|
Several former Orcadians, immigrant relatives of JOHN and MARY, were presently living in the Hawesville area. Brother-in-law William Wishart, only two months younger than JOHN, had probably arrived from Forfarshire in the previous year of 1853. Magnus Francis Taylor had followed along with JOHN and MARY from Pennsylvania back in 1853, and younger brother William Taylor had joined them in Kentucky probably late the same year. Andrew, youngest of them all, and 20-year-old cousin Robert K. Taylor, had come over from Orkney during 1854 and would later arrive down at Hawesville from Canada. All these young Scottish kinfolk would be staying around Hawesville now and then, with some presumably shaking dross (coal dust) from their shoes at times. WILLIAM LINDSAY WISHART at Letham, Scotland, had barely been acquainted with his daughter MARY's Orkney-born brother-in-law who had been sickly at Hawesville. But the miller's own son at Letham had known Magnus Taylor back in their Kirkwall days, and John Wishart still always spoke very highly of him to his father. WILLIAM was pleased to know that Magnus' health was improving late in 1854. Back in August, an unmatched bid of seven pounds and 18 shillings had given WILLIAM an acre of substandard wheat ripening in a Letham field. Soon afterward, when Scottish harvest time rolled around, he cut the meager crop and ran it through his threshing mill. After selling the grain, the speculative millmaster found that his labor had produced a profit of five pounds and 11 shillings out of what he considered a poor yield. He had also been growing almost a half acre of potatoes that year, and was able to unearth enough spuds to value 16 pounds sterling. WILLIAM's mill operation was providing the bulk of his income, but 1854 was not the best of times for him. The worth of farmland around Letham was at a premium, buying a strong draft horse would cost anywhere from 25 to 50 pounds, and a milk cow could bring 15 to 17 pounds for the seller, with current cattle prices high as they were in eastern Scotland. Just two and a half miles south of Hawesville, KY, Joe Wilson was looking for someone to purchase his engine-powered mill, which was housed in a 50-by-20-foot frame and had a 24-foot double flue. The steam pressure developed in its nearly-new 40-inch boilers could drive an eight-inch-wide piston through a two-foot stroke in order to saw lumber or to grind grain. The burs had newly come from a French quarry, and these high-quality millstones had not yet seen two months of usage. Joe would allow the purchaser to cut logs from the nearby 245 acres and use two houses on the property for a couple years. But afterward, the buyer would have to remove the mill and vacate the premises; it was all part of the deal. JOHN and MARY TAYLOR wanted her parents to come to their Kentucky neighborhood where her brother William Wishart had also previously relocated. But the senior WILLIAM WISHART couldn't perceive an economic advantage sufficiently warranting a move to where his two emigrant children were. He believed these young nouveau-Americans were still struggling to make their living, and didn't think it feasible for his own family to pick up and move without knowing assuredly that it would improve their situation. The Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War was fought on October 25, inspiring a poetic account published by a literary member of the British Parliament's House of Lords. Alfred Tennyson described the British cavalry charge against the Russian field artillery:
After 1854, the Scottish TAYLOR family at Swanbister in Orphir parish mailed issues of the their local Orkney periodical, the Orcadian, to ROBERT's sons, all of whom were then living in America. Costing twopence a copy and initially printed once a month, the newspaper later became a weekly publication. The Orcadian was composed at Kirkwall by its founder, James Uquhart Anderson, son of the Magnus Anderson who had set up a bookbinding business in Kirkwall 56 years earlier. The very first edition of the Orcadian, subtitled "A Literary and Commercial Advertiser for Orkney and Zetland," contained a moral anecdote favoring sobriety along with delivering a comment on the dangers of smoking tobacco. There was a long account of the Battle of Alma in the Crimea and a lengthy article on "The Rationale of the Austrian Alliance." Looking for local items of interest, ROBERT may have scanned all four pages of the introductory publication dated November 14. Included in the Orkney news were an item on the erection of new lighthouses on the island of North Ronaldsay and a mention of the Kirkwall east pier. Stromness notes appeared along with current produce prices of the two major towns. A pound of flour sold for two and a quarter pence, a pound of butter for eightpence, eggs were sixpence by the pound, cheese was threepence a pound. A live goose could bring from two shillings up to an additional sixpence. Orkney exported a large amount of these items. In that same month, one of JOHN's Orkney cousins had completely missed his chance to participate in the Charge of the Light Brigade or to help Florence Nightingale who had left London to nurse the wounded soldiers in the Crimean War. Instead, he was in North America. 19-year-old Robert K. Taylor officially entered the United States at New York City during November, 1854, and decided to stay a while. Reverend James Wishart had elected to leave Scotland and preach the gospel elsewhere. He departed perhaps in late 1854 with his wife, Margaret, and their young sons, Willie and George, all of whom were sick before leaving Letham. The minister soon discovered the higher cost of living in England. He thought about his parents in Letham and wished more affluence for his millmaster father, a man "born to look on the bright side of things." Following a lengthy illness, the young wife of 26-year-old Thomas Wishart died probably around the beginning of the year near Letham, leaving three small sons. Thomas' brother John and their father, WILLIAM, attended her funeral. For many months, JOHN and MARY had seriously considered leaving Hawesville, KY, if they could just find a suitable place to locate before the hot weather set in. MARY's brother James was living at Swanland by Hull, England, and the preacher was concerned about the welfare of his sister's family in Kentucky: "...I am sorry that you have had so much personal afflictions. No doubt there was a need too for these trials. O my dear sister, see that they are not in vain. I trust yours have really been blessings in disguise, that they have lead to a more constant believer in the Savior. Israel in time of trouble will be greater, longing for the utmost warmth for the people of God. Troubles and trials...and faintings and blinding tears have a place in the experiences of God's people in America as well as in Europe. What a blessing that God himself is ever near - the same to his people all over the world. Let us, though far apart, perhaps never more to visit on earth, live and walk with God and we shall meetyetwell, all tears with tears of tears wiped from our face, and dwell everlasting in our father's home." |
| Copyright © 2000 Dick Taylor All Rights Reserved |