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

     

The Zilinskis

 by Roberta McGee

George Zilinskis (sometimes spelt Zelensky) was born about 1878 in Lithuania (Poland-Russia) and married Ona (Anna) Rudzeviclute  in 1897 in Garlecva, Poland. Their first child Steffina Agnes was born in 1903 at Kelme, Kelme District Municipality, Siaulial, Lithuania. George was a coalminer and by 1907 they had moved to Glengyron, Old Cumnock, where their son Anthony was born, followed by Levonas in 1908, Lana in 1910, George in 1913 and William, who was born in 1918 at Waterside Place.

Both George and Anna remained in Cumnock. George died in 1930 at Waterside Place and Anna in 1949 at 55 Keir Hardie Hill, Cumnock.

Their daughter Steffina Agnes sailed out of Glasgow on 9 March 1921 on the Columbia , arriving in New York on 20 March 1921. Her destination was to her uncle Antanas Rudzeviclute in Century, Barbour County, West Virginia. She was only seventeen years old and a few months later on 29 May 1921 she married John Edward Prutsok in Century. John was a miner who was born in 1895 at Lucerne, West Virginia. His parents were Austrian. 

Steffina’s Wedding - Cumnock Connections 

John and Steffina had three sons but sadly John died in 1935 leaving Steffina a widow aged 32 years. Steffina married again in 1941 to Russian born Michael Superfisky and spent the rest of her life in Barbour County, West Virginia where she died in 1963.

Anthony Zilinskis was born in Glengyron Row in 1907 and married Auchinleck born Annie Gibson Pooley in 1932 at Auchinleck. At some time he changed his surname to Rogers. Anthony was a motor mechanic and died in 1914 in Mauchline. 

Levonas (Leonard) Michael 'Scotty' Zilinskis was born in 1908 at Glengyron, Old Cumnock. He sailed out of Liverpool for New York on the Cedric arriving there on 17 September 1928. He gave his occupation as miner. Although his parents were still alive and living at Waterside Place, Cumnock, he gave his nearest relative in Scotland as his uncle Peter Kilvites, Beechwood Square, Auchinleck. His final destination in the USA was to his brother-in-law John Prutsok, his sister Steffina's husband, Century, West Virginia. 

On his Draft Card of 16 August 1940 he gave his address as Mellette, Spink, West Virginia and his employer was The Century Coal Co. Scotty joined the US Army on 2 September 1942 and was married that same year to Lillian Anna Hamilton who was born in West Virginia. He became naturalised in 1943. Scotty died in 1967 at Buckhannon, Upshur, West Virginia.

Image Cumnock Connections

A description of Century in the Cumnock Connections Tree presumably by one of Scotty's children

            

            The town we grew up in was called Century. The name originated because the

            company who opened the coal mine thought they had about a century of coal,

            plus it opened at the beginning of the 1900s. The Mine was Bethlehem 101. It

            was owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

            It was a very nice town with an elementary school and two churches;one Catholic

            and one Methodist. We rode a school bus to high school, which was about eight

            miles away. Very close knit community.

                    Scotty, front row centre, representing Bethlehem Steel in a first aid & mine rescue team

                                                            Image - Cumnock Connections

Lana (Ellen) Zilinskis  was born in 1910 at 54 York Street Lane, Ayr and married John Drain Brown in 1933 in Cumnock. However, they divorced in 1939. Ellen then married Hugh Loy in 1841 in Cumnock and she died in 1978.

George Zilinskis was born in 1913 at 13 Glengyron Row. On 22 March 1950 he sailed out of Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth  arriving in New York on 28 March 1950. Aged 36 years and single, he was en route to Century, West Virginia where his brother and sister lived. George was naturalised in 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio and died there in 1973.

William Zilinskis was born in 1918 at Waterside Place, Cumnock. He changed his name to William Rogers legally in 1939 at Cumnock. At the time he was a miner living at 55 Keir Hardie Hill, Cumnock. Sometime afterwards he went to Rhodesia to work as a miner. 8 July 1947 finds William, aged 29 years, arriving in Southampton on the Carnarvon Castle having departed from Capetown, South Africa, his country of last permanent residence being West Rhodesia and his proposed address being 55 Keir Hardie Hill where his mother was still living. William's mother died in 1949.

                                               William Zilinskis Rogers - Image mandyerogers

Five years later, in 1954, William was living in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and had acquired a wife, Tryphena Edith Rogers. He was a miner. Possibly he was a goldminer. It was at Kilgoorlie that Australia's famous Gold Rush took place in 1893 and goldmining remains a major industry. However, by 1968 he had changed his occupation and become a linesman. William died in 1977 at Geraldton, Western Australia and is buried at Utakarra in Greater Geraldton City.

From Lugar to Spain and Back

 by Roberta McGee

In the early 1890s Scottish coal and ironmasters William Baird & Company purchased mines firstly in Santander, Northern Spain then, in 1893, the Monte de Hierro mine (Mountain of Iron) which was located in the Sierra Morena mountains in Southern Spain. It was a significant site for the rich deposits of iron ore which were crucial for the steel industry. Baird brought in advanced mining techniques and equipment from Scotland which greatly improved the efficiency and output of the mine. The mountainous terrain meant the miners worked in dangerous conditions which led to frequent accidents and health problems. 

Many a Lang Scots Mile - our ancestors on the move:

 

The Iron Mountain - credit Visit Andalucia

John McPherson was a mechanical engineer employed by William Baird & Co. After his marriage to Agnes Muir in Lugar in 1911 the couple moved to the mining village of Cerro del Hierro at the Monte de Hierro Iron Mines in Spain. The mines were controlled by William Baird & Co and the area was connected by rail with the Port of Seville where the iron ore was shipped from. The area had an impressive karst landscape formed from limestone which is particularly rich in iron ore and other minerals. 

Cerro del Hierro area

A tunnel in the iron mines

John's time in Spain was spent training mining engineers. William Baird & Co built accommodation for their workers in the village of Cerro del Hierro, also known as Seville's Siberia, because of the extremely cold winters. However, rather than unbearably hot summers, the surrounding forests provided some protection against the hot winds. The engineers lived in houses known as the 'Casa de los Ingleses' (the houses of the English), because of their typically English type architecture. 

                                                   Ruins of ‘Casa de los Ingleses’ - Wikimedia 

John and Agnes were living in Spain when WW1 was declared on 4 August 1914. The vital demand for iron meant more workers were needed in Lugar and many Spaniards from the region were sent to Lugar when the local men went to war. John and Agnes remained in Spain, which was neutral, during WW1. 

Their first three children were born in Spain, Janet in November 1914, Neil in August 1917 and Robert in January 1919. They travelled back to Lugar where there son John was born in 1920. The 1921 census shows their children, Janet and Neil, who were recorded as 'resident in Spain' living with their grandparents Robert and Janet Muir at Rosebank, Lugar. How long they visited for is unclear. Rosanna was born in September 1921 in Spain, followed by William in 1922, Catherine in 1925 and Margaret in 1926. Their ninth child George was born in Lugar in 1931. 

Their visits back to Lugar, and their growing family, were obviously a source of interest to the villagers. Relative Heather McPherson says -

            My Dad tells the story that every time they came back from Spain old Mrs Auld

            used to say 'Well, that's them back from Spain again. How many more of them

            is there this time?'

It is unclear when John and Agnes returned to Rosebank, Lugar to settle permanently. John died there in 1955 and Agnes in 1963.

Image Europosters.eu

A Perilous Journey from Glasgow to Canada

 By Elaine Corbett

This is an extract from a letter written by John Gourlay Kirk McCartney to his son. John was born illegitimately in 1881 at the Haugh in Mauchline. He was adopted by a couple from Cumnock and. according to his letter, had an abusive childhood. He emigrated to Canada in 1905 on the Iconium * where he met and married Esther Marrs who was born in Cumnock. Read more about Esther's story here. This is a description of John's perilous journey from Glasgow to Canada. The 'she' he is referring to is his adoptive mother. 'Ma' is his wife, Esther (Marrs) 

'Even when I was a contractor “she” only allowed me 10 shillings ($2.50) out of my fortnightly earnings. I saved up this money and one payday I came home with my full earnings plus eight days lie time (this was an amount always held back by the mines to take care of anything one might owe them if you quit in a hurry) and told “her” I was going to Canada willy nilly.

At that time the cheapest way you could immigrate only cost 25 dollars from Glasgow to St.John, Canada.  Rail from there to Fernie was $50.  So the complete fare was only $75.  The boat I booked was the old Iconium owned by the Allen Line.  It had just delivered a load of cattle from Canada.  So the ship was hosed out and a heavy application of smelly disinfectant was applied all over the ship.  Now they covered the floors with a layer of rough flooring then on this they put the partitions in for rooms.  The men were placed at one end of the boat and women and children at the other end.

The Iconium was very small —I think about 2700 tons.  The deck floor was just rusty iron.  The men were bunked in cabins with six to eight in each.  The one I was in had six of us, and after we all got over our seasickness it was not too bad.  The smell of the disinfectant was strong and acrid and stayed with us the whole reach (to) St. Johns.  Now it takes less than three days in accommodations fit for a first class hotel.  The boat was propelled by steam but there was no electricity in the whole boat.  It had not come into general use at that time.  The cabins were lit by a single oil lamp with a glass globe which had to be extinguished any time there was a rough weather because of fire danger, so we sat in the dark.

I remember one night the ship pitched so much that our cabin trunks would slide like lightening from one side of the room to the other with a loud bang!  Then when the ship pitched the other way they reversed themselves and back and forth they went all night long in the pitch dark.  About 2:00 a.m. a loud knocking came to our door, I unlatched the lock (only a hook and eye latch). I could not see the man but he was an old fellow and was shivering in his nightgown.  He asked me if we had a spare life belt (we slept with our life belts under our pillows). So I reached for mine and gave it to him hoping that he would not have to use it.

Next day the weather was still bad but had improved a little.  I was up on deck holding on and telling the boatswain about the old man pleading for a life jacket.  “Well,” he said, “young fellow you may have thought it a joke but I have been 30 years at sea and I never saw a boat so near on it’s beam end as this tub was last night.”  There were no facilities just long troughs with hot and cold water and you bathed the best way possible whenever you got the opportunity.

We were glad when we got to St.John and got on the train for our final destination if only for a change of food.  On the ship we had cabin biscuits every evening and before we put the liquid on them (to make a kind of cereal) we had to pick the worms out with a pin; some, like myself gave up and just ate them, worms and all.  I could write a book about that journey, the many incidents and fights that took place, some very amusing, some very tragic.  Even the train travel was very crude unless you were traveling first class.  Of course, I traveled colonist and that is next to a cattle train in accommodation and service.  Of course that was years ago. But we arrived in Fernie anyway where as I told you before, I met your ma.' 

Credit: Chericott - Ancestry

* No such ship Think it was the Mongolian. Allan Line. sailed Glasgow- Montreal leaving 2 June 1906 cost £5 10/5. Kay

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-ss-mongolian-leaving-the-clyde-1906-1906-online

this could well be the sailing he was on

Hannah family, miners to Nova Scotia

By Kay McMeekin

Abraham Hannah on the Cumnock Connections tree

Abraham Hannah and his wife Margaret Docherty were born in  about 1859 in Newry in what is now Northern Ireland. They married in Tarbolton, Ayrshire in 1880 where their first few children were born. They moved to New Coalburn in New Cumnock between 1885 and 1887. 

Abraham was a miner and was injured in an explosion of firedamp in Lanemark colliery in 1892. 

In 1901 census the family was at Rigghead cottage in New Cumnock where Abraham was a coal miner hewer. By now they had 9 children

They emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1904.

He went ahead on the Numidian arriving Port Halifax on 8th April 1904.

Margaret sailed on the Pretorian arriving October 1904 at Montreal. With her were her married daughter Helen married to miner William McSepheny and their daughter Maggie, and Margaret's other 9 children. They were all going to Springhill, Nova Scotia. They were in steerage class. 

Only one child stayed behind in Scotland, Matthew Hannah who married Agnes Skinner in 1905.

In the 1911 census of Canada they are living with 7 of their children in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Abraham is now a farmer. 

Abraham and Margaret both died in 1920 in Springhill.

In the 1911 census of Canada, son-in-law William McSephney is also in Springhill working as miner still. 

In 1921 census William and Helen and their 3 children are in Main Street Springhill. William is a miner, a coal cutter. Sister Margaret 36 an invalid and  brother James Hannah 18 are with them. James is a salesman. They lived in a rented wooden house. William died in 1939 in Springhill and Helen in 1960.

They are all described as Baptists.

4 of the Hannah children ended up in Alberta; Margaret, Joseph, Elizabeth and James. Others ended up in British Columbia (William), Ontario (Abraham) and Montreal (Mary).

Some of them dropped the final H in Hannah.

From Cumberland to Cumnock

 by Roberta McGee

In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution brought huge changes to Britain. The introduction of George Stephenson's steam engine allowed the rapid growth of the railways which were needed to transport huge amounts of coal, iron ore and other resources quickly around the country. In 1830 there were only 125 miles of railway lines in Britain. By 1870 there were 13,000 miles (Source:Cobb,M, The Railways of Great Britain,2003). A large varied labour force was needed to work on this rapid expansion of the railways making it a boom time for railway workers.

Thomas Hewitson was a railway platelayer. A platelayer is a person who lays or maintains railway track. The name was first used in Britain for the men who laid and maintained the 'plateways' which were primarily used for coal haulage in the early 19th century. A plateway is an early kind of railway where the rails are made from cast iron. These workers were also known as railway surfacemen.

Turnip Rail: The Dirt of the Victorian Railway Industry - The Platelayers

'By 1860, W.M. Mills stated that on Britain's 8863 miles of railway there were 8598  platelayers. Gangs of platelayers were marshalled under a foreman or ganger, and were allocated a section of line to look after. This had to be inspected twice a day and any faults in the track's guage. level and superelevation were to be mended by using their picks, shovels, hammers, wrenches and track guages. They also had to maintain line side fences and keep the culverts clear as well as retrieve any item that may have fallen from a train. All these tasks were to be done in all weathers.'

Thomas was born in 1854 in Cumberland, England and married Hannah Dixon in Arlecdon, Cumberland in 1875. The 1881 census finds Thomas and Hannah still living in Arlecdon with their two sons, Isaac Dixon (Hannah's son from a previous relationship) and John Hewitson. Both sons were born in Brigham, a township and a parish in Cockermouth District, Cumberland. Thomas's occupation is 'platelayer'.

The advent of the railways made a major difference to Cumberland which was rich in coal and iron ore and coal became a major export. Railway jobs were plentiful and it was here that Thomas learned his trade. 

It was not only in Cumberland that the railways made a difference.

'The greatest step forward in nineteenth century Cumnock's economic life was the coming of the railway'.

Source: The New History of Cumnock, John Strawhorn p58

The Templand Viaduct was one of the great engineering feats on the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr line which opened on 20th May 1850. It consists of 13 arches - the highest being 175 feet above the Lugar Water. The Glaisnock Viaduct was built c1872 when the Glasgow and South Western Railways built a second railway line through Cumnock. It consists of 13 arches - the tallest being 75 feet.

Source: Cumnock History Group Website

Templand Viaduct - Image CHG 

Glaisnock Viaduct

These were mammoth undertakings and hundreds of Irish navvies (short for navigators) were employed.

'The navvies performed the most dangerous jobs: tunnelling, excavating and blasting, travelling with the railway as it was built and living together as a separate group'

Source: Almost History, 'Praising the Unsung Heroes', Ian Chapman-Curry

Working on the railway late 1900s - source unknown

They would live in huts at the side of the railway line and move along as it progressed.

Typical navvies’ hut

Thomas and Hannah moved to Ayrshire. Perhaps Thomas hoped to find work on the railways there and 1891 finds them living at No. 2 Templeton Place, Auchinleck along with their children Isaac, John R. (who was known as Jack), Sarah and William. Surprisingly Thomas was now a coalminer while his older sons were stone miners. 

The 1901 and 1911 censuses show Thomas and Hannah had moved to Burnside Street, Glengarnock, Dalry. Thomas is a foreman platelayer on both censuses. Their son Jack had married Agnes Tanner in Cumnock in 1895 and, after having a family of three, Agnes died in 1900 at Templeton Place. So, in 1901 widower Jack and his children were living with his parents in Glengarnock. Jack then married Agnes Porteous in 1901 and they moved to Roadside Cottages in Old Cumnock. Two of his children from his marriage to Agnes Tanner remained with their grandparents in Glengarnock.

In 1906 their son Isaac Dixon, a coalminer, had emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada with his Auchinleck-born wife Maggie Fleming and their children. They had six children born in Auchinleck and their youngest child Alexander was born in Nova Scotia. Tragically Alexander died in a coal mining accident in Inverness, Nova Scotia, in 1943 leaving behind a wife and five children.

Isaac Dixon and his wife Maggie Fleming 

During WW1 Isaac and Maggie nearly lost their oldest son Thomas who was a sapper with the 12 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He was gassed when fighting overseas and declared dead. Three days later a young British nurse went to the morgue with a mirror. She held it under the noses of all the bodies and found three men alive. Thomas Dixon was one of them. King George V and Queen Mary visited the soldiers in the hospital and invited them for supper to Buckingham Palace upon their release where they sat at the table with the King and Queen. Thomas returned home to Inverness, Nova Scotia. married Mary and had five children. After his wife passed away he remarried Annie MacIsaac and had four more children. 

Thomas Dixon

Next to emigrate was Thomas and Hannah's daughter Lizzie, her husband and family. They settled in Montreal in 1907. 

On15th June 1913 Thomas and Hannah sailed out of Glasgow on the 'Letitia' to visit their son Isaac and daughter Lizzie in Canada. They were both 58 years old and Thomas's occupation is recorded as 'platelayer'. Perhaps the main reason for their visit to Canada was to support their son Isaac whose wife Maggie was very ill. Maggie died in Inverness, Nova Scotia a month after their arrival. In 1914 their remaining daughter Hannah and her husband left Scotland for a new life in Montreal. 

Thomas and Hannah settled in Quebec, Thomas finding himself work as a gardener and living near their daughter Lizzie and her family. 

That left Thomas and Hannah's two sons still living in Scotland. Like his father William James worked for the railway. He was a foreman railway surfaceman and lived in Glengarnock. His brother Isaac visited him from Canada in 1924. Tragically in 1929 William was killed by a passenger train while working on the line between Dalry and Glengarnock. 

Jack remained in Old Cumnock. By 1914 he was living at 10 Glengyron Row. He had three children with his first wife Agnes Tanner and a further seven children with his second wife Agnes Porteous. Before he died Jack lived at 41 McCall Avenue, Cumnock (across the road from his son Campbell) and died in Holmhead Hospital in 1953.

Thomas and Hannah remained in Canada. Thomas died in Montreal in 1926 and Hannah died in 1940 in Wentworth, Ontario at the home of her daughter Hannah Geddes. 

Spanish Ironworkers - from Spain to Lugar

 by Roberta McGee

'In 1856 the Eglinton Iron Company - the Ayrshire subsidiary of William Baird - bought out John Wilson and took over Muirkirk and Lugar Ironworks. Ten years later their new Lugar Works were opened and production vastly expanded.'

The New History of Cumnock - John Strawhorn p114

William Baird and Co Ltd, Glasgow | Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry (scottishbrickhistory.co.uk)

In the early 1890s Scottish coal and ironmasters William Baird & Company purchased mines firstly in Santander, Northern Spain then, in 1893, the Monte de Hierro mine (Mountain of Iron) which was located in the Sierra Morena mountains in Southern Spain. It was a significant site for the rich deposits of iron ore which were crucial for the steel industry. Baird brought in advanced mining techniques and equipment from Scotland which greatly improved the efficiency and output of the mine. The mountainous terrain meant the miners worked in dangerous conditions which led to frequent accidents and health problems. 

In the early 1900s there was a labour shortage in Baird's various ironworks in Lugar, Muirkirk and the surrounding area. They began to actively recruit workers from the Spanish mines to fill the labour gap and so the exodus began. The 1901 census for Lugar shows twenty four Spanish males of various ages and two Spanish married men, their wives and children living in Peesweep Rows which had originally been built for Baird's ironworkers and miners. Read more about the Lugar Rows here.

The arrival of the Spaniards initially caused a lot of tension with the local men who saw them as a threat to their jobs.

North British Daily Mail 11/10/1900

Irvine Herald 27/9/1901

The Spanish iron workers would have sailed from Spain to Ardrossan in a coal boat then travelled to Lugar by train. Lugar, in Spanish, means 'The Place'. Being devout Catholics the Spaniards considered this a sign of good fortune. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Their contact in Lugar was Emilio Gomez Palacio, a Spanish contractor for Baird. Gomez, a father of four,  was a widower whose wife had died in Spain. His four children at times lived with him in Lugar. His brother Ysidro was also a contractor for the Ironworks and based in Muirkirk at the blast furnaces there. The 1901 and 1911 censuses show Emilio Gomez living at Peesweep Rows. According to Bernard Giraldas in an article written by Agnes Stevenson in the Cumnock Chronicle in 1986 Gomez was described as - 'Calculating and shrewd, he was unemotional in his dealings with his fellow Spaniards as an officer for the Dalmellington Iron & Coal Company. It was he who arranged who had to go where and few Spaniards came to Ayrshire except through him.'

Some of the Spanish workers who came to Lugar only intended to stay short term. Others, especially families, settled in the surrounding villages, integrated with the locals and remained in the area for the rest of their lives. 

One of the earliest Spanish workers to arrive in Lugar was Juan M. Rodriguez.  On the 1901 census he is a general labourer living at Peesweep Row. The head of the household is William Robertson, born 1843 in Calder, Lanarkshire and who, according to other records, actually lived in Struan Cottage, Lugar and had been working in Lugar since at least 1881. He was the cashier/accountant for Bairds. Juan married 18 years old Nellie Stakim, who lived at Commondyke, in 1902 at St Patrick's RC Church in Lugar. He was 34 years old and lived at No. 96 Lugar. They set up home at No. 310 Cronberry where their first child was born and sadly died 4 days later in December 1903. By April 1912 they had moved to Bothwell, Lanarkshire. Juan died there in 1936 and his death certificate records that he had changed his name to John Rodgers.  

Jose Manuel Giraldas arrived in Lugar in 1908. He had sailed into Ardrossan by coal boat and his passage was partly paid for by the Dalmellington Iron & Coal Company. After his arrival he was sent to work at the furnaces at Waterside, Dalmellington. He married a local girl, Kate Scally, in 1914 and moved to Benquhat . The Giraldas family then moved to Glasgow where Manuel worked in pits outside the city until 1930 when they moved to Fife. Ill health forced him to leave the pits in 1931. Known as 'Papa Nicolina'  he mended clocks as a hobby and died in Fife in 1950.

  (Source: Cumnock Chronicle 1986)

Manuel Giraldas & his wife Kate - Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Santiago Barrera also arrived in Lugar in 1908. He was sent to the Bank Pit in New Cumnock to work and was given lodgings in Connell Park, New Cumnock. He settled with his wife Fernanda and family in New Cumnock before moving, on his retiral from the pits, to Holmburn Road, Netherthird, Cumnock where he died in 1958 aged 85 years old. 

Pedro Cano was born in 1872 in Almeria, Spain and died in 1934 at the Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries. He was an ironwork's labourer. He married Maria Antonio Rinz (perhaps Ruiz) in 1896 at Feron, Sober, Spain. He was part of the main exodus from Spain to arrive in Lugar about 1908 and lived at 96 Lugar Rows. The 1911 census shows Pedro and his family living at Old Linkieburn, Muirkirk. By 1921 the family had moved to Kirkconnel, where he worked as a colliery labourer at Sanquhar and Kirkconnel collieries. Both Pedro and Antonia are buried in Kirkconnel Cemetery. Their son Jose(ph) Cano, who was born in Savinia, Spain, married Maria Consuelo Donis, daughter of Geronimo Fernandez Donis, in 1934 at St John's RC Church in Cumnock. Maria was born in 1912 at Santander, Cantabria, Spain. At the time of her marriage she lived with her parents at Logan Lodge in Cumnock.

Mariano Carballo left his native village of Guilfrey in north west Spain and came by coal boat to Ardrossan with his wife Amalia and little daughter Antonia. They arrived in Lugar between 1911 and 1914. Mariano particularly liked Lugar and Gomez allowed him to work and settle there. In 1921 they were living at 194 Peesweep Row, Lugar and Mariano was a boiler fireman. They later moved to Logan Toll, Cumnock. A quiet, kind man he loved gardening and won many prizes for his dahlias. Mariano and Amalia had a large family. He worked as a miner until his retirement and died at Logan Toll in 1977 aged 88 years. 

Mariano Carballo & his wife Amalia - Cumnock Chronicle 1986

Miguel Cardo Esquierdo was born in 1883 in Sevilla, Spain. The 1921 census shows Miguel, his wife Juona and son Antonio living at 51 Linkieburn, Muirkirk. He is described as a resident Spaniard working as an ore labourer at the furnaces of Baird Co., Pig Iron Manufacturers. The houses at Linkieburn were owned by Baird & Co. and were tenanted mostly by Spaniards. Miguel arrived after 1911 and his son Antonio was born in 1916 at Muirkirk. Antonio married Concha Donis, another daughter of Geronimo Fernandez Donis, in 1939 at Old Cumnock and Antonio and Concha lived in Cumnock for the rest of their lives. Miguel died in Dennistoun, Glasgow in 1939.

Geronimo Fernandez Donis, his wife Basilia and their four children arrived in Lugar in 1914 having travelled from Santander in Spain to Ardrossan in a coal boat and were placed in a large communal house before eventually being given a house in Brick Row, Lugar. When they arrived in Lugar they had practically no possessions but their neighbours, although they didn't have much either, stepped in to help. As the years went by their family increased to eleven children. In an interview with the Cumnock Chronicle in 1977, Basilia recalled that it was a struggle to make ends meet when there was a family of eleven to feed on a wage of only ten shillings a week. Coal and rent were deducted at source from the wages of the men and Emilio Gomez made the arrangements for doing the shopping at the local 'Company Store' for the entire Spanish colony who lived there. Basilia was an excellent dressmaker and made all her children's clothes out of old garments given to her by neighbours. Times were hard, not helped by the fact that they couldn't speak English, and in the article she admits that after a week or so if there had been a road leading back to Spain she would have loaded the children onto her shoulders and walked all the way back home. 

Cumnock Chronicle 1977

The 1921 census shows Geronimo, Basilia and family living at 415 Brick Row, Lugar. In 1929 they are still in Brick Row but by 1934 they are living in Logan Lodge, Cumnock. In June of that year Geronimo and Basilia visited Santander returning to Cumnock in August. They went on to rent Watston Cottage on the Cumnock to Ochiltree road but they had to vacate the cottage when the farmer employed a farm worker. The only place they could go to was a Nissan hut in Pennylands, the transit camp in Auchinleck, where they lived for about four months before being rehoused in Dalsalloch, Auchinleck. They moved from there to 5 Glenlamont, Cumnock. Geronimo died in 1948 and Basilia died in 1978 at the grand old age of 90 years. Basilia said in her interview with the Cumnock Chronicle that she wouldn't leave Scotland under any circumstances so they didn't regret leaving the land of their birth. 

World War One was declared on 4th August 1914. This meant that there was a vital demand for coal and iron and therefore more workers were needed when the men went off to war. Spain was a neutral country and many Spaniards and their families came to Lugar to work in the blast furnaces to help fill the gap in the workforce. 

1918 brought a serious flu epidemic which killed many. It was also the end of the war. The men returned and many of the Spaniards went back home. However, there was a General Strike in 1926 which lasted for eight months and Bairds were forced to again bring more workers from Spain rather than give in to the miners' demands. When the strike was over most of the Spanish workers returned home. The ones who remained began working in the coal mines. The Strike signalled the end of the blast furnaces at Lugar and they closed down in 1928. 

And what became of Gomez? According to Basilia Donis - 'One morning his cleaner found the door unlocked. She entered and found 13/4d on the mantlepiece and a note which said "adios mujer" - goodbye woman. No-one knew if he returned to Spain. He simply vanished. One thing that they did discover was that he apparently enjoyed a dram. The story is that a hoard of Scotch whisky was found behind a secret panel in one of the walls'.

Image - Europosters.eu

Alexander Gemmell Prospers in England

Alexander Gemmell, Benefactor who never forgot his Cumnock roots.

Link to him on Cumnock Connections tree

By Joanne Ferguson, Kay McMeekin and the late Bobby Grierson

Alexander Gemmell

Alexander Gemmell was born in 1850 when his parents were living at The Green in Cumnock. This is now the area of the staff car park behind the Tanyard Medical Practice and directly behind the Box Church at the Dub.

His father, John, was a Stonecutter Quarryman who married Elizabeth Andrew in Cumnock in 1834. They had 8 children – 3 girls and 5 boys with Alexander being the youngest son. His mother, father and some siblings are buried in Cumnock old cemetery on Barrhill Road.

Alexander married Margaret Murdoch in 1873 at Crossriggs Cottage in Cumnock which is now Crossriggs Veterinary practice. They had six children – 3 boys and 3 girls.

Alexander started his working life as a bank accountant with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Glaisnock Street in Cumnock. Around 1877 he moved to Keighley, Yorkshire, where he was appointed branch manager of Bradford Old Bank. After a succession of mergers and further appointments the bank became United Counties which was then acquired by Barclay and Co Ltd in 1916 when Alexander was appointed branch manager of the Bradford group.

in 1903 Alexander chaired the annual Glasgow-Cumnock Reunion at the Trades Hall in Glasgow. This caricature accompanied the report in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald - Friday 27 February 1903.

In 1916 Cumnock celebrated the 50th anniversary of Cumnock becoming a Police Burgh in 1886. To mark this Alexander came back to Cumnock and presented the gold chain and badge of office to the Provost James Richmond in his term of office. The chain is 42 inches long and made of enamel and 15 ct gold.

 

The provost’s badge and chain are on display in the Baird Institute Museum in Cumnock.

Post WW1 he provided the Cumnock Parish Medal made of silver and enamel. They were individually inscribed with the soldier’s name and with “In grateful remembrance or for services” and presented to the soldiers or their families at the welcome Home Dance in Cumnock .

Alexander Gemmell died on 13 January 1923 in Bradford, Yorkshire, at the age of 73 and his will reveals he had effects of £20,552.

In 1925 Cumnock Town Council completed a scheme of houses to the south of the town hall and one of the streets, Gemmell Avenue was named in Alexander’s honour.

Convicts, crimes, and murder

By Scott Daily

Though rare, crime and even murder (or at least the accusation of them), has led to some from the Cumnock area being forced to move elsewhere. Some after serving their time of imprisonment or forced labour would settle and raise families in the area they were sent to such as Australia. A few would return to Ayrshire, but others would pass away still imprisoned. In the case of murder of course it would also influence the population of the area adversely. 

These are just a few of the accounts of those mentioned on the Cumnock Connections site as being affected by crime or murder.

First, by way of example of someone who was sent to Australia and was later able to make a life there, we have David Vallance whose family has a long history of living in the Cumnock/Auchinleck area. David married Euphemia Walker and they had  a child, Alexander. 

For a time David worked as a butcher in Cumnock. In 1843 he was accused of stealing, either 8 sheep and was sentenced to be transported to Tasmania, Australia on board the Henrietta to serve for 7 years. Upon being granted his freedom in 1850 he seems to have settled in an area, as he is recorded as passing away in Tasmania in 1886 at the age of 66. His wife Euphemia lived out her days in Thornhill and earend a good living as a dressmaker. The son Alexander died of TB in 1860 aged 19.

Maybe it is a stretch to write about murders in a blog about immigration, but two high profile murders took place in the area in the early 1900's. The death of Grace Dickie McKerrow in Cumnock and the death of Agnes Bone of Glenbuck were both treated as murders, and both lead to convictions of individuals from the area. 

Grace Dickie McKerrow was born in Sorn, and moved to Cumnock to serve as the housekeeper for a Mr Lennox who lived at home called "Woodside" at 159 Glaisnock street. On Monday the 19^th of November 1906 a package was delivered to the home with a card that read “With happy greetings from an old friend”. When the package was opened it was found to contain iced shortbread. Four day later, on the 23^rd the shortbread was brought out to try when a neighbour, a Mrs Bain, stopped by. Grace was seen to eat two pieces, though complaining about how bitter it tasted. Suddenly all who were eating began to experience great pain, the servant girl, a Miss Thorburn, having only ate a small amount felt best and was sent to bring a doctor. Whie the others would recover, Grace passed away. Suspecting poison, a postmortem was conducted, and it was found that Grace had ingested strychnine. When the shortbread was tested it was found that the icing contained poison, one report saying the icing contained sugar and 41% strychnine). 

Some articles about the murder

The man who was eventually arrested and tried for the murder was Thomas Mathieson Brown from New Cumnock. Until his retirement he had served as manager of the Lanemark Colliery in New Cumnock. His wife was the niece of William Lennox, and it was believed that Brown was seeking to murder Lennox so that his wife might inherit money or land. Rather unusually the prosecution wanted Brown declared insane, as he was known to suffer from epilepsy, while the defence wanted him tried as normal with a plea of not guilty. The evidence brought against Brown was that the handwriting on the card delivered with the package seemed to match his and he was found to have purchased strychnine, which he claimed was for killing rats. A mortar and pestle thought to be used to grind up the poison was also found, along with ingredients to make the icing. The Crown set about proving that Brown was insane, bringing in various medical experts. The jury reached the verdict that Brown was indeed insane, and so he was sent first to the Criminal Lunatic Department in Perth, then later transferred to Crichton Royal Institute, Dumfries, and finally moved to Ayr County Asylum where in 1915 he passed away. 

Article about murder of Agnes Bone

Briefly, another murder that shocked the local community, took place in the village of Glenbuck.  Thomas Bone was found guilty of murdering his wife, Agnes Campbell Bone. It is possible that the two were related, the Cumnock Conections site listing her as his cousin, though the family tree conected with the link does not back this up. Other sources state she was his second cousin and actually born Agnes Campbell, such as the this Cumnock Chronicle article. Thomas grew increasingly violent and possessive of his wife, so much so that many feared for her safety, and Thomas was according to the Chronicle, sentenced to 40 days hard labour as he “behaved in an outrageous fashion” toward her. In 1908 he was “sent down”  for two months, when he got out he again went to find his wife. His mother-in-law saw him and tried to warn her daughter, who was away from the village working at nearby farm, to not come back to Glenbuck, but her letter arrived too late. On Thursday April 2, 1908 around 2pm, the couple were seen walking on a path near the railway station. It began to rain and they went into a shed, where they were observed arguing by a local shepherd. They left, and that was the last anyone saw of Agnes alive. Around 3:05pm Thomas was seen back in the village washing his hands in the burn. He then went to his aunt’s house in the village and confessed to the murder, going from there to other houses and doing the same, though few believed him as it was such a shocking thought. As Thomas kept insisting, even telling them where to find the body, eventually a local miner went to check, and discovered Agnes lying dead on the footpath. (See  article 1 and article 2 for details)

At the trial, to the surprise of many including the judge, Thomas pled guilty, and admitted his murder. He stated that Agnes’s mother had told her not to have anything more to do with him and he was so upset he killed her. Thomas was sentenced to be hung, apparently, according to Chronicle, “the last prisoner at Ayr jail to sit under sentence of death.” But the night before he was to be hung the Secretary of State declaed that he was to have his sentenced changed to one of “penal servitude”. On the 15th November 1912, while serving time in Perth Prison, Thomas hung himself using a bed sheet. 

Finally, one other possible crime, though this one I don’t have a much information about. Again, citing the Cumnock Connections site, a George Murdoch from Auchinleck was convicted of forgery, and after being released on bail he “absconded to America”. If he is the same George Murdoch listed, then he would seem to have had children who ended up in the state of Ohio in the US. It does seem certain that a George Murdoch did immigrate to the United States around that time, but there appears to be several men with that name. 

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