F. Horace Salmon

1919-1921

Rug Sales Person

New York City

Returning from the War, Horace went to 254 East 184th Street in New York City to live with his mother Alice Salmon (Deborah Alice Lake Salmon, 1854-1940) and his sister Hilda.  He got a job as  an Assistant Buyer of Oriental Rugs at R. H. Macy’s Department Store. Horace completed the Macy’s Executive Training School and worked there for two years four months. Click here to read an interesting story about the tiny corner property around which Macy built its world famous 34th Street and Herald Square structure. Horace left them in October 1921, four months after his marriage. It is interesting to note that the world famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades got underway in 1926, five years after he left. Horace started a new job in January 1922 with Wanamaker’s, as the story continues in the next chapter.

The Wilford Doig Family of St. Johns, Antigua

Horace had grown up in Antigua with the family of Wilfold and Liz Doig who eventually had ten children. Wilford was a watchmaker, a trade he had learned from his Scottish father. Besides repairing the time pieces of most everyone on the island, he was the technician who maintained the huge clock in the steeple of St. Johns Cathedral. This made him one of the most looked up to persons in Antigua.

Frank and Alice Salmon invited Liz Doig and her children to spend several weeks together at Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour starting the summer of 1897. The oldest, Ferne, remembered as a four year old, the big white house with the porches. By the time Frank Salmon left English Harbour and moved his family to St. Johns in 1903, the Doig children included Ferne (same age as Hilda Salmon), Avelyn (same age as Charlie Salmon), Emerald, Claude, Hyacinth and Oscar.

The Salmons were living in the Admiral’s House during the 1890’s (today called the Caretakers House) and there was lots of room to sleep the growing number of Doig children. Furthermore, the Dockyard was full of interesting places for children to explore along with a constant array of visitors from distant lands. The Doig home at 40 Newgate Street, with Wilford’s watch shop on the first floor, had bedrooms in the large second floor and a yard for play. But during the summer rainy season there were few breezes right in the center of that city compared to the cool trade winds at English Harbour.

The Children of Wilford and Liz Doig

• • Ruby Ferne Doig    Born OCT/26/1893.   Married Phil Owens of Barbados and had a son, Stanley Owens. She died NOV/16/1987 (94).
  • Wilford Avelyn Stanley Doig    Born SEP/08/1895.   Avelyn died in APR/8/1913 (17).
  • Emerald Eucharist Doig    Born AUG/16/1897.   Married Arthur Essex, and had a daughter, Hazel Essex. After a divorce, Emerald married Gordon Howard. She died JUL/01/1983.
  • William Claude Randolph Doig    Born JUN/3/1899.   Married Josephine “Judy” Casey and had a son, Barry Doig. After Judy’s death, Claude married Eve Buxhoeveden. They divorced and Claude married Betty Riculfi. He died May/15/1978 (79).
  •  Pearl Hyacinth Doig    Born APR/4/1901. Never married. No children. Died in APR/1955 (54).
  • Oscar John Duncan Doig    Born DEC/10/1902. Had a daughter by Ann Roberts named Veronica “Pearl” Doig. Had three daughters by Ivey Fane: Anthea “Annette” Doig, Avelyn Doig, and Arrah “Babs” Doig. Oscar died FEB/2/1986 (83).
  • Still born baby (unnamed), about 1903 (0).
  • Beryl Myrtle Doig    Born JAN/22/1905. Married Edward McGinnity and had a son, Bob McGinnity. Beryl was living in New Jersey in 1988 (age 83).
  • Violet Amethyst Doig    Born JAN/18/1907. Married Mike DeVlieger, a widower with daughters Kathryn DeVlieger and Joan DeVlieger. They had a daughter, Nancy DeVlieger who married Jack Collins in Connecticut about 1967.
  • Arnold Malcolm Branch Doig    Born AUG/25/1908. Married Ma Carroll and their only child was still born. They were living in New Jersey in 1988.
  • Tulip Crystal Doig    Born SEP/29/1913. Married Franz Alfeis and had no children. Living in West Palm Beach Florida in 1988.

The Will Doig Family of Cookesville, Brooklyn & Rutherford

Wilford’s younger brother Will Doig (Wm. James Edwin Duncan Doig, 1876-1902) had emigrated to the USA the year before Horace Salmon was born in 1888. In 1893 Will (then 26) married a Maryland minister’s daughter (Carrie Lee Hobbs Doig, 1869-1943) on her 24th birthday and they eventually had three girls:

• • Haroldyn Doig Bromfield Couto (1894-1987). Aka: Hal Bromfield & Virginia Couto.
  • Carrie Elisabeth Doig Salmon (1895-1973).  Aka: Betty Doig & Betty Salmon.
  • Ethelwyne Doig Forrest (1902-1978). Aka: Poss Doig & Jay Forrest.

As the Wilford Doig children had migrated to the USA during the 1910’s (the Teen Years), they were joined by Horace’s sister Hilda and his mother Alice in New York City during the War. As the War ended, Horace moved right in among them, and they all wanted him to meet their cousin Betty Doig, a school principal in New Jersey. It became a wonderful courtship, ending with their marriage in June 1921. And that is how the Doig family and the Salmon family were joined forever.

The story continues in the next chapter.