Shale miners

By Scott Daily

James "Paraffin" Young

After receiving a patent for producing paraffin oil (often referred to as kerosene in many parts of the world) James Young established a refining factory in Addieswell, West Lothian around 1865. To quote from West Lothian Shale Trail "At the start Young’s refinery produced oil for lighting, and also developed new types of light which gave better light. This was much better and cheaper than whale oil, and burnt cleaner. But the increasing popularity of cars meant that the West Lothian refineries produced petrol and diesel fuel. Paraffin wax was used to make candles, and a by-product of the retort process was ammonium sulphate fertiliser." At the same time many areas of Scotland and Ireland were suffering financially and so many were looking for work. As more and more shale mines opened in West Lothian, people began to move from Ayrshire to West Lothian to work. 

There wasn’t much shale mining in Ayrshire but there was a short lived oil works at Kilwinning from 1865 to not long after the 1871 census which showed William Gorman working there as a shale miner. William was born in 1844 in Londonderry, Ireland

There was another short lived oil works at Lanemark in New Cumnock 1864-1867. Most were in West Lothian.

As shown in the Cumnock Connections tree, some who came to West Lothian from other parts either married people originally from Cumnock or moved to the area after working for a time in the slate industry. 

One example of someone who married into a Cumnock family, and whose offspring seemed to have settled for a time in the Cumnock area, is James Baird who was born in West Lothian (to a family who had previously been in Lugar) and is listed in a 1891 census as living in Uphall, West Lothian employed as a shale miner. He had married Catherine Hutchison who was born in Cumnock. Their three children listed in the census were stated to be born in Lugar, Ayrshire. In the baptism records for their daughter Marion Marshall Baird (who later emigrated to Manhattan, New York) it states that James' occupation was "char filler". James is recorded as passing away at the age of 40 (from heart disease) back in West Lothian. 

A second example of a Cumnock woman who married a West Lothian shale miner was Jane Murdoch Price who was born in Cumnock. Jane married William Wardrop who is listed in a 1911 census as a shale miner living in West Lothian.  The Wardrops had also lived in Cumnock in 1875-8 at Glengyron Row.

To give an example of someone orginally from Ireland who came to Scotland to work  and married and settled in Ayrshire, we have William Gorman who was born in Londonderry. He married Catherine Shirkie from Kilwinning. They were married in Old Cumnock in 1864 and in the 1871 he was living in High Doura, Kilwinning and working as a shale miner. in the 1881 census, where William is listed as working as a coal miner, they are shown to have four children, Edward (listed as a coal miner, age 13); William, age 7; Stewart, age 4; and Janet, age 1. The family would later move to Irvine. It would seem the William had various legal problems as there is record of him spending time in prison in Ayr in 1889. He died at  Cunningham Combination Poorhouse in Irvine in 1891.

Allan Cameron had been an iron miner in Cumnock in 1871 and 1881 was a shale miner in Lasswade, Midlothian by the 1891 census.

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