murdoch married John Caddies in 1887.

John Caddies lived into his nineties.  

 The following article was found on the website trove.  John (Jock) Caddis is over 86 years of age. His recipe for a long life is: 

STICK TO THE FOOTPATHS

Jock estimates that during his lifetime he has walked from Australia to Scotland four times and is somewhere near Colombo on the fifth trip. Born on February 10, 1864, at Kilmarnock, just two miles from the famous Cessnock Castle, from which the town of Cessnock (N.S.W.) takes its name, it was only natural for Jock to select Cessnock as the place to end his days. He came to Cessnock 45 years ago. Jock's first occupation was at the coal face at a very early age. In those days a miner usually took a lad into the mine in order to qualify for a double turn of tubs. John Caddis, when 22 years of age, married Miss Elisabeth Murdock at Cumnock (Scotland), and two years later sailed for Australia in the s.s. 'Austral' which, at that time was considered one of the fastest liners afloat. She was considered a large vessel, being over 4,000 tons. The 'Austral' caused quite a stir as she steamed through the Sydney Heads and still a greater stir when 14 days later she sank at her moorings. It was believed at the time that none of the crew wanted the return journey. They had heard about fabulously rich gold strikes. The captain refused to pay off the crew. It would appear that at least some of the crew became obsessed with the idea — no ship — no return voyage. Anyway, one night the seacocks were opened and the 'Austral' sank*. 

AUSTRALIA FOR JOCK. Jock secured employment as a miner on the South Coast and, while he liked the scenery, he didn't like the pay, so after a couple of months he heard about the mining boom town of Minmi, and after a few weeks work, he decided to send for his wife. Jock must have sent home a most glowing and pleasing account of Australia, and perhaps Minmi in particular, because the Murdoch family decided it was a better place than Scotland and accompanied their sister (Mrs. Caddis) to Australia. When the ship on which they travel-led arrived at Sydney, the captain was advised by the ship's agents to keep the Murdock family on board, pending arrangements for their transportation to Minmi, where they were given employment. The Murdocks soon made their name prominent, as most of the menfolk became colliery officials in the coalmining industry. 

THE MINMI RANGERS Jock Caddis was one of the footballers to leave Scotland and he soon found a place in the famous Minmi Rangers, then the soccer (or British, as it was called in those days) champions of the Common- wealth. For two years this famous team never lost a game nor had a goal scored against them. Despite the number of trophies Jock won, the only medal that dangles from his watch chain is the medal won in 1888, when the Minmi Rangers won the Common- wealth championship. Out of that famous team it is believed that only five survive. Of these, Tom Campbell, Jock Caddis, Frank Leckie and Bob Harden (the team baby), live at Cessnock, whilst Jock McCartney is at present accompanying his daughter, Miss Nellie McCartney, the world famous pianiste, on her present Australian tour. All are either 80 years of age or, near 90 years. 

A MILLER'S GUIDE After Jock finished playing as a football star, he took a keen interest in all sports, from a quoit match to the Melbourne Cup. He soon became the selected auth-ority or umpire, whose decision settled all arguments. One had only to ask Jock what horse won the Newmarket in 1900 and he would quote the name of the horse, its breeding, and weight carried, who owned it, who rode it, the colours and the time taken to run the distance. It was the same with fighters, foot runners, etc. Yes, Jock was a Miller's Guide. 

FOOTPATHS Jock is so well known throughout the North that any person admitting no knowing Jock Caddis is immediately tagged a New Australian or Balt. Quite a lot of people believe that Jock is the General Superintendent of footpaths for the Municipal Council of Cessnock. He may have been, but for the past 12 years Jock has been in charge of Vincent Street. His beat consists of six trips (both ways) from the Railway Station to Conway's Corner. Recently, Jock inquired from Rover Motors when the next bus went to Belllird. He was informed by the man in charge, after consulting his watch, 'In 35 minutes time.' Jock replied, 'I'll not wait, I'll walk out and catch it coming back.' Jock recommends that any man can cure insomnia by walking a mere 12 miles a day, providing, of course, that he is over 80 years of age. Jock says that there is only one person killed each year in Australia on a footpath and the death is the result of a brawl. Thousands are killed on the streets and roads. Jock's only message, on the occasion of his birthday, is — 'Stick to the footpaths and live. Walk the streets and die.'   

APA citation

STICK TO THE FOOTPATHS (1950, April 6). The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved February 20, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103583121

THE STEAMSHIP AUSTRAL

*The Austral was scuppered in November 1882, but it was raised in February 1883 and put back into service.

Raising the Austral. (1883, February 10). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), p. 32. Retrieved February 21, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70995949\

The footballer mentioned in the article Jock McCartney is also an Ayrshire man from Cronberry. He came out in 1887, his younger brother David in 1910. David was a retired professional footballer and went back to mining  in South Aberdare.

John McCartney with daughters Nellie, left, the pianist and Hilda

Nellie took the stage name Nan Kenway when she changed from being a pianist to a comedy actress.