From Pit to Palace

From Pit to Palace: A Romantic Autobiography by James J Lawler. The Palace Publishing Company, New York (1906).

Just came across this strange book. It can be read or downloaded on the Internet Archive website. It's subtitle is 'A Romantic Autobiography' and is set in Wylam and Heddon on the Wall. It may well be an autobiography of the author, James J Lawler, but then why is the hero of the story called James Raymond? I can find neither of these named individuals in local records. The author's preface only provides this clue (the emphasis is mine):

Many biographies have been written of successful men who began life under the poorest conditions and while this sketch, which consists of more facts than fiction, might appear like repeating an old story ...

Heddon Hall (but not as we know it!)

Although many recognisable events, descriptions and named people do occur in the book there are also many errors. They could of course be put down to a poor memory of past events and places. There is also much that smacks of fabrication and a huge desire to set the hero in the best possible light. If it is an autobiography it is certainly high on the big-headed side and there is little modesty.

It is a story about the power of ambition and knowledge gained through the dint of hard work and perserverence in the manner of Thomas Edison, James Watt and George Stephenson. James Raymond is also described as being born in Wylam, which is said to be another 'important event to all civilised nations'.

... a young genius by the name of George Stephenson, now well known to fame, gave the world the first practical demonstration of the locomotive ... and this was from the brain of an uneducated boy!

He even names this first locomotive as the 'Dilley', which he says was built by Stephenson to carry coal from Wylam to the navigable part of the river.

The geography is a bit out as are the spellings of some of the places. For instance:

The town of Wylam is situated about eighteen miles north of the famous city of Newcastle upon Tyne ... which takes its name from that crazy stream the River Tyne, whose riplets are brought into existence from the melted snows on the Cheviot Hills of Scotland.

Lemington is referred to as 'Lementen'. One of the characters catches a train from 'Writing Station' after crossing the Tyne by the rowing boat ferry. This should, of course, be Ryton.

Heddon on the Wall is spelt 'Hedden on the Wall', and Heddon Hall as 'Hedden Hall'. The illustration of Hedden Hall on page 126 (shown above) bears no resemblence to the current (or former) building and the description of the interior and grounds appear greatly exagerated and much more like Close House (which is not mentioned at all).

An autumn excursion down the River Tyne to Sunderland on a steam paddle boat enables the Heddon villagers 'to see for the first time the great Atlantic Ocean'.

James' father is described as working at the Wylam Blast Furnace and James had to go to work at seven years of age in the pit, as a trapper boy, opening and closing the doors underground to allow ventilation.

By this time in the history of the village of Wylam a railroad bridge had been built across the River Tyne, which made connections with the North British Railroad. This line now skirted the opposite bank of the river, and covered the distance between the city of Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Several events provide important clues about dates. Wylam Bridge was constructed in 1836 to connect the ironworks with the railway on the south of the river. The North East Railway only started to run through passenger trains to Edinbugh in 1869. The alternative line on the north side of the river, using the trackbed of the colliery waggonway was only completed in 1876.

The reported year of birth of the author, James Joseph Lawler, is given as 1856 on the Online Books website. If events are correct he would have gone down the pit seven years later (1863).

The book records a major event, an underground explosion of a steam boiler at Wylam pit, that ended James Raymond's brief coal mining career. This was a real event and took place on 27th October 1865. You can see details on the Durham Mining Museum website which links to transcripts of two local newspaper articles.

The actual events seem to be very much as described in the book. Three miners close to the boiler were killed in the explosion: Anthony Curley (brakesman, age 21), W Blackburn (fireman) and Edward Best (a tub rope boy, age 13). They are all buried in Ovingham churchyard. The newspaper reports that the events underground were witnessed by a hewer, J Thew, and 'a little boy' (unnamed). Was this little boy the author? The book doesn't name Edward Best but does name Anthony Curley (engineer), and provides a first name for William Blackburn (foreman). 

The book names many other people in Wylam and Heddon on the Wall and was after all how I found it, in a Google search for 'Isaac Jackson'. He was a pit-man and self-taught inventor and mechanic. However, Jackson died in 1862 aged 66 and would have been unable to teach the author important facts about the physical world, as he does in the book, after the age of six.

The book describes several boyhood friends, including Ned Jackson, nephew of Isaac Jackson, and Jack Charlton from a family of carpenters and joiners. James and Jack remained good friends 'until separated by the Atlantic Ocean', a possible clue to the author's emigration.

Leaving employment at the Wylam pit after the explosion, James Raymond goes to work at Bates' Fire Brick and Terra-cotta Works, near Heddon. Coal for the works is mined from a drift situated close to the factory supervised by a Mr Baxter. Sally Baxter, his daughter, is the love interest in the story and has many admirers among the young men of the neighbourhood.

In the book, James Raymond rises to become a factor at the Works, then assistant superintendent, eventually getting his father a job at the factory and moving to Heddon on the Wall.

The owners of the Heddon Brick Works and Colliery, the Bates family described in the book, are of course real people as was their home, Heddon Hall. Thomas Bates (1810-1882) was a Northumberland gentleman-farmer and barrister ('Counsellor Bates' in the book). On his death, his son, Cadwallader John Bates (1853-1902),  inherited his father's and uncles' estates including Heddon Colliery where he had worked in the Colliery Office ('Squire Bates' in the book).

We can find the Baxter family in the 1871 Census in Heddon on the Wall. Head of the household, Thomas Baxter (born 1823, Hartley) is described as Colliery Overman. His daughter, Sarah Baxter was born in 1855 and is presumably the 'Sally Baxter' of the book. Thomas' eldest son, William Blackett Baxter (born 1851), described as a coal miner in 1871, is said in the book to have been put in charge of the coal works as superintendent. I can't make out where this family were living but it is unlikely to have been a mansion.

Memorial to Thomas Baxter erected by Thomas Bates, St Andrew's Churchyard, Heddon on the Wall. Photo A Curtis (2011).

The gravestone for Thomas Baxter shown above is inscribed:
Erected by Thomas Bates esqr., Heddon Banks in memory of his agent Thomas Baxter who died May 26th 1879 aged 56 years manager of Heddon Colliery for 17 years. Also Margaret wife of the above who died June 8th 1894 aged 67 years. Thomas son of the above Thomas Baxter died April 18th 1899 aged 42 years.

'Robert Maxwell' in the book studying to be a minister of the church could be Michael Heron Maxwell who was vicar of St Andrews Church 1850-1873.

Despite all these clues, I can find no records of a James Lawler or a James Raymond in either Wylam or Heddon on the Wall at that time. Sarah Baxter disappears from the record after the 1871 census where she is 16 and I can find no record of her subsequent marriage.

The author, James Joseph Lawler (1856-?), in America wrote, three other books:
Lawler's American Sanitary Plumbing: a Practical Work on the Best Method of Modern Plumbing (1896).
Modern Plumbing, Steam and Hot Water Heating: a new practical work for the plumber, the heating engineer, the architect, and the builder (1899).
Practical Hot Water Heating, Steam and Gas Fitting, Acetylene Gas, how generated, how used (with George Hanchett, 1900).

He also took out several patents including US Patent 752987 A for a Hot Water Radiator in 1904:

Be it known that I, James J. LAWLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at 31 1 South Third avenue, Mount Vernon, county of Westchester, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Hot-Water Radiators, of which the following is a specification.

There is also a patent for a thermostatic mixing valve (US1801094) filed in 1930 and signed by James J Lawler (Inventor).

In the book, James Raymond marries Sally Baxter in Hedden village church with Squire Bates as his best man and wedding celebration in the elaborately decorated surroundings of Hedden Hall. James Raymond, James Lawler, someone else or no one real, how do we separate fact from fiction?

The 1900 US Census has a James J Lawler born in England in 1854, living in Mt. Vernon City, Westchester, New York. His parents were Irish. The immigration year is given as 1863 and shows that in 1900 he had been married to Fannie I Lawler (born in New York,1870) for eight years, and had one child.

Jokingly, I had thought of naming this blog post, 'From Pit to Plumber', but that now seems unfair. James J Lawler was clearly no ordinary plumber but an expert in his field, a good technical writer, competent draughtsman and inventor, holding many plumbing and heating related patents. If his origins were indeed as an uneducated man, working in the local coal mine at age 7 and largely self-taught in mechanics, hydraulics and the physical sciences, then why shouldn't he be proud of his achievements. Maybe he did for American plumbing what that other uneducated pit lad from Wylam, George Stephenson, did earlier, for the railway.