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.