The Torrance Brothers to USA and Peru

by Roberta McGee

Hew Charles Torrance was born on 5th June 1859 in Old Cumnock. He was the youngest of the nine children of John Torrance and Ann Crichton. John was a draper whose shop was on the corner of Glaisnock Street and Tower Street in Cumnock. The premises later became part of T.L. Murray's drapery business. 

When he left Cumnock Hew sailed to South America before arriving in the USA from there in 1880. He took up residence in Pennsylvania where he worked as an analytical chemist for The Carnegie Steel Company, which was created by Andrew Carnegie to manage businesses at steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.  

Hew married American Sophia Reiter Duff on 5th March 1889 at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. His residence at the time was Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and he was superintendent of a Wire Mill. 

In 1899 his residence was 1112 Carnegie Building, 5 Brushton Avenue, Pennsylvania and his occupation was given as manager. In 1900 he was still living there with his wife Sophia and her widowed mother Anna E. Duff. He was naturalised by this time and he was a machine manager. 

The Company headquarters were located in the Carnegie Building which was the first steel-framed skyscraper in Pittsburgh. It was thirteen stories high and was the tallest building in the city. 

In 1901 the Company was sold to become a major component of US Steel and the deal was so large that it made Andrew Carnegie one of the richest men in history.

 Hew moved on to find employment with Brown's Hoisting Company in Pittsburgh and in 1910 Hew, Sophia and his mother-in-law Anne E. Duff were living at Elgin Avenue, Pittsburgh Ward 11, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He was a sales agent in engineering and he seemed to be doing very well, employing a cook and a servant. 

Brown's Hoisting Co. became the world's largest company, dealing in cranes, materials and handling equipment. 

Hew was a very successful sales manager for Brown's, travelling all over the world selling their equipment. He made business trips to Great Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Italy. 

On 25th May 1919 Hew and his wife Sophia arrived in Liverpool, England, en route to Bridge of Allan in Stirlingshire, Scotland where his spinster sister Maggie lived. She was 84 years old, blind and in failing health and had no relatives who could give her the personal attention she required. Hew and Maggie were the only surviving members of their immediate family and Hew financially supported her. Maggie had been a music teacher in Cumnock before the family moved to Bridge of Allan and she would accompany the singers at the "Penny Readings" which were held in the Public Hall at the rear of the old Dumfries Arms stable. Sadly she died five months later on 29th October 1919 at Bridge of Allan. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1919

On 5th October 1919 Hew and Sophia arrived in Montreal having sailed from Liverpool on the 'Empress of France'.  Maggie passed away a fortnight later so, unfortunately, Hew seems to have been absent when his sister died. Soon Hew and Sophia are sailing across the Atlantic again, arriving in Liverpool on 24th November 1919. They travelled first class and were staying at Claridges Hotel, London.

Hew and Sophia, who didn't have children, continued to travel regularly to Great Britain, their last trip being in 1931 to Liverpool. They returned to New York on 23rd August and on 19th October 1931 Hew died at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He was 72 years old. 

Hew's brother John Hastie Torrance, the seventh child of John Torrance and Ann Crichton, was born in Old Cumnock on 12th December 1848.

The 1871 census finds 22 years old John lodging at 2 Carr End, Glaisdale, North Riding of York. He is working as a clerk at an Iron Works. 

On 12th March 1884 John arrived in New York, having sailed on the 'Gallia'. He was in transit to Peru and his occupation was mine manager, but what kind of mine? Peru had a great wealth of minerals - gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, coal and salt, to name some. Back in England he had worked as a clerk in an ironworks so perhaps it was an iron mine?

The only record I could find of John's time in Peru was his death certificate and it was in Spanish! However, thanks to Cumnock History Group member Ann MacLaren who translated it, we know the following:

John died of meningitis on 8th July 1893 in the Province of Huallaga, previously Portal de Botoneros. He was 45 years old, unmarried, and an engineer. His death was registered by an unmarried 65 years old merchant/trader Carl J. Davis who was an American citizen and lived in Lima. The two witnesses were James H. Hayball, aged 45 years old, a married engineer and John Blinkinsopp, a 43 years old mechanic who was also married. Both witnesses lived at Hotel Cardinal, Union Street, Lima. 

The Huallaga Province is one of the ten provinces of the San Martin Region in northern Peru and the Huallaga Valley is located on the eastern slopes of the Andes. 

Probate

John Hastie Torrance of Macate Province of Huaylas Department of Aucacho, Peru, mining manager died 8/7/1893 at Lima, Peru. Probate London 9/3/1894 to George Lambie Torrance, commercial traveller and James Torrance, warehouseman. Effects £691 4/10d.

Image - geology.com

 

Hairs Millers and McKerrows to Australia

By Kay McMeekin

The extended family of Hair/McKerrow/Miller left on three different sailings to Alberton near Melbourne in Australia over 4 years.

William Hair, a muslin weaver, and several of his children left Cumnock for Australia in the 1850s.  Weaving was in decline in Scotland at this time. 

First to go in 1853 were two related families: Miller brothers one of whom was married to a daughter of William Hair. Cumnock weaver  John Miller 1814-1896 and his wife Jean Ronald and 5 children  sailed from Wemyss in Fife on the Fortune. An infant daughter Janet died on the journey. They arrived on 2nd May 1853 and settled in Scone, New South Wales where they had 2 more children.His younger brother Andrew Miller, 29 his wife Jane Hair and their 2 small children Helen  4 and William 2 sailed with them. .  John paid £8 for him and his family for the voyage and Andrew paid £5, They were assisted passages. The Millers changed the spelling of their name to Millar in Australia.

Next in 1854 were  three of Jane Hair's brothers  emigrated on the Hilton: John Hair his wife Helen MacDonald and their daughter Jane. They sailed on the Hilton out of Liverpool and were engaged by J S Carey in Alberton for 6 months. They arrived  in Melbourne on 7 July 1854. John Hair married Helen MacDonald in 1841 and they had two daughters. In the 1851 census they were living at Elbow Lane with 8 lodgers. Maybe they were running a lodging house as there were several in Elbow Lane. He was a labourer and chimney cleaner.  The younger daughter Agnes must have died soon after as she didn't go with them to Australia in 1854.

On the same sailing were his younger brother Robert Hair, a farm labourer,  and his new wife Christina Lees. They were also going to Alberton but it's not clear who engaged them.

The Hilton which arrived on 7 Jul 1854 had 481 government assisted places as reported in the Argus

Skip to 1857 and father William Hair, the third brother William McMillan Hair and his new wife Jane Muir, sister Margaret and her husband George McKerrow all sailed on the Black Eagle leaving Liverpool on 1 March 1857  and arriving 6 Jun 1857, a journey of over 3 months. William and Jane don't appear to have had any children.

Also Robert Girvan  and Agnes McMillan (niece of William Hair's wife Jean McMillan) emigrated to Australia on the Emma in arriving in Port Jackson, Sydney on 31 Jan 1857. Their daughter Agnes died on the journey.  They went to New South Wales.

William McMillan Hair seems to have done well for himself. He had an estate of £13,000 and  he left £500 to the church, £1000 to William McKerrow and amounts of £100-£300 to various relations in Scotland and Australia.

Several members of the family moved to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia after gold was found there in 1893. Robert Lees Hair found success there. 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia/Robert_Lees_Hair

J.J. Wardrop and G.D. Wardrop from Rigg Farm to New York

by Roberta McGee

 Patrick Douglas Wardrop farmed Garlaff, Old Cumnock, afterwards Rigg, Auchinleck. When his wife Agnes McLanachan died in 1884, aged only 43 years, she left behind a large family. Two years later in 1886 Patrick married Jeanie Dick Jones who was forty years younger than him. Patrick and Jeanie went on to have another three children - James Jones Wardrop, George Douglas Wardrop and Andrew who died aged 2 years. 

James Jones Wardrop was born in 1887 at Rigg Farm, Auchinleck. He sailed from Glasgow to New York on the 'Parisian' , arriving there on 5th June 1905. He was 18 years old, an architect, and his intended residence in the USA was with Alexander Timpany, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York. Alexander Timpany was born in Auchinleck in 1851 and was a shipping clerk. 

In 1910 James was lodging in Manhattan and his occupation is given as draughtsman (architecture). He travelled Europe and Africa for eight months between 1911 and 1912. He moved into shipping and became President of The Wardrop West African Line in February 1917 and appeared to be a very successful business man. 

He became naturalised in 1918 and enlisted in the military that same year. Whether he engaged in active service is unclear but he did take various courses in aerial photography.

While he was serving in the military his shipping company became bankrupt and when he was demobilised he began bootlegging (or rum-running) in order to recover some of his losses in shipping. When he applied for a passport in 1919, giving his occupation as lumber & shipping, he stated; 

'I am going over to Scotland to be married. I have personal interests there that have been much neglected on account of my absence due to military service'. He added that he wished to leave as soon as possible. 

James Jones Wardrop - Passport Photo

Between 1919 and 1925 there doesn't seem to have been much recorded about James. He resurfaces on 7th February 1925 when he sailed from Veracruz, Mexico to New York on the 'SS Mexico'. He was 37 years old, single and his address in New York was 405 Lexington Avenue, New York City.  

This is where the tale unfolds. With a number of others he owned two boats and each came to a sudden end. The authorities in America were on his track because of his bootlegging and had sunk one of the boats and captured the other one. He fled back to Scotland in November 1925 and he seemed to live in luxury for a time until May 1927 when he appeared in the High Court in Edinburgh where he admitted eight charges of fraud amounting to £1784. He had pretended to several people, most of them friends and relations, that he had mahogany plantations in Mexico and persuaded them to invest their money, sometimes their whole life savings, in them. In another instance he pretended to be the husband of a titled lady who had a large holding in a big Scottish concern which he attempted to sell them shares in. 

He was found guilty, sentenced to three years in jail and recommended for deportation. The Lord Justice-Clerk said, in passing sentence;

'The accused appeared to be gifted with a fertile imagination and a plausible tongue, which gifts - if they were gifts - he had devoted to criminal purposes and to a series of ingenious devices. He had swindled a number of persons, including friends of his own and appropriated nearly £1800 to his own use. No part of the money has been recovered. The charges covered a lengthy period and betokened a deliberate course of fraudulent conduct'. 

The Scotsman 28/5/1927

When James finished his sentence in Peterhead Prison, Aberdeenshire, less than three years later, he was immediately taken into custody and transported back to Glasgow where, the next day, he was placed on a ship on the Clyde and sent back to New York as an undesirable alien, arriving there on 1st September 1929. It must have been a bitter-sweet return for him. His mother had died in New York on 25th March 1927 while James was in Scotland facing charges of fraud and his brother George had died in New York on 12th August 1929. James didn't arrive back in the USA until about three weeks after his death.

In 1930 he was once again living in Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York, his occupation being a timber merchant and widowed. Whether James had, in fact, ever married is uncertain. In 1942 he was living at the YMCA in Boise, Idaho, his occupation being a travelling writer.

On 13th June 1948 James committed suicide at The City Jail, Trenton, Grundy, Missouri, USA.

George Douglas Wardrop was born in 1890 at Rigg Farm, Auchinleck. He began his journalistic career in the Cumnock Chronicle office. He left there to work for a short time with a local newspaper  in Clacton-on-Sea in the south of England. On 16th July 1910, when he was 20 years old, he set sail on the 'Caledonia' out of Glasgow to meet with his brother James in New York.

James had made many important contacts while he was working in the USA and managed to secure an appointment for George with ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. The ex-President was impressed with George and appointed him one of his secretaries in connection with the controversial magazine 'Outlook' of which he had become Associate Editor in 1909 after serving his time as the 26th President of the United States. 

During this time Roosevelt was campaigning vigorously against Woodrow Wilson and George's job was to read between 30 and 40 newspapers highlighting anything that might be of interest to Roosevelt. He would take shorthand notes of his editorials and book reviews and transcribe them for the printer, then carefully proof-read them. After a year of this work George was appointed Associate Secretary and in that capacity he visited every state with the ex-President during the 1911 campaign.

G.Douglas Wardrop writes to John B. Franks regarding personal items of Theodore Roosevelt’s which he is willing to sell - Harvard College Library

At the end of three years George accepted a seat on the Editorial Board of 'The Independent'. He went on to become Editor of 'The Aerial Age Magazine', the official flying paper in America. The publication was focused on aviation and aeronautics and covered topics related to aircraft design, technology, industry news and achievements of aviators. George made significant contributions to the understanding and development of aircraft propulsion systems.

Cumnock Connections

When their father Patrick died on 3rd December 1913 at 76 Ayr Road, Old Cumnock, the brothers took responsibility for their mother and decided to bring her to New York. In 1914 George had some business to attend to in England. He had meetings with, among others, Mrs Asquith, Lloyd George and Mrs Pankhurst and when that was concluded he accompanied his mother Jeanie Dick Wardrop on the 'SS Pretorian' which sailed from Glasgow on 17th June 1914 to her new home in Richmond Hill, New York. 

George Douglas Wardrop - Passport Photo

George's next trip to Scotland was to represent the Washington government in connection with 'Aerial' matters and, more importantly, to marry his childhood sweetheart Mary Paterson Thomson. George and Mary had been brought up near to each other in Ayr Road, Cumnock. Mary's father was Cumnock born Charles Thomson, a woollen manufacturer. They were married on 24th July 1918 at Cathcart in Glasgow and Mary then joined her new husband in New York. The 1920 Federal Census shows George, Mary, their baby daughter Jean, who was born in New York, and mother Jeanie living at North Columbus Avenue, Mount Vernon, Westchester, New York.

Mother Jeanie Dick Wardrop died on 25th March 1927 at Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York and her death was followed just over two years later by that of her son George who died on 12th August 1929 at Albany, New York. During that period James was incarcerated in Peterhead Prison in Aberdeenshire. 

George had been naturalised in 1918 in New York. When he died his wife Mary's US citizenship was extinguished and she was forced to return to Scotland with their daughter Jean, leaving New York on 5th October 1929 and arriving in Glasgow on 13th October 1929. 

Mary remarried in 1936 to Chicago born George William Probst at Edinburgh St. Giles. George William was a widower whose wife had been killed in a train crash near Glasgow Central Station in 1934. George, who was of Italian extraction, was arrested as an alien and detained for a short time on the Isle of Man during WW2 but was released with out restrictions in 1940. He was a Thread Works Manager with J & P Coates. Mary died at Morningside, Edinburgh in 1968 and daughter Jean died in Edinburgh in 1996.

The Scotsman 8/9/1934

To Salt Lake City and back

By Kay McMeekin

If you look at the record for Agnes McLean - born in Skares, died in Skares you'd be forgiven for thinking she didn't get far. But you'd be wrong. She and her sister Mary and mother Jessie travelled to Salt Lake City and back a distance of over 10,000 miles!

Janet or Jessie Riggans was born on the 22 February 1854 in Cumnock to John Riggans and Margaret Bryden. She married miner William Frew McLean on 31 Dec 1872  at the age of 19 and they had 3 children in Ayrshire: Margaret, Mary and the aforementioned Agnes.  It seems he was converted to Mormonism.  He left for Salt Lake City in Utah in April 1883 on the SS Nevada. Accounts of the journey can be found here. It seems they travelled to Liverpool by train and Got a train in New York though it doesn't say how far the train went.

Jessie and the 3 children aged 9, 2 and 1, followed later that  year on the same ship, leaving Liverpool on 29th August and arriving on 10 September 1883 in New York. Their fare was paid for by the Glasgow mission of the Mormon Church. The adult fare was £4.5s children half of that and the baby £1. Total £9.10s (£9.50)

It was a horrendously long journey.  After the journey to Liverpool and the sail to New York, there was another journey by train of almost 2,000 miles. By 1870 Salt Lake had been linked to rail network via the Utah Central Rail Road. People began to pour into Salt Lake seeking opportunities in mining and other industries. Accounts of this journey can be read here. They had another 4 children in Utah. One died in infancy. 

Here is the record of the return trip in April 1890. 

For some reason, Jessie and 4 of the children returned to Cumnock in 1890 without William or the oldest child Margaret who was by then 15. 

Jessie took a job as a housekeeper at Grimgrew Farm in Cumnock.  She died in 1916.

Her son Robert enlisted in the army on 8th February 1901 and lied about his age as he wasn’t old enough. He was 16 years 2 months and at that time the minimum age was 18. He also lied about his place of birth which he said was Cumnock, but it was Utah. Jessie got local solicitor Archibald Brakenridge to get him out of the army by showing her family bible with the dates of birth of her children. People recorded the births of children at the time in a family bible. There were blank pages for this purpose. You can imagine her in Archibald's office having a rant and thumping the bible down with the evidence. The document he produced was saved in Robert's military record. He was discharged on the 23rd April after 75 days.  

GBM_WO97_5431_025_005.jpg

Robert married Susan Dunsmuir in 1908 and lived in Skares Rows in Cumnock. He died in 1958.

Mary married miner William Simpson in 1900 and had 11 children in Skares,

Agnes married John Shirkie and died in childbirth aged only 28.

Jessie married John Sharp of Thornhill and died in Cumnock in 1967.

On their marriage certificates they state their father William is deceased. So it seems they didn't keep in touch, since he wasn't.

Meanwhile back in the USA -

In 1890, the same year as Jessie returned home, William McLean's parents Robert W McLean and Mary Frew and two brothers also left Ayrshire for Utah sailing on the Wisconsin.

Jessie's oldest daughter Margaret married a farmer Jeremiah Hagerty and lived in Polson, Montana. She died there in 1926.

And William Frew McLean married Mary Bird Hummer in 1918 and died in 1927 in Salt Lake City.  His wife Jessie was still alive in Scotland. In later life he was a carpenter.

Wm F McLean and Mary Bird Hummer c1918

From Cumnock to Pennsylvania and Ohio

by Joanne Ferguson

link to William Howat on Cumnock Connections tree

William Howat was born in Cumnock in 1841, the son of William Howat and Jane Hamilton.  William married Margaret Brown in Scotland in 1862.  He studied surveying at Edinburgh University.  Margaret and William had two daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, in Scotland.  In 1864 after going to America and returning to Scotland, he emigrated to America in 1867 with his wife and daughters, Elizabeth and Jane.  He settled near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his family where three more children were born: Bella, William and John Brown.  

William Howatt, Sr. studied civil and mechanical engineering and took a position with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore, Maryland.  His skills in Baltimore were highly esteemed.  Here is a newspaper clipping from his 50thWedding Anniversary celebration that details his work in Baltimore.

Sadly, Jane died at the age of 11 and Bella died at age three in Driftwood, Pennsylvania.  Both are buried in the Driftwood Cemetery.  William Howat, Jr. was fatally injured in a railroad accident at the age of 31.

William became the superintendent of the department of public works in 1882.   He went to Baltimore in 1890 to help Baltimore with a tunnel, then returned in 1896 to Braddock County.  He worked in Braddock until 1909.  Margaret Brown died on July 13, 1915 and William Howat died March 16, 1916.  

William, Sr. and Margaret’s Children

Both Margaret and William had moved to Ohio to live with their daughter, Elizabeth Howatt Carr.  

Elizabeth’s husband, Thomas, had died in 1913.  Thomas was a brick layer.  Elizabeth and Thomas had four children:  Margaret, Robert, Elizabeth, and Ida.  

Their second child, William, married Caroline Geyer in 1892 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  William worked for the railroad as a machinist near their home in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.  William died in an accident at the railroad yard.

William and Caroline had three children:  William, Margaret, and John Brown Howat.

John Brown Howat married Ida Boyle in August 1897.  John was the owner of a hardware specialties store making nuts and bolts in Sharon, Pennsylvania. 

                                                                                    1908

John and Ida had no children.  At his death in 1954, John’s occupation was listed as a construction engineer on his death certificate.  Ida died a few years later in 1957.

William and Margaret’s Grandchildren-

Elizabeth Howat and Thomas Carr’s Children

Margaret Carr married George Maxwell on October 29, 1912.  Margaret worked as a bookkeeper at a bank and moved back to live with her mother after George’s death in November of 1914.  Margaret and George had no children.

Robert William Carr was a salesman in a hardware store.  He married Janet Flynn in 1923.  By the 1930 census Robert was the owner of the hardware store.  By the 1950 census, Robert was the vice president of a hardware manufacturing plant.  Robert died on July 22, 1955.  Janet and Robert had no children.

Elizabeth Thomasina Carr married James Foster and they had two children:  James, Jr. and Margaret.  James was the owner of a garage in New Castle City, Pennsylvania, and later became a real estate and insurance salesman.  James and Elizabeth had two children:  James B. Foster and Margaret J. Foster.  James died in 1965 and Elizabeth died in 1981 in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Ida Jane Carr married Henry Noville Boucherle in 1922.  Henry was a plumbing engineer in Youngstown, Ohio.  Ida was a bookkeeper at a bank.  They had two sons:  Thomas and Robert.  Henry died in 1939 and Ida died in 1969.

William, Jr. and Caroline Geyer Howatt's Children

Margaret Howat married William Cloyd Gibson in November 1912.  William Gibson worked as a clerk for the post office in Braddock.

Caroline Geyer lived with Margaret until her death in 1945. Margaret died in March of 1950.  William Gibson died in September of 1952.  

Margaret and William Cloyd Gibson had no children.

John Brown Howat married Jennie Elizabeth Miller in 1922.  John was a postal clerk in Braddock, Pennsylvania.  They had one son, Jack.

Jennie Elizabeth died in Braddock in 1957. John died in November of 1978 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

William Howat married Hannah G. Flaherty in Petersburg, Virginia on February 21, 1918.  William worked as a plumber.  Hannah died in 1957.  They had three children: an infant who died in 1921, Jean E. Howat, and William Cloyd Howat.

William and Margaret Brown Howatt's Great Grandchildren

Ida Carr and Henry N. Boucherle’s Children

Thomas Carr Boucherle married Zetta Jane Murray in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1948.  Thomas was a heating engineer at a retail heating and plumbing company in Youngstown, Ohio.

Robert Boucherle was an architectural draftsman in Youngstown, Ohio.

James B. Foster and Elizabeth Carr’s Children

James B. Foster, Jr.  married Yvette Lapeyre Mitchell in 1942 in Lawrence, Pennsylvania.  James was a real estate broker in New Castle, Pennsylvania.  James and Yevette had three children:  James Byers Foster III, Susan L. Foster, Sherry Anne Foster, and William Mitchell Foster.

James died in January 1995 and Yevette died in 2018 in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Margaret Foster became a nurse and emigrated to Brazel for a period of time.  On her return, she worked as a nurse for the Gulf Oil Corporation in Pittsburgh and was a hostess for Capital Airlines.  She married William J. Schelien  who worked as a supervisor for Jones and Laughlin Steel for 41 years.  He passed away in April of 2004.  Margaret died in 2016 in Pennsylvania.  William and Margaret had one child, Elizabeth. 

John Brown and Jennie E. Miller Howat’s Children

Jack William Howat married Julia Green in Pittsburgh in 1944.  Jack worked in the banking industry in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.  They had three children. 

William and Hannah G. Flaherty Howat’s Children

William Cloyd Howat lived in Braddock, Pennsylvania and worked as a lockman for the water locks.  He was not married.

Jean E. Howatt married John Anderson on October 28, 1943 in Braddock, Pennsylvania.  John was the son of George and Mary Boyle Anderson from Auchinleck, Scotland.  George and Mary emigrated from Scotland in 1925 to Braddock, Pennsylvania.  John was a weight master at the steel works in Braddock.  Jean and John Anderson had one son John Cloyd Anderson.

Matthew Gilmour aka Duncan McTavish

 by Roberta McGee

Matthew Gilmour was born in 1932 in Old Cumnock. His father, Matthew McQuiston Gilmour, was a bus driver, and his mother, Jane Scott Jamieson, worked in a munitions factory during WW2. Matt had a brother Richard and a sister Jane.

Matthew McQuiston Gilmour - Photo courtesy of Anne Griffiths 

The Gilmour family lived at 44 Keir Hardie Hill, Cumnock. After WW2 Matt's parents decided to emigrate to Canada so that they could have a better life. On 24th November 1948 father Matthew sailed alone from Liverpool heading for Halifax, Canada, on "The Empress of France". He was followed on 7th July 1949 by his wife Jane, son Matthew and daughter Jane, on the "Aquitania" and the family settled into their new lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Matt found work in a sweetie factory and played competitive football before he enlisted in the military.

Matt spent five years with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and served in the Korean War which lasted from 25th June 1950 until 27th July 1953. When his time in the army ended Matt was at a loose end. He decided to capitalise on his boxing skills an joined a gym run by a former wrestler who took him under his wing when he recognised his natural abilities and wrestling became his way of life.

From 1959 to 1969 he wrestled under the name of Matt Gilmour/Gilmore and from 1970 to 1986 he wrestled under the name of Duncan McTavish, a name given to him in Vancouver by All-Star Wrestling co-owner Sandor Kovacs. All-Star Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Matt had other personae such as donning a mask as 'Hangman', Matt 'The Guillotine' Gilmour and as one of the 'El Santos', a masked tag team. 

Photo Cumnock Connections

The Superstars of Wrestling shows were filmed live for television and aired throughout Canada and parts of the USA. They attracted huge audiences. The shows were well hyped up and in the 1970s the Superstars adopted 1970s rock music into the programme. 'The Ox', by 'The Who' , becoming their theme song. Matt was a born showman, charismatic, likeable and with a good sense of humour and he knew how to work the crowd.

Duncan McTavish - Promotions @ Wrestlingdata.com

As Duncan McTavish he became a 'well kent' face in the wrestling circles. Wrestling world champion Gene Kiniski said of Matt:

"McTavish was pretty well a main eventer, or a semi-wind-up...He had the gimmick, the bagpipes and all that stuff. He had that Scottish brogue. He was just a little different, a world traveller. He was very easy to market."

Other descriptions of Duncan McTavish - (unsourced)

"Duncan McTavish was known for his 'Highland Fling', a signature move that combined agility, strength, and showmanship. In this manoeuvre, he would leap off the ropes, twirl mid-air, and deliver a powerful leg drop to his opponent. The crowd would erupt in cheers as he executed this dynamic move, paying homage to his Scottish heritage."

"Duncan McTavish's finishing move was the 'Celtic Hammer'. With thunderous force, he would lift his opponent onto his shoulders, showcasing his immense strength, and then slam them down to the mat. The impact left opponents dazed and often unable to continue, securing victory for McTavish".

Photo SLAM Wrestling

Matt showed no fear even in the air. On 10th February 1969 Eastern Airlines Flight 950,originating from San Juan, Puerto Rico, destined for Miami, Florida and carrying 110 passengers, was hijacked. Among the passengers were pro-wrestlers Abdullah the Butcher and Duncan McTavish who had been appearing at a stint in Puerto Rico. The armed hijacker, Peter Alvarez, was a resident of San Juan, whose wife and children were living in Miami. He had an ailing father who lived in Cuba and he was desperate to see him, but relations between the USA and Cuba were at an all time low and he decided that the only way to get to Cuba was to hijack the aeroplane. He had taken control of the aeroplane an hour after take-off and forced the pilots to re-route the flight to Cuba. Abdullah and Duncan (Matt) became annoyed and, fearless, got up to confront the hijacker. A flight attendant managed to calm them down and persuaded them to return to their seats. 

The flight attendant later gave a statement to reporters:

"They were cursing and said they wanted to get to the hijacker but I stopped in front of them, told them the man was armed and there were too many people on board to risk their lives".

Matt worked out of British Columbia where All-Star Wrestling was based. He had a farm there where he bred, raised and trained racehorses as well as continuing with his successful wrestling career. He wrestled in nearly every state in the USA. 

In a 2006 interview with SLAM Wrestling (Horsing around with Duncan McTavish) he said:

"It was the horses that kept me sane, because my day was filled with animals and racing. It was exciting....[The promotion] got a lot of ink because I'd be racing horses that would be winning races. Then I'd rush over to the arena and wrestle, then rush back to Hastings Park. I was always on the move."

Matt moved back to Ontario to another farm where he continued to race horses. He also promoted country and western shows. Although he main-evented against 'The Sheik' at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, eventually he was happy just to work the smaller Ontario arenas.

Matt passed away peacefully on 5th June 2011 at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ontario.

An interview with SLAM Wrestling sums up Matt's career in his own words:

"When you start to add it up it's a lot of abuse on your body, but it allowed me, a little guy from Scotland, to go all around to places I would never have been able to afford. To meet men like Joe Louis and Cassius Clay and Lou Thesz and Buddy Rogers - people that you hear of -allowed me to be with them. That would never have happened if it wasn't for wrestling."

Sources:

SLAM Wrestling - Horsing Around with Duncan McTavish

Georgia Wrestling

Freelands from Auchinleck to Fresno over 40 years

by Kay McMeekin

Many of the descendants of Irish-born Auchinleck resident William Freeland and his wife Jane Sillars emigrated and prospered in California.

First to go was son David Freeland 1862 -1935 in the 1880s. In the 1881 UK census he was a 19 year old mason. He married Jeannie Ryce in Salinas, California in 1889. Once in California he was a farmer in Madera in the 1910 census and in 1920 still in Madera he was a livery man at a livery stable. In 1930 census he was in Novato and a farmer.

In 1909 widowed daughter Jane/Jenny Murray emigrated with her children first to Madera, then Long Beach California

His older brother James Freeland followed quite a lot later with his with Mary Ann Cunningham. They arrived in Selma, Fresno California in 1894 with children William C and Marion. Son William Cunningham Freeland 1877- 1952 prospered:-

The cashier of the allied banks, the First National Bank and the Selma Savings Bank, of Selma, William C. Freeland, is known among his associates as a financier of ability and a man of unimpeachable integrity, possessed of force of character and good executive ability. Self-made, he has worked his way up from a clerkship to the highest place in the active operation of Selma's foremost financial institution.

While Selma claims him as one of her boys, he was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, March 28, 1877, and came to America with his parents, James and Mary A. (Cunningham) Freeland, when he was a lad ten years of age. His father, a blacksmith by trade, lived in Soquel, Santa Cruz County, from 1887 to 1890, and in the latter year came to Selma, where he died, in 1895. His mother is living in Selma and became the wife of the late John G. S. Arrants, of Selma.

William C. Freeland received his primary education in the schools of Scotland, completing it in the public schools of Santa Cruz County and Selma, graduating from the Selma high school with the class of 1895. He acquired bookkeeping in the high school and was afterwards with the Selma branch of the Kutner-Goldstein Company in the capacity of bookkeeper for a year and a half. A vacancy occurring in the clerkship of the First National Bank in 1897, he took the position and gradually worked himself up until in 1905 he became cashier. Of excellent judgment, and unusually swift and accurate as a cashier, he has held the position up to the present time with credit to himself and the bank.

In 1902, Mr. Freeland was united in marriage with Miss Joanna Heaton, daughter of Joseph and Margaret A. Heaton of Selma. He is the owner of one hundred acres two miles east of Selma which is planted to peaches, apricots, and Muscat and Thompson seedless grapes. A Presbyterian in his religious convictions, he is a member and chairman of the board of trustees of the church of that denomination at Selma. Fraternally he is prominent in Masonic circles. He is a member of the Blue Lodge Chapter in Selma and of the Commandery at Fresno. He is a Scottish Rite and Thirty-second Degree Mason, and a member of Islam Temple at San Francisco. He is also a member of the Selma Lodge of W. O. W., the largest lodge in Selma. For eight years Mr. Freeland was a member of the Board of Trustees of the City of Selma and for four years of that time was chairman of the board. For the past five years he has been City Treasurer. He and his good wife are highly respected in business, social and church circles in Selma.

In 1912  18 year old nephew William Sillars Freeland, son of Charles Freeland, sailed on the Lusitania to go to his uncle David in Madera.

In 1920 William 's sister Barbara 24, a stenographer,  came out on the Columbia.

In 1927 William's father Charles Freeland 63 his wife Margaret and other son John Morrison Freeland sailed to San Francisco from Manchester on the Pacific Reliance going to W S Freeland Bank of Italy Buildings Fresno They left behind a son Charles in Tassie Street, Shawlands.

 

Dunsmor and Nicol families, Cumnock pottery and beyond

by Scott Daily

The Nicol ( and Dunsmor) family 1880
 

                                        For names of those in the photo, click here

A family strongly linked to Cumnock Pottery the numerous Nicol and Dunsmor (or Dunsmore) descendents of Annie Clarkson moved in and out of Ayrshire in the 1800's. 

Annie Clarkson was born in Douglas, in South Lanarkshire in 1836, her first marriage was to Robert Dunsmore, in Cumnock by the Rev James Murray on 6 March 1854. Robert was listed as a coal-master in a wedding announcement. 

Robert and Annie had two children, Elizabeth born in 1853, and David Robert around 1856. Interestingly at the point that David was born the family were living in United States, as David is listed as being born on the Cumnock Conections site in Lemonweir, Wisconsin. The 1881 census mentioned below also lists David has being born in the United States.  

Robert Dunsmore appears to have passed away in 1857, at the age of 29. In 1858 Annie married James McGavin Nicol, the manager, and soon to be the proprietor, of Cumnock Pottery. Many have written in detail about Cumnock Pottery and the role James played, see for example: this article from the Scottish Pottery Society or this one from the Cumnock History Group, my focus is more on his family, though the pottery, especially the "motto ware" is a fascinating subject. 

James and Annie appear to have had ten children (see Annie's link above), with seven of them listed along with step-son David as living with them in a 1881 census. When grown the Nicol children began to move about, some settling in other parts of Scotland. One son, John Strathdee Nicol (often called Strath) would move to England to work in a firm manufacturing explosives, where he became the managing director. For his services he was created M.B.E. Another son, Thomas Hamilton Nicol, would immigrate to America and settle around California. Both sons would seem to have had children who settled around these areas of England and America. 

David Dunsmor would remain in the Cumnock area, taking over the running of Cumnock Pottery after his step-father passed away. David was also known for serving as the Lieutenant of the Cumnock Volunteer Rifles, most famously taking part in the "Wet Review" when on August 25 1881, the Edinburgh Royal Review of Volunteers was held, as Queen Victoria reviewed large numbers of Volunteer Forces from all over Scotland at Holyrood Park on a day of prolonged extremely heavy rainfall. 

Notice of David Dunsmor taking over Cumnock Pottery

David Dunsmor married Wilhelmina Hillhouse in 1884, they continued to live in the Cumnock area for the rest of their lives. One of their sons, James Nicol Dunsmor, a unmarried banker, was killed in India, when the sergeant who was to guard him shot him. A news aritcle would state “an immediate official inquiry was made and it was found that the sergeant was suffering from meningitis and must have gone mad.”

headline about James Dunsmor's death