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Record #4312
Name :
: Sidney Herbert PUGH (1882 - )


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 14 Oct 1882

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
:
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Surrey, Southwark

Dove Place, Crosby Row
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 10 Apr 1892
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Sarnia

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Fegan Homes for Boys
NotesA birth registration was found for Sidney Herbert Pugh: Year of Registration: 1882; Quarter of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec; District: St Olave Southwark (1837-1901); County: London, Surrey; Volume: 1d; Page: 211.

Sidney Herbert Pugh was born on October 14, 1882 at 5 Dove Place, Crosby Row, Southwark, Surrey (now south London), England, an impoverished area where his father worked as a "porter" at nearby coal wharves. It is not known when Sidney's family moved from this address, for when Sidney's mother died on February 18, 1888 of phthisis (consumption) they were at 4 Prospect Place, Southwark. By the summer of 1888, only a few months after their mother's death, Sidney and his brothers had been placed in the "Little Wanderers' Home," 137 Greenwich Road, which was one of J.W.C. Fegan's "rescue homes."

Nellie, his sister and the oldest sibling, was not admitted as Fegan accepted only boys; she found (or was given) work as a domestic servant, and as of the census of April 1891 she worked as a housemaid at a boarding school in Folkestone, Kent (26 Castle Hill Avenue). She married Arthur Dove in late 1893, not long after her eighteenth birthday, and lived the rest of her life in Surrey.

While a resident of the home, Sidney was sent to Guy's Hospital, Southwark for treatment of a pelvic abscess. The records at Guy's indicate that he, a six-year-old resident of the "Little Wanderers' Home," was released on July 7, 1889 after 34 days' treatment.

Widowed and separated from his children, George Pugh died in May 1891 at the age of 38 of a brain tumor in Guy's Hospital. He had been living with his sister Louisa Horlick at 128 H Block, Queens Buildings, Southwark (documented by the April 1891 census).

Fegan, like other rescue home operators, regularly shipped his children to farms in Ontario where they were apprenticed as agricultural laborers. Sidney's eldest brother George was shipped to Ontario in March 1889, the middle brother William in early 1891, and Sidney on March 31, 1892 on board the "Sarnia." Liverpool was probably the port of departure in each case.

Fegan's boys were given a suit of clothes with peaked caps before they were sent overseas, and this was probably the outfit worn by Sidney and his brothers when they arrived separately in Ontario. All three brothers began their service ("engagements") on their farms for food, clothes and lodgings only, but George and William began receiving modest wages also within the first two years of their lives in Canada. The records for Sidney, however, do not show that he ever received anything more than food, clothes and lodgings for his work. The personalities of the three brothers might have had something to do with this.

J.W.C. Fegan had written to his agents in Ontario that George was "rather dull" but had "no moral failing," and George's employment record documents a modest but steady rise in the terms of his contract. No negative comments were recorded about George, and by January 1897 he had saved enough funds to afford a visit to England.
William had a less steady beginning in Ontario, running away from his first two employers. On the occasion of his first run-away, he appeared at Fegan's "distributing home" in Toronto on October 2, 1891 and remained there for the winter; he was not engaged to the second farmer until May 1892, during which time Sidney had come to the Toronto home from England. A photo of young William and Sidney together, both dressed in suits and with somber faces, was almost certainly taken in the period (April-May 1892) when both boys were at Fegan's Toronto home. Following William's second run-away (in November 1892), he was located and brought back to the Toronto home, and then engaged to a third farmer--whereupon William began duplicating George's record of steady employment and modest wages. His descendants indicate that they have learned that William was a very personable, likeable fellow.

George was dull and diligent; William was sensitive and engaging; Sidney was--if Fegan's records do him justice--volatile. Sidney first lived (1892-1898) with George Wray of Humber Summit (in the extreme southwest corner of Vaughan Township), York County, Ontario (Wray's land was the east half of Lot 1, Concession 9). There, Sidney was content for the first three years (a representative from Fegan's Toronto office in February 1893 that the boy was "a little gem--very happy--good home"; "Visited--above character fully maintained," the representative reported in September 1894; and "Visited--a very fine home--a good boss" was reported in July 1895). But in June 1896 the representative heard Wray complain of the boy's "bad temper," and on June 24, 1897 Sidney was "very discontented." In 1898 there was an apparent improvement in Sidney's attitude, for on June 20, 1898 Fegan's representative found that the boy was in a "fairly good home" and that he was "doing much better than last year--boss well pleased with him."

1898 was an important year for Sidney, who was now approaching his sixteenth birthday and no doubt looking forward to adulthood and independence. Fegan's records for the latter part of that year strongly suggest that the three Pugh brothers were planning on reuniting. By June 1898 George was back from England and with his final employer under contract from Fegan's--he was with "Mr. Gardhouse" of "Humber," which was the same locality as George Wray's farm (where Sidney was still living). It seems reasonable to conclude that Sidney was temporarily in a good mood and in good stead with George Wray (as of June 20, 1898) because he now had a brother in the vicinity. In addition, William was also with his final employer under contract from Fegan's; he was with "Claver Doon" of Newmarket, Ontario, some miles north of Humber, but as of August 9, 1898 he told Fegan's representative that he intended "to go to Woodbridge to be near his brothers."

Something apparently happened in the next few months, however, which forever altered Sidney's relationship with his brothers, for instead of remaining reunited, they went their separate ways (that is, George and William went one way, while Sidney remained behind). Maybe this was the result of a disagreement among the brothers, but we have no direct testimony as to this. All that Sidney's sons ever knew about their dad's relationship with his brothers was that he resented that they "went out west" without him. Fegan's records on George and William end in 1898, and it is known that they relocated together to the Canadian west, where George became a bachelor farmer in Alberta and where William also worked for a time before setting in Spokane, Washington. Sidney evidently retained some affection for William, for following William's death in February 1917 (in Spokane) Sidney named his next son (born in March 1919) after him. Sidney's anger against George was stronger, and was compounded by the fact that George made several more trips to visit their sister Nellie in England after 1897 (the last time in the 1930s) but only once stopped to see Sidney (probably in 1907--see below). On that occasion, Sidney was already married to Ethel, who testified (years later, to her daughter-in-law Doris Pugh) that Sid was so rude to George during that visit that he (George) never visited Sid again. (Told by Doris A. Pugh to Ralph A. Pugh, March 6, 1997).

It was probably during the summer of 1898, when Sidney's brother George was living with Mr. Gardhouse at Humber, that Sidney met his future in-laws, the Sansoms, as the Sansoms were tenants on Gardhouse property. It is possible, however, that he might have met them even before this.

Only a few months after Fegan's representative visited Sidney at George Wray's farm on June 20, 1898, he found--in October 1898--that Sidney was now with another farmer, George Farr of Thistletown (Etobicoke Township), York County, Ontario. It seems likely that Sidney had left Wray's farm at the time when his brothers were formulating their post-Fegan plans, and had signed on with Farr after his brothers had pursued opportunities without him. Sidney's 1941 application for U.S. citizenship indicated that he had first entered the U.S. at Sault Ste. Marie in 1898 via the Canadian Pacific Railroad, most likely during the period after he had left Wray but before he joined Farr. (Perhaps he had ventured that far with his brothers before returning to the Toronto area. Sidney's semi-truthful 1919 application for U.S. citizenship indicates that his "father, Alfred George Pugh"--actually, his brother--lived in Sault Ste. Marie, U.S.A. "about 1888-1900," where he was an "iron worker." It is quite plausible that Sidney's brother George tarried at Sault Ste. Marie before proceeding to the Canadian west).

Sidney was, once again, discontented--and probably more so than before the misunderstanding with his brothers. Fegan's representative visited him at Farr's farm for a second time in June 1899, to learn that Sidney was "ungrateful," and when the representative last visited Sidney at Farr's place in August 1901 he found that he was "still very discontented. Nothing pleases him."

Fegan's record of Sidney's whereabouts ends with the August 1901 report; Sidney probably left Farr's employ not long afterwards. In the early 1970s Sidney's son Sid mentioned that his dad had once struck a farmer he had worked for and run away from him, but it seems unlikely that he would have done this to George Farr as Sidney had by then already negotiated much freedom from Farr. Perhaps he had struck George Wray when he left him in 1898, or at some earlier point--but Fegan's records do not record any incidents of Sidney running away.

At any rate, Sidney's life as one of the "home children" came to an end soon after August 1901, and he entered into full independence. Within months he had returned to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where he found work driving a milk wagon for James and Sophia Puller of Hay Lake Road (this according to his wife Ethel, whose reminiscences of how she met Sidney were audiotaped in February 1960 by her son Ed).
At some point in the middle of 1902, Mrs. Puller gave young Sid a two-week vacation, and he soon ran into two acquaintances from the Toronto area: Harry and Jim Sansom. As noted above, Sidney probably met the Sansoms (specifically these two brothers, and perhaps their parents) in 1898, though he might have met them earlier. Sidney told the Sansom brothers that he wanted to work during his leave from Mrs. Puller, and they then introduced him to their eldest brother, Alfred Sansom, Jr., a building contractor who owned a boarding house in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. For a week, Alfred let Sidney help him on construction projects (Sidney carried mortar by hod) and let him board at the house--where Sidney met Alfred's eldest daughter, seventeen-year-old Ethel Beatrice (this also from Ethel's 1960 audiotaped reminiscences).

This is a good point to mention the matter of Ethel Sansom's Bible. It was given to her by her uncle Harry Sansom, almost certainly at Sault Ste. Marie. Inside, the following is pencilled on the back cover: "Sidney Pugh, Humber P.O." This might have been written by Ethel or Harry at Sault Ste Marie, but it was more likely written by Harry when he first made Sidney's acquaintance back in the west Toronto area.

Sidney's friendship with the Sansoms of Etobicoke Township might explain another of the few details known of his youth. Bill Pugh, one of Sidney's sons, once mentioned to his son Ralph (in the late 1980s) that "My Dad was supposedly a Baptist at first." The Sansoms attended Etobicoke's Highfield Baptist Church in the 1890s, and Sidney might have attended there also on that account.

At any rate, Sid put in a week's worth of work in Alfred Sansom's employ in mid-1902, and Ethel "kind of thought that that was a nice-looking, curly-headed boy." His work for Alfred Sansom done, Sid returned to the "American Soo." He probably returned to the Puller farm for a little while longer before moving on to a new adventure: becoming a Great Lakes sailor. As Ethel later recollected, she never saw Sid in Canada again after he left her home; "some told dad that Sid had gone sailing, and that he wasn't around anymore." Not quite twenty years old, Sid was now becoming known on Lake Superior as the "kid wheelsman." From Sid's own reminiscences it is known that he sailed on the ferry "Hunter," an old passenger/freight steamship. The "Hunter" was destroyed by fire at Grand Marais, Michigan on October 5, 1904, so it might have been the very first vessel Sid sailed.

Just as Sid Pugh had made an impression on Ethel Sansom, Sid now discovered that Ethel had made an impression on him. He made his way back to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to call on her, only to discover that she was no longer there. It was probably now the middle of 1904, and no later. Curious, Sid wrote a letter to Ethel's Aunt Lizzie (Sansom) Manser in the Toronto area. In return, Lizzie wrote Sid a long letter "telling him all about it and where to find us" (Ethel was now working and living with her aunt Mary Sansom in Rochester, New York). It seems unlikely that Lizzie would give out such information to someone who had only known the family for a week at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1902. It is yet another indication that Sidney had known several members of the Sansom family in the late 1890s while they were still living in Etobicoke Township, before their removal to Sault Ste. Marie.

Sidney acted quickly on the information in Lizzie's letter and travelled to Rochester to pay Ethel a surprise visit after a two-year separation. He found the house of Rochester businessman Lewis Chase and rang the doorbell; the door was answered by Ethel, who (alongside her aunt Mary) was working there as a domestic servant. Sid either already had, or soon obtained, work as a rigger at the Lackawanna (New York) steel plant. Sid rode the train between Lackawanna and Rochester on the weekends during his courtship of Ethel, which ended with their marriage at Buffalo on May 22, 1906. Sidney was residing in Buffalo (at 183 Swan Street) at the time of his marriage; after Sidney's and Ethel's marriage they made that address their home.

Soon after his marriage to Ethel, Sid apparently left the steel plant and resumed sailing, which he had done previously between 1901 and 1903. Between 1906 and 1913 Sid served as a wheelsman on at least twenty-six Great Lakes ships (years later--probably in the late 1930s--he named that many to his son Bill, who wrote them down; but there were probably many others that he could not recall). These ships were both freighters and passenger liners, though he was particularly proud of his service on the passenger liners, a couple of which (the "Illinois" and the "North West") were among the finest ships on the Great Lakes at the time. Sid told Bill that, as wheelsman on the "North West," he was able to wear a uniform which was almost as impressive as the captain's. For the record, the ships which Sid named for Bill were: CITY OF ROME, CITY OF PARIS, CITY OF GLASGOW, PERE MARQUETTE 4, PERE MARQUETTE 5, ROBERT C. WENTE, BRIGHTIE (barge), ILLINOIS, NORTH WEST, WILLIAM A. PAYNE (kept ship on one winter only--did not sail), THOMAS ADAMS (wooden vessel), HIAWATHA, F.B. SQUIRES, HENRY W. OLIVER, RAPPAHANNOCK, TACOMA, CANISTOGA, NEPTUNE, IROQUIS, ANDREW CARNEGIE, AUSTRALIA, CUYLER ADAMS, IRON CITY, PERE MARQUETTE 18, PERE MARQUETTE 6, and HUNTER (as noted elsewhere, this last ship was one of the first that Sid served on, while living at Sault Ste. Marie around 1901-03). Postcards sent by Sid to Ethel also indicate that he sailed on the JUPITER and MANISTIQUE, MARQUETTE AND NORTHERN CAR FERRY NO. 1. He also told Bill that he was on board the ELIZA DAY, a schooner which sank off of Alpena, Michigan in 1911.

From 1906 until probably the end of the 1907 sailing season, Ethel resided in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was a port for Sid's boats. She lived in a brick boarding house run by Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Johnson at 121 (now 602 N.) Fifth Street, which was on the northwest corner of Fifth and Sycamore (now Michigan). (As of 2003 the corner was occupied by a parking lot, immediately south of the Milwaukee Hilton Hotel).

It appears that it was while Sid and Ethel were living in Milwaukee that they received their only visit from Sid's brother George. It is known that George (who by then was a farmer in Alberta, Canada) made several visits to England over a period of decades to visit his sister Nellie (Mrs. Arthur Dove). A postcard sent by George from Buffalo, New York to Sid in Milwaukee, postmarked June 14, 1907, strongly suggests that George was either on his way to England or returning from there. This would have given George a chance to stop in Milwaukee when either leaving or returning to Alberta. Another clue exists in a photograph that was taken at the "Milwaukee Art Novelty Co." In it, Sid is standing behind a seated, slightly older man with straight, black hair. Sid would have been 24 years old in 1907, and he appears to be this age in the photograph. The seated man is probably Sid's brother George. The 1907 Milwaukee city directory shows that the Milwaukee Art Novelty Co. had two addresses: 307 Third and 530 Grand Avenue. 530 Grand was one block north of the Johnson boarding house, on or near the northwest corner of Fifth and Grand (now Fifth and Wisconsin); this is probably where the photograph was taken.

Among the surviving items received by Sid from his sister Nellie, the oldest date from around 1907. These include a photograph of Nellie, on which "Nellie, aged 32) is written on the back; and a photo of Nellie's daughter Eva, on which "Eva, aged 12" is written on the back. As Nellie was born in 1875 and Eva in 1895, this dates the photos from around 1907. These photos suggest that George might have received them directly from Nellie during a 1907 visit to England, and George might have then handed them to Sid in Milwaukee while stopping there en route back to Alberta. Or, George might have given Nellie Sid's Milwaukee address while he (George) was in England, and Nellie might have then begun a correspondence with Sid.

Sid was rude to George when George visited, and George never visited Sid again. George apparently remained in contact via post cards, and Nellie remained in touch through the mails as well (a January 1, 1919 letter from Nellie to Sid survives, as well as a 1927 poscard and a 1928 New Year's card from her).

From late 1907 (or early 1908 at the latest) to 1913 Ethel resided at 90 Hancock Street in Manistee, Michigan, another of Sid's ports, renting from an elderly couple, Herman and Emma Bestel. Perhaps Ethel's move to Manistee from Milwaukee was caused by the impending birth of her first child, and larger quarters in a quieter locale were desired. The Pughs' first two children were born in Manistee, Sidney Alfred on June 14, 1908 and Ralph Laverne on July 10, 1910. Old Emma became known as "Granny Bestel" to this young family. Ethel must have had trouble raising young Sid and Ralph by herself, but she did not appreciate it when "Granny Bestel" suggested that she "use a switch on 'em."

Sailing was highly-satisfying work for Sid, involving prestige, travel, and adventure. But in 1913 he gave it up for good, for reasons that have not come down to us. Perhaps he needed better pay; perhaps work on the boats had become harder to find. At any rate, until his dying day Sid loved to recollect his years as a sailor, so capturing the imagination of his sons that two of them became sailors themselves (Ralph would become a captain; Ed--born in 1916--would become a chief engineer), and one (Bill--born in 1919) would become an amateur photographer of Great Lakes boats.

Drawing on his experience as a rigger at the Lackawanna Steel Plant, Sid worked on structural steel projects for several years, beginning in 1913. Ethel had to leave the Manistee home and travel along with Sid. For about a year they had no settled address; oftentimes Ethel would be separated from Sid when he would go ahead to the next place of employment and have to arrange for appropriate lodgings before his family could join him--if the job would last long enough to justify moving them. Ethel and the boys lived at Staunton, Illinois (using postal box number 662) for at least the last three months (October through December) of 1913 while Sid was away on jobs at Virden, Illinois (October) and in Mayville, Wisconsin (November-December). After Staunton, Virden and Mayville it is not known how many other jobs and towns followed. Detroit was one of them, for Ethel later told a story of how she and the boys lived in a tent there; on one occasion when Sid was gone, Ethel was thoroughly frightened to discover a large man looking at her through the tent's window as she rocked one of the boys.

Ethel had had enough of the itinerant, unsettled life when the vagaries of work brought Sid and his family to Alpena in the spring of 1914. She declared to Sid that her travelling days were over; young Sid had not been able to start school though he was six years old. Sid soon completed his job in Alpena, however, and in the autumn of 1914 left by himself for Conroe, Texas, where he worked on a railroad bridge construction project for several months. An October 1914 postcard from Sid to Ethel indicates that Ethel was at 107 Miller Street at the time; by the time that the Pughs' third child was born (Edward Wilson on January 11, 1916) the family was at 116 W. Miller. After the Texas job, Sid worked a couple years (1915-16) in a bilge factory in Detroit, travelling between Detroit and Alpena on the "D & C" boats when visiting his family.

On January 1, 1917 Sid began work at Alpena's Huron Portland Cement plant; by September 1918 he was a crane operator and would remain one until his retirement thirty years later. It seemed as if Ethel's commitment to Alpena had paid off. There was one remaining unforseen event, however. On September 12, 1918, Sid filled out a form for the Alpena County Selective Service board and checked the box indicating that he was a citizen by virtue of his father's naturalization. This was, of course, untrue, and the untruth was soon discovered. On September 28 the local board wrote to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to verify Sid's story that his father had been naturalized at that place, and learned from the county clerk there (apparently by November) that there was no such naturalization record on file.
This must have been a traumatic time for Sid and Ethel, who were both aliens who feared possible expulsion. Sid was advised by the circuit court judge to begin the naturalization process. Ethel took the children and returned temporarily to Ontario, where she spent six weeks in the home of her now widowed and ailing father. It was while she was in Ontario with her father that Ethel discovered that she was again pregnant.

Sid and Ethel's fourth son, William Clarence, was born on March 1, 1919 at 623 N. Second Avenue, where the family had lived from at least the previous September. Sid completed his naturalization paperwork on March 6 by signing and affidavit swearing that he had thought his father was a citizen as his father "took out first papers and I always understood that he had taken out final papers for the reason that he always voted...." It is interesting that Sid advanced this line of defense (and additional untruth) as he should have known that the failure to locate his father's naturalization papers at Sault Ste. Marie would have also shown that there were no "first papers" as well. At any rate, Sid's application for citizenship was rejected on March 15.

But apparently no deportation efforts were made against the Pughs, who now had four U.S.-born children. Sid continued at the cement plant, where his boss, John Bingham, was able to help the Pughs purchase their first house by loaning them $800 to buy the home of William Dunn at 925 Merchant Street. Dunn's wife had died in the house on February 5, 1919 from complications after suffering influenza during the great epidemic three months before. Dunn decided to sell the house and move to Washington state so that his sister could take care of his children.

Sid's work at the cement plant could be dangerous. On or around July 2, 1921, Sid and another man were on a piece of scaffolding at the plant when it collapsed beneath them. Sid grabbed for one of the supporting ropes/chains and was able to hold on, but the other man fell to the ground. Sid was able to make it to the ground safely, but the other man was judged by others at the scene to be dead and was covered with a sheet of burlap. It was Sid who noticed movement under the burlap and uncovered the man; years later the man's daughter (Mrs. Virginia Eagling) gave Sid credit for potentially saving her father's life, as he might have died if he had continued to lie unattended.

After the Ninth Avenue concrete bridge was washed out in a flood on April 23, 1923, Sid was hired by the city as a rivet inspector during the construction of a new iron/steel girder bridge on the same site; the girder bridge then stood until the early 1970s, when a concrete bridge was again placed there. It is not known whether Sid took a leave of absence from the cement plant for this bridge construction job or whether he was able to fit it in during his free time.
In the first half of August 1923, Sid and Ethel were visited by three of Ethel's Sutton aunts, "Til" (Mrs. Matilda Frost), "Ett" (Mrs. Esther Robb) and "Lyd" (Mrs. Lydia Elliott), who arrived by automobile; Lyd's husband also came along, and was probably the driver. Decades later, Sid and Ethel's son Bill could cleary remember this unusual event--a visit by relatives; he remembered the year (1923) and remembered watching from a window of the house as his aunts got into the car for the return trip to Ontario. A postcard from George Elliott to Ethel, postmarked "August 17" and marked "Friday from Niagra Falls, announced "everything going fine and all well" on their return trip home. Between 1923 and 1950 there is no evidence that Ethel received any further visits from relatives.
Sid and Ethel's fifth and final son, Royal Sansom, was born at 925 Merchant on May 15, 1924. The Pughs had evidently been trying for a girl--Ethel especially wanted this--but when Royal was born it was decided that this would be their last child.

In the mid-1920s much strife occurred in the family when his eldest son, Sid, moved out of the house at the age of seventeen and took a room at the Iroquois Hotel so that he could continue playing in a dance band, an occupation of which Sid, Sr. disapproved. Ethel suffered on account of this father/son strife, which went on for the rest of Sid, Sr.'s life.

The Pughs interrupted their residence at 925 Merchant Street on two occasions. The first was in 1928, when they moved out to California and stayed with Ethel's Aunt Mary (now Mrs. William Asbury) at 1918 Junipero, Long Beach. Remaining there for a year until around August 1929, the move out west proved to be unfortunate, heightening family tensions and not producing any steady employment for Sid (who had, apparently, experienced lay-offs at the Alpena cement plant). The family was able to return to Alpena on the earnings of Ralph, travelling in a loaded-to-the-hilt 1923 Maxwell which had accomplished the same distance only a year before.

Ethel was informed of her father's death in Ontario in February 1930, but she did not go there for the funeral as she was afraid that she might not be allowed to re-enter the U.S.

On January 5, 1932, after the onset to the Great Depression, Sid purchased a farm off Bloom Road, at the end of Duby Road, in Alpena County; Joseph Swallow, a family friend, loaned the money for this purchase. For around three years the family alternately lived at Merchant Street and on the farm; during the periods when the Pughs were in town Mr. Elwin Dike would look after the farm property. Sid Pugh hoped to make some money from the sale of gravel on the property for the construction of US-23 North, but "didn't grease the right palms" and the contract for gravel went to someone else. The farm was eventually sold, either in the late 1930s or 1940s, and Sid then bought a few lots just west of Alpena, on Hobbs Drive, apparently as an investment. They were owned by Sid and Ethel at the time of his death in 1952, but were probably sold for very little profit a few years later.

A financial ledger which Sid kept in the 1930s and 1940s survives, and is quite revealing of the man. Small expenditures are recorded, and he carefully noted all the loans which he had made to his sons--all of which were repaid.

Ethel in her prime was a private person and did not permit her sons to entertain guests in the house. She went out seldom, and when she did she would not stay away long. One friend recollected that Ethel could be counted on to help out on a project or at a function, but when the work was done and it was time to relax and socialize, people would look about to find that Ethel had left.

Pleasing his dad was not any easier for Bill than it had been for his elder brothers. Sid was a controlling person and handled the arrangements for Bill's first two jobs out of high school. The first job was a low-paying one at Ash's Radio Shop in the summer of 1937. At the end of that summer, Sid arranged for Bill to move on to a somewhat better-paying job at Swallow's Hardware Store, a job which he held until construction of a new Second Avenue bridge nearby disrupted Swallow's business and cost Bill his job in early 1939. As mentioned above, Sid had obtained a loan from Joseph Swallow in 1932 for the purchase of the Duby Road farm, and had cultivated a business relationship with him. Perhaps Bill's work for Swallow at modest wages was Sid's way of returning a favor. Bill's older brother Ralph had also worked for Swallow, in around 1933.

Bill's next job was at Alpena's Gambles Hardware Store, which began in the summer of 1939; Sid might not have had anything to do with the arrangement of this job, which Bill might have gained on the basis of his retail hardware experience. Gambles proved to be Bill's opportunity to leave the parental household, for in January 1941 he moved to Coldwater, Michigan to take a position at the Gambles store there. At the end of 1941, following Pearl Harbor, Bill enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for four years, being honorably discharged in December 1945 and returning under his parents roof for the first time in five years (apart from rare visits home during his years in the service). Having served his country, Bill assumed that he deserved to relax at home for awhile, but in January 1946 Sid let him know that he had rested enough and should get back to work. Thus, after only a few weeks back in Alpena, Bill resumed his relationship with the Gambles chain of stores and took a position in Battle Creek, Michigan. He would serve Gambles at Battle Creek and at two other Michigan locations until--ironically--his dad's fatal illness called him back to Alpena for several weeks in the winter of 1951-52 and resulted in the loss of his job with Gambles.

None of the sons remained long in the house after reaching adulthood. Young Sid married Ida Goudy in 1934, Ralph married Leah Dziesinski in 1937, and Ed married Mildred Krueger in 1937; in the early 1940s the elder Pughs became grandparents. In 1944 Roy married Shirley Smith, and in 1946 Billmarried Doris Papke. Sid and Ethel had mixed relationships with their daughters-in-law. Sid was always courteous to Doris and Ethel liked her, and Doris adopted Ethel as a mother figure. Leah had been a divorcee and Sid and Ethel did not care for her--especially when she began cheating on Ralph.

Three of the sons served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II: Bill (as noted above) served in the Navy, while Sid and Roy were in the Army. Ed and Ralph continued sailing on Great Lakes freighters during those years.

After decades of residence and with several sons in the U.S. military (and after serving as his block's civil defense captain during World War II), Sid was granted U.S. citizenship on December 4, 1944--after applying a second time. All of his sons had reached adulthood by this time, meaning that their father's naturalization did not affect their status as dual citizens (of the U.S. and of Great Britain). None of the sons realized that they possessed the rights of British citizenship, however.

Sid had been healthy for most of his adult life (in 1941 he was rotund for his height: 140 lbs. at 5'3") and apparently only had occasional, minor health problems. His son Bill recollected that his Dad had troubles with "carbuncles" and that Dr. Harry J. Burkholder once cut the carbuncles out of Sid without using painkillers. Bill called Dr. Burkholder a "butcher" while recounting this story, but added that both his parents trusted the man and that his mother referred to him fondly as "old Doc Burkholder."

Sid's health began to fail around 1944. He began to lose weight and one of the chief causes was diabetes. On June 25, 1946 Sid was in Ann Arbor, Michigan for medical tests when he sent a telegram ("See you soon") to his son Bill, who was to be married in a few weeks.

Following her marriage to Bill in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1946, Doris became acquainted with her new parents-in-law during visits home to Alpena (she was also an Alpena native, born and raised only a couple blocks to the east of the Pughs). She soon found that Ethel was wise, religious, and stoic, though she certainly had her own opinions. Doris also found that her father-in-law had a violent temper. She remembered that Sid would come home from work, greet the neighbors, pet the dog outside--but once the door was open he would throw his lunch pail across the floor and verbally abuse Ethel. Doris also learned that Sid was irreligious (though he boasted "I don't need to go to church; I have Ethel to get me into heaven"). Sid's allegiance was not to the church but to the Masonic order: he was a member of the Hopper Lodge in Alpena as well as of the Thunder Bay Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons. In addition, he was a member of the Eagles. Sid had impressed on his sons the importance of "the lodge" in making important social and business connections, and all of them participated to some degree.

Doris observed that Sid was "a very good story-teller and loved to hold the floor." "My Dad had his problems," Bill later remarked to his own son Ralph, "but he had his good points too. He was a fascinating story teller."

Sid retired from the Huron Portland Cement plan in 1948. His retirement years were busy ones. He owned a red motor scooter (he could not drive a car) and drove it around Alpena until Ethel told him that he was too reckless with it and would have to give it up. Sid complied with Ethel's request and gave the scooter to Bill, who rode it to and from his job in Petoskey, Michigan for awhile.
In 1950 Ethel's long alienation from her relatives came to an end. In September of that year, Ethel's half-brother Edward Cecil Sansom arrived in Alpena to spend a week (along with his wife Helen), following a 47-year separation; "The Alpena News" carried an article on the reunion.

At around the same time, Ethel's last surviving Sutton aunt, "Aunt Ett" (Mrs. James Robb) visited Alpena (with her daughter Melita Jackson) for the first time since 1923, beginning visits to the Pugh family that would occur roughly every other year. "Aunt Ett and Melita" would stay at the Ossineke home of Sid and Ethel's son Ralph, and their visits continued past Ethel's death in 1965, even including the summer of 1974, a few months before Ett died at the age of 102.
At Thanksgiving 1950 Ethel was visited by another half-brother, Stanley Sansom, and his wife Lilly.

The divorce of their son Ralph in 1950 required a trip out-of-state by Sid and Ethel. After obtaining his divorce from Leah, Ralph quickly married Gertrude ("Gert") Cummings of New York state and brought her back to live in Alpena. As she had no relatives nearby, Gert spent much time with Sid and Ethel in their final years. She did not know how to drive when she married Ralph, and Sid attempted to remedy this by giving her driving lessons. Sid was instructing Gert on how to position the car for entry into his garage when she accidentally hit the accelerator and smashed the car through a portion of the garage's rear wall. Sid apparently liked Gert, for instead of falling into a rage he gallantly told her "Don't worry, Gertie--we won't tell Ralph about it." Bill heard this story and delighted in repeating it, always with a chuckle: it showed the good-natured, witty side of his dad.

In 1951 Sid and Ethel had to leave Michigan again, this time to remove Ethel's Aunt Mary (Sansom) Asbury in California from her house to a nursing home. Sid was cross, and the debilitated and senile Mary Asbury pathetically remarked to her niece (Ethel) that "I don't think your man likes me."

Sid and Ethel made at least one trip to visit their son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Doris Pugh, while the young couple lived in Petoskey. In August 1951 the elder Pughs were driven to Petoskey by the young Sid and his wife Ida; when they arrived at Petoskey Doris heard the story of how the elder Sid had been dissatisfied with his son Sid's driving and had demanded at one point that the car be stopped so that he could walk the rest of the way. This incident was typical of the strained relations between Sid the elder and Sid the younger, but also illustrates the elder Sid's irritability in the year 1951.

Sid was, indeed, terminally ill with prostate cancer, which was diagnosed in the autumn of 1951 (his death certificate indicates that the cancer was probably present for almost the entire year of 1951). Ralph called Bill (who lived in Petoskey, Michigan) with the news, telling him "Dad has cancer." By Christmas 1951 Sid was bedridden but still coherent, taking leave of family members. Bill's wife Doris brought Sid's youngest grandchild, Noel (one year old), into the sickroom, and Sid told Doris "You're a good wife and mother." Doris had never liked Sid on account of his treatment of Ethel, but later acknowledged that Sid had always been courteous and respectful to herself.

It was decided to keep Sid at home, and Bill stayed with his parents until his Dad's death, with occasional brief returns to Petoskey to attend to his wife and children there. Ethel was quite upset during the final weeks of Sid's life, and when Doris called from Petoskey to ask for Bill's return her mother-in-law declared emphatically "He's needed here." The family doctor, Dr. Burkholder, did not stop at the house very frequently, and after awhile Ralph told Burkholder that the family did not want to prolong Sid's agony and that treatment should be curtailed.

By January 1952 the cancer had reached Sid's brain and he became incoherent. Around January 8 he had a stroke and died at the Merchant Street house ten days later, on the evening of Friday, January 18, 1952. His son Bill, who had witnessed the sufferings of a painful illness, later remarked that his dad's death was soothing after all that had gone before: "his breathing grew less and less, and then ended--it seemed natural."

Sid's funeral services were held at the Wachterhauser Funeral Home in Alpena on Monday, January 21 at 2:00 p.m., the Rev. James Lees of the First United Methodist Church officiating. His five sons were his pallbearers plus Roy Swallow, a friend of the family.

Sid was survived by only one sibling, George, his estranged bachelor brother, who still lived in Alberta. His brother William had died in 1917 and contact with sister Nellie was lost around 1940; Sid came to believe that she had died in the London bombing of that year. The reality--discovered decades later--was less dramatic: she had become senile, and died in October 1951.

Ethel was not alone in the house for long after Sid's death. Following his death-bed vigil for his Dad, Bill had returned to Petoskey to find that he had been uncharitably fired from his job as store manager due to his prolonged absence. The Gambles store chain offered him a warehouse job elsewhere in Michigan, which he declined, and his brother Roy found him a job at Besser Company in Alpena as a machinist (Roy was a financial officer at the company). Bill accepted, and from the spring of 1952 until November 27, 1952 he, Doris, and their children Susan and Noel lived with Ethel at 925 Merchant Street.

In the years that followed, Doris paid frequent visits, and Ethel would sit on the sofa and tell her many stories of her childhood and young womanhood. Doris recollected that Ethel had a wonderful way of mixing her conversation with anecdotes and even little poems, songs, and "sayings" that she had remembered from her childhood; "I wish that I had written some of them down," Doris later remarked. Several of Ethel's sons also visited Ethel to make sure that her needs were met and that she was safe. One visit by Roy was especially timely: he came through the back door and into the kitchen to find his mother chocking on a chicken bone--which he helped dislodge. Bill would frequently bring his entire family over on Sundays after church and stay for the afternoon. Ethel did not like to leave her house very much in her final years and could be coaxed to do so only with difficulty at times. She had become arthritic and movement was oftentimes painful. In or around 1961, when Doris Pugh wanted Ethel to come to her house to see some recently-completed remodelling work, Ethel replied "If you knew how much I hurt you wouldn't ask." On the occasions when Ethel would venture out, it was usually to spend a Sunday or holiday with one of her sons. In the early 1960s her family purchased a television set for her for a diversion, though she insisted she did not want it.

Ethel also enjoyed frequent visits from her aunt Ett Robb who would come from Toronto (accompanied by her daughter Melita Jackson). Ethel would receive no visits from her only full sibling, Ralph Sansom, as he had been killed on the job at a restaurant, somewhere in Canada, probably in the 1920s.

Before leaving Sid's life it is necessary to discuss his lifelong uncertainty about his birth date. It is now known that the date was October 14, 1882, as proved by his British birth record, but it is not surprising that Sid--who was separated from his father when he was not yet six--was confused about this detail. When Sid first made application for U.S. citizenship in 1918-19 he recorded his birth date as October 24, 1884, and gave the same date in his second application for citizenship in 1941. By the time he died in 1952, however, Sid and the family were using October 14, 1883, and 1883 is carved on his tombstone as his birth year. One possible explanation for this change is that Ralph and Gert, who were interested in the family history, might have contacted Sid's older brother George in 1950/51 and received from him the correct month and day--even if the year was still incorrect. Ralph and Gert were laboring to re-establish Ethel's extended family ties in the early 1950s, so it would not be surprising if they had tried to do that for Sid also. Ethel and Gert argued about Sid's birthdate, and Ethel told Gert "I think I should know what my husband's birthdate is," but Gert apparently convinced Sid and October 14, 1883 replaced October 24, 1884 as the accepted date.

Obituary, The Alpena News (Saturday, January 19, 1952):

"The death of Sidney H. Pugh, 925 Merchant, occurred Friday night at his home. He had been in failing health for seven years and his condition had become serious a month ago."

"Mr. Pugh was born Oct. 14, 1883 in London, England and came to Alpena in 1914. As a youth, he sailed on the Great Lakes and also worked in steel construction. He was employed as an electric crane operator by the Huron Portland Cement-co for 25 years, retiring in 1948. Mr. Pugh's marriage took place May 22, 1906 in Buffalo. He was a member of Hopper lodge F & AM and Thunder Bay chapter Royal Arch Masons and of the Eagles."

"Surviving Mr. Pugh are his wife, Ethel B.; five sons, Sid, Ralph, Edward and Royal, all of Alpena, and William, Petoskey; a brother, George of Coronation, Alberta, Canada; and six grandchildren."
The body is at the Wachterhauser Funeral Home where services will be held Monday at 2 p.m. The Rev. James Lees of the First Methodist church will officiate and interment will be in Evergreen cemetery."

Ethel had an apparent stroke in early 1964. She then broke her hip on March 29, 1965. She was hospitalized at Alpena General Hospital, Alpena, Michigan, USA, and there she spent the last five months of her life. She underwent surgery to have a pin inserted in her hip--and then had to battle back from pneumonia which developed after the surgery. Ethel's hip did not heal, however, and as the months passed, Ethel developed bed sores and her overall condition deteriorated. On Friday morning, August 27, 1965, at 11:30 a.m., Ethel Beatrice Samson Pugh died of artereo-schlerotic heart disease.

Obituary, The Alpena News:

"Funeral service for Mrs. Ethel B. Pugh, 80, of 925 Merchant who died Friday morning at Alpena General Hospital, will be at 2 p.m. Monday at the Wachterhauser Funeral Home, with interment in Evergreen Cemetery."

"She was born July 7, 1885 at Woodbridge, Ont. and had been a resident of Alpena of the past 50 years. She was married on May 25, 1906 to the late Sidney H. Pugh at Buffalo, N.Y. His death occurred Feb. 18, 1952. Mrs. Pugh was a member of the First Methodist Church."
"Surviving are five sons, all of Alpena: Sidney, Ralph L., Edward W., William C. and Royal S.; eight grandchildren, one great grandson, one half-sister, Mrs. Stewart MacDonald of Toronto and a half brother, Stanley Sansom of Alberta Canada."

"If friends wish, contributions in her memory may be made to the First Methodist Church Building Fund."

NOTE: The obituary is wrong in several details. She had been a resident of Alpena for 51 years; she was married on May 22, 1906; Sidney H. Pugh died on January 18, 1952.

Life Summary for Sidney Herbert Pugh:

Born: At 5 Dove Place, Crosby Row, Southwark, Surrey (now south London), ENGLAND

Married: Buffalo, New York

Residences: 1) 183 Swan Street, Buffalo, New York, 1906; 2) 121 (now 602 N.) Fifth Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1906-07?; 3) 90 Hancock Street, Manistee, Michigan, 1907?-1913; 4) 107 W. Miller Street, Alpena, Michigan, May 1914-15?; 5) 116 W. Miller Street, Alpena, 1915?-18?; 6) 623 N. Second Avenue, Alpena, 1918?-19; 7) 925 Merchant Street, Alpena, 1919-52.

Occupation: Wheelsman on Great Lakes boats until 1913, an itinerant structural steel worker, 1913-6, and an employee of the Huron Portland Cement Plant in Alpena, 1917-48 (was a crane operator from at least 1918).

Sidney and Ethel Pugh had five children: Sidney Albert Pugh, born June 14, 1908 in Manistee, Michigan, USA; Ralph Laverne Pugh, born July 10, 1910 in Manistee, Michigan, USA; Edward Wilson Pugh, born January 11, 1916 in Alpena, Michigan, USA; William Clarence Pugh, born March 1, 1919 at N Second, Alpena, Michigan, USA; and Royal Sansom Pugh, born May 15, 1924 in Alpena, Michigan, USA.

Church: First United Methodist, Alpena

Died: 925 Merchant Street, Alpena, in the evening

Cause of death: Prostate cancer

Buried: Evergreen Cemetery, Alpena, on January 21, 1952 (east side of block 24)

Information generously provided by with full copyright to Ralph A. Pugh () at {website}awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=pugh195&id=I0003 
ContributorsCreated : 2008-10-04 20:18:47 / From original database

Last Updated : 2015-09-02 22:57:35 / alanmack

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