Topic: Flew the Coop

Samuel Todd Johnston 1866-1934 and his brother Peter Johnston Jun., 1874-1946, were my First cousins twice removed, ie my Grandfather’s cousins – although I very much doubt they ever met. They were also the brothers of Mary Learmonth Johnston who was the recipient of the birthday book I wrote about in Week 29.

There were seven siblings who all stayed close to home throughout their lives with the exception of those two brothers. Samuel went to Chicago and Peter to Canada, and both married but as far as is known had no children. Samuel’s occupation is unknown but Peter was a butcher, so probably went to a good job. Samuel was not in the 1891 Scottish Census but Peter, then aged 17, was still living with his parents and sisters at that stage, and was still there in 1901. Unfortunately no entry can be found for the family in the 1881 Census. Peter was still living at home in 1901. The birthday book notes that Peter “left Scotland for America on 9 Feb 1910. “ it also noted “4 years since he left”. But nothing about Samuel.

Their sister Mary must have tried hard to maintain contact. In her birthday book she noted the birthdays of their wives – “Mrs. S T Johnston” and “Mrs Peter Johnston”. But nothing about their marriage dates (which were often noted for other people). Mary died in 1932 and someone else took over the birthday book and noted her death as well as Samuel’s; Peter’s turned up in an internet search.

It is impossible to know if other family members maintained contact. It seems that Mary was the glue that held the extended family together.

Theme: In the News.

George Thomas Darchy was my great grand uncle. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1864, he was the ninth child of pioneering pastoral Thomas Darchy and his wife Susan Byrne, and the only one of fheir children not born ‘at home’ on their outback sheep and cattle station.

His early education would have been at home with a private tutor, after which he attended a prestigious boys’ school in Melbourne. He would have been 14 when his father died in 1877. His elder brothers took over the family grazing properties and for a time did well.

The family’s fortunes were greatly decimated by the 1890s Depression, “the most severe Australia has ever faced” which meant like his brothers he was forced to work as a station hand (jackaroo), drover, woolscourer and the like. One became an outback postman. The most able (my great grandfather) became a station manager. George may have helped his brothers for a time but eventually struck out on his own. He went to northern Queensland and – as his daughter wrote many years later – ‘successfully isolated himself from his family”.

He married Irish Anna Maria Hynes in 1899 in Longreach, giving his occupation as a station manager, but in reality it seems he was a labourer and later drover all his life. With a few exceptions when he worked as a stockman and his wife as cook on an outback station, they were always based in Longreach, which like many country towns had its own newspaper – a wonderful source of information! For some reason he was always known as Tim Darchy.

As an example of just some of Tim’s droving, here are excerpts from various old newspapers predominantly in Longreach, where the local hero ‘Tim Darchy’ was always the first name mentioned in stock movements. To truck or trucking refers to stock being loaded onto railroad trucks, mostly from Longreach. So Tim would have been a very familiar figure at the railway yards.

1911: Tim Darchy has trucked 1600 Bexley ewes for Newmarket …

April 1912: Tim Darchy trucked 5100 mixed sheep from Bimerah for Murrarue.

1913: Drover Tim Darchy has passed with 5000 wethers from Greenhills to Parkgate.

Dec 1913; Drover Tim Darchy has gone to Belmore to lift 150 mixed cattle, trucking here for Rockhampton.

Jan 1914: Tim Darchy has passed Arrilalah with 180 mixed cattle from Belmore, trucking here for Rockhampton.

March 1914: Drover Tim Darchy has arrived with 550 mixed cattle from Muttaburrja, which were sold here.

April 1914; Drover Tim Darchy delivered 2600 wethers from Glenbuck to Strathdarr.

June 1914: Drover Tim Darchy has left here for Westlqnd for 1700 wethers, trucking here for Brisbane.

July 1914: in regard to the removal of 7000 head of cattle from Brighton Downs, it transpires that 1500 fats have been purchased by the American Meat Company and these truck here later on for Brisbane. … Tim Darchy left this morning to lift the first 1000, and probably J.Nolan will lift the second lot.

Aug 1914: Tim Darchy has left Cleave (?) with 2200 weaners for Meroondah Downs.

Sept 1914: Drover Tim Darchy has trucked 1000 wethers from Mahrigong to Gladstone meat works.

Mar 1915: Tim Darchy trucked 3500 sheep from Baratria to Gladstone.

in 1916 George was charged in the Longreach district court with indecent exposure and fined 10s or 24 hrs. The same year the newspaper reported that (as a drover) he “came here with 200 cattle from Crossmore, which were to truck for Emerald.” He was referred to as Tim Darchy.

Jan 1923: Crossing Longreach Reserve; 100 rams from Longreach to Luthrie, Hill owner, Tim Darchy in charge.

in 1932 George was reported as the drover in charge of droving 2,000 wethers from Langdale to Evanston.

In 1938 the Longreach Leader of Sat. 9 July reported that 2400 ewes were moved from Campsie to Glenreigh (Tangorin), T P Delahunty owner, G T Darchy in charge.

His obituary appeared in the Longreach Leader on 22 July 1949. Presumably since he was always known as Tim, they thought George was his second name.

Mr Thomas George Darchy, an old resident of Longreach, passed away at the Base Hospital, Longreach, on 16 July, at the age of 87 years. He was the last surviving member of one of the early pioneering families of the Lachlan and Murray River districts. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and he came to Queensland in his early twenties as a jackaroo on Maneroo and later Corona and rose to the ??? (unreadable) of the district. In his later years he followed droving pursuits until seven years ago. In 1897 he married Miss Anna Maria Hynes by whom he is survived, and there is one daughter Mrs. J. Aitchison, Rockhampton. The funeral left the Church of England, Rev Torlach officiating at the Church and the graveside.

George/Tim is buried in Longreach General Cemetery. I was very fortunate in being able to visit his grave when on a tour of the Australian outback a few years ago – possibly the first Darchy relative to do so.

Theme: Birthdays

Almost ten years ago I received an email from an unknown person:
“As a collector of Scottish Mauchline ware*, I have today been given a present of a lovely little ‘Birthday book’. This book originally belonged to Mary Learmonth Johnston and it says it was a present from Maggie and Mary, August 23rd 1889. I have just done a bit of research on the internet and found Mary and her family members all mentioned in this book on your site. Mary’s birthday was the 2nd of March and her date of death is in the book as 8/10/1932.

 Her parents Peter and Agnes and her siblings and various other people’s birthdays and deaths feature in this book; she has brothers who went to live in Canada and America and an Aunt who died in Portugal! …. It is a lovely little book and I love that it meant so much to Mary. “

What a wonderful surprise, and such a thoughtful person! After some correspondence I was sent photos of all relevant pages in the book. It contains not only birthdates but death dates too and also, sometimes, places.

Mary Learmonth Johnston 1853-1932 was the eldest of seven children of Peter Johnston 1824-1919 and Agnes Todd 1829-1902 of Glasgow. She never married. She made a name for herself as a China merchant, starting as a saleswoman of fancy goods (1891) then as a glazier and china merchant (1901). She lived with her widowed father, who was 91 when he died, and her sister Maggie who had ‘no occupation’ according to the Scottish Censuses – she may have been disabled. From the number of entries in the birthday book Mary Learmonth Johnston must have been the family historian. She may have been surprised to learn just how many Mary Learmonth Johnstons there are in the family history, plus a couple with a different surname, but all related – seven at last count.

Mauchlin ware: A line of Scottish white-wood keepsakes and decorative items produced from about 1820 – 1939 by W&A Smith and small shops in and around Mauchline, Scotland. Not, as I had first surmised, china ware.

Theme: Random

I have a distantly related great aunt who died aged 13 “of natural causes” in 1906. She was one of 5 children born to George Johnston and Jessie Yuille of St. Rollox, Glasgow. Only two of them survived to full adulthood. She had an interesting name – at a time when middle names were still fairly rare.

Her name was Catherine McFarlane McGavin Johnston. She is interred with her Great Grandfather Charles and her parents in Charles’ huge lair in Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis.

Why all the names?

Catherine’s paternal grandmother was Isabella McFarlane 1819-1857.

Catherine’s father’s sister, her aunt Catherine Johnston 1840-1863, married David McGavin.

One of this Aunt Catherine’s daughters was Isabella McFarlane McGavin 1866-1890 who died aged 24. Perhaps Catherine McFarlane McGavin Johnston, born 3 years later, was named in her memory.

To compound the sad story, Catherine’s elder brother George 1891-1891 had died two years earlier aged 8 months, and her father died 3 months after her.

Theme: the Great Outdoors.

My Grandfather Alex Johnston was a journalist and artist. Born in Tasmania in 1868, as a young man he took off for the wilds of Western Australia, but not before he had explored the scenery around his hometown, as evidenced by some early paintings. Subsequent paintings in a series of sketchbooks have enabled me to trace his wanderings.

He also loved the sea, and on arrival in Western Australia must have spent some time around the waterfront at Fremantle (Oct-Nov 1894) before starting as a journalist at the ‘Coolgardie Miner’ in the tiny little goldfields town where he obviously enjoyed wandering around and painted many sunset scenes.

After a few years he was off to the fabled East via a steamer which called in at Manilla in 1899 and then Celebes, Hong Kong and Shanghai (June-Nov 1899). Returning home via Aden and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in March 1900 he returned to the goldfields until the end of 1900; then was off again to the East (Sumatra, Penang, Yenoshima, Kyoto in 1904 and back with a stop off in New Guinea (July 1904). He seldom painted people apart from the Japanese and then mostly in crowd scenes.

While working as a journalist back home in Melbourne, he met and married Bertha Wade in 1908 and they spent the next few years wandering around northern NSW and southern Queensland before settling down in Sydney where their first-born arrived in 1912 when Alex was 42.

They bought a lovely old house in leafy Tambourine Bay, Sydney, where they lived the rest of their lives.

Alex continued work as a journalist while also painting around the neighbourhood, particularly the jacaranda trees, at every opportunity. For a time he owned a sailing boat. He was interested in all aspects of nature and could identify the call of every bird in the garden, according to my father. He encouraged me to take an interest in nature, and in reading in general, lending me one volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica at a time to take home.

My parents were not much into the Great Outdoors and never took the family camping but I seem to have inherited Granddad’s interests. I wish he had lived long enough to see me graduate with a degree in Zoology, and to know I am now living in the most beautiful great outdoors country of all, New Zealand. He would be so interested in the many modern nnovations that have taken place since his time – supersonic jets, digital cameras, computers, the world wide web – he would have embraced them all.