Dane Wandabense

 Great Aunt Isa married a Canadian First Nations Chief by Dane Love

Isabella Nimmo Kerr Park was born on 1 March 1900, at 58 Kames Row, Muirkirk. She was the daughter of John Kerr Park (1867-1942), an engineman in the local pit, and his wife, Isabella Bain Hamilton (1873-1960). There was a total of eight siblings, of which Isabella, or Isa as she was known to the family, was the eldest. For some reason, on her emigration papers, she had shortened her name to Isobel, and then in turn shortened this to Isa. The other siblings were Hugh William Wilson Park (1902-1970); James Hamilton Park (1904-?); Joanna Kerr Park (1906-1997); Jemima Carter Park (1908-1992); George Park (1909-1988); Mary Moffat Park (1911-2003) and Angus Hamilton Park (1914-1984). As with most families connected with the coal and iron industry, they moved around, from Kames Row to 11 Railway Terrace, in Muirkirk itself. They later moved to Number 191 Gasswater (where my grandmother was born), Number 373 Cronberry, and then to Cumnock, living at Waterside Place, followed by 7 Keir Hardie Hill (which house had to be demolished when it started to crack due to the existence of a mine shaft underneath it), then 26 Keir Hardie Hill.

Isabella, or Isa as she was better known, always wanted to emigrate to Canada in search of a different, perhaps better, life. Her father always refused to allow her to go, but one day she came home and announced to her parents that she was now over 21 and that no-one could stop her emigrating. This probably took some time to arrange, or perhaps there was some reluctance to support her, but eventually, in 1923, she set sail.

Isa Park embarked on the SS Cassandra (Anchor Donaldson Line) on 31 August 1923. She sailed third class and the total money in her possession was £1. Her passenger card noted that she was a nurse, that she intended to remain as a nurse in Canada and that her intention was to ‘settle down’. She noted that she had never lived in Canada before. Her passage was paid for by her uncle, Bertram J. Carter, who already lived in the dominion, at 456 Main Street, East Toronto.

Isa served as a nurse and she was to meet a native Canadian named Dane Waindubence and after a short romance they decided to marry. The spelling of Waindubence was later changed to Wandabense, and both spellings are still current in the Indian reserve. It is said that Dane heard Isa singing and was attracted to her as a result. The wedding took place at the regular Sunday morning service at St Luke’s Anglican Church in Ottawa on 23 June 1929. For a reason not known to the rest of the family, Isa became known as Gretchen in Canada, a name used by all references to her there.

Dane Wandanbense was the son of John Wandabense and Mary Jane Nahwegezic. His parents died around Dane’s twelfth year.

The Sheguiandah Indians are part of the Ojibwe native Americans. Their tradition was that members who married British or French Canadians were considered to be outside the clan and Ojibwe society. The tradition in our family is that Dane Wandabense would have succeeded as Chief of the Sheguiandah clan if he had not decided to serve in the Canadian armed forces during the war and to marry a Scots lass.

Dane and Isa had a daughter, Margaret Dawn Wandabense, born on 27 August 1931, but she only survived for eleven hours, probably suffering as a result of a ‘prolonged difficult labour’. There were no other children. Interestingly, on the death certificate, her father is named as ‘Daniel’ Wandabense, the only time I am aware of that name being used. The informant was a fellow Indian. 

This Dane Waindubence had an interesting background and life of his own. Although he had no connection with the Cumnock area, indeed he never once came to Scotland, the fact that he married a local lass who had emigrated is all part of the story of the local diaspora. 

Dane was born sometime in 1907. It is recorded that he never knew what his own date of birth was. Indeed, in 1976, at the approximate age of seventy, he had to apply to the Canadian authorities to have his birth registered, which was written down as 4 February 1907. How precise this was cannot now be determined. His Ontario Vital Records Delayed Statement of Birth records: ‘Dane Wandabense, born February 4, 1907 at Sheguiandah Indian Reserve No. 24, District of Manitoulin, male. Father: Wandabense. Mother: Mary Jane Nahwegezic.
The Sheguiandah Indians are part of the Ojibwe native Americans. Their tradition was that members who married British or French Canadians were considered to be outside the clan and Ojibwe society. The tradition in our family is that Dane Wandabense would have succeeded as Chief of the Sheguiandah clan if he had not decided to serve in the Canadian armed forces during the war and to marry a Scots lass.

Dane and Isa had a daughter, Margaret Dawn Wandabense, born on 27 August 1931, but she only survived for eleven hours, probably suffering as a result of a ‘prolonged difficult labour’. There were no other children. Interestingly, on the death certificate, her father is named as ‘Daniel’ Wandabense, the only time I am aware of that name being used. The informant was a fellow Indian, 

This Dane Waindubence had an interesting background and life of his own. Although he had no connection with the Cumnock area, indeed he never once came to Scotland, the fact that he married a local lass who had emigrated is all part of the story of the local diaspora. 

Dane was born sometime in 1907. It is recorded that he never knew what his own date of birth was. Indeed, in 1976, at the approximate age of seventy, he had to apply to the Canadian authorities to have his birth registered, which was written down as 4 February 1907. How precise this was cannot now be determined. His Ontario Vital Records Delayed Statement of Birth records: ‘Dane Wandabense, born February 4, 1907 at Sheguiandah Indian Reserve No. 24, District of Manitoulin, male. Father: Wandabense. Mother: Mary Jane Nahwegezic.
I certify the foregoing to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Given under my hand at Little Current this 29th day of November 1976. Signed: D. Wandabense.’ 

Dane was brought up in on Indian Reserve No. 24, belonging to the Sheguiandah Band. This tribe is based on the island of Manitoulin, which is the largest island in Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. The Sheguiandah First Nation’s Reserve covers a land area of eight square miles. This Nation is a signatory to the Manitoulin Island Treaty. The history and traditions of the tribe are rooted in the Odawa, Ojibway and Potawatomi nations of Mnidoo Mnising, and its official languages are Anishnaabemowin and English. As of January 2024, the Nation had an approximate total of 548 registered members.

Dane was left as an orphan at an early age, the reason not known to me. He didn’t get on at school, and during his first week of school at Sheguiandah he played truant so often that at the age of twelve he was sent to a mission school at Sault Ste. Marie, a city that straddles the Canada and United States border between lakes Huron and Superior. However, he decided to leave at the age of fourteen. He trained to become a surveyor, being registered as an Ontario Land Surveyor.

In the early 1920s he started working for T. J. Patten, at Manitoulin, but on his death he continued his training under Col. S. W. Archibald. It is said that his training under a colonel served him well when he became a sergeant during the Second World War. From 1934 to 1940 he was engaged on highway location and construction between MacKerroe and Schreiber with the former Department of Northern Development, later the Department of Highways. He explored a route from Killarney to Whitefish Falls in 1937, but this was not developed at the time. However, opening up the North Shore was a source of pride to him. 

He was an instructor from 1941 to 1946 in the Survey Wing and the School of Instruction in Gunnery in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He served as a sergeant. After serving in the war he joined the survey section of the Ontario Department of Highways and became articled to H. S. Howden, surveyor. He spent most of his time working in northern Ontario, for a time at Cochrane and Port Credit. Dane was to receive his Ontario Land Surveyor commission on 21 June 1950, number 733. He was Ontario’s first aboriginal land surveyor. Whilst in northern Ontario he was the only surveyor capable of using snowshoes. He was also proficient in skiing, and during the war he helped develop the army’s ‘ski patrol’.

Dane was a keen geologist, and over the years made a collection of rocks. He panned for gold, and when uranium was in demand in the post-war years, he carried a Geiger counter on his expeditions to search for it. 

Dane opened up his own practice in the town of Clarkson in 1953, under the name ‘James and Wandabense’. He inherited the notes of previous surveyors and it was said that ‘the time and location [of his practice] was ideal, and his business was a success’. In 1954 he became an Associate Member of the Institute of Professional Town Planners and remained a member of it until 1978.

In 1960 Dane took on Francis M. MacGregor as a partner in the business, which became known as James, Wandabense and MacGregor. This partnership continued until January 1964 when he decided to return to Manitoulin Island. He set up a new practice at Little Current, north of his birthplace at Sheguiandah, under the name ‘Dane Wandabense, Ontario Land Surveyor’. He and Isa moved to the Joseph MacIntyre property west of Little Current before building a house on MacLean’s Mountain, a few miles south of Little Current. In 1979 he moved his practice to Espanola on the Canadian mainland but continued to live at Little Current.

Dane Wandabense sold his practice in 1982 to William J. Keatley. The business continues as Keatley Surveying Ltd, Little Current. In retirement, he and Isa spent their time travelling across Canada. In 1987 he was invited to become a Retired Associate of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors but declined. In his letter he wrote:

 

Since I was commissioned an OLS, nine hundred have joined the ranks of the Association. Most of these young ladies and gentlemen would be complete strangers, with new modes and ethics. I know I would be out of place. This is the inevitable result of change. My generation was occupied with the evidence of discoloured squares in sandy soil, or the butts of old cedar posts and old blazes left by those of the 1800s. That is a thrill and satisfaction the new will not know. Gone is the day of snarling and the hubbub of sleigh dogs anxious to be off on steamy, cold mornings, often at 50^O F below along the North Shore of Lake Superior, of mushers shouting and wielding their whips, trying to control fighting dogs. It was a dog’s life for both men and animals. And this not so long ago, it was during the mid 1930s. And yet the memory is pleasant. The challenges were met. One winter the spring break-up came early and our job – ‘lake traversing’ was incomplete, so we waded on snow to what was called ‘second ice’ for two weeks. Our clothes were always wet, no chance of getting dried, but we finished the job and no question of extra pay. The Union man was not yet born. We did expect to be rehired the next winter for another go at romantic hardship.

 

At MacLean’s Hill, the Wandabenses had no running water, and drinking water had to be brought from Little Current. They collected rainwater from the roof of the house in a tank in the cellar and this was used for washing and cleaning. It wasn’t until they sold the house that the new owners insisted that they create a bore hole in order to get a decent water supply, something that they really should have done years before.

Although he no longer lived on the Indian Reserve, he retained a close fondness for it. He became a long-time director of the Indian and Eskimo Association of Canada, and his common sense and knowledge resulted in the John Howard Society asking for his counselling advice in their study of the special problems of Indians in trouble with the law. According to him, ‘the society will learn what the Indian and Eskimo Association has known for a long time, Indians from reserves do not know what to expect in cities; they have no experience with assembly-line society and really see no use for it. Indians go to a city not knowing even how to rent a room in a boarding house. Alienation from the city can lead to a brush with the law’. 

In 1968 Dane put his name forward as a possible candidate in the Algoma-Manitoulin riding. In his manifesto he took a stand for the native Canadian Indians:

 

The problem of a minority group, the six or seven odd thousand Indians within this riding. What about them? The problems of Blind River or of Espanola are regional, but this ethnic problem within this riding is really national in scope. ‘Red Power’ is heard more and more. Only an Indian or a group of Indians in the Commons can understand Indian thinking and translate it into action. This is why I offer myself. In addition by education and experience it is my pleasure to understand the non-Indian way of life as well. This one thing I can promise definitely, that if nominated successfully as your Liberal Candidate and elected, that I shall look after the interests of Algoma-Manitoulin Riding as a whole. Let Algoma-Manitoulin be the first to admit the peaceful and lawful invasion of this so-called Red Power

 

Dane and Isa retired back to Manitoulin Island, living in a house at Howland, located high on a hill with a panoramic view of the North Channel. Isa died in July 1994. Dane himself died on 14 June 1995 at the Manitoulin Centennial Manor. They were both buried in the Sheguiandah Reserve Cemetery, also known as the Anglican Cemetery.

Back in Scotland, Isa’s sister, Mary Moffat Park was to marry Thomas Love on 29 November 1935 at the Old Cumnock Parish Church manse. They had two children, a daughter, Isabella Hamilton Love, known as Isobel, born in 1938. A second child, a son, was born on 27 March 1943, and they decided to name him after Mary’s brother-in-law, becoming Dane Thomas Love. In turn, when Dane Love married Sheila Agnes Boyd Gillies, they named their first-born Dane Love, keeping the fairly unusual Christian name going. Dane Love is the writer of this article, and when he and his wife, Hazel Anne Cowan, had a son, he was christened Dane Cowan Love, becoming the third Dane in the Love family.

At a young age, with an inquisitive mind wondering where my name came from, I wrote to my great uncle to ask. He replied stating that it was from the Indian ‘Day-nay’, which means ‘intelligent one’, but that Great Uncle Dane had shortened this to Dane.

A Tragedy in Idaho

by Roberta McGee

        William Murdoch, the son of James Crawford Murdoch and Mary Murray of Gasswater, Auchinleck, married Janet Lennox of Muir, Cumnock in 1846 in Cumnock. They had six children. Janet died in 1877.

          Obituary Janet Lennox - Salt Lake Herald      

At Kilmarnock Scotland 20 December 1877 Jane Lennox Murdoch, wife of William Murdoch, Muirkirk. She was born at Moor, Old Cumnock 22 September 1821, obeyed the Gospel in 1854 and lived and died a faithful Latter Day Saint.

        Five months later William and their five surviving children emigrated to Utah. They were unaware of the tragedy that lay ahead some years later.  This is the story of their daughter Margaret Murdoch who married John Adamson from Muirkirk on 16 January 1879 at Salt Lake City, Utah. 

        John and Margaret had six children, John, William, Isabelle, James, David and Edith. They were very much involved with the Mormon Church and, after living in Utah initially, finally settled in Carey, Blaine, Idaho. John was a director of the Carey State Bank, a farmer and a chief church official of the Boise Stake, one of the organisational and administrative units of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Image - Arrington88 Ancestry

        Their daughter Isabelle married William Henry Cameron in 1905 in Blaine, Idaho. He was born in Melrose, Montana to Scottish parents. Isabelle would only agree to marry him if he joined the Mormon Church and he did so, somewhat reluctantly. After their marriage he refused to attend to his church duties and be involved in the church as he had agreed to and, over the years, this caused much friction in the family. He turned to drink and in 1915 he was arrested and jailed for beating his wife. When he was released on bond pending his trial he found that his wife and children had moved in with her parents and they avoided all contact with him.

        WH Cameron was the proprietor of the Carey Idaho Hotel. He also kept a livery stable, was a mail carrier and ran a jitney, which was a small bus. Isabelle Cameron's life revolved around her husband, her children, her parents and her church and on running the hotel. However, the problem with her husband's inability to embrace her church seemed to fester over the years and the marriage broke down when he began to drink heavily. He repeatedly tried to persuade his wife to return to him and told his father-in-law that, unless she did return 'there would be the damdest funeral ever seen in Carey'. Isabelle filed for divorce.

Isabelle Adamson Cameron - image Renee Surgeon, Ancestry

        Cameron devised a plan. He purchased a Colt 45 automatic revolver then went away on business for about eight days. When he returned he headed for the Adamson's house, armed with the gun, in search of his wife.

        The first person he encountered was his father-in-law John Adamson, who was putting the Cameron baby, Estasta aged eighteen months, to bed. Cameron shot him and the baby dead before turning the gun on his mother-in-law Margaret Murdoch Adamson and his brother-in-law James, who was playing the piano when he heard the shots. In the scuffle James's shirt was torn to shreds in his fight to disarm him. Margaret and James were both shot dead. 

        Isabelle, on hearing the shots fled the house, only to be followed by Cameron who eventually caught up with her in a field and shot her through the head before shooting himself. Her sister Edith Adamson and the remaining three Cameron children were in another room when the shooting started and managed to escape. 

        Wood River Times TE Picotte, Publisher November 1 1915 

                  Burial of Victims of the Tragedy 

                  Wood River Times TE Picotte, Publisher November 1 1915 

                      Burial of Victims of the Tragedy 

                  The five victims of the tragedy of last Friday night at Carey were buried there yesterday afternoon from the beautiful new church just completed at a cost $11,500.00. Ex-Bishop Rawson, First Counselor of the Boise Stake, conducted the services. The funeral called to Carey the biggest crown ever seen there on occasion, mourners having come from Cassia County, Boise, and Southeastern Idaho. There was not even standing room in the new edifice though the benches were not yet in, these being the first services ever held in the church. There were four caskets. One was for Mrs WH Cameron and her babe that was held in her arms, one contained the body of Mrs John Adamson, one that of John Adamson and one for James Adamson. The internment was in the Carey cemetery.

                  Wood River Times Daily TE Picotte, Publisher November 2 1915

                  Echoes of the Tragedy                    

             

      William H Cameron left all his papers, those in the Casey State Bank and elsewhere to his sister, Mrs Joe Danills, of Soldier, to whom is entrusted the letter to the descendant's eldest daughter as the following open letter, which was found in the Cameron Hotel after the tragedy. It will be seen that it must have  been written as the unhappy demented was about to set out for the scene of the tragedy. The letter is as follows:

                            Carey Idaho October 29 1915 - Friends and Relatives;

                            There is nothing in this world for me to live for. They have taken my wife and babies from me. My heart has turned stone cold for revenge on the one who has broken up my home. I thank you all for what you have done for me in my troubles. Don't say after I am gone 'he was crazy' for I am not. You will never know unless the same thing happens to you just how I feel, but I hope it never happens to any of you. Goodbye.

                            I am leaving a letter for Lexie when she gets older. See that they are cared for. WH Cameron. Lexie was the eldest of the four Cameron children.

        William Henry Cameron's funeral service was held in the Presbyterian Church in Bellevue,

Idaho. 

 

     

John Morrison, showman

By Kay Mcmeekin. Originally posted in 2017

 John Morrison was born on 12th April 1829 in Old Cumnock (according to all censuses) and baptised on 26th November  1829 in Kilmarnock, the natural son of Elizabeth Grier and John Morrison.  Elizabeth went on to marry Donald or Daniel Stewart in 1833 in Kilmarnock.

John was living with the Stewarts in 1841 in Kilmarnock but by 1851 census he was an "equestrian" living in Paisley with his wife Mary McNab of Renton.

In December of 1852 he was charged with wife assault in Cullen, Banffshire and is a showman from Kilmarnock. She clearly forgave him as she paid his fine and they went on to have nine children together. (9 children according to his obituary. I've only found 8)

Published: 7th Dec 1852 
Newspaper: Banffshire Journal and General Advertiser

In November 1858 John and Mary were in court again but this time they were the victims of an assault by Sheriff Officers in Cummingston on the Moray coast near Burghead.

Their children were born all around the country; Kilmarnock,  Ayr, Aberdeen, Golspie, Lossiemouth, Echt, Charlestown. Many of these are seaside places.

In 1861 census he is a shoemaker living in 34 Shuttle Lane Aberdeen with Mary and 4 children.

In 1871 census he is a photographer living in a caravan on South Green Dunfermline with Mary and 7 children.

In September 1877 he is a showman and shooting gallery proprietor from Dundee in trouble for setting up with out permission. Found guilty.

Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser - Friday 21 September 1877

Mary died in Dundee in 1878 and he married Sarah Stratton in 1880. This marriage was short lived. More later.

 In 1881 he is back in Kilmarnock with his mother now the widow of William Richmond and half brother William Stewart. He is a joiner.
West George Lane, Kilmarnock
Elizabeth Richmond 79
John Morrison 51 son journeyman joiner
William Stewart 16 son
Ann Goudie 61 visitor

Meanwhile 3 of his children Jessie, Hugh and Helen are living with their stepmother Sarah in Dundee.

In 1885 he was in court again in Perthshire.

Dundee Courier 
Friday 10 April 1885

He was sinned against in 1885 when his second wife committed bigamy. His address was Euclid Crescent Dundee.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 
Tuesday 02 June 1885

Things seem to have gone downhill for him after that.

In 1891 he is in a lodging house in Dundee. At 20 Bruce St Lodging House

Occupation Pedlar age 67

It was reported in the Dundee Courier of Thursday 02 June 1892 that he was drunk and disorderly at the Model (lodging house) and he was fined 5 shillings or five days' (imprisonment)/

In 1895 he featured in a series of articles in the Caledonia magazine written by Donald J Jolly. I wasn't sure at first it was the same man as he claimed to be born on 7th April 1819 but his obituary ties in with some of his claims.
Caledonia

1901 at  97 Overgate St Lodging House (Patrick Rock's)

Occupation Pedlar age 75

He died of chronic bronchitis in October 1903 in Perth Poorhouse age 74, consistent with his birth record.

Reports of his death appear some weeks later and he is described as a centenarian born 1801 in New Cumnock.  He performed at the coronation of George IV in 1821 before he was born! I wondered if this refers to his father who was described as a labourer in 1829 and a tile maker on John's death certificate. Interesting reading though. He was known as "Shooting Johnny"; a clown called Caldebratis; the original Ord.

Aberdeen Press and Journal - Friday 25 December 1903

Cumnock Connections tree

* His place of birth is consistently Old Cumnock in the censuses and his mother was from there.

John McTurk Gibson

Born in 1827 in Hillhead, Ochiltree John McTurk Gibson left home for America in his youth. He married and settled in Marengo, Iowa. 

During the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, better known as the Colorado Gold Rush he left hiswife and children at home and set off with some friends  on the Oregon-California trail in April 1857 to seek his fortune.  Both he and his companion John Powell kept a diary and his great great grandson Weldon Hope has published both accounts here    https://wjh.us/journal/copyrite.htm       

Scotch Drapers in Liverpool

By Elaine Corbett

This is a story of a family sticking together and helping out with motherless and orphaned nieces and nephews.

Two Sloans (children of Peter Sloan and Mary Gall of Roughside and Knockterra) married two McMillan siblings (born in Minnigaff). 

First Alexander Sloan married Jeannie McMillan in Liverpool in 1880 and then in 1882  his sister Margaret Sloan married Jeannie’s brother James McMillan at Knockterra. Both men were drapers in Liverpool. Jeannie was already dead by the time of her brother's  wedding in 1882 , leaving a baby Peter Sloan.

Margaret Sloan

Alexander and Jeannie are in the census of 1881 at 9 Brownlow Street, Liverpool. He is a travelling draper age 28. Travelling drapers went from place to place selling items from a pack.

Other household members are baby Peter Sloan, and a three-year-old niece Elizabeth (Lizzie) Susan Clive.       Lizzie was the daughter of Jeannie’s sister Margaret McMillan who had died in January 1878, aged 40, three months after the birth of Lizzie.  Her widowed father a mason in Old Luce was looking after her brothers, while another sister was with their Aunt and Uncle on a farm in Old Luce.    

Ten years on in the 1891 census James McMillan and Margaret (Sloan) are living at 16 Brownlow St. along with Alexander, Lizzie Clive, and Peter Sloan,  as Jeannie had died in November 1881 when her son Peter was only 9 months old.

As well as the McMillan/Sloans, Brownlow St. appears to have several families in the drapery trade in 1891. They are:

Caroline Bentham draper’s Assistant aged 20,

William Alexander draper aged 45 (from Auchinleck) on Cumnock Connections tree

Mary Mitchell Alexander wife aged 43 (from Tarbolton)

Robert Alexander aged 19 assistant draper

Samuel Mitchell aged 29 draper

James Warrener aged 71 draper (from Pudsey)

Thomas Pagan aged 42 (from Scotland)

Jane his wife aged 37 (from Scotland)

William Morgan aged 45 Draper

William Rae aged 45 draper (from Scotland)

 

Two years later Peter’s father died, and Peter, at the tender age of 12, continued to live with his aunt and uncle.

In the 1901 census, the McMillan sons are listed as being school age, but Peter Sloan, aged 20 is a civil engineer. His cousins would later be taken into the family business that seems to have gone from strength to strength. Peter chose a very different path.

By the time of the census in 1911, the only drapers on Brownlow St. are the McMillans.

The 1921 census refers to the McMillans as ‘credit drapers’. This means that they sold goods ‘on tick’, payment in instalments with a premium added. Usually aimed at people in the poorer income bracket, some sales could make 100% profit for the draper. It was an early example of the credit card, and not universally approved of, being seen as temptation to the spendthrifts of the lower classes. The company was referred to as McMillan and Sons. James McMillan died at Wh

The term ‘Scotch Drapers’ refers to the travelling salesmen, who although in the early days had been predominantly Scots, they then evolved into drapery businesses employing travelling salesmen working on their own account, and from more diverse ethnic groups. The salesmen had to pay into the business, and act as tallymen, collecting dues from customers who bought goods ‘on tick’.

Peter Sloan however had received his education at the Liverpool Institute and served his apprenticeship with Messrs C. S. Wilson & Co of Regent Road, Bootle. He joined the White Star Line two weeks after the completion of his apprenticeship and served on various vessels both in the Atlantic and Mediterranean routes. He was shown serving as an electrician aboard the Cretic in October 1905, his ship prior to that being stated as the Celtic; at this time his address was listed as 103 Vine St. Liverpool.

Peter married Annie Blair, a Belfast girl, in August 1908 and they set up home together in 14 Newcastle Rd. Wavertree, Liverpool. Peter was a Marine Electrical Engineer by this time.

A year later Peter had risen to the position of Chief Electrician. It must have been with great enthusiasm that he signed up for his next assignment in Southampton.

Peter Sloan

The ship he signed up to was RMS Titanic. 

In April 1912, Peter set sail from Southampton, leaving Annie in Liverpool. They had no children. He was part of the crew that kept the ship’s lights and systems running.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, electricians like Peter were among the heroes who stayed at their posts to keep the lights on so passengers could see to escape.

Peter Sloan’s body was never recovered, but his story became part of Titanic history — a reminder that sometimes the greatest legacies aren’t in money or business, but in courage.

 

The Adamson Sisters

By Lindsay and Anne Adamson

The Adamson Sisters– a short story of two Cumnock-born women:

Helen 1879-1922 and Marjory 1882-1935

 

Helen Scarlett Adamson, oldest child of the Reverend Alexander Adamson and his wife Janet (ms Duncan), was born on 17^th May 1879 in the Free Church manse on Ayr Road, Old Cumnock, Ayrshire. 

 

Old Free Church, Ayr Road (a)

 

    Her sister Alice Marjory Adamson (known as Marjory, with the chosen spelling Marjorie in adult life) was also born in the Free Church manse on 25^th March 1882; however, before Marjory was even 1 year old, the family moved from Cumnock when their father took up a new ministry at Chapelshade Free Church in Dundee.

    Younger brother David Lindsay Adamson was born on 16^th June 1885 at 16 Albany Terrace, Dundee, and it was in Dundee¹ that all three children had their schooling. There is archival evidence for David and for Marjory, though not for Helen, however it is likely that all three children attended The High School of Dundee, a private school with both primary and secondary departments. Indeed, from the school’s prize giving records, we can see that Marjory won a prize for freehand drawing in 1888 when she was in the 2^nd grade (age 6). Incidentally, The High School of Dundee, founded in 1239, continues to the present day and is a prestigious Scottish co-ed independent school offering an all-through (3-18) education.

    In 1883 in Scotland the school leaving age was raised from 13 to 14 years; though this was of little consequence to the Adamson sisters as both were determined, and no doubt encouraged by their father, to stay on at school and to pursue further education. As well as the normal range of academic subjects studied at school, including Latin which was required for university entrance, girls at that time also studied needlework, music and art. Knowledge of and a facility with some or all of these arts was almost a prerequisite for any well-brought up middle class young woman of this time, and there is evidence that as adults both Helen and Marjorie continued to enjoy both drawing and painting. 

     In 1899, Helen, aged 19, took up a place at the University of St Andrews. Since 1886 the university had provided halls of residence for women students, and it may well be that Helen lived there during her first year in St Andrews, however the university archive² records her final year term-time address as 13 Wellington Street, Dundee.

    Helen must have been very academically clever, as at the end of her second year at university, she was recognised as the top student in one of her subjects and was awarded the “Class Medal for Moral Philosophy (1900-01)”.  

 

  Class Medal for Moral Philosophy (1900-01)

         St Andrew’s University Coat of Arms (b)

   

    Helen graduated with a 2^nd Class Honours degree, MA in English in 1903. She continued studying and fulfilled the necessary requirements to be awarded a professional qualification, the Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate, as she embarked on her chosen career in education.

    Although we do not know where or when Marjorie studied, we do know she also went on to become a teacher. In fact, both sisters eventually became headmistresses, but more of that later.

    In August 1897, eighteen-year-old Helen started keeping a scrapbook. Many of its entries date from her student days but she was still adding to it up until 1912. Throughout the Victorian era and continuing till at least the mid 20^th century, scrapbooking was a popular pastime for women of means. Scrapbooks were often keepsake albums for a woman’s own sketches and verses; as well as for those drawn and written by friends and others. Looking through Helen’s scrapbook today (poems and epigrams in many different handwriting styles; watercolour paintings, drawings and sketches; a musical score and even a couple of political cartoons by different artistic friends & family) is dipping into a treasure trove and catching the merest glimpse of her thoughts and memories from that time. 

    Here is just one example of Helen’s artwork and an illustrated poem contributed by her sister Marjorie.

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    At different dates both sisters left the family home in Dundee and moved to Edinburgh to pursue careers as schoolteachers. Much of the hard information we have about this period of their lives comes from the 5-yearly Edinburgh property Valuation Rolls³, the 10-yearly national Census³ returns and advertisements for private schools from the archives of The Scotsman⁴ newspaper, but sadly some of the most significant dates cannot be found or verified.

    We don’t know exactly when, though most probably it was in 1903 or 1904, that Helen first moved to Edinburgh, nor do we know where she first lived there; however we do know that it was sometime during that first decade of the 1900s that Helen started her own school in rented premises at 1 Rothesay Terrace, a pleasant town house in Edinburgh’s New Town. This school offered a primary education to girls, though there may also have been some boys enrolled in the kindergarten class.

    We know little about this small school Helen started; however, we can deduce it must have been successful as the 1915 Valuation Roll for 1 Rothesay Terrace shows that the tenants then were Miss Gamgee & the sisters Misses Clark Stanton, also teachers. This is further confirmed by a brief mention in a book, ‘Crème de la Crème: Girls Schools in Edinburgh’⁵, which says that a school continued at this location after Miss Adamson sold it. Advertisements⁴ show that Miss Gamgee & the Misses Clark Stanton were already operating a small school, ‘Home School for Girls’ in a house in nearby Rothesay Place; when they took over the tenancy at 1 Rothesay Terrace; they then advertised their school under the name ‘Rothesay House (Home School for Girls)’. We will never know, but it does make one wonder if perhaps Helen’s school was simply called ‘Rothesay House School’. 

    The 1911 census shows Helen, age 31, as a Boarder at 2 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh with her occupation listed as Headmistress of Private School. The Head of the Household is listed as Elizabeth B. Somerville, age 65, whose occupation is listed as Principal of Private School.  Altogether 7 people are listed as living there; as well as Helen, there are two other female Boarders, whose occupations are listed as German Governess and Governess, and three female Servants.

    This house at 2 Randolph Crescent was also the premises for a private school, St Elizabeth’s School for Girls. Advertisements from 1906 indicate this was a day school, but by 1911 it was a day and boarding school for both primary and secondary age pupils. Miss Somerville was, and had been for many years, the school principal; and at some date between 1909 and 1911, she had recruited Helen to be its headmistress. This addition of Helen to St Elizabeth’s staff likely coincided with an expansion of numbers in the school roll and a wish by Miss Somerville to be able to offer a more academic curriculum to senior girls.

 

Whole school photo in the garden at Randolph Crescent (d)  

  Now an informal one ie hats OFF!  (d)     

     On the date this 1911 census was taken, Marjorie (age 29) was living at her parents’ house in Dundee; and although no specific occupation is listed for her, a very close friend later recorded that what Marjorie saw as her duty at this time was to help her father by working with the poor families in his congregation.

William Murdoch, Inventor

 by Roberta McGee

William Murdoch, the inventor of gas lighting, was born at Bello Mill, Lugar in 1754, the third child of John Murdoch and Anna Bruce. 

Father John was born in 1725 at Skerrington Mill, Cumnock. In 1747, when he married Anna Bruce, whose brother James was a land agent for the Dumfries Estate, John was in Orchard farm, Auchinleck. According to a Cumnock Chronicle report of 1975 he had previously joined the army  and fought in Flanders during the Austrian Succession War (1740-1748). He most likely would have fought at Dettingen under Lord Stair. Dettingen was the last time a British monarch led his troops into battle. Dettingen Wood, on the Dumfries Estate, commemorated this great battle of 1743. John also supported the Government Forces during the Jacobite Rebellion.

John and Anna and their family moved to Bello Mill, Lugar in 1754. They were tenants of James Boswell's Estate in Auchinleck. 

John was a farmer, millwright, miller and inventor, who, in 1760, invented the first iron-toothed pinion gear wheel to be made in Britain. Also, with the assistance of his son William, who showed signs of mechanical genius at an early age. 'made a wooden horse on wheels, on which, by the assistance of propelling poles, he used to visit Cumnock' (Source: The New History of Cumnock, John Strawhorn, p58) This pre-dated Kilpatrick MacMillan's first bicycle by about 75 years.

William Murdoch - Image wmgaz.pl

William Murdoch was schooled firstly in Cumnock and then in Auchinleck. He excelled at mathematics and the principles of mechanics under William Halbert, a well respected author of an arithmetic text book. He also assisted his father working in metal and wood. In addition he carried out experiments in coal gas using coal heated in a copper kettle in a small cave by the River Lugar near his father's mill. 

Entrance to Murdoch’s Cave - Image Wikimedia 

In 1777 he (purportedly) walked 300 miles from Lugar to Birmingham to find work at the Soho Works of James Watt and Matthew Boulton. James Boswell, the Murdoch's landlord, had made several visits to the Boulton and Watt factory and most likely gave him a letter of introduction. At first they were reluctant to employ him but then Boulton noticed his wooden hat made on a lathe of his own design. They were so impressed that they gave him a job. So began his career with Boulton and Watt who manufactured steam engines which were used to drain Cornish tin and copper mines. He moved quickly from making patterns for machine parts into fitting and erecting steam engines and also repairing and refining the ones which the company had installed at various pits and factories.  

In 1779 Murdoch was sent to Redruth in Cornwall as their agent and leading engineer where he was responsible for the erection, maintenance and repair of Boulton and Watt steam engines in the Cornish tin mines to make them more efficient at pumping water out of the mines. He was kept busy travelling around the area and, after being met with some hostility initially, because he had also been engaged by Boulton and Watt to make reports against competitors to determine whether patents had been infringed, he became very well respected there. 

On Christmas Eve 1785 William Murdoch married Anne Paynter at St. Mewan, Cornwall. Sadly, it was a short marriage as Anne died five years later following the birth of their son John. 

Whilst based in Redruth Murdoch spent his spare time at his home, Murdoch House, in Cross Street,working on an idea for a 'horseless carriage' known as The Murdoch Flyer. In 1794, in order to see properly, his spare time being in the evening, he illuminated his house with a gas that he had extracted from coal, also putting a lamp outside, thus making Cross Street the first street in the world to be lit by artificial light. The coal gas was generated in an iron retort at the bottom of his garden, then piped into his house, where he lit the rooms with a variety of burners. 

He built several working models of The Flyer, and it is said that he used to travel from mine to mine in a full-sized version which had a portable gas lantern. 

The Murdoch Flyer from original oil painting by Gordon Grogan

In 1795 he demonstrated methods for producing and storing gas at Neath Abbey, South Wales. Back in Birmingham he lit up the Soho factory in 1802 during the celebrations for the signing of the Treaty for  the peace of Amiens, and in 1816 he lit up his newly-built house at Sycamore Hill by gas supplied from the Soho factory. 

Throughout his time in Redruth and Birmingham Murdoch had made many inventions and improvements to the basic steam engine designs used by Boulton and Watt, who took the credit, their excuse being that Murdoch was their employee so whatever he invented while employed by them was, by rights, theirs. In 1786 Murdoch attempted to patent his steam carriage but was talked out of it by Boulton. His employers did all they could to discourage and hinder Murdoch from pursuing his experiments and, it has been argued, by removing evidence of the origin of some of the inventions they patented. Murdoch, however, was entirely loyal to their interests and he proved an invaluable help to Watt, becoming his right-hand man. 

In 1799 Murdoch invented a much simpler and more efficient steam wheel. This was an early version of the steam turbine. It allowed steam pressure to turn a wheel directly. By this time, Murdoch's contract had changed, and he could patent the device himself. 

Image - IQSdirectory.com

Murdoch is best known for being the inventor of gas lighting and inventing the first steam engine carriage in Britain. However, he had many other strings to his bow. Some other examples of his genius are: -

• Sun and Planet Gear and D slide valve. The 'Sun and Planet Motion' which is included in Watt's patent of 1781 was contrived by Murdoch (Lives of Boulton & Watt 1874 p245)
• Oscillating cylinder steam engine
• Steam gun and steam cannon
• Developed the pneumonic tube message system which worked by using compressed air to propel a message in a cylinder through a tube to its intended destination. It became used in big department stores.
• Worked on one of the first British paddle steamers to cross the English Channel.
• Iron cement used to fix and harden the joints of steam engines.
• A special type of paint for ships' bottoms.
• From 1784-1795 built working models of steam engines.
• In 1795 he developed a replacement for isinglass which was used in the clarifying of beer to remove impurities. 
• The bell crank engine
• Making stone pipes (patent 1810). Sold to Manchester Stone Pipe Co. to supply the City with water.
• Stone and wood borers
• In 1807 designed and built the engine for the North River Steamboat, the first steamboat on the Hudson River.
• In 1815 designed and installed the first modern gravity fed piped hot water system at The Royal Pump Rooms in Leamington Spa.
• In 1817 he moved into a large new house which he had built in Sycamore Hill, outside Birmingham. The house had many innovative features such as gas lighting, a doorbell which worked with compressed air and an air conditioning system.

In 1808 Murdoch was awarded the Rumford Gold Medal, which bears the inscription Ex Fumo dare lucem, which translates as 'to give light from smoke'. This was for 'both the first idea of applying, and the first actual application of gas to economical purposes'.

In 1882 the National Gas Institute founded the Murdoch Medal which is awarded periodically to the authors of useful inventions connected with gas making. 

The town of Redruth holds an Annual Murdoch Day in June. In 2007, they had a parade and the first public journey of a full-sized working copy of Murdoch's Steam Carriage. The whole day is dedicated to the legacy of his creativity and innovation. Thousands of people flock into the town for the festival with street entertainment, workshops, food, street stalls, steam engines, a traditional fairground and the Murdoch Day Parade. (Source: Celebrating Murdoch Day - Discover Redruth)

William Murdoch died 15 November 1839 at his Birmingham home and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Handsworth, Staffordshire, England near the graves of Watt and Boulton. There are statues of him at the Wallace Monument, Stirling and in Centenary Square, Birmingham. In 2019 William Murdoch was added to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. A truly remarkable man.

Gilded bronze statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch in Centenary Square, Birmingham
Image - Wikimedia Creative Commons Attribution License

William Murdoch on the Cumnock Connections tree