Leeds in the 1870s

dogduke · Post by **dogduke** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 12:55 am

Have e-mailed 'the friends of Beckett Street Cemetery askingthem for help.Hopefully they cn point me in the right direction.Have just had a reply from 'The Friends' offering a 'meet' to reveal what we have already learned on this site.A 'donation of £10 is usually required.Is Dakota about yet after all the hard work in progress ?

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 2:17 am

I'm back......... incredibly tired, but all of the sod has been laid and shortly thereafter it started to rain, which is good. Got into flickr and all I can say is "wow" - a picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Those are amazing and really convey what you have been conveying. I'll be more than happy to make a donation to the Friends, should I send them an email and find out where to send the money?? This could be very surreptitious and I could leave an "x" on a tree or something when I've paid the money or perhaps flash the bat sign in the sky so they'd know it's okay to speak to us. Can you tell how tired I am? Everything aches and tomorrow morning I get to spend the morning with a peridontist. Mama always said that after 40 it's patch, patch, patch, but she forgot to mention the peridontist.Anyway, I'm going back to Flickr and look at the photos some more and then it's time for some aspirin.I'll be more coherent tomorrow, I promise.

dogduke · Post by **dogduke** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 2:43 pm

Hi Dakota,Due to the time taken by the 'Friends' to reply to my e-mail(21/5-02/06 0r to you 5/21 - 06/02)we had between us found out most of what you are looking for.I have just reread their reply and noticed the one thing no one knew.There were no headstones to start with,these were poor peoples graves so records were made but there are no visible grave markings,the Friends could only offer to show us an approximate location which we already know.The only possible physical link you have is JaneEXTRACT FROM E-MAIL FROM THE FRIENDSI passed on your enquiry to our Enquiries officer who has traced some information about your friend's family.They were all buried in 'open graves' i.e. shared with other people and without headstones. This would normally indicate a poor family, - even though Ernest and William died within months of each other, they are in different graves.I have the grave numbers now so I could show you approximately where the graves are, but no headstones.

Post by **chameleon** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 4:55 pm

Brandy wrote: or snip the links here and copy/paste and re-posthttp://snipurl.com/site/index (always forget about that - but a name change is an all-time one off).

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 9:07 pm

Well, that's an answer then and what an adventure this has been with all of you - I've learned so much about Leeds and the time that my great grandparents lived there from all of you. But I'm not going to stop asking you all questions and staying in touch through this web-site. I feel like I've found a whole new bunch of friends and friends are so hard to come by, that I'm keeping the whole darn bunch of you. I'm going to start looking into other aspects of their lives there and will be coming up with more questions for all of you. Thanks again for all that you've done for me and the insights and ideas you've given me.

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Thu 03 Jun, 2010 10:04 pm

Just out of interest Dakota which route did your relatives take from Leeds to get to America?I assume they sailed from Liverpool?

dogduke · Post by **dogduke** » Fri 04 Jun, 2010 1:00 am

Hi Dakota,I was meaning to ask a similar sort of question but Steve beat me to it.Have we confirmed that Jane is related ?If so I could probablykeep an eye on the grave and leave some flowers on your behalf,we are after all only talking of a few hundred yards not thousands of miles.You know a lot about Leeds now,can put some photos up of Anderson for us to share,show us all the hard work you have had to do.As you have said keep in touch with the site and feel free to ask anything and everything

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Fri 04 Jun, 2010 3:25 am

Haven't pinned down a connection with Jane yet, but I did order some Poll Books for Yorkshire to see if I can track down some of the ancestors prior to the 1841 census - I sort of keep hitting a block there and was trying to figure a way to peek back before that census and found a site where I could get some earlier records and they arrived 2 days ago, but I haven't been able to get to them because between the sod, watering the sod and a houseful of company, everyone keeps me from getting to them. It's driving me crazy.....As to how Henry and Sarah got to America - they did indeed leave from Liverpool. In December of 1876 Henry and Sarah and 3 of their 4 children - they had 2 more girls after the 3 boys had died and both of the girls survived. But when Henry and Sarah went to America in December of 1876, they left the baby behind. They were on the ship the Pennsylvania and landed, appropriately enough, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At some point they went back to England and in April of 1877, Henry and Sarah and all 4 kids sailed from Liverpool to New York on the ship the Spain. They went to Troy, New York - I haven't found them there yet, but several of my aunts have said that they went there so I believe them, but they didn't like it in Troy, apparently Henry was working as a carpenter and Troy is far enough north in New York that the winters are really brutal.From Troy they went to Joliett, Illinois, a little south and west of Chicago. It was a big iron mill town and Henry worked in the Rolling Mill there.Then went to Dakota Territory to homestead - I've got the land record somewhere but I'm not certain what year it would have been that they went there, before 1880, I do know that much. In order to get the west settled, the US government offered up 160 acres of land to anyone that could "prove" a claim. To prove the claim they had to build a living structure and plow and plant so many acres in so many years. I think they had to get so much done in the first 2 years and then have it pretty much looking like home in 5 years - but that's stretching back to my history from grade school and that's been a long long time. The railroads were expanding and wanted people to move to the west so that they would have customers. The government gave them large tracts of land where they built the railroads. The railroads would advertise the joys and benefits of living in the west and would offer free travel to those wanting to go west to homestead. They'd often take interested people out to look the area(s) over and if they did pick land, they'd generally move out their family and belongings.With homesteaders settling in, the railroads could then market the lands that the government gave them to businesses. Oftentimes a group of men would form together and create town companies and they would go out and attract various types of businesses - grocers, bars, etc., and sell them the lots that the railroad owned to get the towns going.Where Henry and Sarah settled in what is now eastern South Dakota looks a lot like the rural areas around Bradford. My sister and I took my mom there several years ago and stayed with relatives in Deep Car and Stocksbridge and it looked a lot like where Henry and Sarah settled and I always wondered if that was one of the attractions. Joliett in those days was probably a lot like the industrial towns/cities in England - not a really pretty place to live and raise kids. One of Henry and Sarah's children that was old enough to be aware of things when they lived in Joliett told one of their children that they lived across from the prison in Joliett and could hear the cries of the prisoners at night. That sort of stuck with them.So, that's how they got to America and eventually Dakota territory - I've also been tracking some of Henry's siblings that also immigrated to the US and am trying to find some previous generations thinking that Henry and Sarah may have initially come out in 1876 to check out employement opportunities and housing and what not and think it's reasonable to think that they probably went to where the relatives were and stayed with them while they looked around.The poignant thing is that on the passenger list when they came over in 1876 has STEERAGE written on it in large letters. When I fly anymore, I sort of feel like I have steerage written on my boarding pass, but that's a whole nother discusson.But they came, along the way had 16 children, lost some along the way and when they were farming in Dakota Territory, they lost a 9 year old daughter to a ruptured appendix and a 19 year old son to a bolt of lightening. All of the children that died in Dakota were buried on the farm as Sarah wasn't going to leave any more behind and I would also imagine that she could probably have a more elaborate funeral service since it was on their farm and that she could go visit their graves when she needed to and she would know exactly where they were burined. My grandmother named her oldest daughter after her younger sister that had died of the ruptured appendix so that tells me they were close and a few months after the little girl died, her "closest in age" brother was struck by a bolt of lightening on the farm and died. Really a tough time to live, but you had to just keep on going. But at least Sarah had the comfort of giving them the type of burial that she wanted and knew exactly where they were. Really a remarkable woman, she taught herself how to read and write and then taught her husband how to read and write. So that's my story, or rather their story and I'm still trying to fill in more of the blanks so I and my cousins can have a real appreciation for who our ancestors were.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Fri 04 Jun, 2010 3:30 am

Yes, I will take some pictures tomorrow of our sod adventure and post them - I have lots of before "mud" pictures and will share them and then do the after pictures.

Post by **cnosni** » Fri 04 Jun, 2010 11:11 am

Dakota wrote: Haven't pinned down a connection with Jane yet, but I did order some Poll Books for Yorkshire to see if I can track down some of the ancestors prior to the 1841 census - I sort of keep hitting a block there and was trying to figure a way to peek back before that census and found a site where I could get some earlier records and they arrived 2 days ago, but I haven't been able to get to them because between the sod, watering the sod and a houseful of company, everyone keeps me from getting to them. It's driving me crazy..... Hi DakotaIf you can tell me more details on Henry and Sarah,ie places of birth,place of marriage,approx year born and Sarahs maiden name (is it Wells or did she marry a Wells?) then ill see if i can have a look.