!In Kirkintilloch he was a coal miner. After coming to Chicago he worked as a
steamfitter. He lived with his sister, Kate Kilday, while making money to send
for his family to join him. He was employed some of the time at the Pullman
car works in Pullman (Chicago), Illinois. A tribute written about him by his
son, John, in 1974 follows:

!"DANIEL RANKIN SEMPLE. 1886 - 1935. He would be 88 if he were alive today. If
you take eighty-eight away from 1974 you get 1886. That was after the Civil
War. The history books place it in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. I
guess it must have been quite an upheaval. A lot of small home industries
suddenly moved out into large factories. Child labor and long hours were
customary and expected in the home industry, so the practice continued in the
factories.

!The factories needed energy, and that energy came from coal. Scotland had lots
of coal, but it was deep down and in thin, two-feet-thick seams. This meant
hot, wet, hard work for many men.

!Daniel Semple started working in the mines when he was around fourteen. He
loved to play football (Yankees call it soccer), and he played semi-pro level.
The work, of course, interfered with the fun. The problem was less in the
spring and early summer because the days were long. After putting in your
eleven or twelve hours of work you could play outside until midnight. In
December or January, though, you never saw the sun and only saw daylight on
Sundays. It was dark when you went to work; dark when you came home; six days
a week. It usually rained on Sundays. The miners went on strike occasionally,
and this helped the footballers, but then the wives and mothers were at the
men, constantly asking them for money to buy food. But the birds continued to
sing.

!Dan's brother noticed a wee lark one morning on the way to the pit. It seemed
to have a broken wing and could only move by hopping and by flapping one wing.
He decided to catch it, take it home, fix the wing, and see how things worked
out. He chased the bird across the fields but could never get quite near
enough to catch it. He was now late for work, so he decided to go back home.
His mother met him at the door, heard his excuse, let him in the house, and
richly damned Geordie and that wee lark for the financial set-back.

!Conditions being what they were, a man didn't take a wife until he was pretty
well settled. Dan was no exception; in fact, he was around 28 when he and
Martha Young Shaw were married. The children came every two years; and, in
additon, Martha's brother, Archie, moved into the three rooms with them. It
helped, of course, to have the toilet out back, and the community laundry room
provided a busy, convenient meeting place for the women. Uncle Archie liked to
take a "drap" or two on a Saturday night. He always came home singing and with
his pockets lined with sweets for his nieces and nephews. They wouldn't go to
sleep until he came home. This drove Martha crazy, but she really loved it.

!There were now four children with another on the way. Dan had a sister, Kate,
living in Chicago. Work was plentiful there. He made up his mind to move. He
said the move would not benefit him or Martha, but the children would be better
off. He left by himself for Chicago. He intended to live with his sister and
brother-in-law in Pullman, save money, and bring the family over as soon as
possible.

!Four years later the family arrived. It was now 1927. They rented a duplex
kind of house in the town of Pullman and started their household all over
again. He was now a steamfitter in the Pullman Car Works. A steamfitter is
like a plumber, only he works on cars and industrial machines. In 1929 the
depression came and the car works closed. To save a little money, the family
moved "up the hill", next to Dan's other sister, Nell. The new place was a big
frame, stove-heated flat above the Roseland Gospel Mission. The floors were
cold in the winter, except on Sundays, when the store front mission was in
operation. The water pipes always froze in the zero weather, but Aunt Nell's
water pipes were just next door and they never froze. Martha found a job at
the People's Store as a cleaning lady. Dan picked up jobs whenever he could.
The government supplied beans, stewed tomatoes, and bread. Dan's ulcer got
worse. He had to buy lots of baking soda. Old country men never keep house or
mind the kids, but he did.

!Pullman hired back sporadically. An order would come in for 20 or 30 cars, and
the men would come back for two or three months until the order was filled.
There were many unemployed men. They would congregate in Palmer Park around
nine each morning for the "crack" (conversation) and a game of cribbage or
pinochle. When the factory whistle blew at noon, the men walked home for lunch.
They returned to the park in the afternoon. It got the men out of the house, it
cost nothing, and it helped keep them human and almost sane.

!Dan was working steadily again for six months or so. The family moved to a
better three bedroom flat owned by a nice Lithuanian family. In May of 1935
Dan died in the bathroom alongside the toilet. He had been painting the
kitchen ceiling earlier and complained of a bad headache. Martha thought the
headache was caused by an accident in the mines. A piece of machinery flew off
a machine and sliced him across the forehead. Martha said the doctor lifted
the lid of his head, painted the inside with iodine, closed it, and bandaged
it. He got better, but there must have been a clot left floating around up
there. The attending physician, Dr. Bennett, agreed that this was quite
probable, but said on the death certificate that death was due to a heart
attack. This avoided having the coroner perform an autopsy. Anyway, Martha
cried, shook Dan, and called, "Wake up, Daddy Semple," but he didn't wake up.

!It was a very hard, wet funeral. It cost over $400. The youngest child,
Robert, was eleven. Margaret, was the eldest, and she quit Fenger High School
to take a job as a clerk in a grocery store. Nellie and Martha, the other
girls, did housework for pay. The family moved back to Pullman, where they
rented a piano, quite comfortable, for $17 per month. John got a little job as
a check boy at the car works. Martha had a job cleaning up in Jansen's
Furniture store.

!The family was doing well. All the kids except Margaret graduated from high
school. They were all bright, but Margaret was the brightest. The American
dream seemed possible.

!Dan was buried in Mount Greenwood Cemetery, right next to the golf course. If
107th Street were extended from Western Avenue, he would be on the south curb
of it. He never had a paid vacation, a car, a house, or a phone. I guess you
could say that he played life to a draw; no victory, no defeat. His legacy?
Five people out of the mines. Not a bad one at all. Many people have left
more things, but very few have left more substance."

!Note: It is Ellen's recollection that it was Dan who followed the lark and was
late to go to work. Also, two of Martha's brothers were killed in mine
accidents. One of them lived for 3 days after with the inside of his lungs
seared and blistered from the gas explosion. Ellen remembers that John wrote
the above about his father after John's son, Dan, had asked about his
grandfather.


BURIAL: Mt. Greenwood Cemetery, Chicago, Cook, Illinois

!Refer to John's tribute to his father, Daniel Rankin Semple, for details of
Martha and his life together. In addition to that, Martha talked about working
as a young girl in the weaving mills in Scotland. And about taking the
children on a sunny day to a field near the river or canal, and being told to
leave by the owner. She was indignant that the children should be deprived of
innocent play in the huge empty field. She also talked about how she missed
the hills of Scotland after she came to Chicago. She was homesick for her
childhood home, at least until she was quite advanced in years and made a trip
back. She had apparently forgotten the cold, wet rain. And, of course, her
children and grandchildren were here.