Wedding
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| Josephine Morgan on her wedding day |
Josephine, known as Jo or Josie, had not had an easy life to this point. There are clues in the newspaper report to some of those hardships*
At the Methodist Church, Tamworth,
on August 9, Miss Josephine Dorothy Morgan, of "Leicester Vale,"
Duri, was married to Mr. Fred Whitten, of Gaspard, Quirindi. The bride wore a
dress of cream silk striped ninon over glace silk, richly decorated with pearl
and silver trimmings, with the customary wreath and veil. She carried a
handsome shower bouquet of white hyacinths, camellias, snow drops and asparagus
fern, the gifts of the bridegroom also a costly diamond ring. She was attended
by two bridesmaids, Miss Emily Maunder and Miss Lucie Whitten (sister of the
bridegroom.) They were attired in cream ninon and carried lovely bouquets of
pink and white hyacinths and autumn leaves, and they also wore pretty wreath
brooches, gifts of the bridegroom. Mr. W Chalmers, of Tamworth, acted as. best
man, and Mr. Dunning, of Duri, gave the bride away. Rev. James Colwell was the
officiating clergyman, and Mrs. Colwell supplied the music. A goodly number of
friends assembled to witness the ceremony, and afterwards adjourned to Mr
Jarman's refreshment rooms, where the bride and bridegroom were the recipients
of hearty congratulations. Upwards of 40 guests sat down to the wedding
breakfast. The customary speeches were made and the usual toasts were proposed
and honored. The bride's travelling dress was of saxe blue silk voile, nicely
braided, with hat to match. The newlv wedded couple went to Toowoomba and
Brisbane.
What a pity that local newspapers don’t
do this anymore – we can learn so much from the report – the name of the
Church, the names of the others in the wedding party, the bouquet and the
gifts, the reception and the honeymoon destination.
We know that Josephine wasn’t given
away by her father because she had not seen her parents since she was about 5
years old, and they separated. Her
mother went with baby Edward and was soon living with another man. Her father took Josie and Elsie, her 2 year-old
sister, to live with his sister (also Josephine) and her family in Summer
Hill. We don’t know if perhaps he
visited in her early years but certainly, by the time she married, she had long
believed that she was an orphan.
Both of her parents were actually
still alive in 1911, but she was not to learn that until her mother died in
1933.
We know that her bridesmaid, Miss Emily Maunder, was
the sister of her best friend, Ruth, who was supposed to be Matron of Honour
but who had learned that she was pregnant.
Nobody could possibly have guessed, but it was considered “not done” to
be a pregnant attendant to the bride.
My
mother wrote that “Josie had met the Maunder family when she was brought
to Tamworth by family friends named Lonsdale.
Mr Lonsdale was a traveller for Buzacotts, a farm supplies firm now
defunct. He called on a Duri farmer
named Will Maunder. The Maunders took a
fancy to my mother and asked her to stay on as a companion to their daughters
Ruth and Emily. While there, she was
included in the social activities of the community, and it was during one of
these that she met my father.”
We know that this was Fred’s second
marriage and that his 8 year-old daughter, Gladys, was amongst the wedding
guests. The first marriage ended
tragically when Annie Whitten died shortly after giving birth to Gladys in
1903. She was 22 years old and they had
been married for less than a year. Josie became an instant stepmother - an unenviable position for a new bride.
 |
| Fred's brothers Harry and Tony, with Gladys at the wedding |
Fred and Josie had a happy marriage. They had seven children, but sadly lost their
second son Jackie at the age of 6 and then their daughter Ruth at only 30. Fred suffered from ill health in the last
years of his life but was loved and cared for at home until he died in 1947 at
the age of 76. Josie lived for 21 years
as a widow. Her family was scattered throughout
NSW, but she remained a central figure in their lives.
When I was about 11, my sisters and
I “dressed up” in Josephine’s wedding dress.
I don’t think it fit me even at that age – my grandmother was about 5’
tall and Fred used to say he could “put his hands around her waist without her
stays on”. Fortunately, before it could
be ruined by us, my grandmother donated it to the Quirindi Museum.
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