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S.S. England Families Stories Below are stories and comments from people whose families were on the S.S. England. If your family had passengers on the S.S. England at any time would you please share their experience by e-mailing me a paragraph or two about them. Thanks to those that contributed. joemilr@iquest.net |
A little history of my web page. Our main source of information about the SS England comes from the letter my great-great grand uncle wrote. He doesn't mention the name of the ship. They were able to find other stories that matched the timing of the trip to find the ship's name. But no one knew the name of the island mentioned in the letter. My mom posted a query of a few years back on The Ship List. This January she got a reply from Alan Jones whose ancestors were on board. Alan sent links about McNab's Island.
I thought it would be an easy way to share this new info with family if I posted it on my web page space I get with my Internet connection. I usually just post things like holiday and vacation pictures. So from there my web page has grown. It's amazing how fast.
March - May, 1866
From: Suzanne Tait stait@umich.eduOddly enough, Alan Jones, that is mentioned on your website, and is a "newly found" relative, contacted me and told me about your website. Here is my g.grandfather's story.
My g.g. grandfather, John Thomas Griffith(s) along with his sister Catherine, her husband, Evan Jones, and son were on the S.S. England. Catherine was pregnant at the time. Her husband and daughter died and were buried at sea one day before land was sighted. My g.grandfather's account of this story was published in a Columbus Ohio newspaper in 1935 when he was 87 years old. In part, relating to the outbreak of cholera reads as follows:
"Mr.. Griffith says, like many other people in the old country, when he was 17 he got the American Fever and came across with his sister and brother in law on the second steamship ever to journey across the ocean to the U.S.
While at sea the ship became a victim of Asiatic Cholera and Griffith's brother in law and niece died one day before land was sighted.
The ship landed in Nova Scotia where many of the victims died. The boat was there for six weeks and many of the people had to sleep on boards as the ship was smoked every day and all the belongings that were exposed to the disease were thrown away.
Griffith's sister found refuge in a tent with some people from London and he had to sleep on the ground because there was no more room in the tent. When he awoke the next morning he was covered with three inches of snow.
The article goes on to chronical the remainder of his life. He married Margaret Evans who came to America in 1870. John Thomas Griffith was born May 9, 1848 and died March 24, 1939.
Thought you might be interested in this. Here are some translations.
Still trying to determine was my ancestor on the England or Virginia?
Both are mentioned in the return letter from the Netherlands, but it
looks like the England to me because
1. On board was a friend Diepenhorst, see names12.htm from ship
England showing Diepenhorst
2. May 13 arrived at Dunkirk from New York City - times right was May
11 date for England
3. Says a group of 50 died while the ship was at sea. Sounds like the
England.
Unfortunately, only parts of the letters remain.
Once the ship unloaded at New York on May 11, he took a train along with a number of other Dutch emigrants. On the way to Dunkirk, New York one of the passengers gave birth. She can be seen on the passenger list as Marrigje DeGroot. In Dunkirk another woman named Cornelia Lucas gave birth in the inn. Her husband Pieter had died of cholera on the ship. From there they traveled to Cleveland and Toledo where those traveling to Iowa and Illinois separated. In Toledo they did not even try to stay in hotel because of the cost and the fact that the owners did not like immigrants because of the lice "of which we had plenty" Aris noted. From there he went to Detroit and then Grand Rapids. There they rented a wagon for a dollar and his group of 12 went on to the Diepenhorst farm at Noordeloos, near Holland Michigan. Frans Diepenhorst was on board ship.
Aris immediately began a search for Klaas. Other Dutch people from the Pella bound group had remained at Halifax so Aris contacted them. After a time he received a letter that some who had remained at Halifax had arrived in Pella. They brought the sad news that Klaas and others had died. This whole process brought Aris close to God. He remained a very religious man all his life.
www.familytreemaker.com/users/b/r/o/Michael-W-Brown
My great-great grandfather, John Walter Harden b 1816 in Leicestershire, England emigrated to the US in 1866. He sent for the rest of his family days after his arrival not knowing about the cholera outbreak on the ship his family was on until news reached NYC of the quarantine in Nova Scotia.
His youngest son at the time, Oliver Bacon Harden wrote years later of his personal experience aboard the SS England in his, "Recollections of my Childhood" written in 1910. He gives a harrowing account of the ordeal behind the eyes of a child.
John Walter Harden came early to survey potential anthracite excavations in Nova Scotia and NE US settling in Kingston, Luzerne Co, Pa. His son, John Henry was one of many "volunteers" to bury the dead at McNab's.
Everyone survived the trip thanks to John Henry, who "protected" the family from the infected.
OLIVER BACON HARDEN ACCOUNT OF VOYAGE. "...Our experiences on this voyage are long to be remembered. The Steamer belonged to the National Line and was called the "England". It was an overcrowded boat and we had not been at sea 2 days before the funerals became very frequent and it was then known that the Cholera was sailing with us. Perhaps the first buried at sea we saw was a gruesome sight as the coffin caught on the side of the ship and the lid came off exposing the corpse. So many deaths took place that they used up all the wood and then they sewed them up in packs. It was said that 1200 died between NY and Liverpool. Harry who had seen service in India was not sick and he looked after us so well that not one of the family were other than sea sick. My remembrance is that Ed and I were sick all the way over. Our passage was made in six days (?) but it was decided to go into quarantine at Halifax and we were there for two weeks. Here the dead were buried on McNabs Island and Harry volunteered as one of the grave diggers. Here the ship was fumigated after all but the cabin passengers had been taken to a "hulk" or hospital ship. One morning a cabin-boy had to take some food to one of the hulks and he asked Ed & I if we could "scull" & we said yes but after we got into the boat we found sculling was something more than knowing & we were taken back on ship. Sculling is the art of propelling a boat with one oar from the stern of the boat. After being in Halifax harbor for two weeks we sailed for New York. We were put again into quarantine for two week in Lower Bay. Father and Fred were waiting to welcome us but they were not allowed to come on board. When the two weeks were up we were allowed to land. The recollection of this voyage is as a nightmare. The crowding of this mass of humanity on board this ship "England" was nothing less than criminal. The unpleasant notoriety that the voyage gave to this steamer led the National Line to change its name & take it from the service..."From: Anne Field anniebanoon@eudoramail.com
The Patrick Healy Family http://www.annefield.net
The Healy family--Patrick and Mary and their four children, Patrick, Thomas, Bridget, and Mary--left Castlebar, Ireland, in March of 1866, for Queenstown, going by train. Queenstown, now called Cobh, is located fifteen miles southeast of Cork in southern Ireland. This seaport city, with a fine harbor, was the departure point for hundreds of emigrants leaving Ireland for the United States and Canada.
Patrick Healy, in his history of the family, describes the death of his little sister, Mary, during the voyage. Everyone was "singing and dancing and having a merry time until a man took sick and was in violent pain and died. The doctors made a thorough inspection of the remains and pronounced it cholera, a deadly plague and sure death for everyone that caught it. The next day ten died; the following day fifty died, and so on, until seven hundred died out of 1,650 passengers which were on board when the steam left Queenstown, including one of our own--little Mary who was two years old at that time. She was thrown overboard. I remember father who was appointed by the doctors to help wrap the body in sheets and slide it out of the man-hole into the ocean." According saloon passenger Rev. Ambrose Martin, Captain Grace's behavior, and that of the doctors and crew during this time was exemplary. Letters to the New York Times written by other passengers on board praised the captain's "gentlemanly conduct and tender sympathy" and that his "decisive action" in heading for the intermediate port of Halifax was of great help in checking the spread of the disease.
Some of the passengers were left behind on McNab's Island. According to different reports there were anywhere from 24 to 55 passengers left behind. This group was to leave later on the steamer Louisa Moore whose captain was Mr. Wooster. This ship left Halifax on May 17 and arrived in New York on May 24, 1866. At this point, it cannot be determined on which ship the Healys sailed from Halifax to New York. According to Patrick, his family was quarantined on the island six weeks and then got on board another ship for New York. If they had sailed from Halifax on the England, they would have been in Halifax less than two weeks. If they sailed later on the Louisa Moore, they would have been on McNab's Island five and a half weeks. So far, the passenger list for the Louisa Moore, arriving in New York May 24, has not been located. Although they are listed on the passenger arrival list for the England, arriving May 11, there is a good chance that they actually arrived on the Louisa Moore.
According to the ship arrivals lists of the National Archives, the England "arrived" in New York on May 11, 1866. On the ship's passenger list are the names of the Healys: Pat Hely, age 36, male, laborer, from Ireland; Mary Hely, age 34, female, spinster; Pat Hely, age 8, male, child; Thos., age 6, male, child; Bridget, age 3, female, child; and Mary, age 4, female, child. According to Patrick, Mary was only two. Although she died at sea, she was still listed in the ship's manifest, with no indication that she had died.
According to Patrick, the family spent two days in New York before leaving by train for Waseca, Minnesota, where his Uncle Hugh Healy lived.
From: Mark De Jong mark.dejong@mindspring.com
My De Jong ancestors emigrated from the village of Arkel, the province of Zuid-Holland, in The Netherlands. They made their living by farming. The primary reason for leaving was for economic. Although they were not poor, the family had seven sons. Even in the 1800s, the farming opportunities for seven sons were very limited in land scarce Holland.
The family emigrated in two groups. The first group included my great great grandparents, Martinus and Grietje De Jong, their oldest son Peter J., my great great grandfather's brother Gisbert, and Grietje's brother, Willem Van Rooden. They left the village of Arkel on MArch 24, 1865 and arrived safely in New York via Liverpool on Apr 14, 1865. The trip was without incident.
The second and larger group included my great great great grandparents, Pieter Sr. and Gisbertje De Jong, and all but one of their remaining children. The oldest son, Jan. remained in The Netherland. The children, who were actually young adults, included sons, Elbert, Dirk, Neldus, and Pieter Jr. and daughters Egje, Maria, and Gisbertje. The group also included Kornelia, Dirk's bride of two months, her brother Antonie Van Rooden, and My great great grandparent's yougest son , Arie, who was just 1 1/2 years old. It is believed he was left behind the the previous year due to his young age, possibly thinking it would be better to travel when he was a little older.This group left Arkel, one year after the first group, on March 23, 1866.
Among the great ironies of their ill-fated journey aboard the S S England is that little Arie perished of the cholera epidemic and probably would have been better off traveling the year before with his parents. As it was, my great great grandparents named their next son, Arie C. De Jong. This was quite common in those days in the Dutch community. Arie C. De Jong was my great grandfather.
Another irony was that three of the four sons also perished. The primary reason for leaving Holland is thought to be to give the sons more farming opportunity in the US. Unfortunately only the youngest son Pieter Jr. survived. But all of the sisters and the parents (almost 60 years old at that time) survived. Lastly, Dirk's young bride also perished. A party of twelve reduced to seven.
The family initially settled near Pella, Iowa and continued making a living farming. Of those who survived, many went on to have large families of their own. Today, the descendants must number in the thousands. Although the family is spread across the country, most still live in the Pella/Oskaloosa area in South Central Iowa.
1883
From: Ann Prosser abrvp@aol.com
My great grandparents, Martin Flanagan and Maria (Giblin) sailed with their 7 children aboard the SS England in 1883. I have found the ship's manifest. The list I have is for the arrival of the England on June 12, 1883. It has only 536 passengers on it. It was interesting to note they had only 3 or 4 suitcases as luggage. Can you imagine? We take that much and more for a few days vacation. The family settled in Central Falls Rhode Island and all lived out their lives in the State of Rhode Island. They came from Roscommon, Castlerea Ireland I am very interested in hearing from people who may know more about the ship and also any who came from Ireland.
Your comments and contributions are welcome. Please contact me Joe Miller joemilr@iquest.net
