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Record #4314
Name :
: William Edward PUGH (1879 - )


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 13 Dec 1879

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

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

7 New Lane, Horslydown,
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 5 Apr 1891
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Parisian

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Fegan Homes for Boys
NotesWilliam's mother, Louisa Mary Ann Ash's, first marriage was to John Thomas Noakes, on November 15, 1869 in the Church of St. James the Great in Bethnal Green, East London. After she was widowed she married George Pugh.

George and Louisa Mary Ann Pugh lived in London's impoverished Southwark district, where all four of their children were born, all at different addresses. George worked on the nearby coal wharves as a "carman," "filler," and "porter."

Louisa Mary Ann died in February 1888 at the age of 39 of phthisis (consumption), with George present; she probably died in the morning, as George was able to have the death registered on the same day. Louisa Mary Ann Pugh's place of burial is currently unknown.

Following his wife's death, George was apparently unable to take care of his children (perhaps he was already in failing health), for by the summer of 1888 his three sons were residents of the "Little Wanderers' Home" at 137 Greenwich Road, which was one of the "rescue homes" operated by J.W.C. Fegan. Fegan and other London "rescue home" operators routinely shipped orphans and semi-orphans over to Canada, where it was assumed that the children would have a brighter future. The three Pugh brothers were therefore fated to be among the 80,000 "Home Children" (most under the age of fourteen) who were apprenticed as agricultural laborers and domestic servants in rural Canada between 1868 and 1925.

Nellie, the oldest of the four Pugh children, was able to remain in England 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).

Fegan shipped Alfred George to Ontario in March 1889. William was shipped to Ontario from Liverpool on March 26, 1891 by J.W.C. Fegan's London rescue home, where he had lived since mid-1888. His ship, the S.S. Parisian, arrived at Halifax on April 5, 1891.

George's health took a turn for the worse not long after William's departure for Canada. Widowed and separated from his children, George was living in April 1891 (when the census was taken) with his sister Louisa Horlick and her family at 128 H Block, Queens Buildings, Southwark; his occupation was listed on the census as "general labourer." The next month he apparently collapsed away from his sister's home, for when he was admitted to Guy's Hospital, Southwark on May 19 he was listed as "John Pugh" in the admission records. The hospital's death records state: "Entry 200: John or George Pugh was admitted on 19th May to the Clinical Ward, bed 16, under Dr. Shaw, and died of a cerebral tumour 20th May at 12:15 a.m.. There was an inquest stating that patient had been inspected by Dr. Shaw the previous evening (reference number 183). He was buried by Friends (Castle)." Castle was apparently the surname of a local undertaker; the London trade directory of 1891 lists an F.J. Castle, undertaker of 94 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich. George's death certificate indicates cause of death as "tumour on the brain, natural death about 8 hours P.M." As it is known from the hospital's records that George died at 12:15 a.m., and that "P.M." on Victorian death certificates oftentimes denotes a "Post Mortem," it is possible that the certificate is stating that George died about 8 hours after admission to the hospital (which would have been at around 4:00 p.m. on May 19). The death certificate further states than an inquest into George's death was held on May 23 by S.F. Sangham, Coroner for Southwark, and that the death was registered on May 26.
George's place of burial is currently unknown.

William had a less steady beginning in Ontario than his elder brother Alfred George, who had arrived in 1889; William ran away from his first two employers. On May 30, 1891, he was engaged by Fegan's "distributing home" in Toronto to Cornelius Campbell of Georgetown, Ontario for room, board and clothing for three years, but on October 2, 1891 he ran away from Campbell and returned to the Toronto home. There he remained for the winter of 1891-92, during which time his youngest brother Sidney arrived there from England. A photograph 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.

On May 24, 1892, William was engaged by Fegan's Toronto home to John Jackson of Elmbank, Ontario, but in October 1892 William ran away from Jackson, who reported the disappearance to Fegan's Toronto office--which duly noted in its records "Ran away, whereabouts unknown." On November 14, 1892, Fegan's Toronto office learned that William was at the home of Francis Cluster of Brittania, Ontario, and arranged for his return to their office.

On December 2, 1892, Fegan's engaged William to a third farmer, Ebenezer Webster of Newmarket, Ontario, this time for wages for a three-year contract ($30 for the first year; $40 for the second; $56 for the third). William would now remain at Newmarket until late 1898; during this period, William began duplicating his brother Alfred George's record of steady employment and modest wages. William's record at Fegan's Toronto office indicates, under date of June 9, 1893, that "Bills to settle wages $8.51. Bal kept to pay time lost time and necessary expenses while boy was sick." Evidently William had not been well during the winter of 1892-93. A notation made on William's record dated December 16, 1893, states "Bills for $15.00 to settle"--the meaning of this is not clear, but it suggests that William had somehow incurred another loss of wages with his employer. On June 9, 1894, it was noted that "Bal of wages $8.00..a/c $8.63 settles to time of leaving May 2;" the record proceeds to record that William had been engaged to Joseph Webster of Newmarket for employment on May 2, 1894, on the terms of $40.00 for seven months. On July 27, 1894, one of Fegan's representatives from the Toronto office visited William at Joseph Webster's and reported "Visited--doing fairly well--comfortable home."

On December 2, 1894, William's record noted "Re-engaged--terms 1 yr 3 mo. f.c. & s. (food, clothing, shelter) to Mar. 1/95--$50 to Mar 1. On February 15, 1895, it was recorded "Balance of wages $3.00 a/c $15.35. On October 15, 1895, "Bal of wages $9.65 a/c $15.35."

On January 10, 1896 William's record noted that he was no longer with Joseph Webster, but was now "With Geo. Brown, New market P.O." On September 16, 1897, it was noted "Visited--this boy is doing very well--has a good home." William was now reaching adulthood, and the end of his period as a laboring "home child." The last two notations on William's record at Fegan's home in Toronto read:

"Aug. '98: With Claver Doon, Newmarket, Ont."; and Aug. 9, 1898, "Visited--Doing very well--intends to go to Woodbridge to be near his brothers." Since June 1898, Alfred George had been working at Humber, and since 1892 Sidney had also been working at Humber--a post office location just south-east of Woodbridge.

With the disappearance of William from Fegan's records in the summer of 1898, one can only speculate on his whereabouts for the next few years. It appears that he tied his fortunes to that of his elder brother, Alfred George, whose record at Fegan's Toronto home indicates (November 28, 1895) "Returned from North West." Alfred George, who would eventually settle on a farm in Alberta, had apparently scouted the Canadian west for employment, and in late 1898 William probably went with him in that direction.

William's and Alfred George's younger brother Sidney did not go west with them, for unknown reasons; but it is known that Sidney resented it for the rest of his life that his elder brothers went out west without him. In October 1898, Fegan's record for Sidney indicated that he was now employed by George Farr of Thistletown, Ontario; his elder brothers were probably already out west by this point.

It is not known exactly when William first arrived in Washington State, and when he met his future wife, Maggie Jordan of Winona, Washington. Years later, Maggie told her (and William's son) Charles Elmo Pugh that William had come to the U.S. at the age of 14, and had never left it, except for three years spent in Canada (those were 1910-1913). We know that Maggie was wrong as to William's age when he first entered the U.S., as it could not have been any earlier than 1898--when William was nearly 19. Then again, William was uncertain about his age; when he died in early 1917 his family thought he was 34--that is, born in 1882--but still, 1882 plus 14 still only adds up to 1896, still too early for William to arrive in Washington State. What we can learn with certainty from Maggie's tale is that she must not have met William immediately after his emigration from Canada; so, if they married in December 1904, they probably met a year or more before, and therefore William probably arrived in Washington State in the years 1900-1902.

William Pugh and Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" Jordan were married on December 12, 1904. In October 1905 their first child, Gladys, was born in Washington State.

On June 1, 1910, Maggie wrote the following postcard message (posted from Seattle, Washington) to her husband's sister-in-law, Mrs. Sid (Ethel) Pugh of 90 Hancock Street, Manistee, Michigan: "My Dear Sister, rec'd your card. every one all O.K. out this way. I have been alone for about six wk. aful lonely. will be pleased to hear from you. Maggie Pugh."

Not long after this, William moved Maggie and their daughter Gladys to Alberta, Canada, to live on a farm adjacent to the farm owned by William's brother George. There, William and Maggie had a son, Charles Elmo, born in August 1912. Six months after the boy's birth, the family moved back to Washington State.

William died on February 19, 1917, on Orchard Avenue, Spokane, Washington. His obituary, which ran in the Tuesday morning edition of the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington for February 20, 1917, recorded:

"Pugh--Funeral services for William E. Pugh, aged 34, who died yesterday at his home in Orchard avenue, will be held this afternoon at Winona. Mr. Pugh is survived by his widow, a small son and daughter, two brothers in Canada and a sister in England. The body will be taken to Winona this morning." The ranch of William's brother-in-law Charles Jordan was outside Winona (Whitman County), and this is almost certainly the reason why William was buried there.

Curiously, William's death certificate apparently reflects a confusion of two people. The name, place of death, and place of burial is accurate (William E. Pugh, of Orchard Avenue, buried at Winona), but the age at death is given as 65 years and three days! Therefore, the other information given on the certificate might or might not have applied to William: laborer at a paper mill; born in Canada; cause of death, lobar pneumonia, left lung--7 days, with pericarditis--2 days; the undertaker was the Turnbull Company.

Very little is known about William. On January 6, 1992 William's daughter-in-law Helen Pugh (who never knew him) wrote to Ralph A. Pugh: "He" (her husband Charles Elmo Pugh) "knows very little about his father as his mother would never tell him very much about him and he feels angry about that. We assume it may not have been a happy marriage. Gladys was older and worshpped her father, in fact, it became a lifetime obsession her her and his loss was never really accepted by her." Helen added that her husband's maternal uncles "with whom he spent a great portion of his life, knew his father and only told him that he was a very likeable person and a hard worker."

Maggie and her children appear on the 1920 census for Sprague City, Lincoln County, Washington State, South Fourth Street (as of January 8): they are in the household of a Fred Giffing, laborer at a flower mill, who was a 33 year-old widower with two young children. Maggie (aged 33) was listed as his servant, and Gladys (aged 14) and Charles E. (aged 7) are each listed as "servant's child."

In an undated postcard from William's brother Alfred George to his brother Sidney (at 925 Merchant Street--therefore from 1919 or later), it is revealled that Alfred George was either in touch with his widowed sister-in-law or had visited her and her two children. "Dear Bro. and Sister," Alfred George wrote; "how are you all this winter. I am well my pleth(?) hope you are all the same. Maggie and the kidds are all well now word from Engla. George."

On April 26, 1993, William's great-grandson Theodore Wham wrote to Ralph A. Pugh:

"My grandfather, Charles, was just four years old when his father died. William was barely known to him. Charles' mother Margaret Pugh (nee Jordan) had two children and therefore a problem. Gladys, about twelve at the time stayed with her mother who turned to working as a cook following the harvest gangs around. Charles was shipped off to live on the ranch of Margaret's brother Charles "Charlie" Jordan outside Winona, Washington.... As the season progressed Charles' mother and sister would rotate into town and my grandfather remembers his own mother of those years as being abusive. For long stretches my grandfather would travel with his mother. For Charles (known during those years by his middle name Elmo to avoid confusion with his uncle "Charles" or even his cousin "Charlie, Jr."), the ranch was a haven, the only safe place he knew. But the abuse that Charles faced was almost certainly magnified in his sister's life (Gladys) and this probably was a major contributor to her own mental illness that she faced as an adult. Margaret Pugh (nee Jordan) mellowed greatly in her old age and is remembered by her granddaughter Sonja Alexander (nee Pugh) as a gentle and loving woman. Margaret Pugh died on the same day that I was born, two floors below me at Deaconness Hospital in Spokane, Washington."

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

(*) E-mail address removed in accordance with RootsChat policy. 
ContributorsCreated : 2008-10-05 00:24:10 / From original database

Last Updated : 2015-09-02 22:51:54 / alanmack

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Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  6 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
4315 PUGH, Alfred George1877ENG,    , Southwark Mar 1889 : - Unknown - CAN Fegan Homes for Boys  
5398 PUGH, Dorcas1900ENG,    , Leominster Mar 1915 : Scandinavian CAN Barnardos  
20810 PUGH, Francis Lewis1887ENG,     May 1904 : Dominion CAN Unknown  
4312 PUGH, Sidney Herbert1882ENG, SRY, Southwark Apr 1892 : Sarnia CAN Fegan Homes for Boys  
24329 PUGH, Thomas1886 Oct 1900 : Numidian CAN Canadian Catholic Emigration Society  
4314 PUGH, William Edward1879ENG, SRY, Southwark Apr 1891 : Parisian CAN Fegan Homes for Boys