WAY Brodie’s links to Lady Liberty
WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER’S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHIRE
There was hardly a dry eye when my Aunt Jean Pollock said farewell to her family and left her home at Glenpatrick Buildings between Foxbar and Elderslie for a new life in the American city of Boston more than half a century ago.
She sailed from Liverpool on a boat journey lasting several days, leaving behind relatives who wondered if they would ever see her again.
Then, it was many years before emigrants could save enough money in new jobs to return home to holiday with their loved ones.
Indeed, money was so scarce in this country during post- war years that some families couldn’t ever afford to visit relatives in their adopted homelands.
Sailing into New York Harbour, Aunt Jean and her fellow travellers voyaged in the wake of tens of thousands of Buddies who left Paisley and all they held dear to make new lives for themselves in the vast continent stretching between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Mine of information
Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets – the grimy and the good.
He wandered every corner in search of the clues that would unlock Renfrewshire’s rich history.
These tales were shared with readers in his hugely popular Parker’s Way column.
We’ve opened our vault to handpick our favourites for you.
The first thing the emigrants saw as they approached America was the massive 300-foot-high Statue of Liberty towering above New York Harbour and brandishing the Flame of Freedom in her right hand like a mighty matriarch welcoming adopted children into her family of nations.
But few Buddies who gazed on
Lady Liberty enlightening the world with her triumphant torch realised the foundation stone of the inspirational effigy was laid by an earlier emigrant, William Brodie, from Kilbarchan, where his parents were tenant landlords of a tavern.
William became a successful businessman and was elected Grand Master Mason of New York State where he was head of 70,000 Freemasons.
In that capacity, he laid the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty on August 5, 1884.
Then, as today, the Paisley Daily Express was read avidly by Renfrewshire expatriates across the world.
When William read in this newspaper that Brother Matthew Houston, Right Worshipful Master of Lodge St Barchan, had died, he joined members of his family lodge at a commemorative soiree on July 20, 1888, in Kilbarchan, where he was born 47 years earlier.
William Brodie died of apoplexy while leading a prayer meeting in Genesco, New York State, in 1917.
The Statue of Liberty is his monument.