Today I made my first foray into Clackmannanshire today. My first stop almost immediately after crossing the border from Perth and Kinross, was the picturesque Muckhart Churchyard which sits at the foot of the Ochils. There I located the grave of Johanna Pow. She died of influenza and pneumonia on the 5th of December 1918 at Blairhill, Muckhart aged thirty-five years.
Johanna Harley was born on the 13th of December 1883 at North Lodge, Balbirnie, Markinch, Fife to shepherd William and Isabella (nee Kirk). At the 1891 Census Johanna, then aged eight, was the youngest of the couple’s five children. The family still resided at North Lodge. A decade later, the Harley family had left Fife and relocated to Black Briggs Cottage in Muckhart, by which time Johanna had left school and employed as a general servant. In the household only she and her elder sister Margaret lived in the family house.
On the 10th of June 1910 Johanna married land Stewart John Pow in Muckhart. The following year the couple had moved to Blairhill.
The couple would go on to have a son and three daughters; influenza robbing the family of a wife and a mother.
Johanna was interred with John’s mother Jane who died on the 3rd of August 1915.
In 1921 John and the children remained at Blairhill. Thomas John’s elderly father resided with them. He died in December 1925 and joined Jane and Johanna in Muckhart Churchyard. That same year John got re-married to Elizabeth Weir in Perth on the 27th of November. They were married for nearly twenty-seven years. Elizabeth died on the 9th of October 1952; John the following year on the 16th of October. Both rest in Muckhart with Johanna.
Sources: FindAGrave, ScotlandsPeople
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