Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part Four

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

A History by Ray L Nelson
Pictures and documents added by Lois C. Berrett

John Nelson and family, William Morgan / Martha Nelson family, Andrew Patterson / Jane Neilson families immigrated about 1851-52. Finding work in St. Louis they prepared and came to Utah by wagon train.  Those were early years.  Arriving in Salt Lake ( not necessarily at the same time) they were all sent to southern Utah in what was called the Iron Mission.  It is a difficult story that is not well known.  Suffering deprivation and starvation they returned to Nephi, Utah and / or Utah County to winter through.  By 1857 the Iron Mission was done.  They produced a few tons of iron but could not sustain the endeavor.  Their experience at Shotts with both coal mining and iron smelter production was no doubt invaluable in Parawan and Cedar City.

Martha Nelson Morgan

William Morgan

John Neilson pioneered both Smithfield Utah and Logan, Utah with the same party in 1859.  William and Martha Morgan were in the original pioneers of Chicken Creek, now Levan, Utah, and Andrew and Jane Patterson were in the original party of settlers for Beaver, Utah.  By 1870 John Neilson was successful in Cache County, Utah with several business ventures including, lumbering,  a sawmill on the island in Logan, a milling business, and farming and freighting goods to the gold rush miners in Virginia City, Montana.  Arriving in 1868 it is likely that Ninian and Edward could obtain employment in one of Johns enterprises. They settled in Hyde Park, just north of Logan and near Smithfield.  To this resort they brought Christina and the others in 1870.

John Nelson

In 1873 Edward married Janet Blair Sneddon, born in Clackmannon, Scotland.  They were married and sealed in the Endownment House in Salt Lake City. 

Edward Neilson son of Ninian

Ellen Married Nels Christinsen, of Smithfield, an immigrant from Denmark. 

Nels and Ellen Christensen and Sam Nelson

In 1879 John Alfred Married Rosella Seamons of Hyde Park. 

John and Rosella Neilson

And in 1880 James Douglas married Margaret Ann Reid of Smithfield.  Her father came to Smithfield to be a cobbler in the United Order Store during the 1870s. When that failed it became a private business which has remained there the same business through this writing.  Smithfield Implement. 

Both John Alfred and James Douglas also worked in the leather shop, learning how to work leather and make shoes under the tutelage of James Reid.  Then James married Reid's daughter and.... that's another story.

First home of James Douglas and Margaret Ann Nelson.  It was located near Lorenzo, Idaho, just east of the railroad track.

Ninian and Christina spent a decade and more in Hyde Park watching their surviving children grow up and marry.  There is scant record of them.  They seem to be there but they are retiring people who never sought public attention and never make public records. They were strangers in a far country.  Could it be that they were old enough that they found the changes from Scotland to the wild west a bit of a challenge?  Did they miss the green of Scotland when facing the seasons of the arid west?  Did they feel lost in the dynamic changing culture of America so used to the crushing traditions in Scotland that so limited ones opportunities?  Were they still mourning the immense losses of their daughter's lives so far away?

In Scotland, the Nelsons would never have had the opportunity to be landowners.  From feudal time, only the Baronial families had held property.  For Ninian and Christina, having struggled so many years to pay their rents and live in miner's row houses on miner's wages and having seen their own children's live wasted on this system, it must have been something like becoming a titled nobleman when they bought their first property.  In 1882 they sold a piece of property which they had obtained in Clifton, Oneida, Idaho.  It's their first land transaction for which we have record.  There are other deeds and deed transfers in both Christina and Ninian's name. 

Some of these properties produced enough capital to have lived several years on the proceeds or purchase fine horses for breeding stock.  In 1886 Ninian filed on a homestead near Dayton, Oneida, Idaho and was granted the patent in 1892.  In 1890 Ninian became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Living in Dayton Ninian became a breeder of horses.  Something that area (Clifton and Dayton) became known for.  Ninian was raised around horses, used to operate the lifts and derricks at the mines in Scotland.  He had become a carter in Dunfermline.  He may have been a teamster on the Virginia City gold route, for his brother John.  And now he became a landed gentleman who bred and traded horses. Could it be that this pursuit of horses was the fulfillment of a dream?  No matter how you read the facts, to have gone from the slavery of coal mining to being a landed horse breeder in one lifetime is a story with a great deal of awe.

On the 29 December 1894 Christina Campbell Nelson passed away. Three and a half years later on 30 June 1898, Ninian Nelson died at the age of 76.  They are both buried in the Dayton Cemetery, Dayton (now Franklin), Idaho.

Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part Three

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

A History by Ray L Nelson
Pictures and documents added by Lois C. Berrett

After Ninian's departure the family does not appear on Woodhead street.  The records that follow show them on Newrow. Here in this house, on 3 December 1868 at 4:00 pm. young Catherine Neilson died. She was 21.  The cause of death is listed as gastric fever duration four weeks.  She was a factory worker in Dunfermline where they manufactured the finest fabrics in the British Empire.  Christina was alone to face this crisis without Ninian or Edward.  Brother Thomas Spowart is again listed on the death record as present, a neighbor and witness.  The holidays came and went, and it must have been a long long winter for Christina.

When spring came again so did death. On 26 April 1869, Christina Neilson, the youngest of these three sisters, died at 2:00 am. in the same little house on Newrow. The cause of death is listed as phthisis pulmonalis duration one year.  Christina had been working as a power loom operator.  Working is some dim shop filled with steam driven machines with no ventilation, breathing the chaff of flaxen threads, bleached and dyed.

Who knew?

And once again Brother Thomas Spowart is listed as neighbor and friend, there to witness the end and buoy up those who mourn.  These little glimpses after all this time tell us enough.  Here is an elder of the restoration going about the business of his calling.  Seeing to the needs of those he had been called to serve.

15 May 1869, the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah printed the following in a column headed 

D I E D:

Neilson-- At Dunfermline, April 26, Christina Neilson aged 19 years. Her sister died on the 4th of Dec, 1868.  Br Nenney Neilson, the father, immigrated last year, and his wife wishes him to know that she and her helpless family need his immediate aid and advice.-- Deseret News please copy.

This is the means by which Ninian Neilson learned of the death of his two daughters after his departure from Scotland.

Two years after Ninian and Edward, Christina Campbell Neilson and her remaining children emigrated. No details remain of the year she passed in Dunfermline after her daughter's deaths. They sailed on the ship SS Manhattan, departing Liverpool, England on 13 July 1870. Karl G Maeser was presiding over the LDS immigrants on board. The ship arrived at New York on 26 July 1870 and the company continued the journey to Utah by special train arriving at Ogden 5 August 1870. She was accompanied on the voyage and special train by her children: Ellen age 18, John age 11 and James age 7.  These ages are of course not correct but that's what the record shows.

SS Manhattan

The Deseret News dated 5 August 1870 noted the arrival of this company as follows:

Arrived – The Company of immigrant Saints, who came by the SS Manhattan, arrived at Ogden at thirty five minutes past one this afternoon.  They started for Salt Lake switching at Kaysville to permit the train that leaves Salt Lake to pass. They will probably reach Salt Lake about five O'clock this afternoon.

So there it is preserved in the record.  We even know the hour of the day.  The image of Christina and her children stepping off the train and onto the boardwalk at Ogden Union Station to their reunion with Ninian and Edward is a powerful vision.  Who can say more?

To be continued next week

Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part Two

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

A History by Ray L Nelson
Pictures and documents added by Lois C. Berrett

In the British Census 1851, Ninian and family are in Fifeshire at Dalgetty.  They are residing in the home of Martha Fife, a widow.  They are lodgers living in this home and the census taker reported their condition as “pauper family out of work.”  In pursuit of work they moved a lot.  Conditions were not good.  As with so many of these Collier families Ninian and Christina remained associated and active in the LDS faith but they did not take their family and emigrate like the rest of Ninian's siblings did in the early 1850s.  Only Ninian, and Hogg remained in Scotland.  Ninian's siblings: John Neilson, Martha Morgan, Jane Patterson, and Edward Banks Neilson, families in tow, had all emigrated over a period of 4-5 years after their introduction to their new faith.

Dalgetty Bay

Records of the Edinburgh Conference, in the various branch registers give us bits and pieces, collateral families and priesthood advancements.  But it is precious little.  More and more Ninian and Christina are at or near Dunfermline, Fife.  As their children grow they can obtain work in the textile industry so prevalent in that city.  For some reason, perhaps health, Ninian moves away from mining and is shown working as a carter.  Probably delivering and selling coal, door to door.  Edward, goes into the mines.  Catherine is employed as a servant. The family resides on Woodhead Street.

Page 1 of Dunfermline LDS Church Records 1847

Page 2 of Dunfermline LDS Church Records 1847 Con. from page 1

Page 1

Page 2 a continuation from page 1

On 15 March 1867 at the family residence in Dunfermline, Alexander Masterton, age 21 of Baldridge Burn, and Janet Neilson, age 20, a power loom operator and spinster, were married after the banns of the Church of Scotland.  And then in August a granddaughter is born at the same address.  The birth record is specific that the father was not present. The little girl is named Christina.  Then on the 27 of November, Janet, the mother of this three month old baby died.  She had been ill since the baby's birth.  1867 was a difficult year for Ninian and Christina.

On April 12, 1868 after a long and lonely winter the Neilson family with the exception of Ninian, who is an elder, is baptized. Christina and each child is baptized by brother Thomas Spowart and he or James Hoggan performed the confirmations.  Exactly why all of them are baptized is unclear.  It may have had a great deal to do with the loss of their sister Janet and a new conviction of their faith.   They also had decided to emigrate.

Ninian-Passenger List from the ship Constitution

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, British Mission Emigration Record 1863-1874; FHC# 25692; June 1868, states

Ship: Constitution (for notification #216) Entry No. 171; Nenny Nelson, 46, Carter, Scotland Edward, 25, ticket # 138 28 pounds 11 shillings 4 d; Draft 8 pounds 10 shillings 0d; Seafare 11 pounds 10 shillings 0d; Order Departed Liverpool, England on 24 June 1868 and arrived in New York, New York on 6 August 1868; 8 pounds 11 shillings 4 d; Returned

In a separate register of the Dunfermline Branch, the family is shown on Woodhead Street with all the members with whom we are familiar and another daughter-- Janet, whose date of birth is given a 6 September 1868.  By that date, Ninian and Edward were arriving in Utah.   There is a lot of confusion about the Janet listed here.  Other records reveal that Janet was their oldest daughter and by the date of this register she was deceased.  Perhaps the entry refers to their granddaughter Christina Masterton, who was born in August of 1867 at their home.  But this interpretation means that the name, date and year of the entry are all wrong.  That's possible given the reputation of the “branch clerks.” And if Christina Campbell Nelson had the care of her granddaughter after the mother's death, she may well have preferred to call her Janet rather than Christina.  That would mean three Christinas under the same roof. On May 16, 1868, some four months before the birth date shown in the branch register above, Christina Masterton, age nine months passed away.  This death took place at Beveridgewell, Dunfermline.  And while the father Alexander Masterton is clearly not present, Ninian Neilson was.

Many question are raised here.  We are left only to ponder after 21 years as members of the LDS Church in Scotland what brought Ninian and Christina to leave?  Why had they delayed?  Was it money? Uncertain employment? Their children futures? Religious conviction?  Nevetheless, about one month after their granddaughter's death, Ninian and Edward are boarding the ship Constitution and leaving the British Isles forever.  On 24 June 1868 they departed Liverpool for New York, leaving Christina, and her children Christina, Catherine, Helen, John Alfred, and James Douglas waiting in Scotland for their turn.

While Ninian and Edward were at sea, on 7 July 1868, at the age of 25 in Baldridgeburn, Dunfermline, Alexander Masterton, a coal miner and widower of Janet Neilson died.  When will we come to understanding?

To be continued next week

Ninian Neilson-Life Story Part One

Ninian Neilson

1821- 1889

A History by Ray L Nelson
Pictures and documents added by Lois C. Berrett

[Ninian is the son of my Great Great Great Grandparents, Edward Neilson and Catharine Banks.  He is the brother of my Great Great Grandmother, Martha Matilda Neilson Morgan]

Ninian is a distinctively Scottish name that has not gained any popular use since the Neilsons emigrated to the United States.  But the name is of ancient and significant origin. Saint Ninian is the patron saint of Scotland.  He is to Scotland what St. Patrick is to Ireland.  He is credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland probably from Ireland in the 5th century. Very little is known of him.  St. Ninian appears on the Scottish calendar on September 16. The following variations of the name appear in ancient records from throughout Scotland and over some 15 centuries of time:

Nynia, Nyniga, Ninianus, Nynnyaw (British form), Ninian Isle, Niniane,

Ringan, Truinean, Rineyan, [Rinan, Rinansey, (Norse form)],

St. Ronon's Yle or St. Tronan's Yle, St. Trinyon, St. Treignan,

David Rinyhiane, Ringane, Ringean, Rinion, Renzion, and Rynyon

Our Ninian was born in the parish of Inveresk, Midlothian on 21 August 1821, the son of  Edward Neilson and Catherine Banks or Baulks.  Edward Neilson had been born in Liberton Parish, but the rest of Ninian's progenitors who bore the name Neilson were christened in the Duddingston Parish, the ancient and perpetual home of the Neilsons.  All of these parishes lie within about a 2-3 mile radius along the valley of the Esk river just east and south of Edinburgh.  This is the place of origin.

Church of Scotland, Parish Church of Inveresk, Parish Register, 1607-1855; Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, FHC# 1067757, Item 3, Baptism 1820-1837, p. 434 or 24, 2nd entry;

Notes

Nelson Edward Collier & Catherine Baulks their son Ninian born 21 Aug and Baptized 10 Sept. Witnesses Geo & Peter Baulks;

Duddingston Parish

In more ancient times the colliers of Scotland had been thirled to the land.  Meaning that they were “staked” or tied legally to the land.  They were essentially slaves.  Both ancient and modern scholars writing about this practice use the word slave in describing it.  They could not rise above their condition as colliers and they could not remove their own person from the property to which they were thirled without risking arrest and prosecution.  The law changed in 1792-3. As it was here in the U.S for slaves, the conditions changed gradually and harshly following the change in the law.  

Esk River

In the 1820s and again in the 1830s economic panics or recessions put many of these colliers out on the streets, out of work.  This led them to leave their ancestral homes and begin moving from place to place in search of work and better wages.  The increasing industrialization and boom in steam engine technology was increasing the demand for coal and steam driven pumps were allowing the mines to work deeper into the earth.  This then required that mining change.  That mines became bigger, more technological places of employment, but the demand for cheap labor was, just as it always has been.

In the British Census 1841 Ninian is living in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire in the home of his older, married brother.  At this place there were both collieries and at Shotts there were Ironworks.  Just down the street, living with her sister and her husband is a beautiful young lady, Christian Campbell.  In 1842, Ninian and Christina were married, over across the firth of Forth, in Dunfermline.  Their firstborn son, Edward was born there.

Nenian Neilson

Scotland Census, 1841

Name: Nenian Neilson

Event Type: Census

Event Date: 1841

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Birthplace: Scotland

Parish: Old Monkland

County: Lanarkshire

Birth Year (Estimated): 1821

GS Film number: 1042782

Scotland Census, 1841

Citing this Record

"Scotland Census, 1841," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYZ2-YX6 : accessed 30 March 2015), Nenian Neilson, Old Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland; from "1841 England, Scotland & Wales census," index, findmypast (www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing p. 19, PRO HO 107, New Register House, Edinburgh; FHL microfilm 1,042,782.

Then they return to Shotts, and while at Shotts in Lanarkshire they have three daughters, Janet, Christina, and Catherine.  In 1847, the family joins the LDS Church, following Ninian's brothers and sisters into the new faith.  Ninian, on the 4th of July and Christina on the 19th of October.  Then they moved to Tranent... a long ways to the east, but that didn't last...