The most significant Blythe that I met was my grandmother, Edith Elizabeth
Blythe, born in 1888 in Downpatrick, Ireland. She lived into her 99th
year, finally passing away in Bolton, Ontario. I met her at the age of 4
during our visit to the British Isles in 1952. She took my brother and I
on walks along the sea shore where we studied all kinds of shells, seagull
skulls, and mysterious objects washed up on the Irish shores. We roamed
her farm, fed the chickens, avoided the bees which she kept, then were
taken to see old churches and castles. I remember a large pink stone just
below the surface of the earth that we were told was an ancient pigsty.
None of this was significant, but to us it was a neverending world of
wonders that flat Saskatchewan prairies could not hope to compete with. We
didn't see her art then, but later during her visits to Canada, as we were
growing up, we saw a small number of the oil paintings. One of her earlier efforts hangs on my wall, painted in 1905 when
she was a seventeen year-old student. The second, only one of many which
she produced throughout her career, and for which she had established a
local reputation among collectors, was a favorite of my
mother's.
Grandma was always bubbling with stories of our descent from an Egyptian
Princess, which we later determined to mean a gypsy (they apparently liked
the name Blythe, meaning 'free spirit') and banshees (she said she had
heard them wailing when her father died), which apparently was more of an
honour than a curse. The banshees didn't much care when she passed away,
however, either that or they never got to such exotic lands as Ontario.
We generally disregarded many of the tales as simply elaborate inventions,
until the time came when I delved into the family history. What I
discovered turned out to be quite accurate, including stories that she
related about her husband's Lancashire ancestry.
The stone mason that she told us about, who came from Scotland, was in
fact, Walter Blythe who married Amelia Reid (sometimes written 'Reed').
The family appears in the 1841 Census for Leeds, Yorkshire. Walter Sr. is
15 years older than his Yorkshire born wife and works as a mason. The
1841 Census, being somewhat primitive, lists ages in multiples of 5 for
persons over 15 years old. It gives exact ages for those below 15. So
Walter, at 65 is anywhere from 65 to 69, Amelia, could be anywhere from 50
to 54. Their oldest son, Walter Jr., is from 15 to 19, while the next
oldest son, William, is in the same age range. The next son, my great
great grandfather, Charles Blythe is exactly 13, and his younger brother,
James, is 11.
Charles Blythe grew up to marry Elizabeth Haworth, from a family of Quaker
coach builders, who according to my grandmother, built coaches for the
Royal Family. I have one photograph of
Elizabeth Haworth about the year 1865. Her husband, Charles Blythe
had a distinguished but brief career as a stone mason, but his life was
cut short when he died at the age of 37. His only child, a son, John
William Blythe, moved to Ireland where he married, and ultimately died.
The stories of Walter Blythe Jr. are interwoven with those of his nephew,
my great grandfather, John William Blythe. According to my grandmother,
Walter Blythe Jr. was working on a relative's farm back in Yorkshire as a
young boy, when he became the recipient of a severe beating from the farm
owner (probably an Uncle). He was so influenced by the event, that he
left Yorkshire not long after, and went to America, specifically
California, where he eventually lived an exemplary life, becoming a
"famous architect". The reason for the beating was that he was accused of
putting a rat into the bowl of soup from which the laborers had their
meal. The rat wasn't discovered until they had eaten their way down to
the bottom of the bowl. Something tells me that it wasn't Walter Blythe
who was responsible for this. If he was a juvenile prankster, then he should
have wound up a drunken incompetent or ne'er-do-well. He should not have
been so inspired to angrily leave the country at a very early age and
pursue a life as an over-achiever. He was an American Civil War
volunteer, who reached the rank of Lieutenant, and later became a
successful architect, noted for his work in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout
his rise to success, he maintained a connection with the family back home,
sending money to a widowed Elizabeth Blythe, nee Haworth, so that she
could educate her only son, my great-grandfather. He
insisted that John William Blythe become a lawyer. This eagerness for a
career in justice suggests to me that his earlier punishment was for a
crime he did not commit. I suspect it was some layabout laborer who
did the dirty deed, and the boy worker had been a convenient scapegoat. I
recall getting a whack myself back about 1951, when I was three, for
unexplainable water all over our kitchen floor. I was upset by the
judgement and punishment. It was eventually discovered that the mess had
been caused by a sloppy milkman, who in those days delivered his bottles
door-to-door in a horse-drawn cart in Regina, Saskatchewan. People find
it easy to blame children whenever anything happens, as children cannot
easily defend themselves. I know Walter didn't do it, and that's why
he ultimately became such a success, as he had something to prove.
When Elizabeth Haworth decided to marry again, her choice of husbands did
not meet with Walter Blythe Jr.'s approval. Thereafter, the money for her
son's education stopped. As a result, my great-grandfather, John William
Blythe, had to settle for being just a clerk, becoming one of many people
who used to sit on high stools and record endless records into account
books.
I decided to investigate the name Walter Blythe and see if he had achieved
any prominance. To my surprise, I discovered a significant Walter Blythe
who had made his mark, not in California, but in Cleveland, Ohio. There
are many similarities between the individuals, but there are also
potential discrepancies. According to the 1841 census, Walter was "15",
therefore he could be anywhere from 15 to 19 years old, and therefore he
was born anywhere from 1822 - 1826. One record states that Walter Blythe,
the Cleveland architect, was born in Leeds, England (that's a match), but
he came to America at the age of 13 in 1849, giving him a birth year of
1836, off by a full ten years from the lowest age. He became an
architect, who allegedly learned the avocation of stone-cutter from his
father-in-law, Charles Heard, whose daughter he later married, her name
being Florida Geneva Heard. Our Walter, was already a stone mason
apprentice, destined to become a stone cutter, like his father and
brothers. Walter, in Cleveland, became a partner in the firm of Heard and
Blythe, architects. He went into business for himself in 1871, and was
responsible for designing many US buildings, some of which are still
standing, others of which have since been demolished.
Despite the reference to Walter Blythe, the Cleveland architect coming to
America in 1849 at the age of 13, our family history says that he did
indeed go to America at an early age because of the rat-in-the-soup and
beating incident. But I have found another reference, that says that
Walter Blythe was born in 1821, married Heard's daughter Florida Geneva in
1857, and worked in his father-in-law's office, becoming his partner by
1864. This puts the birth age well into the range of the 1841 Census and
is a more accurate age for his marriage (36 rather than 20). There is
also some reference to him winning a prize, but I do not have the original
article from the Cleveland Leader of March 2, 1870.
By 1851, during the more detailed UK Census, Walter Blythe Sr, father to
my great-great grandfather, Charles, is still alive. He is age 76, giving
him a birth year of 1775, and he was born in Roxburghshire, Scotland. His
wife, Amelia, is also still living, now age 59, and was born in Helperby,
Yorkshire. Her sons, Charles and James, still at home, were born in
Leeds. There is also a grandson, age 14, by the name of Thomas Benson,
born in Addingham. There must have been some sisters who had not shown
up in an earlier census, maybe even from an earlier marriage of Walter
Blythe Sr.
When John William Blythe, my great-grandfather, moved to Ireland, the
records are more difficult to check. He eventually brought his mother to
Ireland, where she lived out the rest of her life. I have a blurry
photograph of her tombstone in Killough, Ireland, as Elizabeth Stafford
who died at age 87 in 1914. Although there were a number of children born
to John William Blythe, apparently only the three eldest daughters
survived, each one, including my grandmother, living well into their
nineties.
If the reader of this text feels in any way related to this Blythe clan,
by all means, please contact me. I would very much like to share
information and photographs.
Contact
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