LEARMONTH-LERMONTOV. A HYISTORY OF THE NAME AND FAMILIES

Philadelphia, one of which being overloaded was lost; the
other, containing twenty-two men, reached the shore in safety.
The Winslow was burned at the dock at Duluth in 1891, and
was a total loss also; she was being unloaded at the time and
had very little cargo aboard. The steamer Annie Young was
burned on Lake Huron, about ten miles from Port Huron, in
1890, and was a total loss. There were added to the fleet
during this time four new steamers, Susquehanna, in 1886,
Codorus, Schuylkill and Mahoning, in 1892. Mr. Learmonth is
also the patentee of the Buffalo Feed Water Heater and
Purifier, an apparatus that has added greatly to the efficiency
of the marine boiler, and is now being extensively used, with
good success, on many of the largest lake steamers. Mr.
Learmonth was wedded to Miss Anna Frame, a native of
Leith, Scotland, who died in 1892. Four children were born to
this union, three of whom are now deceased; the other, now
Mrs. John Ferguson, resides at No. 200 La Fayette Avenue,
Buffalo, N.Y., where Robert Learmonth lived during his
retirement.
Learmonth Families in Australia
Henry Learmonth (1801-1891).
This is a short account about one ordinary family
called Learmonth who in 1865 emigrated from Scotland to
Australia.
During the 19th century several thousand families
called Learmonth and similar name variants left Scotland, in
search of a better life in Australia, Canada, the United States
of America, South Africa and New Zealand. We tell the story
of just one family as an illustration of the contribution that the
Learmonth families made to their new countries by their hard
work and Scottish traditions.
In October 1865 a ship called Morning Light arrived in
Melbourne Australia. This passenger sailing ship along with a
number of other similar ships specialised in transporting
people to Australia, Canada and the USA from the British
Isles. Amongst the passengers (Ref: B251 003) were Henry
Learmonth (60) his wife Jane Learmonth (60) (Illus. 63)
together with Henry’s youngest son Alexander Learmonth
(22) his wife Miriam Learmonth (22) and their son Henry
Learmonth (1) (Illus. 63). Also travelling with them was
Henry’s grandson Robert Learmonth (18) (Public Records
Office of Victoria) who came to live with his grandparents
after he was born in 1847. He was the son of Thomas
Learmonth (Henry’s eldest son) and Helen Henderson. They
travelled from Melbourne to Bullarook to join David
Learmonth (Henry’s 6th son aged 27) who had been in
Australia since 1857.
At this time Bullarook was a gold rush settlement and
was a collection of basic wooden buildings which would have
made life both difficult and uncomfortable. Today there is not
much left of the town apart from a few signs to say where it
was. Jane Learmonth died here on 12th June 1866 only 8
months after they arrived. She is buried in the nearby
Creswick cemetery, there is no gravestone. However the burial
record details the plot number and also the cost of the funeral
(£2) which in those days was a considerable amount of money.
We do not know the cause of death but the living conditions
cannot have been a healthy environment and may well have
contributed to her demise (Information from Warren
Learmonth Lang, Australia).
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