The Carruthers Family Papers tell about the lives the Carruthers Family over three generations whom started in Cumberland, England and then migrated to the United States, where they first landed in Worth County, Missouri, then to New York, before settling down in Worchester County, Maryland. The collection includes print materials that feature the Carruthers Family throughout the 1880s to around the 1960s. All of the materials are in print or photo static copies of the original, and include accounts of various family histories, handwritten and typed correspondences, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and other assorted materials. The collection is arranged in accordance to how it was received as well as in chronological order. The majority of the materials were acquired by John Carruthers’s great-great grandchild, Linda Janes Andrews.

John Carruthers was born in Broughton, England in 1820. Later in his life, he married his wife Elizabeth Slide, whom was born in Hensingham, England in 1828. Throughout his life, he and his family had moved around many times to various places in England. In 1871, he bought 50 acres in the St. Bees District and took up the occupation of farming. John and Elizabeth had eight children, William (1844), Ann (1846), Margaret (1848), John (1850), Joseph (1853), Sarah (1860), James (1863), and Thomas (1866).

His oldest son William Carruthers was born in Workington, England in 1844. When he got older according to a census from 1861, his occupations included ship carpentry, farming, and coal mining. In 1870, he married Henrietta Dixon, whom was born in Whitehaven, England in 1847. William and Henrietta had seven children together; Elizabeth (1871), John (1873), Isabel (1876), Sarah (1878), Margaret (1886), Wilhelmina (1888), and Jonathan (1891).  Ten years after his marriage in 1880, he and his brother Joseph left England on Old Baltic White Star boat, ending up in Worth Co. Missouri. For the next few years he and his brother began buying and selling land. He later returned to England in 1885, to gather his family, bringing his wife and at the time four children back with him to Missouri. William became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1888. A year later, he and his family returned to England to care for Henrietta’s mother. In 1905 he again moved his family back to the United States, staying in New York for two years, and settling down in Maryland. William continued to buy and sell land. Acquiring a farm, where they lived out their lives until Henrietta’s passing in 1923, and William’s passing in 1934.

The oldest son of William, was John Currie Carruthers, born in 1873 in Cumberland, England. Throughout his childhood he moved around between the United States and England. He returned to England in 1898, where he met Emma Jane Dickenson, whom was born in 1876 in Whitehaven, England. A Few years later in 1902, they married. John and Emma had two daughters, Anna (1903) and Henrietta (1912). John began his career as a photographer. He later gone into business with his brother in law, William Kyle whom bankrupted their business leaving them in debt. Due to this John left in 1906 for the United States, two years later he returned for his family. They moved to Maryland to live on a part of a farm they bought from his father and mother. In 1920, John lost a leg due to an accident wood cutting. Due to this, John and Emma took in a boy in 1928, Charles Ruark to help around the farm. Charles was a difficult child, breaking laws, disobeying and eventually losing his gas rations in the 1940s. In 1943, the court ruled a release of Charles from John and Emma’s care. A year later, in 1944, John passed away, Emma soon after auctioned off the family farm. Emma moved in with her daughter Anna, living out her life there until her passing. Both John and Emma are buried at the Washington UM Cemetery in Shady Point, Maryland.

The Carruthers Family Papers offers an extensive look into the life of the Carruthers Family over three generations from the 1880s to around the 1960s. The collection is comprised of two parts, a print portion that contains pieces of the Carruthers Family Life, as they began establishing their lives in the United States, as well as brief accounts of the family history and genealogy provided by the creator of the collection. The second part of this collection is made up of oversized items that also depict life of the Carruthers family. This collection also helps to document and give a glimpse into what life was like for immigrants coming back and forth to the United States in the 1900s.