Beck Family Homesteads

Herbert Bartist Beck's farm land was in four sections of Fergus County, Montana:

• Section 27 T20N R24E
• Section 34 T20N R24E
• Section 31 T20N R25E
• Section 35 T20N R25E

Each township/range was six square miles in size:

The above diagram indicates the three township/ranges where Herbert Beck bought land. Each township/range was divided into 36 sections, which were 640 acres in size. As an example, we will use Township 20 North, Range 24 East (T20N R24E):

Herbert Beck owned land in four sections of T20N R24E. Sections could be further subdivided, typically into quarters, each comprising 160 acres. Then those quarters could also be quartered. Each quarter of a quarter section was 40 acres. So Herbert Beck's land was located in the following areas of Fergus County:

This system of legal land descriptions makes so much sense to me. It is so much easier than trying to find land my ancestors bought in Virginia, for example, 300 years ago when the description uses creeks, old trees and other landmarks which may no longer exist.

Chignik, Alaska

Chignik, Alaska, is on the Chignik Bay on the Alaskan Peninsula about 200 miles past Kodiak and above the Aleutian Islands. It is still a remote fishing village in a remote region of Alaska based around two fish plants.

Chignik, Alaska; map courtesy of Chignik Bay Adventures

By the time Minerva Hansen was born there, Chignik was a growing area and the canneries continued to draw people. A summer school had opened in 1903 on the southside of Chignik Bay where a number of Euroamerican men had begun a new settlement. This is where the community, informally known as Andersonville, was established. It was likely named for George Anderson, Minerva's maternal grandfather. St. Nicholas chapel was on the north side of the bay and the residents of Andersonville would paddle across the bay to attend Orthodox services. Also, on the north side were several Native Aleutian communities.

According to Michelle Morseth's book, Chignik Bay "became an early geographical boundary between the new community of immigrant men married to local women, and the local Native community. The distinction between the two communities was soon evident since, for many families, establishment of a separate community meant a rejection of Native culture and Russian Orthodoxy.

The bay continued to support two villages for 13 years. The south side became a permanent year-round village with a school, health clinic, and airstrip. Few residents on the north side survived the 1919 epidemic and the old village was abandoned soon after.

Andersonville circa 1909; image courtesy of the Alaska State
Archives

Father Modestov, an Orthodox priest, visited Chignik Bay in 1909, seven short years before Minerva was born, and left a description of the village on the north side:

"We arrived in Chignik at 10am and were met by the people on the shore. They took us in a boat to Vvendskoe (north side village), which is half an hour away on the other side of the bay. The village consisting of 2-3 barabaras was founded about ten years ago. In 1907/08 upon the priest's requests, the inhabintants built a church in the name of the Entry (vvendeniye) of Virgin Mary into the Temple. Since then the village has grown. Orthodox from Nushagak mission and Afognak parish moved here. People from other villages are also settling down here since there is a number of local conveniences. There is a lot of fuel in the area and it is close at hand; there is an ample supply of salmon; there are stores and a post office, and two fish canneries where people can get jobs. There is a doctor and the priest visits this settlement every year. Eskimos, Aglemiuts and creoles do not have such conveniences in their old places and, therefore, are settling down in Chignik abandoning their old residences."

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'Andersonville circa 1909,' Alaska State Archives
Chignik Bay, Alaska, Chignik Bay Adventures

"Streatorland"

A version of this post first appeared on Tangled Roots and Trees on 18 May 2014.

Alexander Muir, the first child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir was born in a coal patch called Coalville in Streator, Illinois.

At one time, Streator was one of the most rapidly growing and developing cities in the state outside of Chicago. In 1870 its population was a little under 1,500 by 1880 -- seven years before the Muir family arrived -- it had tripled. 

Streator is situated on the banks of the Vermilion river, straddling LaSalle and Livingston counties. The area was first named Hardscrabble because it was a "hard scrabble" to cross the river and get up the hill where the settlement was located. Next the town was called Unionville in honor of the local men who fought in the Civil War. In 1865 the city was named for Worthy Streator, a Cleveland railroad promoter, who financed the region's first mining operation, and the town was incorporated in 1882. 

Bridge over Vermilion River at Streator, Illinois; photograph courtesy
of Encore Editions

Colonel Plumb, Streator's mine overseer, could not afford European employment agents to send him workers. Instead he alerted steamship offices of the new job opportunities and convinced local railroads to carry notices of Streator's promise.  I've always wondered if that's how James Muir came to settle and work in the city.  

Biography in Black included this item from the La Salle Press in 1881:

"N H Deisher of Streator was over here a day or two this week to see his old friends. He says Streator is a booming town and he likes it first rate. We must caution friend D[eisher] to be very careful of himself, for there are lots of holes in the ground over there where people tumble in very frequently and are killed."

The punning La Salle journalist, who meant only to toss a barb in Streator's direction, was right. Streator was booming by the time James Muir's wife, Margaret, and children joined him. Those "holes in the ground" yielded coal and provided jobs for many recent immigrants.

Coal mine in Streator, Illinois; photograph of Mining Artifacts

Biography in Black also contained Edward Steiner's, an immigrant turned professor, description of city. He came to Streator as a young man sometime after 1886. 

"The town lay uninvitingly among the coal mines which gave it life. Its geometric streets contained the usual stores with the invariable surplus of saloons. The residence district stretched in every direction; while at the most undesirable edges of town the miners had settled in hopeless, unkempt groups. These localities were known as prisoners are -- merely by numbers, and were fast deteriorating; for the more stable population of Welsh and German miners was giving way to the changeable, newer, immigrant groups…the [coal] 'patch' seemed to be a law unto itself, as far as cleanliness or even sanitary conditions were concerned. The only time it realized that it was under some government control was when the officers came to interfere in the not infrequent brawls. The miners were entirely out of touch with the community, except through the saloons…"

Such was the nature of the town where Alexander Muir was born.

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'Bridge over Vermilion River at Streator, Illinois,' Encore Editions
'Coal mine in Streator, Illinois,' Mining Artifcats

Hickory Island: Ternes Summer Playground

A version of this post originally appeared on Tangled Roots and Trees on 6 May 2014:

Hickory Island played a large role in the summers of the Ternes family. My first cousin twice removed, Harold Muir (1917-2003) married Marian Ruth Ternes (1918-1973) in 1949. Marian's sister, Ruth Marie Ternes, drowned on Hickory Island the year before Marian was born. She was only 3 years old at the time of her death.

A couple of years ago, I found the Live from Tormville! blog. The author, had purchased some embroidery at a garage sale and when she unpacked it, she discovered a typewritten transcript of voice taps that Edith Mary Madeline (Ternes) Reynolds, Marian's first cousin, sent to a relative about their shared family history. In those transcripts, Edith wrote about celebrating the 4th of July on Hickory Island:

The 4th of July was generally spent at Hickory Island and it was always a spectacular day. The relatives all gathered there in the morning and after lunch we were given all the sparklers and lady fingers we could handle. This helped us wear off the lunch and prepare for a very special dinner. After dinner our dads would set off the Roman candles and sky rockets and pinwheels and we would roast wienies and toast marshmallows at the bonfire on the beach. We had some wonderful times out there. We went to the Island as soon as school was out in the spring and stayed there until it was time a to get new clothes for school again in the fall.

I wanted to learn a little more about the island that played such a big part in the Ternes family's lives.

Corps of Engineers 1905 topographical map of Hickory Island

The Corp of Engineers topographical map dated 1905 shows that Hickory Island is divided into two large islands.  At this time Upper Hickory was principally farmland. The only buildings were the caretaker's house and barn and a few outbuildings. Conversely, the eastern shoreline of Lower Hickory was well lined with cottages. Cottagers arrived at the dock on Upper Hickory and used a path along the riverbank to to reach the footbridge leading to Lower Hickory. The bridge crossed the channel near Peek-a-Boo, the small island between Hickory's upper and lower sections. This is the earliest map known to show the road leading to Lower Hickory with a bridge for vehicles to cross the channel.

Upper Hickory Dock where people boarded a steamship to return to Detroit;
photograph courtesy of Robert George and published in Images of
America: Grosse Ille and copyrighted by the Grosse Ille
Historical Society

I wish I would have known about Hickory Island when I lived in the Detroit area in the mid 1980s.

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'Topographical Map of Hickory Island,' U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE)
'Upper Hickory Dock,' Grosse Ille Historical Society

Mountain Mission School

The Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia, was established in 1921 to serve at-risk children from Appalachia. Currently, 200 students from 60 countries live, study and work at the school. It has served over 20,000 children since it's founding.

Mountain Mission School was founded by Sam Hurley, a successful businessman with no formal education and a very difficult childhood. In 1888 Sam was 10 years old and his father had just died. Sam walked through the woods looking for food to feed his family. One night as he slept on a rocky outcropping he could hear mountain lions coming closer. He prayed to God for protection and promised, if spared, he would build a place for children like himself so they would not have to sleep in fear in the woods.

At the age of 22, Sam Hurley married and his wife taught him how to read and write. He became successful in business. Though Sam had seven children, he and his wife took in needy children as many as nine at one time. One day he noticed a little boy crying in the streets. The boy wanted Sam to take him into his home as the boy had nowhere else to go. Sam told him he had no room.

Mountain Mission School; courtesy of Pinterest

But he remembered his promise to God and immediately went to his lawyer's office to complete the paperwork to start Grundy Academy, which later became Mountain Industrial Institute and is now Mountain Mission School. Sam brought Dr. and Mrs. Josephus Hopwood out of retirement from Milligan College to become the academy's first president. Dr. Hopwood established the educational system but his health began to fail. So Sam Hurley became president. He and his wife moved to the school's campus and put everything they had into the school.

Today, over 20,000 children, including the five children of Cecil Roy Hess and Margaret Elizabeth Muir, have received care at Mountain Mission School since its founding in 1921.

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'Mountain Mission School,' Pinterest
Mountain Mission School, http://www.mmskids.org

Manhanttan Project Hanford Site

The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Cops of Engineers (COE).

In order to produce plutonium, a plant needed to be built. COE worked with DuPont to establish criteria for site selection, which included at least 190 square miles of secure space located at least 20 miles from any sizable town and 10 miles from a major highway. The project needed a water supply of at least 25,000 gallons per minute and an electrical supply of at least 100,000 kilowatts.

In December 1942 the site selection team visited six potential sites. Hanford, Washington, was the last location visited. The Columbia river provided abundant water and the newly completed Grand Coulee Dam could supply the necessary electricity. General Groves endorsed Hanford as the proposed production site in January 1943. Two thousand residents within 580 square miles of the site were given 90 days notice to abandon their homes. Law suites ensued but were settled out of court in favor of time saved.

Construction of the production factory was a formidable challenge and required 50,000 workers. They lived in the Hanford Construction Camp, which included 1,175 buildings. It was the third largest city in Washington State. On Saturday nights, the Patriot Brewery opened for business. It was built specifically to serve the construction workers, who worked in shifts 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Construction was completed in less than 18 months.

Hanford workers waiting to pick up their paychecks at Western Union; photograph
courtesy of the Hanford Classified Documents Retrial System and Wikipedia

Producing plutonium at Hanford involved three major operations -- fuel fabrication, reactor operations, and chemical separation to extract plutonium. Success was achieved when the first irradiated slugs were discharged from the B Reactor on Christmas Day 1944. By the end of January the highly purified plutonium underwent further concentration in the completed chemical isolation building to remove any remaining impurities. The plant went into full-scale plutonium production on 2 February 1945 when it received its first shipment of plutonium.

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'Hanford Workers,' Hanford Classified Documents Retrial System (no longer online) and Wikipedia
Voices of the Manhattan Project, http://www.manhattanprojectvoices.org

Tralee, West Virginia

According to my grand aunt, Henrietta Muir's obituary, she was born in 1920 in Tralee, West Virginia. Tralee was a coal camp, established to house the miners who worked for the Harty Coal Company or Bakers Creek Coal Company. These mines were operated under the leadership of the John C. Sullivan, who named the town after his hometown in England. In addition to the two companies named above, Mr. Sullivan was also the general manager of the Mead-Pocahontas Coal Company, Wood-Sullivan Coal Company, and the Pickshin Coal Company.

Harty Coal Company store and office located on Barkers Creek.

Side view of the amusement hall.

Timber was cut from the land, sawed into boards, and shipped to Huntington,
West Virginia, where prefabricated houses were constructed; the wall sections
were shipped back to Tralee and constructed onsite.

Four-room hip-roof houses along the railroad tracks. The horse-drawn
wagon was the transportation of the day.

Houses along the railroad tracks and Barkers Creek.

Houses on the hillside.

All the photographs and text comes from Coal Towns of West Virginia: A Pictorial Recollection by Mary Legg Stevenson. These are the only photographs I have of where Robert Muir and his family lived in West Virginia.

Richlands Brickyard

From the Town of Richlands photo tour website:

Although the coal industry was not the heart of Richlands, Richlands was certainly the heart of the coal industry. Local coal mining included operations at Big Creek, Seaboard, Hill Creek, Doran and Raven, as well as the Middle Creek and Indian Creek at Cedar Bluff, according to the Richlands New Press Centennial Edition.

Dependent on coal was the brick plant located off Kents Ridge Road. Dating to 1890 when the town had iron, ice and glass factories, the brick plant alone survived. Howard E. Steele in a news article in 1923 wrote that the brick plant was the "town's most important industry." During World War II the plant supplied 95 percent of its production to the war effort.

Richlands Brickyard Kilns; image courtesy of the Town of Richlands

In 1908 bankruptcy notices on the plant became payable. Mr. C. C. Hyatt purchased the business in 1911 and continued the plant until ill health led him to lease the plant to General Shale Corp. A. H. Kelly assumed management until his retirement in 1964. In that year production numbers listed 80,000 bricks made daily with plans of doubling that with future installation of four new kilns. Using as much as 30 tons of coal per day, the plant remained for a long time a major purchaser of coal. However, by 1973, General Shale had converted all but one of its Richlands coal-burning plants to gas operation.

In 1982 the business begun in the 1890s closed. Of the operation that once extended from the shale pits located on the east and west ends of town to the massive plant on Kent's Ridge, there remains a shopping center and a parking lot. Perhaps Civil War chaplain, Abram Joseph Ryan, said it most appropriately, "A land without ruins is a land without memories -- a land without memories is a land without history."

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'Richlands Brick Yard Kilns,' Town of Richlands
Town of Richlands, http://town.richlands.va.us/

The Lutheran Orphanage, Salem, Virginia

My grandfather, Marvin Edward Jennings, was sent to the Lutheran Orphanage in 1911. He was the only child out of twelve that was sent to the orphange. As a result he was never terribly close to his brothers and sisters as the older ones took in some of the younger children, but not my grandfather.

Lutheran Orphanage; photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress

There were two orphanages in Salem -- Baptist and Lutheran. They were established in the 1890s when accidents and dread diseases -- like tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, and malaria -- frequently robbed children of their parents. In those post Civil War years, according to one report, the number of orphans grew to "unthinkable levels," and: "Across Virginia, frightened children roamed the streets and countryside begging for handouts and mercy."

In May of 1896, the Lutheran Orphan Home of the South moved to Salem, into a two-story brick home at the southeast corner of Florida Street and the Boulevard. The children's home has moved several times within Salem since then, but the brick house still stands at Florida and Boulevard in front of Kiwanis Stadium where it houses the Florida Street Center of the City Department of Recreation and Parks.

It didn't stay on Florida Street long. Under the leadership of the Rev. Benjamin W. Cronk, who succeeded Painter in 1897, the Lutherans in 1899-90 bought and moved into a very elegant five-story building, formerly the Hotel Salem, on College Avenue at Fifth Street. The new building -- on the site of today's Andrew Lewis Middle School -- was to serve the orphanage until 1927.  The Lutheran home thrived in the old Hotel Salem -- an imposing, 80-room, red-brick structure, almost castle-like in appearance, with its tower, turrets, dormers and arched windows.

A concerted fund drive by the Lutheran United Synod liquidated that home's building debt by 1907. The orphanage paid heavy attention to their children's education. The Lutheran home operated a school on premises to offer the "necessary branches of learning," along with manual training for both girls and boys though eventually it began a long and difficult process of integration of the children into Salem's public schools. The professional staffs as well as their church provided religious instruction.

In 1904, the Rev. John T. Crabtree, Confederate veteran, former Salem High School principal and Roanoke College professor (he had become an orphan himself at age 8), succeeded Cronk as superintendent of the Lutheran home. During his tenure, until 1922, the home housed more than 100 children and still had to turn away applicants.

This excerpt is from the Salem Museum historical website.  For more information about the Lutheran Orphanage after the 1920s, read this excellent article.

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'Lutheran Orphanage,' Library of Congress
Salem Orphanages Served Thousands, Salem Museum and Historical Society

Welch, West Virginia: The Nation's Coal Bin

Welch, West Virginia, was the birthplace of Van Jeffrey Blankenship, who was born in 1945. The city became the county seat of McDowell County in 1892.

Welch, West Virginia, on a Sunday afternoon in 1946; photograph
courtesy of Wikipedia

During the first half of the 1900s, railroads were built through McDowell County, making the vast fields of coal economically feasible to mine and ship to markets across the country. Welch became a prosperous city. After the production boom as a result of World War II, oil began to supplant coal as the domestic fuel supply. Mechanization of mining reduced the number of laborers needed in the production of coal. McDowell County's population peaked in 1950 and began to decline during the decades to follow. Today, less than 2,500 people live in the city. During its heyday, Welch proudly described itself as the "Heart of the Nation's Coal Bin."

Welch, West Virginia, circa 1940 when the population was about 100,000
people; photograph from McDowell County, W. Va., 1940: The Nation's
Coal Bin

Welch, West Virginia, in May 2015; the population is now less than 2,500
people. Photograph from personal collection

When presidential candidate John F. Kennedy visited Welch by automobile caravan in 1960, he saw a city whose businesses were struggling due to a growing poverty rate throughout the county. It is believed Kennedy's trip through McDowell County became the basis of the aid brought to the Appalachian region by his and Johnson's administrations. Kennedy said later in a speech, "McDowell County mines more coal than it ever has in its history, probably more coal than any county in the United States and yet there are more people getting surplus food packages in McDowell County than any county in the United States. The reason is that machines are doing the jobs of men, and we have not been able to find jobs for those men."

Welch, West Virginia, circa 1940; photograph from McDowell County, W. Va.:
The Nation's Coal Bin

Welch, West Virginia, May 2015; photograph from personal collection

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'Welch, West Virginia circa 1940, No. 1' McDowell County, W. Va.: The Nation's Coal Bin
'Welch, West Virginia circa 1940, No. 2' McDowell County, W. Va.: The Nation's Coal Bin
'Welch, West Virginia circa 1946,' Wikipedia
'Welch, West Virginia Today, No. 1,' Personal collection
'Welch, West Virginia today, No. 2,' Personal collection

Troy, Illinois

Troy, Illinois, is located in Madison County. It's less than 30 minutes by car northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The city was founded in 1819, the year after Illinois became a state.

History of Troy, Illinois, from the Centennial History of Madison
County: Vol. 1, published in 1912

A DNA match with a descendant of the younger brother of James, Harry and John Riggin proves Ida Mae Riggin is related to the same Riggin family. I just do not know how at this time. James, Harry and John's father was Rev. James Riggin (1756-1826). He was the great great grandson of Teague Riggin, who may have been related to Irish royalty but fought on the losing side of the Civil War of 1641-1652 in which Oliver Cromwell prevailed in putting down the rebellion. Irish soldiers were allowed to move from Ireland and join foreign armies. Wives of Irish soldiers and children over 10 years of age were sent as slaves to Virginia or the West Indies. The remaining population was required to move west of the Shannon river. Whether this was the reason Teague came to the American colonies or not, he was in Virginia by the 1650s and moved to Somerset County, Maryland,  after his marriage. He and his descendants became prosperous plantation owners until the Revolutionary War destroyed the planter economy.

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'Troy,' Centennial History of Madison County, Volume I

Kansas City and Prohibition

Missourians rejected statewide prohibition in three separate referenda in 1910, 1912 and 1918. Carrie Nation, the famous face of the temperance movement, was actually arrested in Kansas City for smashing liquor bottles with a hatchet. The 18th Amendment imposed prohibition on Missouri in 1919. But Kansas City remained largely unaffected.

The city was run by Democrat brothers James and Tom Pendergast during prohibition. Thanks to the Pendergast machine prohibition simply never existed in reality. The bars were kept open and the liquor flowed. The federal prosecutor was on the Pendergast payroll and never brought a single felony prosecution to trial under the Volstead Act.

The editor of the Omaha Herald, remarked, "If you want to see some sin, forget about Paris. Go to Kansas City."

Men ignoring prohibition; source of photograph unknown, originally
found on Pinterest

That's what Kansas City, Missouri, was like when Maggie (Hutchison) Melching and Ruth (Hutchison) Combs lived there.

Prohibition was finally repealed in 1993.

Village of Mystic, Iowa

Appanoose County was created on 17 February 1843 and is located on Iowa's border with Missouri. The county was named in honor of Chief Appanoose a Sac Native American tribe. The name meant "a chief when young."

There are vast coal fields in the county, which in 1913 employed over 3,000 men. It was these mines that drew James Muir to Mystic.

The following excerpt is from Past and Present of Appanoose County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement edit by L. L. Taylor and published in 1913:

The newest little city in the county is Mystic and it is the largest town in the county outside of Centerville, its population now numbering about 3,000. The plat of Mystic was filed for record 28 May 1887. The site was surveyed by S. T. Stratton for James S. Elgin, and is in the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 17, township 69, range 18. Several additions have since been made and the village is still growing.

From Past and Present of Appanoose County

The coming of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad in 1886, made the future of the projected city certain, as it gave an outlet to the products of the splendid mines then operated and later to be opened in that vicinity. The town grew apace, but in 1910 and 1911 disastrous fires overtook it and practically destroyed all of the business district entailing heavy losses. No one seemed to be discouraged, however, and frame buildings were replaced by substantial and neat-looking brick structures. Building is still going on and Mystic's street looks well indeed. The traveling public, which enters the place by way of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and the interurban from Centerville, is entertained nicely at a new brick hotel. There are quite a number of mercantile concerns, two banks, churches, lodges, and a moving picture theater.

The Interurban station in Mystic. The Interurban ran between Centerville
and Mystic 17 times per day; photograph from Past and Present of
Appanoose County, Iowa

Nineveh, Missouri: A Communist Utopia

Sometime before the 1920 U.S. federal census was enumerated Margaret (Semple) Muir moved from O'Fallon, Illinois, to Nineveh, Missouri. For the first time since immigrating to the U.S. in 1887, she owned her own home. Her granddaughter, Alice Muir (my grandmother), was living with her. I learned about Nineveh in Eugene Morrow Violette's book entitled, History of Adair County:

"In 1849, the most unique settlement in Missouri, was founded. It was composed of a small group of German communists who came from Bethel, Shelby County, Missouri. In order to get a proper appreciation of the settlement at Nineveh, it will be necessary to say something about Bethel and its founder, Dr. William Keil.

Dr. Keil was born in Prussia in 1811. He grew up to young manhood in his native country and became a milliner. He came to America in 1835 or 1836 and after living in New York he went to Pittsburgh. He practiced medicine in both those places with some degree of success, though it is not certain he ever attended medical school. Shortly after he reached Pittsburgh he was converted in a revival held by German Methodists and he joined their church. In 1839 he was licensed as a local preacher; his success and enthusiasm as a class leader had recommended him as a suitable candidate for this higher rank. Very shortly, however, he broke with this church. During the absence of a regular paster he is said to have ascended the pulpit one Sunday and preached for two hours. In this sermon he attacked the ministry very severely for their acceptance of salaries. At the close of this sermon he asked all those who believed in his inspiration, to rise to their feet. Many rose.  This marked the beginning of his following, and for over thirty years he maintained a strong hold over a considerable group of people. 

William Kiel; image courtesy of Wikipedia

After joining and leaving the Protestants Methodists with his following, he began sending enthusiastic young men as representatives of his ideas into other parts of Pennsylvania and into Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, and Iowa. Their efforts were not without results. Many accepted his ideas and believed in him as an inspired leader and teacher. It was about this time Keil began thinking about establishing a colony somewhere. When his plans were announced many followers sold  their property and made preparations to join him. An attempt was made to put the colony on the basis of a constitution, which had been drafted by some of those who had joined the movement, but this was rejected by Keil. His own imperious will became the law to which all gave a willing and enthusiastic obedience. 

In 1844 he sent a committee called "spies" to Missouri to find a suitable place for a colony. They chose land in Shelby County, which became known as Bethel. Four years later the colony decided to establish a branch settlement in Adair County. They selected the farm of David Ely on the Chariton river and purchased 160 acres. They also knew coal abounded in this area.

Later more land was purchased until the colony owned 2,100 acres. In the spring of 1850 about 25 people came from the Bethel colony and began founding the new colony."

This is how Violette described how Keil's followers lived:

"A steam mill was installed to ground flour, wheat in other grain. A saw mill was also installed and much lumber was gotten out. A tannery, shoe shop, blacksmithing, wagon shops, and a carpenter shop were also erected and put into operation. Some coal was mined but the work was done by hired labor.

The net proceeds of these various industries, including the farm, was put into a general fund. Surplus earnings were used to expand the operations of the colony. Each member of the colony was a stockholder in every concern. Common places were provided for livestock. The men who had families lived in separate houses, but the unmarried men lived in the "large house," which was also used as a hotel and colony store.  

From the colony store each family would draw each week its share of provisions, the share of each family being determined by the number in it. There was no choice of articles or goods. Every family got the same kind of provisions; the difference was in the amount only. The clothing was made from cloth made from by the colony and everyone got a share of it. Special purchases could only be made by those who had realized something from the sale of such commodities as butter and eggs. These commodities were about the only things that could be sold as private property. The proceeds from the sale of other things went into the general fund.

There were only ever about 150 colonists in Nineveh. When William Kiel died in 1877, the colonies established by he and his followers quickly dissolved."

Nineveh coal mine; photo from History of Adair County

Nineveh remained something of a backwater until 1901 when the Iowa and St Louis Railroad laid tracks nearby. The Manufacturers' Coke and Coal Company opened several mines in the area soon after and began mining on a large scale at that time. By 1910, 652 people lived in the city, which was incorporated in 1904.

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'Nineveh Coal Mine,' History of Adair County
'William Kiel," Wikipedia

Dalserf, South Lanarkshire, Scotland

Margaret (Semple) Muir's father was born and married in Dalserf, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He lived most of his life there, eventually leasing the Old Swinhill Farm, which remained in the family after his death. Margaret was also born and married in Dalserf and lived there for most of her life until she immigrated to the United States.

I made a "virtual" friend several years ago on a Formula One racing forum. We got to know each other better on Facebook. I knew he lived in Scotland and was a fabulous photographer. I asked him if he would travel to Dalserf, Lanark, Scotland, to photograph the area where my great great grandparents, James Muir and Margaret Semple lived, met, married, worked and had their children before emigrating to the U.S.

Here are just some of the awesome photographs, my friend Andrew Scrogie, sent me:

To see all of Andrew's photographs of Dalserf, visit my Tangled Roots and Trees Facebook album.

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Photographs copyrighted by Andrew Scorgie. They may not be used without permission.

Clydebank, Dunbartonshire

Clydebank is a community born in the Industrial Revolution. Before 1870 the area was mostly rural and agricultural with some small-scale mining operations and boat building yards. Glasgow borders Clydebank along the Clyde River. The growth in trade and industry meant more shipping quays were needed. J & G Thomson, a shipbuilding concern, purchased land in Clydebank. It was opposite where the Cart river flows into the Clyde and close to the Forth and Clyde Canaland. By 1880 over 2,000 people, mostly shipyard workers lived in Clydebank.

Clydebank, photograph courtesy of Urban Glasgow

Singer Sewing Machine Company built a massive factory in Clydebank between 1882 and 1884. Clydebank became a police burgh in 1886. Thomas Riddell, the youngest son of John and Martha (Muir) Riddell, moved his family to Clydebank from Glasgow between 1891 and 1901. Many members of the family lived the remainder of their lives in the city.

Singer Sewing Machine Factory, Clydebank, c1901; photograph courtesy of
"Not Yet Published" blog

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"Clydebank," Urban Glasgow
"Singer Sewing Machine Factory, Clydebank, c1901," "Not Yet Published" blog, https://scheong.wordpress.com

Barnhill Poorhouse

Margaret Brownlee, or Brownlie, was illegitimate daughter of Esther Brownlee and was born in the Barnhill Poorhouse on 13 Jun 1871. She was adopted by Robert and Margaret (Melrose) Smith family and listed them as her parents when she married Thomas Riddell, on 4 September 1891.

The Barnhill poorhouse opened in 1853 and was described in 1882 as "a very capacious asylum for the children of poverty and well adapted by its cleanliness, ventilation and position to mitigate the ills of their condition." The inmates were fed "Class C" meals, which were comprised of meal and milk for breakfast and supper and bread and meat broth for dinner.

By 1904 conditions were much different. A report found staffing to care for the infirm was inadequate, the administration of the stores department was incompetent and the steward and his assistant should be dismissed, the day hall was unfit for its purpose, and staff did not work together in a harmonious fashion.

Barnoy Parish Poorhouse at Barnhill; courtesy of Heatherbank
Museum of Social Work

I was surprised to learn there were no laws related to formal adoption in the United Kingdom, including Scotland, until 1926. Before then adoptions, or wardships, were informal affairs.

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"Barony Parish Poorhouse at Barnhill," HeatherBank Museum of Social Work

Woodilee Lunatic Asylum

The Woodilee Lunatic Pauper Asylum opened on 22 October 1875. It was one of the most modern facilities of its kind at the time and housed 400 patients, or inmates, as they were called. The original buildings were designed by Glasgow architect, James Salmon. Soon additional land was purchased and a farm was developed. The labor force were the patients.

Glasgow saw a significant population expansion from the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I. The numbers of mentally ill grew in proportion. As a result, from Woodilee's opening until 1914, there was almost continuous building and rebuilding. During the time Agnes was a patient the capacity had increased to 1,300 beds.

In 1929 it was designated a mental hospital and taken over the next year by the Glasgow Corporation. After a 125 years of continual service Woodilee was closed in 2000.

Several record sets related to the hospital are housed at the University of Glasgow.

Woodilee Lunatic Asylum

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NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives
The Story of Six Strathkelvin Hospitals

Auchentibber, Blantyre Parish

Auchentibber is a small hamlet a few miles from Blantyre. It developed primarily to house the workers at nearby stone quarries. Its main claim to fame is the quirky Italian Gardens.

Italian Gardens at Auchentibber; photograph courtesy of Blantyre Project

The Auchentibber Inn landlord paid for the building materials and the local workers provided the labor. One hopes they got a free pint at the inn after contributing their work to the community beautification project!

Were some of our Muir ancestors among the workers?

Why Belfast?

We know that Annie (Cowie) Riddell and at least some of her children lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, or visited her while she lived at 10 Parkend Street:

• Isabella Cowie Riddell married John Davidson Forman there in 1920
• Annie Riddell returned from Canada and lived there with her mother for 10 months in 1920-1921
• John Riddell was living and working there when he immigrated to Canada in 1923
• Annie (Cowie) Riddell was living there when she immigrated to Canada in 1924

However, there is no evidence that Annie's husband, Oswald Dykes Riddell, ever joined her in Belfast or that they two lived together again as a married couple. And we don't know why anyone in the family decided to go to Belfast at that time.

Entrance to Belfast Harbor circa in the early 1900s; image courtesy of
Old UK Photos

The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 partitioned the country into two separate jurisdictions. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the newly established Irish Free State, which it did in 1922. The changes were not bloodless. A total of 557 people were killed between 1920 and 1922 in sectarian violence. Between 1919 and 1921 the Irish Republican Army and British security forces fought the War of Irish Independence followed by the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 1923.

The history of legal actions, war, and revolution is a convoluted and torturous one. Why would anyone choose to live in Belfast at the time of such unrest?