John Kay, WW1 cartographer

By Kay McMeekin with cooperation of his descendants.

John Kay was born in Cumnock in 1856 to  John Kay and Jean Thomson (More of the Thomson family elsewhere)

He became a tailor in Liverpool and married a widow Ellen Charlotte Jackson widow of Charles Thomas Laidman. She had two little girls Helen and Alice. John and Ellen had a daughter Frances Mary and they emigrated on the Australia to New York arriving in September 1884. They were heading for Cincinnati, Ohio where Ellen's sister Frances and their mother were living in 1880 census. They fetched up in Americus, Georgia by the 1900 census. John Kay was not with his wife and family. He was a tailor's merchant, a boarder,  in Pueblo, Pueblo, Colorado. 

John went missing in January of 1910 for a few days as seen in newspaper reports in the Austin American Statesman. No reporting of how or where he turned up again has been found yet.

The WW1 story as related by his grandson-in-law James Beard:

During the First World War, there was no mass media.  The British government paid people in the US to give lectures on what was happening on the Western Front.  Probably with a decidedly British slant.

Papa Kay was born in 1856 in Cumnock, Scotland and had been in the British army as a young man in the 1870s and attached to a cartographic unit.  The Kay family moved from Britain in the 1880s to Americus, Georgia.  The Kays moved to Austin, Texas in the mid 1890s.  Mr. Kay operated a tailoring shop in downtown Austin.

The British Government in 1915 paid £1 British pound a month to the men giving lectures about the War.  A pound was worth about $5 in those days, and Papa Kay, being a good Scotsman, was not going to let that money slip away!  To put this amount in perspective, the best paying industrial job at the time was $5 for an 8-hour shift at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Or about 63 cents an hour.  So, $5 for a few hours a month was pretty good!

When Mr. Kay gave a lecture, he would draw a map so people could visualize the troop movements better.  After the war was over, he gathered as much information as he could and created a 20-foot by 40-foot map.  One inch equals one mile.  

Two Aerodromes are delineated, Orly, just north of Paris, and one near Amiens.  The red lines are railroads (I know after a visit here by an officer of the French Consulate in Houston, Texas.  He could not believe how accurate the map was.)

Please note that all the hospitals are outside the city of Paris.  Well, it turns out the so called "Spanish Flu" that supposedly broke out in 1918, was actually killing French soldiers in the trenches in 1916!  The French government was afraid of the flu spreading to the civilian population, so they placed the hospitals outside the city.  Well, that actually helped the guys, because the Spanish flu attacked the respiratory system and Paris was heated with coal at the time and the air in the city was full of smoke.  With the hospitals outside the city, the guys got fresh air and sunshine! 

Remarkable War Map. Copied from The London Times March 31, 1925 from a hand written copy of the newspaper article....the only name on the letter is "Sara"...Perhaps some friend or relative in Great Britain?

(from a correspondent)

In the shop of an Austin merchant tailor, hangs one of the most remarkable maps in existence.  It tells the whole story of the Great War, so accurate is it in detail, so perfect in workmanship and so valuable (illegible word) a historical document, that it is destined to become a treasured national possession.

The creator of the map is John Kay, a graduate of Glasgow University*.  John for many years carried on the profession of a mining engineer.   From day to day, he received every item of War news circulated by the Associated Press of America.  He obtained all the official documents that were available.  He followed every detail of the War Dispatches in "The Times".

The result is a map measuring 40 feet by 20 feet.  There are more than 72,000 names inscribed upon it.  There is not a road in France that is not indicated.  Every line of trenches is marked.  Wherever the American forces were fighting, there is a flag.  The fortunes of the American forces can be followed from the moment they landed in England or in France, to the positions they occupied at the Armistice.   There is a white cross where the first American soldier fell. There is a careful chart of the Battle of Jutland.  The sinking of the (HMS) Hampshire is marked as is the place where the Lusitania was torpedoed, accompanied by the statement, "This brought us into the war."

* not found him in the archives of Glasgow University

Obituary on newspapers.com

Obit found by Joanne Ferguson

Mitchell, Pioneer Settlers in Ontario, Canada

 by Roberta McGee

    Andrew Mitchell was born in New Cumnock in 1745, the year of the Jacobite Rising. He married a much younger Anne Kennedy in 1796 in Ochiltree and took on the tenancy of Burnockhead farm,

Ochiltree in 1798 where he farmed until 1827, raising a family of eleven children there. 

    The first of Andrew and Anne Mitchell's children to emigrate was Andrew Mitchell who was born in Burnockhead farm. He was 23 years old when he emigrated to Canada in 1833. He was one of the early settlers in Spencerville in the Township of Edwardsburgh, Ontario, along the St. Lawrence River, and married a Scottish girl, Elizabeth Irvine Graham, in 1843. A few years later they moved to Northeast Hope, then to Elma Township and finally to Molesworth which was in Wallace Township in Perth County where they lived across the road from his brother John and his family. Initially they lived in shanties. Andrew, a farmer and a carpenter, and Elizabeth had at least eight children. Andrew died in Wallace Township, Ontario, in 1897.

Andrew & Elizabeth Mitchell and family c 1870- Owen Mitchell

    Andrew and Anne's oldest son John Mitchell was born in Burnockhead Farm, Ochiltree, in 1798. He married Mary Gibson in 1826 in Old Cumnock. She was the daughter of William Gibson, a weaver then snuff box maker, in Cumnock. Snuff box making was a lucrative trade in the area in the first half of the 1800s. The boxes were made of wood, mainly sycamore, with highly decorative lids and fitted with a 'secret hinge' or 'invisible wooden hinge' to prevent evaporation of moisture in the snuff inside. The production of the boxes was at its peak between 1820 and 1830 but, after that period, it gradually died away mainly because the fashion of taking snuff began to decline. William Crawford was the self-acclaimed original maker of the snuff boxes. He was also, by his first marriage, the brother-in-law of William Gibson, Mary's father. In 1811 he introduced William Gibson to the snuff box making trade, who in turn spent five years teaching his son-in-law, John Mitchell, how to make snuff boxes. 

    In 1852 John and Mary Mitchell decided to emigrate to Canada where John founded Molesworth, a small community located in the town of Huron East in Southwestern Ontario. It was on the border of the Township of Grey in Huron County and also on the border of the neighbouring County of Perth, where it was adjacent to Wallace Township. 

    Canada was still a British Colony in 1852. Over the years Treaties had been made by the British Crown with the First Nations to purchase their land. The First Nations were formerly called Indians and were the descendants of the original inhabitants of Canada who had lived there for thousands of years before explorers arrived from Europe. The land, on the shores of Lake Huron, became known as the 

Huron Tract. It was acquired by The Canada Company, a land company formed in the United Kingdom, and sold off in Lots to early settlers. For the settlers the prospect of owning land was an incentive. Acquiring land was made easier in 1842 when The Canada Company began a leasehold system whereby settlers had ten years to pay for the land. The largest group of settlers to Huron County were from Scotland. 

    John immediately spotted an opportunity. He bought Lots 52, 53 and 54 which were situated beside a river. He believed that the intended Highway 86 would come through the river and, on this assumption, he built a store and post office on Lot 52. He sold Lots 53 and 54 to other settlers coming into the area. A dam was built on the river, followed by a sawmill, while also on Lot 52 a school and other houses and businesses sprang up. Pioneer settlers in Canada faced the challenging task of building homes and communities from scratch and initially they had to live in shanties. 

Mail carrier in front and John's daughter-in-law Maria and granddaughter in doorway
Source: Seaforth & Brussels and their Neighbourhood

    Molesworth became a thriving community and John, Mary and their family, and extended family, settled well into their new lives with John becoming a Justice of the Peace there. As well as owning a store and a post office, John was a farmer and a saw miller. Religion played an important part in their lives. Their roots were Free Presbyterian, however, on the 1871 census his religion is recorded as Christadelphian with further censuses recording his religion as Presbyterian again. 

    John died in 1873 but his family carried on in the community he had founded. In 1873 his son Charles built a Bee House on Lot 52 and became known as 'The Bee King', while his other son Robert, grandson Edward and great grandson Allen, carried on the tradition of storekeepers in Molesworth.

The Mitchell House & Apiary
Source: Seaforth & Brussels and their Neighbourhood

    John and Mary were joined in 1853 by sister Margaret Mitchell, her husband John McNeish and their family. They took a farm beside them in Molesworth. Margaret was born in Burnockhead in 1817. She married John McNeish, a blacksmith, in 1841 in Old Cumnock. In 1851 they were living on the north side of Townhead Street in Cumnock and in 1861 they were living in Wallace Township, next door to Margaret's brother. 

    The last child of Andrew Mitchell and Anne Kennedy to have links with Canada was Helen Mitchell who was born in 1803 in Burnockhead. Helen married Cumnock born Andrew Thomson in 1825 in Old Cumnock. Their first three children were born in Cumnock before they moved to Mauchline in 1832 where they went on to have another five children. In 1841 Andrew, Helen and their family were living in Cowgate, Mauchline. On the 1851 census the family was living in Cowgate Lane, Mauchline. Andrew was a shoemaker and sheriff officer. Helen appears to be deceased but I have been unable to track down her death. 

    Andrew and his children moved to Canada after Helen's death. The 1861 Canada census shows Andrew living alone in Hawick, Huron County, Canada West. His children had married and settled down around the area. 

His oldest son Alexander Thomson married Canadian born Belinda Meredith in 1854 in Gore County, Ontario and they lived next door to his Uncle Andrew Mitchell, his mother's brother, in the Township of Turnberry, Huron County.

Son Andrew Thomson married Ann Eliza Fergusson about 1854 in Ontario. He was a cooper and died in 1899 in Chatham, Kent, Ontario. 

Son Hugh Thomson, a blacksmith, married Margaret Mair in 1853 at Riccarton, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. They settled in Waterloo, Canada West, where Hugh died in 1898. 

Daughter Jean Helen Thomson married John Adams in 1858 at Waterloo, Ontario and after his death married William Scott in 1876 at Wellington, Ontario. Her father Andrew was living with them in 1871 at Proton, Grey South, Ontario.

Daughter Agnes Thomson, like her brothers, married soon after she arrived in Ontario. Her husband, James Angus Cooper, was born in Monkton, Ayrshire and they married in 1856 at Galt, Ontario.

An interesting account of James & Agnes Cooper's life in Proton

Source: 'The Township of Proton, 1982'

James emigrated from Scotland to Canada in 1853 settling for a time in Georgetown where he worked on the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1856 he married Agnes at Galt, Ontario. In 1859 they settled on Lot 7, Con. 14 of West Luther Township. The settlers who arrived before them helped them build a shanty and log stable on their property, which they called "Stoney Hill Farm". James operated a lime kiln on the hills of his farm. Their house was replaced by a store with living quarters, built by James on top of the hill. It was a typical general store of the time selling groceries, yarn, hardware etc. Mrs Cooper was much valued for her role as a midwife and nurse for the early settlement. To assist with her nursing she grew herbs in her garden'.

The indigenous people must have roamed freely amongst them. One day a First Nations man walked into their house while they were having dinner, gestured James to stand up, then he sat down in James's chair and ate the rest of James's dinner! 

Middle Row left to right James Cooper, Andrew Thomson Snr., Agnes Thomson Cooper
Cooper Family - Ancestry - various

In 1881 Agnes's father Andrew Thomson was living with the Coopers. He died on 5th October 1887 at Luther West, Ontario. Agnes died on 29th July 1923 at Mount Forest, Wellington, West Luther having fractured her skull when she fell down some stairs at her home.

Youngest daughter Grace Thomson was born in 1845 in Mauchline and died on 21st June 1923 at Mount Forest, Wellington County, Ontario, one month before her older sister Agnes Thomson Cooper. She married her first husband James Hunter, a farmer, in 1865 at Grey, Ontario. James, who was born in 1828 in Berwickshire, Scotland and died in 1889 in Mount Forest, was a pioneer settler, having arrived in Canada with his three brothers in 1857 when they purchased a homestead of 100 acres. At that time the land was all bush and there were no roads. He paid $1.50 per acre for his land. In the early days he was appointed Justice of the Peace, holding the position until his death and established the Post Office at Egerton, Ontario, where he was Postmaster.

Grace Thomson Hunter - Ancestry shared originally by Brian Maier

Grace married a second time to John Moore in 1903 in Wellington County. She died on 21st June 1923 at Mount Forest, Washington County, Ontario.

The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project

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

Scholarly to a high degree - The story of the Clark family

 Scholarly to a high degree - The story of the Clark family

by Roberta McGee

William Clark and Elizabeth Thomson were married at Ayr Road, Cumnock on 7/6/1858. William was a tailor/clothier, Elizabeth was a domestic servant and both were born in Cumnock. William was a great believer in education and for many years he was a member of the School Board. They had ten children all born in Cumnock. He impressed upon them the importance of education and they in turn grew up to be a credit to their parents. Their uncle James Thomson, brother of their mother Elizabeth, was also highly intelligent. He was born on 3/5/1845 in Cumnock and died of consumption on 3/8/1876, aged 31 years old, in Badenweiler, South Germany. He was described in his obituaries as "Cumnock's most distinguished son" and "scholarly to a high degree".

Marble tablet erected over the family pew
in the Established Church of Cumnock

 

William and Elizabeth's firstborn child Adam Clark was born on 19/12/1857 at Ayr Road, Cumnock. He showed great promise and became a lawyer's clerk. Tragically, he was only 19 years old when he died on 30/4/1877 at Barrhill Road, Cumnock of acute meningitis. 

Five of their children became doctors - William, James, George, John and Jeannie.

William Clark, who was born in 1860, took his BSc. and M.A. in one session at University and for a time taught at Dollar Academy before making a career change into medicine and graduating M.D. at Glasgow University. He then moved to a medical practice in Dundonald, Ayrshire.

His brother George Clark, who was born in 1871, was studying medicine at Glasgow University when his health broke down. In 1898 he decided to leave Scotland and emigrate to South Africa in the hope that the climate there would improve his health. William decided to give up his practice in Dundonald and accompany him. George's health did improve and he was able to continue his studies there. Four years later in 1902 George, again accompanied by his brother William, returned to Scotland where George passed his final exams at Glasgow University. The brothers then returned to South Africa.

In South Africa George was affectionately called Dr. George. He practised in the town of Lady Frere and in 1906 he moved to Tarkastad, which has one of the healthiest climates in the world, where he died on 11/1/1913. He left a widow and two children. An Appreciation which appeared in "The Queenstown Review" on 18/1/1913 quoted a line from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' to describe George -

"He was a man; take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again"

William continued to practise in South Africa but during WW1 he returned to London to take over his brother John's practice. After he retired he would visit South Africa regularly, sailing as ship's surgeon both ways. Dr. William, who never married, died on 29/2/1940 at 52 Airlie Street, Glasgow, the home of his sister Jessie.