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The information I've obtained on Jack Fotheringham is frequently only oral history. The main sources other than published information noted in the bibliography page comes from information supplied by Lorraine Bailey or Betty Lou Fotheringham Lindgren. My source on the Green side of the family comes from Judy Schulte. My thanks to these individuals.

Based on what I've found at some Scottish websites, the Fotheringham name means "one who provides (or brings) food". This is a rather vague definition, which winds up telling us not much about the occupation of the original Fotheringham.

The research I've been able to do on Scottish records has been limited to the free sites. I've found Fotheringham individuals in "The Kingdom of Fife", aka the Shire of Fife, or Fifeshire, with birth dates in the early 1700's. These people have been found in a variety of occupations including coal miners, colliers, farmers, weavers, and wrights.

However, I have not yet found how OUR John Fotheringham is related to any of these families.

If you discover any glaring errors in facts or stories, please e-mail me with your corrections. Or, if you can help fill in some of the blanks, I'd be grateful!

The ancedotal tales of our ancestors, which cannot be supported by facts, will be found with the following title:

John Fotheringham was born 18 June 1845 in the Shire of Fife, Scotland to Francis and Mary (Walls) Fotheringham. He died 19 April 1917 at Academy, Charles Mix Co., SD. He is buried in LaRoche Cemetery, Academy, Charles Mix Co., SD.

John, who listed his occupation as a carter, married 1) Marian Logan, daughter of William Logan and Marion S.Wilson on 11 Mar 1870 at New Haven, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. She died 29 Aug 1870 due to a brain abscess.

On 28 September 1874, he married 2) Agnes Walls at Orwell, Kinross, Scotland.

Agnes Walls was born 20 April 1848 at Leith, Lanark, Scotland. She was Christened on 11 June 1848 at United Association Burgh Seceders, Limekilns, Fife, Scotland. She died 15 May 1931 in Charles Mix County, SD. Her parents were: John and Agnes (Dick) Walls of Saline, Fife, Scotland. Oral history indicates that John Walls was a harbormaster or lighthouse keeper at Firth of Forth. John Walls and Agnes Dick were wed on 29 Jun 1838 in Saline, Fife, Scotland. They were enumerated in the 1851 Scotland Census as residing in Renfrewshire.

Agnes Walls was the widow of Noah Green. Agnes and Noah were married 22 March 1872 in Dumfermline, Fife, Scotland. Noah had been born about 1846, either in England (oral history) or in Lanarkshire, Scotland (1871 Scotland Census High Church registration district, Lanarkshire). He died of consumption (tuburculosis) in 1872 at Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland.

Obituary for Agnes Fotheringham, published in 'The Platte Tribune' on 31 May, 1931:

Agnes Walls was born April 20, 1848 in Leith, Lanarkshire, Scotland and was united in marriage to Noah Green in 1870. He preceded her in death the following year.

To this union was born one son, John Green. In 1874 she was again united in marriage to John Fotheringham, who preceded her in death, April 19, 1917. To this union was born two sons. Frank and George. The son Frank, preceded her to the Great Beyond at the age of seventeen years. With John Fotheringham she came to America, landing at Bradddocksfield, Penn. in 1875. They moved with their family to Fort Kearney, Nebr. during the early settlement of that country, from which place they turned east in Rock Island, Ill. Later they moved to Buck Grove, IA. where they resided until 1904, when they came to a farm south of Platte. There they lived three years and moved to Academy where she lived until her Savior called her Home, May 15, 1931, at the age of 83 years and 25 days.

She leaves to mourn her passing, two sons: John Green of Vivian, SD, and George Fotheringham of Academy; eleven grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, besides a host of friends.

Funeral services were held at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon at the Academy church conducted by Dr. L. E. Camfield. Internment was in the Academy cemetery.

-A Tribute-

'Tis a far cry from Edinberg, ancient Metropolis of Eastern Scotland with its harbor city of Leith washed by the waters of the Firth of Forth, to a farm on the open prairies of South Dakota. To span that distance even in imagination was not dreamed of by the little 3 year old Agnes Fotheringham. 80 years ago. At that early age she was bathing in the salt sea waters of the harbor, hearing the songs of the sailor lads as the white winged ships glided with the poetry of motion into the harbor, following the father from wharf to wharf, as in his office as harbor master he directed the moving of the ships, listening breathlessly to the stories of narrow escapes from shipwrecks in the wild, windswept waters of the North Sea.

These and like experiences in childhood and youth entered into the making of a body capable of endurance, of hard work, of prolonged toil, and with such resistance to disease that scarce a day of sickness ever afflicted her except for the short period at the close of her life.

but it was not alone a strong, enduring efficient body that made Grandma Fotheringham an angel of service throughout as many years.

Equally strong, enduring, efficient was her Christian Character. To explain such a character we must go back to the foundation laid in the home life, the church life, the school life of Scotland. Would you build as she built, then read your Bible with understanding mind. Don't miss reading Scott and Burns, and Watson and Kingsley and a host of others who depict lives like the life of Grandma Fotheringham. To be li(k)e Jesus, the Christ of God, the Lord and Master of her Soul, that was her constant prayer. Spontaneously we exclaim her reward must be----"Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Lord." for your life has been hid with Christ in God. ....Louis E. Camfield.

Frank David Fotheringham. born 11 November 1875. Possibly near Braddocks' Field, PA. He died 07 February 1892 at Buck Grove, Crawford Co., IA of a ruptured appendix. He is buried at Buck Grove Cemetery, Crawford Co., IA. Find A Grave Memorial# 5429056

John and Agnes arrived in the United States in 1875. Which means that if (as oral history indicates) they departed Scotland aboard a sailing ship within mere days of their wedding, the Atlantic crossing must have taken at least three long months.

Jack and Agnes first arrived at Braddock (aka Bradock's Field), Allegheny, PA in 1875. In modern times, this is located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. This former battlefield had very recently become the site of a brand new industry, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, built by a fellow Scotsman, Andrew Carnegie. It is likely they spent the winter there, so that Agnes could deliver their son, Frank.

From there they made their way westward by wagon, headed toward Ft. Kearney, NE, possibly with the intent of acquiring some of the land upon which Ft. Kearney (abandoned in 1871, 2 years after the completion of the Transcontinental Railway) had stood, or some of the railroad lands made available under the Homestead Act. If so, they probably arrived to discover the good land already taken, and would have returned back across Iowa. A slow, plodding journey with 2 small children, which would have kept them almost continually on the move for many long, difficult months. Finally, they arrived in Rock Island, IL. There they remained at least long enough for their son, George, to be born in late autumn of 1878.

While in Iowa, the family participated in the Buck Grove Methodist-Episcopal Sunday School. Agnes was listed in an 1897 Souvenir Program as a teacher for the Senior Bible Class, and George appears as a student in the First Intermediate class.

Jack and Agnes remained in Crawford County, IA until 1904, when they moved to the Hugg farm in Signal Township, Charles Mix, SD area to be near their son, George. In 1908, they purchased a farm from Charles Slate, in La Roche township, near Academy, SD. John Green also moved to Charles Mix County area at an unknown date.