and

by

Arvella Easterbrook Wilberg

When our Grandparents, Henry Joseph Easterbrook, who was born 22 July 1863 at Plymouth, Devon County, England and Isabella Clarkson Easterbrook, who was, born 20 April 1861 at Rumblingsykes in the parish of Dalziel in Lanark County, Scotland came to this country from Scotland they had two children. Joseph Henry born 5 Dec 1885 and our Dad, Andrew Clarkson born 15 June 1887 both of whom were born in Hamilton, Lanark County, Scotland. They were expecting their third child. Rebecca or Becky was born in September 1889. Becky told it as "they came with the two boys and one in the basket." Jessie expressed it as "Joe and Andy came with them and Becky at the door knocking wanting out." So I feel safe in assuming they came early in 1889.

Our Grandmother Isabella Clarkson also had had a son previous to her marrying our Grandpa Henry Joseph. He was always known as William or Bill Clarkson, Daddy's half-brother.

I was able to secure a birth certificate for him in 1958 that gives his name as William Inglis and his father as Allan Inglis, with his birth as 22 June 1881 in Motherwell, Lanark County, Scotland.

I also secured a marriage certificate for Henry Joseph Easterbrook and Isabella Clarkson, married 31 Dec. 1884 at Motherwell, Lanark County, Scotland. She is listed as a spinster so I can only assume she was not married previously. Also the fact that he, Bill Clarkson had been given her maiden name leads me to believe this.

I can only imagine her feelings at having to leave him behind when they came to this country, just eight years of age. Although I feel sure he was well cared for and loved in the home of his grandparents.

One time as Mother and I were asking Daddy the whys and wherefores of these things he indicated that they just did not have the money to either bring him or send for him later. Whether the fact that he was not our Grandpa Easterbrook's child made some difference, we again can only imagine.

Through the years I tried to get information from Joe, Daddy, Becky and Jessie. Daddy remembered little, Becky was reluctant to talk, her philosophy being "let sleeping dogs lie" and Jessie of course, was only past two when her mother died so she could only give me her feelings concerning things that happened later. From these sources then, and the facts gleaned from certificates obtained from both Scotland and England I'm going to attempt to put the facts together so that our Easterbrook Ancestry can be more than just names on a pedigree chart.

From official certificates I learned facts that lead me to believe that our Grandmother Isabella Clarkson's parents were pretty special. They were Janet Hislop and Andrew Clarkson who were married 9 Nov 1860, at Carluke, Lanark County, Scotland. Janet had been married previous to marrying our grandfather Andrew Clarkson to a John Dinwoodie on 25 June 1852. She had had one son die, another one Joseph born 17 Mar 1855 at Carluke, Lanark, Scotland and was expecting her third child when her husband, John Dinwoodie died 1 Jan. 1857 at 30 years of age. The third child, a daughter Joan Dinwoodie, was born 3 June 1857.

From census records I've learned that these children were included, in the Andrew Clarkson family, naturally, so again I can only imagine they had lots of love to share, so that our William Clarkson was made to feel welcome.

I know that our Grandmother Isabella had two younger brothers who had been born in Rumblingsykes, Lanark, Scotland. James born 11 Aug. 1863 and Thomas born 1 July 1865. No mention has ever been made of her family so I wonder if any contact were made through the years. I know they were poor and she was kept busy with small children.

After Becky was born their family grew fast with the birth of twins in 1890, but just as fast it was back, as before since neither of them lived. They were named Sarah and Jessie.

Then 22 Feb. 1892 another son was born. Since he shared birthdays with George Washington he was given that name. George Washington Easterbrook. I’ll bet he like I had to learn to write small.

Another son James was born 7 Jan 1893. I believe it was Joe who told me at Coalburg, Jefferson County, Alabama, but from certificates verifying births in Alabama it gives the county only. Someone has given his death date as August 1907. This is the way it has been entered in the family group sheets, but this differs from some things I've been told by others. I am aware that the way we remember changes through the years, and since I have not verified, the death date from New Mexico we just have to take these things as told.

It has been my understanding that when they first came, they came to Alabama. Daddy talked often of Terre Haute, Indiana, but whether they were there while their mother still lived or whether it was after her death when they were on their way west, I don't know. I do know Isabella Clarkson died in Pratt City, Jefferson Co. Alabama on 19 Sept. 1899 at age 38- 1 never learned the cause of death, but certainly having had ten children could have taken it's toll. (Information learned in later years tends to suggest she died in childbirth)

Daddy remembered as a little boy his mother dressing them in their Scots kilts on Saturday afternoons. Becky related that when George was about two years old they were making toast at an open fireplace and his kilts caught fire. So we see her Scots heritage was important to her.

Isabella and Henry Joseph sent money to his mother Elmerina at great sacrifice to them.

They must have liked the name Jessie to have used it twice. I don't know where I got the information, but at one place I had Jessie's name as Jessie May. She was just past two when her mother died. Their Grandmother Janet Hislop Clarkson had died the year before on 18 February 1898.

At the time of Isabella Clarkson's death her son William (Bill) Clarkson, still in Scotland sent out "letters edged in black." Daddy had one among his things and when Mother showed it to me when I was just little I was very impressed with it. I felt it was the only thing we had of hers that made her live. Silly I know, that a notice of death made her live, but it did for me. Mother gave it to me after Daddy's death and I count it among my treasures. Besides everything else it represents, just imagine the feeling and love that must have gone into that by Bill Clarkson.

Grandpa Henry Joseph had to have someone care for the children. A woman named Sally Moore came in to do this. She was single, about 38 years of age and she and Grandpa married about two years later. Either they married in Birmingham, Alabama or she was from there. My notes were incomplete on that detail.

In Jessie's words Sally Moore was the only mother she ever. had. She loved her dearly. She was a very special person, very patient with Grandpa and his weaknesses.

Unfortunately, Joe and Daddy didn't share Jessie's feelings. They remembered her quite differently. Daddy was twelve when his mother died and had already been working in the coal mine for about four years. He and Joe had gone in the mine at an early age to help their dad load cars. In Alabama the vein of coal was low and a man worked on his knees. These "'little fellows" could stand and help with the loading. Since a man was paid by the cars loaded it was a great help to him. Daddy told how he carried his shoes over his shoulder ‘til he got to the mine so they wouldn't wear out so fast.

After Grandpa remarried, Sally took from Joe and Daddy the money they had earned. As they got older this was a source of resentment.

I don't know when they left Alabama and came to New Mexico, but Henry Joseph sent for his mother Elmerina to come to New Mexico in March of either 1902 or 1903. Jessie was about five years old.

When Elmerina arrived in New York she went to a restaurant for a cup of tea. The waitress brought her a pot of tea, and it was so weak Grandma called her back and told her she had forgotten to put in the tea.

Our Great Grandfather Joseph Easterbrook, the military man, was dead before Henry Joseph and Isabella Clarkson were married and Elmerina had already married a man named Welsh. She had two children - our Grandfather Henry Joseph and one named William Thomas, who was born 2 Nov 1865 at Greenwich, Kent County, England. Her second husband Welsh was a coal miner who, according to Joe, had just died. She had one son by him I know, named Richard Welsh. After second husband's death she had married a baker whose name according to Joe was Kane, but Jessie said it was McKain or McKane. It's McKane in several places.

Anyway, when Elmerina came and Henry Joseph first saw her he said, "There's Mother." Jessie remembered she wore a black pill box hat with a bird on it and Jessie said, "Look at the bird."

George loved teasing his Grandmother. She collected buttons and one day he had her pick up a soft chicken dropping by telling her it was a button. I'll bet she'd have liked catching him !

While they lived in Dawson (New Mexico) our Grandpa Henry Joseph had a couple horses. Jessie and James loved them. If ever the two kids couldn't be found, they'd look for the horses. They'd find them together. He also had a buggy and the horses knew on which side they belonged. One time Grandpa Henry Joseph came home without them. He had lost them gambling, but Sally went and got them back.

Henry Joseph had a watch fob made of our Grandmother Isabella's hair. If I remember correctly I was told it was a rich, auburn. Jessie also could remember her Dad having a Masonic emblem that he treasured.

Our Grandpa Henry Joseph and Sally operated a boarding house. I don't know whether this was while he still worked in the mine or whether it was just after. I know they did later. He developed what was called "miner's asthma" and had to quit working in the mine. Sounds like what today is referred to as "black lung". Jessie told of the washing being done on a wash board. Couldn't have been easy doing all the sheets for a boarding house that way. Another of her jobs was to clean the coal oil lamps, and she hated it.

When she was just little, Jessie had made a pie and was taking it to the bedroom and dropped it. She felt so bad over that because of the food being wasted.

Jessie attended school about six or seven years. That was more years than Daddy spent in the home before going to work. Well, almost anyway, he went to third grade. Jessie said she walked miles to get to school. She told of making what she called "shadows" in the snow coming home. When we made them we called them "angels".

Sally was running the boarding house and our Grandpa Henry Joseph had returned to Scotland in 1906. He had not been gone long when James, about twelve years of age went to work in the mine in Dawson, as a trapper. From the way I've been told, he had only been working about three months when he was crushed against the side of the mine and died a couple days later. I have no idea how long Grandpa stayed, but he was there when Aunt Becky's son Henry was born 12 July 1906. Again only our imagination tells of the heartbreak suffered here at the death of a son while so far away. It couldn’t have been easy for those here either. At such times we do need the strength of loved ones.

Jessie and James were always close and after his accident she spent much time in his room with him. If I remember correctly, she wouldn't leave even to sleep. He told her of seeing a whole lot of angels who had come to take him. She said he went soon after that.

During 1907 our Grandfather Henry Joseph had a visit from his brother Willie, his son Willie who was about eighteen years of age, and a half-brother Richard Welsh from Scotland. They visited with the family in Koehler and in Dawson with Becky. The Easterbrook's stayed ‘til they made there fare here and back, but Richard didn't like it here so went right back.

It was while they were in Dawson that George lost his leg in a mine accident. Jessie remembered that his leg had been sawed off as he lay on the dining room table of the boarding house. I had remembered that George's leg had not been taken all at one time, so I checked with Harry. He remembers that it was in Standardville where George was hurt, during the early 1920s. He first lost a toe. It was mashed as he helped on the machine. Because of gangrene they had to continue to remove more and more. Harry remembers that George was in the hospital for eighteen months. When he was released he had lost his leg to just below the knee.

The way Jessie related it, Daddy also was injured in Dawson. At the time of his accident a man brought him home on his back, carrying his foot. Harry remembers that Daddy was about seventeen at the time of his accident, 1905. He was standing with his foot on the rail. He was nipping cars. Maybe it was Daddy that Jessie was thinking of in Dawson. Harry said that one time Daddy took him and Andy and showed them where it had happened. Certainly easy to understand why Mother never wanted her sons to go in the mine.

The first time Becky saw Bill or William Mariam Johnson she was scrubbing the floor with an apron of gunny sack to protect her "stockings and all". He came looking for a room. Becky said she looked at him then told the other girls, "He's mine." He had come from Illinois. He was one of three children. He was born 8 August 1879 and died 20 August 1931 in Rock Springs, Wyoming at age 52. He and Becky were married at Raton, New Mexico before 1906.

They had two sons and a daughter, Helen, who married Mike Komenski in April 1936. After her marriage, Becky married Jim McPhie in May of 1936.

Elmerina had been here about five years when her son, our Grandfather Henry Joseph died. He died in early December 1908 hemorrhaging. Joe said a blood vessel burst. As we talked with Jessie she thought perhaps her Dad had died from what her son Robert had. lie had cirrhosis of the liver. At the time of Grandads death, Elmerina had five living children. Willie - William Thomas Easterbrook, Richard Welsh, and three Kane, McKane or McKain children in Scotland.

After Henry Joseph's death, (he was buried 10 December 1908 according to a clipping sent me in request of information concerning his death from Raton, New Mexico) Elmerina didn’t stay long but went back to Scotland. Who could blame her? She had grandchildren here and now two great grandsons, but she had children still in Scotland.

Becky was unable to attend her father's funeral so Dr. and Mrs. Vickers stayed with her. Millard was born eight days later on 18 Dec 1908.

Sally was so good to Jessie after Dad died. He had been her father, mother, everything. She felt she was "the apple of her Daddy's eye". He was her pride and joy. Sally was aware of the relationship they shared, but was not jealous of it.

Jessie felt that our Daddy Andy looked most like Grandpa and she thought her Dad very, very handsome! We felt that if Daddy looked like him we would have to agree.

Joe had been engaged to a girl named Faye. He’d have done anything for her and she broke his heart. Mother always told me that was probably why he had become what he had. Since Joe and George never married they made their home with either Becky, Jessie or Mother as long as they worked in the mines.

I don't know when Bill Clarkson came to this country. I know his wife's name was Mary and she and Becky were close. He, Bill Clarkson, died in Gallup, New Mexico.

I neglected mentioning that it was Joe who first said his Dad was born in England, which proved to be the case. It was Joe, also who gave the first contribution of $5.00 to be used for genealogical research.

I’ve just learned 1 Sept. 1982 of another brother to our Grandmother Isabella, born 7 Aug 1868 at Hamilton, Lanark, Scot. Again I am impressed with the special spirit of our Grandfather Andrew Clarkson. This son was given the name of John. Though this was the name of Janet Hislop’s grandfather, it was also the name of her first husband.

" After talking with Harry I found another "note" where I had written Daddy had lost his left foot in 1905. He would have been 18 on 15 June 1905, so I think we can assume he lost his foot before June of that year.

As a matter of explanation, the things entered here are as I have either been told or been able to recollect. Each of you may recall other things or even these things differently. I do not mean to say this is as it is.. I felt the need to put down the things I do know and make it available to the others.