From Cumnock to Cumnock

by Roberta McGee

 

The origin of the name 'Cumnock' has been debated over the years and several interpretations have been offered.

                                    Com-cnoc  (hollow of the hills)  

                                    Com-oich   (meeting of the waters)

                                    Cam-cnoc   (bent or crooked hill)    

Source: Cumnock History Group           

The name Cumnock seems to be compounded of the Gaelic words com, a bosom, and conoc, a hill; thus signifying the bosom of the hill.  

Source: Family Search                                                   

'The name itself bears witness to an early origin. It would seem to be of Gaelic derivation, although opinion varies whether Cumnock means the hollow in the hills, the sloping hill, the meeting of the waters - or something quite different.'                                                        

Source: The New History of Cumnock - John Strawhorn p11                                                                                                          

People have had different reasons for leaving Cumnock over the years. Usually it was in search of a better life. Whatever reason made them take this huge step some never forgot their roots and they took a little bit of Cumnock with them in their hearts. Some went further and created another Cumnock in their chosen country. 

Australia

There is a small town called 'Cumnock' in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It was originally known as Burrawong Crossroads and renamed Cumnock in 1879. Some sources say the name was suggested by William Ross of Dilga Station who was born in Old Cumnock. However William Ross was born in Muirkirk and he emigrated to Australia in 1845. Another source says that it was named after John Strahorn who arrived in NSW in 1838. It also claims that he was born in Old Cumnock but records show that he was born in Mauchline. Read more about our Cumnock links in NSW, Australia and the Howat family in our blog here.

Canada

James Samson was born in Old Cumnock in 1824 most likely the son of John Samson and Agnes Young. In 1841 we find James living in Hillhouse Farm, Old Cumnock with his widowed mother and his siblings. By 1852 James was living in Nichol Township, Wellington County, Toronto, Canada. He purchased 7,367 acres of land there, and, in partnership with Argyll born John Muir, built The Red Lion Inn. He named the settlement Cumnock after the town of his birth. Cumnock is located north of Guelph and 5.8 miles from Fergus and was part of Nichol Township until 1999.

Later, James and John split and John Muir, in competition with James, opened his own hotel, naming it The British Lion. James Samson added a store to his growing list of businesses and opened the village's first Post Office. The village grew to include a blacksmith, a cheese factory, a shoemaker, a flax mill, a sawmill and a small number of houses but began to decline as the railroads came through the area and the traffic along the roads dwindled. 

"There's mauny a day I dream of the braes and the lochs of my auld land. Then I look to the waters, the trees and the stanes; and I keen I am hame in Fergus, in Upper Canada."  This was written by Thomas Young in 1836. I wonder if James felt the same about his adopted home?

James married Canadian born Emma Jackson and they had four daughters together. He died in 1853 in Cumnock and Emma died in 1919 in Fergus, Wellington County.

In Canada there is a mountain named after our town. Mount Cumnock is located in Jasper National Park in the De Smet region of Alberta's Rocky Mountains. It was named after Cumnock, Ayrshire by mountain surveyor Morrison Parsons Bridgland who would climb to the top of mountain peaks with his camera equipment and take detailed photographs of them. He was a lover of mountains and was a member of the American Alpine Club. He named many mountains and I cannot find an explanation why he chose Cumnock other than that it was named after Cumnock in Ayrshire. 

 

Mount Cumnock

USA

Further south in Lee County, North Carolina, USA we find another Cumnock. Like its namesake, Cumnock in North Carolina was a mining town. It was originally a 2,700 acre plantation owned by Peter Evans who purchased it in 1830. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) it was used by Confederate troops then captured by the Union Army. 

Evans's Plantation House surrounded by Union soldiers
Image - New Berne Historical

"The Cumnock Mine was part of the Deep River Coalfield which spanned about thirty miles from Moore County, North Carolina and followed the Deep River, Lee and Chatham County's mutual border. There were nine documents listed mines but the two largest and most profitable of the mines were Cumnock (Egypt) and the Carolina (Farmville or Coal Glen."

Source: deepriverhistory.com

Cumnock was originally named Egypt. There was a severe drought which affected most settlers in the area. Peter Evans, who owned the plantation, did not seem to have been affected as badly so the residents would make their way to the plantation to purchase corn from him as the Egyptians did from Joseph in the Bible.

Egypt Store - Image Larry Pickard

In 1870 the mine closed because it wasn't making a profit but eighteen years later it was re-opened by a new company and immediately went into profit. Miners from Pennsylvania and West Virginia moved south to work there. Half the miners working in the mine were black and about a quarter were foreigners, among them many Scots. The mine was prospering and the future looked good when disaster struck. In December 1895 an explosion ripped through the mine killing forty one men. The name was changed to Cumnock after the disaster to distance itself from the bad reputation that the Egypt mine had acquired. Different sources claim different reasons why the name Cumnock was chosen.  One theory is that it was named after an investor in the mine. Another theory is that it was named after early settlers whose hometown was Cumnock in Ayrshire.

Egypt Coal Mine

Even further south we find Cumnock in Louisiana. It is an unincorporated community in Washington Parish, seven miles from the north of Franklinton, Louisiana. I cannot find any information on where the name of this Cumnock originated. 

Image - Wikipedia Commons

The Surname of Cumnock

Sometimes the name Cumnock doesn't originate from our town of Old Cumnock but is named after someone with the surname of Cumnock.

Cumnock Hall, which is part of the Harvard Business School, the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, was named after Alexander Goodlet Cumnock and one of his sons, Arthur James Cumnock. There are links to Old Cumnock with this family although the 'Cumnock' branch never lived in Old Cumnock. 

Alexander Goodlet Cumnock - Image Find a Grave

Alexander Goodlet Cumnock's grandfather, Alexander Goodlet, was born in Old Cumnock in 1783 to parents Thomas Goodlet and Janet Wilson. Alexander was a weaver and married Margaret Chatham in 1808 in Leigh, St. Mary's, Lancashire, England, his work as a weaver having taken him there. Lancashire was known as 'The Cotton Workshop of the World'. Their first child Thomas was born in Lancashire in 1809. The family then moved up north to Paisley in Scotland where their daughter Margaret was born in 1815 and their son Alexander in 1820.

Paisley was a weaving and textile town famous for the production of Paisley shawls. The weavers were well-educated, well read and radical. Thomas was a weaver and a very successful singer and mimic. He was also a supporter of the temperance  movement and opened a coffee shop in Paisley High Street where many a lively discussion would take place. 

His sister Margaret married Robert McLean Cumnock in 1833 in Paisley and they went on to have six sons and one daughter born in Paisley. The Cumnock family then emigrated to the USA in 1849 and a further two sons and two daughters were born there. On arrival in the USA Robert and his sons found employment in the Lowell Cotton Mills in Massachusetts and the family went from strength to strength eventually building or operating cotton mills in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Their son, Alexander Goodlet Cumnock, was a well-known figure in New England fabric manufacturing and he founded the Lowell Textile School in Massachusetts. He acquired the Appleton Mill in Lowell with a group of family and friends and headed the company until his death when his son Arthur took over the management of the business. In the 1900 US Census Alexander's occupation is listed as 'capitalist'. His son Arthur James Cumnock was described in his obituary as a textile industry leader, President of the Catlin Parish Company and a Harvard American Football star.

Arthur James Cumnock - Image Find a Grave

Moving west to California The Cumnock School of Expression in Los Angeles was a private school for women established in the autumn of 1894 by Mrs Merrill Moore Gregg who was a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Oratory, Evanston, Illinois for many years and who was first assistant of its Director, Dr. Robert McLean Cumnock, for whom the school was named. Later a second department of the institution was established -  a preparatory school known as The Cumnock Academy.

The Cumnock School of Expression  - Image Calisphere.org

Dr Robert McLean Cumnock, son of Robert McLean Cumnock and Margaret Goodlet, paid his own way through a private secondary school because his family could not afford it. He left the school for fifteen months to fight in the American Civil War before returning to graduate in 1864. He began teaching Elocution at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1868 and created a two year diploma programme when he formed The Cumnock School of Oratory. He was Dean of Northwestern's School of Communications from 1878-1913 and Northwestern University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters in 1919.

The Cumnock School of Oratory

                                                                                    

Love and War

By Alexandra Watson

 The latter days of the 18th Century

Great events even far away can often impact our surroundings and lives. How many of us who pass through Ayr and see the ruins from Eglinton Street, know that this was the Citadel Fort, commissioned in 1652 and one of a group of five impressive fortresses established following Scotland’s defeat and the establishment of a Commonwealth between England and Scotland. English occupation forces were housed there, with the intention, to repress a still hostile Scots populace. A later addition to the town was The Barracks, built on the south side of Ayr Harbour as part of the British response to the threat of the French in 1795 and it was to there came an English soldier.

The turmoil of the second half of the 18th century saw events that not only changed the world but the individual lives of ordinary people living in Ayrshire. The last Jacobite rising of 1745; the War of American Independence of 1775 -1783; the French Revolutionary Wars of 1792 -1802 and the Napoleonic Wars of 1799 - 1815 and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Against this background the British government had a real anxiety that there may be alliances amongst disillusioned Scots and Irish and the French. 

In 1794, some one hundred and seventy-five miles away in County Durham, a weaver, John Watson was recruited into the Durham Fencible Cavalry, which changed its name the next year to the Princess of Wales's Fencible Cavalry. It was led by William Vane, who was also Colonel of the Militia.  After spending three years in Scotland, they proceeded to Ireland and were disbanded in 1802. 

“During the French Revolutionary Wars from end 1792 until May 1802 the regiment was tasked with maintaining order as well as anti-invasion duties and for this purpose they were employed outside of their area of recruitment and kept on the move “so as to avoid fraternisation with the local population” 

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_and_Volunteers_of_County_Durham

Well, as Robert Burns said just about that time in 1785:

“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley” 

How and where John Watson met the local girl, Catherine Henrie we will never know. She was born on 11 March 1779, in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, Scotland. They married in St Quivox on 23 August 1797 and it is known that the army moved supplies such as cattle and horses inland to there, away from the Ayr coast, in case of French raids.

The beginning of the 19th Century

When John left the army they settled in her home village of Kirkmichael and John worked as a weaver. They had at least 5 children who in turn had families. Each of the boys had at least 6 children and so this particular branch of the Watsons was established in Ayrshire.

Our interest is with John's son William and then the line from William's daughter Janet. William was born on 21 June 1802. In the church records he and three siblings are belatedly recorded as Irregular Baptisms, maybe harking back to John’s English background and not originally being a member of the Church of Scotland. William married Euphemia Duncan in Sorn, her home village on 6 June 1826. Euphemia was 27 and William was 23. William moved to Sorn and raised his children there but by 1851 he is back in Kirkmichael. William sadly died relatively young at 54 years old in 1856. However, Euphemia moved to Cumnock with her youngest son James, and lived to the age of 77. Sadly Janet Watson, William and Euphemia’s daughter died at the age of 25 in 1857 having given birth to a son out of marriage. He was called George Henrie Watson and it seemed that his paternity would remain a mystery. However, with the advent of DNA testing, we have noticed multiple links to a Howe Family, also resident in Kirkmichael. We also noted the death of a young man John Howe, ages with Janet who also sadly died the same year as the birth of George. 

The mid 19th Century

So we follow George’s line, he remained in his brother James’s household in Cumnock till he married his next-door neighbour Jeanie Crichton in 1873. Both Jeanie's parents' families had originated in Lanarkshire making their way to Ayrshire for work in the coal industry after their marriage in 1843. Coincidently George and Jeanie’s next-door neighbour in the Barrhill in Cumnock was none other than a certain journalist James Keir Hardie, a founding member of the Labour Party.

The early 20th Century

George Henrie Watson and Jeanie had 7 children. These were very hard times ...The Depression; World War 1 1914 -1918; the National Strike 1926. The girls all followed their husbands for work and left Cumnock. The Yuills and Ronalds headed for Glasgow. George was the first to emigrate and he went to New Zealand. Mary and her husband Alexander Vallance of Burnside farm, Cumnock, headed for Canada and then James too decided to emigrate.  James a recently remarried widower took his new wife and family off to Canada. Only Robert (born 1885) remained in Cumnock but sadly he too died at the young age of 37, leaving behind a young widow and three of a family. Only one son to carry on the Watson name in Cumnock - Hugh Watson.

George Watson (born 1892) had a successful life in New Zealand. He was widowed after 40 years of marriage and then decided to visit Cumnock again. He stayed with his nephew Hugh (mentioned above) and coming home by sea he succumbed “to a shipboard romance” marrying again on his return to New Zealand. The Cumnock Chronicle ran quite a story on George and his visit. 

Happily, James (born 1890) who was also widowed young had married his employer’s (The Craigs from the Guelt Farm, Glenmuir) daughter and set off with his family and new bride to Canada and received a land grant. James fathered five children and his two boys' children established quite "a Watson Clan", in Fredericton, New Brunswick. These Watsons are regular visitors to Scotland as are their children and the connection is as strong as ever. We also hear from the Vallances in Ontario who recently made "an eighteen-strong party expedition" to Scotland.

World Wars

Young Hugh, the son of Robert, was born in 1917 and only 5 when his father died. He was brought up by his mother Elizabeth Crawford Blackwood (1885 - 1963), a well-known and respected figure. Hugh had a very happy life with his mother two older sisters Martha and Jean and his young cousin Jean that is until war intervened. 

Hugh was a grocer and at the outbreak of the war, he went with two friends to enlist. The three of them were attracted to the glamour of the Air Force, the queue was long and being processed alphabetically so the W’s were last to be signed. His two friends successfully were enrolled into the Air Force before him but Hugh had to take the army. Sadly as the attrition rate was high in the Air Force it might come as no surprise that Hugh’s friends never made it home.

Hugh was in the Black Watch and was taken prisoner on 11 June 1940.

source:  https://51hd.co.uk/history/valery_1940

This is not the place to record the horrors of the situation, the enforced marches, the near starvation, the deaths and the misery of war. Hugh was the most optimistic and positive man you could meet. At home, his widowed mother and sisters feared for his life.  

Calum MacIver bottom right and Hugh Watson top left in Stalag XX1D (Poland)

Hugh did make it home but fate brought that twist of love and war exactly like in the John Watson & Catherine Henrie marriage, meeting his wife only because of the war. 

The first John Watson’s home in Durham had been one hundred and seventy-five miles away from Cumnock. At an even longer distance of three hundred and twenty-eight miles in a tiny village on the Hebridean island of Lewis, a baby was born to Murdo MacIver and Isabel MacLean. She was Eiric Mhuruchaidh Iain Aonghais and spoke no English till the age of six. Effie, as she was known, was a really clever girl and wanted to be a nurse. In those days you had to pay for your training, so she went to the capital city of Edinburgh and worked as a servant till she raised sufficient money. She had two brothers and a sister named Barbara. The latter came to Edinburgh with her and their brothers enlisted; John into the navy and Calum into the army. In 1940 the family was advised that Calum too had been taken prisoner by the Germans. Effie worked hard and eventually became a Ward Sister in the prestigious Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In those days women who held those positions did not marry and had rooms on site. The war was hard for her too as not only did they treat civilian patients from the city but British soldiers and German soldiers too – an irony when her brother was imprisoned there.

Effie far right

Calum and Hugh were in the same prisoner-of-war camp and became very close friends. The end of the war came and Calum came home and married his sweetheart Cathy and in those days a Lewis wedding lasted for days. Effie, Barbara, and one of Barbara's friends, Mary Dougan, went up north for the wedding. Not long after the wedding Effie decided to visit Barbara's friend who was now married and living back in her native Ayrshire. The friend knew Hugh Watson and the connection between Calum and Hugh and arranged for Effie to meet Hugh...and the rest is history. 

There are no Watsons from Jeanie Crichton and George Henrie Watson's line living in Cumnock but all have a piece of Cumnock in their hearts.