Joseph McEwan
Joseph McEwan was a player but never one of the first order. But he was one of the first. In 1872-3 and 1873-4 he was amongst the squad that Vale of Leven F.C., aka The Vale drew upon to fulfil their fixtures. But more importantly still he had been amongst the small group of men, who on 20th August 1872 had formed the club, indeed he, a man who in later life would prove himself good with finance, was the clubs first ever Treasurer.
McEwan had been born in 1848, probably in Bonhill itself and started work in the printfields, where his father was a Dyer. In 1871 he is recorded as twenty-two and a Calico Printer. But by 1881 he had moved to Glasgow, working as a Clerk in Bolt Manufacturer and eventually becoming a Manufacturer himself and a successful one at that.
When he died in 1917, aged sixty-nine and having never married, his elder sister, Marion, with whom he lived in Glasgow for the best part of thirty years, had him buried in Cathcart Cemetery, another of the important, early footballing figures to be buried there.
And on her death in 1922 Marion would join him in what is now a another grave with what looks like a toppled stone, as would in time a couple more members of the family; a nephew in 1934, a niece in 1952.
Birth Locator:
1848 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
Residence Locations:
1851 - Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1861-71 - Cunningham's Lane, Hilton, Bonhill, Dunbartonshire
1881 - Kelvin, Glasgow
1891-1901 - 35, Houldsworth St., Glasgow
1911 - 43, Queensborough Gardens, Glasgow
Death Locator:
1917 - 43, Queensborough Gardens, Glagow
Grave Locator:
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