Sweet Sixteen and True Love Waits

Table of Contents

My Granma, Catherine Cairns, was born in Milburn Street Crook, County Durham in 1872.

Her parents, John Cairns and Bridget Watson, were Irish immigrants from County Monaghan. I was told by my father that my Granda, Jimmy McManus, and Catherine were childhood sweethearts.

Not Good Enough

John Cairns and Bridget Watson believed the McManuses weren’t quite good enough for their family and discouraged Catherine to stay away from Jimmy. Their discouragement, however, was to no good effect and the teenagers ‘found a way’, as true love does.

By the time she was sixteen Catherine, a dressmaker and Jimmy, a coalminer, must have been heavily into a relationship and Catherine’s parents were becoming increasing worried.

Philadelphia

Far away from Crook, in 1880s Philadelphia, USA, where Catherine’s parents had family, the clothing and textiles trade employed more than forty percent of the paid workforce. The location seemed both a perfect place for Catherine to develop her occupation and for John and Bridget Cairns to ensure there would be enough distance between Jimmy McManus and their daughter.

An Early Philadelphia Garment Sales Poster.

So, at sixteen, Catherine was sent to Philadelphia and better prospects than she appeared by some to have at Crook.

SS Indiana

The passenger manifest of the SS Indiana shows Catherine travelling alone from Liverpool to Philadelphia on 29th. June, 1888. The manifest and immigration records show her travelling not as a visitor but as intending to settle in the United States. I imagine by this time that Jimmy’s and Catherine’s hearts were broken.

Passenger Manifest and US Immigration Record, SS Indiana, Liverpool to Philadelphia, 29th. June, 1888 Catherine, age 16, second from bottom.

Returning Home

After a couple of years, however, it appears that Catherine wasn’t that ‘settled’ in Philadelphia because by 1891 she had decided to return to her native Crook.

Jimmy McManus was still waiting for her to return and must have been thrilled with anticipation as he travelled to Liverpool to meet Catherine.

I was presented with a very romantic picture by my father who told me that, as the ship docked at Liverpool, Jimmy was waiting on the quayside to meet Catherine as she disembarked.

My Granma, about 17, stands regal in her impressive dress. Probably taken in Philadelphia

Married 1892

John and Bridget Cairns’ plan hadn’t worked.

On the 30th January, 1892, Catherine and Jimmy were married at Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Cuthbert RC Church, Crook and went on to have fifteen children during a long marriage together.

Throughout their lives together Catherine always kept a prize possession in the house; a quality, German made Pfaff sewing machine, which I’m sure must have repaired countless family garments.

For me, however, the Pfaff wasn’t just a practical piece of machinery, it was to some extent a sad symbol of what a life in the United States might have been for Catherine rather than the exhaustion of giving birth to and raising so many children while being the wife of a Durham coalminer.

15 Children !

Granma, sitting far left and Granda, sitting far right with ‘some’ family members, Circa 1925