Yorkshire cattle trader discovers his US farming family history

Andrew farmed at Peel Park with his wife Ann until a decade ago having taken over from his father Allan who had been well-known in the sheepdog world. Andrew’s pedigree Holsteins won many awards and he ran the AI breeding company Taurus. Today he principally buys and sells cows trading from home in Whixley.

“Through researching dad’s book I came across Hannah. Her maiden name was Hannah Green and she was my great grandmother’s great aunt. On a handwritten family tree from years ago I found the entry that simply read ‘went to America 1842’. This intrigued me as I didn’t know we had any connection with anything or anyone family-wise in America.”

Andrew uncovered a tale that saw not just Hannah, her husband Thomas and their three sons make their way from a small cottage at Hoyle Fold Farm along Stairs Hill, the old Haworth road to Hebden Bridge and from there to Liverpool across the Atlantic and the Great Lakes to settle in Kenosha County, Wisconsin but also a party of around 20 all from the same community.

“It will have made quite a difference to the village at the time with a substantial number of its population leaving but the fear of the industrial revolution wiping out jobs must have taken its toll. We talk about migration today with more and more people coming to the UK. Back then it was a big issue the other way around.

“What I found was that Hannah and Thomas, who were married at Keighley Parish Church in 1823 were not just a family chasing a pot of gold. They’d done their homework, listened to others and were not the only ones with Hannah’s American Dream, the title of the book. In time they were joined by many more friends and family from Yorkshire who became part of the historical mass migration of Europeans to the New World. It was to be a life far removed from Hannah’s hand-loom weaving to supplement Thomas’ farm work and stone masonry in Exley Head, but as I found out there were still the farming connections.”

The Atlantic crossing took 31 days from Liverpool to New York. This was followed by journeys up the Hudson River and along the Erie Canal before meeting up with a fellow Exley Headian, John Rhodes in Buffalo who had moved out years previously. John had been instrumental in inspiring the party to move from Yorkshire and his father Abraham Rhodes had come over with the group.

From there their adventure next took in the crossing of the Great Lakes. Six weeks after leaving Exley Head they reached Southport in Kenosha County, Wisconsin where government land was available. Having purchased a block of land they eventually built up to 280 acres.

The family descendants went on to all kinds of occupations. Hannah’s eldest son William bought a 102-acre mixed farm in the Brighton township of Kenosha and won many prizes with Cotswold sheep local agricultural society contests, while his son Will became marshal of Dodge City.

“Will’s time as marshal wasn’t that of the dance halls and saloons of famous western movies. His claim was that he never had to shoot a man to arrest him.”

Thomas Rhodes’s death saw the family farm run by his younger son John. In turn John’s son Louis and his two sons Clarence and Frank built up what became Rhodesdale Farms which specialised in prize winning Shorthorn cattle and Chester White hoggs.

Rhodesdale Farming ceased in the 1950s when the area was compulsorily purchased to make way for an air base that was never built.

“Hannah’s son John, who was just a year old when arriving in Wisconsin, had a daughter who married a man from Louisiana. She brought her father a Bald Cypress tree and it’s still standing today. It’s the back cover of the book.”

Andrew believes other families may be interested in Hannah’s American Dream.

“Readers who have connections with Yorkshire families such as Rhodes, Green, Shackleton, Hanson, Clapham, Sunderland, Bottomley, Leach, Tuley, Wright, Ripley, Whiteley, Wadsworth, Whitley, Berry or Murgatroyd will discover the part they played in this story. Hopefully some will be able to add even more and help me find the answers to many other questions that still remain.”

Hannah’s American Dream is available in paperback or as an e-book from Fryup Press, Bracken Hill, Glaisdale, Whitby YO21 2QZ or www.annbowes.co.uk