William Duncan Cruickshank (1876 - 1950)

Born 18 Mar 1876 in 25 Don St, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Died 18 Mar 1950 at age 74 in Port Coquitland, British Columbia, Canada

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Biography

William Duncan CRUICKSHANK [Cruickshank-1334] son of John Barclay CRUICKSHANK [Cruickshank-1329] and Margaret Irvine LAWRENCE [Lawrence-17984]

• was born on 18 Mar 1876 at 25 Don St, Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
• appeared with his parents & siblings in the 1881 census at 25 Don Street, Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
• appeared with his parents & siblings in the 1891 census at at 3 School Rd, Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
• appeared with his parents & siblings in the 1901 census at at 22 Don Street, St Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
• and died on 18 Mar 1950 at Port Coquitland, British Columbia, Canada.
• William married Elizabeth Lena FREEMAN [not yet researched] daughter of [not yet researched] and [not yet researched] on 5 Dec 1928 at Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada.

The child from this marriage was:

1. William Cruickshank CRUICKSHANK [not yet researched] born on 2 Mar 1932.

Excerpt from Cruickshank family history provided by Duncan Cruickshank written in March 1992:

Bill CRUICKSHANK, my dad, was born March 18, 1876 and died on his birthday at 73 in Port Coquitlam, B.C. when I was 18. He married my mother, Libbie Lena Freeman, December 5, 1928 in Elkhorn, Manitoba, at St Mark's Anglican church. He didn't want a lot of guests so, instead of a reception, they had a wedding breakfast and went to Winnipeg for their honeymoon in the Fort Garry hotel. They had a stillborn boy then on March 2, 1932, they had me and called me by my father's exact name. Could I say my mother brown-nosed?

My Dad used to deliver milk and butter for a farmer on the way to school, just as I did in Port Coquitlam. Dad's school was over the Brig O' Bulgownie on the way out into the country. On the way to school he would pass an old lady who sat at her door at the side of the road smoking a clay pipe and selling fish from a creel. Dad went to Old Aberdeen Public School of the Old Machar School Board from 1883 to 1890 when he was 14. His teacher, John A. McHardy, MA, put him on the football team and in 1898 he won a medal. My dad would sit by the stove in the evening and tell me about the team coming home on the train. There were no toilets and when someone had to relieve himself the team would stand around him while he stuck his butt out the window. I can just imagine some kid saying to his mother, "Look at that fat man looking out of the train with a big cigar in his mouth!"

Dad only went as far as the fifth standard but it seemed to me when I was in grade 8 that he knew things that I was just learning. He liked to listen to the BBC news at 9 am and in the evenings he would read out bits from the newspaper.

His first job was in a rope factory, sizing rope. Starting at 6 o'clock in the morning he had to dip his hands in the freezing bucket of flour and water and rub it on the rope. Once in Abbotsford when he was building a swing for me from a big fir tree, he showed me how to size the rope. We stretched it between two apple trees.

Bill's second job was in a linoleum factory and his third was in the granite works. All the jobs started at 6 and he would walk home a 8 am for breakfast. His sisters would keep watch at the window and put out his porridge promptly because he didn't like it hot. He always ate it in a wide-flanged plate, spread the bliker of porridge out to the rim so it would cool off fast, then pour the milk in the center. He would talk about putting salt to his porridge but he was taking sugar when I knew him. I told my son this when he was seven and he began eating his porridge that way, with salt.

When my dad was 18 he got his third job—at a granite works. He made a paperweight of black Labrador granite for his sister Mary. It says M.C. 1903. He liked to take a boat trip up the coast to Inverness, on the Caledonian canal. On the way they would pass Peterhead which produces pink granite.

Nelly says Dad liked the three nams pub. Dad's chum worked in the theatre so dad would get in free to sit in the Gods, the top balcony. He saw Sir Henry Irving in The Bells; Chaliapin, the Russian basso, Gallacurchi; Fatty Arbuckle in but his favorite was Did she fall or was she pushed? Harry Lauder. Nelly wasn't sure whether that would be the Palace variety theater or Her Majesties on Constitution Street. .When I was seven, at Abbotsford, I'd lay in my bed off the kitchen while he began each day talking to the dog and singing Harry Lauder's songs—When I was 21, or It's nice to get up in the morning but it's nicer to lie in your bed.

On Sunday in Aberdeen he would get dressed in a formal morning coat and go for a walk across the Brig O'Bulgownie. In New Westminster I let somebody borrow it and they lost it. But I still have his father's brown velvet jacket and vest.

Bill was very proud of Marshall College, the new university being built of white marble in Aberdeen. The king and queen came to open it. The menu included more champagne than the guests knew how to handle plus turtle soup. They even paraded the turtle through the streets. This photo was taken at the granite works. When a new man came on the job they would send him round the shop to fetch the round square or one would say, "Look at that" while another fellow poured water down the inside of the front of his pants.

Dad became a granite cutter then a polisher. When pneumatic tools came in the air was filled with dust and was bad for his lungs. The doctor advised him to move to Manitoba, the finest climate in the world. Dad's parents were both dead. His mother had died April 27, 1907 at 60 and his father died at 65 of Bright's disease November 22, 1911.

In April 1912 James Hutcheson, sculptor, granite merchant and quarry owner of King Street Cemetery Granite Works wrote "William Cruickshank has been in my employment for 18 years both as apprentice and journeyman. He is a very reliable and trustworthy man, highly respectable and an excellent workman." He was a member of the Mason's and Granite-cutters' Union which means the Masonic order.

The Titanic sank April 15, 1912 and a week later Mary, Janet, Annie and Bill set out on the Luisitania for Canada loaded with furniture and steamer trunks of china, linen, joke books, Robbie Burns poems and picture books of Inverness. They got off the ship at Quebec (which I pronounced Kwe and he correctly pronounced K) and took the train to Elkhorn. Bill saw a help wanted sign in a store window that said "Englishmen need not apply." My dad went at farming the same way he got into the granite business—he apprenticed— to Carl Dahl. He eventually rented a farm and started up delivering milk although Elkhorn already had a milkman. I remember going around with my dad in the buggy in the winter and in the Dodge in the summer. One time the car sputtered to a stop. They couldn't figure out what was wrong. I'd poured the milk from the dog's dish into the gas tank.

Sources

BIRTH: "Scotland: Statutory Registers - Births "database", National Records of Scotland, Scotlandspeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/: accessed 10 Sep 2022). Surname: CRUICKSHANK, Forename: WILLIAM DUNCAN, Mother's Maiden Name: blank, Gender: M, Year: 1876, Ref: 168/2 382, RD Name: Old Machar.

MARRIAGE: Occurred in Canada.

DEATH: Occurred in Canada.

1881 Census: Scotland: Census 1881 (LDS), Scotlandspeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/: accessed 10 Sep 2022), FHL Film 0203447 GRO Ref Volume 168-2 EnumDist 2 Page 32, Reference Number : 103245, Census Place : Aberdeen Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland, Dwelling: 25 Don Street, Given Name: Margaret Surname: CRUICKSHANK, Relation: Daur, Condition: blank, Age: 6, Gender: F, Occupation: Scholar, Birth Place: Old Abdn, Aberdeen, Scotland, Handicap: blank.

1891 CENSUS: See image.

1901 CENSUS: See image.