Daniel Alexander McLaren. Son of Jean Primrose and Malcolm McLaren. Daniel was born just 2 days before the Siege of the Alamo started in Texas where Davy Crockett, Jim Travis and Jim Bowie were killed a few weeks later at the battle of the Alamo. Darwin was a few days from Sidney aboard The Beagle. In 1861 he is recorded in the census as living at 6 Victoria Place with his sisters Charlotte, Janet and Mary and mother Jean. His father Malcolm had died when Daniel was only 14. He is recorded as being a timber merchant and living in Grange Street in 1871 so in the ten years he had greatly improved his situation. It would seem likely that he spotted an opportunity in the timber trade having been exposed to importing whilst he was a ship brokers clerk. Heavy duties had been removed frpom inported timber in 1857 and this triggered a huge growth in the trade throughout central Scotland. Daniel became a partner in McPherson and McLaren the timber merhants who had a large saw mill and yard on the old town side of Station Brae on the eastern side of Junction Dock.(This survived until the 1960s). In 1874, aged 38 he married Miss Jean Brown Hogg who was some 8 years younger than he. She had seven siblings, 6 brothers and one sister and her father Joseph Hogg was a master mariner (ships captain) who had died in 1866 in Quebec,Canada. Three years after the marriage Daniel had Avondhu House built on Bobness Roadand he and his wife and two daughters, Jessie and Jeannie moved in. At this time, the house was effectively in the countryside outsiode of town. Boness Road was literally a wide dirt track with Avondhu reached by horse and carriage. In 1879 a son Malcolm joined the family but sadly died only 4 months after his birth. In 1883 a son Joseph William Charles McLaren was born. Daniel died in 1917 having been a prominent businessman in town and supporter of the Free Church as well as being a shareholder and director of Grangemouth Gas Company. He is said to have been very Victorian and somewhat stuffy and strict which may have been the result of being the man of the house from a young age and losing his father at age 14. The image of Daniel with his wife and children would likely be dated c 1880. Jessie was the elder and Jeannie the younger daughter. The image of Daniel in the grounds of Avondhu House would be early 20th century and probably only a few years before his death in 1917. All images used with permission of the copyright owners.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 09:10:00 +0000
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