{"id":7923,"date":"2019-03-18T20:33:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T03:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=7923"},"modified":"2019-03-18T21:26:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T04:26:43","slug":"prelude-to-the-askew-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/prelude-to-the-askew-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Prelude to the Askew migration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s post was inspired by my second cousin once removed, David Richard Askew. We’re both descendants of Wilfred L. Askew and his first wife Hattie S. (Eddy) Askew. He reached out last week to let me know how much he appreciates the work I share on this blog, especially with respect to our shared ancestors. We talked for nearly three hours about all things Askew, and he gave me several new leads (in the form of inherited family stories that I hadn’t heard), and made me realize that I’ve only scratched the surface of Joseph and Jane Askew’s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today’s post, I’ll do a bit more scratching to see if I can reveal more information about Joseph and Jane and their family in the two decades prior to their migration to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Unlike many of my ancestors, whose lives were tightly bound to the land they farmed and who rarely traveled far from their homes, Joseph Askew had no such ties to a particular place. I suspect that he would have preferred to farm and develop his own land, that was not a possibly for a man of modest means in nineteenth century Cumberland. Certainly not for Joseph Askew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph (born April 11, 1840) was the fifth of ten children born to Joseph Askew and Ann Turner. Joseph Askew the elder was a husbandman and agricultural laborer according to all the parish records and English census records I’ve been able to find for him between 1827 and 1861. In Col. Joseph Askew’s biography published in 1902 in the Compendium of History and Biography of Northern Minnesota (pages 320\u2013323), however, Joseph the younger stated that his father was “a contractor and bridge builder, having charge of the [Cumberland] county bridges.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of his father’s occupation, it is clear that Joseph Askew was accustomed to having to travel in search of profitable employment. According to Joseph Askew’s 1902 biography, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of seventeen years Mr. Askew went to Scotland where he worked on the Glasgow water works and assisted in laying the first pipes in the Dumbarton water works system. He also visited Edinborough where he saw the crown of Scotland, a guarded treasure, and other relics of Scottish history and also visited other places of interest. He then went to Newcastle on Tyne, England, where he was employed on the water works and spent about one year in that part of England. He then went to London where he was engaged several months on the sewerage system. From there he went to France and was there engaged in tunnel work on the railroad south of Paris for six months. After attaining his majority, he began work in the iron mines of Frizington, county Cumberland, England, deciding to make his home there, and was thus employed fourteen years, becoming very proficient in the work of the mines and for six years held the position of sinker and shaftman. He followed the mining business in England until 1875 and in the spring of that year came to America landing at New York.<\/p>Compendium of History and Biography of Northern Minnesota, page 323<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the paragraphs below, I would like to unpack this seemingly simple record of Joseph’s work and travel experiences between age 17 and age 21 (21 years was considered the age of majority in Victorian England), or from mid-1857 to mid-1861.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glasgow, Scotland (mid-April 1857\u2013June 1859)<\/strong>. During this period, Joseph worked for the Glasgow Corporation Water Works<\/a>. By the mid-1840s, the growing population and industrialization of Glasgow resulted in terrible pollution of the Clyde river and a subsequent crisis of fresh water for the city. City officials decided to divert 50,000,000 gallons of water per day from Loch Katrine. The water was to be carried the 36 miles south to Glasgow using only gravity, so an elaborate series of 70 tunnels and numerous elevated aqueducts was designed. Between 1855 and 1859, laborers constructed the necessary infrastructure for the project, and Joseph was probably among the labor force for this massive project. Thomas Annan, the preeminent photographer of Glasgow in the mid-19th century, photographed the end stages of this project in 1859 and published 18 photographic albumen prints of the project in an 1859 book entitled The Views of the Line of Loch Katrine Water Works.<\/em> You can see the plates from his book here<\/a> to get an idea of what Joseph worked on in his first major job away from home. Another collection of photos of the project\u2014and one that focuses more on the everyday workers and construction activities\u2014was announced less than a month ago (February 27, 2019)<\/a>. I’ve written to Scottish Water (the inheritors\/discoverers of the photos) to ask about seeing high-resolution scans of these so that I can search for possible images of a teenaged Joseph Askew. Queen Victoria inaugurated the Water Works on October 14, 1859, so the maximum span of Joseph’s tenure with this project was probably mid-April 1857 to mid-October 1859. Given the timing constraints on his other jobs (discussed below), he probably left Glasgow for Newcastle upon Tyne in June 1859.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View of part of the Loch Katrine waterworks in 1859: Culegarten Aqueduct Bridges Nos. 1 and 2. The Culegarten Aqueduct Bridges carry the water across small ravines and burns in the area south of Loch Ard. Image courtesy of Glasgow Libraries<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dumbarton, Scotland (1857 or 1858)<\/strong>. Joseph says he “assisted in laying the first pipes in the Dumbarton water works system.” According to what little documentation I could find (see page 2 in this reference<\/a>), the first pipes of the Dumbarton water system were laid in 1857. Given that Dumbarton was only 13 miles from Glasgow, I’m assuming that this was a short-term job that he did during a lull in his regular work on the Glasgow project. His discussion of seeing Edinburgh as a tourist during this same time period supports my assumption that Glasgow remained his center of operations during this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle on Tyne, England (June 1859\u2013June 1860)<\/strong>. Given his timetable to London and Paris, Joseph’s one year in Newcastle upon Tyne was probably from June 1859 to June 1860. I haven’t yet found any specific information about this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

London, England (June 1860\u2013October 1860)<\/strong>. Joseph says he spent several months in London prior to being in Paris, so if we assume “several months” means 3\u20135 months, then he was in London from about June 1860 to October 1860. Joseph travelled to London to work on the London sewerage system<\/a>. After the “Great Stink<\/a>” of July and August 1858, Parliament resolved to fund the building of a modern sewer system for London. Until this point, sewage flowed freely in the streets of London and into the Thames river. Civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette designed a network of 1,100 miles of underground, brick-lined street sewers that flowed into 82 miles of underground, brick-lined main sewers, as well as pumping stations and sewage outfall systems. Even this was an underestimate of London’s sewer needs\u2014by the time the initial project was finished, there were 13,000 miles of street sewers, 450 miles of main sewers, and 100 miles of interceptor sewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Construction of a main sewer drainage in 1859 in East London, under Wick Lane, near Old Ford, Bow. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paris, France (October 1860\u2013April 1861)<\/strong>. If Joseph spent his last six pre-majority months in Paris, he would have been there from about mid-October 1860 to mid-April 1861. In his biography, it is stated that Joseph “engaged in tunnel work on the railroad south of Paris” during this time. I haven’t been able to determine which railroad he worked on during this time. One possibility is the Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture<\/a>, although this would probably not have been described in 1907 as being “south of Paris,” as it was within the city limits. 1860 was far too early for the M\u00e9tro. That leaves the French intercity rail system. The French rail system by design centered on Paris as a hub, and by 1855, French railroad companies had organized into six regional companies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n