The sources for uncited facts about Bill’s life are ancestry.com and the Scotland’s People site. Otherwise, source links are included within.
When William “Bill” Littlejohn was born on May 8, 1875, in Galston, Scotland, Bill’s father — also named William — was 26 and his mother, Jeanie, was 24. He was the first son and third oldest child in birth order, but his older sister Helen Cochrane Littlejohn (the first with this name) died of scarlet fever at the age of 5 when he was only 3.
His mother gave birth ten more times after Bill was born, but only nine survived. One of those children was also named Helen Cochrane Littlejohn. This Helen would eventually join Bill in Utah with her husband and children.
His brother George (Geordie) was born on December 19, 1882, in Galston when Bill was 7 years old.
His sister Helen was born on September 28, 1884, when Bill was 9 .
His sister Elizabeth (Lizzie) was born on May 25, 1890, when Bill was 15.
His first brother to be named Buchan was born on December 12, 1891, when Bill was 16. Wee Buchan died a few weeks later.
The Littlejohn family moved from Galston to Dreghorn when Bill was in his late teens. Around this time, his father directed him to leave home and get an education. He went to college in Edinburgh. The topic of his major is unknown.
His second brother to be named Buchan was born on May 18, 1894, in Dreghorn, when Bill was 19 years old and had already left home.
He came back to Dreghorn and married Mary Lindsay in February 1899, when he was 23. He and Mary would go on to have six children.
Bill’s mother died about three months after his wedding.
His daughter Janet Strachan Littlejohn was born on February 25, 1900, when Bill was 24.
When Bill was 26, his son William was born on October 15, 1901.
When he was 30, his son Alexander Lindsay was born on October 14, 1905.
His twins, James Cochrane Littlejohn and Jean Manson Cochrane Littlejohn, were born on April 20, 1907, when Bill was 31.
Just a couple weeks after their birth, Bill left for America on May 3, sailing out of Liverpool and arriving in New York, en route to Dawson, NM on May 12 1907. Mary and the children stayed in Scotland.
Bill settled in Dawson, New Mexico with Mary’s brother, James Lindsay. Dawson was known as the “Pittsburgh of the West”, the second largest coal camp in the world. In 1908, he was appointed junior sentinel at the local Masonic lodge.
When Bill was 35, his son William died in Dreghorn on July 21, 1910 of a brain tumor, at the age of 8. There is no available record saying when he traveled back to Scotland for this tragic event, but he ;eft Scotland to return to Dawson, NM on August 27, 1910, arriving in New York on September 6.
About a year later, in June 1911, Mary and the children traveled to America with Bill’s Uncle Robert and his family. Since August the previous year, Bill had moved to Sunnyside, Utah, a mining town near Castle Gate. This was Mary and the children’s final destination, according to the ship’s passenger list.
Bill was 37 when his father passed away on February 8, 1913, in Dreghorn, at the age of 64.
His son Robert Lindsay Littlejohn was born on June 28, 1913, in Castle Gate, Utah.
Bill was 41 when his youngest brother Buchan was killed in action on October 12, 1916, in France.
His wife Mary passed away on August 18, 1919, of uterine cancer in Castle Gate, Utah, at the age of 42. Bill was 44. They had been married 20 years. She was buried in the Castle Gate cemetery. (Her remains were later moved to the cemetery in nearby Price, Utah.)
According to the 1920 census, Bill lived in Castle Gate with his five children and he was employed as the General Superintendent at the Utah Fuel Company.
Bill married Elsie Yetive Haas in Price, Utah, on November 25, 1921, when he was 46 years old and Elsie was 27. They married on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Elsie was the widow of a dentist who had died during the Spanish Flu epidemic, and she had two children, Naida and Malcolm, who joined the Littlejohn household.
Bill was 48 when his sister Helen died on August 27, 1923, in Castle Gate.
On Friday, March 7, 1924, Bill attended a Masonic Installation and got home late. Because he slept in on Saturday morning, he was not inside Mine #2 when the explosions killed all the men working inside.
The rest of Bill’s story will be told in Book 3, Kind Miss.
Castle Gate - The Book 