Nature could be particularly cruel in our early years of
white settlement. In a period of less
than 10 years, Charles John and Mary McCann lost three of their sons to the
harshness of life in the bush.
On 15 April 1889, Charles William McCann (Paul’s 2 x great
grandfather) drowned at Eureka, near Lismore.
On 20 April, The Northern Star wrote:
DROWNING: We are sorry
to hear that a well known farmer named Chas. McCann, was drowned fording
Wilson's Creek, above Eureka on Tuesday last. It is stated that McCann was
crossing the creek, which had risen several feet, when his horse slipped,
McCann was washed out of his saddle, and drowned before assistance could be
rendered. The police are now searching for the body, but it has not yet been recovered,
owing to the flooded state of the creek.
As I wrote last week, Charles’ death changed the lives of
all his family. Within a few months, his
pregnant widow, Esther, married his
brother, John Beale McCann, who raised the family as his own.
That wasn’t the only family tragedy to take place in
1889. In December, Charles and John’s
younger brother Nicholas was killed by a falling tree while working as a timber
cutter.
The Northern Star reported:
4
Dec 1889: FATAL ACCIDENT. — Last Monday week a man named Nicholas McCann, who
was engaged falling scrub on Mr. Moffatt's farm, between Toohey's mill and
Newrybar, was struck by a falling limb from a tree close to the one he was himself
working at. He unfortunately sustained a fracture of the skull, and died in
Lismore last Friday. McCann, who was quite a young man, leaves a widow and two
children, and was a brother of Charles McCann drowned in Wilson's Creek about 6
months ago.
Nicholas’ headstone is in the pioneer North Lismore cemetery. It is almost illegible now but one can read :
"Nicholas McCann
Killed by a falling tree
(Line illegible)
Aged 29 years
Leaving a wife and two children
To mourn his loss"
Nicholas was only 29, and he left a four year
old son and a two year old daughter. His
young wife, Elizabeth, married again five years later but lived only until the
age of 44.
A falling tree was also responsible for the death of yet
another member of this family. James
McCann was the youngest of Charles John and Mary’s six sons. By the time he was 28 he was married to his
cousin, Mary Anne Hall and they had had four children, although the first two
children had died at birth. He died on 27
February, 1898, and the Coroner recorded a verdict of “accidental death, the accident
caused by falling limb.”
Our family trees are full of deaths which are now
preventable. Although Australians still die
every year in natural disasters like floods and bushfires, most of us are
inured from the worst that nature can do by our more urbanised lives. Our means of transport and better
communication make exposure to these dangers less likely. In this century, had Nicholas and James been
felling trees, they would have been wearing protective clothing and been also
covered by a range of Health and Safety precautions which might have prevented
their untimely deaths.
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