Western District Women

Wonderful Western District Women Part 7

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

Emma CROUCH (1832-1904)

Emma Crouch was born in 1832 in London, England the youngest daughter of Edmund and Matilda Crouch.  Her father died while she was still a young girl and her older brothers George and Charles left England for Australia arriving in Portland around 1838.  Her sister Matilda married and moved to the United States of America in 1849. Emma continued to live with her mother and they resided at Roxeth, in the parish of Harrow on the Hill in London.  By the 1861 England Census, Emma and her mother were living still at Roxeth with Emma was working as a governess. Her mother died two years later.

In 1865, Emma’s sister Matilda died in California, and her children, Arthur McCann aged twenty, Kate McCann aged sixteen, and Eustasia de Arroyave aged eight, travelled to England to live with Emma in Roxeth. The following year, Emma then aged thirty-four along with her nephew and nieces, boarded Great Britain (below) for Melbourne arriving on Boxing Day, 1866. 

“GREAT BRITAIN”. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/95167

They then caught the steamer S.S. Edina (below left) to Portland to join Emma’s brother George and Charles.

SS EDINA NEAR WARRNAMBOOL c1863. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/28324

The brothers had established themselves in Portland. Both were in business and George was one of Portland’s first councillors. The Trangmar brothers James and Charles were their business partners at times and George and Charles each married a Trangmar sister.  

Once settled in Portland, Emma started a school in Hurd Street. 

Advertising (1876, July 11). Portland Guardian, p. 2 (EVENINGS.). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63316814

She was also an active member of the St. Stephen’s Anglican Church (below).

ST STEPHEN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, PORTLAND. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4157628

The Crouch family connection with the Trangmar family continued in 1876 when Emma’s niece Kate married James William Trangmar, a son of James Trangmar Sr. They moved to Coleraine where the Trangmar family operated a store. In the following years, Emma and Eustasia also moved to Coleraine, around the time James took over full operations of the store.  I like to think Emma and her nieces may be in the photo below, possibly in the garden of the adjoining house.

J.W TRANGMAR’S STORE, COLERAINE c1890. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/767465

Emma also established a school for young ladies in Coleraine beginning in 1881.

Advertising (1880, December 16). Hamilton Spectator, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225488162

She kept busy in the Coleraine community.  She was a member of the Coleraine Glee Club with Kate and Eustasia. The glee club opened the evening entertainment at the Coleraine Presbyterian Concert in 1881, thought to be the best concert held in Coleraine. Also on the bill that night, was Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens, a son of author Charles Dickens. Alfred was living in Hamilton then and dropped in to read one of his father’s works.

COLERAINE c1909 Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/385977

Emma was an active member of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church congregation and ran the local Girls Friendly Society connected to the church. The first Coleraine Industrial Exhibition was held in    1887  and Emma was on the executive committee. For the 1890 exhibition, the walls of the hall were adorned with artworks by local ladies including Emma. At the 1894 exhibition, Emma won first prize with her tortoiseshell cat.  She also entered potted plants and cut flowers into shows run by the Coleraine Horticulture Society.

Portland was still close to Emma and she often holidayed there. In 1904, however, Emma fell sick after her return to Coleraine from a summer holiday in Portland. To convalesce, she travelled with Eustasia to Kate’s home in Sturt Street, Ballarat but she died on 11 April 1904. She had remained close to her nieces during their thirty-eight years in Victoria and it was fitting Emma spent her last days with them.

The Portland Guardian reported Emma’s remains arrived by the evening train, then were “resting the night before the altar at St Stephen’s” ahead of the funeral service. The funeral cortege left the church for her burial at the Portland Cemetery. 

A memorial service was also held at Coleraine after her death and, on 20 December 1904, a stained glass window was dedicated to the memory of Emma at the Holy Trinity Church, Coleraine (below). It was made by Mr. Montgomery of Melbourne and it depicted the Good Shepherd with the words “To the glory of God and loving memory of Emma Crouch, born Oct. 8, 1832, at rest April 11, 1904”

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, COLERAINE 1970. Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/216987

DRISCOLL Mary (c1828-1908) also known as Mary O’DRISCOLL and Mary WADMORE

Mary O’Driscoll was born in Middlesex, England around 1828.  At the age of twenty, she married James Wadmore and they started a family.  On 8 November 1854, the couple and baby Mary boarded the Constant at Southhampton with their destination being Portland Bay.  James acted as an assistant to the ship’s surgeon on the voyage which saw an outbreak of whooping cough.  

Local Intelligence. (1855, February 26). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser, p. 2 (EVENING). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71571784

The Constant arrived at Portland Bay on 22 February 1855. Mary was carried ashore by one of the crew.

PORTLAND BAY c1857. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/266998

James secured work with Charlton Hedditch at Cape Bridgwater, twenty kilometres or so further west. It was an isolated area on the coast, a far cry from Westminster, London.  It was there in 1855, a daughter Anne was born. In 1856, James was able to select land at Cape Bridgewater, close to what is now Blowholes Road, in partnership with George Terril. A son William was born the following year and a daughter Sarah in 1859.

A month after Sarah’s birth, James was fishing on the rocks on the west coast of Cape Bridgewater with his mates George Terrill and Robert Wilson. 

CAPE BRIDGEWATER c1880. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/335580

The sea was rough and the men decided to move from their position as it was becoming dangerous. They set up in a new spot but about ten minutes later James returned to where they were first located.  A large wave came up and washed him from the rocks. George and Robert saw him swimming but he soon tired and sank.  His body was found washed up on the rocks the following Thursday and an inquest was conducted.  Mary’s account was forwarded to Portland’s Police Magistrate and subsequently to the Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser.  

FATAL ACCIDENT AT BRIDGEWATER (1859, October 31). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser, p. 3 (EVENINGS.). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64512566

CAPE BRIDGEWATER. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/64458

That left city girl Mary with a farm and four young children, including a newborn to raise alone. However, with the help of the other women in the district, she soon learned all she needed to run her farm and raise her children in the harsh and often lonely environment she found herself in.

Mary’s care extended beyond her own family. She was known for riding a “spirited bay mare” across the district helping those who were sick. In doing so, she was familiar with the ailments of the local residents.  In 1873, Mary was called as a witness at the inquest into the death of young Joshua Black who was found dead in his bed one Monday morning in May. Mary was one of the last people to see Josuha alive on the previous evening, and she was able to say he appeared well and in no pain. With her knowledge of Josuha’s medical history, she was also able to offer the evidence that Josuha’s health at times was fragile and he had previously had a bad cough and some pain above his heart but had been well since the last winter. Margaret’s witness statement is part of the inquest file of Josuha Black held by the Public Record Office of Victoria and available online. In her statement, her opening sentence was, “I am a labouring woman living at Cape Bridgewater”.

When Mary’s daughter Sarah was fifteen, around 1874, the local state school teachers approached Mary with an offer to train Sarah as a teacher. Mary was very proud of Sarah who went on to become the headteacher at Kentbruck six years later. Mary remained at Cape Bridgewater until around 1905. By then, Sarah was the headteacher at Tahara State School and her sister Anne was living with her and keeping the house. Sarah retired from her position and she and Anne moved to Portland. It was planned Mary would move from Bridgewater to live with them.  She sold her various farm implements.

Advertising (1905, June 16). Portland Guardian, p. 2 (EVENING). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63692584

Sarah and Ann purchased, Annesley in Julia Street, Portland, to operate as a private guest house. 

“ANNESLEY”, PORTLAND Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/233404

The girls looked after her mother until her death at Annesley on 3 March 1908.  Sarah and Anne continued on in Portland with Sarah contributing to the Book of remembrance of the pioneer women of the Portland Bay district in 1934, in which Mary’s story was told.  Sarah Wadmore died in 1941 and her sister Ann in 1942.

Margaret BROWN:  (1835-1939) also known as Margaret WALKER

MARGARET WALKER. The Age, 11 August 1939

“As quietly as she had lived for 104 years, Mrs. Thomas Walker, Hamilton’s grand old lady, passed away at her home in Shakespeare Street on Thursday last.” (Portland Guardian, 23 October 1939)

And so began the obituary of Margaret Walker (nee Brown).  After fourteen years of the newspapers documenting some of Margaret’s significant birthdays, 90, 99, 100, 101, 103, and 104, they were saying their last farewell to a woman who lived during the reign of six British monarchs. 

Margaret was born in Launceston on 11 August 1835 to Scottish immigrants John and Margaret Brown.  They had arrived in Launceston in the early 1830s.  They headed to Victoria around 1840 on the City of Sydney and John Brown was employed at Customs House in Portland.  On 11 August 1852, Margaret’s seventeenth birthday, she married Thomas Walker, a twenty-nine-year-old Londoner who had arrived in Portland in the early 1840s.  They were married by Presbyterian minister Reverand Ross at Portland.

The couple settled in Portland and remained there until 1866, when they moved to Hamilton, residing in Lonsdale Street.  Thomas made his living as a land agent and was able to acquire land around the town. Margaret and Thomas had eight children.  Two died as babies and in September 1880, her eldest son John Thomas died aged twenty-one.  Then in July 1900, their son Frederick was accidentally killed at Subiaco, Western Australia.

Close to 1909, Margaret and Thomas went to live at 5 Shakespeare Street, Hamilton and that is where Thomas died in April 1909 at the age of eighty-six. By that time, Mary had one remaining son, George who lived in Geelong, and two daughters, Eliza in Melbourne and Maria who lived with Margaret.

When Margaret was ninety-seven, Maria died on 1 July 1932 at Hamilton at the age of seventy-six. The following year was Margaret’s ninety-eighth birthday and she was given a walking stick. By the time her ninety-ninth birthday came around in 1934, she hadn’t used the walking stick.  She also didn’t wear glasses and would spend a few hours in her garden each day. By that time she also had nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Also in 1934, was the centenary of white settlement in Victoria, and an event was planned for Portland on 19 November. Margaret booked her accommodation well in advance. Her name would appear in the Book of remembrance of the pioneer women of the Portland Bay district written to coincide with the celebrations. She was one of only thirty-five female settlers named in the book still alive for the centenary. On the day, she was seated in a special area for those who had lived in Portland prior to 1864. 

PORTLAND CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS 1934. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/766444

Margaret expected to be presented to the Duke of Gloucester but organisers overlooked that detail on the day. Word got back to the Royal party and a letter was forwarded to Margaret. She received it from His Royal Highness through his equerry (Captain Schrieber) in December 1934. It read:

The Royal train, Queensland, December 3rd, 1934.

Dear Madam, the Duke of Gloucester is sorry to hear that, owing to an oversight, you were not presented to him when His Royal Highness visited Portland, and he wishes me to congratulate you on attaining the age ninety-nine years, and hopes that you will continue in good health to see your centenary. You will be glad to know that His Royal Highness enjoyed his visit to Portland very much.

It was a busy year. Margaret planted a commemorative tree at the western end of Gray street, Hamilton for the centenary celebrations, and she produced seventeen pieces of eyelet linen work, made to give as gifts to family and friends.

In 1935, Margaret’s 100th birthday celebration was held at the Hollywood Cafe in Hamilton with the Mayor of Hamilton, Cr. Stewart, in attendance. The Hollywood Cafe can be seen on the extreme left in the photo below. The enclosed verandah displayed the name of the cafe, and it shared the ground-level verandah with the boot and shoe store.

GRAY STREET, HAMILTON. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/62977

After that outing, it became difficult for Margaret to get out on her birthday, so the Mayor of the day would visit her at her home instead. For her 101st birthday in 1936, twenty-five friends and family gathered at Margaret’s home in Shakespeare Street. Highlights were a birthday cake with 101 candles and a telegram from the Red Cross Society. Sadly Margaret’s daughter Eliza died in November of that year.

The next three birthdays were celebrated quietly at home but Margaret continued in good health. That was until only weeks after her 104th birthday. Margaret became fragile, eventually passing away on Thursday 19 October.  She was buried the following day at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery with Thomas and Marion.

GRAVE OF THOMAS AND MARGARET WALKER AND THEIR DAUGHTER MARION WATSON. HAMILTON (OLD) CEMETERY. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria

Her obituary read:

During the whole of her sometimes eventful life, Mrs. Walker was a lover of all things beautiful, and in quiet contentment, surrounded by her own people and home where she could indulge her liking, which amounted to almost passion, for her garden, she enjoyed to the full her heart’s desire.  (Portland Guardian  23 October 1939)

The remaining living member of Margaret’s immediate family at the time of her death was her son George Joseph Walker. He died in 1960 at Geelong.

REID, Isabella (c1873 -1953) Also Known as Isabella Gilhome

Isabella Reid was the daughter of William Reid and Johanna Steven and was born near Heywood in 1874, one of thirteen children. The Reid farm was Athol Hill on the Fitzroy River two miles from Heywood. In August 1917, Isabella then aged thirty-four, married Charles Gilhome of Colac at the Heywood Presbyterian Church.  The reception was held at Heywood’s Federal Coffee Palace on the corner of Edgar and Scott Streets and owned by her father.

Portland Guardian (1917, August 17) p. 2 (EVENING). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64019248

Isabella and Charles at first lived at Heywood but moved to Bundoora in early 1918. It was then a rural area and Charles ran a dairy farm.  Around the same time, Charles began feeling unwell and was diagnosed with a liver condition. That led to depression and in July 1918, his doctor told him he should go away for a while. Charles and Isabella discussed his plight and Charles decided he would go away for a break. But it was too late. He died on Friday 12 July 1918.

Isabella initially stayed in the Bundoora area but returned to Heywood to be with her aging parents. In 1921, her father William died and in December 1922, the property in his estate was put up for sale including Athol Hill and the coffee palace.  Isabella went on to purchase the coffee palace and adjoining land from the sale.

Advertising (1922, December 23). Weekly Times, p. 18.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224001699

Vanda Savill’s book Dear Friends, Heywood (1976) mentions Isabella Gilhome and her sister Eliza Reid ran the coffee palace owned by the Reid family.  It’s hard to establish when that was. A newspaper article from the Portland Guardian in 1914 mentions Miss Reid as the hostess, however that could have been her sister Eliza.

Heywood Jottings. (1914, April 29). Portland Guardian, p. 3 (EVENING).  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63968838

Isabella didn’t hold ownership of the coffee palace for long because, in September 1924, it and the adjoining shop was purchased by Edwin Bond.

In May 1925, Isabella’s mother Johanna died aged eighty-three.  After her death, Isabella purchased Retreat in Millbanke Street, Portland, and she and her sister Eliza left Heywood.

News in Brief (1925, October 26). Portland Guardian, p. 3  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64108579

 On 8 July 1927, a furniture sale on Isabella’s behalf was held at Retreat with the property already sold.

Advertising (1927, June 30). Portland Guardian, p. 2 (EVENING).  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64257690

Isabella again returned to Heywood.  As a widowed woman, it was necessary for Isabella to generate an income and she was able to do that with property investment. Later her obituary would read, 

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Gilhome took part in many business transactions, becoming well known as a keen businesswoman through the purchase and sale of houses and shops. She was one of the first to recognise the growing land values in a period of rapid development.

In May 1929, Isabella bought a block of land and house in Heywood from the estate of Patrick King with frontages to Edgar and Lindsay Streets. 

Advertising (1929, April 24). Portland Guardian, p. 2 (EVENING).  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64269205

In 1932, she applied to purchase Crown Land adjoining Scott, Edgar, and Lindsay Streets.  While in 1945, she applied to subdivide allotments 4 and 5 of section 7 in Lindsay Street. In 1946, the Portland Shire Council bought a house belonging to Isabella at Heywood for £1300 for use as an engineer’s residence.  

Isabella’s activities in Heywood and Portland went beyond business. She was a generous and charitable woman and gave back to the community. In 1927, she donated a blackwood armchair to the Portland Hospital and another chair for the women’s ward at the hospital.

PORTLAND HOSPITAL c1945. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/366378

During WW2, Isabella was active with the Heywood Red Cross and was on the committee of the Heywood Returned Soldiers Association Women’s Auxilary  She donated money and knitted balaclavas and socks towards the war effort. 

William and Johanna Reid were among the earliest parishioners at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Heywood and by 1939, their daughter Isabella was the oldest parishioner. In April 1939, she was given the honour of turning the key at the official opening of St Andrew’s Sunday School. Her connection to St Andrew’s extended to the Heywood Presbyterian Ladies Guild.

Isabella Gilhome died in July 1953 at Heywood aged eighty. She was buried at the Heywood Cemetery.   

You can read about more Wonderful Western District women on the link: Western District Women

Wonderful Western District Women Part 6

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

March is Women’s History Month.  I started Wonderful Western District Women in March 2017 to take the stories of women I have found in my Passing of the Pioneers posts, delve a little deeper and then showcase their stories by way of the Wonderful Western District Women.  This year I have added a dedicated page as an index. You will see the tab at the top of the page or you can follow the link to read nineteen stories of wonderful women. – Wonderful Western District Women Index

The index includes the next two women, May Robertson and Eliza Cooke. The two had much in common. May was an active member of the Hamilton community who championed women’s rights. Eliza, a widow with a young family from Cobden, was a pioneer of the transport industry in the Western District and like May advocated women’s rights. Both signed the Victoria Women’s Suffrage Petition in 1891, calling for women to have the same right to vote as men. They also had a shared interest in horses, although May’s interest was for pleasure and Eliza’s for business.  Remember to click on any underlined text to go to further information on a subject.

ROBERTSON, Marslie May  (c1844-1930) also known as May LEWIS

Marlise May Robertson was born in Inverness-shire, Scotland around 1844 and was seven when she arrived in Melbourne with her parents Angus Robertson and Janet McPherson. It was December 1851 and the family would have been glad to reach dry land.  During the voyage, they faced a shortage of drinking water and a run-in with pirates.  The Robertson family stayed in Melbourne only a few days before journeying to Portland on the schooner Mary Agnes.

PORTLAND BAY c1857. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/75143

It was then on to Straun station on the Wannon River near Coleraine where May’s uncles John and William Robertson had already settled.  Life at Straun was not without its dangers. In 1859, May’s brother drowned in the Wannon River after riding his horse into the river in pursuit of a bullock.  The current swept from his saddle and into the water.  He was fourteen. The following year, Angus Robertson purchased Preston Farm about two miles from Hamilton and the family was on the move again.

In March 1868, May married William Sudgen Price Lewis, the stepson of Richard Lewis, a former owner of Rifle Downs at Digby. William was leasing Hilgay near Coleraine at the time and the couple remained there until around 1871 when they moved to Hamilton.  The Lewis family lived at Pine Lodge in Mill Road, Hamilton. May and William had eight children and some time after 1890, they took a young boy Arthur into their care, raising him as their own.

May was an excellent horsewoman. Her older brother John Straun Robertson rode in the Great Western Steeplechase, and if it was thought proper, I think May would have too.  She showed horses including Gold Dust for Samuel Winter Cooke in September 1890 at the Hamilton Show. Lord Hopetoun, Governor of Victoria and a house guest of Cooke at Murndal, was in attendance. It was day two and the ground was slippery.  While competing in the Best Lady Rider Over Hurdles class, Gold Dust fell at the first jump. May quickly remounted and wanted to continue but wasn’t allowed.   

THE HAMILTON PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. (1890, September 19). Portland Guardian, p. 3 (EVENING).  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63629652

Just months after the Hamilton Show, May and William lost their son Alive in February1891 aged six.  In May 1903, another son James died aged twenty-one.

May was very active in the Hamilton community with charitable works with the Salvation Army. She also joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), set up not only to promote temperance but also social and political reform.  The WCTU was very active in collecting signatures for the Women’s Suffrage Petition in 1891.  I was not at all surprised to find May signed the petition. 

Another of May’s interests was the  Australian Women’s National League formed in 1904.  A function of the conservative group was to educate women about politics.  The group was very active leading into the 1913 Federal Election and it seems May was in the thick of it.  In order to dismiss rumours of bribery, she wrote to the Hamilton Spectator saying she did what she did in “the cause of Liberalism”.

BRIBERY CHARGE DENIED. (1913, June 21). Hamilton Spectator p. 6.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225032224

May’s son Arthur Lewis was one of the first Hamilton enlistments for WW1, signing up on 1 October 1914 and leaving two months later.  He dutifully wrote home to May and William describing the sights of Egypt, particularly those with a biblical connection.  In a letter, they received in June 1915 written in April, before Arthur left Egypt for Gallipoli.  He wrote to not worry if there was a delay in receiving letters, as he may be going somewhere it would be hard to get letters out.  He closed  “I will say good-bye for just now, and wishing you all the best of luck – case of accidents: give my best love and wishes to everybody.”

On 12 August 1915, Arthur Lewis was shot in the abdomen at Gallipoli.  He was transferred to the hospital ship Guildford Castle, however, he died the following day and was buried at sea. On 25 September 1915, the Hamilton Spectator reported that the Lewis family had received the first news that not only was Arthur wounded over a month before, but he had died from the wounds.  The news came as a great shock to the Lewis family.  On 5 October, within two weeks of hearing of Arthur’s fate, William Lewis passed away. 

May kept busy. She had joined the  Red Cross, making shirts and knitting socks for the boys at the front.  She also entered her fuchsia and dahlia blooms in a Red Cross flower show.  But then May’s oldest son Angus died in Western Australia in March 1916 at the age of forty-four.  The Hamilton Spectator reported the loss was the third for seventy-two-year-old May in eight months. Not surprisingly she was not her usual “buoyant and energetic” self and was suffering bad health.

But May rallied finding strength from her charitable works and she joined the Friendly Union of Soldier’s Wives and Mothers.  Also, every Sunday she went to the Hamilton Hospital and handed out flowers to the patients.  Her last visit was Sunday 9 June 1930.

HAMILTON HOSPITAL. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/63599

May wasn’t there to hand out flowers the following Sunday.  She had died the day before on Saturday 15 June 1930 at the age of eighty-six.  Mary was remembered as Hamilton’s best known and much-loved resident and large attendance at her funeral was testimony to that. She was buried at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery with her husband William and son James (below).

COOKE, Elizabeth Jane (c1842-1932) Also known as Eliza MOREHOUSE

Elizabeth Cooke was born in 1842 and arrived in Victoria when she was eight.   After some time, the Cooke family made their way to Ballarat where, in 1866, Eliza married Charles Morehouse.  Children were born to Eliza and Charles in Ballarat before the family moved to Cobden in 1880 where Charles operated a store.  A son was born on 2 August 1881 but just under five months later on 27 December 1881, Charles was dead. Needing to provide for her family, Eliza continued running the store and from around 1882 was operating coach services.

“Classified Advertising” Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 – 1954) 12 August 1882: p.3.  <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23343841&gt;.

In doing so, she pioneered coach services between Cobden, Princetown, and Peterborough.  She moved on to mail services as well.  In 1885, she covered the Cobden to Camperdown run

THE CONVEYANCE OF MAILS. (1885, July 14). The Colac Herald, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90352779

She also set to work improving the store.

“Hampden Shire Council.” Camperdown Chronicle  9 November 1883: p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23348063

By 1895, Eliza’s delivery area had expanded.  

THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. (1895, May 6). Geelong Advertiser p. 4.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149936139

At one stage, Eliza had around forty horses working on her various coach services, and each she had selected personally.

ROYAL MAIL COACH, VICTORIA c1890s Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1696441

You could even take a Morehouse coach from Melbourne to Port Campbell for the summer holidays.

“Camperdown Chronicle.”  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1888.  p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18585307

Eliza also held the lucrative contract to provide bran and oats to the police of Cobden and Camperdown for their mounts. And not only that, she owned the goods shed at the Timboon railway station.  In July 1900, she told the secretary of the Timboon Progress Association (PA) she intended to pull down the shed and remove it to Cobden. Because Timboon couldn’t afford to lose their shed, the Timboon PA organised petitions to send to the Railway Department requesting they buy the shed.  They heard back in August, with the department having offered Eliza £22 for the shed but she refused. She then wrote a letter to the Timboon PA and told them the lowest she would go on the shed was £30.  If she couldn’t get that price, she would remove the building.  I didn’t find an outcome to the situation but I did note that in December 1905 a report in the Camperdown Chronicle mentioned it had been twelve months since the agitation began for a new goods shed at Timboon. 

Also In 1900, it was reported Eliza’s business was sold to Mr Smith of Colac and John Bryant of Camperdown. However, two weeks later it was reported she was building a new letting stable, corn store and cottage in Curdie Street, Cobden.

COBDEN NEWS (1900, August 30). Camperdown Chronicle p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26109212

Eliza’s daughter Ethel then went on to marry John Byrant in 1902.

Moving with the times, in 1910, Eliza replaced the horse-drawn coach services between Camperdown and Cobden with a motorbus.

A HORSE-DRAWN COACH AND A MOTOR BUS AT AN UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION. Photographer: John Henry Harvey Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/50441

Away from the transport business, Eliza was busy in the community. She was an active member of the Cobden Presbyterian Church (below) and was and the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union (PWMU).  With an interest in politics and women’s rights, in 1891 Eliza signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition at Cobden.  During WW1, she was the treasurer of the Cobden branch of the Australian Women’s National League (AWNL).

COBDEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collection https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/772413

On 5 August 1931, Eliza celebrated her ninetieth birthday at her home Kooringa, Curdie Street Cobden. The celebration including a birthday cake with ninety candles.  At the time Eliza was President of the Cobden Ladies’ Benevolent Society and still chairing meetings.

Eliza died the following year and was buried at the Cobden Cemetery.  A memorial tablet was unveiled in her memory in 1935 at the Cobden Presbyterian Church.

CAMPERDOWN CHRONICLE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1935. (1935, April 11). Camperdown Chronicle, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28750285

Eliza left three sons and two daughters. One of those daughters was Minnie Jane also very community-minded and involved with many of the same organizations as her mother.  Minnie never married and lived with her mother until her death.  Minnie died in 1945 aged seventy-six.

 

Wonderful Western District Women Part 5

/ Merron Riddiford / 1 Comment

This is the fifth edition of Wonderful Western District Women but the first with just one subject.  It is also the first with a woman who hasn’t been part of the WDF Pioneer Obituary Index.  I came to know Elizabeth Sharp when I wrote the Passing of the Pioneers entry for her husband Charles Gray leaving me thinking she was way more interesting than Charles (although he was far from dull). I discovered Elizabeth was a strong, independent woman who was musically and artistically gifted. She embraced the beauty of her surrounds and in doing so she charmed a Prince and earned praise from a Queen.  Click on the underlined text throughout for further information about a subject.

SHARP, Elizabeth (c1822-1903) Also known as Elizabeth Sharpe and Elizabeth Gray

Elizabeth Sharp was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1822, a daughter of watchmaker Christopher Sharp and Catherine Rankin. She had an older brother Richard (later a member of the Royal Irish Academy) and an older sister Catherine “Kate” and younger sisters Emily and Flora. On 4 January 1842, Kate married Thomas Doolan of Tipperary in Dublin (Dublin Morning Register, Thursday 06 January 1842, p. 2). Ten years later the Doolans and their children left for Portland, Victoria on the Runnymede, arriving on 3 June 1852.

As for Elizabeth’s arrival in Australia, it is generally accepted she spent time in Sydney up until 1857. That acceptance seems to come from artworks by Elizabeth depicting Sydney including this work showing Sydney Harbour (below) and another of the Sydney Heads which have been dated 1857.

SYDNEY TOWN AND SYDNEY HARBOUR c1857 Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/401521

The earliest I found Elizabeth in Australia is March 1855 but not in Sydney rather Portland, Victoria the destination of Elizabeth’s sister Kate and family. Dr Allison of Portland opened a museum in Gawler Street in 1855 and the first exhibition was in March 1855 with items of natural history and human art. Drawings in chalk by Elizabeth Sharp were part of the exhibition.  In December 1856, world-famous soprano Madame Anna Bishop (below) performed a concert at Portland. Elizabeth Sharp joined Madame Bishop for one of the pieces.  The Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser on 24 December 1856 said Elizabeth, who had a “musical reputation” performed the piece with Madame Bishop to “very good effect.”

MADAME ANNA BISHOP. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser p. 1017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164387353

The following year, Elizabeth and her sister Kate opened a school for young ladies at Portland with drawing and music on the curriculum.

Advertising (1857, January 21). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876), p. 3 (EVENING.). Retrieved March 16, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64567605

On 19 March 1857 Elizabeth married at Portland to squatter Charles Gray (below) of Nareeb Nareeb, south of Glenthompson.

CHARLES GRAY. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/294252

Elizabeth was around thirty-five and Charles thirty-nine.  Charles’ property was relatively isolated with Hamilton the closest large town, however, it was well established with Charles having settled there seventeen years before and no doubt there were servants making life more comfortable.

THE HOMESTEAD BUILT BY CHARLES GRAY AT NAREEB NAREEB ON THE BANKS OF THE GREEN HILLS CREEK. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/294239

A daughter Annie was born to Elizabeth and Charles at Portland, on 17 April 1858 and another daughter Emily was born in 1860 at Nareeb Nareeb. On 15 March 1862, a son was born at Nareeb Nareeb but he sadly died before he could be named. Possibly on doctor’s advice, Elizabeth then forty spent some of her next pregnancy at Neptune Cottage, (below) in Gellibrand Street, Queenscliff where a daughter Elizabeth was born on 13 February 1863. The family would visit Queenscliff often over the coming years including the Christmas of 1866.

NEPTUNE COTTAGE, QUEENSCLIFF IN 1983 Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/233621

Six days after daughter Elizabeth’s birth, two new lighthouses at Queenscliff, one black and one white were lit for the first time on 19 February 1863. Elizabeth would have seen the construction of the lighthouses in the lead up to the birth of her daughter as she looked at the coastline which inspired her to paint.  She created several watercolour drawings of Queenscliff including the one below dated 1863. Elizabeth drew the old sandstone lighthouse where the black lighthouse now stands which could be easily viewed close to Neptune Cottage.  The old lighthouse was demolished in March 1863.

VIEW OF QUEENSCLIFF SHOWING OLD LIGHTHOUSE c1863. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/401523

The Queenscliff black lighthouse…

THE BLACK LIGHTHOUSE QUEENSCLIFF

The year after her time in Queenscliff, Elizabeth sent five pieces, watercolour drawings and etchings to the 1864 Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts in Melbourne. One was a “view of the coast” at Queenscliff.  Another Western District exhibitor was Elizabeth’s sister Kate Doolan.  The sisters received excellent critiques for their works.

Local News. (1864, April 22). Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser (South Melbourne, Vic. : 1860 – 1870), p. 2. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194723963

In 1866, Elizabeth exhibited at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. Her watercolours included a view of Schnapper Point, a view of the Queenscliff lighthouse, possibly the one below, and a view of Queenscliff including the house of Mr Fellows.  She also exhibited a set of doilies with landscapes etched in ink on to the linen.  She received a medal for her doilies.

OLD QUEENSCLIFF LIGHTHOUSE c1863. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/401592

This is an amazing photo of the Fine Arts display at the 1866 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition where Elizabeth and Kate’s works were displayed.

THE FINE ART GALLERY, MELBOURNE INTERCOLONIAL EXHIBITION 1866/7. Photographer: Thomas Ellis & Co. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/156175

During 1867, Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in the colony.

HRH PRINCE ALFRED c1866 Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/246564

In December 1867, Prince Alfred spent a weekend at Hopkins Hill, the neighbouring property to Nareeb Nareeb, as the guest of John Moffat. Charles and Elizabeth were invited to Sunday lunch with the Prince. The girls also went along.  Elizabeth, with help from one of her daughters, presented His Royal Highness with two vases featuring etched Black Swan eggs. Delighted with his gift, Prince Alfred seated Elizabeth next to him at lunch.

RECEPTION OF THE PRINCE. (1867, December 18). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved March 22, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185503900

So impressed was Prince Alfred, in January 1868 while still in Australia he sent Elizabeth a letter. He wrote “sincere thanks for the beautiful and useful presents”. He continued he “admired them so much” could he commission her to make another pair of vases for his mother, Her Majesty Queen Victoria.  Elizabeth set to work and even visited Ferntree Gully for research. The following is a pen and ink sketch depicting Ferntree Gully showing the intricacy of Elizabeth’s work

FERNTREE GULLY BY ELIZABETH GRAY. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/294226

Elizabeth created four pieces for Queen Victoria decorated with scenes the Prince saw during his visit to Victoria, something they must have talked about at lunch. There were two small vases each with carved black swan eggs. One featured the Wannon Falls near Hamilton, (below right) and a view at Ferntree Gully (below left).

“VASES PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.” Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic. : 1867 – 1875) 15 August 1868: 12. Web. 7 Feb 2018 .

 

WANNON FALLS NEAR HAMILTON

She also created two tazzas (bowls) with ostrich eggs etched with various scenes including Mount Sturgeon near Dunkeld and Port Phillip Heads.  Some reports suggested they were emu eggs.

VASES PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. (1868, August 15). Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic. : 1867 – 1875), p. 12. Retrieved March 26, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60450420

 

MOUNT STURGEON NEAR DUNKELD

Each piece was mounted in silver by Kilpatrick & Co., jewellers of Collins Street, Melbourne and displayed in the jeweller’s window before departure for England.  Elizabeth oversaw the display, with the vases arranged with variegated seaweed of all colours she collected at Queenscliff. The Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser gave a full description of Elizabeth’s pieces available on the link http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194474565

On 27 April 1870, a benefit concert was planned for Mrs Munro and her children who lost their home in Thompson Street, Hamilton to fire.  A week prior to the concert, the organizing committee was still looking for vocalists.  Elizabeth, her sister Kate and Miss Bunce offered to help out much to the enjoyment of the 500 people who crammed into the Hamilton Lands Office. Elizabeth accompanied singers on the piano and performed two piano duets with Kate.  The Hamilton Spectator wrote they imparted “to the performance an amount of fine execution seldom witnessed in amateurs”.  Miss Bunce sang several solo pieces.

Items of news. (1870, April 30). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved March 23, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196305962

In 1872, Elizabeth exhibited sketches of Aboriginals at Narreb Nareeb at the Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne, receiving an honourable mention and they later were sent on to the 1873 London International Exhibition.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER l8, 1872. (1872, December 18). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 5. Retrieved March 16, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5844603

Later in the year, the Exhibition of Victoria showcased exhibits which would be sent on to the 1874 London International Exhibition. Elizabeth sent more of her vases to the London International and she was awarded a medal  

By the end of 1873, the Grays had decided to travel to Europe on what Charles described as a holiday.  They planned to leave by the February mail ship. Charles held a clearance sale of the household furniture and harness in December 1873.  On 26  February 1874, Charles, Elizabeth and the three Misses Gray did indeed leave by the mail ship RMS Bangalore.  Elizabeth was around fifty-one at the time.

SHIPPING. (1874, February 27). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199384026

In 1875, Elizabeth’s eldest daughter Annie received an invitation to attend the Queen’s first “Drawing Room” of the year at Buckingham Palace. A ‘drawing room” was a formal function held at intervals throughout the year which saw young ladies presented to Queen Victoria in her drawing room. An invitation to a drawing room was highly sought after.  Elizabeth’s early brush with royalty was said to have “broken the ice”.

DEBUTANTS PREPARE TO BE PRESENTED TO QUEEN VICTORIA. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 – 1912), p. 315. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162191070

Elizabeth chaperoned Annie who captivated the overseas press who described her as an “Australian Beauty”. Her dress was “rich white satin; train, trimmed with bouillonnees and ruches of tulle, with sprays of lilies of the valley and roses; jupe of rich white grosgrain, trimmed the same; headdress, tulle veil with a spray of lilies. Some of their quotes included, “This young lady, who is not yet seventeen, is a very elegant and bewitching blonde, and bids fair to, be one of the belles of the season” and from the San Francisco correspondent of the New Zealand Herald, “amid all the diamonds and patrician beauties of a Royal drawing-room recently, the most .conspicuous person in the throngs was a young Australian girl of seventeen, who wore no jewels but her own incomparable beauty. She is Miss Annie Gray.” They were describing the same girl who rode on kangaroo hunts with her father at Nareeb Nareeb.

The Parisian correspondent for the New York Tribune wrote an article defining beauty inspired by the Australian girl with slightly rebellious blond hair.  The following is an extract from that article,

LADIES’ COLUMN. (1875, July 31). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1907), p. 25. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70584172

Elizabeth didn’t go unnoticed with the Court Journal writing…” the toilette worn by Mrs Gray was remarkably rich and chaste.” With her hair done in the style of Madame de Montespan and a dress in the fashion of those worn by Madame de Pompadour with a “train, corsage, and upper skirt of rich ruby Lyons velvet, lined with white duchess satin, trimmed with richest white Brussels lace, velvet bows, and variegated moss roses; petticoat of white duchess; satin, trimmed with tulle, satin, and showered with bouquets of variegated moss roses; head-dress, feather, flowers, lappet, and veil; ornaments, diamonds and rubies.”  She was given credit for employing dressmaker Miss Scotter who had gone from working as a seamstress for David Jones of Ballarat to her own successful dressmaking business in Bond Street, London. The Hamilton Spectator wrote, “It is pleasing to find this kindly remembrance of one colonist by another, and is highly creditable to all concerned.”

In November 1875, Elizabeth, Charles and Annie attended a Grand Country Ball at Brighton. Soon after Charles was making plans to return to Australia. In early 1876, he left London and travelled to New York and then on to the Philadelphia Exhibition before embarking at San Francisco for Sydney arriving in June 1876.  He then made his way south to Nareeb Nareeb. Elizabeth and the girls extended their stay in England.  

Elizabeth was still creating pieces of art and in May 1880, she exhibited china plates with similar etchings to those on Queen Victoria’s eggs, at Howell & James in London. HRH Princess Christian visited the exhibition and had high praise for Elizabeth’s work. (Morning Post (London) Thursday 27 May 1880 p. 3).  On 16 November 1880, Annie married Charles Rowe at St Jude’s Church, South Kensington, London (London Evening Standard – Thursday 18 November 1880 p.1).

Charles continued on at Nareeb Nareeb until December 1886 when he put the property up for auction.  I had thought Charles returned to London at this time but in September 1888 he was seen walking along Collins Street Melbourne.  It was during the time of the 1886 Melbourne Exhibition and Elizabeth was exhibiting a series of photographs of her etchings. As usual, she received high praise, “This lady, whose talent for pen and ink work attracted royal notice made some wonderfully minute ethnological drawings of Aboriginals”.  After his death, Charles’ Victorian Probate referred to him as being late of St Kilda.  It’s not known when Charles returned to London or if Elizabeth ever returned to Victoria.

Emily Gray married on 3 July 1889 at Lancaster Gate, London to Leonard Sedgewick. Youngest daughter Elizabeth “Ebie” Gray had also married to John Murray but sadness came when Ebie died on 2 October 1892 at Eccles, Manchester aged twenty-nine. It was a sad year for Elizabeth as her sister Kate died at St Kilda on 24 May 1892.

In 1901, Elizabeth and Charles with four servants were living at 169 Cromwell Road, Kensington.  On Sunday 29 March 1903, Elizabeth died in London aged eighty-one. Her funeral was held at St Luke’s Earls Court, Redcliffe Square, London.

Elizabeth left two daughters, Annie Rowe by then a widow and Emily Sedgewick, and two grandsons Felix Rowe and Keith Murray. Charles died in 1905 at the age of eighty-seven. He was living at 18 Iverna Gardens, Kensington at the time of his death.  In his will, Charles left £100 to parlor maid Mabel Annie Ball “in recognition of her care of his late wife” (Dundee Courier – Friday 03 March 1905 p. 5)

The two vases given to Prince Alfred are now part of the Royal Collection located at Osborne House, the summer house of Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight. A photograph of the vases is available on the link to the Royal Collection.

Additional Sources

Design and Art Australia Online – Biography of Elizabeth Gray              

Ireland Select Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911, Elizabeth Anna Sharpe, Birth date, 1822, FHL Film No. 100238

Irish Genealogy 

Wonderful Western District Women Part 4

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

Wonderful Western District Women is a series looking at some of the great women I’ve come across while compiling Passing of the Pioneer posts. All posted during Women’s History Month, each part examines the women’s lives a little more than in the Passing of the Pioneers entries.  This is the fourth part and you will find the links to the previous three at the bottom of this post.  The three women featured this time have contrasting lives and for two, there are the twists of fate bringing them to the Western District.  As usual, if you click on any underlined text, you will go to further information about a person or subject.

GRADY, Catherine (c1832-1916) Also known as Catherine Hamilton

Catherine Grady was born in County Wexford, Ireland around 1832.  The Ireland Catholic Parish Registers show the baptism record of a Catherine Grady from the St Mullins Catholic Parish, Wexford, Ireland during June 1832, a daughter of Michael and Catherine Grady.  When Catherine was thirteen, Ireland went into a period of famine, often called the Irish Potato Famine. Around one million people and another one million people left Ireland. Catherine Grady found herself in the New Ross Workhouse.  The Earl Grey Scheme running between 1848 and 1850 saw 4000 Irish girls sent to Australia. They came from various workhouses across Ireland and New Ross Workhouse was part of the scheme. Seventeen-year-old Catherine was taken to Plymouth, England and with around 200 other girls she left for Melbourne on the New Liverpool.

“THE EXECUTION. OF RUSH.” Port Phillip Gazette and Settler’s Journal (Vic. : 1845 – 1850) 11 August 1849: 4. Web. 13 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223156756&gt;.

After more than three months, Catherine arrived at Melbourne on 9 August 1849.

“Shipping Intelligence.” The Melbourne Daily News (Vic. : 1848 – 1851) 10 August 1849: 2. Web. 13 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226472872&gt;.

The Geelong Advertiser reported on 30 August 1849, “The girls appear to be clean and healthy, and female labour being scarce, their opportune arrival will prove a great acquisition to the district.” Advertisements ran in newspapers with potential employers invited to the Immigration Depot, a collection of tents off what is now King Street, Melbourne.

“Advertising” Port Phillip Gazette and Settler’s Journal (Vic. : 1845 – 1850) 28 August 1849: 3. Web. 13 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223155586&gt;.

Catherine could read and write and her calling was a nursemaid. However, a month later she was still waiting at the immigration depot.  In September 1849, it was reported, “Only 57 adult emigrants by the Courier, could be prevailed upon going to Portland per Raven; about sixty-four orphan girls from the depot are to be sent to make up the number for which the vessel was chartered”.  (Geelong Advertiser 22 September 1849).  Catherine was one of the girls selected to sail on the Raven, a voyage which provoked a response from the Portland Guardian, criticising then Superintendent of the Port Phillip district Charles La Trobe.  The Port Phillip Gazette and Settler’s Journal published the Guardian‘s article with a disclaimer from the paper’s own editor.

THE HUMANITY OF MR. LA TROBE EXEMPLIFIED – In the midst of occurring wrecks at Belfast, Mr. Latrobe despatches a vessel with a lot of Irish orphans! Just at the very nick of time when Insurance Companies and Underwriters, as with one consent, refuse to take risks on property proceeding to Port Fairy, Mr. Latrobe chooses that moment, above all others, to send immigrants to such a port! Scarcely have the local newspapers, (detailing the accounts of mountainous seas, the loss of anchors and chains, the drifting of vessels to sea, the total wreck of fine large vessels, and the melancholy loss of life at Port Fairy) been laid down, than the next paper greets the eye with an account of the despatch of a vessel with immigrants to the identical port where these appalling occurrences ere succeeding each other in rapid succession. Has Mr Latrobe lost the feelings of or common humanity, that he wantonly risks a number of innocent lives? Are Irish orphans and immigrants families of less value than bags of wheat and bales of wool, puncheons of rum and the timber and planks of which vessels are composed? Has Mr. Latrobe the inhuman nerve to risk the lives of immigrants, at the very instant when men of wealth dare not risk their property! If the Raven should happen to meet with favourable weather, while lying at Port Fairy and disembarking her immigrants at this time of the year, when the equinoctial gales are prevalent. it will have been a merciful Providence, which had interposed in screening the innocent from the appalling dangers into which they had launched, by the ignorance, wilfulness, or selfishness of beings in the form, but wanting the essential attributes of man – Portland Guardian. (We are very much surprised at such remarks, as nothing is more necessary than the distribution of emigrants amongst the settlers at the out ports — E.P.P.G.)  Port Phillip Gazette and Settler’s Journal 11 October 1849 

Despite the Guardian’s gloomy prediction, the girls arrived safely at Portland on 4 October 1849.  It wasn’t long before Catherine was employed by Port Fairy solicitor George Barber. George had married Charlotte Meare on 2 July 1849 at Port Fairy and Charlotte may have been employed Catherine for her nursemaid skills.  Her pay was £12 for a twelve month term.

Around 1852, Catherine married Archibald Hamilton at Port Fairy.  The following year, the couple’s first child was born in that town. Her name was Catherine Grady Hamilton.  Catherine and Archibald raised a family of twelve children born from 1853 to 1877. Archibald got a job as an overseer for Donald McKinnon at Kangaroo Station, Hotspur. By 1857, Archibald was overseer at Mt Napier Station for Mr Phillips.  In 1873, Archibald applied for a ten-acre allotment at Macarthur.  

On 23 June 1884, Archibald died at Macarthur aged sixty-three.  At the time, the youngest of the children was seven and Catherine needed to provide for her family.  She offered her services as a nurse and midwife and it was said she attended over 300 maternity cases over the following years.  Almost seventy-seven years after Cathrine arrived from Ireland, she died at Macarthur on 3 January 1916. Her age at the time was given as eighty, but Catherine could have been as old as eighty-four. Her obituary read, “her quiet, unassuming manner and readiness to render assistance and advice to anyone in need…had endeared herself to the whole community”.

SOURCES

Catholic Parish Registers, The National Library of Ireland; Dublin, Ireland 

Famine Orphan Girl Database

Irish Famine Memorial (Sydney)

New Ross Workhouse 

MURRAY, Isabella (c1852-1924) Also known as Isabella Helpman

Isabella Murray was born around 1852 at Summer Hill, Allansford, the property of her parents James Murray and Isabella Gordon.  Her parents had arrived from Scotland around 1839 and arrived at Allansford after time at Glenample at Port Campbell.  Isabella married Walter Stephen Helpman in 1877.  Walter was a son of Captain Benjamin Helpman and Ann Pace, a sister of Jane Henty.

“Family Notices” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 22 August 1877: 1. Web. 9 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5934405&gt;.

Walter was a banker, having worked with the National Bank at Warrnambool and Geelong and as manager of the Colonial Bank at Koroit from 1875 and in 1876, started a branch at Port Fairy. In 1877 he became manager of the Warrnambool Colonial Bank. The first of Isabella and Walter’s children was Francis born in Warrnambool in 1878. Then followed twins Isabella Jean and James in 1881 and Gordon was born in 1884.

It was in 1884, Isabella’s brother John Murray entered state politics, becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the seat of Warrnambool.  Isabella shared his interest in politics and campaigned at State and Federal level.  A cause John was passionate about, one not popular among politicians, was the welfare of  Aboriginals, particularly those at the Framlingham Reserve.  John and his sisters Isabella and Mary came to know many of them personally and fought for their rights.  In 1890, when the government attempted to move the Aboriginals from the reserve, John fought to save part of the land for them. In 1909, John became Premier of Victoria and chair of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines.

Isabella was active in the Warrnambool community helping the less fortunate.  She was a member of the Ladies Benevolent Society for thirty years, including her time as President.  She also fundraised for the hospital and served as treasurer of the Red Cross for five years.

Walter left the Colonial Bank in 1902 and the Helpmans left Warrnambool. Walter had a job as a clerk with the Customs Department in Melbourne and the couple moved to 547 Collins Street, Melbourne, the location of the Federal Hotel (below).

THE FEDERAL HOTEL, MELBOURNE. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/247026

Meanwhile, grandchildren were arriving with Theo born in 1904 to Jean Helpman and her husband Boer War veteran Albert Duka In 1907, Isabella and Walter’s son James married May Gardiner at Millicent, South Australia.  A son Robert known as “Bobbie”, was born to James and May at Mt Gambier in 1909.  They are pictured below.

JAMES, MAY AND ROBERT HELPMANc1911 Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia Image no B 21404 https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+21404

Walter and Isabella returned to Warrnambool around 1912, but two years later Walter died on 24 June 1914.  More sadness came in 1916 when Isabella’s brother John, the former Premier, also died. She had added concern with her son Gordon serving with the King Edward Horse from 1914, and the Royal Flying Corp from 1916.  Daughter Jean was also at the front in a nursing role with her husband Albert Duka, a surgeon.  During that time grandson, Theo Duka came into Isabella’s care and was enrolled at Hamilton College.

By that time, Isabella was renting The Hutte at 21 Banyan Street, Warrnambool.  She continued her community work and was also active socially. On one occasion in 1919, she was the hostess of a tea given by the President of the Warrnambool Racing Club over the May Carnival.  In the same year, Isabella had a lucky escape in December when a rag with flammable liquid was lit at her home during the night. Fortunately, Isabella’s maid woke and found the fire before there was too much damage.  Although the fire was suspicious, there was no motive.  After that incident, Isabella moved to Waikato in Waikato Court, Warrnambool, home of her brother James.  Isabella died at Waikato on 27 January 1924.

The Helpman name became a household name from the 1920s when Isabella’s grandson Bobbie made his stage debut in Adelaide as a ballet dancer.  He became one of the world’s leading dancers and Shakespearean actors, Sir Robert Murray Helpmann.  He is pictured below with the great Kathryn Hepburn in 1955.

“NO SUBTLETIES IN OLD VIC’S SHREW” Tribune (Sydney, NSW : 1939 – 1976) 1 June 1955: 7. Web. 16 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236256137&gt;.

McCANN, Kate St George (c1849-1929)  Also known as Kate Trangmar

Kate McCann was born on the ship St George off the coast of San Francisco, California on 15 September 1849, a daughter of Robert James McCann and Matilda Jane Crouch. Robert and Matilda had married in 1834 in London.  The law at the time meant since Kate was born on a British ship, her birth was registered in the Parish of Stepney, London. The same year the McCanns arrived in California, Robert died.  Matilda remarried to Eustace de Arroyave.  Kate grew up playing on the family ranch Lone Pine in the Rocky Mountains, California but Matilda died in 1865 when Kate was sixteen.  Kate,  her brother Arthur and a half-sister Eustasia travelled to London to live with their aunt Emma Crouch. In 1866, Emma with Kate, Arthur then aged twenty and Eustasia aged eight boarded the ship Great Britain for Melbourne arriving on 26 December 1866.  They then caught the steamer S.S. Edina to Portland.

In 1876, Kate married James Trangmar at St.Stephen’s Church, Portland.  She had a connection to the Trangmar family as her uncle George Crouch was in business with James Trangmar and he married James’ sister Mary Ann Trangmar.

“Family Notices” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 22 March 1876: 2. Web. 10 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226036873&gt;.

ST STEPHEN’S CHURCH, PORTLAND

Kate moved from Portland to Coleraine where James had worked from around 1866 in a store owned by his father and managed by his uncle George Trangmar.  On 3 February 1878, Kate had a son. They went on to have eight children. In 1880, Mary Ann was born on 24 June 1880 and died the following day.

In time, George Trangmar moved on and James took over the running of the Coleraine store (below)

J.W.TRANGMAR & CO. COLERAINE. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/767465

By 1904, Kate was living at Coma Villa, Sturt Street, Ballarat while James was still at Coleraine.  In 1904, her then elderly aunt Emma Crouch took sick and travelled with Kate’s sister Eustasia to be with her in Ballarat.   Emma died on 11 April 1904 at Kate’s home. The following year there was a burglary at Coma Villa while Kate was out at the South Street Competitions.

“No title” The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924) 2 October 1905: 2. Web. 19 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209029432&gt;.

In time, Kate was back in residence at Coleraine and in 1906, James opened a new store on the same site as the original building.

THE OPENING OF TRANGMAR’S STORE, COLERAINE 1906. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/766933

During WW1, Kate and James’ married son Arthur enlisted on 28 February 1916. He served as a Lieutenant with the 39th Battalion and was killed on 21 February 1918 at Messines, Belgium.  Another son, Herbert enlisted on 1 April 1915 and served with the 17th and 22nd Battalions and was awarded a Military Cross. During 1916, Kate and James celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with celebrations in the Coleraine Hall before travelling to Portland for a service at the place of their marriage, St Stephen’s Church followed by dinner at the Richmond Hotel. When they arrived at the hotel, they were showered with rose petals

Kate died on 27 July 1929 at Coleraine.  James and six of her children were still alive at the time of her death.  James died in 1938 at Coleraine.

Trangmar’s store was run by members of the Trangmar family until 1969, first under the charge of Kate and James’ sons Herbert and Edmund.

WONDERFUL WESTERN DISTRICT WOMEN

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Wonderful Western District Women Part 3

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

On International Women’s Day 2017, I posted the first Wonderful Western District Women post followed by a second later in March, Women’s History Month.  Today is International Women’s Day 2018 so it’s time for another edition.  Each post looks further into the lives of Western District women I’ve come across while writing the Passing of the Pioneers posts.  This time there are three women featured, Eliza Malseed, Edith Davey and Mary Learmonth. Eliza lived in an isolated area of Victoria’s far south-west coast while Edith lived in another isolated area, further east on the coast near the Twelve Apostles. Both endured the hardships of living in such places and displayed independence enabling them to endure. Mary Learmonth’s life was more comfortable, but not only was she a great sportswoman she was a champion of causes, a dedicated worker for those less fortunate than herself.  Remember to click on any of the underlined text for further information.

MALSEED, Eliza Ann  (c1836-1920)

Eliza Ann Malseed was born in Donegal, Ireland around 1836 to James Malseed and Ann Thompson.  In 1855, Eliza and her brother James and her cousin, also James Malseed arrived at Portland aboard the Blanche Moore. An older brother John had arrived in Portland in 1849. Eliza lived in Gawler Street until she married her cousin James around 1859 and they settled at Glenorchy at the foot of Mount Richmond an extinct volcano in an isolated about twenty kilometres to the west of Portland. Their first child was born in 1860. Eliza had a further nine children.

It was a harsh life and Eliza and her young children were often left alone while James was away in Portland.  She had many travellers pass her door looking for food on their way to Mount Gambier giving her many tales to recount.  When remembering those days she would say,”The Lord was my shepherd”.  Bushfires were frequent and the family were lucky not to lose their home in 1864. There were other dangers too. At different times in December 1878, James and one his daughters received snake bites. On each occasion, James cut out the flesh around the wound and sucked the venom out. Both somehow survived.  James wrote a letter to the Portland Guardian to tell the story, published on 7 January 1879.

Eliza was a Wesleyan Methodist and attended the Mount Richmond Methodist Church which opened in 1876 and she was very active within the church community.  In 1902, James fell ill and on his doctor’s advice, he moved to Portland closer to medical care.  James died there on 26 July 1902.  Several years later, Eliza went to live at Rose Villa, Myamyn, the home of her daughter. Eliza died there on 11 August 1920 aged eighty-four and was remembered in her obituary below.

“Obituary.” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 26 August 1920: 3 (EVENING.). Web. 6 Mar 2017.

DAVEY, Edith  (1861-1939)

Edith Davey was born at Port Fairy in 1861 a daughter of  Robert Davey and Ann Phillips.  Edith had a sister, Annie five years older than herself.  Another sister Emily was born in 1858 but she died a year after Edith’s birth.  The Davey family left Port Fairy and made their way to the Port Campbell/Princetown district.  They selected land on the Great Ocean Road, between the Loch Ard Gorge and the current Twelve Apostles Viewing area.  They also had the use of the land down to the cliff tops below.

THE TWELVE APOSTLES, PORT CAMPBELL.

The Daveys named their property Edgecombe.  Their neighbour to the west was Hugh Gibson of Glenample, co-owned by Peter MacArthur of Merringoort.  It was at Glenample in 1878 Tom Pearson arrived to raise the alarm of the wreck of the Loch Ard. Fellow survivor Eva Carmichael stayed at Glenample for several weeks while recovering.  Robert Davey was a trustee of the Loch Ard Gorge Cemetery, the burial place of the victims of the wreck. It was an isolated area but from around the end of the 1800s, the mail-coach passed via Edgecombe as it travelled between Princetown and Port Campbell and continued to do so for around twenty years. 

Each of the Davey’s acquired more land in the Port Campbell/Princetown district. In 1888, Edith applied for a grant to buy land in the Princetown township and was successful and in 1889, she applied to lease 720 acres.  It was tough times though with a drought and impending depression.  By 1892, the rent for Edith’s lease was in arrears.  Her worries continued through the decade and in 1897, the local Land Board ruled she must pay five rent installments at once and the balance in three months.

The Daveys attended  St Luke’s Church of England at Princetown where Edith was the organist. She played the piano and sang at many concerts in the district over the years. Sometimes she sang duets with her sister Annie.  In 1896, at a concert at the Presbyterian Church in Princetown, Edith played a piano duet with a local boy and she later sang “The Holy City” in “her usual pleasing manner”. During May 1904, Edith was presented with a gold and pearl brooch set and a book “Sanctuary Series of Voluntaries” for her many years of service as the organist of St Luke’s Church, Princetown.

Like her sister Edith, Annie Davey never married and like Edith acquired several properties.  When she reached her fifties, Annie began experiencing some ill-health and in 1910, the once active woman was described as “despondent”.  Annie planned a holiday but on the day she was due to leave in August 1910,  her body was found in a waterhole at the back of the property.  She was forty-seven at the time. Annie died intestate and that prompted her father Robert to write a will, leaving everything to Edith. Robert Davey died the following year at the age of ninety.

Edith and her mother Ann continued on at Edgecombe.  By the time of her father’s death, she was fifty-five.  In 1912, wild dogs were killing Edith’s lambs. In order to protect her flock, she was staying out overnight.  In 1915, her mother Ann died aged eighty.  Edith remained alone at Edgecombe for the next twenty-four years, her five-roomed cottage falling into disrepair. She died at the Cobden Hospital in 1939 aged seventy-six. Edith’s obituary in the Camperdown Chronicle described her as one of the “grand pioneer women of Australia”.

“MISS EDITH DAVEY” Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 – 1954) 26 September 1939: 5. Web. 6 Mar 2018.

Soon after Edith’s death, Edgecombe was sold as was the stock, plant, and furniture.

“Advertising” Camperdown Chronicle (Vic. : 1877 – 1954) 28 November 1939: 6. Web. 7 Mar 2018 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27400636&gt;.

LEARMONTH, Mary Simpson  (1863-1939) Also known as Mary Laidlaw

Mary Learmonth was born in 1863 at Hamilton the daughter of Peter Learmonth and Mary Jarvey Pearson of Prestonholme Hamilton.   Mary was a sporty young woman, with a talent for tennis and a champion croquet player.  In 1896, when the Hamilton Golf Club opened, she began playing golf competitively.  Mary married at the age of thirty-six to Hamilton doctor David Fraser Laidlaw on 30 November 1899 at Prestonholme at the age of thirty-six. Her brother Allan gave her away and she wore a gown of white satin with lace and chiffon trim. Fifty guests enjoyed the wedding breakfast in a marquee on the property.  As Mary and David left for nearby Mountajup to catch the afternoon train, they were showered with rose petals by the guests.

Mary and David Learmonth lived at Eildon on the corner of French and Thompson Streets Hamilton, overlooking the Hamilton Botanic Gardens.  The house was designed by Ussher and Kemp in 1904.

“Advertising” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 27 October 1904: 3. Web. 23 Feb 2018 .’

David was the Chief Medical Officer at the Hamilton Hospital but he also had a surgery at Eildon.  Mary set about establishing a garden on the property and became one of the finest in the town.

EILDON, HAMILTON

Marriage didn’t put an end to Mary’s sporting activities, in fact, her involvement in golf increased and she even had time to act as the inaugural captain of the Hamilton Ladies Miniature Rifle Club formed in 1908.  As well as local golf tournaments, Mary played further afield including the 1904 National Championships in 1904 where she won the Bogey Handicap with a score of 88 and hit the second-longest drive.   She played in the Victorian Championships in September 1909 and won the longest drive at a length of 186 yards (170 metres).  In 1930, at the age of sixty-seven, Mary won the Mount Gambier Ladies Championship at the club’s annual tournament.  At Hamilton Golf Club, Mary was the undisputed ladies champion for many years winning the ladies’ championship an amazing seventeen times.  Her first win was as Miss Learmonth and the rest as Mrs Laidlaw.

“Ladies’ Australian Golf Championship.” The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 – 1912) 31 August 1904: 541. Web. 7 Mar 2017 .

Other than sport, Mary was president of the Hamilton branch of the Australian Women’s National League (AWNL) and chair of the Wannon Electorate of the AWNL covering an area from Horsham to Portland.  She was also a member of the Hamilton Horticulture Society, the Hamilton branch of the Red Cross Society, and the Hamilton Ladies’ Benevolent Society. Mary eventually becoming an officer of the latter organisation.  In 1935, after sixty-nine years the decision was reached to finish up the Hamilton Ladies’ Benevolent Society due to decreasing demand for their services.  Mary and fellow officer Mary Ann Strachan presented a petition to the Practice Court, requesting the surplus funds of the society, totalling £600, be donated to the Hamilton Hospital maternity ward.  Their request was granted on 11 June 1935.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mary showed Airedale Terriers with success.  She collected books for the British and Foreign Bible Society and she was a devout member of the Hamilton Methodist Church (below) as were her parents before her.

HAMILTON WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH c1930. Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/769323

A slight hiccup in Mary’s life came in 1916 when charged with driving a motor car in a dangerous manner.  The charges arose from a collision with a horse-drawn wagon. Fortunately, they were dismissed when it was found the accident was not caused by Mary’s speed, but the wagon driver who was turning at the time.  In the same year, Mary decorated her car and drove it in a procession through Hamilton.

David Laidlaw died in October 1925 aged fifty-six.  Mary’s widowed brother Stanley Learmonth moved in with her at Eildon.  Mary died at Eildon on 2 April 1939 at the age of seventy-one. Eildon was sold after her death to the Napier Club, the female equivalent of the Hamilton Club. The club, formed around 1931, still occupies Eildon today.

 

WONDERFUL WESTERN DISTRICT WOMEN PART 1

WONDERFUL WESTERN DISTRICT WOMEN PART 2

WONDERFUL WESTERN DISTRICT WOMEN PART 4

Wonderful Western District Women Part 2

/ Merron Riddiford / 2 Comments

It’s Women’s History Month and this is my second instalment of Wonderful Western District Women.  As in Part 1, I share the stories of five women I’ve been taken with while writing Passing of the Pioneers over the past five years.  In this post, all five women were in business in some capacity. One was also a teacher.  All are very similar in the level of perseverance and determination they displayed, but each led very different lives.  For example, two never married with one shunning the company of others and the other drawing people to her. As noted in one of their obituaries, they are “those splendid women, whose unselfish, unwearying zeal helped to make the Victoria of today”.  Click on the underlined text for more information about a subject.

DONNELLY, Jane (c1834-1914)  Also known as Jane Walsh and Jane Jenkins.

Jane Donnelly was born in Ireland around 1834 and arrived in Victoria in the early 1860s.  She married William Walsh in 1865 and together they operated the Forester’s Hotel at Myamyn.  Jane and William had three children before William died in 1877 aged forty-nine. It was the same year a fourth child was born. Jane continued to run the hotel although she did try to sell it. In 1881, the hotel was badly damaged by fire leading to Jane’s insolvency in 1881 with debts of £145.

“Advertising” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 24 April 1880: 3 (MORNINGS.). 

“Items of News” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 19 May 1881

In 1883, Jane married William Gordon Jenkins and they went to Portland to run the Victoria Hotel.  The building was dilapidated and they were soon closed down.  That appears to have been the end of Jane’s days in the hotel trade.  In their later years, Jane and William moved to Hawkesdale to live with Jane’s daughter.  Jane died at Hawkesdale in 1916 aged eighty.  William died the following year.

STEWART, Christina (1825-1921) Also known as Christina McPherson.

Christina Stewart was born at Kingussie, Scotland around 1825 and travelled with her husband, Duncan McPherson, to Australia in November 1851 on board the Hooghly.  While Duncan went off to the goldfields, Christina waited in Melbourne until they journeyed to Portland and then on to Strathdownie. In March 1857, Duncan purchased the Woodford Inn located just north of Dartmoor on the Glenelg River and a son Alexander was born in the same year. The inn was a busy place as it was at a crossing point on the river with a punt moored at the inn for that purpose. Christina had eight children and during her child-bearing years, rarely saw another white woman. She made friends with the local Aboriginal women, teaching them to make damper. If she had guests staying at the inn, the Aboriginals caught crayfish in the river for her.  The McPhersons eventually moved to Hamilton, residing in Coleraine Road.  Christina died there in 1921 aged ninety-six.

RYAN, Mary  (c1834-1914) 

When I wrote about Mary Ryan for Passing of the Pioneers, there was little known about her other than she ran a servants’ registry office in Hamilton and she died ten months after a fire burnt down her home. I also gathered from her short obituary, she was very independent. Mary never married and living a seemingly solitary life, save for the interactions through her business. When Mary died there was no-one to give the names of her parents, so her death record shows her parents as “unknown”.  Since her Passing of the Pioneers appearance, more Hamilton Spectators have become available at Trove and I’ve been able to find out a little more about Mary.

The earliest newspaper reference I could find of Mary Ryan in Hamilton was in 1864 when she advertised her dressmaking services in the Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser.  Her advertisement said she was “late of South Yarra” and she was operating from Thompson Street. Other women in Hamilton including a Mrs Owens were combining dressmaking with servant registry businesses so it was a natural progression for Mary to do the same.  She began advertising both services in 1867 from a shop in Gray Street on land owned by local watchmaker Adolphe Destree.

“Advertising” Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser (South Melbourne, Vic. : 1860 – 1870) 29 June 1867 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194474076

In September 1870, fire swept through several shops in Gray Street, destroying Mary’s shop.  The report in the Hamilton Spectator said the occupants were able to get their valuables out. 

Mary Ryan

Advertising (1870, September 21). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 3.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196305853

Mary took up temporary premises in Gray Street but appears to have rebuilt her burnt out shop. On 8 March 1877 the land where her shop stood was sold, the Hamilton Spectator published the results of the sale.

“Items of News.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 8 March 1877: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226045698 .

Mary responded in the next edition.

“VALUE OF HAMILTON LAND.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 10 March 1877: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226042386&gt;.

Mary expanded into millinery and drapery.  Only days after Mary placed this advertisement, she sold her shop on  13 July 1878, by auction but I wasn’t able to find a report of the sale in the paper.

“Advertising” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 2 July 1878:  <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226069431&gt;.

Two years later, an incident highlighted the potential dangers for a woman living alone.

“HAMILTON POLICE COURT.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 5 August 1880: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225488525&gt;.

That wasn’t the only incident.  In October 1888, some local “larrikins” were in court charged with “rocking” Mary’s roof in Gray Street.  They also verbally abused her, calling her by name, well aware of who she was.  In her evidence, Mary stated her residence was opposite the Hamilton Mechanics Institute.  In 1894, Mary moved her business to Cox Street opposite the Railway Hotel, and, by 1902, she had moved to Brown Street near the Hamilton Railway Station.  On 2 November 1910, Mary suffered another blow when fire swept through her shop and residence.  Built of pine, the shop burnt quickly and only a small box of valuables was saved.  Fortunately, Mary was away from home at the time but fully insured.

Mary remained stubbornly independent in old age despite becoming very frail.  She stayed in her home, but besides the hospital, it seems she really had nowhere else to go.  In February 1914, a fire broke out in her home, accidentally started when Mary dropped a lit match on some papers on the floor.

“FIRE IN BROWN STREET.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 20 February 1914: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119823533&gt;.

While she wasn’t injured in the fire, it may have taken a toll as she passed away eight months later.  Her age was given as eighty.

“Hamilton Spectator” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 15 December 1914: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119874336&gt;.

Mary was buried in the Anglican section of the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery.  It is an unmarked grave and is the plot to the left of Charlotte Blackney in the photo below.

LOCATION OF THE GRAVE OF MARY RYAN AT THE HAMILTON (OLD) CEMETERY

SLOAN, Susan  (c1844-1918)

Susan Sloan was born in Glasgow, Scotland and after arriving in Portland in 1855, she went to Ararat where she married Thomas Sloan the following year.  Thomas ran a soda water manufacturing factory. In 1867, Susan returned to Portland with Thomas and they built the White Horse Brewery and a bakery in Gawler Street. Trade was tough and they moved inland in 1873 to Hamilton where they saw greater opportunities. Thomas purchased the North Hamilton Brewery from his brothers James and Robert.  In 1882, Thomas had a timber building constructed in Cox Street for a cordial factory.

Grace Sloan, a daughter of Susan and Thomas suffered consumption since 1893, and on doctor’s advice, she left Hamilton for a drier climate with friends in N.S.W. She departed on her journey but only reached Melbourne before her conditioned worsened and she telegraphed Susan to go to Melbourne. Grace improved so Susan returned home. A week or so later, Susan heard Grace had died in a Melbourne Hospital on 20 July 1895 aged twenty-one.  A memorial service was held at Hamilton’s Christ Church, where Grace had sung with the choir. The following year Susan had a close call herself.

“Items of News.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 12 March 1896: 2. Web. 10 Mar 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225868558&gt;.

In 1903, the Hamilton Spectator reported Susan had sold the North Hamilton Brewery to Mr J.B.Webb.  He didn’t do much with it and in 1904, the Sloans revitalised it with new equipment. They did the same at the cordial factory where they could produce up to sixty dozen bottles per hour.  Susan advertised prior to Christmas 1908, citing her fifty-two years in the business.

“CHRISTMAS DRINKS.” Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918) 17 December 1908: 4. Web. 10 Mar 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225895607&gt;.

Thomas died in May 1910 and Susan continued to run the business until her death, after which time family members continued operations. The Sloan’s cottage Whinhill in Pope Street, Hamilton still stands today.

“WHINHILL” – THE FORMER COTTAGE OF THE SLOAN FAMILY, POPE STREET, HAMILTON.

WADMORE, Sarah Jane (1859-1941)

Sarah Wadmore was the youngest daughter of Cape Bridgewater pioneers James Wadmore and Mary Driscoll. She was born in 1859 and only a month after her birth, James Wadmore drowned after he was washed off rocks while fishing on the west coast of  Cape Bridgewater.

By the age of fifteen, Sarah was helping her brothers on their mother’s farm. Mr and Mrs Joseph Voysey from the local state school saw something special in her and offered to train Sarah as a teacher.  In 1880, Sarah became head teacher at the new Kentbruck school.  Prior to that she was living at Bacchus Marsh and teaching at the school of Mr and Mrs Voysey.  From Kentbruck, Sarah was headteacher at the Tahara State School for twelve years, her last teaching appointment.  In 1905, Sarah and her sister Anne moved to Annesley in Julia Street, Portland to operate a private boarding house.

“ANNESLEY’, JULIA STREET, PORTLAND. Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/233404

One of their first “guests” at Annesley was Rosalie Brewer, the only child of the previous owner, Dr Brewer. Rosalie was confined to bed at Annesley for over twenty years until her death on 2 March 1926 at the age of fifty-seven.  Sarah, then sixty-seven, along with her sister, gave Rosalie the love and care a mother would, nursing her through those years.  Sarah’s mother Mary also moved into Annesley from her home at Cape Bridgewater and she died there in 1908.

Inspired by the pioneering life of her mother and others at Cape Bridgewater, Sarah had a great interest in the history of Portland and its pioneers.  It was always her ambition to publish the history of Portland’s women and in 1934, with the approaching centenary of the arrival of the Henty Bros, Sarah and two other local’s, Mrs Marion Hedditch and Mr E. Davis of the Portland Observer produced a booklet entitled Portland Pioneer Women’s Book of Remembrance for the event.  As Secretary of the Portland Pioneer Women’s Association, she was also the main force behind the Pioneer Women’s statue near the Shire Offices at Portland.  Also in 1934,  Sarah contributed to a supplement for the Portland Guardian for the centenary of the arrival of the Hentys at Portland Bay called Lone furrows on sea and land, or, Historical Portland.  For the publication, Sarah wrote of the Reminiscences of a Pioneer State School Teacher

“OBITUARY” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 6 January 1941: 1 (EVENING). Web. 15 Mar 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64398666&gt;.

Sarah had a busy life. Many fundraisers, Pioneer Women’s Association meetings and even art exhibitions were held at Annesley.  At one stage, she travelled to England visiting Sussex the birthplace of the Henty brothers. She was interested in the Scout movement and donated a flag to the Portland Scouts. Sarah was also active in the St Stephens Anglican Church community and the church was conveniently located across the road from her home.

ST. STEPHEN’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, PORTLAND

A wonderful life closed on New Year’s Day 1941 when Sarah died at Annesley at the age of aged eighty-one. Sarah’s obituary closed with, “It may be truly said of Miss Wadmore that she shares largely in the honour of those splendid women, whose unselfish, unwearying zeal helped to make the Victoria of today”.

You can read more Wonderful Western District Women on the following links –

Part 1  

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Wonderful Western District Women Part 1

/ Merron Riddiford / Leave a comment

On International Women’s Day this is for the women of the Western District.  The women who arrived in a new country, often as newlyweds with no other family, those who walked behind a plough planting seed, those who didn’t see their husbands from dawn to dusk or weeks at a time and the women who gave birth in a tent or shack sometimes without another woman present.  It’s for the benevolent women, the pillars of the church, the businesswomen, the matriarchs, and in many cases their husband’s rock. It’s for those women who lost their husbands young, and were left to raise children and survive in a man’s world. For many of these women, their lives went by unheralded.

Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/54600

As it’s also Women’s History Month, this is the first post during March remembering some of the great pioneering women of the Western District.  Firstly I will focus on those I’ve discovered through monthly Passing of the Pioneers posts. For many of those women, I’ve had to draw on their husband’s life story to get some idea of their own.  For others we are lucky as something of their lives still remain, maybe a letter or a diary and we glean some idea of who they really were. Even in their obituaries, women were mostly known by their husband’s name, for example, Mrs John Little or Mrs James Berry. At least those who were given an obituary have something of them left behind, for others their lives passed silently and without celebration.

Hopefully, the women I have selected to celebrate this month are representative of those women whose stories have been lost.  Also, because most women lived behind the names of their husbands, I’ve chosen to remember the women by their maiden names.  Click on the underlined text through the post to read more information about a subject.

NICOL, Janet (c1822-1903) Also known as Janet Laurie and Janet Black

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77974940

Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA : 1861 – 1954) 6 May 1933: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77974940

Janet was born in born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1822, the daughter of Professor Andrew Nicol a linguist, university lecturer and head of a boys’ college. Janet, one of eight daughters, attended boarding school and like her father could speak several languages. In 1841, she married the Reverend Alexander Laurie and shortly after they sailed to Port Phillip aboard the appropriately named William Nicol, arriving in February 1842.  Alexander was appointed the minister for the Portland Bay Presbyterian Church so they sailed for Portland Bay.  On arrival at Portland, Janet was carried ashore and on the same day, she gave birth to her first child Alexander John Laurie.  The Lauries couldn’t stay at any hotels because of quarantine restrictions so they camped under a shelter near the flour mill in the bitter cold,  They soon settled in the town and another son Andrew was born the following year.

The year 1848 was tumultuous for Janet.  Alexander was accused of spending time in the company of a young lady, even travelling away with her.  The church frowned on his behaviour and Alex was removed from his role, not because of the shame he brought to his wife and children, but the shame he brought to the church.  A report of his falling out appeared in the Geelong Advertiser of July 11, 1848.  In 1850, Alexander started making the news in a different way when he took over the Portland Herald in Gawler Street.  The Portland Guardian remarked,”Mr Laurie would have seemed to have abandoned the use of his church for the Herald and exchanged religion for politics”.

In 1854, Alexander died at the age of thirty-six, leaving Janet with four young children. She took over the running of the Portland Herald and after a short break, resumed publication every Friday with a promise the paper would be “renewed in strength and efficiency” and before long the subscribers to the paper grew.

“Advertising” Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876) 9 November 1854: 3 (EVENING.) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71571179

Janet also set up an employment registry in 1856 operating it until 1861 from her home in Percy Street.

“Advertising” Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876) 3 November 1858: 3 (EVENINGS.). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64509486

Janet finished up the Portland Herald in 1860 and she and the children went to Mount Gambier where she assisted two of her sons in setting up the Border Watch, a paper still published today. The paper was established in the name of second born son Andrew, then seventeen and the first edition published on April 26, 1861. The name for the paper came from Janet as there was a Border Watch newspaper on the border of Scotland and England. Given the close proximity of Mount Gambier to the South Australian/Victorian border, it was a perfect choice.

In the same year, Janet married widower Joshua Black of Cork Hill, Bridgewater. Joshua was a father to seven children and Janet must have been busy helping her sons with the paper and the duties of matrimony. Janet and Joshua had three children together, the first in 1862 when Janet was forty.  By 1865, there were fifteen children aged from twenty-two to newborn. Joshua Black died in 1876 aged seventy-six.  Janet continued on at Bridgewater and was involved in the community.  

BRIDGEWATER BAY

She died in 1903 aged eighty-one and was buried in the North Portland Cemetery in the same grave as Alexander Laurie. The Portland Guardian of 29 July 1903 reported that “the funeral procession was one of the largest, if not the largest seen in Portland.” Returning to Alexander in death was possibly something Janet would not have wanted. Her thirteen years with Alexander were not happy times.  Aside from his adultery, it seems Janet also endured family violence.  She was known throughout her life as having a hearing impairment, put down to the cold on her first night in Portland.  Ann Grant and others in a paper, “Portland – The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”, tells of police records showing Janet had charged Alexander with assault and her deafness was in fact caused by a blow from him.

COLE, Elizabeth (c1845-1942).  Also known as Elizabeth Dalziel.

Elizabeth Cole was seven when she sailed into Hobson’s Bay in December 1852 with her family aboard the Bombay, the same ship my ggg grandparents James Mortimer and Rosanna Buckland arrived on.  Once in Port Phillip Bay, the ship was placed in quarantine because of a typhus fever outbreak on board.  During the 111 day voyage, at least twenty-four of the 706 passengers died from various causes including typhus.  After they disembarked, the family went to the diggings at Ballarat.

“OLD COBDEN RESIDENT” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 12 March 1938: <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11174181&gt;.

The family then went to Port Fairy and Elizabeth remembers the first bullock team of Walter Manifold and was soon driving bullocks herself and despite being only a teenager, gained a reputation as one of the finest bullock drivers around.  From Port Fairy, her father purchased land at Yambuk.

Elizabeth was only seventeen when she married twenty-eight-year-old Alexander Dalziel on 31 July 1862 at Lethbridge where Alexander ran a boot store servicing the large canvas town set up for the men working on the Moorabool viaduct.  They then went to Bannockburn before moving to Carpendeit near Cobden in 1885. In 1891, Elizabeth signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition.  After Alexander died 1928 aged ninety-four, Elizabeth lived with her granddaughter at Cobden. At the time of her death at age ninety-six, Elizabeth had six sons, three daughters, forty-five grandchildren, sixty-five great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

THE DALZIEL FAMILY WITH ELIZABETH AND HER HUSBAND ALEXANDER SURROUNDED BY THEIR SIX SONS IN FRONT OF THEIR CARPENDEIT HOME c1885 Image courtesy of the Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/765729

HAZELDINE, Eliza (1857-1941)  Also known as Eliza Lea.

Eliza Hazeldine was born at Portland in 1857 and started her working life as a teacher.  Her first school was Portland North followed by Koroit, Corindhap, Coleraine, Queenscliff and Casterton. Her teaching career ended in 1890 when she married Job Lea.  The couple’s first son was born the following year, the same year Eliza signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition.  A second son was born on 22 March 1892. A month later on 22 April 1892, Job died of typhoid fever aged thirty, leaving Eliza with two children under two.  She returned to her family in Portland before opening a drapery store at Condah Swamp.  Eliza applied to run the first Post Office in the district and in 1899 her application was approved and the Post Office opened with the name Wallacedale.

"Wallacedale." Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953) 15 February 1899: 3 (EVENING). Web. 6 Mar 2017 .

“Wallacedale.” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 15 February 1899: 3 (EVENING). Web. 6 Mar 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63675448&gt;.

Eliza played piano and organ and taught her boys with Charles showing great talent in acquiring three theory certificates from Trinity College, London.  When the boys were older, they helped Eliza in the post office.  She was also a generous community member, donating to various causes. In 1902, she started the fundraising for the purchase of a piano for the Wallacedale Hall donating  £1.  Although she was a devout Methodist, when the Wallacedale Presbyterian Church was built in 1913, Eliza donated the linoleum.

War broke in 1914 and on 22 January 1915, son Charles enlisted leaving for Egypt a month later. Charles served with the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade and found himself at Gallipoli where he was killed on 26 July 1915, six months after he left Australia.  The loss of Charles brought great sorrow for Eliza and she placed an “In Memoriam” notice for Charles and her late husband Job each year until her death.

"Family Notices" Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953) 24 July 1933: 2 (EVENING.). Web. 5 Mar 2017 .

“Family Notices” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 24 July 1933: 2 (EVENING.). Web. 5 Mar 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64282976&gt;.

During the war, Eliza was a great contributor to the Red Cross. In 1919, Eliza returned to Portland where she died in 1941. Charitable to the end, Eliza left £100 to the Portland Hospital.

KITTSON, Rebecca (c1827-1929) Also known as Rebecca Lightbody.

"No title" The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946) 23 July 1932: 4 (METROPOLITAN EDITION). Web. 7 Mar 2017 .

“No title” The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946) 23 July 1932: 4 (METROPOLITAN EDITION). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141361822

Rebecca was born at Fermanagh County, Ireland and arrived at Melbourne with her parents James Kittson and Katherine Trotter in 1841 aboard the Westminster.  Rebecca remained in Melbourne while her father went ahead to Cape Bridgewater to settle, joining her family in 1842. On 22 January 1852, Rebecca, described as the “fair Lady of the Lake” married Wesleyan minister Reverend William Lightbody at Geelong.  Rebecca and William rode on horseback from Bridgewater to Geelong, the location of the nearest minister, married and rode home again.

William was the itinerant minister for Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Portland and they spent time at each of the parsonages, raising a family of four sons and two daughters.  In March 1879, William visited a property he owned at Drik Drik and fell ill there.  He made it back as far as Mount Richmond where a doctor was called. He was then transported home and appeared to be on the mend.  Having business to do in Portland, he asked his son to drive him into town but William died on the way.

On Rebecca’s 100th birthday, Reverend Toi of the Portland Methodist Church presented Rebecca with 100 shillings, one for every year of her life.  On her 101st birthday, a celebration was held and Rebecca proved she still had her wits about her.

“A GRAND OLD LADY.” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 9 February 1928: 3 (EVENING). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64264653

A colonist of eighty-eight years, Rebecca was a month from her 102nd birthday when she died at Portland in 1929.

READ, Rachel Forward (1815-1904).  Also known as Rachel Hedditch.

"Bridgewater Pioneers Commemorate Centenary of Landing of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Charlton Hedditch." Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953) 27 June 1938: 4 (EVENING). Web. 7 Mar 2017 .

“Bridgewater Pioneers Commemorate Centenary of Landing of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Charlton Hedditch.” Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953) 27 June 1938: 4 (EVENING). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64279418

Rachel Forward Read was born in Dorsetshire, England and married Richard Charlton Hedditch in 1837.  The following year they planned to travel to Australia but the ship, The Eden was stuck in the then frozen Thames River and the voyage was delayed. They eventually arrived in Adelaide in 1838.  In 1841, they left for Tasmania but heard favourable reports about Portland Bay and the Henty’s settlement so they made their way there, but not before their son Charlton was born.  Rebecca and Richard were appointed to run the Portland Church of England school where Rachel taught the infant classes.  They then took up a pastoral lease at Bridgewater in 1845 and Rachel opened the first post office there in 1864, operating it for thirty-five years. The Hedditch property was known as Lal Lal Homestead.  The Book of Remembrance of the Pioneer Women of the Portland Bay District includes a letter Rachel wrote home to her mother on Christmas Day 1848.  She was thirty-three and life was very difficult.  It shows the depth of her faith and how she appreciated the isolation of Bridgewater for raising the children away from the bad influences in the town.

“…last Sunday after dinner I was considering whether it would be wrong to devote part of the Sabbath in writing to you, and coming to the conclusion that under present circumstances it not,  I rose to take a sheet of paper from my portfolio, when I felt quiet unwell, and continued worse, until about ten o’clock, when I gave birth to a little girl – stillborn – an event which I had long dreaded, for my hands were always full.  I also expected to suffer from the heat, for it is usually very hot here…but it has been cooler this summer…How apt we are to murmur and despair, forgetting our Heavenly  Father does all things for our good.  Although I felt amiss – a kind of loss of the infant – yet I cannot help feeling very thankful that it please God to order it as it was.

“But although we are not doing better in this country we have better health; and I think the children are better for being away from the others’ and children out her are generally brought up badly. Times are very bad indeed.  Almost the whole dependence of this district is on wool growing and tallow, and on account of the disturbed state of Europe the wool at home has fallen in value more than half.  Tallow is very, also, and it has caused such a depression of business here that it is almost impossible to dispose of anything.”

Our fences were all burnt, but we have a garden fenced and a half-acre paddock.  We have also a comfortable three-roomed cottage and a kitchen and dairy, besides fowl house and yard,…We have both fat cattle and milking cows for sale, but nobody is inclined to purchase.  Butchers will not give more than eight shillings a hundred weight for fat beef and a fine cow with calf at side will not fetch more than £3.  There were good milking cows with calves sold by action last week at about 30 shillings per head.  Butter is now down to 1 shilling per pound.  If things do not get better I do not know what shall become of us all.  Our prospects are not worse than that of many others.  Indeed, I think we live at less expense than most families here.

The troubles did not end. In 1854, daughter Emily died at the age of seven and in 1863, son Charlton died aged twenty-three.  Richard died in 1894 and Rachel lived on for a further ten years. She was buried at the Cape Bridgewater Cemetery.

 

You’ll find more Wonderful Western District Women on the link – Part 2

Portland Pioneer Women’s Book of Remembrance

/ Merron Riddiford / 10 Comments

The obituary of Sarah Jane Wadmore in the January Passing of the Pioneers prompted me to find out more about a booklet she co-authored for the Portland Centenary in 1934, the Portland Pioneer Women’s Book of Remembrance.  I had previously read about it in newspaper reports from around the time.

Pioneer Women of Portland. (1934, May 24). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), p. 3 Edition: EVENING.. Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64285807

Pioneer Women of Portland. (1934, May 24). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), p. 3 Edition: EVENING.. Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64285807

A  Google search led me to the State Library of Victoria website and it was pleasing to see it has been digitised and is available online.  I was even more pleased that ggg grandmother Margaret Ann Diwell (nee Turner) was among the pioneering women of Portland as well as some of those I have featured in Passing of the Pioneers.

The booklet begins with a forward from Alice Frances Moss, a pioneer of women’s rights.  She was the first President of the National Council of Women of Australia and Chair of the Victorian Women’s Centenary Council.

After an offering of appreciation to pioneer women, there is the story of Mrs Stephen George Henty, the first European woman at Portland, to whom the booklet was dedicated.  She is often called Mrs Stephen George Henty, but let us call her Jane (Pace).

“OBITUARY” The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 14 February 1906

There are the recollections of Mrs George Godwin Crouch (Marianne Trangmar) spanning from 1840 to 1917.  Then, a list of “Worthy Pioneers” compiled by Sarah Jane Wadmore.  Included is one of my favourites, Rebecca Kittson (Mrs William Lightbody) and Mrs Fawthrop, Jane Rosevear, wife of Captain James Fawthrop the lifeboat captain.

Following is the story of  Mrs Richard Charlton Hedditch and further on, a letter she wrote on Christmas Day 1848, to her parents in England.  Another woman often referred to by her husband’s name, she was Rachel Forward Read.

After some local poetry comes “Belles and Beauties of the Early Days”.  Those included are Misses Henty, Learmonth, Trangmar and Herbertson.

Finally is a list of Portland’s Pioneering Women with women living in Portland prior to 1864 eligible.  That’s where I found Margaret.  The Diwells lived in Portland for about five years from the time of their arrival on the Duke of Richmond in 1852.

Margaret appears as Mrs William Diwell and her daughter-in-law, Frances Webb,  is also listed as Mrs William Diwell.  Frances just scraped in as she was born in Portland in 1863 to John Webb and Margaret Smith, also listed.  This is a useful list as some entries have notes and maiden names.

The oldest pioneer women, recognised separately, include Marion Nunn Jones, Emma Holmes, and Anne Beglan.

The photographs in the booklet are of Mrs Jane Henty, Mrs Marianne Crouch, Mrs Janet Laurie, Sarah Jane Wadmore and Mrs Rachel Hedditch.

The booklet also comes as an Archive CD book available from the Genealogical Society of Victoria.

Online book – Portland Pioneer Women’s Book of Remembrance