52 Ancestors #8 Hannah Elizabeth Buck, My Grandmother's English Grandmother

     My grandmother, Bessie Hudson, would often talk about her "English Grandmother".  She and her three sisters would often have tea with her after school. In fact, Bessie grew up drinking tea, not coffee, due to her grandmother's influence. One family heirloom I inherited was Bible pages from her family's Bible and HER grandmother's family's Bible.

     Hannah Elizabeth Buck (or Elizabeth Hannah Buck as it is recorded in the Manchester Cathedral parish records, but just Elizabeth in the family Bible) was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, on 10 May 1844. She was the daughter of John Buck and Sarah Lane. John was the son of William Buck, a fustian manufacturer (huh? fustian was a denim-like cloth, very big business in Manchester in the 19th Century). Sarah's father was William Lane, an Iron Monger (huh? he sold metal objects). John Buck was a sailor, although in the 1841 Census he is listed as an Iron Monger and is living with him Father-in-law. Elizabeth always referred to him as a sailor with pride. Unfortunately John died 16 Dec 1846 when Lizzie (as she was called by the family) was only 2 1/2 years old.

     Perhaps for this and other reasons, the whole family moved to America in about 1849. Sarah's brother, William Frederick Lane, his wife, Jane and children came first, the rest followed.  They settled first in Buffalo, Erie, New York. William Lane, his wife, Hannah, his son, William and daughter, Sarah Buck, are listed in the 1850 Census but Jane and her children and Sarah's children are not listed. In Buffalo Sarah met and married Thomas Kay, also from Manchester. They were married June 14, 1851 at Trinity Church. Their first three daughters, Sarah Buck, Mary and Anne, were born in Buffalo. Their son, Willie, was born in 1859 in Ontario, Canada.  So they moved to Canada between 1856 and 1859.

 
     Again, the entire family, William and Hannah Lane, William Frederick and Jane Lane and children, Thomas and Sarah Kay and their children and her children, Edward and Elizabeth Buck, moved to Vienna, Elgin, Ontario, Canada.  Sarah had a  business as a seamstress and Elizabeth would've learned to sew from her mother.  Here she met John Marshall Cookson, recently come from serving in the Union Cavalry in the Civil War.  Lizzie and John were married on April 13, 1867 in Vienna. In approximately 1870 she and John moved to East Saginaw, Michigan. Thomas Kay and Sarah also moved with them, they stayed in Saginaw while Lizzie and John moved to nearby Au Gres, Michigan. Here John was a lumberjack.  Lizzie owned one of the few sewing machines around.  They made and sold sheets.  He ran the machine and she sold them! they had four children, two of whom died as young boys.

     Elizabeth was a small woman. From his pension records we know that John was 5'6" tall.  In the photo of them together she looks very small next to him, even seated.  So my guess is that she was 5' tall or less.

     About 1888 they moved again to Washington, Arkansas. John built a farmhouse in Springfield and his son and daughter both lived nearby with their families. Here my grandmother spent her early childhood with her three sisters, her cousins and her English grandmother. Lizzie died on Jan 20, 1916 of cancer of the bowel. According to family data she passed on to her children her interest in education and music. And she was remembered with great love by her granddaughters.