Surname Saturday ~ Freeland of Scotland and Allegheny, Pennsylvania

Lanarkshire, Scotland

My immigrant Freeland ancestor is David Freeland, who arrived in Canada from Scotland in 1821 with his family.

As I have been working on this Surname Saturday post, I have been finding out much more about this branch of my family, which I will share in upcoming blog posts.

The image at right is from page 96 of A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation, by Donald Whyte (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society. Volume 2, 1995. 435p.). If I interpret this entry correctly, David Freeland was from Lanarkshire, Scotland. He (with his wife and five children) came to Quebec, Canada, on the ship, David of London, arriving on 19 May 1821. They left from Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in association with an emigration society and they settled in Lanark Township, Lanark County, Ontario. The code of ICS refers to Immigration: Canada from Scotland with a description of "Selected records in the Ontario Department of Public Records and Archives [now the Archives of Ontario], 77 Grenville Street, Queen's Park, Toronto, M7A 2K9. Reel 154."

Lanark Township, Ontario

Wikipedia has a brief entry for Lanark, Ontario, (in addition to newly incorporated (1993) Lanark Highlands Township, Ontario) noting that it was founded in 1820 by Scottish immigrants who named it after Lanark, Scotland. Textiles was one of its major industries.

I found the reference for this book in an index (U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s) on Ancestry.com, and then looked at a copy of of the book at the NEHGS Library, where I scanned the above page. Ancestry.com has another index: Canadian Immigrant Records, Part Two which provides additional information about David Freeland's family: that his wife was age 28 and that the family included: "male child age 7; female children ages 8.5, 3, 9, 11."

Update as of October, 2016: David and his family, had moved south to the United States during the 1820s, living in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York, by the time of the 1830 U.S. Census.

In the 1850 U.S. Census, I find David Freeland, occupation Weaver, in the household of his son, James, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

U.S. Federal Census. Year: 1850; Census Place: Allegheny Ward 2, Allegheny, Pennsylvania;
Roll: M432_744; Page: 76B; Lines 7-10: Record for James Freeland family

In the 1860 U.S. Census, I find David Freeland in the Buffalo, New York, household of his daughter, Mary Wolf, her husband, Frederick Wolf (a Lake Captain), and their two children, Oswald and Charlotte.

U.S. Federal Census. Year: 1860; Census Place: Buffalo Ward 5, Erie, New York; Roll: M653_746;
Page: 810 (140); Lines 30-34: Record for Frederick Wolf family including David Freeland

I couldn't find a David Freeland in the 1840 U.S. Census that seemed to fit my David Freeland. (The 1840 census is not an every-name census, and doesn't include as much detailed information as later census records.) However, I did find an entry for "Freder. Wolf" in Buffalo, New York, which included two males of the appropriate ages to be Frederick and his father-in-law, David, and one female of the appropriate age to be Frederick's wife, Mary (Freeland) Wolf. If this is the same Frederick Wolf, it appears that David Freeland's wife died by 1840.

I do not know when David Freeland died, but possibly sometime between 1860 and 1870. UPDATE: He died in 1862 in Buffalo, New York.

The names of his children that I do know include James, Barbara, Mary and Anna. I descend from his son James.

Generation 2:
James Freeland was born in Scotland sometime between 1815 and 1821. He married Nancy Rainey, whom I have written about, as she is one of my long-lived female ancestors. I have also written about James previously, as he was a plumber in the 1850 and 1860 census.

There are two men with the name of James Freeland who served in Union forces from Pennsylvania in the Civil War and it is possible that one of them is "my" James, but again, I need to do more research on that. He died about 1863, based on the family's listing in Pittsburgh City Directories in the 1860s.

They had at least five children, born between 1850 and 1858. Mary (b. 1850), William (b. 1854), Claudine (b. 1855), Edward, Emma (twins, b. 1858). In the post about Nancy Rainey Freeland, I shared several census records and city directory images showing.

I descend from their daughter Mary who I believe is the oldest.

1870 Death of Frances Adelaide McAlpin

Last week I shared the obituary of my third great-grandfather, Joseph Rose (1809-1877). His oldest child, a daughter and my second great-grandmother, pre-deceased him by seven years.

Over a year and a half ago, I wrote about Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin in response to a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. See Ancestral Name Roulette. I noted that Frances McAlpin had ten children and I shared her brief death notice.

New York Times, November 29, 1870

She was just a few months past her 41st birthday and I wondered what she died of. I recently obtained her death certificate.

Manhattan, New York deaths. FHL Microfilm 1324554, certificate no. 75063

Sunday's Obituary ~ Joseph Rose (1809-1877)

Thank you to the Matawan, New Jersey, historian who told me about the availability of The Matawan Journal at the website of the public library. The issue of December 8, 1877, has an extensive obituary of the recently deceased Joseph Rose, my 3rd great grandfather, on page 2 of this four page weekly newspaper. This obituary doesn't tell me much about his family, except that he and his wife were married for 50 years and had children, but it does tell me a lot about him: his integrity and honesty in politics and business dealings and how he treated all those in his life.

It is very hard to read and I have done my best to transcribe it below. If anyone can decipher the faded words in the last section, please let me know.  September 11, 2013 update: Thank you to Matawan local historian Al Savolaine for helping with deciphering some of these difficult-to-read words.

Obituary

Mr. Joseph Rose

Rose, one of the oldest residents of this township. For two or three days it had been reported that he was very ill; but so vigorous had he always seemed that few anticipated a fatal result. He had been complaining for two or three weeks, but was not confined to his bed until Friday last and from that time he seemed to fall into a frequent stupor and unconsciousness, and died on Tuesday morning, 4th inst., at 9 o’clock. The cause of his sudden death was Bright’s disease of the kidneys, and the rapid degeneration of these organs produced a condition of uremia which hastened his end.

Mr. Rose was a gentleman of intelligence, integrity of moral character, sociability and possessed of a very warm and benevolent nature. He began business in New York city in very early life, was married before he was nineteen, and growing up with the growth of the city he won to him very many friends by the close adherence to business, promptness in all his business engagements and strict honesty in all his dealings.

While a resident of New York, he represented the city in the Legislature for one term and refused a renomination. He was a Democrat in politics, and a warm partisan. He served for two terms as Collector of City Revenue under Comptroller Flagg, and his integrity was held so high that on the election of Comptroller Haws, though politically an opponent, he was urged to remain in his position, and he continued as Collector of the Revenue until compelled by vertigo to resign. He, in occupying the above place, has much to do with negotiating the purchase of Central Park.

He was an office in the old City Guards; and an intimate associate of Hon. John Kelly, Judge Chas. P. Daley and other prominent men of New York.

About 45 years ago he purchased a farm at Cliffwood, and has ever since been the owner of the same. He owned the site of Rose Hill Cemetery [see Tombstone Tuesday ~ Rose], and sold it to the cemetery corporation. That place is honored with his name, and in it is his family plot where his remains will be interred. For several years prior to his permanent removal to New Jersey his family spent their summers at Cliffwood. Shortly after the severe attack of vertigo that compelled him to give up a lucrative position and a profitable business besides, he removed in 1860 to his farm and has for the past 17 years resided among us, endearing himself to this community, and during the time represented the township for one term in the Board of Freeholders.

On the 23d of October last, only about six weeks ago, a merry company gathered at his delightful home to join with him and his wife in celebrating their golden wedding. We referred then to the miniature sheaf of wheat overhanging their heads as a symbol of the ripening years. In his case, it becomes also the symbol of his having been gathered in by the great harvester, Death.

Mr. Rose will be missed not alone by his widow and large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; but the whole community, and in his benevolence his loss will be keenly felt by many living in the immediate vicinity of his home.

The funeral will take place on Monday next, 10th inst., at 1.30, P. M., the long delay being occasioned that the youngest son, from Colorado, might be present at the funeral.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Joseph Rose

According to a paragraph on page 53 of Matawan and Aberdeen: Of Town and Field, by Helen Henderson, of the Matawan Historical Association, found at Google Books, the Rose Hill Cemetery was established in 1858 on land previously owned by Joseph Rose, my third great-grandfather. The cemetery's highest point is where the Joseph Rose family plot is located and from there, you can see Raritan Bay and the skyline of New York City. My guess is that it has to be when the leaves are not on the trees (or before many of those trees were there), as we couldn't see those sites when we visited there a couple of weeks ago.

Having been told that the Rose family plot was at the highest point, we drove through the cemetery until we found it. While I took close up pictures with my iPhone and my son found half-buried, unreadable gravestones, my husband captured the plot from the side.

Rose Family obelisk

My third great-grandparents

Joseph Rose

Born

Oct. 25th, 1809,

Died

Dec. 4th, 1877

His Wife

Frances Stanton Willet

Born

Jan 20th, 1807,

Died

Oct. 26th, 1893

See Joseph Rose's Find A Grave memorial, which has links to the memorials for his wife Frances and a few of his children, as well as a link to a memorial for his father Joseph Rose (1770-1852) at this same cemetery.