text:
© Paul R. Swan 2 Jul 2013 16:08 | Return to Home Page | Hide All Notes | Swan~Hartzell Family History |
BROWN, JOHN 1 m AGNES GULLILAND |
b 1724 b 1724 |
BROWN, WILLIAM 2 m KATHRINE HAMILTON |
b 1748 b 1752 |
BROWN, ALEXANDER 3 m MARY MCNAUGHT |
b 1771 d 1836 b 1771 d 1837 |
BROWN, HAMILTON 4 m MARY BIGGERT |
b 1806 d 1868 b 1811 d 1844 |
BROWN, JANE 5 m JAMES W. SWAN |
b 1839 d 1922 b 1827 d 1909 |
Introduction |
We know a considerable amount about the life of our immigrant ancestor Hamilton Brown. Our sources range from family notes handed down to us from earlier generations, to census records, a marriage licence, citizenship papers and the New York City directories which provide a year by year record of his residences and business locations as a weaver and watchglass maker. In contrast, his ancestors can only be identified from generation to generation through circumstantial evidence. However, this evidence seems to be strong enough to claim that we have in fact found Hamilton's ancestry. |
What we do know from records overseas and in this country is that Hamilton was born in Scotland around 1806. Also, we know he was in Manhattan, New York City by the time of his first marriage in 1833. He was recorded there in the city directories as a weaver from 1838 to 1842, just four blocks from where he then started his watchglass making business in 1846. Finally, we know that he moved to Brooklyn, then an independent city, in 1852 and lived there the rest of his life. |
A common theme in Scottish families of Hamilton's time and earlier was the use of naming conventions for the children of the family. The first son would be named after his father's father, the second after his mother's father. Similarly, the first daughter after her mother's mother, and the next after her father's mother. So, if Hamilton followed this convention in naming his children, his parents should be Alexander and Mary Brown (first son, second daughter). |
In searching the Scottish records, we find first of all that Hamilton is a quite rare given name. There are only about a score of male Hamilton Brown births recorded in the IGI for Scotland, and about half that many females, as compared to literally thousands of Alexander Browns, for example. And among those few Hamiltons, we find only one possible match as to age, a Hamilton Brown born 17 August 1806 to Alexander Brown and Mary McNaught in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. These parental names are just what the naming convention would predict. |
This couple in addition to Hamilton also had four older children, Mary, Katharine, William and Alexander, the latter being just two years older than Hamilton. These names according to the naming conventions imply that Alexander, Sr.'s parents would have been William and Katharine. Looking again for all of Scotland, one family stands out immediately William Brown and Kathrine Hamilton, whose son Alexander's baptism 8 Sep 1771 and daughter Janet's 29 Dec 1774 were recorded in the same Stevenston Parochial Register! This brings up a bonus bit of circumstantial evidence, Kathrine's maiden name of Hamilton. Note that Hamilton was a third son in Alexander and Mary's family. One naming convention would give him his father's name, an alternate convention would have him named after his father's brother. But Hamilton's older brother had already been given the name of their father, and William and Kathrine didn't have a second son. So Hamilton was given his grandmother's maiden name instead, despite the fact that it wasn't a name very often given to a child in Scotland. |
As we will see, Hamilton's brother Alexander named a daughter Hamilton, an even rarer occurence. And in this country, our Hamilton's daughter Jane and her husband James W. Swan named a son Hamilton, and that Hamilton in turn named a son William Hamilton Swan. This last William Hamilton, who died 30 Oct 1918 in France during World War I, was the last we know of who carried the maiden name of Kathrine Hamilton Brown, born about 140 years before him. |
There is, however, an alternate possibility which should be mentioned for completeness concerning the parents of our Alexander Brown. William Brown and Katherine McNeil had a son Alexander (as well as other children) baptised 2 Sep 1777 in Stevenston. This couple fits the location and naming convention, and their ages are satisfactory even though this Alexander is six years younger. The only distinction is that Kathrine was a Hamilton, thus providing the name of her grandson. While I think the argument is sound for the choice I've made here, there is no documentary evidence to distinguish between these two families. |
The Hearth Tax list for Stevenston Parish in 1691 includes Robert Broun, Robert Broune and William Broun, all of whom would have lived one or two generations before William's father John. Our progenitor's surname was spelled Broun at the birth of his son William, although it appeared as Brown thereafter, so the different spellings do not necessarily indicate a different lineage. No connection has been traced, however, between those three men and our John Brown. |
As for the surname Brown, itself, Eleanor Patrick wrote on GenForum June 1, 2001: "I am the Indiana Commissioner for Clan Lamont and you are right, Brown is a Sept of Clan Lamont, also a Sept of Clan MacMillan. There was a terrible time (1646) when Clan Campbell attacked Clan Lamont and almost destroyed them forever. Many Lamonts who escaped the attack, or were living someplace other than Cowal in Argyllshire, changed their names to Black, Brown and White at that time. The fact that your ancestor was in Ayr probably means he was part of Clan Lamont." Other sources on Clan MacMillan implicitly exclude Ayrshire from their Brown Sept, so it does appear that the very earliest ancestors of our Brown line might have been affiliated with Clan Lamont. Here is the tartan of that clan: |
This part of the coast of Ayrshire lies on the Firth of Clyde in southwestern Scotland about 20 to 25 miles southwest of Paisley and Glasgow, Renfrew County. According to the "Ayrshire Directory" by Pigot and Co., 1837, their main industrial activities were coal export, shipping and at one time ship building, the manufacture of salt by boiling seawater, and weaving of muslims and other cloths for the Glasgow and Paisley markets. At least three generations of our direct Brown ancestors, John, Alexander and Hamilton, were weavers; William was described as a salter. |
Here is a detail from "A New Map of Ayrshire", Andrew Armstrong, 1775, which shows the three towns of Stevenston, Saltcoats and Ardrossan in which our Brown and McNaught ancesters resided: |
In order to provide a pictorial map of the Scottish lineages in our ancestry, the tree below shows the ancestry of Hamilton Brown. His daughter Jane, who married James Swan, was the last of our line of Browns. |
John Brown & Agnes Gulliland |
Gulliland | Top |
John Brown was born about 1724. |
John was married to Agnes 8 Feb 1747 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
Agnes Gulliland was baptized 21 Jun 1724 in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was the daughter of David and Janet (Whitefoord) Gulliland. |
That John Brown and Agnes Gulliland are the parents of William Brown is somewhat less well established than later generations discussed in the introduction to this lineage, because William named his first and only son Alexander, not John. However, the naming conventions may not have taken root quite this early, so the lack of this particular kind of evidence as to Alexander's grandfather can only be cautionary. |
On the positive side, the date and location of the birth of their son William, born in Crofthead and baptised in Ardrossan in 1748 are what one could reasonably expect for our William's parents. |
I had originally believed that this "Crofthead" referred to a town just north of the town of Kilwinning. However, Margaret Scott points out that there defintely was an area called Crofthead in Saltcoats. It is now called Manse Street, and it houses among other establishments the North Ayrshire Museum and a graveyard. She notes that if the town Crofthead were meant, the birth record in Ardrossan would have stated "Crofthead, Kilwinning". Manse Street is west of the dividing line in Saltcoats between Ardrossan Parish on the west, and Stevenston Parish on the east, so the record in the Ardrossan Parochial Register would not have explicitly named a parish in conjunction with the designation Crofthead. |
Another John Brown reasonably close to Ardrossan was the son of John and Margarat Brown born in Irvine, five miles down the coast, on 12 Jan 1724. He would have been 24 at the time William was born. I'm leaving the question of John's identity completely open at this time since John and Agnes could have moved to Crofthead from somewhere else before the birth of William. In Northern Ayrshire, within eight or ten miles of Ardrossan, there were over two dozen John Browns born between 1722 and 1732! |
Identifying the marriage of John and Agnes was made somewhat difficult by the highly variable spelling of her surname throughout the Ayrshire records. (The IGI for Scotland has Gulliland and Gilliland as the most common spellings, indexed separately, but 19 spellings in all appear there.) There's only one marriage, however, of about the right date. |
The three records of that marriage submitted to the IGI spell it Gilinland, but that spelling does not appear in any other record in all of Scotland. Except when citing specific sources, I'll use Gulliland as that is the spelling recorded in the SCR for Agnes' birth and that of her father. |
The Scottish Church Records (SCR) entry for William Brown's birth shows the parents as John Broun and Agnes Guileland. After that, John's name is consistently spelled Brown. The spelling Broun seems to have been the choice in earlier years. The SCR entries for the births of Jannet and Marion spell their mother's name as Gulieland, and for the youngest child Jean it's spelled Guileland, as it was for William, the eldest. |
The birth of James born 5 Feb 1750 in Ardrossan to John Brown and Agnes Gilinland [IGI] does not appear in the Scottish Church Records nor the Ardrossan Parochial Registers, so where the information for the submission to the IGI came from, with a complete date, is unknown. It's possible that this is one of the records obtained from a Monumental Inscription, statuary memorials of Northern Ayrshire which are, unfortunately, only available in the Ardrossan Library. (These inscriptions were copied in 1983 in eleven large volumes, indexed by surnames, located by maps of the graveyards and cemeteries and each stone photographed.) Since the date conflicts with that of Jannet, I'm not accepting James in this family for now. |
The four children of John and Agnes (Gulliland) Brown: William, Jannet, Marion and Jean. |
1 | Brown, William was born 11 Jan 1748. |
2 | Brown, Jannet was baptized 11 Feb 1750 in Ardrossan. |
From the Ardrossan Parochial Registers: |
John Brown weaver in Crofthead and Agnes Gulieland his spouse had a lawfull Daughter named Jannet born Febr 3th baptised Febr 11th 1750 |
APR; FR292], and the other Thomas Young on 16 Nov 1789 [SPR; FR349]. The other Janet was born 9 Apr, baptised 11 Apr 1749 in Stevenston to William Brown, Sailor in Stevenston (mother's name not given, even though she was named as the sponsor in the absence of the father!) [SPR; FR66], who could have been the bride for one of these marriages. |
3 | Brown, Marion was born 8 Jul 1753 in Ardrossan and baptized 12 Jul 1753 in Ardrossan. |
There is no record of a marriage for a Marion Brown in Stevenston. From the Ardrossan Parochial Registers for 1760: |
John Brown weaver in Saltcoats and Agnes Gulieland his Spouse had a lawfull Daughter called Marion born July 8th baptised July 12th 1758 |
4 | Brown, Jean was baptized 13 Apr 1760 in Ardrossan. |
From the Ardrossan Parochial Registers for April, 1760: |
John Brown weaver in Saltcoats and Agnes Guileland his Spouse had a lawfull Daughter named Jean born ye 13tth baptised the Same Day |
As is the case for her sister Jannet, there are two marriage records for a Jane Brown in Stevenston. One Jane married 16 Jan 1783 to Robert Cochran, the other 22 Jun 1783 to William Esdale [IGI]. The distinction between Jean and Jane is probably irrelevant. |
William Brown & Kathrine Hamilton |
Hamilton | Top |
William Brown was born 11 Jan 1748 in Crofthead, Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland and baptized 24 Jan 1748 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
William was married to Kathrine about 1770 in Ayrshire, Scotland. |
Kathrine Hamilton was born 15 May 1752 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland and baptized 17 May 1752 in Ardrossan. She was the daughter of James and Ann (Hamilton) Hamilton. |
William Brown was a salter in Saltcoats. The principle business of the town was the boiling of seawater to make salt, and his description as a salter in the birth records of his children indicates that was his trade. As we indicated above, William was born in Crofthead, Kilwinning Parish. The entry in the Ardrossan Parochial Registers: |
A William Brown of Stevenston died 14 Jan 1825 [SPR; FR778], but it's difficult to determine whether or not that was our William. Another William had died in Parkend, Stevenston, on 31 Oct 1823 [SPR; FR777]. Marriage: [IGI] |
Kathrine's birth and baptism appear in the Ardrossan Parochial Registers: |
The baptisms of William and Kathrine's two children were registered in both Stevenston and Ardrossan parishes. When their children were born in 1771 and 1775, William was described as a "salter", and their town of residence was Saltcoats, on the coast below the town of Stevenston. Between the births of Alexander and Janet, the Parochial Church of Ardrossan was rebuilt, in 1733. That site is now the North Ayrshire Museum of Saltcoats. At the time William and Mary were living in Saltcoats, it was the main town of Ardrossan Parish, the town of Ardrossan itself not yet in existence. |
The two children of William and Kathrine (Hamilton) Brown: Alexander and Janet. |
1 | Brown, Alexander was born 5 Sep 1771. |
2 | Brown, Janet was born 26 Jan 1775 in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland and baptized 29 Jan 1775 in Androssan, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was married to John Scot 7 Dec 1800 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. John was born in Ayrshire?, Scotland. |
The entry in the Stevenston Parochial Registers records Janet's birth and baptism, but leaves a blank space for her mother's given name and indicates that the baptism took place at Ardrossan: |
Janet Dau to William Brown Salter in Saltcoats & ____ Hamilton bor 26th Bapt 29th at ardr |
In the Ardrossan Parochial Registers for January, 1775 we find: |
William Brown Salter in Saltcoats and Katharin Hamilton his Spouse Had a laufl Daughter named Janet Born the 26th, Baptised the 29th |
This is the same combination of birth and baptism places as was recorded for her brother Alexander over three years earlier. The Ardrossan Parochial Registers also record this baptism [SCR], but the film has not yet been examined in order to read the details. Two IGI submitted records incorrectly give the baptism of this daughter of William and Katharine as 20 Dec 1774. |
Alexander Brown & Mary McNaught |
McNaught | Top |
Alexander Brown was born 5 Sep 1771 in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland, baptized 8 Sep 1771 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland and died after 1836. |
Alexander was married to Mary 17 Jul 1797 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
Mary McNaught was born 8 Jun 1771 in Stevenston, baptized 9 Jun 1771 in Stevenston and died 17 Feb 1837 in Stevenston. She was the daughter of James and Margaret (King) McNaught. |
Alexander Brown was a weaver, a trade he passed on to his son Hamilton who practiced it in New York City before he apprenticed to become a watch glass maker. Alexander was born in Saltcoats, but established his family in Stevenston on School Well Street close to the relatives of his wife Mary McNaught. |
The record of Alexander Brown's birth in Saltcoats and baptism in Ardrossan Parish in 1771 can be found in both the Stevenston Parochial Registers and the Ardrossan Parochail Registers, although they differ by one day in his birth and in the spelling of his mother's name. In Stevenston: |
and in Ardrossan: |
Mary McNaught's birth, also in 1771 in Stevenston: |
The marriage in 1797 of Alexander and Mary is also recorded: |
Alexander was listed on the Rev. Landsborough's lists of the residents of Stevenson Parish, the last time, 1 Dec 1836, living alone. (This doesn't gibe with Mary's death record in 1837, see below.) In the first list, he is shown with Mary and their three youngest children, transcribed as "William, Alex, Ham??". The Rev.'s handwriting was apparently somewhat difficult to read, and whatever he wrote for Hamilton evidently wasn't able to be decyphered. Schoolwell Street, a single block-long, quarter-circle street in the middle of Stevenson, was also the address of the High Kirk, the Established Church of Scotland, and of the Manse, or parsonage, of their pastor the Rev. Landsborough. |
Landsborough, pastor in Stevenston, compiled censuses of all of the families in his parish in three different years, 1819, 1822 and 1836 (downloadable transcriptions are available on RootsWeb) and these are an invaluable source of additional information. The Rev. Landsborough, or Dr. David Landsborough, was a polymath in the best tradition of the educated ministers of nineteenth century Great Britain. In addition to being the pastor of the High Kirk of Stevenston from 1811 to 1843, he was a naturalist of some note. He dredged for marine specimens around the islands of Arrand and the Cumbraes in the Firth of Clyde opposite Stevenston, and published "A Popular History of British Seaweeds". Smittina landsborovii, a species of Bryozoans, a colonial type of marine animal similar to but more complex than corals, was named after him. He was one of the participants in the Disruption of 1843 when many ministers who objected to the political constraints of the Established Church broke away to form the Free Church. The Rev. Landsborough left Stevenston High Kirk and set up a Free Church of Scotland in Saltcoats. During the second of two severe outbreaks of cholera in Ayrshire, Landsborough ministered to the dying until he, too, succumbed to the disease in September 1854. |
In 1851 the Stevenston Census has an Alex Brown, weaver aged 74, at 96 Townhead [Scott, 2002]. As our Alexander's age at that time would have been 80, it's not clear whether this is his record with an inaccurate age, or that of someone else with the same name. In any event, we don't know our Alexander's death date. |
Mary's birth and baptism were recorded in the Stevenston Parochial Registers for 1771: |
All of the McNaughts in town seemed to live on School Well, the same one-block street as Mary and Alexander. |
The Rev. Landsborough's 1822 list gave only the number of children in each family, two for Alex and Mary, with one lodger in their home. William would have been twenty at that time, and was no longer at home. In the much later list of 1837, Alex was listed as living alone (at age 64), as Mary had died that year, and Hamilton we know had by then emigrated to America. In the 1837 Stevenston Parochial Registers we find: |
McNight, Mary, wife to Alexr Brown Stevenston died 17th Feby |
The five children of Alexander and Mary (McNaught) Brown: Mary, Katharine, William, Alexander and Hamilton. |
1 | Brown, Mary was born 13 May 1798 in Stevenston and baptized 27 May 1798 in Stevenston. She was married to John Boyd 2 Jul 1819 in Stevenston. |
The Stevenston Parochial Registers baptisms for 1798 contains: |
Mary Dautt to Alexander Brown weaver in Stevenston and Mary McNaught born May 13th Bap 27th |
There were two Mary Browns married in Stevenston in 1819 according to the Vitals Record Index for the British Isles, but the one who married John Boyd on 2 July 1819 had children John, Mary, Margaret and Alexander. (The other Mary Brown marriage abt 1819 to a Robert Mitchel appears only in the IGI.) The naming convention thus identifies her parents as Alexander and Mary (second son, first daughter), and so enables us to choose the more likely Mary. By those conventions, John Boyd's parents would have been John and Margaret, but this combination of names leads to several John Boyds born in Stevenston in the 1790s. |
John Boyd and Mary Brown both in this parish gave in their names June 19th Mard July 2d |
The four children of John and Mary (Brown) Boyd: John, Mary, Margaret and Alexander. |
i | Boyd, John was baptized 27 Feb 1820 in Stevenston. |
The IGI give's John's baptism as 27 February, nine days before his birth on 18 March, so one of the records must be wrong. I've "guessed" that the baptism record is correct, but may have erred here myself. |
ii | Boyd, Mary was born 22 Feb 1822 in Stevenston and baptized 24 Feb 1822. |
iii | Boyd, Margaret was born 17 May 1824 in Stevenston and baptized 23 May 1824. |
iv | Boyd, Alexander was born 22 Jul 1829 in Stevenston and baptized 23 Aug 1829. |
2 | Brown, Katharine was born 26 Mar 1800 in Stevenston, baptized 29 Mar 1800 in Stevenston and died after 1881. She was married to Benjamin Thom 20 Aug 1819 in Stevenston. Benjamin was born 18 Jun 1797 and died 1879. He was the son of Alexander and Mary (Brown) Thom. |
From the Stevenston Parochial Registers for 1800: |
Katharine Dau to Alexander Brown weaver in Stevenston & Mary McNight born Mar 26 Bap 29 |
And from the 1819 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Benjamin Thom and Catherine Brown both in this parish gave in their names Augt 20th |
Margaret Scott writes that Benjamin's parents, Alexander Thom and Mary Brown, had at least three other children, William b 20 Feb 1780 in Irvine, Janet and Elizabeth bo 17 Mar 1782 in Stevenston, and "probably some missing". |
From the 1841 Stevenston Census, Benjamin was 45 years old and a coalminer/spirit dealer, in 1851 a carter and spirit dealer living at 44 Mason Lodge New Street, and in 1861 living at 36 Boglemart Street. In that year Benjamin was a former carter, but Catherine was still working as a muslin sewer [Scott, 2002]. |
Margaret then notes that the 1871 Stevenston census lists Catherine, a widow aged 71, as a staymaker and handsewer. Also, Catherine made application on the Poor Relief rolls of 1879. She then writes "D. C. pull 1881 for Stevenston and then 1879-1881 for Ardrossan", but I don't know to what this refers [Scott, 2002]. In any event, this implies that Katharine died no earlier than 1881. |
All of the children given here are listed in the SCR for Stevenston. In addition, two sons named James appear as submissions in the IGI, but both records are suspect. One was supposedly born 1827, and the second in 1841, but the latter birth would surely would have been recorded in the parish register as a twin to Alexander born 28 March that year. |
I missed the death records in the Stevenston Parochial Registers for the first daughter Margaret and both sons Alexander, but the dates given here are from Margaret Scott citing that source. |
Oct 2002] |
The nine children of Benjamin and Katharine (Brown) Thom: Mary, Margaret†, Janet, Margaret, Marion, Alexander†, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Alexander†. |
i | Thom, Mary was born 18 Mar 1820 in Stevenston, baptized 19 Mar 1820 in Stevenston and died 20 Jan 1893 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was married to John Thomson 27 Feb 1841 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
From the censuses over the years in Ardrossan, John was a railway engine driver living at 16 Glasgow Lane and in Bute Place. Their children were Catherine, Margaret, Mary and Benjamin, born 1841 through 1851 in Stevenston [Scott, 2002]. |
ii | Thom, Margaret† was born 18 Sep 1824 in Stevenston, baptized 19 Sep 1824 in Stevenston and died 1825 in Stevenston. |
iii | Thom, Janet was born 17 Dec 1826 in Stevenston and baptized 17 Dec 1826. She was married to Charles Scott 13 Aug 1846 in Stevenston. |
The children of Charles and Janet were Benjamin, born about 1850 who married Mary McDiarmin, and Catherine, born about 1852 who married Joseph McHattie. |
iv | Thom, Margaret was born 18 Dec 1829 in Stevenston, baptized 20 Dec 1829 in Stevenston and died 17 Sep 1888 in Stevenston. She was married to Isaac Park 18 Sep 1847 in Stevenston. Isaac was born 1823/1824 and died 29 May 1898 in Stevenston. He was the son of Robert and Margaret (Cunninghame) Park. |
From Margaret Scott's notes from the various sources she cites, Isaac was a fireman, labourer and riddesman in the colliery, and Margaret was a hand sewer, dynamite packer and muslin sewer. They lived at 26 Boglemart Street in Stevenston [Scott, 2002]. |
Maira Frew has transcribed Stevenston Monumental Inscriptions and posted them on the web page [Ayrshire Roots]. There we read: In memory of his wife Margaret Thom who died 17th September 1888 aged 59 years the said Isaac Park died 29th May 1898 aged 74 years. |
The nine children of Isaac and Margaret (Thom) Park: Benjamin, Jane, Janet, Robert, James, Margaret Cuningham, Catherine, Mary Thom and John. |
1 | Park, Benjamin was born 30 May 1851 in Stevenston. |
2 | Park, Jane was born 21 May 1853 in Stevenston. |
3 | Park, Janet was born 13 May 1855 in Stevenston. |
4 | Park, Robert was born 19 Aug 1857 in Stevenston. |
5 | Park, James was born 22 Jul 1860 in Stevenston. |
6 | Park, Margaret Cuningham was born 28 Aug 1862 in Stevenston. |
7 | Park, Catherine was born 13 Dec 1864 in Stevenston. |
8 | Park, Mary Thom was born 15 Jan 1867 in Stevenston and died 1939. She was married to James Maxwell 1 Jan 1887 in Carbon, Clay, Indiana. James was born 26 Nov 1859 in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the son of Archibald "Archie" and Christina (Stewart) Maxwell. |
Oct, 2010] took place in Indiana, not in Scotland as I originally had it here. They and their son Archie returned to Scotland, and are in the 1901 Scotland census. Jim writes that Archie returned to Indiana where he died in 1963. |
James' parents' names are also from Jim, and found by him on Family Search under "Indiana Marriages 1811-1959". |
The three children of James and Mary Thom (Park) Maxwell: Archie, Margaret Thom and Janet. |
i | Maxwell, Archie was born 3 Dec 1887 in Carbon, Clay, Indiana and died Sep 1963 in Indiana. |
ii | Maxwell, Margaret Thom was born 2 Mar 1890 and died 16 Jun 1966. She was married to James Wales 6 May 1916. |
A child of James and Margaret Thom (Maxwell) Wales: Abraham. |
1 | Wales, Abraham was born 25 Sep 1916 and died 28 Apr 1991. He was married to Margaret Stark 6 Jun 1941. Margaret was born 1911/1912. |
A child of Abraham and Margaret (Stark) Wales: Margaret. |
i | Wales, Margaret was born 19 Apr xxxx. She was married to Bryan Scott 14 Aug 1965. |
iii | Maxwell, Janet. She was married to Charles Paxton. |
Charles and Janet are the grandparents of Jim Paxton, by correspondant of Oct, 2010, regarding the Maxwell and Thom families. |
9 | Park, John was born 27 Mar 1869 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
v | Thom, Marion was born 8 Apr 1832 in Stevenston and baptized 15 Apr 1832. She was married to Robert Thomson 5 Dec 1850 in Ayrshire. |
Marion and Robert, a journeyman blacksmith in 1855, lived at 5 Glasgow Lane, Ardrossan. They had one child, Robert, born 15 Nov 1855 [Scott, 2002]. As of 1879, Marion was living in America [Poor Relief Record, Stevenston, 731]. |
vi | Thom, Alexander† was born 11 Jun 1834 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, baptized 15 Jun 1834 in Stevenston and died 26 Aug 1836 in Stevenston. |
vii | Thom, Elizabeth was born 20 Jul 1836 in Stevenston and baptized 31 Jul 1836. She was married to Archibald Tait 24 Mar 1854 in Stevenston. Archibald was born 1831/1832 and died 6 May 1874 in Stevenston. He was the son of William and Georgina (Brown) Tait. |
Elizabeth and Archibald lived at 13 Harbour Row, Ardrossan. Their eleven children were Georgina Brown, William, Catherine, Benjamin, Mary, Elizabeth, Margaret, Archiblad, Benjamin, James and John, born 1854 through 1877 [Scott, 2002]. |
viii | Thom, Benjamin was born 4 Jan 1839 in Stevenston and baptized 5 Jan 1839 in Stevenston. He was married to Elizabeth Jeffrey 16 Aug 1861 in Stevenston, Ayr, Scotland. Elizabeth was born 18 Jan 1840 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was the daughter of Joseph and Janet (Love) Jeffrey. |
In 1861 Benjamin was a ship's engineer residing in Greenock, and an engine fitter at 59 Main St. in Cambusnethan, Lanark in 1881 [Scott, 2002]. In 1879 was he listed as an engineer [Poor Relief Record, Stevenston, 731]. |
Benjamin and Elizabeth's children were Benjamin, Joseph, Benjamin, david Jeffrey, William J. and Janet, born 1861 through 1880. The first four were born in Stevenston, the last two in Kilmarnock and at Newmains, Glasgow [Scott, 2002]. |
ix | Thom, Alexander† was born 28 Mar 1841 in Stevenston, baptized 4 Apr 1841 in Stevenston and died 13 Feb 1842 in Stevenston. |
3 | Brown, William was born 22 May 1802 in Stevenston and baptized 29 May 1802 in Stevenston. |
From the Stevenston Parochial Registers for 1802: |
William son Alexander Brown weaver in Stevenston and Mary McNaught born May 22th Bap 29 |
There were two William Browns married in Stevenston, and five in the closely neighboring Ardrossan Parish, who were of an age to be this William. However, the two in Stevenston each had a single daughter's birth in the IGI, and the other five had no children recorded at all, so naming patterns aren't available to provide distinquishing clues. |
The two couples in Stevenston were William Brown and Mary McBride married about 1823 [IGI], who had a daughter Barbara, and William Brown and Mary Harvie who married 3 Oct 1824 [SPR FR619], with a daughter Catharine. |
This William could, of course, have died young, married out of the parish, or remained a bachelor all of his life. We don't know. For that matter, he could have emigrated with his brother Hamilton, but a search for him over here hasn't been carried out. There were more than a few William Browns in New York City. Hamilton named his third son William, in accordance with the naming conventions used so consistently in this lineage, so I don't believe his brother died young. |
4 | Brown, Alexander was born 6 Jul 1804 in Stevenston and baptized in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was married to Grace Fulton 25 Apr 1825 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. Grace was born 1801 in Ayrshire, Scotland. |
From the Stevenston Parochial Registers for 1804: |
Alexander son to Alexander weaver in Stevenstoun and Mary McNaught born July 6 Baptised at Ardro�san |
but this baptism doesn't appear in the Ardrossan Parochial Registers for some reason. |
From the 1825 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Alexander Brown and Grace Fulton both in this parish of L___ster gave in their names April 2 |
No marriages were being recorded at this time in the Stevenston Parochial Registers, just proclamations of banns, but Margaret Scott has a marriage date of 25 April from some unrecorded source, and the same day appears in two submitted records of the IGI. |
10 Nov 2006] that HLW means Hand Loom Weavers. Alexander Brown was listed that year as a grocer and spirit dealer [Scott, 2002]. |
There exist some IGI records in a prior generation between Fulton and Brown: James Fulton, b 17 JUL 1748 Saltcoats, d 14 Jul 1818, m 1778 in Saltcoats to Margaret Brown, b 3 May 1749 Saltcoats, d 14 Aug 1830. |
These are submitted records, not a primary source extraction, so the marriage date is probably someone's guess. A correspondant, Josephine Pike of Australia, is searching for the parents of a Margaret Brown/Broun who married a James Fullton/Fulton in Ardrossan in 1783 (a second marriage for both), and that could well be this same couple. These births are some fifty years before that of Grace Fulton, and so could be her grandparents in so far as date and location are appropriate. Obviously, however, no connection can be assumed based on only that information. |
The first son and second daughter of Alexander and Grace were Alexander and Mary, matching his parents, and in addition they named a daughter Hamilton, which just about clinches this identification. Alexander and Grace appear in the Rev. Landsborough's 1837 census with seven children in the household. We only know the names of six children born by that date, and two of those had died by that time, so who all of these children were we don't know. |
The births of Jean, Mary and Robert (the latter born 1832), with only birth years specified, are from submitted records to the IGI and are given that same way by Margaret Scott. In addition, a second Robert born 1840 appears in the IGI, but was not recorded in the 1841 census, so most likely is a reference to the first Robert with an erroneous birth year. There is a record of a Robert Brown who married Helen Wallace Arnot 3 Mar 1854 in Stevenston who Margaret Scott believes to be the son of Alexander and Grace born 1832. But the two death records "Alexr Brown's infant child died March 29th" in 1831 and "Alexr Brown's child in Stevenston died Sept 23rd" in 1834 can only refer to Margaret and that Robert. On the other hand, a Robert born in 1840 can hardly be the one who married in 1854. At this time, I'm rejecting the second Robert and the 1854 marriage as not pertaining to this family. |
Note that three of the children died young (marked with the symbol †). |
The eight children of Alexander and Grace (Fulton) Brown: Jean Fulton, Mary, Alexander Ingram, Margaret†, Robert, Hamilton, Grace† and Grace. |
i | Brown, Jean Fulton was born 1822/1826 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland and died 20 Jun 1885 in Townshead Street, Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was married to David Frew 10 Jun 1843 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. David was born 13 Feb 1820 in Stevenston and died 3 Jun 1906 in Boglemart, Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Lindsay) Frew. |
10 Nov 2006], a descendant of David and Jean. It was confirmed later (2007) from an extensive Frew ancestral document supplied to me by Margaret Scott. |
Jean and David had eight children, Elizabeth, Alexander, Grace †, Robert †, David, Jane, Margaret † and Margaret † Frew, born about 1845 through 1865 [Scott, 2002]. |
ii | Brown, Mary was born 1826/1827 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
This record, Alexr Brown's child in Stevenston died Sept 23rd [From the 1834 Stevenston Parochial Registers] probably refers to this daughter Mary, as there is no record of any other child born before this date who does not have later marriage records. I had previously assigned this death to her brother Robert, but Gillian Mauchan pointed out to me [Personal Communication, July, 2010] that Robert survived, was married, and died in 1910. |
iii | Brown, Alexander Ingram was born 23 Jan 1828 in Stevenston, baptized Mar 1828 in Stevenston and died about 1875 in Stevenston. He was married to Flora Stewart 22 Nov 1848 in Stevenston, Ayr, Scotland. Flora was born 1830/1836 in Kilmorie, Arran, Scotland and died 30 May 1899 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. |
The 1828 record in the Stevenston Parochial Archives for this son of Alexander and Grace is interesting in that the name was originally entered as Ingram, and then the abbreviation "Alexr" was written in the space above. It's not possible of course to determine when the addition was made, but as near as one can tell it's in the same handwriting, not a modern one. The Index of Baptisms appearing on the microfilm of the Register reads "Alexander Ingram". The day of the baptism is missing because of the worn edge o the register page: |
In 1861 Alexander Brown, 32, was a potato merchant at 6 Main Street in Stevenston with his wife and three daughters. By 1876 Flora was a widow, with a two year old Jane in her household, her daughters being away. On November 13th of that year Flora was certified insane and sent to an asylum, but was back in her own home a year later. She moved in 1877 to Ardrossan and probably died in an asylum [Scott, 2002]. |
Alexander Ingram and Flora's children were Grace b 1853, Alexander b 1855, Margaret b 1859, Janet b 1860, Alexander Ingram b 1866, Mary Stewart b 1869, and possibly also Flora b 1851/52 and Jessie b 1860 who were in their household in 1861 but not listed as children by Margaret [Scott, 2002]. |
iv | Brown, Margaret† was born 12 Jan 1830 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, baptized 20 Jan 1830 in Stevenston and died 29 Mar 1831 in Stevenston. |
From the 1830 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Margaret Daughter to Alex Brown weaver Stevn & Grace Fulton born Jan 12th Bapt 20th |
There is a death record in the 1831 Stevenston Parochial Registers: Alexr Brown's infant child died March 29th, and that is most likely for Margaret. |
v | Brown, Robert was born 1832 in Stevenston and died 26 Sep 1910 in Androssan, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was married to Helen Wallace Arnott 19 Feb 1854 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland. Helen Wallace was born 1834 in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland. She was the daughter of William and Ann (Wallace) Arnott. |
Gillian Mauchan is a 3rd-gr-grandchild of this Robert and his wife Ann Wallace by their daughter Grace Fulton Brown who married Andrew Mauchan. She has kindly provided me with the results of her research on this family in the form of a beautifully documented Register Report. |
Robert was born in Stevenston, the son of a weaver. He started out as a weaver but with the collapse of the cotton industry changed jobs and became a gardener. He appears to have had steady employment as he lived in the same house for the rest of his life. |
Gillian's research reports that they had nine children: Alexander, William, Robert Fulton, Ann Wallace, John, Robert Fulton, Gardner, Helen W. and Grace Fulton Brown born through 1854 through 1875 in Stevenston (the first three) and Ardrossan. |
vi | Brown, Hamilton was born 19 Aug 1836 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland and baptized 28 Aug 1836. She was married (1) to Edward Stevenson 12 Feb 1858 in Stevenston. Edward died before 1875. She was married (2) to Cowan Gibson 12 Feb 1873 in Scotland. Cowan was born 1823/1824 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland and died before 1891. He was the son of Robert and Catherine (Cowan) Gibson. |
Although it had been corrected indexed in the SCR, until I inspected the 1836 entry itself in the Stevenston Parochial Registers I had missed the point that this Hamilton was a daughter! |
The Index of Baptisms also appearing on the microfilm of the Register reads "Hamilton (Fem)", so someone else felt this somewhat rare usage needed to be flagged. |
Hamilton's children by Edward Stevenson were Robert, Sarah, Grace, Alexander, Sarah, Jane and John, according to one of my correspondants. Margaret Scott says that the 1871 census described Edward as a manufacturer of shawls, and listed their children at home as Grace, Alexander, Sarah and Jane Stevenson. I have not read the Stevenston Parochial Registers for these two families of Hamilton, and so must rely on the IGI for names and birth dates, as shown below. Considering those dates, it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that Grace and Robert were children in the family, even though Grace was living there in 1871. |
The record in the IGI for the marriage of Cowan Gibson and Hamilton Brown 12 Feb 1873 seems right for the date (considering her children's birth dates), but it lists the place as High Church, Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland. That seems such and out-of-place place, that I only mention it here but don't accept it without seeing the original record. Two such couples with these names, however, being married about the same time seems highly unlikely. |
I also had from some source (now lost) that Hamilton's children by Cowan were Hugh, Mary and Martha. This doesn't accord completely with the births of Margaret and Martha, as listed below from the IGI, although the seven years between the births does leave time for two children whose births were not registered. The birth for Martha, incidently, has her mother listed as Hamilton Brown Stevenson, thus testifying to Hamilton's two marriages. |
The seven children of Edward and Hamilton (Brown) Stevenson: Sarah†, Sarah†, Alexander, Sarah, Jane, John† and John. |
1 | Stevenson, Sarah† was born 1 Nov 1858 in Stevenston. |
2 | Stevenson, Sarah† was born 19 Sep 1860 in Stevenston. |
3 | Stevenson, Alexander was born 9 Jul 1862 in Stevenston. |
4 | Stevenson, Sarah was born 10 Aug 1864 in Stevenston. |
5 | Stevenson, Jane was born 29 Nov 1866 in Stevenston. |
6 | Stevenson, John† was born 11 May 1869 in Stevenston. |
7 | Stevenson, John was born 7 Dec 1870 in Stevenston. |
The two children of Cowan and Hamilton (Brown) Gibson: Margaret Cowan and Martha Young. |
1 | Gibson, Margaret Cowan was born 17 May 1873 in Stevenston. |
2 | Gibson, Martha Young was born 22 Dec 1880 in Stevenston. |
vii | Brown, Grace† was born 24 Apr 1838 in Stevenston, baptized 29 Apr 1838 and died 10 Jan 1840 in Stevenston. |
From the 1838 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Grace daughter to Alexr Brown Weaver Stevn & Grace Fulton, Born April 24th Bapd 29th |
And from the1840 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Alexr Browns child d. Jany 10th |
viii | Brown, Grace was born 22 Nov 1841 in Stevenston and baptized 29 Nov 1841. |
From the 1841 Stevenston Parochial Registers: |
Grace daughter to Alexr Brown Weaver Stevn & Grace Fulton, Born Novr 22th Bapd 29th(?) |
5 | Brown, Hamilton was born 17 Aug 1806. |
Hamilton Brown & Mary Biggert |
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Hamilton Brown was born 17 Aug 1806 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, baptized 17 Aug 1806 in Stevenston, died 29 Jan 1868 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York and was buried 2 Feb 1868 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
Hamilton was married (1) to Mary 22 Apr 1833 in GreenwichVillage, New York, New York, New York. |
Mary Biggert was born about 1810/1811 in Scotland? and died 1839/1844 in New York, New York, New York. |
The record of Hamilton's birth and baptism can be found in the Stevenston Parochial Registers for 1806: |
Hamilton Brown, weaver and watch crystal maker, came to the United States before his marriage in 1833, and probably after 1830, as he has not been found in the 1830 Federal Census and wasn't listed in the 1829/1830 Manhattan City Directory. His immigration records haven't been found either, but what we have discovered shows that during his early years in the United States, Hamilton lived, worked and married on Manhattan Island, New York City, New York, New York. |
The original marriage certificate of Hamilton Brown and Mary Biggert was discovered in the effects of the widow of their grandson, Albert Markley Swan, when she died in 1993. The specifics of the occasion were added to a preprinted calligraphy document with an illustration at the top of a marriage ceremony in nineteenth century dress: |
This Certifies that the bonds of Marriage between Hamilton Brown and Mary Biggert were by me confirmed, according to the Usages of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, in North America, on the 22nd day of April in the year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Three. Given at New York this 22nd day of April, A. D. 1833. N. J. Marselus, Minister of the Reformed Prott. Dutch Church in Bleecker St., N. York." |
Their marriage on 22 Apr 1833 is also recorded on FamilySearch, citing the Dutch Reformed Church, Greenwich Village, New York, New York. |
Bleecker Street (from the Dutch for bleacher, as in the cleaning profession, and named for a member of a prominent New York City family of the early 19th century wikipedia) runs west from Bowery Street paralleling West Houston St, then continues from The Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) diagonally west and north to merge with Hudson Street at Abington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The Bleecker Street church was established in 1804, and after several moves, a new structure was erected in 1827 on Bleecker at Amos Street, now West 10th Street (south of Abington Square) [Stokes, 1915-1928]. Nicholas J. Marselus (1792-1876) [Yates, 1891], who presided at the marriage of Hamilton and Mary, was its minister for thirty-five years, from 1823 until its closing in 1858 [Corwin, 1859]. The congregation probably was absorbed into either the Reformed Church in Washington Square, established 1837 two blocks north of Bleecker, or the Houston Street Reformed which had been at 7th Avenue and 12th Street, on the edge of Greenwich Village, since 1823. (The Reverend Nicholas J. Marselus and family were censused in the ninth ward of New York City in 1830, 1840, and 1850. In the mid-1850s, Nicholas sued for funds of the founding Dutch Reform Church in New York City to be distributed to other congregations for support of their ministers. The corporate entities of each congregation were upheld as separate, and the suit was denied upon appeal by the State Supreme Court in 1858, the same year that his Bleecker St congregation dissolved [Barbour, 1859].) |
Hamilton, born in 1806, was 27 years old at marriage. According to Albert Markley Swan's notes, Mary was 22 years old when she married in 1833, so she was five years younger than Hamilton, and born about 1810-11. |
Hamilton Brown declared his intention of becoming a citizen on November 3, 1834 in the Marine Court of the City of New York. He became a citizen 30 Sep 1840, when he was certified as having been known for five years in this country by James Nicol, perhaps the same James Nicol censused that year in Ward 16 of New York City, as was Hamilton. A James Nicol, who was born in Paisley, Scotland (near Hamilton's origins), was naturalized here 27 Nov 1822. This James is recorded as being a weaver in the naturalization records, also the occupation of Hamilton Brown at that time, as evidenced in the New York City directories from 1838 to 1842. (Later, from 1852 to 1854, a James Nichol, commercial merchant, is listed on Water Street in lower Manhattan; Hamilton's watch glass making business was just off Water Street on William Street from 1852 to 1858.) Hamilton worked originally as a weaver at 223 West 20th, a mile north of Bleecker Street where he was married, and only four blocks from where he later established his business as a watch glass maker. He can be found at that address in both the 1839/40 and 1842 New York city directories. Also at 223 West 20th in 1842 was Ovid P. Wells, a physician, and John Hay, no occupation given. The 200 block of W 20th had both residences and businesses listed. A lawyer and a broker resided there and worked elsewhere. There were also an engineer, a grocer, a shoemaker, several merchants, a carman, and a minister's widow. |
Hamilton and Mary's three children were born in the years from 1836 to 1839. In the 1840 census for New York City's 16th ward, Hamilton is listed as engaged in manufacture and trade. His household has one male 30 to 40 a female 20 to 30, and two males and one female under five years. All ages are in agreement with other records. Hamilton was 34, and Mary, "22 in 1833" puts her at 29 in 1840, which affirms Albert Markley Swan's notes. |
Sometime between 1839 and 1844 Hamilton lost his wife Mary, but we have not found death or burial information online. (Records of the Reformed Dutch Church would likely reveal more.) Later records allow us to verify which of Hamilton's children were Mary's and which were his second wife, Charlotte's: Charlotte's 1900 census reveals that she had four children, only one of whom was still living (Mary). As Jane was also still alive in 1900, this confirms that Jane and her older siblings were the children of Hamilton and Mary. |
Daughter Jane's death certificate indicates that both of her parents were born in Scotland. We know that her stepmother, Charlotte, who raised her from a young age, was born in Scotland, and the document could have been referring to her. (Note also that Jane's eldest daughter is named after her stepmother.) But if the informant for Jane's death certificate knew about her birth mother, we could conclude that Mary Biggert was born in Scotland, also. Biggert, or Biggart, is a common Scottish name. For example, in the same region as our Brown and McNaught ancestors, there were Biggarts in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, about 11 miles inland by road from Stevenston, and in Paisley, Renfrewshire, about 22 miles inland from Stevenston. We found no Biggerts or Biggarts listed in the New York City censuses of 1830 and 1840 nor in the city directories of the period. |
Hamilton Brown, living and working on Manhattan Island, New York City, changed his occupation from weaver sometime in the 1840s and was listed in the records as a watch glass maker from 1846 until his death in 1868. He started his new business at 90 West 18th Street, but within a year established a home and shop at 261 Bowery where he stayed for about five years. The mechanical pocket watches of the nineteenth century were assembled by hand by watchmakers from components hand manufactured by specialists. Clear glass covers protected the watch parts while allowing the hands to be viewed [squidoo.com]. By 1865 the American Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts began machine manufacture of watch parts and producing less expensive watches for a wider market, and the time of the specialists would have begun waning [wikipedia]. |
Hamilton Brown, a widower with three young children, married Charlotte Robertson on July 5, 1844 in Springfield, Otsego, New York, where her parents resided, and probably where she did, also. (Image courtesy Alice Dixon) |
of New York and Miss Charlotte Robertson daughter of Mr. Wm. Robertson & wife of Springfield, Otsego Co & State of New York were married July 5th, 1844" " |
Hamilton was 37 years old at his second marriage; his bride Charlotte was about 23 years old. Springfield is about 185 miles north of Manhattan--quite a distance in those days; the Robertsons must have had a connection to New York City in order for the two to have met. If the Robertsons immigrated to New York, perhaps they had settled for a time in New York City before William and Jane moved north to the farmlands of Otsego County. As Charlotte was born in Scotland, we can narrow the family's immigration date to after 1821; we have not searched immigration records. A look into the Robertson families censused in 1830 and 1840 Otsego and New York City might reveal more about how these two might have met. |
Charlotte's age as given in the records is inconsistent. The 1900 census gave her birth as January 1820, yet her age as recorded on her 1905 death certificate suggests she was born in 1822. We have found a birth record on FamilySearch for a Charlotte Robertson, born January 12, 1821 to William and "Jean" Robertson in Inverness, Scotland; we suspect this is her. Charlotte's mother ("Jane" in the American records we've located) was in her mid-forties when Charlotte was born, so she may have been the youngest of a large family. |
Photographs of "William and Jane Robertson", parents of Charlotte, held by descendants, connect the "Wm. Robertson and wife" of the wedding document with the Jane Robertson residing with the Brown family later in 1860. The 1850 federal census of Otsego County, New York shows a William "Robinson" 80, born in Scotland, and wife Jane, 73, also born in Scotland. Her age corresponds with the Jane Robertson listed with the Browns in 1860; we think these are them and that the census taker made an error with the last name. (images courtesy of Jane Dixon) |
In the (July 22) 1850 census for the 17th ward (which includes 261 Bowery), Hamilton Brown, age 44, was listed with his second wife Charlotte, 29, also born in Scotland, and five children, all born in New York: Alexander 13, Hamilton 12, Jane 11, William 5, and Mary, a year and a half. Their neighbors were from Germany, Ireland, England and New York. They were a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a cigar maker, a cartman, an upholsterer, a machinist, a gardener…and William Swan, 21, glass cutter, born in England, with wife Mary A. Swan 22, born in Ireland. William was Hamilton's apprentice and brother of James Swan, who was to marry Hamilton's daughter, Jane, in 1857. |
Another son, Robert, was born about 1851. |
In 1852 Hamilton moved his business to 158 William (near Water Street and Maiden Lane), and his home to a residence at 132 Sackett Street across the East River in Brooklyn, where he and his family were to live for the next two decades. This residence was between Columbia and Hicks, and only a block or two from where he could board the sidewheeler ferries on which he would have commuted between work and home. (Hamilton's business location in the Bowery was taken over by his former apprentice William Swan.) In 1856 Hamilton's business address in Manhattan changed around the corner to 95 Fulton, and in 1859 two blocks away to 75 Nassau. These three locations were in the heart of the watchmaking business about six blocks from Wall Street; his move to this part of the city apparently signaling Hamilton's success in the business world. His descendants through daughter Mary hold his bank book from the Market Bank at 82 Nassau, near Fulton. (image courtesy Alice Dixon) |
Daughter Jane Brown was married to James W. Swan on August 19, 1857 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York at the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church; in New York City in March of 1859 their eldest child, Charlotte, surely named after Jane's stepmother, was born. |
The summer of 1859 began three horrible years for the Brown family. The perils of living in a large, densely populated, major port city are never more apparent than when disease and un-safeguarded hazards hit one family multiple times. On June 2nd, 1859, Alexander, eldest son of Hamilton, died at age 21 of consumption (tuberculosis) after six months of illness. Then, in a freak accident, his little brother, Robert, drowned. A short newspaper account in the Brooklyn Eagle on July 30, 1859 reports a "Singular Death" : |
The Gowanus neighborhood was a very short distance from the Brown home. Penny Bridge crossed the Gowanus channel (once a creek), a commercial waterway which also fed sewage from the burgeoning city of Brooklyn into Gowanus Bay [wikipedia]. A swim on a hot summer evening would have been a tempting escape for a young boy whose home had become a sick house. How horrible to picture the constable arriving at the door with the wet, muddy body of the young child, whose parents perhaps had been distracted by his deathly ill siblings. Their second eldest son, Hamilton Brown, also sick with TB that year, lasted until January of 1860. All three were buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn; all three were reported in the 1860 Federal Census Mortality Schedule. Three sons dead in the space of eight months. |
The three children of Hamilton and Mary (Biggert) Brown: Alexander, Hamilton and Jane. |
1 | Brown, Alexander was born Jul 1837 in New York, died 2 Jun 1859 in Brooklyn Ward 6, Kings, New York and was buried 3 Jun 1859 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
Alexander's death notice was published in the New York Times [New York Times, 1859]: |
"In Brooklyn, on Thursday, June 2, of consumption, Alexander Brown, eldest son of Hamilton and Charlotte Brown, aged 21 years and 10 months. "The relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral from the residence of his parents, this Friday afternoon, at 4 o'clock, from No. 132 Sackett st., South Brooklyn." |
Consumption, the term used at that time, was what we now call pulmonary tuberculosis. Alexander was listed as a jeweler in the 1860 Federal Census Mortality Schedule. If he was a watch jeweler, he installed the jewel bearings into pocket watches. See also "Hamilton Brown and Charlotte Robertson", below. |
2 | Brown, Hamilton was born Jul 1838 in New York, New York, New York, died 21 Jan 1860 in Brooklyn Ward 6, Kings, New York and was buried 22 Jan 1860 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
Less than eight months after his brother Alexander's death of tuberculosis, Hamilton also died of that disease. Like his brother, he was listed in the 1860 Federal Census Mortality Schedule as a jeweler, perhaps a watch jeweller. The death notice in the New York Herald-Tribune gave his age as 21 years and three months, which would suggest he was born Oct 1838, but he was listed as already twelve years old in the July 1850 census. See also "Hamilton Brown and Charlotte Robertson", below. |
3 | Brown, Jane was born 26 Oct 1839. |
Hamilton Brown & Charlotte Robertson |
Hamilton Brown was born 17 Aug 1806 in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, baptized 17 Aug 1806 in Stevenston, died 29 Jan 1868 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York and was buried 2 Feb 1868 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
Hamilton was married (2) to Charlotte 5 Jul 1844 in Springfield, Otsego, New York. |
Charlotte Robertson was born 12 Jan 1821 in Inverness, Scotland, baptized 12 Feb 1821 in Kingussie, and Insch, Inverness, Scotland, died 21 Aug 1905 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried 25 Aug 1905 in Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of William and Jane (____) Robertson. |
Hamilton and Charlotte Brown, at 132 Sackett St, were censused on July 7, 1860. Their neighbors were from New York, Scotland, Ireland, England, Prussia and France, and included a porter, a furrier, a currier, a cooper, a stone cutter, a master carpenter, a carman and a bookkeeper. Hamilton's age was given as 56 instead of 54; Charlotte's was recorded as 37 instead of 38 or 39. The census taker, who recorded deaths of the twelve months previous to 1 Jun 1860, received their report of three dead sons. (Alexander's death on June 2nd just fit the time frame, although oddly, both Alexander's and Robert's death months were recorded incorrectly as being August.) Their older daughter Jane was married and residing elsewhere, so only two children remained in the household--William was 15; Mary was 11. |
Also recorded in Hamilton's household in the 1860 census was Jane Robertson, 83, born in Scotland 1776/77. Charlotte's mother, most likely widowed by this time, had left Otsego County, and joined the household sometime in the past decade, perhaps to lend support to the grieving family. In any case, Jane died in Brooklyn a year later on the 27th of August, 1861 at the age of 84. She was buried in the same lot as the Brown family in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, on the 29th. |
It is interesting to note that, from 1849 through 1854, there was a James W. Robertson listed in the New York city directory as a watchmaker at 84 Wooster. Hamilton's occupation changed to watch glass maker in the same period as his marriage to Charlotte. Was James a new relation, and tied to those changes in Hamilton's life? Could James have been supplied with watch glasses by Hamilton? According to the 1850 census, Jas. W. Robertson, born in New York, was 34 years of age and a jeweler by profession. Hamilton's sons Alexander and Hamilton were listed as jewelers in the Census Mortality Schedule of 1860--were they working for Robertson? In James' 1850 household were Catherine Brown, aged 38, Catherine McKenzie, aged 36, both born in New York, and a Mary M. Robertson, aged eight years, who had been born in Pennsylvania. As it turns out, Catherine was James' wife, which we learned from her obituary in the New York Herald. Catherine Brown, born 1811/1812, does not appear to fit anywhere in Hamilton's Brown lineage, and the census doesn't say whether that was her maiden name or married name. Records tying James Robertson to William and Jane, or to Charlotte, have not been found online. |
We did trace James further. In earlier New York city directories (1839 to 1848), a James Robertson is listed as a gilder, perhaps the same James in a previous, related occupation. In an 1853 (Brooklyn Eagle) newspaper advertisement, R. C. Akerly & Co, "watches, jewelry and silver-ware", announce their removal from the Bowery to 41 Fulton near Pearl, and point out that "J. W. Robertson" will give his full attention to the watch department. (Hamilton moved from the Bowery to this area three years later.) James W. Robertson, jewels, is listed in the 1857 New York City directory at that same Fulton address, still residing at 84 Wooster. He was not listed in the 1859 business directory and we could not find him in the 1860 or 1870 censuses, but in 1871, James W. Robertson, jeweler, was listed in the Long Island directory residing on Congress Avenue in Whitestone (across the river in Queens). His wife, Catherine Brown, died there two years later [New York Herald, 1873]. |
Hamilton Brown was listed on a non-population schedule for the 1860 census as an individual in Ward 2, New York City, producing articles to the annual value of $500. He had $650 capital invested in his business of producing watch glasses, with an average of one employee at $20 a month. The annual cost of his raw material (glass) was $500 and the annual value of his production was $1,000. |
According to the 1860 census, 15 year old son William was working as a watch spring apprentice--the watch industry of those days clearly was carried out by many different, highly specialized craftsmen. The 1859 New York City Business Directory listed case makers, case chasers, case polishers, dial makers, watch jewelers, watchmakers and watchmaker tool makers, watch and clock spring makers and watch case spring makers. Several of these last were listed on Nassau and Fulton- one only a few doors from Hamilton's shop at 95 Fulton, and James Robertson's shop at 41 Fulton. (Hamilton Brown and William Swan were listed as two of the six watch crystal makers in the city.) |
In another incredible blow to the family, according to a notice in the New York Times, son William, 17, died of a "short, severe" illness on March 6, 1862, and the Browns buried a fourth son at Green-Wood Cemetery. |
Adding a touch of the absurd to the tragedies endured by the Browns, the New York Times noted that same month (12 March 1862) that a twenty five year old Irish "girl" was remanded for sentencing by the court for pickpocketing -- she was convicted of stealing a gold watch and cash from the pocket of Hamilton Brown of 132 Sackett Street, Brooklyn on the 18th of the previous month (probably in Manhattan). |
In the 1862 and 1863 Brooklyn city directories, Hamilton was still residing at 132 Sackett, then the 1864 and 1866 Brooklyn city directories list Hamilton Brown residing at De Kalb Avenue and Nostrand, with his watch glass business continuing at 75 Nassau (Manhattan). |
Listed in the 1865 U.S. IRS Tax assessment lists, District 2, New York, Hamilton was assessed $1 for the possession of one watch, possibly the gold one retrieved from the pickpocketing Irish girl a couple of years previously. |
In October of 1866, Hamilton Brown stood as witness for the naturalization of his former apprentice William Swan. |
Hamilton Brown, 61 years old, died intestate on the 29th of January, 1868, in Brooklyn and was buried alongside his four sons in Green-Wood Cemetery on February 2nd. On February 13, Charlotte, 46 year old widow of Hamilton Brown, applied to become administrator of his estate. The document gives his death date, and an estimate that his estate was not more than $1500 dollars. It also confirms that all of Hamilton's sons had died before him, as it lists as survivors only Charlotte, widow, and two children, Jane wife of James Swan, residing in Paterson, New Jersey, and Mary Brown, a minor, aged nineteen, with no general guardian. The application was granted the next day. |
Charlotte appeared as widow of Hamilton in the Brooklyn City Directory at 587 De Kalb Avenue from 1869 through 1872, the year before her daughter Mary married. Charlotte and daughter Mary were censused September 5th, 1870 in Brooklyn, ward 21. Charlotte was 48, with a home valued at $5000, and personal property valued at $500. Mary, 21, worked as a milliner. |
On April 29, 1873, Charlotte's daughter Mary C. Brown married marble cutter Daniel G. Dimond of Hartford, Connecticut, but Charlotte and Mary remained closely tied--Charlotte evidently lived with Mary and her family until she died; sometimes listed as head of family, suggesting some personal financial stability. From 1874 to 1881, Charlotte was listed in the Hartford, Connecticut city directory, residing on Liberty Street with Daniel and Mary. By around 1875, Daniel had his own marble business on 263 Asylum Street, offering monuments, headstone, mantels, floor tiling and more. The 1878 Hartford City directory street index includes the information that Liberty Street, in Ward 1, had water, sewage and gas lines, and was macadamed (paved). |
In 1880 Charlotte Brown was censused residing in a duplex at 15 Liberty St in Hartford, Connecticut. A 58 year old widow, she was listed as head of a household which included son-in-law and daughter Daniel G. and Mary C. Dimond, and granddaughters Emily R. and Jennie M. |
It's possible that Daniel suffered reverses in his business, as he relocated several times over the next 20 years, and once again was listed as a marble cutter. In the 1885 New York City directory, Daniel G. Dimond, was listed as a tileworker residing at 696 E. 164th Street (Bronx). In 1888 Charlotte Brown, widow of Hamilton, and Daniel Dimond, marble cutter, were listed in the New York City directory at 652 Railroad Avenue. Then they all appeared in the Browns' old neighborhood: The Brooklyn city directory of 1889/90 included Charlotte Brown, widow of Hamilton and Daniel G Dimond, marble cutter, both listed at 658 De Kalb Ave, just a block east of Nostrand St and the Browns' former residence. Then the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they were to remain: by the 1891 directory they were residing at 3426 N. 16th Street in that city. In 1894 they were at 1731 Juniata Street, where they continued through 1898. In 1900 the family appears in the census residing again at 3426 N 16th St, which is where Charlotte died in 1905. |
Charlotte, an "80" year old widow born in Scotland, was censused in Philadelphia in 1900 with Daniel and Mary, their two daughters, and their two granddaughters, i.e., Charlotte's great-granddaughters. It was from this census that we originally learned that Hamilton and Charlotte had had two more children who never appeared in census records--Robert and a still unidentified fourth. A search of the Green-Wood Cemetery online index brings up two more Browns in the same lot and section as the other Browns in Charlotte's family-- John, who was buried on August 8th, 1855, and a Mary who was buried on Dec 2nd, 1856. A search of death records brought up only Mary, who was born the same year she died. Because her name is Mary, and Charlotte already had a daughter with that name, this Mary's identity is mystifying. We await a response from the cemetery with further information on all the pertinent Browns [06/12/12]. |
We hold an interesting (to us) artifact of Charlotte's life. At some time while Charlotte resided at 1731 Juniata Street in Philadelphia (1894?-1898?), Charlotte mailed to her stepdaughter Jane in Topeka the marriage license of Hamilton Brown and his first wife Mary Biggert (Jane's birth mother). When found in Lillian Swan's effects, the certificate was still in the envelope it was mailed in. Besides the interest of the certificate itself, we find the envelope itself somewhat curious. |
It is a letter-size envelope of thin paper, resized by being folded so that the tip of the gummed flap extended to the bottom edge of the envelope. On the front of the envelope is written "Mrs James Swan | 622 Buchanan St., | Topeka, Kansas". To the left is a faded, reddish, stamped impression of which the word Register is clearly visible, below which was a date, May 3 or May 8 and a year which cannot now be read, followed by "Sta. R", "No. 215" entered by hand in the blank spot provided. Between that registry stamp and the address is a trace of adhesive which presumably marks the original location of a postage stamp. Finally, there is a green stamped number 1554 against the ragged right edge of the envelope, where perhaps it was opened. |
On the back side appear two addresses. On the left edge, written vertically across the body and the flap, appears "Charlotte Brown | 1731 Juniatta St. | Philadelphia | Pa". Then through the increased flap area, written in a large hand, is "J. R. Garaway | Beta | Winscombe | W. S. Mare | Bristol". Just above Charlotte's name, along the ragged edge of the envelope is the bottom edge of a purple stamped impression with the word Registered. |
The Topeka address on the front and the "return" address of Charlotte Brown on the back are written in the same hand and ink, but the name and the address in England were written by a different person. During the late 19th century, Weston-super-Mare was a popular seaside resort in southwest England. Winscombe, a small town in Somersetshire, England, is some three miles inland from there. Messrs. J. Garaway & Co., owners of Durdham Downs Nursery, Whiteladies road, Bristol, can be found listed in 19th century post office directories of Bristol, England, as well as in horticultural journals throughout the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th. |
It may be that Charlotte recycled an envelope she received in Philadelphia from Bristol, explaining why her address seems written to fit around the Garaway address. Or the Bristol address was written later on the back of the envelope after Jane received it, but by whom and for what purpose is unknown. Perhaps Charlotte or Jane had an interest in horticulture and corresponded with J. R. Garaway on the subject. But the connection is unlikely to be a family one; the name Garaway has not appeared elsewhere in our family history. |
Charlotte Brown's death certificate indicates that she died of a stroke ("apoplexy") on August 21, 1905 at the N. 16th Street residence and that she was buried at the Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia. |
The four children of Hamilton and Charlotte (Robertson) Brown: William, Mary C., Robert and ____. |
1 | Brown, William was born 1845 in Manhattan, New York, New York, New York, died 6 Mar 1862 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York and was buried 8 Mar 1862 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
In July of 1860 William's family, which had recently suffered the deaths of all three of his brothers, was censused in Brooklyn. William was a 15 year old watch spring apprentice, probably traveling by ferry with his father each day to Manhattan to work in the same watchmaking district. Less than two years later, William died at the home of his parents at 132 Sackett St., Brooklyn, of a "short, severe illness" at the age of 17 [New York Times, 1862]. He was buried with his brothers in Green-Wood Cemetery. |
We do not have birth information for this first son of Hamilton and Charlotte. Their marriage date of 5 July 1844 plus his age of 5 in the July 1850 suggest April to July 1845. But if he had already turned 17 by his death in March 6 1862, then perhaps he was born Jan-Mar 1845. His family was living in Manhattan at the time. |
2 | Brown, Mary C. was born Dec 1848 in New York, New York, New York, died 21 Sep 1917 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried 25 Sep 1917 in Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia. She was married to Daniel G. Dimond 29 Apr 1873 in Manhattan, New York, New York, New York. Daniel G. was born Mar 1837 in New York, New York, New York, died 27 Mar 1902 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried in Northwood, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
Mary C. Dimond was born to Scottish born immigrant parents in the Bowery district of New York City (on Manhattan Island). Her mother's name being Charlotte it is possible that that was Mary's middle name. She was the youngest of five children until her brother, Robert was born in 1851. The family moved to Brooklyn when she was about four years old, and she grew up in that city. As a child Mary experienced the deaths of all four of her brothers, and with her sister Jane grown and married, Mary was the only child at home from age thirteen (1862). Her maternal grandmother lived with the family at that time, and died in 1861. Mary was nineteen when her father died in February 1868, and from that time, Mary and her mother Charlotte remained together until Charlotte's death. |
In the 1870 Federal census of Brooklyn, Charlotte Brown, a 48 year old widow, was head of household and Mary, 21, worked as a milliner. They were soon to start a new life, though, when Mary married in 1873. |
We have not found a birth record online for Daniel, and other records that would indicate his year of birth are inconsistent. According to the 1900 census, Daniel was 63, born in March of 1837, but in 1902, his death certificate gave his age at death as 68, or born in 1833/1834. Other censuses suggest 1834/1835; New York State Militia records of 1861 and 1862 indicate 1833; in his civil war draft registration he gives his age as only 25, which gives the latest birth year--1838. |
The 1880 and 1900 censuses both recorded that Daniel was born in New York and his parents were born in Ireland. Despite this information we have not located his family in the 1850 or 1860 censuses when each individual was listed nor in city directories of the 1850s or 1860s, despite looking statewide. But we do think we have found relatives. Daniel was a marble cutter, and the early 19th century records of New York City show a family of Dimonds who had marble cutting businesses. In 1850 John Dimond, 30, and William Dimond 28, both marble cutters born in Ireland, lived next to each other each in Ward 16, which ran horizontally along the then-northern edge of the city, just beyond Greenwich Village. The 1860 census of New York City (ward 20, distict 3) lists John Dimond, 40, a master marble cutter, and worth $10,000. Next door to him lived James G. Dimond, 41, a master baker born in Ireland, and nearby was a William H. Dimond, 29, born in New York. In 1859 John Dimond withdrew from the partnership of Murphy & Dimond, marble dealers, at 1053 Broadway, and then advertisements for his own marble works (and probably his son John's marble works) appear through the 1880s in the city directories. |
Because we have not located records for Daniel during the 1850s, his life during his early adulthood remains a mystery. He was not listed in the New York City directory of 1857 when he would have been around 20 to 24 years old, which opens the search to other parts of the state or even the country. But because of the New York City Dimonds and his marriage to Mary C Brown of New York CIty and Brooklyn, we conclude that Daniel had to be familiar with that corner of the state. |
The earliest certain appearance that we have for Daniel in online records is his participation in the New York State Militia (8th Regiment, Company F) in 1861 (age "28") and 1862 (age "29") for three months each year, mustering out as a 2nd lieutenant [Ancestry's [U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles]. (James G. Dimond, mentioned above, was a captain of the 8th Regiment.) That these militia records are for our Daniel are confirmed by a document held by descendants--a pension claim made by his widow in April 1902. (image courtesy Alice Dixon) |
From the New York State Military Museum website we learned that the regiment served the United States at Washington, in Maryland and in Virginia, participating in the first Battle of Bull Run (1861) and the Siege of Yorktown (1862). When mustered, the regiment marched through the lively city cheered by crowds as they headed to the docks to board the ships that would take them south; they were also greeted with cheering crowds on their return. A year later the regiment would be facing much different crowds as they quelled the Draft Riots of 1863, but we think Daniel had moved out of state by then. |
]. We did not find records of service resulting from the draft. We can confirm this Daniel in Connecticut is the same Daniel of the New York Militia because the Civil War Pension and later Hartford records connect both to the same wife. |
Through the Hartford city directories (digitized beginning with 1863) we traced Daniel residing in several lodging houses, mostly on Main Street or Church Street, for the next decade. In 1870 Daniel was censused as a 36 year old marbleworker, born in New York, still single, and boarding at 128 Trumbell Street. In 1872 he is listed on Liberty Street, where he was to remain for several years: In 1873, Daniel brought his bride and mother-in-law to this address, and their first daughter, Emily, was born there in 1874. Beginning in 1875, the Hartford city directory includes listings and an ad for Daniel's own marbles business at 263 Asylum Street. In fact, in 1876, the year that daughter Jennie was born, he lists the Asylum Street address as both his home and work address. It may be that the three generation household of females was a little too crowded for him. Later records provide the details that the family rented the upstairs of a duplex; their home was probably on the small side. In 1877 Daniel expanded his advertising to the city directories of Middletown/Portland and Waterbury, Connecticut. |
The 1878 and 1881 Hartford directories gave Daniel's home address as Liberty Street, but in 1880 he was censused separately from his family. The census lists his mother-in-law, Charlotte Brown as head of household at 15 Liberty Street, with her daughter Mary C. Dimond and two granddaughters. Daniel himself was added with several other individuals at the end of the census by the enumerator, but listed at the same Liberty Street address. Perhaps the hiccup in the record keeping occurred because he was living part time at both addresses in those years. |
NEW YORK CITY, 1880s |
The 1882 Hartford city directory includes a list of "persons who have removed"; Daniel G. "Diamond" and Mrs. Charlotte Brown are both listed as having moved to New York. It's possible that Daniel suffered business reverses, as he relocated several times over the next 20 years, and once again was listed as a marble cutter. Spotty records place them back in New York City--the 1885 directory lists Daniel G. Dimond, tileworker, residing at 686 E. 164th Street (Bronx). In 1888 both Daniel G. Dimond, cutter, and Charlotte Brown are listed at 652 Railroad Avenue, New York City, which we have not been able to locate. (John Dimond's Steam Marble Works were on West 42nd Street at the time.) Then they all appeared briefly in the Browns' old neighborhood: The Brooklyn city directory of 1889/90 included Charlotte Brown, widow of Hamilton and Daniel G Dimond, marble cutter, both listed at 658 De Kalb Avenue, just a block east of Nostrand Street and the Browns' former residence. |
PHILADELPHIA, 1890s |
Daniel Dimond then tried Philadelphia - the 1890 city directory includes Daniel Dimond, cutter, at 1751 Juniata. By the 1891 directory the family was residing at 3426 N. 16th Street in that city. In 1894 they were at 1731 Juniata Street, where they continued through 1899. Charlotte Brown continued with the family at these addresses; daughters Emily and Jennie became young women during these years. In the 1900 census the family, expanded by the inclusion of daughter Jennie's two young daughters May and Dorothy, resided again at 3426 N. 16th Street, where the family would continue for more than 40 years. |
In the 1900 and 1902 Philadelphia city directories both Daniel and his older daughter are listed, Daniel as a marbleworker, Emily R. as a dressmaker, both residing at the 16th Street address. In the latter publication and occasional future ones, the family name was spelled "Diamond", but mostly they continued to appear in the records as "Dimond". |
On March 27th, 1902, Daniel G. "Diamond" died of angina pectoris. (Presumably the condition led to a heart attack.) The death registration record gives his age as 68, states he was born in New York, that he resided in ward 38 of Philadelphia and that he was buried in Northwood Cemetery on March 31st. His widow, Mary, purchased a burial plot in that cemetery which would eventually hold (besides Daniel) herself, her mother and her granddaughter Dorothy. (We have not found burial records online for her daughters, but I expect they, too, were buried in the family plot.) Descendants possess the original Northwood Cemetery burial plot deed. (Image, courtesy Alice Dixon) |
1908 directory |
1910 census |
1910-1914 directories |
1916 dir both Emily and Mary |
1917 Mary dies |
Emily becomes head of household as she and Jennie continue in the family home with Jennie's daughters May and Dorothy. |
The two children of Daniel G. and Mary C. (Brown) Dimond: Emily R. and Jennie M. |
i | Dimond, Emily R. was born 31 Jan 1874 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut and died after 1940. |
Emily's birth in Hartford, Connecticut, is recorded in the "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906," index on familysearch.org, where her parents were named as Daniel G. Dimond and Mary C. Brown, but her own name was yet to be chosen. |
Emily grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, Brooklyn, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where the family moved in 1890, when she was 16. At some point she began working from home as a dressmaker, and could be found listed as such in the Philadelphia city directory from 1900 on. (In those days, only men were listed, the exceptions being widows and female heads of households, or the rare women with occupations.) She always was listed as Emily R., but her last name occasionally appeared as "Diamond". A photographic portrait of Emily R. Dimond is in the possession of descendants of her sister, Jennie. (image courtesy Alice Dixon) |
Emily never married, and remained in the family home at 3426 N. 16th St, becoming head of household (and presumably inheriting the home) after her parents died. Her sister Jennie and her two nieces Emily May and Dorothy lived in the house with her until both nieces married in the 1920s. The 1930 census listed Emily R. Dimond, 56 and single, with a house valued at $6000. "Jane" Broadrick, 53, her widowed sister, was still residing with her. Mary E Stant, 46, single, and working as a fitter in a department store, was a lodger in the household. In 1940 Emily was still at the same address, 66 years old. Her home's value had dropped to $2500. The census included a question about education level, so we learn here that Emily had an 8th grade education, as did most other women on the census page. Her sister Jennie was not listed in the household, but two older single women were lodging with her-- Mary E Stant was listed as Marie E Staunt, 59, and still working as a fitter at a ladies store. With them was Catherine Melcher, 69 and retired from bookkeeping at a grocery retail (store). |
We have not found death record or burial information for Emily online. |
ii | Dimond, Jennie M. was born 12 Aug 1876 in Hartford and died after 1930. She was married to John Joseph? Broadrick 26 Aug 1895 in Camden, Camden, New Jersey. John Joseph? was born in Pennsylvania. |
Jennie's birth record for 12 Aug 1876 mirrors that of Emily two years earlier in the familysearch index in that it, also, was for an as yet unnamed daughter. Numerous subsequent records confirm that this birth date was Jennie's. |
Jennie was married when she was 19 years old, one month before the birth of her first daughter Emily May, whose Sep 1895 birth date was recorded in the 1900 census. Jennie married John Jos. Broadrick in Camden, New Jersey, directly across the Delaware River from her home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later records agree; in the 1900 census Jennie reported that she had been married five years, and in 1930 she reported that she had been married at age 19. |
Their second daughter, Dorothy, was born in July of 1899, but by the 1900 census Jennie, listed as married, and her two daughters were residing in her parents' home, and John Broadrick had disappeared from the picture. According to family lore, he abandoned the family [Dixon, 2012]. The 1900 census tells us that Jennie had had two children, both were living, and that the girls' father was born in Pennsylvania. There are several John Broadricks that appear in the censuses of the era, including one born in Pennsylvania in 1873 but raised in Minnesota, and censused there in 1900. Intriguingly, he is listed as a marble cutter, the same occupation as Jennie's father. Perhaps this was Jennie's husband, and had tried making a life back east, then married the boss's daughter, but fled back home by 1900 for reasons unknown. There are other candidates as well; we do not have enough information yet to identify which was Jennie's husband. Mysteriously, the 1920 census listed the girls' father as born in Massachusetts. There were Broadricks, with that spelling (as opposed to the more common "Broderick") in Massachusetts, but the other censuses gave Pennsylvania for the birth state of the girls' father. |
Jennie's father Daniel died in 1902, and for a time, the Dimond family home consisted of four generations of women--Jennie's widowed grandmother Charlotte (who died in 1905), her widowed mother Mary (who died in 1917), Jennie's older sister Emily (who remained unmarried), Jennie, and her two daughters whom Jennie raised while working to support them. The household remained a family of women. After their mother died, Jennie's sister Emily, a dressmaker, was always listed as head of household in the censuses, and Jennie and her daughters remained in the home with her. By the 1910 census Jennie was recorded as widowed, but whether this was literally so, or just a simpler answer to questioners, we don't know. Jenny worked as a bookkeeper--in 1910 for a tailor, in 1920 for a dry goods store, in 1930 for a meat store, and probably many other places during her working years. We found her listed only once in the city directory, in 1918 as "Jean" M. Broadrick. She is not listed in the family home in the 1940 census, and we have not found a death record for her online. |
The two children of John Joseph? and Jennie M. (Dimond) Broadrick: Emily May and Dorothy. |
1 | Broadrick, Emily May was born Sep 1895 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was married to Isaac Bloomenfeld 1926 in Philadelphia. |
Emily May, the second Emily in the family, was listed as May in the 1900 and 1910 censuses. In 1920, "Emily M." was censused in the family home, age 24, and listed as a clerk. She was married to Isaac Bloomenfeld in Philadelphia in 1926. |
We have found no further records of Isaac and Emily or May Bloomenfeld online. There was one Bloomenfeld family from Russia censused in Philadelphia in 1920; perhaps they were relatives of Isaac. |
2 | Broadrick, Dorothy was born 4 Jul 1899 in Philadelphia, died 1984 in Ridley Park, Delaware, Pennsylvania and was buried in Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was married to Albert Hartung Nyholm 1921 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Albert Hartung was born 27 Apr 1896 in Philadelphia, died 19 Oct 1965 in Philadelphia and was buried in Mt. Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Herman and Minnie (____) Nyholm. |
In 1920, Dorothy was single, age 20, and living with her mother, sister and aunt in her aunt's home (formerly her grandparents', and where she grew up) in Philadelphia. She worked as a stenographer. Albert, who had served in World War One, was also censused in his parents' home in Philadelphia. He was 24 and working as a draftsman which would continue to be his career in various contexts including engineering and construction. Dorothy and Albert were married in 1921 in Philadelphia. |
By the 1930 census the Nyholms resided at 1505 (later at 1507) Carlisle Ave, Prospect Park, Delaware, PA (just outside Philadelphia), and continued there at least until Albert's death in 1965. Their last name was incorrectly spelled in the 1930 census as Neihung. Dorothy, sister of Emily May, named her two daughters Dorothy Jane and Emily May (the third Emily in the family). Daughter Dorothy was listed as 3 years, 6 months old in the Apr 15, 1930 census; she was born in September of 1926. Daughter Emily May was born in Jun of 1931. |
In May of 1932, daughter Dorothy, age 5, rated a newspaper article in the Chester Times (May 30, 1932, accessed via Newspaper Archives) for being hospitalized after breaking her leg--she had darted in front of an automobile while the family was visiting relatives in Ambler (Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia). Dorothy had just been recovering from crushing her hand when it accidentally caught in a washing machine wringer, a pretty common injury in those days. |
In 1940 the Nyholm family (indexed as "Mykoliw" on the Ancestry website) was censused at 1505 Carlisle Ave. Albert, 44, with an eighth grade education, worked as an engineer for an oil company. Dorothy, 40, had completed four years of high school. Dorothy Jane, 13, had completed seventh grade and Emily May, 8, had completed the second grade. |
Albert, age 46, registered for the World War Two draft. His address was by then at 1507 Carlisle Ave, and he worked for the Sinclair Refining Company, from which he would later retire. Albert died at age 69 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia, and his obituary in the Delaware County Daily Times mentioned Masonic and American Legion services. Dorothy Nyholm appeared in social and church news items in the Chester TimesJune 2012] where her grandparents and great-grandmother Charlotte Brown had been buried. |
The two children of Albert Hartung and Dorothy (Broadrick) Nyholm: Dorothy Jane and Emily May. |
i | Nyholm, Dorothy Jane was born 16 Sep 1926 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died 25 Jun 2010 in Chester, Delaware, Pennsylvania and was buried in Philadelphia. She was married to John Donovan. |
Dorothy Jane was buried in Philadephia Memorial Park, Frazer, Chester, Pennsylvania. |
A child of John and Dorothy Jane (Nyholm) Donovan: John. |
1 | Donovan, John. |
ii | Nyholm, Emily May was born Jun xxxx in Pennsylvania. |
3 | Brown, Robert was born 1850/1851, died 29 Jul 1859 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York and was buried 31 Jul 1859 in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
4 | Brown, ____. |
This fourth child of Charlotte is known only from her 1900 census in which she reported that she had borne four children. |
Jane Brown & James W. Swan |
Swan | Top |
Jane Brown was born 26 Oct 1839 in New York, New York, New York, died 8 Jul 1922 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California and was buried 10 Jul 1922 in Inglewood Park, Cemetery, Inglewood, California. |
Jane was married to James W. 19 Aug 1857 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York. |
James W. Swan was born 15 Aug 1827 in England, died 29 Dec 1909 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California and was buried 3 Jan 1910 in Inglewood Park, Cemetery, Inglewood, California. He was the son of Charles and Ann C. (Morrison) Swan. |
James' middle initial was "W.", but we have never found a reference as to what that stands for. His paternal grandfather was William, so it is quite likely that he was given the name James William, but that is at this time pure speculation. |
Of James' life as a child in England we have a charming description by Hattie and Jean in their chapter entitled "Household in Hulme": |
"Ann was a strict churchwoman and her family were invariably in their place of worship in the Episcopal Church in Hulme each Sunday. As a matter of fact the boys' Sabbath observance commenced quietly at sundown Saturday evening. However it did not end at sundown on Sunday and the boys could never understand this. |
"To the brothers and their young and more restless nephew the church services would have been very tiresome if it had not been for the soldiers who had to attend also. At one time there were ten thousand soldiers stationed there. Their bright uniforms made a large spot of brightness to the young boys. |
"Jim Swan was delicate as a child and was not sent to school very much. Later, after his father's death, when he was stronger, he had to go to work to help his mother support the family. When he was an old man he liked to say, |
"I went to school but one half day and me schoolmaster was absent the day." |
"He often said that he learned more in Sunday school than in the Old Dames schools. These Dame schools were kept by old women, widows and spinsters who were unable to do much else. In their own homes they herded the youngsters of the community while the mothers and other able bodied women were out helping to earn a living or tending to their younger children. |
"Jim's teacher at Sunday school was a retired old army sergeant named Walters. He heard many of the experiences of these old soldiers. One story which made an impression on the boy was the one told about Sir John Moore who had a man shot for stealing a loaf of bread. |
"One day, when Jim had grown to be quite a boy, Captain Dick Taylor, of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, stopped at his house looking for recruits for the army. |
"What about this young fellow going into the service a bit later?" he inquired of Ann. |
"But Ann shook her head. "I'll say what my husband's mother said, "There have been enough Swans in the military. Jim will do something else." |
Undated], James at age 14 went to work in a foundry in Manchester to learn the trade. He was also censused at that age as a cotton piecer in Hulme, so that year evidently marks his passage from "children's work" to that of a young man starting his own career. Albert wrote that, after his apprenticeship, James worked at his trade in Glasgow, Scotland for three years just prior to coming to this country at age 24. It would have been about 1848, then, that he moved to Scotland, and 1851 that he came to America. That latter year is confirmed by a later census which recorded his time in this country. |
It is a tradition in the family that Ann and Jim came to this country in order to prevent his having to go into the service. Whether or not this was a realistic threat at this midpoint of the nineteenth century in England is not clear, but certainly the family antipathy to more military service was quite firmly established. Some seventy years later, however, James' grandson William Hamilton Swan, son of Hamilton and Clara, died in the service of his country in World War I. |
Another family tradition says that James came over with his mother, Ann. Several years ago a record was found, the ship's list for the Martha's Vineyard which arrived in New York City from Glasgow on 27 Oct 1851 [Glazier, 1986]. The difficulty was that an Anne Swan, age 55, was listed, but James Swan, age 24, did not appear on the list. Then we found from Albert Swan's notes that James had already worked as a molder in Glasgow before coming here, and that he met his future wife on the day after her twelfth birthday -- that very same date. Therefore the immigration record was reexamined. Wonder of wonders, the entry on the ship's list immediately preceeding that of Anne Swan, age 55, was James Leaven, 24, with an occupation of molder! Somewhere in the transcription process, the "S" of Swan had been read as "Le", the "w" became "av", and the final "an" became "en". A poorly written entry in the ship's manifest led to one of the most outlandish recording errors we have encountered, as can be seen when we finally found a copy of the original, handwritten lines: |
The index to James' census in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, twenty years later, reads "James Iwan". He didn't have good luck with records of his name! |
There were at least six James Swans, distinquishable by their occupations, listed in the New York City directories from 1846 through 1856, but not our James, a molder or foundryman. Why his brother William appears both in the census and in the city directories, but James doesn't, is a small mystery. Since his profession was that of a foundryman, at which we know he worked in England and Scotland, and later in Wisconsin and Kansas, he probably did that kind of work in New York, but we have as yet to find any records to that effect. Were the foundries all across the river in New Jersey, where he lived after returning from Maryland? The 1855 N.J. census is incomplete and unindexed, so would probably be of little help, although a scan of Paterson is not out of the question. |
James' and Jane's 1857 marriage date, six years after he immigrated, we originally had from mother's notes, but this was confirmed when the original marriage certificate was found in the effects of their granddaughter-in-law Lillian Swan after her death in 1993 [Anon., 1857]. The certificate was exactly the same form used for Jane's mother Mary's marriage 24 years earlier (see the Brown family history), but now the minister, Nicholas E. Smith, was of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in Brooklyn, where Hamilton and his family were living by that time. The certificate was for some reason given at Brooklyn 13 Feb 1858, some six months after the marriage date of 19 August the previous year. We don't know if Jane's father and stepmother Charlotte (both born in Scotland) also were members, but obviously Jane still belonged to the Reformed Dutch Church of her mother, Mary Biggert. |
The other primary evidence found for James and Jane in New York City is the birth record for their daughter Charlotte on 10 March 1859, for which the address given was 118s Harlem. The attending physician was J. Stotley [Birth Certificate, 1859]. The web site oldstreets.com (now a broken link but available on the Wayback Machine) listed two Harlem Avenues, two Harlem Roads, Harlem Bridge Road and a Harlem Lane that at one time or another existed in Manhattan. It's impossible to tell now which might have been meant by just the name Harlem. |
Shortly after Charlotte's birth, James and Jane started out on their peripatic life of the next twenty years. The map below provides a log of their travels across the country, with the dates of their moves when these are known, and locates the births of their four children. Most of the information for this slow trek to Kansas comes from a Topeka Daily Capital biography of their son William on the occasion of his candidacy in 1892 for election to the State legislature. The details are also confirmed in part and extended by the genealogical notes of their grandson Albert Markley Swan. |
For their first move James and Jane, with their baby daughter Charlotte, went to Maryland, where in 1861 Hamilton was born, in Baltimore according to Albert's notes. But even more came to light when their 1860 census in Baltimore was found. (That discovery was delayed somewhat, as the head of the family was recorded as "Jas Swann", which required a broader online search algorithm than I originally used.). The first discovery provided by that census was that a child named William was part of the family along with Charlotte, their first child. This was not the William later to be born in 1864 in New Jersey, and must have been a child who died before that latter date. |
A possible date anomaly is also apparent in this census, in that Albert Swan's genealogical notes that Hamilton Swan was born in Baltimore 4 Aug 1861, two days before the census was taken. Would James, even if Jane and the baby were in the hospital, not mention this to the census enumerator? Hamilton's 1900 census confirms that he was born in August of 1860 in Maryland, but doesn't speak to the specific day of that month. |
The second surprise in 1860 is that James, an iron moulder, had living in his home an Alfred "Swann", 28, another iron moulder also born in England. This was surely a relative, and I have assumed for the time being that Alfred was a younger brother of James. More discussion of these two discoveries appears elsewhere in the appropriate place in this narrative. |
Then, at some time by 1863, they moved back north. This time they settled in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from their former home, and so not too far from James' brother William and Jane's father. If James had been working in New Jersey when they first lived in New York City, it could well happen that he returned to his old job, and they chose to live closer to his work than before. There their second son named William was born in 1864. |
Note that the above years from Maryland to New Jersey include the time of the Civil War. In June, 1863, James registered for military service. That record lists him as a Moulder, born in England, and living in the 5th Ward of Paterson, New Jersey. No record has been found of James having actually served in the military during that conflict. (Although a James Swan had enlisted in 1862 in Maryland, the New Jersey draft register showed no entry for our James in the column marked "Previous Military Service".) |
According to William's biography, because the New Jersey climate did not agree well with James' health, the family decided in April, 1870, to move to the north central part of the country. The actual decision may have been fairly abrupt, for they took the children out of school before the end of the term, William having just started first grade the previous fall. Albert's notes claim that Jane's father, Hamilton Brown, went with them, and that they settled on his farm. This, however, is erroneous, as Hamilton had died some five years earlier. |
The first record we have of James and Jane in Wisconsin is that they lived in the 1st Ward of the City of Fond du Lac, where they were censused in 1870. The name Fond du Lac means, literally, "at the bottom (geographically) of the lake", the town being located at the southern tip of Lake Winnebago. James was working in a Brass Foundry, but didn't report owning land or personal property. By 1875, James was censused in the town of Fond du Lac with four males and two females in his household. No further information was collected in that census. The City of Fond du Lac is located mostly within the town, although a small portion extends into adjacent towns. These two records may thus indicate two separate living places over those five years. |
James both farmed land and established a foundry, the trade that he learned in Scotland and which would continue to occupy him for the rest of his working life, and furnish work for all of his sons, as well, over the years. Albert's notes also say that James worked for the C. & N. W. Railroad (Chicago and North-Western) for about three years before James Albert's birth, thus from about 1871 to 1874. It is quite likely that he was doing foundry work for that railroad, as he did for the Santa Fe later in Topeka. The C. & N. W., for which the ground breaking ceremony was held in Fond du Lac 10 Jul 1851, was one of four railroads serving the city. |
The children attended school for a few months each winter for the next eight years, but the boys spent the rest of each year working on the farm and in the foundry, while Lottie undoubtedly worked with her mother in the farmhouse. That these young boys worked in their father's foundry here indicates that his work for the C. & N. W. must have been as an independent contractor, and this may have set the pattern at least in part for his later work for the Santa Fe. |
Early in May of 1878 the Swan family contracted "Kansas fever" and started out (in a covered wagon, according to an addition on a copy of Albert's notes) on the overland route to that frontier state. James first homesteaded a claim two miles north of Fort Larned; Albert says 10 miles from town, in Pawnee County. On an 1873 map of Kansas by Asher and Adams, Fort Larned is shown as approximately four miles square with its center about ten miles southwest of the town. The two descriptions of James' land would place it near the south border of Range XVIII West, Township 21 South. The fort, some thirty miles southwest of Great Bend, is now a national monument. James soon concluded that farming was not then a viable business in that part of Kansas, and the next year moved the family to Topeka, where they remained the rest of his working life. It's noteworthy that there were five James Swans in Kansas by 1870, two of whom were in Shawnee County -- one in Dover and one in Topeka. |
Of the three of our ancestral lines to come to Topeka Swan, Markley, and Hartzell James was the first. We give here a brief chronology of the settlement and joining of the three branches of our family in Topeka, the capital city of Kansas: |
In March of 1880 James took charge of the brass foundry at the Santa Fe shops, and William at age 16, and Hamilton at 20, went to work there for their father. Their residence at that time was on Hancock Street, one block east of the Santa Fe line, about where the Topeka Amtrak station is today, and all of the children were still living at home. Here is their census that year: |
They lived there less than a year, according to Albert, and from 1882 through 1885 on three adjacent streets on the other side of the tracks 77 Madison, then a brick house also on Madison "next door to Goodrich", 29 Monroe, and at 100 Quincy all about a year each. These are blocks near the riverfront on streets which terminate at the Kaw, the local name for the Kansas River, and the Santa Fe Shops were located within walking distace just a few blocks to the east. |
In William G. Cutler's "History of the State of Kansas" (published by A.T. Andreas, 1883) is found a history of the Santa Fe shops in Topeka, which were established in the buildings of then defunct "King Wrought Iron Bridge Manufactory and Iron Works". The history reads, in part: "The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company commenced their work in these shops, August 12, 1878, and they have so gone on step by step increasing their business, as to now have the shop divided into twelve distinct departments … under the management of a separate foreman, …, brass moulding shop, James Swan, foreman". This documents that James was in 1883 an employee of the Santa Fe, not an independent contractor providing brass moulding services. |
By 1887, James and Jane had moved away from the river and railroad, where they now lived at 622 Buchanan. Probably up to this time they had lived in rented houses. Radge's City Directory locates him at this address through 1902. On 9 Oct 1891 James purchased Lot 206 in Horne's Addition on Buchanan Street, probably the house at number 622 in which they had been living. According to the record, they sold Lot 204 on Buchanan for $1950 on 29 Mar 1904 [321:486], and this is probably the same lot, with a confusion of numbers in the record or in our reading of it. |
In 1895 in the Kansas State Census we find James Swan, 67, and born in England, with Jane, 55, born in New York, Sharlott (sic), 35, also in New York, William B., 30, born in New Jerrsey (sic) and James A. Swan, 21, born in Wisconsin. All had listed Wisconsin as the place from whence they had come to Kansas. James and both of his sons are listed as Molders, although William's entry reads "apprentice[?] Molder", and the next census column indicates he was studying to be a physician. |
Over the years James is listed in the city directory as a Brass Molder, presumably remaining in charge of the Foundry Department for the Santa Fe. But in the later years he was listed alternately as Contractor and Brass Molder, so he must have set himself up a least part time with an independent business. His son Hamilton worked as a moulder as early as 1885, William by 1887, and the youngest son James Albert went to work for his father by 1893 (but see also his employment history, below). All three of his sons continued to work with him for varying periods up until his retirement around 1902, at age about seventy-five years. |
On 22 Jul 1895 James purchased for $200 six lots, numbered 405-07-09-11-13-15, on Grand Avenue in Norton's 1st Addition [223:259]. As will be seen later, he also owned lots 415-17-19-21-23, but we did not find the record of that purchase. The six constitute about one fourth of the block of what is now Plass Street between 11th and Munson. On 8 Feb the next year, he and Jane sold this property for $325, a quick 62% profit on their investment. But then, an interesting transaction occurred. J. H. Hunt on 11 Mar 1896 paid the back taxes of some $15 for 1892 on three of James' lots on Plass for which we do not have the purchase record. Hunt then transferred the certificate of overdue tax payment back to James. Finally, since the assessments had been paid for the intervening years, the third part of the court action transferred the ownership back to James and Jane. Possibly a real estate attorney could explain just what transpired in that particular shuffle. |
In 1899 their son James Albert solved a similar problem, apparently paying the back taxes for 1896 on lot 421 for his parents [272:45]. Then, on 20 May 1908, James and wife Jane, "of Los Angeles", sold lots 421 and 423 on Plass for $1250 [340:552]. We don't know that they ever lived on Grand (Plass) Street, and it may be possible that these were investment properties. |
In 1900 James and Jane were living with their daughter Lottie on Buchanan Street in Topeka adjacent to their son William and his wife Belle. In that census James gave his profession as Moulder, his immigration date as 1851, that he had been in the country for 48 years, and that he had been naturalized. This is the census in which he reported that his parents were both born in England. Also, Jane reported that she had had four children, all still living (but see below regarding the 1910 census). |
James held two patents on inventions of his. In 1898 he was granted a patent on a new journal bearing for freight cars which prevented the lining from becoming loose and displaced. This was evidently quite a success, as attested in a news article which reported that the Santa Fe Railroad was building 100 of the largest freight cars ever constructed in the west, and that they featured these new journals. (Click any of the thumbnails below to see the full size image in a separate window.) |
One of the witnesses on this patent was his son, "Wm. B. Swan". Then, four years later, James was granted a second patent, #703974 dated July 1, 1903, which substantially improved on his original invention. The description of the patent begins: |
"This invention relates to journal-bearings, and more particularly to that character of bearing disclosed in a former patent granted to me ... |
"One of the objects of this invention is to greatly improve this structure by extending the holding-lugs from the outer edges of the sockets and so constructing the same that they will have a better interlocking engagement with the lining, which latter will thus be more firmly held in place. |
"Another important feature of the present invention resides in a novel means for storing a lubricant in the bearing, said lubricant being securely sealed in place against leakage between the lining and the body and being automatically fed to the journal during the movement of the same." |
The full text and illlustrations of this second patent can be seen as a PDF file online. The witness for this patent was his youngest son, James Albert. I have no idea whether James profited from these inventions, or whether in those days they belonged exclusively to the AT&SF Railroad. James listed himself in the Topeka city directories during that period both as an employee of the railroad and as a contractor, so possibly he was able to claim some benefits from his inventions. |
A real estate transaction the meaning of which has been lost is the one of 27 Sep 1902 in which James transferred for $1 to Jane, "his wife", lot 206 on Buchanan, apparently their home at number 622 [290:574]. This was just about the time he retired, and presumably represented some kind of machinations prepatory to selling their property and leaving for California. On 15 Nov 1904 James and Jane sold, for $300, a 20 rod (320 foot) square property on the southwest corner of Huntoon and Wanamaker Road, now cut diagonally by the Interstate 470 bypass. |
After James retired, he and Jane moved to West Los Angeles, settling at 931 West 36th Place. The eastern portion of this street including their address is now named Downey Way, and its location is within what is now the University of Southern California Park Campus (a single building when they moved there). Their home was just two blocks north of Exposition Park. Originally an agricultural park, it was renamed in 1913 and contained at that time the California Museum of Science and Industry, National Armory, Domed National History Museum and the Sunken Garden (which was later renamed the Rose Garden). After James' death in 1909, Jane and their daughter Lottie continued to live in this home until Jane's death in 1922. |
The 1910 census for Jane, very recently a widow, differs from that ten years earlier. Now Jane testified that she had borne five children, of whom three were living. Her first son William had died as an infant, and her second son named William Brown Swan died back in 1902. Incidently, the census shows Lottie, a dressmaker, as head of household, and Jane as an unemployed "Mother". |
Seven years after moving west, James died of "chronic gastroenteritus". The specific nature of his illness is unknown. The information on his death certificate was provided by their daughter Lottie. It's interesting that Aunt Lottie was confused about her grandfather's name, listing James' father as James, rather than as Charles, and that her brother Albert Markley Swan made the same mistake in his genealogical notes on the famiy. |
In 1920 Jane and Lottie were still at 931 36th Place, ages 80 and 60, and neither is shown on the census as working. Jane, this time listed as head of household, is noted as owning her own home which, however, was still mortgaged. |
Dated thirteen years after James died, Jane's death certificate, with Lottie Swan again as informant, indicates she died of "senility", which would today be termed either dementia or Alzheimer's disease. |
In response to an e-mail query, a representative of the Inglewood Park Cemetery wrote "Our records indicate that James Swan was interred in Grave #2, Lot 445, Sequoia Plot, on 1/3/1910. Jane Swan was interred next to him, in Grave #5, on 7/10/1922. Neither of these graves is marked." Thus there are no tombstones of which photographs can be taken. |
The five children of James W. and Jane (Brown) Swan: Charlotte "Lottie", William†, Hamilton, William Brown and James Albert. |
SWAN, JAMES ALBERT 6 m MARGUERITE "MAGGIE" MARKLEY |
b 1874 d 1937 b 1875 d 1949 |
SWAN, PAUL REESE 7 m MILDRED LOUISE HARTZELL |
b 1903 d 1953 b 1903 d 1989 |
SWAN, PAUL REESE 8 m MILDRED LOUISE "MILLIE" HAMILTON |
b 1929 b 1930 d 1998 |
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