By Joanne Ferguson
A family history of 200 years from Ireland to Ayrshire to USA.
Track them on the Cumnock Connections tree Mary Jane Bruce later Hadden then Coulter
Bruces from Country Antrim in Ireland. They moved to Kilwinning in Ayrshire about 1840
Alexander Bruce was born in County Antrim, Ireland, about 1790. He married Catherine Pollock. They had five children: Alexander Bruce (1812-1860); Samuel Bruce (1816-1858); Martha Bruce (1820-??); Stewart Bruce (1820 -1893); and Hugh Bruce (1829-1870).
Alexander Bruce married Mary Dougherty. They had three children: Mary Jane Bruce (1837-1918); John Bruce (1839-??); Martha Bruce (1842-1930); and Alexander Bruce (1849-1925). After Mary Dougherty’s death (about 1850), Alexander married Janet Grier in 1851 in Kilwinning.
Haddens in Cumnock, Ayrshire
John Hadden was also born in Ireland in 1839. He was the son of John Hadden and Janet Jenkins. Little else is known about him in Ireland. He is listed as a miner and as a boarder at High Row in Lugar in 1861. On June 12, 1863, he married Mary Jane Bruce in Auchinleck. They had seven children: James Hadden (1864-1916); John Bruce Hadden (1865-1925); Mary Bruce Hadden (1866-1947); Jane (Jeannette) Hadden (1868-1958); Alexander Hadden (1870-1907); Samuel Hadden (1872-1913); and Martha Hadden (1874-1953).
On December 7, 1873, John Hadden died, leaving Mary with six children and nine months pregnant with their seventh child, Martha.
Coulters in Cumnock
Widowed Mary married William J. Coulter about 1875 in Cumnock, although no marriage certificate can be found. They had four children: William Coulter (1876-1929); Andrew Coulter (1877-1939); Esther Black Coulter (1879-1930); and Bruce Lee Coulter (1882-1921).
Mills from Kilwinning to Scranton
Mary also had another son prior to her first marriage by an unknown partner. That son was Hugh Bruce (1860-??). Hugh left Scotland with David and Margaret Mills, who had adopted him. In the 1870 US census, Hugh is listed as Hugh Mills, living with Margaret and David in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and attending school. Margaret Mills died in 1877 and David Mills died in 1884, both in Scranton. There were no more traces of Hugh Bruce.
James, John, and Alexander Hadden had already left for Pennsylvania, although no immigration records can be found.
The Scots did not appear to be leaving the British Isles for religious reasons. The Scots were the first group to immigrate to America primarily for economic opportunity.
Mary Jane Bruce Hadden Coulter boarded the Spain in Edinburgh and arrived in New York on February 17, 1887. She was accompanied by the following children: Jennette Hadden, Samuel Hadden, Martha Hadden, William Coulter, Andrew Coulter, Alice Coulter (Esther), and Bruce Coulter.
The family settled in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Dunmore was a small town in Lackawanna County. It touches the city of Scranton, where coal mining was growing. It was a place for immigrants to find jobs in the coal mines. It is estimated that as many as one hundred thousand immigrants ended up in the coal fields of Luzern and Lackawanna Counties from 1870-1915. Early immigration was almost always men—single men, usually, or younger married men with a family left behind in Scotland. Wives, families, and women looking for husbands followed. The women needed jobs. New factories sprang up to take advantage of this new workforce. These women worked in cotton, silk, and woolen mills.
Some of the Hadden families eventually moved to Scranton to be closer to the mines and their jobs.
Mary Jane lived in Dunmore for a period of time and then moved back and forth between Pittston and Dunmore for the rest of her life. Mary Jane died in 1918.
Mary Jane Bruce Hadden Coulter
Children of John Hadden and Mary Jane Bruce:
James Hadden arrived in Dunmore before his mother. He married Jeannette Turnbull, a fellow Scot who was born in Innerleithen, Peebleshire, in 1887. They had six children: Agnes, Alexander, James, John, William, and Samuel. John, James, Alexander, William, and Samuel worked as laborers in Dunmore, most likely in the coal mines. William died in a mine accident at the age of 20. All of James’s children remained in the Dunmore/Scranton area and had families of their own.
John Hadden arrived in Dunmore before his mother. He married an Irish girl named Bridget McGarry in 1890. They had five children: John, William, Alexander, Lillian (Lilly), Edward, and Wilfred.On December 1, 1884, John was hunting with his brother-in-law, James McGarry. McGarry’s gun accidently discharged and struck John in the leg. His leg had to be amputated. The community offered support for John and his family by having a ball as a fundraiser.
March 17, 1896
Move to Canada
John and his family emigrated to Canada in 1901. He worked in the mines in Alberta. He is buried in Brule Mines, Alberta. Some of his children remained in Canada and raised families: John lived in Yellowhead, Alberta, and worked in the coal mines; and William, Edward, and Wilfred moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. William was a laborer with city maintenance; Edward was a city fireman; and Wilfred was a shipwright.
Alexander and Lilly returned to the US from Canada and raised their families. Alexander was a boilermaker who settled in Santa Clara, California, and Lilly worked in a laundry and settled in King County, Washington.
John Hadden's Family
The third child in Mary’s family was Mary Bruce Hadden. Mary did not come to America with her mother and her siblings in 1887. She worked as a farm servant and had four illegitimate children in Scotland. Her first child was a little girl, Mary Jane, who died three weeks after her birth. She is buried in Auchinleck Cemetery with her grandfather, John Hadden. Mary had another child, John Bruce, by John Hutchison, a shepherd. She had two other children by James Welsh, a shepherd working at his father’s farm named Craigdarroch, in New Cumnock, Ayrshire. While she worked, John was cared for by Martha Bruce Campbell, her mother’s sister. The Welsh boys were cared for by Grace Connell at the grandfather’s farm.
Mary’s brother, Alexander, went back to Scotland in 1894 to bring Mary and her three boys, John, James, and William, to America. When it was time for Mary and Alexander to leave Scotland for America, James was hidden from his mother, Mary, by Grace Connel who was caring for him and did not leave with his brothers, John and William, according to the story that has been told. Mary did have a passage paid for little James, but he did not leave Scotland with them.
Mary arrived in New York on October 29, 1894, with her sons, John and William; her brother, Alexander; and her uncle, Martha Bruce Campbell’s husband, William Campbell. Mary and her children went to stay with her family in Dunmore.
No one knew about James Welsh at this time. He was a well-kept secret.
Campbells in Scranton
Mary married James Campbell, a fellow Scot born in Edinburgh, in Scranton in November of 1895, and the family lived in Scranton near the mine where James worked. Two children were born to them there: Robert Bell Campbell and Martha Campbell. Sometime during 1901, the family moved to Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. Two more children were born to them there: Henry and Lewis Campbell. Sometime before the 1920 US census, the family moved to Berlin, Pennsylvania. James Campbell continued to work in the coal mines until 1940. James died in Akron, Ohio, in July of 1949.
John Bruce Hadden was born at Pathhead in New Cumnock. He is registered as John Hadden by his mother Mary, a domestic servant, and signed with her X mark, meaning she couldn't read nor write. This was normal for the time period. Mary then continued to work, and young John is found living with Mary’s aunt and uncle, Martha Bruce and William Campbell, in the 1891 census. John lived with Mary and James Campbell in Scranton until the family moved to Meyersville sometime in 1901. In 1910, John was found living as a lodger with his brother, William. John was a catcher and William was a rougher in a sheet mill factory in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania.
John married Lucy Veronica Reynolds in 1912. They had two children: Mary Lucille Hadden, who was born in 1914, and Robert John Hadden, who was born in 1915. John worked in a steel mill until the late 1950s.
Mary Lucille married Charles Chalfant, a chemist and engineer, and they had one child, James Bruce Chalfant.
Robert John married Laura Jeanne DeHaven in Glassport, Pennsylvania.
William Bruce Hadden (Welsh) married Rena Young and they had two children, Jack W. Hadden and Elizabeth Hadden, in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. William worked at the steel mill in Vandergrift. Jack married Lucinda Hollingsworth and they had four daughters.
Elizabeth married John Rode in Vandergrift. They had no children.
William Welsh Hadden
As for Mary and James Campbell’s four children, Robert Bell Campbell, Martha Campbell, Henry Blaine Campbell, and Lewis Campbell, Robert Bell Campbell married Mary Louise Johnson in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. On the 1920 census, Robert was listed as a brakeman for the railroad; on the 1930 census he was listed as a laborer in a steel mill; in the 1940 census he was listed as a truck driver: and in the 1950 census he was listed as a shipping clerk working at a dairy and cream plant. He eventually became the plant manager for the Hagan Ice Cream Company.
Robert and Mary Louise had two children: Imogene and James Jackson.
Martha Campbell married David M. Baker. Martha died at the age of 21 of the flu having no living children.
Henry never married and never had children.
Lewis Campbell moved to Akron, Ohio, in 1920, and married Edna May Rimmer. They lived in Akron, Ohio, and both worked in the rubber factory there. They had one son, Thomas.
Jennette Hadden came to America with her mother and the younger children of the family in February 1887. Two months later, she gave birth to her first child, Mary Hadden. She married Andrew Muir, a Scot from Dalry in Ayrshire, in 1888. He worked as a laborer in the coal mines and they lived in Scranton near the mines. They went on to have eight children: James H., Bruce, Agnes, Archie, William C., Beatrice, and Isabell.
Mary married James Reid and they went on to have eight children. James worked as a laborer in Scranton before moving to Camden, New Jersey, where James worked as a machinist in the shipyards. The family moved back to Scranton around 1930, where James worked in the coal mines until his death in 1931.
James H. Muir married Ruth Benjamin and they had one child. James was a blacksmith and died of influenza in 1918.
Bruce Muir married Florence Howells. The couple resided in Scranton and had three children. Bruce worked in the coal mines near Scranton.
Agnes Muir married Thomas Byron, who was a laborer in a railroad shop. Agnes was a sewing machine operator. Agnes and Thomas had four sons.
Archie Muir started working in the coal mines near Scranton. He then worked as a stillman in an oil refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Archie married Myrtle Williams and they had three children.
William Coulter Muir worked in a nuts and bolts factory before getting a job as a coal miner in Scranton. He retired as a quality control inspector for the Boeing Aircraft Company in Chester, Pennsylvania. He married Ursala Vanston. They had no children.
Beatrice Muir married Harold Fenton and had a son and two daughters. Then she married Harold Kossman and had one daughter. Beatrice was a housewife in the Scranton area her entire life.
Isabelle Muir was a housewife. She married Hayden Williams, who was a company man in the coal mines and later worked for the WPA in Scranton. He then worked for the Sun Oil Company in Marcus Hook. They had two sons.
Mary Bruce Hadden Coulter’s fifth child was Alexander. Alex, or Sandy as the family called him, was an adventurer. Most of what we know about Sandy’s life is from newspaper articles about him. We know that in 1894 he returned to Scotland to bring his sister, Mary, and her three boys to Dunmore.
We know that he returned with Mary and two of her boys in October of 1894. He also brought Mary’s uncle, William Campbell, to Dunmore.
Shortly after his return to Dunmore in 1894, he left to find his fortune in the gold strikes in Dawson Creek. He wrote a letter to his parents to describe his travels.
Struck gold
In September of 1898, he sent a gold nugget to his mother. The nugget was valued at $25 at the time. It would be worth over $900 today.
In August of 1899, he returned to the Klondike gold fields after marrying Agnes Glencross, a fellow Scot, in New York.
Agnes Glencross Hadden returned to Scotland with Mrs. Coulter, her mother-in-law, and Martha Glencross, her sister-in-law. The group returned to Dunmore, bringing Mrs. Coulter’s sister, Martha Campbell. and Martha’s five children with them. In 1901, Sandy was in the 1901 Canada census as a miner in the Unorganized Territories. Sandy and Agnes settled in Seattle, Washington, where they purchased several properties. One property was a saloon in Pioneer Square.
This is a later picture of the saloon.
Sandy applied for American citizenship on June 20, 1906, although he had claimed to be a naturalized citizen previously. Sandy died of gangrene on February 14, 1907. His wife, Agnes, settled his estate in Seattle and then took Sandy’s body back to Dunmore to be buried in the same cemetery with other family members. She lived in Dunmore until her death in 1948. They had no children, but were very generous to family members.
Mary’s sixth child was Samuel Hadden. He was my great-grandfather. Samuel came to America as a boy of 14. He went to work in the coal mines immediately. He worked his way up to be a mine engineer and contractor. He was involved in many mining jobs that became famous in our area. He married Ellen McDonnell in 1893 and they had four children: Mary Jane, Helen, Samuel, and Grace.
He was a thespian in his spare time and never lost his Scottish roots. He competed in the local Caledonian games and won several awards. When the miners went on strike in 1902, he was arrested for marching with them more than once.
He was killed in a mine explosion in November of 1913.
His three daughters married and remained in Dunmore with their families. His son became a psychiatrist and lived most of his life in the Philadelphia area.
Martha Hadden was the youngest of John and Mary Bruce’s children. She was born two months after the death of her father. After moving to America with her mother and siblings, Martha lived in Dunmore all her life. She married Alexander Glencross, who was a tailor. In the 1910 US census, Alexander identified his occupation as dye worker. In the 1920 census, he identified his occupation as a foreman tailor. Martha and Alexander did not have children of their own, but Martha helped raise William Hadden for six years to help her sister, Mary. William lived with Martha and Alexander and attended school in Dunmore until his family moved to Meyersdale sometime after 1901. Martha was a housewife all her life. She died in 1953.
This is a picture of Mary Jane Bruce Hadden Coulter and her daughters.
Sitting: Mary Coulter, Mary Hadden Campbell, Martha Hadden Glencross.
Standing: Jeanette (Jean, Jane) Hadden Muir
Mary’s second husband, William Coulter, was a miner in the coal mines near Dunmore. William died in May of 1927.
Mary Jane Bruce Hadden Coulter and William Coulter had four children: William Coulter, Jr; Andrew Coulter; Esther B. Coulter; and Bruce Coulter.
William Coulter, Jr. came to America with his mother and his siblings and lived in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Harvey and they moved to Pittston, Pennsylvania. He was a coal miner who worked his way up to be a contractor for the coal company. They had five children. Mary Coulter, their daughter, worked as a maid in Pittston. Mary was not married and did not have any children. Ruth Coulter died of meningitis at the age of six. She did make the newspaper as a two-year-old after walking away from her home.
William’s third child was William H. Coulter, who was a truck driver for the liquor control board in Pittston. He married Grace A. Mosier and they moved to Redlands, California, where his son, William Harvey Coulter, was born. Bill lives in Hawaii now.
William’s fourth child was James Bruce Coulter. James Bruce moved to California and was a tractor driver on a farm. He married Alice Gertrude Walkley and they had three sons: J. Bruce, Steve, and Warren. In the 1950 census, he lists his occupation as an equipment operator for the Department of Forestry. He died in California in 1992.
William’s fifth child was Elizabeth. Elizabeth moved to California and married Frank L. Evans, who was a radio technician. They had one daughter, Nancy Lee.
Mary Coulter's second son with William Coulter was Andrew. Andrew worked in the coal mines in Dunmore. He married Anna Williams and they had two children: Esther and Bruce. They lived in Dunmore all their lives. After Andrew’s death Anna moved to New York.
Mary’s third child with William Coulter was Esther. Esther married Joseph Seigle, who was a carpenter by trade. They had two children, Marion and William. Marion died of Spanish Flu in 1918 without having had any children.
William was a truck driver in Spokane, Washington. He married Mina Irene Pilkenton and they had three children: Irving, Marian, and Sally.
Mary’s fourth child with William Coulter was Bruce Coulter. Bruce was a machinist and rock contractor who worked in the mines. He married Mary Zencke and they raised five children: Martha, Alexander, Bruce, Andrew, and Harry in the Pittston area.
Bruce suffered a head injury in the mines in 1901, and toward the end of his life he suffered from black lung disease. He died in June of 1921.
Mrs. Coulter and the Coulter Children:
Standing: Esther and William
Sitting: Andrew, Mrs. Coulter, Bruce
A story of reconnection with Cumnock
This would appear to be the end of the story of Mary Jane Bruce Hadden Coulter and her family from Cumnock, Scotland. Mary Jane’s descendants have settled in the United States, Canada, and other places around the world. But the story does not end here. In May of 2020, I received a message from Kay McMeekin telling me that she had been researching for a friend and this friend seems to be our cousin. We were delighted with this surprise news and contacted our new cousin immediately. Because of the pandemic, we decided that ZOOM would be the safest way to communicate and compare notes. We ZOOMed every other week for two years.
Our new cousin told us the story of James Welsh, who was hidden from his mother, Mary Hadden, when she came to take him to America with his brothers, John and William.
Mary had James Welsh by a shepherd named James Welsh. Little James was cared for by Grace Connell. Illegitimate children were either left with another family member, often grandparents, or else boarded out. Mary had William Welsh in Kilmarnock in 1892, and by this time it was clear James Welsh wasn't going to marry her. She sued him for breach of promise and paternity.
James grew up in Scotland at Craigdarroch Farm and Refuge Cottage and married Mary Neal. They had one child, Isabel. Isabel married James Muir and they had three children. One of these three children was the cousin who reached out to find us.
In May of 2022, a reunion took place that was 133 years in the making. Some of the American cousins went to Scotland to meet their new cousin and her family.
This is the grave of our great-great-grandfather, John Hadden, in Auchinleck Cemetery in Scotland.
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