#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 17 Land

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 17 Land

How happy must our emigrant ancestors have been to finally sight land.  I think particularly of those who came in the 19^th century, when shipboard conditions were dangerous and uncomfortable.  For the convicts, of course, it was even worse.

My 3 x great grandparents James and Elizabeth Golding embarked on this voyage as assisted immigrants with their four children, Susan, Eliza, Deborah and baby John.  They sailed from Plymouth,  England in November 1858 on the emigrant ship “Hornet”.  There were 438 passengers on board and most of them, like my ancestors, were travelling in the cheapest way possible, in steerage.

Steerage accommodation

Steerage class was the bottom of the ship, a space previously used for cargo.  It was crowded, dark and close to the water line.  Each family was granted a small space into which they had to find room for their bedding and cooking utensils and the few clothes they could keep with them.  All their other belongings were packed into trunks and stowed in the ship's hold. Depending on the ship, and the weather, passengers may have had access to their trunks only once or twice during a voyage. In bad conditions, many emigrants were stuck in damp, dirty clothes and bedding for weeks at a time.

Unfortunately for the Goldings, this was a rough trip, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported on 12 March 1859.

“The Hornet, arrived on the 3rd March from Plymouth, with 438 immigrants. She had a rather long passage, having been particularly unfortunate in meeting with foul winds and bad weather throughout. After clearing the Channel she had a succession of heavy gales, which lasted 22 days. She crossed the Equator on the 42nd day out, and since rounding the Cape of Good Hope has had nothing but light winds from N.E. to S.E.

There have been 5 deaths and 6 births on the passage.”

One of those deaths was Deborah Golding, who was 4 years old.  I’m still looking for Deborah’s death certificate, but there are any number of likely causes of death under these conditions, although the small number of deaths on the voyage would at least rule out an epidemic of something like measles.

The State Library of NSW describes life on board:

Steerage quarters had berths lining the walls and a long dining table in the middle. Passengers were organised into messes of eight to ten people prior to embarkation, and usually given berths close to friends or passengers from the same region. Emigrants cooked, ate, washed and cleaned within their mess and to a timetable specifying when each mess could do their chores.
The daily routine in steerage began at 6am with washing, dressing and tidying up before breakfast. Emigrants would then clear away and begin their chores: cleaning berths, scrubbing decks, and doing washing. Single men were expected to help out with extra tasks but steerage passengers with children could have very long days.

Emigrants had to be out of bed by 7am, with all the children washed and dressed before breakfast at 8 am and then sent off to school. At 9 am the decks were cleaned and groups assigned to clean areas of the ship that didn’t belong to a particular mess.  Dinner was at 1 pm, tea at 6 pm and lights out at 8 pm. Government regulations determined the daily routine on board British emigrant ships as well as many private ships leaving English ports. Steerage passengers were required to clean their own berths (as were some second and third class passengers) and this was how most emigrants started their day. Regulations also dictated the timing of religious services and weekly musters for inspections by the Surgeon Superintendent, wash days and daily cleaning of the ‘coppers’

There are some journals written by passengers as they made the voyage – all that I have found are written by those who are fortunate enough to have travelled in a cabin.  My guess is that most of those in steerage were illiterate, like my forebears. 

James and Eliza disembarked with their three surviving children on 3 March 1858.  At that time of the year, Sydney is warm and clear – it must have felt like heaven after 113 days on board the ship.  They left almost immediately for Northern NSW, where James had a position on the large station called “Tomki” near Casino where his brother in law, Sam Shepherd also worked.

Ships at the wharf at Benelong Point, c 1860 (this is where the Opera House now stands)

The Golding family spent the rest of their lives in the Northern rivers area.  In 1865, James and Eliza had another child, Emily, but Elizabeth died when she was only two years old.

James lived on until 1908, and I have a photo of him with one of his great granddaughters, my aunt Nellie.  The four Golding children produced a total of 44 grandchildren and many of their descendants are still living in the Northern rivers district.

Nellie White with her grandfather James Golding, about 1900

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 15 Fire

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 15 Fire

Last year (Week 28 – Reunion) I told the story of the 1915 fire at the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane which affected my great grandfather, James Gleeson, and his family.  James was the licensee of the Regatta at the time of the fire and his family had to make a dramatic escape.

This is a tale about another mysterious fire which involved my great uncle, Alfred Whitten.

My mothers Uncle Alf was one of two Methodist Ministers in his very religious family, the other being his older brother Albert. 

Alfred Giles Whitten was born in 1883, the second last of Anthony and Charlotte’s family of thirteen children.  All the Whitten children had their early schooling at the little school their father built at “Lowestoft”, the family property, and I Albert and Alfred appear to have received their theological training at the Central Methodist Mission’s Evangelist’s Training Home.

Albert and Alf third and fourth from left in second back row

By 1909, Alf was a Minister at Coolamon in the Riverina, and in 1910, he was on the North Coast where he made an impression at a Methodist rally in Grafton.

From the Raleigh Sun (Bellingen, NSW : 1898 - 1918), Friday 18 November 1910, page 3:

No Plays, Dances or Cards.

The Rev. A. Whitten, speaking of ' Amusements” at a Methodist rally at Grafton, said he felt sure that God had intended His people to enjoy amusements. Some recreation and amusement was necessary for the youth of Australia, and they had no right to shut themselves in with a picket fence of dogma and creed; they must look out through the palings and see the wide world. There were many unhealthy amusements, however, and the speaker referred to so-called ' religious ' plays. He believed that the great majority of actors and actresses were morally corrupt, and until they were cleansed the theatre was a place to be avoided. He also condemned dancing and cards, on the ground that although when properly conducted there was no harm in them, the strong-minded people should deny themselves such pleasures for the sake of their weaker brother and sisters, who had no sense of moderation.

In 1912, Albert and Alf set off to see the world together.  They visited the Holy Land, went to Europe and England and then to the family in Ireland.  From there they travelled to America where they were enrolled at Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey.  Alf signed up for three months, then left for Canada and home, where the following year he married Ethel Cock.

In 1917, Alf and Ethel were welcomed to the Nambucca circuit of the Methodist church, and at some time in the next few years, Alf bought a disused sawmill at a little place called Warrell Creek and had it moved to Macksville.  He paid 600 pounds for it and insured it with Mercantile Union insurers for 1423 pounds.

This is the building that burnt down, in December 1920.

There appears at first to have been not much excitement – just a small paragraph in the local paper on 24 December, but by February the coroner had concluded that the building’s owner had a case to answer.  Evidence had apparently been given that a tall man wearing a pith helmet had been seen at the scene – a description which might have fit Alf.

The story was taken up by newspapers all over the country with headlines like these in the Bathurst Times.

CLERGYMAN COMMITTED FIRE IN A MILL

SENSATION IN THE NORTH MACKSVILLE

And then, on the 18th of March, an anti-climax.

Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939), Friday 18 March 1921, page 4

THE MACKSVILLE FIRE. REV A.G. WHITTEN EXONERATED

"The Methodist" the official organ of the 'Methodist Church, publishes the following :— 'A week or two ago the daily newspapers gave wide publicity to the proceedings at a coroner's inquiry into the origin of a fire at Macksville and to the fact that the Rev. A G. Whitten was under accusation in respect, to that matter and was committed for trial. The accusation was a most serious one and has given the greatest pain to Mr Whitten and to all who have the honour of the Methodist Church at heart. We are glad now to be able to say that Mr Whitten's solicitors have received an official communication from the Attorney-General, who states that after a careful perusal of the depositions he was unable to find any evidence which would justify any charge being brought against Mr Whitten in connection with the burning down of the mill at Macksville, and also that the Attorney General had caused a telegram to be sent to the coroner at Macksville, in that effect. "You can take it," the solicitor's letter adds, "that any stigma which may have temporarily attached to you has now been entirely removed." It is a matter of satisfaction that in regard to this matter, Mr Whitten has been officially and completely exonerated.”

So, what really happened? 

There are some questions.  We know from “Trove” that Rev Whitten had been farewelled from the Nambucca circuit of the church in April 1919.  I don’t know where he was from then until he turned up in the Rylestone Kandos district (near Mudgee) in 1921.  Was he really an “ex-Minister” during those two years, and still resident in the Nambucca area?  There is a story in the family that he had Spanish flu at this time, and there is also an appearance before the Bankruptcy Registrar by “AG Whitten, grazier of Kempsey.” (July 1921). Maybe he took time out to try being a farmer, like his brothers.

His daughter Beth was born in 1920 in Waratah, in the Newcastle area, and then Olwen was born in Kempsey in 1922 when he was still attached to the Rylestone circuit.  Another mystery.

Described as “overworked and ill” he left Rylestone in 1923.  It had been a tumultuous few years.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 16 Air

#52 Ancestors 2020

Week 16 Air

Both of my parents told stories about their first encounters with aeroplanes. 

Mum (born 1924) remembered that the famous Australian airman Charles Kingsford Smith landed his plane in Quirindi when she was a child, and also that he gave joy rides to some of the many people who came out to see him.  I can’t find any mention of this visit on Trove but it must have been some time after the famous Trans-Pacific flight of the Southern Cross.

Kingsford Smith and his three - man crew flew across the Pacific in three short stages in 1928. They left Oakland, California on 31 May, refueled in Hawaii and Fiji and then crossed the Australian coast at Ballina, not far from where I now live, and flew up the coast to Brisbane, where they landed at 10.10am on 9 June. Their flight had taken 83 hours and 25 minutes. 

A few days later Kingsford Smith and his partner, Charles Ulm were in Scone, NSW, not far from Quirindi, so perhaps this was the time of the famous visit.

Dad’s memories were quite clear. He wrote:

When I was about six or seven the first aeroplane to visit Lismore arrived amid much excitement.  Few of us had ever even seen a picture of an aeroplane – I certainly hadn’t -and when the teacher, as part of the advance publicity for such a momentous event, asked us to draw what we thought an aeroplane looked like, the results were strange and wonderful.  All except one.  Georgie Krause, about whom I shall have more to say, had actually seen an aeroplane and was able to draw something that was recognisably near the mark – although none of us could believe it until a few days later the machine appeared and well, wonder of wonders, landed in a paddock in South Lismore, about half a mile from the school.

 In those far off days, there were no landing grounds actually designed and built for the landing and take-off of aircraft.  Most of the machines were flimsy affairs made of a canvas covered framework, more like a kite, with a not very reliable motor.  All they needed was a reasonably flat surface, free of obstacles, such as could be found on the outskirts of most towns, with a wind sock to indicate the direction of the wind.  With such inadequate equipment, hundreds of aspiring airmen piloted their crazy aircraft over thousands of miles, crashing now and then, occasionally killing themselves, just as often picking themselves up and sticking their aeroplane together, and trying again until, sooner or later, the pitcher went too often to the well.  Anyhow, this particular aeroplane came to and went from Lismore without mishap, in the process enriching the lives of a lot of children for whom such events were to become commonplace in the years to come.

I have found the details of this story, written up in The Northern Star, on Trove – it took place on 25 August 1920, so Dad was six years old.  It made a such a strong impression that he never forgot it.

From The Northern Star:

PEACE LOAN. 

Aeroplane Arrives in Lismore. 

The aeroplane, which is touring the North Coast in furtherance of the second Peace Loan, arrived in Lismore yesterday. Lieut. .F. S. Chapman is the pilot and Mr. J. Hogg the engineer. The machine is of the splendid Avro make rendered so familiar to the people of Lismore by the comparatively prolonged stay of Lieut. F. L. Roberts in the town some few weeks ago. There is also the greatly interesting fact that the aeroplane is a gift to the Commonwealth by the British War Office. The roar of the engines over the town about 1.30 p.m. drew a large number, of people into the streets. The aviators were beheld encircling the town in a magnificent manner at a height of upwards of 5000ft. The air, however, was full of ''pockets," the machine dropping 200ft.. or 300ft. at a time.. The high winds prevented the aviators from performing any stunts, but they hope to do some before leaving Lismore. The town was encircled three times, some Peace Loan printed matter being dropped each time. After going round the town the airmen proceeded to land. It was found that Risk's paddock was not wide enough with the wind in evidence, so the aviators landed in a suitable paddock about, a mile further south.