Catherine McLeod 1846 – 1930 Part A Scotland

Catherine McLeod

From Rangag looking back toward Rumsdale in the far distance

Catherine McLeod was born at Rumsdale on 9 March 1846 and was baptized on 31 March 1846. She was the eleventh and last child of John McLeod and Christina Sutherland. The source I have for her birth and baptism is a bit obscure. The record is not available on Scotland’s People as I would have hoped. It is in the Alan Roydhouse archives. Alan comments that he once had access to an old book of records for Westerdale, Achreny and Halsary that had since disappeared. Fortunately, he copied some items including Catherine’s birth.

She was probably named Catherine after her mother’s mother (whose name was usually spelled with a K). The first-born daughter of John and Christina was called Kitty on her birth record but later recorded as Catherine on her gravestone and this last born Catherine was also known as Kitty.

Catherine appears in the 1851 census aged 5 living at home at Rumsdale and not yet going to school.

In the 1861 census Catherine was still living at home in Rumsdale. She was 15 and a scholar.

In1863 the Rumsdale property was sold to Sir Tollemache Sinclair and it was time for the McLeod family to move.

They were able to get the lease of a small house with a few acres on the Forse estate at Rangag. Alexander, his sister Catherine and niece Christina Ross went to Rangag also.

Rangag

The house at Rangag was significant for Catherine as she lived here with her elderly parents for several years and stayed there for several years after their deaths. Alexander worked at making shoes in the rear end of the building and Catherine helped her parents with the grocery business they had established in the front of the house. 

From the enclosure at Rangag looking toward Ascharaskill

Next door were Catherine’s sister Betsy and her husband William Williamson and their children.

Westerdale

The old Westerdale Church

The Westerdale church

In December 1868 the family gathered at Westerdale for the marriage of Alexander and Jessie Ross. Catherine was a witness on the marriage record. It would have been a happy family gathering.

John McLeod died

On Sunday 16 May 1869 John McLeod died at home of heart disease. Catherine was still living at Rangag at the time. The wake lasted till Tuesday morning when John was taken for burial. Catherine would have stayed at the house as was the custom and watched with her mother and sister Betsy and maybe sisters Janet and Mary as the men in the burial procession carried John McLeod’s body across the moors to the old Dalnawillan cemetery.

Grocer's daughter

In the 1871 census Catherine is shown living with her mother Christina. They are listed as Grocer and Grocer’s daughter. Catherine is 25 and unmarried. She was clearly helping her mother run the shop.

Christina died

On Wednesday 8 July 1872 Christina died. She had been sick for some time so Catherine would have been caring for her mother as well as minding the shop. She had support from Betsy and William next door. William is shown on his mother-in-law’s death certificate as being present at the time of her death and he registered the death.  

Marriage

In 1877 Catherine married a local Stemster boy James Taylor. James parents William and Janet Taylor lived at Stemster near Rangag. 

James Taylor birth 11 June 1857

James is described in various records as either an Agricultural Labourer or a Shepherd. In the marriage record Catherine is a Tea Merchant. She was still living in the Rangag house but had changed the focus of the business from groceries to tea which was a very popular drink. 

Marriage Catherine McLeod to James Taylor 28 December 1877

The old Halsary church building

The wedding was held at Halsary just a few miles up the road from Rangag. James was 21 years old and Catherine was 30. There was a huge shenanigans following the wedding that dragged on for a year or two. I have blogged it on the Grey Hen’s Well blog. Here are the links to the five blogs with the full story.

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-wedding-at-halsary.html

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-excise-officer.html

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.com/2018/12/dawe-pounces-on-taylor.html

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-statutory-penalty-of-400.html

https://greyhenswell.blogspot.com/2019/01/taking-skin-of-naked-highlander.html

Baby John

On 8 September 1878 Catherine’s and James first son was born at Rangag. He was named John after Catherine’s father.

John died on 29 February 1880 of Skin Disease. There is the sad comment that he had no medical attendant which was often just the way things were at the time. I don’t have a record of the burial but my guess is that baby John was buried at the old Stemster cemetery of Ballachly where other Taylors were buried and where James parents William and Janet were later buried.

Cemetery at Ballachly

Baby Janet 

On 28 September 1880 daughter Janet was born. She was named after James’ mother Janet Taylor of Stemster.

Census 1881

In 1881 the Census shows the family still in the house at Rangag. I have a query about the data on this census. The census shows:

James Taylor aged 25 Agricultural Labourer.

Catherine Taylor aged 35 Labourer’s wife.

Catherine Taylor daur aged 8 scholar.

Janet daur aged 6 mths infant.

I am not sure who the ‘daur’ [daughter] Catherine Taylor aged 8 is. She would have been born in 1873 four years before James and Catherine got married. I cannot find a birth record for her or any subsequent census records that might be her. Nor can I find a death record for her. On one website I found the claim that the girl Catherine aged 8 was daughter Christina Catherine who went to New Zealand with the family, but that cannot be correct as that Christina Catherine was not even born at the time of the 1881 census. Nor did a Catherine Taylor appear as part of this family in New Zealand. If she was an illegitimate child and had been living at home with her parents and going to school at Rangag then it seems very unlikely Catherine and James would leave her behind when they left Scotland. I wonder if there was an error with the census and this Catherine may have been a niece or other relative staying with James and Catherine. There were certainly other Taylor families in Latheron.

Loch Stemster

Baby John George

In 1882 son John George Taylor was born in Stemster.

Baby Christina Catherine

In 1884 daughter Christina Catherine was born at Acharaskal which was a farm just over the moors from Rangag. James must have got a shepherding job there.

Baby Margaret Anne 

In 1886 daughter Margaret Ann was born in Rangag. James was still a shepherd. There are no later records showing there was a Margaret Anne Taylor with this family in New Zealand. 

The shipping record in the New Zealand papers for the arrival of the boat the Taylor family sailed on states a baby died on the voyage out and I surmise it was Margaret Ann Taylor. I also have read a suggestion from a Taylor descendant that a baby girl from this family died on the trip out.

To New Zealand

In 1886 the Taylor family left Scotland and emigrated to New Zealand.

To be continued.

Alexander McLeod – Martinborough 1804 – 1942 Part E

Radium Street

McLeod house in McLeod Lane later Radium Street 

In the late 1890s Alexander built a big house in Radium Street and moved from the dwelling at the general store.

John McLeod

John McLeod 1879 - 1904

In 1904 disaster again struck this family. Eldest son John McLeod died in a tragic accident at the Carterton Show. John was the son that much had been hoped for. He had been sent away to school in Wellington to get the best education. 

The story goes that John’s parents and a church group were going by train to Upper Hutt to attend an all-day Brethren church meeting. John was expected to go also. He had recently been disappointed in his hopes for an engagement to a girl he wanted to marry and chose to go to the Masterton Show and spend the day riding his horse. His family came home later that day on the train to hear the tragic news. Some in the church felt that John should have gone to the meeting instead of the show. This thought is hinted at on a page of his memorial card “But his love for horses led him to the scene where he met his death”. 

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1904, Page 5

It was a very painful tragedy for the family as one more of their members died young. They certainly kept John’s memory alive as Matthew comments in his dairy.

Margaret McLeod 

In 1905 Margaret McLeod married Robert Wall. At the time the Wall family was living in the Kiritaki/Maharahara district running a small store. They went farming near Martinborough and had a family of eight children.

Wall Family

Photo Back row left to right: Christine Evangeline, Mary Elizabeth known as Betty, Ernest John with Eunice (in front looking sideways), Alexia known as Lexie, Joy

Front row left to right: Katherine known as Kay, Robert Ernest Wall, Margaret Henriette Harris, Janet

Matthew McLeod

In September 1908 Matthew McLeod married Christina Jacobsen. Matthew built a new house on land in Esther Street he bought off his aunt Esther.

Plan of Radium Street

This plan drawn by Mr R L Gray was in the Martinborough museum. It shows the location of the main buildings Alexander McLeod built. There is a building he calls the boarding house behind the factory. It may have been built to provide accommodation for the factory workers. Matthew makes some references to a boarding house in his diary. That building must have been removed.  

Matthew also made ‘scent’ for a while, possibly selling to Sharland & Co.

Radium Polish

Alexander and son Matthew were working on ways to expand their business. They developed a formula which Alexander patented, for the manufacture of boot polish. The process involved melting chunks of wax and adding turps and other ingredients. Matthew at first started working in an old shed at the back of the house.

Small Rear shed. Wairarapa News Sep 9 1987 

They called the polish Radium because of the world-wide interest in the discovery of radium by Marie Curie. The polish did not have radium in it.

By December 1909 foundations were laid for a new building in McLeod Lane for the manufacture of their polish.

Staff at the Radium factory. Matthew is on right pointing toward Radium. Alexander is seated on right.

The Radium business became very successful. By 1911 Matthew had moved the Radium business to Wellington. The Radium and Matthew McLeod stories will get a separate blog.

Dalnawillan

In 1913 Alexander and Jessie made a trip back to Scotland. At this time Alexander arranged for the gravestone of his ‘beloved parents’ at Dalnawillan to be placed.

Gravestone at Dalnawillan cemetery, Scotland

Fire

While the McLeods were away disaster struck again.

In 1913, 4 November the Boot and Shoe factory on the corner of Jellicoe and Radium streets was destroyed by fire. There was no insurance as Alexander along with other  Martinborough Brethren at that time did not believe in insurance.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 109, 4 November 1913, Page 7

Grandad Sandy

On a lighter note, when my mother Joy McLeod was old she scrawled on paper some disjointed stories she remembered hearing as a child about her Grandad Sandy. Here’s an extract:

• Grandma McLeod was a fresh air fiend. He [Grandad] got up and shut it [the window]. If you don’t like it get out. So I will then. He used to insulate himself with newspapers. Picked up his nightcap and went downstairs. He made a long tin funnel to urinate in so he didn’t have to lift the jerry can. He had a jar of peppermints that Aunt Janet had made. She used to count them. She wanted to know where’s the water closet? He said he took some Epsom salts and asked the station master’s wife for the customary dose and she gave him the whole packet. That man and his newspapers!

On return to New Zealand in 1914 Alexander continued working in the old shed behind the big house making heavy work boots for friends. 

Jessie, Alexander and Kitty Taylor MS McLeod

From left: Janet McLeod, Robert Wall, Margaret Wall, Jessie McLeod
at the house in Radium Street

Janet Sutherland McLeod the eldest daughter of Alexander and Jessie.
Born in Scotland in 1869 she was a much loved sweet lady.
She stayed in the Radium Street house long after her parents had gone.
She died in Auckland in 1963 aged 93. 

Deaths in the Family

In 1920 disaster struck yet again with the death of Matthew of TB. His wife Christina was expecting their sixth child. Of the eight children of Alexander and Jessie only two daughters lived to old age.

1932, 28 August Alexander McLeod died. He was 89 years old.

1942, 15 November Jessie died. She was 95 years old. 

Jessie McLeod aged 93

Martinborough cemetery