USA emigration from Tameside 1850s

[hollyberry]

My ggggrandfather John Worsnip, machine maker (b 1804) emigrated from Mossley to the USA in the 1850s, (USA 1860 Census). His wife Mary, son David and stepdaughter Caroline Roberts went with him. They settled in Indiana.

Does anyone else have family who went to the USA at this time?

Can anyone give any reason why they may have gone at this time?

David served in the Confederate Army and returned to Mossley because he seems to be on the UK 1871 Census.

[Gay J Oliver]

There were many reasons for migration to America at different times and places. Most of the main migration from the cotton towns came after about 1874 to the cotton towns of Providence Rhode Island, Lowell, Bedford, Boston and Fall River. Earlier emigration to Indiana was slightly different and It would be intersting to know what his occupation was on the 1860 census and the place to do some further research. I did find this on Wikipedia:

In December 1813, Corydon became the second capital of the Indiana Territory.[13] Two years later, a petition for statehood was approved by the territorial general assembly and sent to Congress. Afterwards, an Enabling Act was passed to provide an election of delegates to write a constitution for Indiana. On June 10, 1816, delegates assembled at Corydon to write the constitution, which was completed in nineteen days. President James Madison approved Indiana's admission into the union as the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816.[11] In 1825, the state capital was moved from Corydon to Indianapolis and 26 years later, a second constitution was adopted.[13] Following statehood, the new government set out on an ambitious plan to transform Indiana from a wilderness frontier into a developed, well-populated, and thriving state, beginning significant demographic and economic changes. The state's founders initiated a program that led to the construction of roads, canals, railroads and state-funded public schools. The plans bankrupted the state and were a financial disaster, but increased land and produce value more than fourfold.[16] The early nineteenth century saw much immigration to Indiana. The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were Germans, though there were also substantial amounts of immigrants from Ireland and England as well as Americans who were ethnically English from regions such as New York, New England and Pennsylvania.[17][18]
During the American Civil War, Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. As the first western state to mobilize for the war, Indiana's soldiers were present in all of the major engagements during the war. Indiana residents were present in both the first and last battles and the state provided 126 infantry regiments, 26 batteries of artillery and 13 regiments of cavalry to the cause of the Union.[19] In 1861, Indiana was assigned a quota of 7,500 men to join the Union Army.[20] So many volunteered in the first call that thousands had to be turned away. Before the war ended, Indiana contributed 208,367 men to fight and serve in the war. Casualties were over 35% among these men: 24,416 lost their lives in the conflict and over 50,000 more were wounded.[21] The only Civil War battle fought in Indiana was the Battle of Corydon, which occurred during Morgan's Raid. The battle left 15 dead, 40 wounded, and 355 captured.[22]

[hollyberry]

Thank you for all the information, Gay.

John was a Mechanic on the 1841 UK census, a Machine Maker on the 1851 census and a Carpenter on the 1860 USA census (I think because it is the nearest I think it might be. I have sympathy for transcribers!) His personal estate was 100 dollars.

He was in the county of Franklin in the township of White Water.

Mary his wife and his step daughter Caroline Roberts were on the 1870 USA Census so he must have died. They have no personal estate.

On the same page of the 1870 return there is a Roberts family born in England but I dont know if there is any connection with Caroline.

[eltelf]

Hi Gay,

Interested to hear that 'Most of the main migration from the cotton towns came after about 1874 to the cotton towns of Providence Rhode Island, Lowell, Bedford, Boston and Fall River. I have found family (one seems to have been 'overseer cotton weavers') who emigrated from Ashton to Bristol, Boston, New Bedford, Mass in the 1890s. Were workers from cotton towns in England being specifically recruited?

Thanks,

Lesley

[Gay J Oliver]

Hello Lesley,

I have a copy of a very interesting article about emigration of Textile Migrants to New England in the last half of the 19th century, which I will send privately to your email address.

very best wishes,
GAY

[hollyberry]

I was misinformed about David Worsnip. He actually served with the Union. I had to put this right or he would be spinning in his grave. I also found that his small family emigrated with his mothers relatives, James Roberts and Lucy, who by 1870 were modestly affluent farmers. They had Real Estate of 2000 dollars and 1030 dollars personal estate. John Worsnip, David's father had obviously wanted a career change. David was only 17 when they emigrated so I guess he would have just tagged along at that age. They went on the City of Manchester steam ship. David may have returned to England because he didn't like farming, or he may have wanted a wife? I think there was a shotage of women in those days in Indiana.

[barbaramary]

I too am fascinated by my ancestors' emigration to the USA (Fall River and Biddeford) from Ashton and have wondered how they were "recruited" since they didn't seem to be particularly literate folks. Were there adverts in the local papers? at the mill? What were the incentives? Who paid the costs? and was it like little Ashton when they got there?
Similarly, I have the same questions regarding my Irish ancestors who came to Ashton & Dukinfield in the 1830s and 40s from Ireland. Were they recruited from specific places? For me - Roscommon and Co Westmeath. Where I now live in Co Durham most of the Irish immigrants came from the Northern Counties of Ireland. So it did make me wonder if there was a specific Irish regional profile in Tameside.

[Woody]

Hi barbaramary

There’s a nice little article entitled ‘Lancashire in New England’ (just Google that and you’ll find the full monty). At only a couple of pages it’s the briefest, least academic account I’ve found.

It’s perhaps easy to forget that America’s first President, George Washington, wasn’t inaugurated until 1789 and, as a nation of farmers, there was virtually no large-scale industry across the United States in the early 1800s. When steam-power was eventually introduced to the textile mills, the American transport systems and methods of large-scale textile production lagged almost 50 years behind equivalent developments in the UK.

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the burgeoning American textile industry needed experienced mule frame spinners, loom fixers, weavers, carders, dyers and other highly skilled workers. England was the only source and because the after-effects of the Cotton Famine (caused by blockades to exports of raw cotton to the UK during the Civil War) were still being felt here, some textile workers needed little persuasion to migrate. Fall River was the largest of the Massachusetts cotton-producing towns, although only 5% of the Fall River citizens were English.

American mill agents travelled to the English textile regions specifically to recruit operatives and the Manchester area was a prime recruiting ground. Many more migrants then went to New England on the recommendation of relatives who had preceded them or, with the assistance of craft unions and emigrant societies. Unions subsidised travel as a means of reducing the labour pool in the UK. In the wake of the Cotton Famine, the belief was that it would increase the availability of jobs for those who remained in the UK.

On the topic of Irish migration, we often assume that people were only pushed into leaving Ireland because of the Potato Famine and that the migrations began after 1845. The Famine was just the last straw and whilst it speeded the flow considerably, low incomes, high rents, the enclosure system, and religious oppression in Ireland had been causing people to leave the country in a steady stream for many years prior to that. Higher wages and the prospects for a better life were invariably given as the main motivators for migration. For most it was an attempt to escape the continual grinding poverty of subsistence farming.

[barbaramary]

Thanks for such a full response Woody! I'm very grateful.

[drainman]

at least 5 of my family whent to the states in 1870

[dande]

My Great Uncle, John William Chadwick from Hurst, emigrated to the USA in the early 1900's shortly after his marriage to Grace Garratt and some time later than those recorded in earlier posts.

He departed from Liverpool on SS Carpathia on 21st July, 1903 and Grace travelled out in April of the following year on SS Umbria to join him. The ship's manifest shows that she had "at least $50" in her possession!

They lived at Baltic, New London, Connecticut where John William was employed at Baltic Cotton Mill.

Their daughter, Irene, was born in 1909 and in 1930 she was employed as a nurse. She married John Macarthur and they lived at Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut.

After considerable research, I traced Irene's daughter, Janice, now a retired teacher. and met her at her home in Connecticut two years ago. I also had a long telephone conversation with her brother, Jack, who lives in Ohio.

It was a satisfying end to hours and hours of research, mainly through ancestry.co.uk