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- [Parenthetical remarks ending
in "V.B.G." were added by the wife of one of Louisa
Thomson Wylie's grandsons.]
As little girl, I used to listen by the hour to my grandmother's
stories
- of her life. Many times I used to
tell her, "The events of your life would make an interesting
book, Grandma."
- Now that she has been dead for many
years, the stories still seem
- so fresh in my mind. I think I shall
tell it in her own words, as she told it so often to me.
-
- I was born in a little town in Northern
England, Sunderland, near
- Newcastle, not very far from the
sea. My mother was a descendant of one of England's earlier kings
by a secret marriage, and was a sweet, sad woman of the old school.
She taught my sisters and me to sew and cook while we were still
very young.
- When she married my father the change
was so great she almost
- went into seclusion. She had trunks
full of beautiful clothes she never wore. As time went on she
made them into dresses for my sisters and me.
- My father was a doctor, and Mother
was his third wife. It was said
- of him that he was twice widowed
and thrice married on his 33rd birthday. Each wife had a fortune,
which, with his own. he managed to squander. He spent one touring
America, and I can distinctly remember, as a child, passing a
house where he was said to have gambled away an entire fortune
in a single night.
- But I had a happy, pleasant childhood.
We had a large, lovely home,
- with as many as three servants most
of the time. It was a merry part of old England, and from where
we lived we could see seven large castles. We were a large family;
most of my brothers were engaged in ship work - one was a captain.
- As I grew older I was very popular
with the young folk and always
- had plenty of young men to wait
on me. One, especially, seemed very much in love with me, and
though I liked him, I thought it time to discourage his ardent
affection.
- I planned for days just what I would
say that would not offend turn.
- After doing so, imagine the shock
I got when he threw back his head saying, "Oh well, there
are just as good fish in the sea as have ever been caught!"
- But among my admirers were two young
men by the same name,
- John Thomson - one the son of a
rich English brewer, the other a young tailor from Scotland.
The better I knew them the more my heart went out to the struggling
young tailor, and the more my friends and my family leaned towards
the rich man's son. I guess my mother's thoughts turned back
to her better days, and she knew I could have everything I wanted
if I married the other John.
- One night John unfolded his plans
to me: "Louisa," he said, "let's
- get married and go to America, where
I can start a little shop of my own, and with you to work for,
how happy we will be." Oh, he painted such a rosy picture,
but the fact that I loved and wanted to go where he went was
all that mattered to me.
- So we were married by the rector
at the little church one morning,
- and from there we went to my sister's
home where I had been staying. We had been there only a few minutes
when the Postman passed. It was the custom to call the name of
those receiving mail at that time. He called my name and I went
to receive a letter from the other John, asking when he could
come for me.
- Mother went to the station with
me, and just before the train left
- she said, "Louisa you have
made me a lot of trouble." And I answered, "Mother,
no matter what happens to me in America, no matter what trouble
I have, I will never let you know."
- I wonder if I had known all the
hardships and all the heartaches the
- New World would hold for me - I
wonder if I would still have gone. I wonder....but I think I
would.
- But oh, John was so wonderful! So
kind, so loving, and so bonnie! I
- was very small but I had lovely
clothes and I just naturally bubbled over with wit and fun. We
made friends on the boat. John was a good violinist and he could
sing the old Scottish songs with such feeling that tears would
come to the eyes of the listeners. We would gather in the ship's
saloon for the music and dancing. It took six weeks to cross
at that time. We had a dreadful storm at sea. All the men were
called on deck to bail.
- A relative of John's who crossed
on the same boat, borrowed most
- of the money we had saved to start
our new home and shop. Needless to say it was never returned,
nor did we ever see him again, as he went further west.
- On reaching New York, we went directly
to Chicago (1855). There
- we found a few rooms and for some
time used one of our trunks for a table, but we were so young
and happy, we made a lark of it.
- John soon found work in a tailor's
shop, and I was lucky to get a
- place to work in a millinery shop.
In those days, a great deal of ruching was used, and of course
it was all made by hand. Many times I was thankful my fine mother
had taught me to be a fine seamstress.
- Then I found there would later be
three of us instead of two to care
- for. Mrs. Anderson, the owner of
the shop, who worked with the rest of us, proved to be in the
same condition as myself. We wore hoop skirts at that time which
helped a lot.
- But as time went on I begged Mrs.
Anderson to let me go, but she
- would say, "You are so little
and dainty, no one will notice you!" Even after I stopped
going to the shop they would send me work to do at home.
- When my time came it was terrible.
I asked them to take an axe and
- kill me, but when it was over I
had a dear little baby boy and everything was all right. I guess
there never was a more proud father than was John!
- As soon as I was able, I took Jimsy
in my arms and went to see
- Mrs. Anderson. Oh how proud I was!
As I neared her home, I met some friends and I told them my errand.
Imagine my shock to learn that she was dead! How different were
my thoughts as I returned home.
- While Jimsy was still a baby, the
family below us had a siege of
- typhoid fever and I contracted it,
but managed to pull through it, but I was sick a long time, and
it seemed an endless time before I felt like myself. I was so
thankful that John and the baby escaped it.
- About this time John decided to
start a business of his own. We went
- to Janesville, a small town in Wisconsin,
where he established a small shop. At this time men wore gay
coloured vests made of velvet. One of John's customers was Ole
Bull, the world-renowned violinist. It is needless to say I was
a great help to him, as it was all handwork in those days. Some
day I plan to make a quilt from the beautiful pieces I have saved.
(Note: This quilt was made up as she planned, and included a
piece of this yellow velvet vest they had made for Ole Bull;
it is now in possession of her great-granddaughter, Mrs. Margaret
Wilson Davis of Grand Rapids, Mich. This piece from Ole Bull's
vest has been replaced and each of the granddaughters has a bit
of it. V.B.G.)
- John soon became very popular with
his Scotch people in and near
- our town. His violin (which is now
a treasured possession of Ronald L. Gardiner of Cambridge, New
Zealand) was lying on the table in John's shop when Ole Bull
was waiting. He picked it up and after playing on it asked permission
to use it on his continued playing tour of the U.S.A. (It had
been bought in Scotland as second-hand, long before they left
for America. V.B.G.)
- His violin and singing were much
sought after and many evenings I
- sat alone with the children, for
two little girls had been added to our home. (Carrie, who died
from black diptheria at about 18 years of age, and Louisa, who
later became Mrs. William F. Gardiner Sr. V.B.G.)
- One night John decided he would
not go out, no matter what
- happened, but as usual they came
for him. I told them they couldn't have him as he had gone to
bed, but even that did not stop them, for they went into the
room and simply carried him out.
- But these Scotch people were not
his only admirers; his three
- children loved to hear him play
and sing. Their favorite was "My Old Dog Tray." Stephen
Foster's songs were beginning to sweep the country by this time
and added a variety to his popular Highland songs.
- About this time the Civil War broke
out and I was in constant fear
- that he would be called, but I was
spared that. A young friend, a bonnie Scotch lassie, Janet Gardiner,
used to stay with the children while John and I went out occasionally
together. She used to joke, when teased about getting married,
that her man was in the war.
- It was all in fun, but later on
she did marry a young English boy who
- had served in the war. They had
two fine sons, one to be a doctor in their home town, New Hampton,
Iowa, but this is getting ahead of my story.
- One of the happy events of our lives
was the Robert Burns Festival.
- John had brought his own Highland
uniform from Scotland, and he made one for Jimsy, complete, just
like a man's. What a hit it made at the Scotch ball, as he was
only five.
- John's shop was in the front of
the flat where we lived. In the door
- between our living room and the
shop, we had a small peephole so I could look in, and if he was
alone I would slip in and help.
- One time I looked and saw an odd-looking
farmer. Later, I joked
- with John about this man and remarked,
"He would suit me better if he would cut his hair."
He replied that I should not make fun of his old Scotch friend
as he was a good customer. Little did I know the big part he
would play in my life.
- We had moved from place to place,
and finally decided to build a
- small cottage for ourselves, on
Glenn Street (in Janesville). It was almost completed, and as
I was expecting our fourth child in a few months, we were anxious
to get settled in our new home.
- On Sunday morning, we were planning
to move a few things,
- including a stove, when a friend
came in. In the course of the conversation, he suggested that
John take him to see the new house. I did not want him to go,
and suggested he come for dinner with us the following Sunday
- in our new home. But they went away. When the visitor turned
his back, John winked at me and looked at the stove.
- A few hours later a friend called.
One look at his face told me
- something dreadful had happened,
and it was all too true! A river flowed through our town (made
famous by the Indian Chief Blackhawk). Some of the young men
had persuaded John to go boating. The boat was upset, and as
John could not swim, he (only) drowned. They found his body near
the shore, on his hands and knees.
- They brought him home that night.
Why did this have to happen to
- my John and to me? He was only 28
years old and was so full of life and health and fun, and was
so needed by his little family!
- All that night the neighbors and
friends stayed with me - as they did
- for some time - doing everything
possible to help. But oh, how alone I felt - no one of my own
except the three little children, the eldest just six years old.
- This was brought home to me more
forcefully after the funeral, for,
- as everyone knows who has been through
it, that is the time when it seems too heavy to bear. How I longed
for my mother, but true to my word I never let her know.
- One night when I thought the little
ones were all asleep, and I was
- sitting alone in the summer twilight,
my grief and loneliness seemed more than I could stand. Not much
more than a girl with my three little ones, and another coming
so soon; even God seemed so far away!
- Suddenly, I felt two little arms
around my neck, and a small voice
- said, "Don't cry Mommy, you've
still got Jimsy." Yes, I still had Jimsy, and I knew I must
go on. And somehow I did, and six weeks later another little
boy - John Thomson - was born, making a perfect family, two boys
and two girls.
- (Note: The last payment on the new
house had been paid and they
- had one silver dollar left. She
always wore this on a tiny chain around her neck after his death.
V.B.G. [A later correction states that this was a five-dollar
gold piece, coined in 1856; it was later given to James Thomson,
and he put it in a fob.])
- I struggled on as best I could,
taking in washing and sewing, but I
- could see I was not doing justice
by the children. The Civil War was at its height and the Union
soldiers were training near our home.
- I was constantly worried about Jimsy.
He would run away from
- school to this camp, where the soldiers
made much of him. They would even let him march with them. (This
was called Camp Tredway, located in the area where the Janesville
4-H fairgrounds now stand.)
- Then the old Scotchman - Robert
Wylie - whom I had laughed at,
- wanted to marry me and take me out
to his farm to live. For myself I did not care, for my heart
still belonged to John, but what of the children? Perhaps this
would be best for them, so I took his offer.
- The picture he had painted of his
country home was much over-
- drawn, but he did have a fine farm
in a nice neighborhood. He took a fancy to the baby and wanted
to adopt him and give him his name, but I had already named him
after his father and would not allow it.
- Little Jimsy started out alone to
school. The brave little man had to
- go nearly two miles. The shortest
way was by an old Blackhawk trail that had been cut through timber.
As the younger ones grew old enough he would take them proudly
by the hand - taking his place as their protector.
- The years wore on with hard work
and a never-ending hope for their
- future welfare. They grew up to
be a fine heathy group of young people - all except Carrie, the
oldest girl, who never seemed as strong as the others. She was
sweet and cheerful, and my constant companion. When she was about
17, she was ill a long time, but I guess I wanted her so much
she did get better and got to be her old self again.
- By this time, I had managed to send
Jimsy to a small but excellent
- college (Milton) not far from home,
for a year, and he had gone West with some neighbor boys. They
drove overland in lumber wagons.
- Louise finished country school and
she, too, went to Milton College.
- When Carrie was about 18, and the
picture of health again, she was stricken down with black diptheria!
Louisa was away at the college and I was alone to care for her
and the home.
- I nursed her day and night for six
weeks. I never undressed except
- for changing clothing. Even when
I wouldn't give up she would say, "Mother, you still have
Louisa and the boys." But to me it seemed she meant more
than anything, and I prayed that God would spare her. But it
was not to be, for she left me on a lovely autumn day in November,
when the trees are so beautiful.
- Only a mother knows what I went
through. Somehow I had to get
- back to washing dishes, feeding
chickens, and the hundred things every housewife must do. And
I must work to keep Louisa in school. Later I was to know the
thrill of pride every mother knows when her daughter graduates
with honours. She was so sweet and the picture of health.
- Of course she had what we called
in those days, a first-grade
- certificate and had no trouble in
getting good schools. She had many suitors during this time,
but she seemed to fancy a young farmer. Somehow I did not seem
satisfied, but my mind went back to my own youth and I did not
interfere. I gave her a nice wedding and she left me to become
another farm wife, to raise a large family and be one of God's
best mothers (Mrs.
William F. Gardiner Sr. of Edgerton, Wis.).
- Jimsy was back home now, and we
sent John for his turn at college.
- We were alone with my aging husband.
As he grew older he grew more taciturn and disagreeable, and
would disappear without telling anyone where he was going.
- One morning he disappeared, taking
an axe with him, so I supposed
- he was cutting wood in the farm
timber lot. But as we had many acres of that, I had no idea where.
As night came on we became alarmed, and commenced a search for
him. We found him pinned to the ground by a tree he had cut down,
seriously hurt and unconscious.
- They carried him home. In those
days we did not have the surgery
- we have now, and he lived three
years with a badly dislocated hip, getting about on crutches
for the remainder of his life. Still getting pleasure out of
taking opposite views of others opinions, he diligently read
the Bible just for the sake of contradiction.
- And then I laid him to rest (1885)
in the cemetery nearby, beside
- his maiden sister, Jessie, who had
died before I knew him. Again it seemed that I was captain of
the ship, and the years have followed on.
- Jim married (to Miss Alice Bancroft)
and went his way, and John
- stayed on the farm. But later on,
he too married (to Miss Clara Schofield). Then Jim came home.
By this time he had four children. His wife was a sweet, unselfish
woman, but far too frail to take on the duties of a farm wife.
- Shortly after they came back to
the farm they had another little boy,
- William Wallace. What a wonderful
name for such a little fellow. When he was a year old, he was
very sick, but fully recovered and got so cute and rosy, with
golden curls.
- The following spring, on one of
those rare balmy days in late March,
- his mother thought it would do him
good to be outside for a while; the older children were away
at school and she was busy getting dinner on. Suddenly she realized
that she hadn't heard him for a while and hurried out around
the corner of the summer kitchen.
- She stopped, horrified. She had
forgotten that they had put a tub of
- water there several days ago. Two
little feet were sticking up out of the water! She grabbed him
and rushed to the door screaming frantically for help. They came
from the woodlot a quarter of a mile away, but it was too late.
They buried him in the same lot with his grandfather, who drowned
many years before.
- We lived on in the same house, but
it was crowded as time went on.
- One spring morning, Jim, his wife
and two of the little boys were all taken sick. The family doctor
was called and said it was la grippe. The next day all were better.
Again, it was one of those lovely warm balmy days in March, and
it was so warm we had no fire.
- Jim came in and sat with me in the
living room. About three o'clock
- in the afternoon I told him, "I'm
going to light a fire; I don't want you to get a chill."
I went outside and gathered an apronful of chips and lighted
a small fire.
- The wind blew terribly hard all
afternoon, and in the evening, the
- trees rocked and the house rattled.
A stove pipe ran up through the ceiling. Jim looked up and, seeing
a light, said, "They must be getting the children to bed
early."
- Suddenly, we head a roar; he jumped
up and rushed out to the rest of
- the family shouting, "The house
is on fire! " He ran upstairs and hurried to the room where
he had seen the light. As he opened the door a powerful suction
pulled him into the room. He managed to get out and close the
door, and back downstairs. He wouldn't let anyone go up there
again.
- With such a terrific wind blowing
we had little time to save much. I
- rushed in and out saving what I
could. Very little was saved from Jim's side of the house. The
sky that night was so black that the fire was visible for many
miles, and neighbors from all directions came and helped to keep
the other buildings from burning.
- Those who have had their homes burned
to the ground know the lost
- feeling I had the next morning.
The memories of treasures which laid there in the ashes: The
great trunks we had brought with us from England; my John's and
little Jimsy's kilties; a sign that read "John Thomson -
merchant tailor." Truly, I knew the meaning of the old saying,
"Fire and water are good friends but bad enemies."
- We built a large new house where
the old one had stood. Its lovely
- rooms, large halls and shady porches
never seemed to take the place of the little old crowded home
to me...
I am an old lady now, but I still enjoy the company of my children,
- my grandchildren and yes, my great-grandchild
(Sammy Marsden). But I look back through the years; I live over
again my childhood in England, and I am taking John's hand and
starting to the New World, and what?
-
- I must leave Grandma now, for we
buried her on March 8, 1915 (at
- 83 years of age) beside her John,
and Carrie, and little Wallace. But this would not be complete
without telling of some of the unusual happenings about the time
of her death.
- Her sister Matilda's son, Donald
McLeod (a wealthy businessman
- in far, far away Waipukurau, New
Zealand) and his wife had set out to tour the world and then
to visit an aunt (Louisa Waddell Thomson Wylie) in America, and
an uncle (William Waddell) in England, neither of whom he had
ever seen.
- They traveled by way of Japan and
the Philippines, and reached our
- home in Janesville in the summer
of 1914. He found Grandma still living and had made the first
objective of his journey.
- He and his wife, Ida, were visiting
at my home when World War I
- broke out. I remember him standing
on my front porch, surrounded by his grips (on which were pasted
tickets from foreign countries) and saying, with his English
accent, "This may be a terrible thing!"
- They left shortly afterward for
New York, where they had booked
- passage on one of the finest ships
afloat, the Lusitania, on their way to England. Imagine their
disappointment to find on arrival in New York that it had sailed
the day before - but their deep relief when later they got the
news of its having been sunk by a German submarine en route!
- However, they got passage on a smaller
ship which traveled all the
- way across the ocean without lights.
They were scarcely out to sea when we received a cablegram from
New Zealand telling of the death of his mother, Matilda Waddell
McLeod, of Whitianga.
- After a slow passage filled with
the sense of constant danger, they
- reached England, only to find another
disappointment. The uncle, William Waddell, whom he had traveled
so far to see, and who had befriended him in his youth, and whom
he had hoped in some way to repay, had died several months before.
- They made slow progress on their
way back to New Zealand, only to
- hear, on their arrival there, that
my grandmother had died. Two sisters and a brother, passing away
in separate parts of the world, in a single year (the last of
the family).
- I am a married woman now, a mother
and grandmother, but I still
- feel the presence of this grandmother,
who stands out in my memory, intellectual, ambitious, dependable
and with an ever-present sense of humor, taking what life gave
her, and her place with the immortal mothers.
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