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Misc.Saturday, May 28, 2005
Arriving in America 1905
Dad arrived when he was five years old. He came across on the Mauritainia with his father, mother and brother. Apparently the ship came in to New York and the family transferred to another vessel that took them from New York up the St. Lawrence and finally let them off in Greenbay, Wisconsin. The family always said they did not enter New York and never set foot on Ellis Island like most of the British immigrants.
The official sponsor of Dad's family was Uncle Ben. He lived in Greenbay and vouched for the family and promised to help them get started in America. That was how it was done in those days.
My Dad's father, my grandfather, died when I was quite young. My recollections of him are limited. He was a large man with hands that had seen a lot of work. I am pretty sure that both he and my grandmother on that side were not able to read and write.
My grandmother was as small as grandfather was large, yet she was the memorable one. When I first was acquainted with Grandmother Webb she stood about 5 feet tall, had bowed legs, lots of freckles, curly kinky black and gray hair, and talked so fast she sputtered. Grandfather Webb, by comparison, would rather sit his lanky frame on the porch stoop and carve a whistle from a piece of wood. He usually had a pipe with a curved stem hanging from one side of his mouth as he talked. Like most Englishmen of the day, he had stained, worn and broken teeth. Grandfather Webb gave the impression of being a quiet but powerful hard working man, and that's just what he was.
When my father and his family left England the Victorian age was drawing to an end. London was still as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens before him has described in several novels. Life was mean for the poor folk, unemployment was high, poverty was rampant, and opportunities to improve were all but non-existant. Dad's part of the Webb family came to America while another branch of the Webb family went to Australia.
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More recollections some other day.
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