Person Page - 338

Coming to America

Walter Williams and Elizabeth Treverton Knight were married in the spring of 1777 at St Dennis, an ancient church on the hill overlooking the town. Walter was from the village of Roche a few miles to the north and Elizabeth’s family had lived in the parish of St Dennis for a number of generations. While there is no concrete evidence as yet, a history written about the life of his grandson William J Williams in the late C19th indicates that Walter and his sons were farmers and millers in St Dennis, and also the proprietors of a china clay works in the area.

Valuable white China clay had been discovered in the clay pits to the south of St Dennis in 1777 and an industry developed around St Dennis and St Stephen-in-Brannel quarrying and exporting the clay. Josiah Wedgewood, the famous founder of the Staffordshire pottery and crockery factory, was one of the original contractors of Cornish China clay from the pits around St Dennis.

Walter and Elizabeth had 11 children over the next 20 years. Incredibly, all boys! Ninth son Robert Williams was born in 1794 and christened in St Dennis on the 12th October. Nothing is known of Robert’s earlier life in St Dennis. At some point prior to 1812, Robert had moved south to work as a farm labourer at Gwinear. His marriage record to Ann Thomas at St Winnear Parish Church on 9 November 1812 indicated that both Robert and Ann were living in the parish at the time of their wedding. After their marriage Robert and Ann lived at Carnhellan (today’s Carnhell Green) where his children’s baptism records identify Robert as a husbandman. The designation ‘husbandman’ suggests that Robert was a tenant farmer of less than 50 acres. In Cornwall in the early C19th a small farm of this size would have provided basic subsistence but providing for his growing family would have been fairly marginal. Robert and Ann lived at Carhellan until at least 1825 but at some point in the early 1820s Robert began to work as a copper miner probably at one of the mines closer to Camborne.

The 1820s was a boom time for the copper mining industry around Camborne. The wealth generated by the industry contributed to significant growth in the local towns, particularly Camborne which developed a reputation as a rough and wild mining town. Some of the mines that worked the rich copper lodes in this area produced enormous quantities of ore - Dolcoath produced 350,000 tons of copper, Carn Brea and Tincroft 360,000 tons. Many of these mines were also rich in tin at a lower depth. Distant from the coast, the area had been one of the earliest to adopt the new steam pumping technology, for despite its inherent costs, effective drainage had proved to be the critical factor in determining success. The ability to work deposits of copper at depth, and the discovery of a tin zone beneath the copper in the core areas of the district ensured that success was sustained, and investment in the area continued. Specialist industries were established within the district to service it - foundries and boiler works, fuse works, drill manufacturers, rope walks, clothing factories and the like. Camborne and Redruth rapidly developed into specialist industrial towns, the acknowledged heart of the Cornish mining industry.

Mining was a dirty and dangerous occupation but it was also relatively stable and better paid than working as an agricultural labourer. At some point prior to 1828, Robert moved his family to Croon, a small hamlet on the western edge of Camborne walking distance from the huge mines around Carne Brea between Camborne, Illogan and Redruth. Their seventh child Thomas was born at Croon in 1830. All of his children, including his two daughters would work in the mines over the next two decades. By the time of the 1841 census all of his children except young Thomas were working in the mines. William Williams was just 13 years old. This is not particularly unusual for the time where it was common for women and boys to work as dressers at the mine laboring above ground, sorting and breaking up ore.

Soon after 1841 census Robert and Ann were forced to move again as the cottages at Croon were demolished to make way for the new Turnpike Road. The family moved to College Row/Street in Camborne where Robert and Ann lived in a miners cottage for the rest of their lives. While death records for Robert and Ann have not yet been cited they likely died in Camborne in the 1860s and would be buried in the churchyard at St Martin and St Meriodoc, the Parish church in Camborne.

Of their children, their two eldest sons remained in Cornwall working in the Tin Mines around Camborne. Their eldest daughter emigrated to Australia with her husband, Thomas Harris Wilkins, in 1849. Their second daughter Elizabeth probably never married and lived in Camborne. The three youngest sons all seem to have emigrated to Pennsylvania, USA.

Eldest son John moved to Pool, Illogan just to the north-west of Camborne where he worked as a miner. He likely married Elizabeth Trevithick in 1835. Elizabeth was from a prominent mining family and grew up around Illogan and was related to Richard Trevithick, the mining engineer and inventor who built the first steam-powered road locomotive in 1801 years before James Watt perfected his steam locomotive in Glasgow. Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne. Trevithick named his carriage 'Puffing Devil' and on Christmas Eve that year, he demonstrated it by successfully carrying six passengers up Fore Street and then continuing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon. John and Elizabeth moved to the neighbouring village of Tuckingmill prior to 1851 and John died at Tuckingmill in 1869. Elizabeth is living alone in Chapel Row, Tuckingmill in 1871. Their surviving son Richard has not been located after the 1861 census where he was living with his parents in Tuckingmill. He may well have left Cornwall and emigrated to America some time in the 1860s.

Robert’s eldest daughter Mary was born in 1815. At the time of the 1841 census she was 25 years old, working as a ‘mine girl’ dressing copper at a local mine and living with her parents in College Street, Camborne. Soon after she met her future husband Thomas Harris Wilkins who had been working as a farm labourer at Roscroggan, a small hamlet a few miles west of Camborne. Thomas and Mary married at the Redruth Registery Office in 1843. It was not a church wedding probably due to Thomas’ complicated personal circumstances that have been explained elsewhere (see the story about ‘The Wilkins Brothers from Cornwall’ connected to Thomas Harris Wilkins in this tree). The young couple moved to Trelowarren Street in Camborne, not far from Mary’s parents. They had two children in Camborne (only son George survived infancy) before emigrating as ‘assisted migrants’ to Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia in 1849. A second son William Palmer was born during the voyage. Their arrival was timely – two years prior to the massive Victorian goldrush that saw hundreds of thousands of miners from around the globe, and particularly Cornwall, descending on the goldfields of Central Victoria throughout the 1850s. The story of Mary and Thomas’ life in Melbourne is told elsewhere. She lived most of her life in Australia in Collingwood and died in 1891 in the bayside suburb of Brighton in Melbourne.

The next son Walter Williams was also a tin miner who lived in Pool, Illogan at the time of the 1841 census, around the corner from older brother John, who also lived in Pool. He married Jane Bawden and had two daughters soon after which Jane died. Walter remarried Elizabeth Jane Willey in the early 1860s, who confusingly was also referred to as Jane. They had a further two daughters and the family lived in College Street, Camborne for more than 35 years. Walter died in Camborne in 1887.

Brother Joseph is a bit more of a mystery. Joseph, like his brothers, worked as a tin miner in Camborne. He married Grace Williams in 1852. Grace came from Gwinear and it is possible that she was a distant relative. She had been living in Camborne with her daughter Mary Jane, a child born in Jersey on the Channel Islands. What happens next is not so clear. What we know for certain is that J oseph and Grace had three children in the 1850s all born in Camborne. Joseph can be last found in Cornwall around the time of the birth of his daughter Elizabeth Ann in 1860. I have searched high and low for him and his wife and family in the 1861 census and they are nowhere to be found. I suspect that Joseph (possibly with his brother Thomas who is also missing from the England census in Cornwall) emigrated to America with his family between 1860 and 1861 (his family may have followed shortly after but the fact they cant be found in 1861 census suggests they might have gone together). His brother Thomas had named his eldest child Joseph possibly indicating the brothers were close adding to the hunch they may have travelled together. To be honest, without some documentation this is pure speculation at this stage.

Grace and her sons were certainly in Cornwall again without Joseph and living with Grace's eldest daughter Mary Jane Yeates (nee Williams) in 1871. Grace didn't have any more children with her in 1871 so this points to Joseph having died fairly early in the 1860s. This also might explain why his wife and children reappear in Cornwall in 1871. That they are living in the household of Grace's daughter is interesting. It suggests Grace didn't have her own cottage in Camborne (normally you would think the daughter would come and live with the mother?). Joseph William’s son-in-law James Yeates had emigrated to Coos Bay, Oregon likely in the late 1860s and is found living in Coos Bay at the time of the 1870 US Census. His wife Mary Jane emigrated to Oregon (Coos Bay) in 1871 likely taking her half-brother Joseph jnr (1900 US census record indicates he emigrated at this time). Three years later second son Robert John along with his mother Grace emigrated to join the family in Coos Bay. All of this family are buried together in Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery. Joseph senior is not buried with the rest of the family likely indicating he did not die in Oregon.

Second daughter, Elizabeth Williams lived her whole life in and around Camborne working at the mines as a tin dresser until at least 1861. She continued to live with her parents in College Street and has not been found in the census for Cornwall after 1861.

William Williams was born in Croon, a hamlet on the western edge of Camborne and like his brothers and father became a tin miner. He married Catherine Pool in Croon in 1832. By the 1870s he was working with his eldest son William John “engaged in trippeting or prospecting on their own personal account, and were very successful”.

In 1880, William Snr along with his second son Walter, followed his eldest son William John who had emigrated to Lloydsville, Pennsylvania where he was engaged in coal mining. William and his two sons can be found in the US census of 1880 living in Lloydsville. After a couple of years William snr and Walter returned to Cornwall perhaps due to William’s ill health. William died in Camborne in 1887.

William John William’s life in America from this time is fascinating and the subject of a short biography separate to this account. Self-educated and entrepreneurial, he built a successful mining career in Pennsylvania before losing everything in the Johnstown flood of 1887 (and nearly his life!). It was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in American history in which thousands of people perished and was widely reported across America. William recovered and purchased two coal mines close to Johnstown soon after the tragic floods.

Motivated by William John’s prosperity and success in America, Walter and his mother Catherine returned to Pennsylvania in 1893 after his father’s death and Walter was able to work for his brother as a ‘mine boss’ at one of his brother’s coal mines. Their mother Catherine died in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1901 and was buried at Grandview Cemetery. Son William John was buried next to her a few years later. The whereabouts of Walter is not known after 1901.

Finally, the youngest son of Robert and Ann, Thomas Williams also has an interesting story. Like his brothers, Thomas was a miner who married Jane Wills in 1853 in Camborne. They had two sons in Cornwall before Thomas emigrated to Smyrna, Pennsylvania about 1860 where he was employed at the Nickel Mine at the Gap just to the north of Georgetown. His wife Jane and their two sons moved in with Thomas’ parents in College Street, Camborne until Thomas was established and they joined him in Pennsylvania in 1863. It was a tumultuous time in Pennsylvania during the Civil War with the Confederate Armies of General Lee campaigning in Pennsylvania in 1864 culminating in the battle at Gettysburg about 70 miles to the south-east.

Thomas worked at the Nickel Mine for the next 30 years until its closure in the late 1890s. In the later years he was employed as a ‘mine boss’ or foreman/captain. The family were founding members of the Nickel Mines Episcopal Church which was mostly attended by mine workers and their families and after 1870 moved from Smyrna to a mining cottage built by the mine owners on Mine Road. Thomas and Jane had a large family who continue to have links to Lancaster County to this day. Thomas, his wife Jane, and many of their descendants are all buried in the Georgetown Episcopal Church a few miles south of their home on Mine Road. Thomas died in 1897.