47.59 – Mary Alice, Edith and William Dawson (and maybe Willie)

This plot marker is marked W. D. for William Dawson (maybe), Mary Alice’s father and the owner of the plot…but she was buried first, and she and (probably) her sister and father are the only members of their family unit in Todmorden soil. Or even in British soil, as it turns out. And, finally, a last mystery: who was the Willie Dawson who died aged 22 months old in 1877 who is supposedly buried here?

Mary Alice was born in either Todmorden or Luddendenfoot on June 4th 1874; already we’re off to a great start aren’t we? Her birth was registered in Todmorden at Pexwood, but her mother Mary Ann (Thorp) was the informant and gave her own address as Osborne Terrace in Luddendenfoot. Neither Mary Ann nor William were Tod folk. William was born in Toxteth in 1842 and Mary Ann in Harwich in 1843, and the two married in Rochdale in 1871. William was a cotton mule spinner and if he had travelled this far for work then he’d surely travel a little bit more…Mary Ann’s brother Daniel was living in Walsden at the time as well, so perhaps the Dawsons were living in split households. Mary Alice was baptised at St. Mary’s in Luddendenfoot so it seems that for a time, at least, that area of Calderdale really was their home.

William and Mary Ann had seven children altogether, Mary Alice being their eldest daughter. The last daughter and three sons were baptised at Christ Church. None of them would remember Mary Alice. Her time was short and she was laid to rest here on March 15th 1878 after having died on either the 10th or 11th. The scan of her death registration leaves off a bit at the top which would have been helpful. Whatever took her took twelve hours to do it.

The family stayed at Pexwood where not much else happened to them beyond the remaining children’s births…and one death. We said that Mary Alice was their eldest daughter, and that’s true – William and Mary Ann continued to build their family and their last child was a girl, Edith, born in November 1885. Poor Edith had even less time on this earth than her sister and died in May 1886 aged six months old. We believe she’s also buried here. After this the Dawsons moved to Warland Gate for a fresh start of some sort.

One explanation for the split household from earlier could have been marital woes but if those existed they were mild; William never made it into the newspapers for bad behaviour of any sort. All he did make it into the newspapers for was his death in 1891 from phthsis. The burial registers say he’s buried at Christ Church and in the absence of any other marked graves that would indicate his presence we will assume that he’s here with Mary Alice and Edith.

Their youngest child now, Ernest, was nine years old. What would Mary Ann do? First, she and the boys moved down to Wilmers which once stood on the hillside above the Summit Tunnel, not far northwest from the Summit Inn. Four of the five boys worked in textiles, from spinning to velvet stiffening, and the fifth was a potter. But at least one of the Dawson boys had bigger thoughts than just a terraced house on the hillside. In 1903 Ernest, the youngest, went to America.

Detail from 1891 1:25″ scale Ordinance Survey map showing location of Wilmers

Ernest went in 1903 and the rest followed in 1905, Mary Ann included. The Dawsons settled in Massachusetts at first but then moved to Willimantic, Connecticut. Most of the boys found work in the thread mills as engineers – this is wire thread, not textiles – and in quite a display of comfort with each others’ company in adulthood continued to live together. The 1910 Census shows Frank, his wife and daughter, James, John Arthur and Mary Ann all resident in the same house on Crescent Street.

One last interesting detail from 1910 is that Ernest and his wife Mary had two daughters by this point…Ethel and Edith. He would have been old enough to remember his little sister. It can’t be a coincidence.

Mary Ann died in 1915 and was buried in the graveyard at Willimantic alongside Herbert’s son William who had died two years earlier. All five of her sons would be buried here too eventually when they died in the 1940s and 50s. This partly explains why Mary Alice and William here never saw a headstone materialise. William’s name is remembered in America though, as it’s on Mary Ann’s gravestone.

Photo courtesy of FindAGrave

The rose above her name on the stone is a lovely nod back to her roots.

If you’re wondering about the “last mystery”, the answer is as simple as family connections. Mary Alice, according to the Todmorden Antiquarian Society, was not the first burial in this plot, but that was in fact Willie Dawson. Willie was born in December 1875 to Lord and Sarah Hannah (Mitchell) Dawson of Thistle Hall, Walsden. Lord was one of William Dawson’s brothers. Willie died, as we know, in October 1877 and was apparently buried here…

In terms of the dates, both Willie and Mary Alice make sense The grave “before” has a first interment from February 1877, and the one after has a first interment from March 1878. The 21st, in fact, which ties in with Mary Alice being buried on the 15th. So Willie’s assumed presence here can’t be ruled out by looking at the other dates within the grid. This though begs other questions; where is his sister Mary Jane, who died in 1873? And where’s Lord, who died in 1885? So the above post exists as an alternate universe, if you like, wherein the W. D. stands for the plot owner rather than the first person in. We have plot markers that do both those things and there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.

Some mysteries of the graveyard will always be mysteries…!

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  1. Pingback:47.59 – Willie Dawson – F.O.C.C.T.

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