The Booth family of Cheshire

11 children

1841 census Garvock, Brucefield Fues, Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland

John BUCHANAN Head M 35 Male Damask Hand Loom Weaver Fifeshire, Scotland
Catherine BUCHANAN Wife M 25 Female Fifeshire, Scotland
Thomas BUCHANAN Son 10 Male Fifeshire, Scotland
Andrew BUCHANAN Son 8 Male Fifeshire, Scotland
Margaret BUCHANAN Daur 5 Female Fifeshire, Scotland
John BUCHANAN Son 3 Male Fifeshire, Scotland
Elizabeth BUCHANAN Daur 7month Female Fifeshire, Scotland
James COOPER Boarder 15 Male Damask Hand Loom Weaver Fifeshire, Scotland

1851 census Clais and Brucefield Fues, Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland

John BUCHANAN Head Widower 50 Male Weaver Dunfermline, Fifeshire
Margaret BUCHANAN Daur S 15 Female Dunfermline, Fifeshire
John BUCHANAN Son 12 Male Scholar Dunfermline, Fifeshire
Elizabeth BUCHANAN Daur 10 Female Scholar Dunfermline, Fifeshire
Pamelia BUCHANAN Daur 8 Female Scholar Dunfermline, Fifeshire
Robert BUCHANAN Son 5 Male Dunfermline, Fifeshire

ELIZABETH BUCHANAN SPENCE
This photo was taken sometime in the early 1920s in the garden at her second daughter Annie and Joe Appleford’s house on the road to Niagara on the Lake from Queenston, Ontario. I like the picture because everything makes me think of an elderly Scottish grandmother with her farm dog enjoying the afternoon sun. Farms were in her blood, this mother of 10, whether in her native Scotland or her adopted Ontario. But in her urban life in Buffalo at the turn of the 20th century she had to be content with the small back yards of the crowded immigrant section of the city.
Elizabeth was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in October 1840. Her father, John Buchanan, worked as a damask hand loom weaver (according to the 1841 census) in Brucefield Feus, possibly on the manor lands of Garvock House. He had been a “ploughman” at the time of his marriage to her mother in 1830, but must have sought more lucrative work as the family began to grow . Elizabeth was the fifth child, with three older brothers [Thomas, Andrew, and John] and one older sister[Margaret]. Her younger sister, Pomelia, was born in 1843, and then a brother, Robert, in 1845. It appears her mother (Catherine Meldrum Buchanan) died in childbirth or shortly after. Elizabeth was just 5 years old at that time.
Her father may have moved house after Catherine’s death, the address of the census in March, 1851 reading Clais Brucefield Feus Dunfermline. He remarried to Janet Carmylie in June of 1851. She had been married twice previously. This made the household quite large: five of Janet’s children and seven of John’s. Christian, James and Andrew (step-siblings) were very near Elizabeth’s age of 10.
On December 6, 1861, Elizabeth married Alexander Spence at the Abby Gardens, Free Church of Scotland in Dunfermline. Elizabeth was 21 years of age and Alex was also 21. He was working as a “farm servant” at the time; she was a “domestic servant,” as most girls her age and station were. Their first daughter was born in April of 1862. Thus Elizabeth was 5 or 6 months pregnant at the time of the wedding. Hmmm. Catherine Meldrum (my Gt Grandmother) was named after Elizabeth’s mother.
In 1863, daughter number two arrived, Anne Orr (Aunt Annie) named after Alex’s mother followed in 1864 by Elizabeth (her own namesake). Then in 1866, John (named after Alex’s father, and or her father), and in 1869 Alexander – who lived just short of a year. Sometime after this death, the family emigrated to Canada where by 1871 they were established in Grantham, Lincoln County, Ontario. This is northwest of Niagara - on– the– Lake, along Lake Ontario toward Hamilton. Also living on the adjacent property was the family of Thomas Buchanan, Elizabeth’s oldest brother. Alex was a farmer gardener according to census forms.

In Ontario, more children graced the family: 1873, Euphemia (Famie); 1876, Margaret Mary(Maggie); 1881, Mary Ora (Aunt Ora); and 1885, Thomas Alexander.
So much had happened to the family in the years since 1871 when they landed in Canada that it is difficult to imagine what Elizabeth’s emotional life had sustained.

[‘83] Daughter Elizabeth married Peter Stivens sometime before 1883, as they birthed a son in 1883 named James Alexander (after his two grandfathers). James died in 1888, living just 5 short years. A second son was born in 1886 but died in infancy or was stillborn. Peter Jr. was born in 1887, and William in 1890. The family emigrated to Buffalo, NY, USA, where they were living in 1892, next door to or with “Mrs. John Appleford.” Elizabeth died sometime before 1900, as in that census Peter Stivens is widowed, living with Alex and Elizabeth and Mary and Thomas. Peter’s two sons are with him, as well. Perhaps Elizabeth Stivens died in childbirth or of the flu – no record is found to date. Eventually Peter returned to Niagara –on-the-Lake with his sons, where he later died (1908), as did his son William, of tuberculosis.
[1885 Daughter Mary Ora was born in Ontario.]
[‘87] Sometime around 1887 daughter Catherine married James Muir, an up and coming telegraph operator for the railroad. Just a month before their daughter Mabel was born (February 1888) James died of kidney disease. Catherine and baby Mabel moved home with Elizabeth and Alex and the siblings Maggie, Mary and Thomas.
[‘86] Sometime before 1887 John married Mary E. Ward. Their first child was born in 1887; then 1890, 1893, and 1896. John worked as a “grinder,” contracted Tuberculosis which he suffered for a year, and then died in 1898 when his daughter was just 2 years old.
[‘91] It is possible that the Elizabeth, Alex, Mary and Thomas moved to Buffalo NY USA in 1891. Some census responses indicate this as year of immigration.
[‘91] Anne married Joseph Appleford, a man from the same Niagara town sometime prior to 1891. Uncle Joe was 9 years younger than Aunt Annie, so either he was well under 20 when they married or dates somewhere are incorrect. They never had children of their own and managed to be the “adopted” home for most of their siblings’ kids during summer months, living as they did along the Niagara River on the Larkin Fruit Farm where Joe was a laborer. Elizabeth returned to live with them in her old age after Alex died in 1910; but more of that later.
[‘91] In 1891 Euphemia married William Appleford in Buffalo, NY. He was also from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Living in Buffalo, their first child was born 1892, then 1894, 1897, 1900. These last two perished in the flu epidemic. Elizabeth and Alex moved in with Famie and Bill some time before 1910 at 694 R Elk Street, Buffalo, NY. Famie and Bill later birthed two daughters: Mildred and Mabel. All four children lived long lives. Famie died in 1922, after her dad but before her mother.
[‘92] In December of 1892 Catherine birthed Etta “Muir” at home. She listed James Muir as father, although he had been dead four years. In 1893 Catherine married again to John Stiven – a private ceremony at home. She was 8 months pregnant with William John at the time. Elizabeth and Aunt Annie signed the license. George John was born in 1896 and after that time John either left or died as by 1900 Catherine is “widowed.”
[‘98] 1898 in Niagara Falls, Margaret “Maggie” married George Cunningham (according to the information on her daughter Hazel’s birth registration). They had four daughters. Maggie died in 1924.
[‘00] By 1900, the family was housed at 94 Abbott Road: Elizabeth and Alex, their widowed son-in-law Peter Stivens (Elizabeth), his two sons, their daughter Mary and son Thomas. Next door was daughter Catherine with her daughters Mable, Etta, and sons William and George. Elizabeth had by this time lost to death a daughter (Elizabeth), a son (John), two grandchildren, two sons-in-law (James Muir and John Stiven) and originally her own son Alexander, her mother Catherine, her step-mother Janet (1877) and her father John who died in 1889 back in Dunfermline. Brother Thomas, who had also immigrated to Canada, had died in 1879.
[‘10] Elizabeth and Alex lived with the Appleford family in 1910, at 694R Elk Street. The census was taken in the spring. In July of that year, visiting Annie and Joe in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Alex died. He was 69 years of age with a two year history of heart disease. Uncle Joe arranged for the burial which was in Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catherines. Elizabeth returned to Buffalo with the Applefords according to a residential directory of 1911.
[‘22] Daughter Euphemia died in 1922. Elizabeth may have gone to live with Annie at that time. Daughter Maggie died in 1924. Daughter Mary (Ora) had married and joined the circus shortly after 1900, then lived in New York City for the remaining of her life, with one daughter Myrtle (Mikki) born in 1916. Son Thomas Alexander had married in 1907 and lived with his wife Sadie and their six children in Lancaster, NY.
[‘28] Over the years until her death, Elizabeth was close to her family. Photos remaining show her with grandchildren and great grandchildren, sometimes in Buffalo, sometimes in Niagara-on-the-Lake. When she died at Annie’s home in October 1928, she was 88 years old, with few health problems except her age and arteriosclerosis. She was buried by Alex at Victoria Lawn in St. Catherines.