Author will give presentation on Watt & Shand

When Nancy Groff was a little girl, she and her sister used to visit her great-aunt Katharine at Roslyn, the large Lancaster home of Peter Watt (of Watt & Shand), on the corner of Marietta and President avenues. Her cousin, Ted Watt, did not visit quite as often because Aunt Katharine, daughter of Peter Watt and twin sister of Groff's grandmother, Annie, did not like little boys running around her home.

Now, Groff has written "Watt & Shand: East, West, Hame's Best," which tells Peter Watt's story of coming to this country from Scotland and founding Watt & Shand with James Shand. Groff will give a presentation based on her book at the New Holland Area Historical Society (NHAHS) meeting on Thursday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the chapel at Garden Spot Village, 433 S. Kinzer Ave., New Holland.

The title of the book comes from the inscription carved into the fireplace mantle at Roslyn. "Anywhere you go, north, south, east, or west, home is best," said Groff, who noted that computer programs continually changed the Scottish word "hame" to "home." Ted proofread Groff's manuscript, which she wrote by expanding on a seven-page paper she completed for a class in nursing school many years before.

In addition to Ted, Groff's cousin Will Watt Campbell, a lawyer, would call her over the years with information he had found about the Watt family. "My grandmother had pumped my head full of family history," said Groff. Campbell encouraged her to enhance what she had written. By 2018, she had pulled the college paper from a box in the attic and begun to write in earnest. By October 2022, she held the finished book in her hand.

The book, which begins in the mid-1800s, tells the story of Peter starting in the Orkney Islands, where he grew up on a farm. Peter's brother gave him a lump sum after their parents died, and Peter went to the island's capital city to work in a dry goods store. The owners of the store soon noticed that Peter's management was good for business and they sent him to Hartford, Conn., to attend school in hopes that he would take over management of the store. In America, Peter met Gilbert Thompson and James Shand, who were from southern Scotland. The trio formed a partnership and began searching for a good location to open a department store. "Someone told them the Lancaster square had a large business influence, so this is where they came," said Groff, who recounted how Thompson died shortly after the store was opened in 1887, and the remaining partners bought out his share.

At the same time Peter was growing his store, he began to grow his family. He returned to Orkney in 1882 to marry his sweetheart, Lizzie. Ten months after the marriage, Lizzie gave birth to Katharine and Annie, but she died seven days later. Peter hired a nurse, but he and Shand also cared for the children until Peter remarried. "They did a lot of the baths and feeding," said Groff, noting that the business partners lived around the corner from each other. Peter had four more children, three boys and a girl, with his second wife. One of those boys, James, was Ted's grandfather.

Groff noted that one goal in writing the book was "to continue what Peter instilled in us about always giving back ... always doing something productive." She pointed out that the partners founded the Board of Trade, which purchased Hamilton Watch and turned the flailing business around. "They brought Armstrong and Stehli's Silk Mill to Lancaster," Groff said. "That's what built Lancaster County up."

The program is free and open to the public. More information about NHAHS may be found at https://nhhistorical.com or by searching for "New Holland Area Historical Society" on Facebook.