HI CUZ Blog 101
Copyright 1990 et seq, Donald Rowe
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Captain John Angus McDonald USMC
letters 1927
Continuing from previous postings …. Captain Jack’s wife Marjorie
May (MacKenzie) McDonald and daughter Barbara McDonald live in USMC housing at
a base in Port Au Prince, Haiti .
Captain Jack’s age while in Nicaragua
was 49. Imagine yourself in the mountains of Nicaragua as you march along with Nancy ’s grandfather. This
letter was the final letter from Captain Jack to his family before he left
Nicaragua.
Chinandega Nicaragua
August 3rd 1927
My own darling:
I received a letter from you yesterday dated July 17th,
I don’t blame you in the least for being discouraged about our letters.
When I arrived here as I told you in my letters I received
two letters from you. And one from your
mother.
And you only received three from me at the time you wrote. I
sent you several letters from Esteli, and if you haven’t received them God only
knows where they are.
Mrs. Scheper says she only received the letters Scheper sent
her on the Argonne, And one sent from Leon before we left for the hills. Sending mail from the hills was a problem,
there was so many accidents that happened enroute to any place with the kind
PAGE TWO
Of transportation we had to contend with.
My darling for some news the Argonne arrives at Corinto
August 26th from the West Coast, and leaves at once for Haiti with
yours truly on board. And all the other officers on board that came with us.
We are all counting the days where we will leave. And off
all the d- miserable place on God’s green earth Nicaragua takes the cake.
We expect to arrive in Port-Au-Prince September 5. This was
Captain Jack’s final letter from Nicaragua.
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The following are
queries and responses from fellow MLFHS members. I included these as my Wroe/Rowe
ancestors became Catholics when they landed in America, and the Meaghers of
Ireland were undoubtedly Catholic before arrival, and some may have been buried
in Catholic cemeteries or cemeteries around Manchester where Catholics were
allowed to be buried.
MLFHS: Catholic Burials
Some of my Catholic ancestors were buried in Eccles parish churchyard in the mid 1800's, the registers have the word "papist" in the margin,
Some of my Catholic ancestors were buried in Eccles parish churchyard in the mid 1800's, the registers have the word "papist" in the margin,
MLFHS: Catholic Burials - Another
response from another MLFHS member
You raise an issue that has troubled me for some time. My problem is that there was a Catholic chapel in Bury ca 1800 and by the mid-1860s there were four churches, two in Bury, and one each in Radcliffe and Ramsbottom. Bury Cemetery was opened in 1869. There were no Catholic burial grounds around other than inManchester and in the Ribble Valley
The only places for burial were Anglican and Non-Conformist graveyards. In Bury town, the churchyards in the built-up area were closed ca 1855, as inManchester . The Parish Church St John , about quarter of a mile to the
east. BUT Brunswick Methodist Chapel graveyard, about 300 yards north of
the Parish Church St Paul 's CE (half a mile
east) and All Saints CE, Elton, about the same distance to the west. There was
also a Unitarian graveyard a little further out than St Paul 's.
You raise an issue that has troubled me for some time. My problem is that there was a Catholic chapel in Bury ca 1800 and by the mid-1860s there were four churches, two in Bury, and one each in Radcliffe and Ramsbottom. Bury Cemetery was opened in 1869. There were no Catholic burial grounds around other than in
The only places for burial were Anglican and Non-Conformist graveyards. In Bury town, the churchyards in the built-up area were closed ca 1855, as in
The town of
Turning to the
These seem to be too few and too small to have catered for the number of burials you suggest, prior to
My personal guess is that Catholics used any graveyard that was available close to the residence of the deceased. If this is correct, then Catholic burials should appear in any or all open graveyards just outside the 1855 built-up area of
If Catholic burials were distributed among the Catholic graveyards and the various other graveyards around the periphery of the built-up area, the additional number in any one graveyard may not be significant.
Hope this helps, and apologies for it being mainly 'theory' (guesswork)
MLFHS: Catholic Burials - Another response from another MLFHS member
Thanks for this additional information. The dates would be interesting. It is the period c1854 to 1866 which is of particular interest.
Before 1854, I think that the most likely reason why a Catholic would be buried in a CofE churchyard would be because they were paupers who the parish was required to bury.
Geoff's point about St Wilfred caused me to look again at the London Gazette and this shows at http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/21875/pages/1540 a new order in council in 1 April 1856 which lifted the previous closures of St Patrick and St Wilfred and permitted further burials in existing walled graves subject to conditions and in new graves subject to a limit of one per grave (a condition applied to other burial grounds but which was eased in 1860 to allow up to four in a grave).
Elaine's mention of Weaste is also, I am sure, relevant. I know nothing of Weaste's terms of business, but am sure it would have been open to non-residents of
St Wilfred was finally closed in 1865 (London Gazette 10 Oct 1865 page 4786). The lack of registers makes it difficult to know how many burials were accommodated in these latter years.
I have not yet found the order in council closing St Patrick’s but the end of burials in 1858 shown by the registers makes it pretty clear that it would have been published around this time.
The restrictions on burials from 1856 are difficult to with the large numbers of burials recorded at St Patrick’s and the Manchester Courier 23 Jan 1858 has a report on infringements of the one-per-grave limitation and this refers to previous complaints by local residents.
Subject: MLFHS: Catholic Burials- Another response from another
MLFHS member
With regard to your paragraph re Weaste, my husband's ancestor was buried there in 1869 in the RC section in a common grave. I doubt very much that they had money as he was living at a wharf in Castlefield at the time he died and there's no trace of money anywhere else in the family. So perhaps Weaste were not so strict re non residents of Salford. I've no idea why Weaste was chosen for this burial as no-one else in the family has been found there - yet.
Apologies for the trailing messages but as they are relevant for anyone coming into this topic late I have decided to leave them there.
Subject: MLFHS: Catholic Burials- Another response from another MLFHS member
Thanks for this. Weaste would probably have been closer for his funeral thanPhilips Park Manchester
and Chorlton (before the latter was incorporated into Manchester ) as Southern Cemetery was on their
turf but their residents were required to pay 21 shillings for burial of an adult
in a public grave as opposed to 13 shillings for a Manchester resident. They negotiated the
premium down over about 20 years and eventually it disappeared when the borough
was incorporated.
If anyone can come up with a list of fees for Weaste or Philips Park I would certainly be interested.
With regard to your paragraph re Weaste, my husband's ancestor was buried there in 1869 in the RC section in a common grave. I doubt very much that they had money as he was living at a wharf in Castlefield at the time he died and there's no trace of money anywhere else in the family. So perhaps Weaste were not so strict re non residents of Salford. I've no idea why Weaste was chosen for this burial as no-one else in the family has been found there - yet.
Apologies for the trailing messages but as they are relevant for anyone coming into this topic late I have decided to leave them there.
Subject: MLFHS: Catholic Burials- Another response from another MLFHS member
Thanks for this. Weaste would probably have been closer for his funeral than
If anyone can come up with a list of fees for Weaste or Philips Park I would certainly be interested.
Subject: MLFHS: Catholic Burials- Another response from another MLFHS member
I can't give you the fees for the 1889 burial in the RC section at Weaste that I mentioned. However I can give you the cost of two burials which took place within six weeks of each other in 1900. The first was my gt. grandmother (the other one!) on 16th April Undertakers bill (Fyans & Gordon of Mcr): ?12-2-6 of which ?3.3.0 was the cost of the new grave and ?1 for "opening".
The second was my grandmother on 26th May. Same undertaker ?9-1-6 which included an unspecified amount for reopening the grave.
Hope this may help.
Subject: MLFHS: Catholic Burials- Another response from another MLFHS member
Thanks for this. Weaste would probably have been closer for his
funeral than Philips Park, even though the latter would have been open for 3 years before his death. It was only recently I came across the discrimination in fees for non-residents and so I am not sure how widespread it was. There was a lot of friction between Manchester and Chorlton (before the latter was incorporated into Manchester) as Southern Cemetery was on their turf but their residents were required to pay 21 shillings for burial of an adult in a public grave as opposed to 13 shillings for a Manchester resident. They negotiated the premium down over about 20 years and eventually it disappeared when the borough was incorporated.
If 26th can come up with a list of fees for Weaste or Philips Park I would certainly be interested.
With regard to your paragraph re Weaste, my husband's ancestor was buried there in 1869 in the RC section in a common grave. I doubt very much that they had money as he was living at a wharf in Castlefield at the time he died and there's no trace of money anywhere else in the family. So perhaps Weaste were not so strict re non residents of Salford. I've no idea why Weaste was chosen for this burial as no-one else in the family has been found there - yet.
Apologies for the trailing messages but as they are relevant for
anyone coming into this topic late I have decided to leave them
there.
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The article below is another tale
from when I was a wee one. It relates from the notes of my older brothers their
experiences related to exploring a ship which grounded in Cape Elizabeth, Maine
in March of 1947. Enjoy!
Oakey L. Alexander
By Dennis Joseph
Rowe, Sunday March
10, 1013
(I tried but couldn’t include some sailorish terminology
like athwartships, poopdeck, etc. Sorry!)
This is for publication.
Believe the year was 1945 (or thereabouts) and the
(vessel/boat, ship or craft??) the OKIE ALEXANDER here is what transpired – as
I recall.
It was wintertime and the typical
winter weather prevailed: storms at sea and Nor’easters on shore. A ship – the
Okie in this case – was forced ashore or ran aground on the rocky Maine coast just south
of Portland .
We three Rowe boys (Daniel, David
and Dennis) found out about it from the rescue effort. The grounding occurred
about a mile from our Shore Road house – say a mile through the woods.
It must have been a cargo ship and
there was no flotsam or jetsam or spilled oil. The ship didn’t capsize or break
up (yet).
The rescue effort occurred before
we could get there as the ship and shore were deserted. The rescuers had set up
a breeches buoy (a canvas seat hung from a stout rope with a smaller rope for
pulling the seat back and forth).
All the
rescuers and rescued were gone but they left the breeches buoy set up. They
didn’t even set up today’s yellow, plastic ribbon warning of danger & to
not cross and stay away – like kids would care!
Anyway, the
breeches buoy cable and seat were still there … tantalizingly inviting the
three Rowe angels to “come on board mates!”
The storm
had not let up so there were splash and spray and wind driven fury so we got
wet if not soaked.
None of us
had ever been that close to or aboard a ship that big and inviting. We – I
don’t know who went first but it was probably Dan as he was the oldest & biggest
– one at a time climbed into the canvas seat and propelled ourselves out to the
Okie.
The trip
out and back was the most exciting, tiring and perilous because of the
continuing storm and the rocking, inhospitable ship.
That didn’t
stop us from going back out till, tired, cold & soaked, we gave up.
You didn’t
get to have fun and excitement like that and no one else got to do it. Course,
Mom was aghast when we got home soaked and she found/figured out what had
happened.
We never
went back – even to find out if the Okie had broken up or if the breeches buoy was
intact & useable. But we three Rowe angels had had one hell of a time.
Course our
ten year younger brother, Donald, was an infant and only later learned about
the Okie aground in a storm right in our backyard.
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Brother Dan’s
version of the adventures on Oakey L. Alexander (below) is shorter and
suggests the site was near a coastal lighthouse, Two Lights, in Cape Elizabeth,
Maine.
The Oakey Alexander, a coal. Boat of about maybe 6000 tons or so, went ashore in a bad storm on the rocks near Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The news went out to all hands and many people gathered to see her being driven further up on the rocks, including Dave, Denny, and me. The Coast Guard set up a Breeches Buoy rescue apparatus soon after, and I think, rescued most of the crew. A couple of days later, Dan Litchfield and I went out on the setup to the boat to look around, and see what had happened. Later on most of the coal was recovered, and the boat was cut up for scrap. Mind you, my memory is not perfect, but this is as I recall it.
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The Oakey Alexander, a coal. Boat of about maybe 6000 tons or so, went ashore in a bad storm on the rocks near Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The news went out to all hands and many people gathered to see her being driven further up on the rocks, including Dave, Denny, and me. The Coast Guard set up a Breeches Buoy rescue apparatus soon after, and I think, rescued most of the crew. A couple of days later, Dan Litchfield and I went out on the setup to the boat to look around, and see what had happened. Later on most of the coal was recovered, and the boat was cut up for scrap. Mind you, my memory is not perfect, but this is as I recall it.
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Internet data on the ship Oakey L. Alexander, built 1915 and
grounded 03 March 1947 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Source: http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/13473/
Early in the morning of March 3, 1947 , the 5284 ton collier
"Oakey L. Alexander" was battling her way toward Portland 4:46am about one mile southeast of Dyer Point,
in very heavy seas and winds up to a hurricane force of seventy knots (80 mph), 130 feet of her heavily loaded bow suddenly
broke away and immediately sank.
With the rest of the ship still afloat, Captain Raymond W. Lewis headed for nearby high head (nowTwo Lights State Park
The ship’s radio operator sent an SOS that was immediately answered by the Coast Guard. When the ship ran aground at High Head, men from the nearby Cape Elizabeth Coast Guard Station were ready for a breeches buoy rescue.
A Lyle gun successfully fired a light line to the ship, and a heavier line was pulled across and secured. One by one all aboard were pulled safely ashore riding in the breeches buoy. The remaining cargo of coal was saved, but the ship was a total loss. It was stripped and cut up for salvage.
With the rest of the ship still afloat, Captain Raymond W. Lewis headed for nearby high head (now
The ship’s radio operator sent an SOS that was immediately answered by the Coast Guard. When the ship ran aground at High Head, men from the nearby Cape Elizabeth Coast Guard Station were ready for a breeches buoy rescue.
A Lyle gun successfully fired a light line to the ship, and a heavier line was pulled across and secured. One by one all aboard were pulled safely ashore riding in the breeches buoy. The remaining cargo of coal was saved, but the ship was a total loss. It was stripped and cut up for salvage.
US
Coast Guard photo
Associated Press photo – setting Breeches Buoy
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The article below is another tale from when I was a wee one.
It relates my older brothers experiences related to collecting scrap for WWII
support. Story by brother Daniel Michael Rowe.
In the summer of 1943, or maybe 1944, at the height of WWII, Dave Denny, and I collected about 3 tons of scrap metal, old car frames, axles, engine blocks, and assorted scrap from these farms. And junk piles around our farm to help the war effort. We stored the stuff next to the road where we played baseball across from Harriman's farm. We were playing ball one day there, and along comes (name withheld) &/Son, Scrap dealers. (name withheld) flashes a wad of bills that would choke a horse, and wants to buy our scrap metal, saying that we could make big money if we did. “Trust me!” he says. So we load all the stuff in his truck, and the bastard gives me a quarter, and a dime each to Dave and Denny and drives off. I was 11 at the time, Dave 10, and Denny 9. We were crestfallen, and wanted to shoot the bastard.
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