What have they been doing all these years?

What interests me most about genealogy is finding out how my ancestors actually lived their lives. I like finding information on their trades, their social status, their community activities. I like finding maps that show where they lived so I can imagine their world.

Last night (up til midnight doing genealogy), I found out that John Miller, who immigrated to the USA in the 1850s and lived thereafter in Green Island, NY, was a cooper in the old country. The ship's passenger list that shows his transit from Glasgow to New York lists him as a 20-yr-old cooper from Old Kilpatrick, Scotland. Old Kilpatrick now appears to be a suburb of Glasgow. Back in the mid-19th century, Old Kilpatrick, located on the River Clyde, was a thriving port.

In 1846, Old Kilpatrick had 7020 inhabitants, of whom 819 were in the village of Old Kilpatrick, 5 miles (E. by S.) from Dumbarton, and 10 (N. W. by W.) from Glasgow.

The book 'A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland' by Samuel Lewis, published in 1846, says this about the town:

The parish is bounded on the south by the river Clyde, along which it extends for nearly eight miles, and is four miles and a half in extreme breadth, comprising 11,500 acres, of which 6000 are arable, 600 woodland and plantations, and the remainder meadow and pasture. The surface rises by a gentle acclivity from the river towards the north, and is diversified with hills, of which the most conspicuous are those of Dalnotter, Chapel-Hill, and Dumbuck, commanding from their summits extensive views of the Clyde, the county of Renfrew, and part of Lanarkshire. The Kilpatrick hills, of which Dumbuck hill forms a part, terminate near the western extremity of the parish; they are a prominent and lofty range, and some of them attain an elevation of upwards of 1200 feet above the level of the sea. The parish, as seen from the Clyde, constitutes one of the richest features in the picturesque and beautiful scenery for which that river is so celebrated. A nameless stream is supplied from two small lakes behind the range of the Kilpatrick hills, and, flowing southward, by Faifley and Duntocher, falls into the Clyde at Dalmuir. The soil along the banks of the Clyde is a fine deep loam, resting on a bed of clay; and in the higher grounds, light and gravelly. The crops are, oats, wheat, barley, potatoes, and turnips. The system of husbandry is improved, and the arable lands are in a high state of cultivation; great attention is paid to the management of the dairy-farms, and large quantities of butter are sent to the Glasgow market, where they find a ready sale. The cattle are generally of the Highland black breed, and on the dairy-farms the cows are of the Ayrshire breed; both are chiefly purchased at the neighbouring fairs, few being reared in the parish. The sheep, of which considerable numbers are reared in the moorland pastures, are all of the black-faced breed. The rateable annual value of the parish is £23,524.

The plantations, which are well managed, and in a thriving state, consist of oak, ash, elm, beech, plane, lime, and the various kinds of fir, for all of which the soil appears to be well adapted; and both in the lowlands and higher grounds are many fine specimens, of stately growth. The substrata of the parish are principally of the coal formation; and the rocks are composed of greenstone, amygdaloid, trap, greywacke, and basalt. Limestone and ironstone are also found. The coal, which is wrought in the lands near Duntocher, occurs at depths varying from 120 to 200 feet, in seams about five feet in thickness, and of good quality. The limestone, which is also of good quality, is wrought for manure; and there are some quarries of freestone and whinstone in operation. The principal seats within the parish are, Cochno, Edinbarnet, Milton House, Auchintorlie, Auchintoshan, Glenarbuck, Mount-Blow, Barnhill, and Dumbuck, most of which are handsome mansions, finely situated in richly-planted demesnes. The village of Kilpatrick was formerly a burgh of barony, and, by charter under the great seal, dated 1679, was made head of the barony, and invested with power to create burgesses, and appoint bailies for its government. These privileges have long been extinct, though it is not recorded by what means they became obsolete; and the old gaol, with the iron bars on the windows, is now a private house. A post-office has been established under the office at Glasgow; and facility of communication is afforded by the turnpike-road from Dumbarton to Glasgow, which intersects the parish for nearly eight miles; by other good roads; by the Forth and Clyde and the Monkland canals; by the Erskine ferry near Kilpatrick; and by numerous steamers which frequent the Clyde.

Various branches of manufacture are carried on, to a very great extent, in the several villages within the limits of the parish. The principal works are the cottonmills at Faifley, Duntocher, Milton, and Hardgate, in which 74,045 spindles and 530 power-looms are employed, producing as many as 875,000lb. of yarn, and 2,000,000 yards of cloth annually, and affording occupation to nearly 1500 persons. At Dalmuir are papermills, producing paper of all kinds to the amount of £30,000 annually, and giving employment to 176 persons, of whom one-half are women and children. There are soda-works at Dalmuir-Shore, in which thirty tons of sulphuric acid are produced weekly, and used in the making of bleaching-powder, chloride of lime, and soda: about 100 persons are engaged here. At Milton are an extensive bleachfield and some calico-printing works, in which from 400 to 500 people are employed; and at Cochney were once works for dyeing cotton cloth a Turkey red, and printing them when dyed, in which more than seventy persons were occupied. At BowlingBay is a ship-building yard, where about twenty persons are employed in building sloops of 170 tons' burthen, and vessels for canal navigation; and at Little-Mill, likewise, nearly one hundred people were formerly engaged in building steam-vessels of large dimensions. There is an iron-forge at Faifley, for the manufacture of spades and shovels, in which thirty persons are employed. At Little-Mill and Auchiutoshan are distilleries, in the former of which about 50,000, and in the latter about 16,000, gallons of whisky are annually made. Several handloom-weavers throughout the parish are employed by the Glasgow and Paisley houses; and a considerable number of females are engaged in embroidering muslin.

John Miller might have made casks for the fishing industry or for the distilleries. He had perhaps finished his apprenticeship when he sailed for New York. In any event, once established in Green Island, he changed his trade. He is listed in both the 1860 and 1870 US Census as working as an iron molder. By the time of the 1880 census, he was disabled. The census lists his as 'paralyzed.' Presumably he was injured in a factory accident. His trade as an iron molder was dangerous, as this piece about another iron moulder attests:

In the 1860s, Troy was an important producer of the nation’s iron and iron products. In addition to the four largest iron mills in the country, 14 smaller iron foundries molded a wide variety of iron products like stoves, stove patterns, ranges, bells, nails and wheels, including the J. Griswold Rolling Mill Company, Rensselaer Iron Works, Clinton Iron Foundry, Bessemer Steel Works and the Albany Iron Works.

1886 Map of South Troy's Iron Works

Soon after he arrived in America in 1847, Charles Duffy migrated to Troy and worked in the iron industry for a company that manufactured merchant iron spikes and horse shoes. From 1855 until his death in 1859, he was a laborer living in Ward 6 near the Albany Iron Works, formerly the Albany Nail Factory. The Albany Iron Works' campus consisted of a company-sponsored public hall, a library and reading room, and a chapel.

Charles was employed at the Albany Iron Works at the time of his death. The record states he died at the Nail Factory—the cause was listed as diseased heart. (Obviously the recorder used the former name of Albany Iron Works in reporting the death.) We are unsure if he died on the job or in a separate building. An examination of Troy's death records at that time revealed numerous deaths occurred at the Nail Factory caused by various diseases. We conclude, therefore, that a medical facility was located on the premises.

After leaving Ireland for American shores in 1860, Edward Reardon also settled near Iron mills in a southern ward of Troy—Ward 9, located a mile or two north of Charles Duffy’s Ward 6. Since census records list him as an ironworker, he probably worked at one of several large iron plants which lined the Hudson River in South Troy. Nearby were Clinton Stove Foundries at Second and Ida Streets, Fuller, Warren and Company at Monroe and RiverStreets, and the Rensselaer Iron Worksat River Street at the foot of Adams Street.

Iron workers usually did not have a steady income during each 12-month period. Between labor strikes and the iron mills often closing for three months during the winter, it must have been challenging to make ends meet. Since Edward was able to purchase a home 11 years after moving to Troy, we must assume work was fairly steady and wages were relatively high.

Edward’s son, John (my great-grandfather), followed in his father’s footsteps as a skilled iron worker. He was employed as a molder at Ludlow Valve Manufacturing Company, maker of fire hydrants and valves, located on the former site of the Rensselaer Iron Works. Molding required a long apprenticeship of between four and seven years, great strength, and substantial skill. Also, the molder was allowed to hire a helper.

Although the pay was relatively high, the profession was not easy. John was engaged in the hot, dangerous, and delicate craft of casting molten pig-iron into hydrants and valves which had to be completed while the metal was molten. Sand or loam of the exact proper consistency and wetness had to be prepared; the wood or cast iron patterns (prepared by the pattern-maker) had to be filled with sand and rammed strenuously to make a mold; the mold had to be rapped carefully to remove the pattern without breaking the mold; and the molten iron had to be poured quickly and evenly into the mold. A mistake at any stage could render the mold

unusable and entail the loss of several days’ labor.

The temperature at the foundry was well over 100° F., and John would have worked multiple pourings each day with the molten metal. The work was so strenuous that it could not be done continuously during the ten-hour workday. Iron workers usually took rest breaks between pourings, sometimes visiting the neighborhood saloon for fortification and comradely relaxation.

Older family members report that my great-grandfather went to work at six o’clock in the morning and came home at six o’clock at night, six days a week, Monday through Saturday. During hot summer days, John’s wife would have a pitcher of ice cold lemonade ready for him when he got home from work, and he would drink the whole pitcher by himself.

As an interesting aside, the Duffy and Reardon familes listed in this story of the iron molder should ring bells with my immediate family. We were close family friends with Duffies and Reardons.

What other trades have I found for Viele-Lewis ancestors? I'll start with a list and expand as I have time:

tavern keeper (we come from a long line of these)

sailmaker

interpreter (Iroquois-Dutch)

cooper (more than one)

iron molder

sulfuric acid maker

workers in collar factories

tailor

blacksmith

owner of a brick factory

Revolutionary War quartermaster

hardware merchant

dealer in fancy goods (laces and whatnot)

Civil War general & engineer

Presbyterian minister (w/ DD from Princeton)

bookkeeper

postmaster

an ice house owner

a manufacturer of gelatin dessert

Of course, this hardly covers the ground. I have so little information really. I'll post more as I find it.