GRANDFATHER Alexander Stewart, son of Allan Stewart and Barbara McNicol
Born 1866 in Ayr and married 1896 in Glasgow
Blacksmith and army drill sergeant
Service in the Boer War (1899-02)
Worked as janitor and gymnastic instructor at Williamsburgh School, Paisley
He was clever mechanically and had a small workshop situated in a lane off Causeyside Street. He must have worked here as well as his job at the school. His speciality was fixing the engines of beer pumps in the local pubs. He had a spare engine and when the need arose, he substituted his pump while he fixed the broken pump. He was known in the town for this. Whether he took payment in kind or received money is not known. According to family legend he was fond of his drink.
He was a man of his time. He handed over a set amount of money each week to our grandmother who brought up the children and set the standards. However, he must have been generous as grandmother always sent Margaret (Peggy) to Glasgow every weekend when she was young on the tram to give her grandmother two shillings and sixpence towards her keep. In the 1920s this would have been a reasonable amount of money. When the old age pension was instigated this was 10 shillings.
The marriage did not appear to be a happy marriage. In these days, of course, happiness was not an issue. The family called him Auld Sanny in his latter years. His life cannot have been easy.
GRANDMOTHER Margaret Goldie Anderson, daughter of John Anderson and Janet Cameron.
Grandma was a typical matriarch. Her family adored and respected her.
She was very close to a younger brother who was killed in the First World War.
Grandma never felt like a Paisley buddy. She was from Anderston in Glasgow and for many years took the tram from Paisley to Glasgow to visit her family every Saturday.
Grandma was not sent to school and as a result did not learn to read and write. (Her mother could read and write and Peggy always resented and disliked her grandmother because she had not ensured that grandmother went to school and she was a period drinker and much of the upbringing of her younger siblings was left to grandmother.) However, grandmother could count and seemingly was a wizard with the allowance she received from her husband to bring up 10 children. A great source of irritation to her was that he used so much of the money he earned on himself.
She had the working class virtues that no matter how poor, you had to be clean and respectable looking. In her later years, she always wore a black tailored coat, a black hat and black shoes with a strap and a button at the side. She had two charcoal grey/black coats. One was very old, kept sponged and pressed which she used daily. The other was her good dress coat, which was also probably old by our current standards.
She knitted and sewed most of the clothes for her children during their upbringing.
She walked to the local abattoir where she bought meat at a cheaper price. She also was given free pieces of liver. At that time, lever was not thought of as suitable for human consumption and only poor people ate liver.
In her later years when some of the family were employed and her financial position was much better, she was very social. The family home at 100 Glasgow Road was the meeting place for the siblings’ friends when they became young adults. There were many social evenings of card playing, singing and storytelling.
The flat they occupied in the Glasgow Road was part of three buildings that were built at the same time. The owner, who also built the buildings, lived there with his family. Of course he didn’t want problem families living there, so he vetted all his tenants. The Stewart family must have passed this test as being a respectable and industrious working class family.
There was a small garden at the back of the building and this was always cultivated to the ultimate. What I remember most is two very large blackcurrant trees that provided vast amounts of berries keeping them in jam for some months of the year. She also made wonderful rhubarb and ginger jam.
She was a very strong woman and she died at 77 of cancer. Jenny, Peggy and Nancy took turns nursing her during her final illness. When the doctor suggested a colostomy operation, which would have eased her suffering and perhaps prolong her life, she asked the doctor if this would involve additional work for her daughters. When the doctor confirmed this, she said no let nature run its course.
I was probably eight years old when grandmother died and nine when grandfather died. I still have very clear and fond memories of them.
Margaret Lind
2 March 2005-03-02
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