McLatchies to Canada

from Brenda Turner (see other post by Elaine)

According to Howard Lively Harris, who wrote the history of the Harris Family (published in 1982 and a copy kept in the Quebec Government Archives in Hull), Hugh and Sarah Lockie McLatchie emigrated to Canada somewhere in 1820 from Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, with their 5 children.

Sons of John McLatchie of Sykeside farm

Hugh McLatchie and his son William arrived in Canada in 1820, on the ship the Commerce. They came alone, with their family remaining behind. I have not yet found a record of the arrival of their families.

Arrived at the Port of Quebec
Aug 5	Ship Commerce	N. Coverdale	21 June	Greenock	402 settlers	(Lanark county settlers)

the Ship's List https://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arrivals/Canada1820b.shtml (site no longer available)

Located some answers to the question, "Why did they leave Scotland?" in an old book, Muirkirk in Bygone Days by J.G.A. Baird, (Col. J.G.A. Baird of Wellwood) printed in Muirkirk by W.S. Smith, Main Street, Muirkirk, in 1910. Pages 8 - 10: In the middle of the 18th century agriculture in Ayrshire was in a deplorable condition. It was described in a report drawn up by Col. Fullarton for the Board of Agriculture in 1793, quoted by William Aiton, writer of Strathaven, in his book "A Survey of Ayrshire," published in 1811, and corroborated by his own experience. Too lengthy to be given here, some extracts taken together will serve. "There were no practicable roads. The farm houses were mere hovels moated with clay, having an open fireplace in the middle, the midden at the door. The cattle starving, and the people wretched. The land, overrun with weeds and rushes, was gathered up into ridges, the soil on the top of the ridge and the furrows drowned in water. No green crops, no sown grass, no carts or waggons. No garden vegetables except a few Scotch kail (kale) which, with milk and oatmeal, formed the diet of the people, with the exception of a little meat salted for the winter. The people, having no substitute for oatmeal, were at the mercy of the seasons. If these were bad, famine ensued. Indeed, after a succession of wet seasons at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, the people were obliged to subsist on a little oatmeal mixed with the blood drawn from their miserable cattle." This, it must be remembered, is a picture of Ayrshire as a whole, including the most fertile districts; what the state of matters was in this neighbourhood, what the squalor and poverty, can hardly now be imagined....... But this state of matter in the wrong place was by no means confined to the above-named villages; it was common throughout Scotland. Indeed, the capital was very far from free of the reproach of dirty and abominable customs. The fact was that, in respect of cleanliness and sanitation, Scotland was still in a primitive condition.

Brother Robert McLatchie emigrated to Edwardsburgh,Ontario,Canada between 1819 and 1822.

War bride from Auchinleck to Canada

 by Laurie Ann March

29 December 1944

My mother, Janet Jack  was known affectionately as Jenny and born at Templeton Place (nicknamed Mulligan’s Mansions) in Auchinleck on 15 June1926. Her mother died in childbirth a few years later so Jenny was raised by her father Robert and her Aunt Bella. When she was a teenager, she met a Canadian soldier from a small mining town named Worthington, near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. His name was William Henry Langman, and he was stationed in England. Langman was acquainted with her father and older brother and had come to visit. Langman was known to his friends and other members of the RCA as Harry, but Jenny always called him Bill. 

Bill and Jenny didn’t really like each other when they first met and on top of that he had a fiancée in Canada. He did two tours of Italy, and he would send word to Scotland whenever possible. During Bill’s deployment Jenny’s father asked if she would take over the task of writing to Bill’s mother and fiancée with updates and Jenny reluctantly agreed. Bill always visited Auchinleck when he was on leave. Eventually, the engagement to the Canadian lady was broken off and he and Jenny fell in love. He proposed to Jenny from the top of the Ballochmyle Viaduct in Ayrshire. She would tease him later by saying that she should have jumped instead of accepting his proposal. 

at Ballochmyle Viaduct

In 1944 Bill applied for permission from the military to marry Jenny and they were married just before Hogmanay that year. In the summer of 1945, despite his request to remained stationed in the UK, he was shipped home to Canada for repatriation. Jenny was pregnant by then and her passage did not take place until February 1946. She travelled from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with a 3-month-old baby on the Scythia, with hundreds of other war brides. The journey was not a smooth one. Waves during the fierce Atlantic storms were splashing over A-deck and this made both her and the baby quite ill. 

 

Once they arrived in Halifax the war brides disembarked and as they walked from Pier 21 into the city, a brass band played “Here Comes the Brides.” She said it was awful and that she felt like a spectacle—like they were a herd of cattle. A few days later, Jenny left Halifax with baby John on a train to Ontario, and they ended up in the tiny isolated rural village of Springford, ON. Springford was in the “snowbelt” and experiencing the thick of a Canadian winter was quite a shock.

Life in farming community of Springford was not easy for Jenny, nor was living with her mother-in-law who treated her like she was not good enough for Bill. It wasn’t just dealing with culture shock from being thrust into rural Ontario life; Jenny was also trying to reconcile the differences between her expectations and the reality. It didn’t help that Bill was dealing with the ramifications of what he experienced as a soldier and trying to repatriate into civilian life. Being a war bride was not as romantic as it sounded and Canadian women were sometimes unkind. Bill had something akin to PTSD, and that added to the challenges. 

At one point, she was so lonely, heartbroken, and homesick that she wrote her father to arrange passage back home. He convinced her to stay, and she persevered. Eventually, Jenny and Bill decided that he would take a position as a correctional officer in the city of Guelph, and they moved into a small house near the city’s downtown. Their life in Guelph improved their situation and reduced the social isolation that Jenny had been experiencing. 

The Langmans remained in the Guelph area for close to forty years until Bill passed away in June 1987. Jenny spent her remaining years in Wasaga Beach, Ontario. Jenny had five children between November 1945 and November 1968. They had a very happy marriage despite the rocky start. She was an artisan and made everything from clothing to beautiful heirloom quilts and embroidered works. Jenny shared her Scottish traditions and cooking with friends and family and was legendary for her shortbread. It was always important to her that these traditions be passed down to the next generation. Her life was full of sadness, and she outlived three of her five children. She was determined to live to the fullest, despite the grief, and carried on with grace and strength. 

Jenny never returned to Auchinleck, but her older brother Jim and her best friend Jessie, would visit every few years. She always asked them to bring treats from her homeland for the children. Her nephew and his family still reside in Scotland, and they came to see her several times before she passed away in January 2013 at the age of 86. 

Jenny never forgot her Scottish roots and never lost her accent or sense of adventure. Scottish war brides like Jenny, were resilient young women who changed the fabric of Canada for the better.

The Lakas Family - Lithuania to Cumnock to Chicago, USA

 by Roberta McGee

The Lakas Family - Lithuania to Cumnock to Chicago, USA

Antanas Lakas, a coalminer, was born in Kovno, Lithuania in 1882. He married Marijona (Mary) Baksauskas an Kairin, Lithuania and they had three children there before moving to 37 Townhead Street, Cumnock. Anton found work with the Garrallan Coal Company as a miner/hewer and the couple went on to have four more children in Cumnock. Tragedy struck in 1918 when two of their children died. Alexandria was only one year old when she died of measles. Three days later her brother Wencantas, aged two years old died of pneumonia. The 1921 census shows that they were still living at 37 Townhead Street. However, Antanas was 'out of work'. There was another Lithuanian, with the very British name of Charles Brown, boarding with the family. He was 43 years old, a Russian resident, who had also been working for the Garrallan Coal Company, but he was 'out of work' too. 

A few months later in June 1921, Antanas sailed out of Glasgow on the Cameronia heading for New York. He was alone, with $25 in his pocket, his final destination being to his brother-in-law John Baltrunas in Chicago, Illinois. Mary and the children joined him a year later. The sailed to New York on the Columbia. Mary and their five children were travelling under the surname of Liakaviciene. Antenas seems to have changed his surname too. He was now Anton Lekas Liakaviciene and their new address was 731 Jackson Street, Chicago, Illinois. On the Passenger List the name of the person in the old country was Kazemeras Baksauskas, a friend, 37 Townhead Street, Cumnock, where Mary and Anton lived while they were in Cumnock. 

                                                                            Passport photo

The family made their permanent home in the USA and became American citizens. The children Americanised their names. Jonas became John, Broni became Bernice, Learnovera became Laverne and Broneslofski became Bruno. On the US Naturalization Index it was recorded that son Anthony changed his name by Court Decree from Antanar Liakaviciene to Anthony Michael Lakas. 

Daughter Laverne, who was born in 1920 at 37 Townhead Street, Cumnock, disappeared in 1941. The family weren't overly worried because she had the habit of disappearing for long periods. In 1947 Frank Hertle, an itinerant handyman, finally confessed to police, because his conscience troubled him, that he had strangled her in 1941. He also confessed to strangling another woman in Chicago that same year.

Laverne's body had been found by police six years previously but she had never been identified. 

Lancashire Daily Post 24/3/1947

                                                            

Anton Lakas died in 1954 and his wife Mary died in 1956, both in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and are buried in Saint Casmir Catholic Cemetery there. 

Image - TripSavvy

     

Cumnock Pottery

By Kay McMeekin 

The creation of Cumnock pottery required skilled workers to be brought in from elsewhere. There were many potteries around the Prestonpans and Portobello areas and skilled workers from there came to Cumnock.

Work began at top of Greenbraehead to build the Cumnock Pottery in 1792. The pottery was initially set up to produce graphite crucibles to enable the 6th Earl of Dumfries to develop a blast furnace complex to exploit the ironstone and coal deposits on his estates. Only the pottery was put into operation and was managed by James Taylor born May 1753 in Leadhills, Dumfriesshire who made dramatic developments in ship engineering.

Things did not go well for Taylor when he first came to Cumnock. He brought two Glasgow potters James and John Henderson to set things up in Ayrshire but it seemed that nothing would go right. The graphite they used was inconsistent in supply and impractical to make into crucibles. The 13 men employed were forced to make conventional earthenware from the local clay. It was not until 1812 that the pottery was economically viable.

The original pottery workers are listed in the booklet The Cumnock Pottery by Gerard Quail. They were:

William Inglis (thrower), William Fisher (wheelman), Robert Young (helper to the wheel), William McMillan (fireman), James Baird (fettler), William Johnston (2nd thrower), Thomas Stoddart (2nd fettler), Hugh Thomson (apprentice), George Dickinson (turner), Andrew Thomson (boy), James Lambie (boy), James McCowan (pan man) and Thomas Ferguson (Warehouseman).

William Inglis was born in Prestonpans, son of a potter

James Baird was born probably in Cumnock and his descendants were also potters

Thomas Stoddart was born 1785 in Cumnock. A fettler was a pottery worker who smooths greenware with a knife, felt, emery, and a wet sponge.

Pottery workers were housed in terraced cottages near the pottery in part of Glaisnock St called Pottery Row. These cottages are still standing. James Baird 1841-1931 the grandson of the aforementioned James Baird, also a potter lived in Pottery Row at 97 Glaisnock street all his life. It was likely the house of his grandfather too,

James Baird outside his house in Pottery row

 

The 1841 census for Old Cumnock lists the following eight potters

Robert Murray (born in Sorn, Ayrshire)

Thomas Walker 55 (birthplace outwith Ayrshire)

William Scott 40 (Portobello)

John Thomson 20 (Portobello) stepson of the above William Scott

Lockhart Noble (Glasgow) 

James Baird (probably Cumnock)

James Nichol 20 salesman and potter (Cumnock) This is James McGavin Nicol  who  was appointed the manager of the Cumnock Pottery & Tile Co. in 1852 and 4 years later became the new proprietor. Under his management the business realised its full potential and Cumnock Pottery became known throughout the country.

The Nicol family had been tenant farmers on the Dumfries Estate for several generations. James McGavin Nicol was the eldest son of James Nicol, a Cumnock grocer. When he assumed control of the Pottery in 1857 he was 36 years old. Under his ownership the Motto Ware was properly marketed and grew in popularity. This was achieved by opening up premises in Cumnock which was at that time a thriving town and by using the new railway system to expand the sales market. This was also the period of an increase in travel for pleasure and sport – with town-dwelling day-trippers buying Cumnock Pottery as a gift or memento. By the Census of 1871 the Pottery employed 9 adults and 6 young persons.

In 1881 James McGavin Nicol and his wife Annie Clarkson were living at Herdstone Cottage 109 Glaisnock street. Also at home were sons James (20) William (18) John (9) and Marcus (10 months) and Nicol’s stepson David Robert Dunsmore (26). The Nicol family also had a servant Betsy Black. Senior potters were William Baird (54) and George Simpson (40) and Alex Nicol of Mauchline. In 1881 a total of 20 people were employed in the Pottery.

After old Mr. Nicol died in 1885 the pottery was managed by the stepson David Dunsmor, who ran the office side, but the practical work was overseen by son James Nicol. Dunsmore was now the driving force behind the Pottery. He was a time-served potter, had good management skills and had progressive ideas about marketing the pottery. The Ppottery under his management reached its maximum output and widest market.

In 1920 Dunsmore decided to close the Pottery and wind up the business. The main reasons for closure were economic – with a shortage of easily dug clay and the fashion change towards imported china.

Much later potters from Portobello wee still coming to Cumnock, notably Joseph Hunter aka Pottery Joe born in Coalsnaughton in 1855 and a potter at Portobello. He seems to have moved between Ayrshire and Portobello. 

Joe's Brig

Built to replace the old stepping-stone ford at Greenholm just downstream from the present Greenholm Brig at Asda.

Joe Hunter, a potter at Cumnock Pottery in Glaisnock Street first petitioned the Town Council to build a bridge at Greenholm to replace the Stepping Stone Ford in 1909. Joe and his family lived at 112 Townhead Street and he regularly used the Stepping Stones as a short cut to work but as he had fallen in on one occasion and traffic was increasing over the ford, he kept up his request to the council. By 1914 his representations to the council bore fruit and they agreed to hold a count of how many people crossed the ford in a single day. The number was over 500 so Joe’s persistence paid off and the council agreed to build the bridge. The bridge was described in the Cumnock Chronicle as “Situated about 20 feet further up the Glaisnock Water than the Stepping Stones, the bridge is rustic in design and in addition to its usefulness as a footway is a most artistic landmark. It is built on three strong concrete piers reinforced with ironwork structure. The wood is larch throughout and all locally grown. The foundation consists of four stout trunks bolted to the piers while stout angle brackets and a firm bracework support another four trunks two feet higher up. Binding bolts three feet long secure the structure at various points. The rustic work along the sides, the wood for which was taken from Barshare, rises from the lower trunks to a height of five feet high. To minimise danger to children the inside of the rail-work has been wired. From end to end the bridge measures 45 feet and the footway is three feet wide. Concrete steps have been erected at either side and probably a simple fence will complete the pleasant effect and lessen the risk of pedestrians missing the entrance in the dark. The old stepping stones will be utilised as a breakwater for the central pier.”

The new bridge then quickly became known as Joe’s Brig in honour of this tireless campaigner. This brig remained in constant use until 1927 when the now defunct Rifleman's Brig was offered to the Town Council as a replacement. This was considered but not accepted. The wooden Joe’s Brig was now becoming unsafe and was replaced around 1930s with a brand-new metal brig which served the public until 1967 when it became dangerous and was taken down – the decision not to replace it was taken in the light of the Greenholm Brig being wider and newer. However, the brig was put into storage by the council then repaired and moved to span the Glaisnock Water at the new Ayr Road car park around 1973 and remained there until 1977 when it was replaced with the new Keir McTurk Brig which remains today.