End of the Line; The Mystery Letter

A while back, in my piece about nicknames, I mentioned a mysterious letter I found, almost a year ago to the day, in a folder full of paperwork and photos. The letter was dated 18th May 1922, and apparently came from a person by the name of Lilly, who lived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. My mother and I were unfamiliar with most of the names mentioned in the letter, and were oblivious as to who the recipient 'little scotch mother' was. I made it my mission to find out, and thus began the activity of unravelling the mystery only to find quite a knot in this branch of the family.

The letter, as it turned out, was from an Henriette Svenningsen, who was born in Denmark in 1879, to Ove and Julia Svenningsen. Sometime between 1895 and 1900, as a teen or young adult, Henriette and her family moved to the USA, and settled in Boston, MA. On the 20th September 1902 she married Liston Clark Newell, the younger brother of my great grandfather, George Edward Newell (aka Ted). 

Liston, like so many of that part of my family, including father Frederick, and brother George/Ted, was a mariner. He had trained with the British Merchant Navy, and had sailed over to the USA, from his home in Edinburgh, where there was extended family on his father Frederick's side (Frederick was from Framingham, MA). Liston worked on the Boston, MA to Yarmouth, NS steamer service, for the Yarmouth Steam Ship Company, and they lived in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where they raised their daughter Julia. Julia was born in Boston, MA before her parents were married, in 1900. I have often wondered at this, as such a thing would have been quite scandalous for people of their class in that era. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for their move to Nova Scotia; to escape the gossips. Alas, the women of this family were fated to dole out gossip in large amounts, to the small town of Yarmouth, NS.

As the Great War started in 1914, Liston switched from merchant navy to Royal Navy, and was given the rank of chief engineer. In the October of 1915 Liston was assigned to a ship named SS Dunelm, which was harboured in Halifax. The ship was take a cargo of scrap metal to the UK; the scrap would be useful to the war effort and was to be used to make weapons and ammunition. SS Dunelm was not designed for ocean travel, and was meant for use on lakes and rivers. Nevertheless, it was loaded up; it has been suggested, possibly with more cargo than was safe. The ship left Halifax in early October 1915, and was last sighted off the coast of Newfoundland on the 17th October. It is not known what happened to the steamship. German U Boats were not active in that part of the ocean at the time, so it's unlikely that it was torpedoed by the enemy. No icebergs were sighted at that time either. It is thought that the overloaded ship, that was not designed for ocean travel, hit poor weather, and the weight of the cargo shifted, causing it to overturn. No crew or wreckage was ever found. 

Liston C Newell is remembered at the Halifax Memorial, where his name can be found on Panel 3.

The letter from Henriette (aka Lilly) is to her mother in law, Liston's mother; Christina Hall Newell (aka Little Scotch Mother). In the letter Lilly talks about the death of Liston, and how hard life was for her and her daughter, who she names as 'Mussa'. It seems that this nickname might spring from the Danish word 'mus' meaning mouse. Perhaps Julia was a quiet, timid child, or maybe she had mousy brown hair.

Later in the letter, Lilly explains how she has remarried, this time to a doctor, who also signs the letter, with the name 'A R Campbell'. On researching their marriage I discovered that this doctor's full name was Alexander Rae Campbell. He was born in Noel, Hants County, NS in 1888, to presbyterian minister, Alex, and Bessie Campbell. Alexander Rae Campbell (aka Doc) was one of three sons, one of whom was a minister, like their father. Lilly was very proud of her marriage to this high status professional 'Doc', but this union was not to last. It seemed like an unlikely union. At the time of their marriage Lilly was 42, and Doc was 33. Sometime between 1922 and 1927 Lilly and Doc divorced, and (I have to say I was shocked to discover this) Doc married the sweet little Mussa on the 24th March 1927. That's right! Julia Newell married her mother's ex-husband!

Alexander Rae Campbell is pictured here on the right, with his parents and brothers.

What is somewhat more surprising is that the three of them continued to live together in the same house. In the 1931 Census of Canada the relatively newly married couple, Alexander Rae and Julia Theodora Campbell were living at 90 Parade Street, Yarmouth, NS with Lily Henrietta Newell (who had reverted to using the married name of her first husband, Liston) as the head of the household. Lily Henrietta was recorded as 'divorced' while her ex-husband (now recorded as her son-in-law) was recorded as married. The house in which the 3 of them were living had 20 rooms, I had at first thought that perhaps this made it easier for them to maintain a distance without creating too much tension. In my exploration of this branch of the family I found a Yarmouth native who had known Julia and her mother. They had lived nearby and visited with Julia in her later years. Julia had apparently admitted that the house, being so very big, was very expensive to heat, and so the three of them lived most of the year in just the kitchen, where the heat could be maintained without costing too much money.

The home on Parade Street, where Lily, Mussa, and Doc lived is now home to the Yarmouth Lions Club.

However fraught their union might have been at the start, 'Doc' and 'Mussa' lived an apparently happy life together, and went on to have two sons; Alexander Newell Campbell (known to his family and friends as 'Sandy'), and Peter Albert Campbell. 'Doc'  died in 1940, at the age of 51. He was buried at Castle Hill Cemetery, in Pictou, NS in the spring of 1940. 

Obituary for 'Doc' who was a recipient of the Military Cross for his work in WWI.

Julia continued to live at Parade Street, Yarmouth, NS until her death in 1962. She was buried at Yarmouth Mountain Cemetery, Yarmouth, NS. It's not clear to me where or when Lily/Henriette died. She was living with Julia up until at least 1953, when they were both in the electoral register at the same address, and both using the last name 'Campbell'. For a moment, in my research, I thought perhaps that Lily had changed her names to Theodora Newell, using her daughter's middle name, and her first married name. I kept turning up records for a Mrs Theodora Newell, widow, from Atwood's Brook, a municipality of NS, about an hour south of Yarmouth. On closer inspection, however, it seems unlikely; the family name 'Newell' was quite common in that part of the principality, and Theodora was a relatively common name for the age.

Whilst Julia's grave gives her birth date as 1904, other documents suggest her birth was closer to 1900/01. No reliable birth record has yet been found.

When I first discovered that Julia and Alexander had children, who would have been cousins to my mother, I was a little excited. We've been living in Canada now, for about 18 years and all our family are in the UK and mainland Europe. If Sandy and Peter had children I might have distant relatives in this new world; how fun would that be!?! Alas, and alackaday- it was not to be so.

I have not been able to find any reliable life records for Sandy, but the obituary for Peter Albert Campbell stated that he 'was the last surviving member of his immediate family.' This suggests to me that Sandy had passed away without issue too, meaning that, for this branch of the family, it is the end of the line.

Peter Albert Campbell's obituary.

Or is it? Today, while tidying up the last few bits for this blog I discovered a tree on Ancestry, that I'd never seen before. It includes 'Sandy', Peter, and their parents, Julia and Alexander. It also includes a spouse, and two children, all of whom are still living, and so details are unavailable to me. I have messaged the tree owner, and wait with curiosity! Maybe I do have some living Canadian cousins, after all!

And that is where this story ends, or does it?

To see the letter in full, and to read my research notes about it, and the people written about, please follow this link.

#Newell

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https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=112166