JOHN WHYTE was a warehouseman journeyman of Burnt Island, County Fife, Scotland. About 1817, he married MARGARET WHYTE (this surname is listed on the marriage registration of son William to Margaret McConnochie). They had at least one child, WILLIAM WHYTE, born in Scotland about 1818.
Nothing is known of William as a child or as a young man. It is known that he married twice. Details of his first marriage are unknown but the marriage registration of William to MARGARET McCONNOCHIE on 4 Jan 1864 in Burnt Island, County Fife, states that he was a widower, age 46. His trade is shown as shoemaker journeyman and Margaret is listed as a domestic servant. She gave her age as 36 (born ca 1828), daughter of JAMES McCONNOCHIE, lath splitter, deceased, and JEMIMA LUMSDEN. Both William and Margaret gave their residence at the time of their marriage as Linktown of Abbotshall. (Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Scotland). It's not yet known when William Whyte died though family tradition is that he died aboard ship. Margaret McConnochie died 11 Feb 1904, age 77, and she is buried at Rothsay, Isle of Bute (west of Glasgow), Scotland. The grave stone also memorializes her son William Whyte. A third name on the stone is Mary Beckett who died 8 Oct 1923, age 82 (born ca 1841). Her relationship to the McConnochies or the Whytes is unknown, though she may have been a sister to Margaret McConnochie.
ISSUE, three children, a daughter died very young:
- JAMES WHYTE, born 8 Oct 1862, Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
- WILLIAM (Bill) WHYTE, born 30 Jan 1865, Berwick Place, Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He died in 1929 and is buried in Scotland at Rothsay, Isle of Bute. The grave stone states, "To The Memory of William Whyte Husband of Christina Whyte, Died 9th April 1929, aged 64 Years". At the bottom of the stone is, "The Above Christina Whyte Died 27th May 1952, aged 84 Years". William Whyte was "gas manager" at Rothsay at the time of his death.
JAMES WHYTE was born 8 Oct 1862 at Kirkcaldy, County Fife, Scotland. His name recorded at birth was James Beveridge McConnochie, mother Margaret McConnochie, father not listed. ("Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages", Scotland). He apparently assumed the surname Whyte as a child, whether by law, marriage, or otherwise, as he has never been known by any other name. As a young man in Scotland, James received the customary schooling along with additional instruction in the classics, probably comparable to what we know as Junior College. At age 22, he immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on or about 6 May 1885. He applied in New York City for citizenship on 14 Jun 1887 and was granted citizenship in Lenox, MA, 22 Sep 1891.
James married on 31 Oct 1889 in New York City, ELLEN J. ROBERTS, who had come to New York in 1882 to work as a "lady's maid". Culver Brown Jr tells me that before their marriage, James went to California to see about moving there with his new bride. While there he received a Bible from his brother which was inscribed, "To JAMES WHYTE, [Cal. U.S.A.], from his brother, BILL, Kirkcaldy, N.B., March 1889." In San Francisco James bought an engagement ring for Ellen. James and Ellen were married by the Reverend B.B. Tyler at the Church of the Disciples of Christ, at 323 West 56th St, New York City.
Ellen Roberts was born 24 Apr 1864 in Fair Haven, VT, the daughter of Hugh Roberts and Mary E. Jones (from her death record, Lenox, MA, Town Clerks Office). Ellen had brothers Hugh Roberts and David Roberts. David was an engineer with the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. After Hugh's death, Mary Roberts married Joseph Williams and daughter Ellen went to live with a cousin in either Utica or Schenectady, NY. Mary and Joseph Williams had eight children.
James and Ellen Whyte moved about 1890 to a house on Hubbard St in Lenox, MA, where all four of their children were born. While in Lenox, James worked as a painter and paper hanger. He was listed in the Dalton Lenox Directory in 1897, employed by L.C. Peters of Lenox. The directory of 1907-08 states that James Whyte had "removed to New York".
Ellen Roberts Whyte died 9 Jul 1897 at Lenox, MA, of exhaustion and shock following a miscarriage. Her funeral took place at the Congregational Church, Lenox, MA, and she is buried in Middle Granville, NY, at Elmwood Cemetery. After her death her daughter Ruth went to live with Edith Phillips of Poultney, VT. The two young sons, Gordon and Malcolm, were placed in a children's home called Sheltering Arms, located on W 129th St, New York City. And daughter Margaret went to live with Alex and Jane McConnachie in Lenox. Alex McConnachie was a close friend and cousin of James Whyte. He emigrated from Scotland in 1882 and he was the head gardener at the Dixie estate in Lenox for 52 years. (The Dixie estate later was deeded to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and became part of Tanglewood, the Berkshire Music Center.)
James Whyte returned to New York City after Ellen's death. He worked there for Thomas Snell & Company and when Mr Snell died he left the business to James. As a master painter and president of the Snell Company, James practiced and taught the demanding arts of interior decoration including free-hand mural painting, multi- stencil pattern making, gold leaf and hand painted wallpaper matching. Among his clientele were some of the "four hundred" who were listed on the Social Register and considered some of the City's most prominent families. James was a talented artist who produced many beautiful oil paintings of the Scottish countryside. He was a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the New York Caledonian Club, a social club for people of Scottish descent. He also participated until well into his seventies in the Scottish game of "curling". An article about the game in "Time", dated 21 Feb 1938, refers to him as one of the "Grand Old Men" of the game. The article ends with this amusing statement, "Then with ear-splitting song, the hardy curlers shouldered their brooms and paraded to the bar for refreshment."
Grandpa Whyte loved gardening. He kept a garden in Central Valley as long as he lived there. Grandson Culver Brown Jr remembers also how he used to send flower seeds and bare root stock up to his daughter Ruth's house near Pawlet, VT, and then when the time was right he would go there and plant his garden. James lived there with Ruth for about two years before his death from cancer on 20 Jul 1946. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Middle Granville next to his wife.
ISSUE of James Whyte and Ellen Roberts:
MARGARET McCONNOCHIE WHYTE, born 17 Aug 1890, Lenox, MA, christened on 7 Dec 1890, died 16 Nov 1971, and is buried at St Annes Catholic Church Cemetery, Lenox, MA. Margaret married MICHAEL JOSEPH HALPIN. She worked for many years for the Charles H. Dana family. Martha Brown says that according to Aunt Margaret, Michael Halpin was a florist in Lenox. Michael died in Oct 1918 and he is buried in Lenox.
GORDON ROBERTS WHYTE, born 19 Dec 1891, Lenox, MA. As a child, Gordon had a beautiful singing voice. He was offered the opportunity to attend St Paul's Episcopal school in New York City for cathedral choirboys but his father declined the offer. Later on in his life Gordon's hobby was buying old, and sometimes barely usable, musical instruments. He took great pains in repairing them and was able to play almost any instrument he found. Gordon apprenticed under his father, achieved journeyman status and then worked with him in New York City. He also took jobs on his own from Tuxedo Park, a village upriver from New York which was the summer home of many of the 400 people listed in the Social Register. One of Gordon's accomplishments was the restoration in 1929 of the gold leaf decoration around the ceiling of the ballroom of the famous Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, Canada, the historic hotel located within the walls of old Quebec City. When his father took over the Snell company, Gordon was made the foreman and when his father retired, he was left to run the business.
Gordon married in New York City on 27 Feb 1914, MARGARET JANE (JENNIE) DIACK. The ceremony was performed by the Rev R.E. Bell. Jennie Diack was born 20 Feb 1895, in New York City, the daughter of ALEXANDER (ALEC) DIACK and EMILY IRWIN. When their daughter was born, the couple lived at 4294 Park Ave and by the time their eldest son was born, they had moved to 716 Fairmont Place. Both addresses were in the Bronx, New York City. While the children were still quite young the family moved to Central Valley, NY, where they lived in a house next door to Jennie's parents, the Diacks. Gordon was still working in New York City but came home on weekends. The children attended school in Central Valley.
Jennie died on 9 Nov 1931, and she is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Middle Granville, NY. Soon after her death, daughter Dorothy left to attend college and son James left school to go to work with his father in NY. The youngest, Edward, was just 13 then so he stayed some with Grandma Diack and some with Culver and Ruth Brown until he finished school in Central Valley. A few years later, about 1935 or 36, Gordon married Ann Collins in New York City. He died there on 19 Aug 1946, just one month after his father's death. Gordon is also buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
MALCOLM (Malc) CANMORE WHYTE, born 25 Nov 1892, Lenox, MA. Malc served in the US Marine Corps from 1909 until his discharge in Jan 1919. During this time, he was the heavyweight boxing champion of the Marine Corps and served on the USS Connecticut, the USS North Carolina, the USS Michigan, and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After his discharge, Malcolm lived in an apartment at the corner of 7th Ave and 40th St in Manhattan, New York City. He earned a living driving a limousine and he was a locksmith. Malc never married and died on a New York subway train on 4 Oct 1960. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Middle Granville, NY.
RUTH ELLEN WHYTE, born 14 Oct 1894, Lenox, MA. Ruth married 9 Dec 1922, CULVER SIDNEY BROWN, at a church commonly called "the Little Church Around the Corner", located in Manhattan, New York City (the Church of the Transfiguration, Protestant Episcopal, East 29th St, bet Fifth & Madison Ave's). She had worked for awhile in an office in New York City before marrying. Ruth was a talented artist who produced many beautiful watercolors. Culver Brown was born 28 Aug 1893, the son of Wilbur Waite Brown (born 8 Dec 1856, died 13 Jul 1930, buried in Pawlet, VT) and Addie Culver (born 10 Jun 1860, died 22 May 1919).
There have been Whytes in America for a couple of hundred years. But our Whyte family didn't arrive here from Scotland until 1885. It's unlikely there are descendants in the United States unknown to me at this time, but since I can only show two additional generations in Scotland for this line, there could be connections that far back who emigrated to America at another time.
GORDON R. WHYTE married MARGARET JANE DIACK. The Diack line goes back to Aberdeen, Scotland.