Whatmore Family History

Ordinary folk, unless they were criminals, left few traces in historical records. It is therefore difficult to find out much about Joseph and Elizabeth Dyson who were the great grandparents of Mary Ann Whatmore, my grandmother.  Joseph and Elizabeth were my own great x 3 grandparents.

I would like to thank very much Alice Kern, President, Beaver County Genealogy and History Centre for her great kindness in researching on my behalf the Dyson family at Beaver Falls and for sending me so much interesting information.

The first definite record of  Joseph and Elizabeth is in 1810 when they buried their son William Dyson on 11 May at Eckington, just south of Sheffield. The parish register does not give William’s age, but he was clearly a minor, otherwise his parents’ names would not have been recorded.  

Our next glimpse of them is on 27  November 1814 when their son, George Dyson, who became a Saw Handle Maker, was baptised at Eckington church. Joseph and his wife were living at Mosborough where Joseph was a scythe maker. We can sure that this is George the Saw Handle Maker as he stated in the censuses that he was born at Eckington and his recorded ages point back to 1814.

Looking for the baptism of Joseph Dyson himself, the obvious one is the Joseph baptised on 27 December 1777 at Staveley, the next parish to Eckington. The Dysons at Staveley can be traced in a direct line back to 1664. Whilst it is possible that Joseph was from elsewhere it seems reasonable to claim that his family was the one at Staveley. 

We next find Joseph and Elizabeth in a Removal Order (RM7/671) of  1817 issued by Eckington parish requiring the removal to Dronfield of ‘Joseph Dyson, Elizabeth wife, George and infant of 5 days’. This is most certainly our Joseph and Elizabeth. It implies that by this date the family were dependant on parish relief and that Joseph had no right of settlement in Eckington’. Eckington parish was thus sending the family to Dronfield where presumably Joseph had such a right. We must assume that Joseph’s parents had moved to Dronfield when he was young and that he had been brought up there. The family had no direct link with Dronfield as the only mention of Dysons in the parish register prior to 1817 is the baptism of a Susanne Dison, daughter of a John Dison, on 6 March 1643. 

There is no record in the Eckington or Dronfield parish records of the baptism of the 5 day infant in 1817. However a James Dyson, son of a Joseph and Elizabeth, was born on 10 November  1819  at Norton, the next parish to Dronfield, and  their son Henry was born there on 10 November 1822.Both children were baptised at Norton on 17 November 1822. The family had obviously moved on from Dronfield to Norton.

  Norton Church   Photo Copyright: Alan Heardman  Source: Geograph website and reproduced here in accordance with the terms of the site licence which can be viewed at this link:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 

Joseph and Elizabeth and their family were still at Norton when their son Henry  was buried there on 6 January 1828. That was a grim year for the family as an Elizabeth Dyson (almost certainly Joseph’s wife) was buried at Norton on 4 November, aged 46. Elizabeth will have been born about 1782. 

We have  no further definite information about Joseph Dyson. He is not to be found at Norton in the 1841 census, but there is a Joseph of about the right age, living at living at Sheffield Park. I doubt if this is the right person, however, as he is shown as born in Yorkshire and employed as a cutler, rather than as a scythe maker. 

Turning now to Joseph and Elizabeth’s surviving children, George was was apprenticed at Sheffield for seven years as a Saw Handle Maker in 1833 and although he is referred to as ‘a minor’ in his indentures, he would have been 19 at this time – a strange age to become an apprentice. What had he been doing previously?  Did something significant happen in 1833? We shall probably never know the answers to these questions. George married Mary Ann Whittaker in Sheffield  in 1837 when his apprenticeship still had three years to run!  By the 1850s, George and Mary were living in a ‘fine house’ in Wright’s Hill, London Road, Sheffield and went to church in a carriage. Then in 1860 disaster struck. George and Mary died within a few months of each other, the fine house and its contents were lost to the family and one of their children was placed in an orphanage. (See the earlier post on ‘The Lost Inheritance’.) 

Joseph and Elizabeth’s other surviving child James is probably the James Dyson aged 22 in the 1841 census and living at Pen Croft, a turning off West Bar in Sheffield. He is shown as a Cutler. He married Jane Whiteley on 11 March 1844 at Dronfield. The marriage register states that James’ father was a Joseph. 

In 1851, James and Jane Dyson were living at Foughtwood, Crookes, Sheffield. They had with them their only known child  - Charles Dyson born in 1846 at Crookes. James is described as a Spring Knife Cutler and is shown as born at Greenhill, which is in the parish of Norton where he was baptised.

  Crookes in 1820   Copyright: Chris Hobbs and reproduced here by his kind permission

The painting  of Crookes in 1820 is from the website of Chris Hobbs which contains a wealth if information on Sheffield. To view the site follow this link: http://www.chrishobbs.com/index.htm 

James and Jane Dyson cannot be traced in the 1861 census and it is probable that our James is the James aged 34, who was buried at St Thomas’s Crookes on 18 June 1854 and that his wife is the Jane aged 44 who was buried at St Thomas’s, Crookes on 6 March 1861 Their son Charles Dyson in 1861 was a boarder with Thomas and Harriet Dale at Crookes, Sheffield. Harriet Dale was almost certainly Charles’ aunt as her maiden name was Whiteley and she had been born at Crookes like Charles’ mother Jane. In 1871, Charles Dyson, aged  24, a File Cutler, was with John and Harriet Whiteley at Crookes and although Charles is described as cousin, John Whiteley would have been his uncle. Samuel Dale, son of Thomas and Harriet, was also staying with the Whiteley family – also shown as ‘cousin’.

 This is the last definite sighting of Charles Dyson, son of  James and Jane. I was misled for quite some time by the Charles Dyson who appears in the 1881 and 1891 censuses at Rhuddlan in North Wales. He was about the right age for our Charles and  stated he was born in Sheffield. He was a Mechanic and a Stove Grate Fitter. I eventually discovered that he had  married a Lydia Ward in Sheffield in 1863 and that they were already at Rhuddlan in 1871 when our Charles was still in Sheffield. The 1861 census revealed that the Charles who went to Rhuddlan was in fact born at Bradfield near Sheffield.  

An unmarried man, both of whose parents were deceased and who had no living siblings might be tempted to try life in a new country and we find in the records that a Charles Dyson of the right age arrived on 16 February 1873 at Boston, Massachusetts on board the ‘Marathon’ which had left from Liverpool.  This Charles Dyson is described as a mechanic. His descendants in Pennsylvania have confirmed that this is our Charles. Charles married a Hannah M Hill who was born about 1851 in New York State and they settled at Beaver Falls in the state of Pennsylvannia.  

Postcard  reproduced , with permission, from http://www.jeep2girl.com/postcards.html

Why did they choose Beaver Falls? The answer makes it certain that  the Charles who settled there belongs to our family. A very large factory  - the ‘Beaver Falls Cutlery Company’ was established at Beaver Falls in 1867 at  the inducement of the Harmony Society. This was a Christian theosophy and pietist group founded in Germany in 1785 and which moved to the USA in 1803. In Beaver Falls they established the community of ‘Economy’ (now ‘Ambridge’) and it was at Ambridge that our Dysons lived. Furthermore – the first workers at the factory were recruited from Sheffield. Later on, when a strike threatened, Chinese workers from California and women were introduced, The works occupied a complete block between Second and Third Streets on Seventh Avenue. The business closed down in 1886 as it was no longer profitable. This information is taken from ‘Beaver Falls’ by Kenneth Britten and the Beaver Falls Historical Society’ published in 2000 by Acadia Publishing. Sections of the book and a picture of Cutlery Factory can be viewed at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MUbcmRiteLcC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=’sheffield+beaver+falls’&source=bl&ots=7FllPRTHvH&sig=A04915Wmlbg5tOPD44UYG5wjCJA&hl=en&ei=HMPUStzaItfajQfr8LX8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CBwQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=’sheffield%20beaver%20falls’&f=false 

Ambridge in the 1950s  reproduced, with permission, from the Daily Kos Blog

More information about the community at ‘Economy / Ambridge’ can be viewed at:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Economy_Village 

A book published in 1924 which describes Ambridge and has lots of pictures can be viewed and downloaded at this link: http://www.archive.org/details/economyofoldambr00wagn

In the 1880 census, Charles, aged 31, was working as a File Forger at Beaver Falls. Hannah is showed as aged 29. With Charles and Hannah were three children – James Ernest Dyson, born 27 November 1875 in Pennsylvannia, Charles Henry Dyson, born 10 July 1877 in Pennsylvannia and Fred Richard Dyson, born 24 March 1879 in Pennsylvannia. Also with the family was a Florence Hill aged 19, born Massachusetts. She was probably Hannah’s sister. 

Charles Dyson died from typhoid fever on 14 April 1890 at Beaver Falls. He had worked for the ‘Shovel Works’ for several years  and the factory closed on the day of his funeral to allow employers to attend. His wife Hannah remarried on 13 October 1898 to a William G Alego. Hannah died in August 1926  at Beaver Falls.

James Ernest  Dyson, born 27 November 1875 at Beaver Falls,  married  Elizabeth Dale born in Pennsylvania on 16 Feb 1878. Both her parents were from England. In 1900, James and Elizabeth were at 3^rd Avenue, Beaver Falls. James is described as a Plumber.  James for in business for 33 years and was a member of the Master Plumbers Association of Beaver Falls. Elizabeth died of typhoid fever on 5  May 1907 at Beaver Falls. In 1908 James Dyson remarried to an Alice Dale, the sister of Elizabeth. James Dyson died at Beaver Falls in December 1939. James and Elizabeth had one son and two daughters. James and Alice had one son.

Charles Henry  Dyson born 1877, married Grace E M McHenry, born 1880 in West Virginia. In 1900 Charles is shown as stepson to William and Martha Alego and living at 12^th Street, Beaver Falls. Charles was working as a Plumber. In 1910 Charles and Grace were at Maplewood Avenue, Beaver Falls with their daughter Lois Anne Dyson born 1905 in Pennsylvania. By this date Charles had his own Plumber’s shop. In 1920 Charles was at Merchant Street, Ambridge with his brother Fred.  Grace, his wife, was not with his. For some reasons she was at 8^th Avenue, Yuma, Arizona with Lois her daughter. In 1930, both Charles and Grace were at Park Road, Ambridge, Beaver Falls. Charles was still working as a Plumber. 

Fred Richard Dyson, born  24 March 1879 married Sadie E Bowers born 1884. She died in 1906. He remarried to a Stella Beckham born 1883 in Kentucky. Fred and Stella had two daughters. Fred was a Plumber like his brothers and he served as Building Inspector for the Borough of Ambridge.  In 1920 he was with his brother Charles. In 1930 Fred and Stella were living at Merchant Street, Ambridge.  Stella died in 1956 and Fred died in March 1966 in Ambridge, Beaver Falls. 

Descendants of this Dyson family are still thriving in Beaver Falls and the surrounding area. Long may they prosper!