Trail of the Copper King - Orlando Baragwanath (1872-1972)

 

We’ve talked about our Baragwanaths in Cornwall, England, but what about the branch that traveled to South Africa?

We aren’t closely related to Orlando Baragwanath, the subject of the book“Trail of the Copper King” by T. V. Bulpin – he’s my second cousin 7 times removed! Our common ancestors are Richard Baragwanath (born 1699) and Zenobia Stevens (born 1705), of Cornwall, England. 

 Jump forward 5 generations and we encounter John Albert Baragwanath who took his family on the trip of a lifetime – from Cornwall, England to Durban, South Africa, in 1850. John had been a Cornish sea captain. His first wife, Elizabeth Jane Trise, mother of Elizabeth Grace, Orlando, John Albert Jr., and Emily E., passed away the year before the voyage. He quickly married Wilmot Baragwanath (a cousin) later the same year. The family set sail in February 1850 on the “Lady Bruce.” 

They joined 150 other settlers intent on a new life in a new land, with the promise of land at the end of the journey. “Each adult will be provided with an intermediate passage, including provisions on a liberal dietary scale, for the sum of 19 pounds, or a steerage passage for 10 pounds, and on arrival in Natal [Durban] have secured to him twenty acres of freehold land.” The passage monies had to be paid in advance and each passenger needed their own knife, fork, tablespoon, teaspoon, metal plate, a hook-pot, a mug and bedding. Each ship was required to carry a doctor. 

John and Wilmot’s first child together, Charles, was born on the ship, but died a few weeks after arriving at their destination, aged 8 weeks. They reached their destination on 9 May 1850. John, Wilmot and the 4 living children settled on a farm called “Isipingo” just south of Durban. Son John Albert was later apprenticed to a saddle maker. He opened his own trading store, ran the Concordia hotel, and had some prospecting operations. He was very successful and prosperous. 

He married Elizabeth Adelaide Trennery and together they had ten children. Oldest son Orlando (Orrie), born in 1872, was the stuff legends were made of! Orlando lived to be 100 years old (photo right,) and on the occasion of that milestone, an article was written about him in the “Rhodesiana” publication. “In the autumn of 1894 a solitary passenger climbed off ...[an] ox-drawn Cape cart in Fort Victoria. . . He was Orlando Baragwanath, a young man of 22 years with some mining experience, a prospector’s zest for the unknown and an explorer’s nature.” For the next few years he worked at different mines, learning and yearning for adventure. 

 In May 1899, Orrie and his partner Frank Lewis, set out, their supplies packed in 50 lb. loads packed on two wagons and a four-ply canoe. They had six pack donkeys and ten armed natives. They had no need of money so they took white calico called “limbo” for currency. They had contracted for a 3-year stint with the Tanganyika Concessions Company, earning £25/month. The surface copper had been known, worked and traded long before. But these men were the first to use dynamite to find more beneath the surface in Northern Rhodesia! They pegged and named many copper mines on their travels, and in 1901 discovered the vast copper field on the Wusikili river, which later became the great Nkana Mine and the heart of the fabulous Copperbelt. 

 At the spot where John Albert had his farm and hotel now stands Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in what is now the black township of Soweta in Johannesburg, which opened in World War II to care for British soldiers. It once held the Guinness World Record for the largest hospital on earth with almost 3300 beds but has been edged out by at least 3 others by 2016. 

 Some of this material was found in an article from: http://www.rhodesia.nl/rhodesiana/volume28.pdf “Orlando Baragwanath: A Centenarian Pioneer of Rhodesia” by Roger Howman. “Rhodesiana” Publication No. 28, July 1973, The Rhodesiana Society, Salisbury, Rhodesia.

Drawings are from the book pictured above, Trail of the Copper King. This copy was given to my dad by his parents in 1961. It is presently in my possession.

Who didn't move the cheese? (John Baragwanath 1762)

I'm not sure how we are connected to this John Baragwanath - we are related to virtually every Baragwanath in Cornwall but I haven't made the connection to this particular John. This John lived in Zennor Parish, Cornwall, England. As Church Warden it became his problem to remove some stinky cheese from the Church!

A history of  the parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor in the County of Cornwall by John Hobson Matthews, published 1892, London.

p. 268-269

"The following entry, found on a flyleaf of one of the register-books of Zennor parish, shows that the payment of tithe in kind was for long afterwards the subject of disputes between the clergy and their parishioners:

    'Be it remembered, That on Sunday the 27th of June 1762, Thomas Osborn of Trewey, Robert Michell of Tregarthen, Matthew Thomas of Treen, and Elizabeth Phillips of the Church town, brought Butter and Cheese into the Chancel in the Time of Divine Service, imagining, I suppose, it would be accepted instead of their Tithes for Cows and Calves; but not being taken away either by them or any one else before it grew offensive, I ordered the Church Wardens, under pain of being cited to the Spiritual Court, to remove the same as an Indecency and a Nusance to the congregation. I here insert this lest my Successor should be imposed upon by being told that I accepted of that or any other Butter and Cheese instead of Tithes of Cows and Calves, which I assure him I did not, nor of any other sort of Tithe according to the Tenor of the Terrier, dated 1727, and held in the Register of the Consistory Court of Exeter; as Witness my hand this 21st day of July, 1762.

    Jacob Bullock, Vicar.

    N. B. Samuel Michell, Brother of the said Robert, and John Baragwanath, were church Wardens, and removed the said Butter and Cheese as a Nusance, at my Command.

    J. B. Vr.'  "

SO FAR AWAY

We’ve talked about our Baragwanaths in Cornwall, England, but what about the branch that traveled "so far away" - to South Africa?

  We aren’t closely related to Orlando Baragwanath, the subject of the book “Trail of the Copper King” by T. V. Bulpin – he’s my second cousin 7 times removed! Our common ancestors are Richard Baragwanath (born 1699) and Zenobia Stevens (born 1705), of Cornwall, England. 

Jump forward 5 generations and we encounter John Albert Baragwanath who took his family on the trip of a lifetime – from Cornwall, England to Durban, South Africa, in 1850. John Albert had been a Cornish sea captain.

  His first wife, Elizabeth Jane Trise, mother of Elizabeth Grace, Orlando, John Albert Jr., and Emily E., passed away the year before the voyage. He quickly married Wilmot Baragwanath (a cousin) later the same year. 

The family set sail in February 1850 on the “Lady Bruce.” They joined 150 other settlers intent on a new life in a new land, with the promise of land at the end of the journey.

Lady Bruce

“Each adult will be provided with an intermediate passage, including provisions on a liberal dietary scale, for the sum of 19 pounds, or a steerage passage for 10 pounds, and on arrival in Natal [Durban] have secured to him twenty acres of freehold land.”

The passage monies had to be paid in advance and each passenger needed their own knife, fork, tablespoon, teaspoon, metal plate, a hook-pot, a mug and bedding. Each ship was required to carry a doctor. John and Wilmot’s first child together, Charles, was born on the ship, but died a few weeks after arriving at their destination, aged 8 weeks. They arrived in Durban on 9 May 1850. John, Wilmot and the 4 living children settled on a farm called “Isipingo” just south of Durban. Son John Albert was later apprenticed to a saddle maker. He opened his own trading store, ran the Concordia hotel, and had some prospecting operations. He was very successful and prosperous. He married Elizabeth Adelaide Trennery and together they had ten children. But oldest son Orlando (Orrie), born in 1872, was the stuff legends were made of!

Orlando on his 100th birthday

Orlando lived to be 100 years old, and on the occasion of that milestone, an article was written about him in the “Rhodesiana” publication. “In the autumn of 1894 a solitary passenger climbed off ...[an] ox-drawn Cape cart in Fort Victoria. . . He was Orlando Baragwanath, a young man of 22 years with some mining experience, a prospector’s zest for the unknown and an explorer’s nature.” For the next few years he worked at different mines, learning and yearning for adventure.

In May 1899, Orrie and his partner Frank Lewis, set out, their supplies packed in 50 lb. loads packed on two wagons and a four-ply canoe. They had six pack donkeys and ten armed natives. They had no need of money so they took white calico called “limbo” for currency.

They had contracted for a 3-year stint with the Tanganyika Concessions Company, earning £25/month.
The surface copper had been known, worked and traded long before. But these men were the first to use dynamite to find more beneath the surface in Northern Rhodesia! They pegged and named many copper mines on their travels, and in 1901 discovered the vast copper field on the Wusikili river, which later became the great Nkana Mine and the heart of the fabulous Copperbelt. At the spot where John Albert had his farm and hotel now stands Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest hospital on earth with almost 3300 beds! Some of this material was found in an article from: http://www.rhodesia.nl/rhodesiana/volume28.pdf “Orlando Baragwanath: A Centenarian Pioneer of Rhodesia” by Roger Howman. “Rhodesiana” Publication No. 28, July 1973, The Rhodesiana Society Salisbury, Rhodesia.
- "Trail of the Copper King" by T. V. Bulpin, illustrations used above by A. A. Telford, published November 1959 by Bailey Bros & Swinfen Ltd., London W.C.

CLOSE TO HOME - The Forman Home in Westmont NJ

 My grandparents, Edgar Charles Forman and Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath were planning a fall wedding in 1922. During that spring they bought some land in Westmont, New Jersey, just two blocks away from a large farm known as Morgan's Orchard. In that area, they saw their Dutch Colonial dream house. They had a modified version of the house built during that summer.

Edgar and Annie were married on October 5, 1922 and immediately moved into their new home.

3 boys were born in quick succession, then a daughter, Mildred. 

Later Ed purchased the corner lot next to the house, which was used for various purposes during the children's growing up years, including a chicken coop and some goats and even a calf at one time! Finally the lot was transformed into a beautiful garden with walkways, a pond, and a wishing well. 

Mildred outside the family home, 1940s

After Mildred married Nick Montana in 1950, they moved into the family home and stayed. Mildred took care of her parents as they aged, and her husband as his health declined. He passed away in 2014. She is 90 and still living in the family home.

The home (thanks Google!) in 2017. Nearly 100 years after it was built, it has never been owned by anyone else but the original Forman family.

Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath and Her Pocket Watch

Her initials are on the back of her pocket watch: AEB for Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath, my grandmother.

She was born in 1890 and died in 1968. She married Edgar C. Forman in 1922. 

I know nothing about this watch. I do know that ladies' watches were usually pendant style so this one probably hung from a chain. Wristwatches didn't appear until after WWI. So I wonder, was this a gift or did she buy it for herself with her salary as a typist? If it was a gift, was it for a special birthday, perhaps a 16th, or 18th, or 21st? It appears to have been well-used so she did wear it. Did she wear it to work? Or to church? Or to run her errands? By the time she married she may have stopped using it.

Somehow it made its way to me. I wish I knew its history. It no longer keeps time. But 100 or more years ago, a young woman treasured this watch and now I treasure it and wonder about that young woman's life.

September Birthdays

Happy birthday to all you with September birthdays, and to those who celebrate anniversaries this month!

Some of our ancestors count September as a special month as well.

Heading from the Washington Times (Washington DC)

One of my favorite ancestor stories is that of the marriage of Edwin Stanton Ross and Katherine Fisher on 1 September 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They got a unique start on their life together, and their story made it into at least 20 newspapers across the country that I could find. You can read their story here:

Going to the Chapel

From The Philadelphia Inquirer

My 2nd great-grandfather and grandmother, William Lake Forman and Amanda Orilla McAllister were married 4 September 1853 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I wrote about locating them in the census records.

William Lake Forman & Amanda Orilla McAllister

Kate Baragwanath married Garrett Floyd on 7 September 1887 in New Jersey. Their announcement appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Kate's husband ran into a spell of bad luck in the 1890s. Click below to read about his troubles, and to see a photo of them together.

Trouble Times Two - Garrett Floyd, husband of Kate Baragwanath

Another of my 2nd great-grandparents, John Ross and Ann Elizabeth Spiece were also married in September, on the 8th in 1858. We are lucky to have this copy of their marriage certificate.

Same Name - A Cautionary Tale

This story shows what happens when you assume too much. And by 'you' I mean 'me'!!  [click above] My great-uncle William Henry Canham, known as Alec, married Constance Marion Winifred Myhill (Connie) on the last day of September 1933, in Swanton Morley, Norfolk, England.

And one final anniversary shout-out to my 22nd great-grandparents who tied the knot in September 1213 without leaving us with the actual date. Raoul de Lusignan and Alice d'Eu were both supposedly born in England and died in France. I have not researched this family line so this is about all we know, but they sound like they were really important, don't they?

Trouble Times Two - Garrett Floyd, husband of Catharine Baragwanath

Garrett Floyd was married to Catharine Hichens Baragwanath (Aunt Kate) in 1887. The following is the account of his harrowing experience in a huge windstorm that swept through the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey areas. From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Saturday morning 28 Dec 1895.

News of New Jersey THE STORM'S HAVOC ACROSS THE RIVER Heavy damage to the Pennslvania Railroad shops at Pavonia WIND TOSSED A WATCHMAN Roofs Ripped Off Rows of Houses in Camden and Stockton [Paragraph 4] A Watchman Hurt The watchmen's station at the State street crossing of the Pennsylvania Railroad was carried a distance of 100 feet. Garrett Floyd, the watchman, was injured about the head by the building falling on him. As the cabin overturned a red-hot stove fell on the injured man. Charles White, of Matawan, was carried with the building, and had it not been for his presence Floyd would have met a fearful death as White lifted the stove from him as he lay in an unconscious condition.

Catharine Baragwanath-Aunt Kate-(1855-1934) married Garrett Floyd (1835-1902) in 1887. They never had children together, though Garrett had been married previously and had children by his first wife, Sarah. Aunt Kate’s husband worked as a gatekeeper on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Stockton (Camden, New Jersey.) I shared a story above about a terrible storm that swept up his watchman’s cabin, knocking him out, and landing a red-hot stove on top of his unconscious body. Fortunately another watchman was in the cabin at the time and lifted off the stove, saving Garrett’s life. Apparently this occupation was rife with danger because just a year later, in 1896, tragedy struck again! According to both the Philadelphia Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer newspapers, some “hoodlums” were interfering with the railroad gate, and when Garrett spoke to them, one of the “toughs” dealt him a severe blow to the face, rendering him unconscious. Though he was in considerable pain for a few weeks, he eventually began to heal. Two months later though, the joint in his jaw began to swell and grow stiff. Before long, his jaw had locked closed. He had been taking milk through a tube, made possible by a few missing teeth from the original encounter, but was declining since he couldn’t receive enough nourishment. Though treated at several hospitals in Philadelphia and Camden, all that could be ascertained was that his jaw had actually been broken by the blow to the face. Finally, a Camden physician was willing to perform an operation to free up his jaw. That, sadly is all we know!! Two newspapers were happy to report on this oddity, but neither bothered to report on the outcome. He did live until 1902 so I think we can assume the operation was at least partially a success.

The Name of Baragwanath

Benjamin Baragwanath, @1885

This is Benjamin Baragwanath, born 11 Jul 1862 in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, the first photo of any of our Baragwanath ancestors. 

"Baragwanath" is a Cornish surname originating in west Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Due to emigration the name can be found in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.

"Bara gwanath" means "wheaten bread" or possibly "the top of the wheat field." Legend says the first of that name came from Wales. The early Baragwanath men were likely millers or bakers. The name first appears in Cornwall, England in the early 1600s when John Baragwanath married Eleanor Jenkin, and they had eight children.

1954 Jamie Forman's Christening (Ben is on the far right)

Baragwanath family members in photo: 
Left: Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath Forman holding Jamie Forman, Edgar Charles Forman, Florence May Baragwanath, Ben Baragwanath, Ross Forman, Ivan Forman.

As one who bears the name - Kathleen Baragwanath Forman Van Natter, I have always had mixed emotions about it. I was named after my father's mother, Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath Forman. My mother always said she thought it was such a lovely name, and spoken with her Scottish brogue, it isn't too bad. But with a flat American accent, it's small wonder that my friends would say, "Your middle name is Iguana?" This past Christmas season though I had a new awakening to this name as I pondered on the meaning of the name Bethlehem: House of Bread. How similar in meaning that was to Baragwanath. Which led me to consider Jesus Christ - The Bread of Life. All three have that staple of life in common: bread.

“Jesus teaches us, His disciples, that we should look to God each day for the bread—the help and sustenance—we require in that particular day,” said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bible Video here: I Am the Bread of Life - Jesus Christ

A version of this story was originally published at Family Search Memories 11 Feb 2018

The Gardener

Gardeners handle living things with living hands.

I find it interesting that so many of our ancestors had the vocation or hobby of gardener. John Magurn (1878-1956) was a gardener in his small village of Kilmacolm, Scotland. For decades he tended the gardens of Bellard (now called Cairns), the estate of the Weir family.

John Magurn with sons Peter and Philip (1930s)

John's father-in-law, Joseph Canham (1857-1939) worked as a bricklayer in his earlier days, but before the turn of the century he was employed as a gardener. Both the 1901 and 1911 census records show his occupation as 'gardener - domestic.' His granddaughter, Terry, recalls that he tended the gardens of a large home at the intersection of his own street- Greengate, and Woodgate Lane. It was just a short walk to work each day, then another walk further on to the church where he served as Sexton and tended to the graveyard.

On the Forman side, Annie Elizabeth Baragwanath Forman (1890-1968) loved her garden. A large section of their side yard property was transformed into gardens. She was serious about her hobby, joining the America Horticulture Society and the International Camellia Society. She was famous for her cultivation of Holly trees. In the photo she is holding a Magnolia Grandiflora (southern magnolia) which she was able to grow back in New Jersey.

Annie E. Baragwanath Forman - Florida 1948

At this Easter time, we can consider another gardener - our Savior, Jesus Christ, depicted in this painting by Rembrandt. 

(From the LDS Living Easter week 2019 series by Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler.)

He comes to us in the middle of our story and He comes as what we need. Think about this for a moment:

• For Moses He came as a pillar of fire.
• For Joshua, He came as the Captain of the Hosts.
• For Peter, He came as a lifeguard.
• For His mother, He came as a maker of wine.
• and for Mary, He came as a gardener.

Have you ever wondered why He came for Mary as a gardener?Think about what a gardener does - A gardener watches over and tends and cares for plants and brings about their growth. He does what he knows best. That is exactly what He's going to do for Mary and all the disciples - what He has been doing and will continue to do.
I love that she mistakes him for the gardener because He will be a person who will watch over her with that kind of tender care. He will tend to her now just the way He did for her before.

To watch the Day 4 video: He Meets Us Where We Are

Gardeners handle living things with living hands.