Scotch Drapers in Liverpool

By Elaine Corbett

This is a story of a family sticking together and helping out with motherless and orphaned nieces and nephews.

Two Sloans (children of Peter Sloan and Mary Gall of Roughside and Knockterra) married two McMillan siblings (born in Minnigaff). 

First Alexander Sloan married Jeannie McMillan in Liverpool in 1880 and then in 1882  his sister Margaret Sloan married Jeannie’s brother James McMillan at Knockterra. Both men were drapers in Liverpool. Jeannie was already dead by the time of her brother's  wedding in 1882 , leaving a baby Peter Sloan.

Margaret Sloan

Alexander and Jeannie are in the census of 1881 at 9 Brownlow Street, Liverpool. He is a travelling draper age 28. Travelling drapers went from place to place selling items from a pack.

Other household members are baby Peter Sloan, and a three-year-old niece Elizabeth (Lizzie) Susan Clive.       Lizzie was the daughter of Jeannie’s sister Margaret McMillan who had died in January 1878, aged 40, three months after the birth of Lizzie.  Her widowed father a mason in Old Luce was looking after her brothers, while another sister was with their Aunt and Uncle on a farm in Old Luce.    

Ten years on in the 1891 census James McMillan and Margaret (Sloan) are living at 16 Brownlow St. along with Alexander, Lizzie Clive, and Peter Sloan,  as Jeannie had died in November 1881 when her son Peter was only 9 months old.

As well as the McMillan/Sloans, Brownlow St. appears to have several families in the drapery trade in 1891. They are:

Caroline Bentham draper’s Assistant aged 20,

William Alexander draper aged 45 (from Auchinleck) on Cumnock Connections tree

Mary Mitchell Alexander wife aged 43 (from Tarbolton)

Robert Alexander aged 19 assistant draper

Samuel Mitchell aged 29 draper

James Warrener aged 71 draper (from Pudsey)

Thomas Pagan aged 42 (from Scotland)

Jane his wife aged 37 (from Scotland)

William Morgan aged 45 Draper

William Rae aged 45 draper (from Scotland)

 

Two years later Peter’s father died, and Peter, at the tender age of 12, continued to live with his aunt and uncle.

In the 1901 census, the McMillan sons are listed as being school age, but Peter Sloan, aged 20 is a civil engineer. His cousins would later be taken into the family business that seems to have gone from strength to strength. Peter chose a very different path.

By the time of the census in 1911, the only drapers on Brownlow St. are the McMillans.

The 1921 census refers to the McMillans as ‘credit drapers’. This means that they sold goods ‘on tick’, payment in instalments with a premium added. Usually aimed at people in the poorer income bracket, some sales could make 100% profit for the draper. It was an early example of the credit card, and not universally approved of, being seen as temptation to the spendthrifts of the lower classes. The company was referred to as McMillan and Sons. James McMillan died at Wh

The term ‘Scotch Drapers’ refers to the travelling salesmen, who although in the early days had been predominantly Scots, they then evolved into drapery businesses employing travelling salesmen working on their own account, and from more diverse ethnic groups. The salesmen had to pay into the business, and act as tallymen, collecting dues from customers who bought goods ‘on tick’.

Peter Sloan however had received his education at the Liverpool Institute and served his apprenticeship with Messrs C. S. Wilson & Co of Regent Road, Bootle. He joined the White Star Line two weeks after the completion of his apprenticeship and served on various vessels both in the Atlantic and Mediterranean routes. He was shown serving as an electrician aboard the Cretic in October 1905, his ship prior to that being stated as the Celtic; at this time his address was listed as 103 Vine St. Liverpool.

Peter married Annie Blair, a Belfast girl, in August 1908 and they set up home together in 14 Newcastle Rd. Wavertree, Liverpool. Peter was a Marine Electrical Engineer by this time.

A year later Peter had risen to the position of Chief Electrician. It must have been with great enthusiasm that he signed up for his next assignment in Southampton.

Peter Sloan

The ship he signed up to was RMS Titanic. 

In April 1912, Peter set sail from Southampton, leaving Annie in Liverpool. They had no children. He was part of the crew that kept the ship’s lights and systems running.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, electricians like Peter were among the heroes who stayed at their posts to keep the lights on so passengers could see to escape.

Peter Sloan’s body was never recovered, but his story became part of Titanic history — a reminder that sometimes the greatest legacies aren’t in money or business, but in courage.

 

William Tannahill

By Ron Sharpe, Fraserburgh, Scotland from extensive information provided by the late Marilyn Harrison, USA.

William Tannahill on the Cumnock Connection tree

from Marlyn Harrison

   

William Tannahill was born in Cumnock on the 8th of March 1819, the seventh child of John Tannahill, a Fenwick born weaver and ex soldier, and Janette Sharp, the daughter of farm servants James Sharp and Isabel McMillan.  Almost nothing is known of William's early life in Cumnock, except for the fact that he, along with his parents and eight siblings, emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s.

William, along with his siblings had worked hard to establish the family farm in Huntingdon, Quebec, and as he grew older, he had started courting Janette White who was living on the same settlement.

As time passed the couple decided to get married. The couple, along with some close friends travelled the twenty three miles across the border to the town of Malone, in Franklin Co., New York State, where they were married in the home of the pastor on the 17th of April 1844.

The couple returned to Canada and moved into their first home in Huntingdon. They remained there to establish their farm for a further ten years, and their first six children were all born there, John, Janet Elder, William, James, Annette and Ann.

In early 1856 the couple and their family decided that their future looked brighter across the border in the United States.

William bought a team of horses in Canada and drove them to the fledgling town of Bradford in Chickasaw County, Iowa. On arrival in the May of 1856 they bought 40 acres of land and started another fledgling farm. The journey from Canada must have been a huge expedition for the young family, as the distance between Huntingdon, and Bradford, Iowa was almost 1200 miles. Unfortunately, within a few months of living in their new home, fate dealt them a crushing blow when their horses were stolen. So, with no way to till the soil, or haul their produce, they were forced to give up farming altogether. But with a family to feed and care for, William had to diversify some way, and he managed to obtain work as a day labourer. But the work could be sporadic, and William diversified by sometimes,working as a carpenter, or by making a living as a shoe cobbler. He seems to have tanned his own leather and travelled around the local area making shoes for anyone who needed them.

The newspapers of 1860 only seemed to carry bad news about the situation in the southern states of America, and by April of 1861 the whole situation boiled over when confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and lit the fire that would claim thousands of lives and almost bring America to its knees.

William would have read about these political disputes, and they must have had a profound effect on him. He had only been a resident in America for around five years, and yet he felt the need to stand up and be counted.

On the 8th of July 1861 he was one of the first to enlist in Company B, of the 7th Iowa Regiment, of the Union Army. He was 41 years old, married and a father to eight children, with one more on the way. He was mustered soon afterwards on the 24th of July 1861 and he became Private William Tannahill. Life was never going to be the same again.

After a few months, William found himself and his comrades helping to set out battle lines close to the banks of the Mississippi river. And on the morning of the 7th of November 1861 he was in the thick of the fighting. He had always had a luxuriant long beard and it was "shot off" as he stood beside his fellow soldiers. The union army attack had been a sudden surprise, and they quickly overran the rebels. It was initially thought that the battle had been quickly won, but the enemy soon regrouped and counter attacked. By the end of the day William found himself in the custody of the Southern army.

William was one of 104 union soldiers who had been captured by the rebels that day. They were transported by rail in cattle trucks to  Columbus, North Dakota, probably for processing, the cattle wagons were so badly maintained that the prisoners were soaked to the skin from the leaking roofs. When drier weather appeared the men were carried out and laid over the railway sleepers and between the railway lines, to dry off in the sun.

They were then taken on to Memphis,Tennessee. It's written that they were given the chance of being released, but only if they would agree not to re-enlist. Not a single man accepted this offer.

They were then moved on to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and then on to the infamous Andersonville prison, Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. This was to be their final destination for a while at least. The conditions of this prison camp were appalling. It had previously been a tobacco warehouse and was totally unsuitable for its new purpose. The windows were barred and had no glass, so it would have been extremely cold, but at the very least it was well ventilated. Space was very tight and one inmate told of having to sleep on the bare floor in a head to toe pattern with no blankets.

The food that was given to the prisoners, whether they were sick or well was said to be so bad it would have nauseated a carrion crow. However it must be remembered that the city of Richmond was more or less besieged, and food was in short supply for everyone. This meant that the Yankee prisoners were well down the "who should we care for first” group. One survivor lived on a quarter of a pint of corn meal a day.

There are many well documented stories from inmates, who recalled the conditions in the camps. One story described how the only drinking water available to the troops was being supplied from a putrid creek, which also served as a sewer for 35,000 prisoners. William, who had been brought up in a strictly religious home, was known to be a man of prayer. When some of the men were dying for the lack of fresh water, and seeing the men slowly walking towards the "dead line" to be shot, rather than endure the suffering. He called them together for prayer, asking for water. As the story goes, an hour after their prayer, the rain came and gave them the desperately craved water. Sometime later a spring broke through the sandy soil inside the stockade. The starving and filthy prisoners regarded this miraculous appearance of fresh water from the hillside as a miracle, an "Act of God".

William and many of his comrades were held in prison for around eleven months, this was probably because the rebels didn't want to be responsible for feeding them any more. And they would have known that these men were so sick, they would never again raise arms against the Confederacy.

In all the time they had been imprisoned they never had a change of clothing, and were wearing the same clothes that they had been captured in, but by now they were no more than rags, and in tatters. These prisoners had been subjected to starvation, exposure, filthy and wretched conditions. And notes from the time mention that William was one of only a few that could walk up the gangplank and out of the hellhole that he had been incarcerated in for almost a year. He was liberated from the Libby Prison in Richmond Virginia on the 19th of September 1862. The men were embarked on a steamer and shipped up to the Annapolis hospital in Maryland, via the James river. This would prove to be convenient for embarking the former soldiers, as a loading dock was situated close by the former tobacco warehouse, that had served as their prison. Most of the men were gravely ill, and they could not walk towards the boat that promised their freedom.

Only one wagon was available to convey the men and William gave up his place to those he felt were worse off than he was.

On reaching Annapolis hospital he was given a meal, probably his first since being confined, but because of the emaciated condition of his body, he was unable to consume it properly, and he became sick and died in the Annapolis Hospital, on the 28th of October, 1862. He was 43 years old.

William Tannahill's friend Andy Feldt, who had stood beside him when his beard was shot off at the battle of Belmont, and had shared the experience of being  taken prisoner and held at Libby prison with him, wrote to William's wife Janette, of his death. She had not heard from William since shortly before he went into battle at Belmont almost a year earlier. This last  letter was read as a tribute to Private W Tannahill, at a Commemorative Funeral Services held in his adopted home town of Bradford, Iowa on the 12th of December 1862.

Dear wife:

                    I hardly know what to write to you, as I do not know how you feel. I believe you feel as though you had a burden too heavy to bear; I do not doubt it, but you must try to keep up good spirits. Do the best you can and put your trust in that God who will not suffer anything to come upon them that trust him to their spiritual advantage. Hath he not said he will never leave nor forsake you?  And if it is so that I never come home He hath promised that he will be a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. And now, dear wife, commit yourself and our dear children to the care of that God that never slumbers. If it is his will that I should come home we will praise his name and if not, let us be resigned and say, "Not my will, but Thine be done, O God!" Look forward to the time when there shall be no more parting, neither sorrow nor sighing, when all tears shall be wiped from our eyes. Put your trust in the Lord, for they that put their trust in Him shall never be moved nor put to shame. I hope the children will be good and kind to their mother.

Yours in Love,

William Tannahill

William Tannahill had another claim to fame, as the man who had three tombstones.

On his passing he was buried in the military cemetery at Annapolis and a military headstone was erected, but this was just one of three, that were erected in his memory. He left nine children.

George W. Tannahill was one of William's sons, and was a successful farmer and stockbreeder, as well as being active in US politics. George served as a representative in the Kansas State Legislature for three terms, in the early part of the twentieth century.

At some point George travelled to Washington to enquire about having the body of his father, moved from the military cemetery at Annapolis in Maryland, and brought to Nashua County Cemetery near the Little Brown Church, which he had helped construct. But he was informed that once a body was interred it could not be removed from the national cemetery. He returned to Iowa and arranged to have a headstone erected in memory of his father, along with carved inscriptions remembering his elder brother James Tannahill, and his baby sister, Ella, who died, without ever knowing her father.

When George's mother Janette died in March 1908, she was living in Phillipsburg, Kansas, and was subsequently laid to rest in the Iowa Union Cemetery, Phillips County, Kansas. George then arranged to have another headstone erected in memory of both his mother and father as well as his sister Ann.

The young boy who left Cumnock was well remembered by his family.

In Search of a New Life in Victoria, Australia

 by Roberta McGee

James Neilson, a cartwright/joiner and his wife Jean McGuffie lived in Wigtownshire, Scotland and had a large family of at least nine children all born in Wigtownshire. Three of these children, John Gifford Neilson, Peter Neilson and Nicholas Neilson (who was female) all had close links with Old Cumnock and seemed to have adopted Cumnock as their home town. 

John Gifford Neilson was born in 1829 in Penninghame, Dumfries & Galloway, Wigtownshire. On the 1851 census we find him working as a farm labourer at Auchincross Farm, New Cumnock. We also find on the 1851 census for Whitehill Farm, New Cumnock, 17 years old house servant Margaret McMillan. Margaret was the daughter of an agricultural labourer John McMillan from Pathhead, New Cumnock. Auchincross and Whitehill were close to each other and this would be when John and Margaret would most likely meet each other. 

                                                          National Library of Scotland

They were both young and adventurous and 23rd December 1851 finds John and Margaret being married in South Shields, Durham, England, where John's brother Peter was living at that time. The following year, on 4th October 1852, they sailed into Geelong in Victoria, Australia on the emigrant ship 'Araminto' with the addition of their baby son James who had been born on board ship.

It was a nightmare journey for the passengers on the 'Araminto' . It had 365 emigrants on board, mostly Highlanders, when it left Liverpool for Geelong. Of these 365 passengers 27, including 2 babies, died of measles, dehydration or dysentry during the 103 day voyage. 

Gore’s Liverpool General Adviser 27/5/1852

Why would they choose to emigrate to Victoria, Australia? The date they sailed is significant. In July 1851 the Colony of Victoria was established with its own government within the British Empire. In that year too gold was discovered in Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine and Buninyong and this sparked off Victoria's famous gold rush with thousands of prospectors arriving each week from all over the world to seek their fortunes. In an attempt to discourage the huge influx of gold miners a thirty shilling per month licence fee was imposed which was quite a hefty sum. Over the space of one year Bendigo was transformed from a sheep station into a bustling town of 40,000 people.

 John was an agricultural worker while in New Cumnock and in 1852 Victoria was desperate for experienced farm hands. Many farmers, or squatters as they were known, and farmhands had left their stations (a station was a ranch or farm) for the diggings so farming jobs were plentiful. On arrival steamers took prospective employers out to the ship and they would negotiate a reasonable wage. John was hired at £85 per annum to work at Woady Yallock, Cressy.  This was well above the going rate for farm workers. (Source: Victoria & Australia, Assisted & Unassisted Passenger Lists , 1839-1923)

 

With so many people converging on the area more food and provisions were required and stations diversified by changing over from sheep to cattle to feed the growing population. Later John secured employment at the Yarima Sheep Station, Cressy, eventually becoming manager and worked there for 50 years.  He died at Yarima on 3rd November 1906 about six weeks after his brother Peter who also lived near Cressy.

Trove - also Cumnock Connections - 1904 - 'Came to Yarima from Cumnock, Scotland'

Eleven months after John's death, on the owner Thomas Russell's instructions, there was a subdivisional sale by public auction of 7800 acres of the richest portions of the Yarima Sheep and Cattle Station 'comprising rich fattening land, extra choice dairy farm, superior wool-growing country and most perfect wheat areas now surveyed and sub-divided into lots to suit buyers of all classes.'

Yarima Station, Cressy - Image Western Families

                 John and Margaret had six sons and three daughters and MANY descendants

John Gifford Neilson and his extended family at Yarima in 1902
Image - Trove 

On 30th December 1856 John's brother Peter Neilson, accompanied by his wife Isabella and daughter Jane Ann, arrived in Australia. On the 1851 census for Westhoe, South Shields, England, Peter, a widower, and his five years old daughter Jane were lodging with mariner's widow Isabella Smith and her two daughters. He seems to have married Isabella Richardson sometime between 1851 and 1856, the year they emigrated. The family settled near Cressy and, like his brother John, he worked chiefly in farming and grazing. Peter died at his home there on 20th August 1906. Although Peter was born in Wigtown, Scotland, his obituary, like his brother, records that he was a native of Old Cumnock, Ayrshire.

Image Cumnock Connections - no source

Thomas Nelson was the third brother to emigrate to Victoria. Born in Wigtown he became a sailor and decided to settle in Cressy in 1865 where he married Eliza Ann Perkins in 1869. He was a stone dyker in Cressy and district including at Yarima where his brother John was manager and where Thomas worked for four years. He then grew barley at Mia Mia near Poomeet which he carted to Ballarat. He moved to Donald, an agricultural region known for its wheat, barley and lamb production. Drought forced the family to move back to Cressy where Thomas began working on the roads. Thomas died in Colac, Victoria in 1918, leaving widow Eliza, five sons, four daughters and thirty three grandchildren. He is buried in Cressy Cemetery. ( Source: Western Distict Families, Victoria, Australia.)

Back in Cumnock John, Peter and Thomas had a sister, Nicholas Neilson, who was born in Wigtown in 1826. She married Nicholas Dorrance in 1845 in Wigtown and they moved to Old Cumnock. It must have been confusing when both had the Christian name of Nicholas. Husband Nicholas was a labourer at times but mostly a pedlar. In 1851 they lived at Little Dykes, Old Cumnock, then they moved to Benston Lime Kilns, Old Cumnock and finally settled in Townhead Street, Cumnock. 

Robert Dorrance was their oldest son. He was a ploughman at Barshare farm in Cumnock and married Jane Gilmour in 1872 in Ochiltree. Their daughter Elizabeth was born in April 1874 at Townhead, Cumnock but sadly, three weeks later in May 1874, died of smallpox. Robert's sister Jane's one year old child Jane Dorrance, who also lived in Townhead, had died of the same virus, described on her death certificate as 'variola', on 2nd April one month previously. Tragedy struck Robert again when his wife Jane died on 4th June 1874. She had had phthisis (TB) for six weeks and was only 22 years old. 

Understandably Robert decided to leave Cumnock behind him and emigrate to Victoria, Australia where his three uncles had made new lives for themselves. He soon found employment on farms in the Ballarat area. He returned to Cumnock in 1925 to visit his sister Mary Breckney who lived in Pottery Row, Cumnock. Robert returned to Australia and died in 1929 at Lismorl, Victoria. He doesn't appear to have married again.  

Cumnock Chronicle 1925

Image Victoria Maps & Facts - World Atlas

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. He was an auctioneer, estate agent, gold prospector and the first chairman of Kalgoorlie stock exchange.

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

The Stewarts from Donaldson Brae, Old Cumnock

 By Roberta McGee

Family of Stewarts at Castle Green, New Cumnock

Edward Stewart was descended from a large travelling family of hawkers, scrap merchants, horse dealers and general dealers. He was born in Penrith about 1866 and died on 4/6/1946 at 5 Donaldson Brae, Old Cumnock. He married Catherine McMillan, who was also from a travelling family, on 13th January 1888 at Irvine, Ayrshire. They had sixteen children, four of whom died young. The births of their children give us an idea of the areas they frequented - Kelton Dumfries, New Cumnock, Castle Douglas, Old Cumnock, Dalmellington, Kilmarnock.

Their surviving children were Annie, Mary Ann, William, John, Swales, Lizzie, Edward, Alexander, Louise, George, James and Margaret.

Cumnock Connections Tree

1901 found Edward, described as a general dealer, and his family living in a caravan on Castle Green, New Cumnock, and in 1911 they are in Kilmarnock. Edward is now a horse dealer while his wife and daughters are hawkers and his sons are carters or drivers.

Location of 1-6 Donaldson Brae & yard 

By 1920 Edward and his family had settled in Old Cumnock. He bought a house, 34 Tower Street, and the 1921 census finds the family living there. In 1920 he had also purchased a row of five houses at Donaldson Brae. They numbered 1 to 5 with number 6 being a stable and sheds. On the 1920 Valuation Roll he is also listed as the proprietor of a house at 31 Townhead and a stable and sheds. By 1925 he had sold the Townhead properties and the Stewarts now concentrated on their scrap metal yard at Donaldson Brae.

The Donaldson Brae houses were pretty little cottages, surrounded by well looked after gardens, the previous occupants being William Mackay, Daniel Stillie, miner, James Stillie, the Misses Gemmell and 'Grannie] Bryce.

Before

Fast forward to 1957. There was a complaint made to the Council about the state of the Stewarts' yard in front of the houses. Father Edward had died and the business was now being run by his son Swales. It was requested that a fence be erected around the yard to hide it from view. Swales said that there had been one but tanks ran over it during the war and it had never been replaced. 

After

'Swaley's Yaird' was a playground for the local children. No soft play areas for them back then. They spent many a happy hour playing in the old rusted wrecks of various vehicles. In their imagination they could be car, train or bus drivers. Their fantasies could even stretch to being the pilot of an aeroplane. Of course the yard was also the home to rats from the nearby burn. However, back then no-one really thought about health and safety and the rats kept a low profile!

Travelling was in the Stewarts' genes and just because they had now settled in Cumnock it didn't stop them from spreading their wings - sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently.

Their oldest daughter Annie was born in 1890 in New Cumnock and died at 4 Alloway Road, Lochside, Dumfriesshire. On 5/4/1916, when she was 26 years old, she married Towson Watson. Towson was a 47 years old horse dealer and the brother of Robert Watson (Dishy). The witnesses on the marriage certificate were John Lowther, hawker and Elizabeth Watson, spinster. Their first child, Robert Watson, was born 7/8/1917 at 19 Townhead Street, Cumnock. Tragically Towson died on 24/10/1918 of influenza. Annie was about 5 months pregnant at the time of his death and their daughter Christina was born at Townhead Street on 7/2/1919.

On 1/2/1929 we find Annie in Canada with her son Robert and daughter Christina. They had sailed from Glasgow to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 'Athenia'. Also accompanying them was her brother George Stewart. On 24/1/1931 Annie is living at 2563 Delisle Street, Montreal with her brother John. They are joined there by their brother James and sister Margaret. 

On 2/4/1942 Annie, her daughter Christina and Annie's sister Louise arrive at Border Control in Laurier, Washington, on the west coast of the USA. Their last residence is recorded as 95 King Street, Toronto with her brother William. They were en route to Trail, via Paterson, British Columbia. Why had they travelled so far west? Annie's late husband Towson's brother Isaac Watson had died in Vancouver, British Columbia on 15/11/1926 so perhaps he had family there. Another reason could be that Annie's son Robert Watson had arrived at North Port, Washington on the west coast on 3/7/1941 accompanied by his uncle Tom Hodgson, so he may still have been there. 

On 13/6/1946 Annie and Christina were back at son Robert's at 119 3rd Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. Robert, a spray painter,  seemed to flit between Canada and the USA.  Annie died at 4 Alloway Road, Lochside, Dumfries and was buried in the family lair in St. Michael's Cemetery, Dumfries on 16/1/1958 so, at some point between 1946 and 1958 Annie had returned to Scotland. 

On 9/4/1930 Edward and Catherine's second child 37 years old Mary Ann Stewart sailed on the 'Laurentic' from Greenock to Montreal. Whether or not she returned to Scotland is uncertain. There is a  Mary Ann Stewart, whose mother's surname is McMillan, died in Old Cumnock in 1978. Perhaps this is her.

Third child William Stewart sailed on the 'Cameronia' from Glasgow to Halifax, Nova Scotia with his young son Swales arriving on 16/4/1932. His occupation is truck driver. He was joining his sister Annie Watson in Montreal. In 1942 William is living at 95 King Street, Toronto. 

On 18/1/1930 fourth child John Stewart, a motor driver, and his wife Bella, accompanied by his brother Edward, a dealer, sailed on the 'California' from Glasgow to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their intended place of residence was with his brother Alexander at 115 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario.  On 24/1/1931 John is living with his sister Annie Watson at 2563 Delisle Street, Montreal. He is joined there by his brother James and sister Margaret. In 1937 John is living at 131 Chatham Street, Windsor, Ontario. That year John, his wife and brother James visit Detroit on an 'occasional visit'. In 1946 he is living in Dundas East, Toronto, Canada. 

On 3/6/1926 fifth child Swales Stewart sailed from Greenock to Quebec on the 'Montclare' to visit his cousin Alexander McMillan in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was still in Canada in 1929 in Toronto when he was joined by his sister Louise. He must have returned to Cumnock between 1929 and 1946 when his father died and he took over the running of the scrap metal business at Donaldson Brae. 

Child Number 6 is Elizabeth (Lizzie) who doesn't seem to have ventured out of Cumnock, but I would be surprised if she hadn't made a trip to Canada at one point. She was the housekeeper and was the informant on her brother George's death certificate in 1968 at Donaldson Brae. Lizzie had a shop in Lugar Street, Cumnock, next to Jenny Tear's. It was packed to the door with bales of cloth. She used to sit on the pavement outside, in her chair, when she didn't have customers. 

Lizzie's shop on the right

Edward Stewart is the seventh child who travelled on 18/1/1930 to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 'California' with his brother John to their brother Alexander's in Toronto.

Alexander returned to Scotland and died 14/12/1957 at 15 College Street, Dumfries. He was 49yrs old, single and a dealer.

9th child Louise arrived in Quebec from Glasgow on the 'Letitia' on 9/6/1929 her destination address being her brother Swales in Toronto. She was still in Canada in 1942 living with her brother William. 

10th child George sailed on the Athenia from Glasgow to Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving on 1/4/1929, two months before his sister Louise. He had been accompanied by his sister Annie and her two children. They also went to brother Swales in Toronto. George returned to Donaldson Brae where he died, aged 59yrs, and was buried on 5/2/1968 at St Michael's Cemetery, Dumfries. 

Children Numbers 11 & 12 were James & Margaret. They arrived at St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada on 24/1/1931 on the 'Duchess of York' their destination being the home of their brother John and sister Annie at 2563 Delisle St., Montreal. In 1937 James's residence is 223 Taylor Street, Toronto. 

 Swales had first arrived in 1926 and there seems to have been a flurry of activity around 1929 and 1931 when a further ten of Edward & Catherine's children crossed the Atlantic. I could not find their mother, Catherine's, death so perhaps this may have been the reason for the exodus? 

The siblings moved easily between Canada and the USA but latterly their main domicile was in Ontario. Distance seemed to be no object . This had always been their way of life. The men would pick up work along the way, perhaps painting farm barns, while the women would hawk around the doors. Some of the men were dealers or salesmen. 

In later years the norm would be to travel down into the USA in the Spring to buy a new trailer to bring back up to Canada. This would be their home for the working year. They would travel and pick up work wherever they could and thought nothing of driving more than 2000 miles across Canada to British Columbia. Before winter fell they would take the trailer back into the USA, sell it and settle down in a house in Canada until Spring when the whole process would start again.  

There is still a strong travelling community in Ontario descended from the Stewarts and Watsons of Old Cumnock. Family is important to them. The Stewarts' old home on Donaldson Brae is long gone. In its place is Rothesay House, the new council building. Swales (or Swaley as the Cumnock folk called him - or indeed  'Swellie') died at 31 Herdston Place which is the last house at the bottom of that street just some yards from where Swaley's old house once stood.