The Wintons

I know - it almost sounds like "The Waltons..."

Some readers here will know I am working on a book on the Society’s United Cemeteries in Ross Township, much of which started life as articles on this blog 7-8 years ago. In checking out a couple of names that might have added a sentence in one paragraph I came across the story below, which now merits its own chapter. This is a beta version of that new chapter. 

THE WINTONS

In 1907 most of the Bible House “family” in Allegheny had their photograph taken on the pavement in front of the building.

In the front row was an elderly couple, Francis and Susan Winton.

Around the same time another photograph was taken of the group in the parlor inside Bible House, but this time only Francis was in the picture.

The Wintons were the next known Bible Students after William Morris Wright  to be laid to rest in United Cemeteries, quite soon after the photograph was taken. Both died in January 1908. Their story therefore belongs here.

Originally it was thought that Francis and Susan, as a long forgotten couple, would just feature as passing names in a paragraph. However, Francis at least has an interesting back story. So much so that he even has his own Wikipedia entry, if you join all the dots.

The entry reads

Francis Winton (ca 1829 – 1908) was a printer, publisher and politician in Newfoundland. He represented Bonavista in the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1869 to 1873 as an Anti-Confederate.

The son of Henry D. Winton and Elizabeth Nicholson, he was born in St. John's. In 1860, he was publishing the St. John's Daily News in partnership with his brother. In 1866, he began publishing the Day Book, later the Morning Chronicle. By 1894, Winton had moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he owned a newspaper called the Morning Chronicle. Winton and his wife both died there in 1908.

The material for the Wikipedia article was taken from The Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador volume 5 (initials S-Z) published in 1994.

The Winton family originally came from England. Francis’ grandfather, Robert Winton, was a clergyman in Exmouth. One son, Henry David Winton (1793-1855) married and immigrated to Newfoundland, Canada, in 1818. (Henry David has his own Wikipedia article). He got involved in politics, founded a newspaper, and fathered nine children, three of whom also became involved in the newspaper business. One of these was Francis who was born in 1829.

The Wikipedia article for Francis has a gap of nearly 30 years in his history.

He seems to have spent regular time in America as well as Canada over the years. An obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for January 14, 1908, says he came to America as “a young man.” The 1900 New York census indicates that he married Susan (Peckham) in 1858 (actually 1856 from marriage records) and had been in America since 1843. They appear to have had no children. However, according to Rowell’s Newspaper Directory (published New York 1869) he was also running a newspaper in Newfoundland at that time.

His obituary, which we will come to later, also has him working in New York with newspaperman Horace Greeley who ran the New York Tribune.

Obituaries can be notoriously unreliable when it comes to details because the one person who can verify the information is not there to do so. We are on firmer ground with his application for naturalisation as an American citizen which dates from 1895. He was living in Brooklyn, New York, at the time, and gave his profession as “journalist.” His character witness had known him in America for at least ten years. By the 1900 census he was still in Brooklyn in a rented property and was now a “proofreader.” As he aged, his career seems to have gone from newspaper proprieter (controlling output) to journalist (supplying output) to proofreader (checking other people’s output) with perhaps some overlap along the way. His death certificate went back to recording his occupation as journalist.

In 1903 he relocated to Pittsburgh and he and Susan became part of the Bible House family. How they became interested in the Bible Student message is not known, and it is assumed that in his 70s his role in Bible House was probably his profession as a proof reader. The Wikipedia article on him suggests he had newspaper interests in the city as well. (However, there was no newspaper of the given title in Pittsburgh at the time, although Francis had been involved with a paper of that name back in Newfoundland in the 1860s). He was a well trusted member of the Bible House family as indicated by his being chosen to be one of the trustees for the cemetery company in 1905, although having businessman status would no doubt have made that a more logical choice.

Susan was taken ill with pneumonia and died at the Bible House on January 8, 1908. Her funeral in United Cemeteries was on Friday, January 10. The next night, Saturday, January 11, Francis died as well. His funeral was held on January 14. They were at the same address (612 Arch Street), attended by the same physician, and the same undertaker arranged the funerals at United Cemeteries.

The Pittsburgh Press for January 13, 1908, gave the most detailed obituary.

We do not know where in United Cemeteries they were laid to rest. A special section for full-time workers was not actioned until some years later. Whether they ever had a headstone is unknown. Not all grave markers in the cemetery have been photographed as yet. But Francis and Susan are part of our story.