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.

The topic for this week is ‘SLOW’.

Last week I interpreted ‘Fast’ in terms of generations, so this week I’m interpreting ‘Slow’ similarly.

Great Grandfather Alexander Johnston was born in 1829.

His son my Grandfather Alexander Johnston was born in 1868 when his father was 39.

My Father Warwick was born in 1912 when his father was 44.

I was born in 1940 and my daughter was born in 1977.

So that is 142 years (1829 to 1977) and four generations.

If one generation normally takes 25 years then one would expect my daughter to be 6th generation.

No wonder many of my DNA matches are difficult to identify as they are with people two generations younger than me!

Topic for this week: Fast.

‘Fast’ has many meanings. I chose to interpret it as ‘a Fast Breeder’ (!)

My GGF Edwin Hunt 1837-1895 married fellow schoolteacher Margaret Morgan 1838-1920 on 19 July 1862 in Reading, Berkshire. Almost exactly one year later they had the first of their ten children, Fanny Elizabeth Hunt, on 25 July 1863.

She was followed within 14 months by her sister Margaret Hunt in 1864, then brothers Edwin, William and Arthur in 1866, 1867 and 1868; then another two sisters Florence and Alice in 1869 and 1870. Another son Walter followed almost exactly a year later in 1871. After a gap of 3 years a baby boy Ernest was born who only survived 6 months, and finally another two years later, my grandmother Edith Lillian Hunt made her entrance to the world on 1 March 1876.

All children with the exception of Alice and Ernest reached adulthood, and all emigrated to Sydney, Australia with their parents in 1879. Most married – there are a great many descendants. Many stayed in close touch throughout their lives.

Photos of an older mother Margaret show a calm, well-dressed old lady. One wonders how she coped on the long ship voyage from England to Australia. Probably NOT the way these ladies in a photo found on the web are depicted!

(Although this blog is now mostly about my family history, in addition I am also going to use it for our travels for the next 2 months. It does not seem worthwhile to set up a completely separate blog for such a short time. Many readers, I know, originally subscribed for the travel not the history!))

The Circumforaneous Gibbs are on the road again. Finally! This may be the swansong of our Jayco caravan “T5” with us, but hopefully not our own Swansong.

Leaving both Georgie (18 year old Burmese) and Tiki (6 year old foxie) in the care of homesitters five days ago, we headed north, spending one night in a newish camp at The Store, Kekerengu – right on the beach.

It was beautiful sunny weather with signs of autumn just appearing in the roadside poplars. The Wairarapa vineyards were still draped in netting, in contrast to further north where grape harvesting has finished. Which meant many heavily-laden trucks full of loose grapes. Which meant when negotiating a particularly tricky turn at the southern end of the Dashwood Pass, a truck overturned … grapes everywhere … and the highway was closed for over 6 hours. Cars were diverted down a narrow twisty road but we, together with hundreds of caravans, motorhomes, lorries, a horse float and sundry other large vehicles were parked in two orderly lines covering the road (that’s us with the red ute). Nobody seemed to be complaining and little pockets of friendship sprung up. Horses were unloaded and grazed by the roadside. The truckie next to us happily accepted the offer of a cup of tea.

Finally on our way we made good time to the Omaka aerodrome and the special parking area reserved for members of the NZ Motorhome and Caravan Association (NZMCA). By sheer good luck we were directed to a level site very close to the gate to the airfield road, and in addition a shuttle service could pick us up at that gate and take us to the entrance proper – very welcome as our large and very comfortable deck chairs are heavy. Those chairs by the way were a prize at a Motorhome and Caravan Show several years ago, plus various other goodies AND in addition I won a separate prize, $1,000 worth of diesel!

The air show was awesome. After being postponed twice due to Covid, organisation was superb and the programme varied. I’m not aircraft-mad but I do enjoy watching those fantastic old WW1 planes flitting about, and the amazing aerobatics of the speedy little Yaks, a lone Pitts Special 6 which did corkscrews, the precision parachuting by the Air Force, and of course the incredibly precise Harvards flying in formation – all nine of them – my late father in law Squadron Leader Bill Hoffmann flew Harvards and the distinctive noise they make is one of the very few which I can recognise.

The usual War scenarios were played out with lots of pops and bangs and dramatic ‘deaths’, and ‘officers’ in a variety of uniforms rushed around looking puzzled. Always entertaining! The old warplanes zoomed around overhead and a huge rocket was dramatically demolished (photo by Dave).

There were a few new events, particularly on the first evening when, at the end of a practice day, there was a twilight visit by two witches and rocket-man, who also appeared alone the next two days – superman in a golden helmet with two jetpacks on his back, whizzing around with effortless ease. Oh to be able to fly like him! But apparently his landing was not quite so easy (!).

That first day finished with a fantastic fireworks display. For once I was glad we did not have Tiki with us – the first day or so away I was missing her, it felt strange walking around without her and not having to stop our journey every now and then for her to read her pee-mail, to borrow a phrase from her Facebook friend Charlie Browne.

So now we are holed up at the Blenheim Racecourse in company with a huge number of other motorhomes and caravans. NZMCA members have use of the area except of course on race days when everyone has to leave. We are parked right next to the track – which satisfies my penchant for wide open spaces. The racecourse is a curious mix of old buildings and new, with signs on some warning they are not earthquake-proof (and therefore don’t park too close…).

We are booked on the Cook Straits ferry two days hence. Will we make it? Both ferry companies have been having innumerable difficulties recently – mechanical failures, rough seas, etc – indeed we met one couple at Kekerengu who were two of three vehicles away from loading when they were told the crossing had been cancelled due to rough seas and they would have to rebook – and there were no vacant slots for at least a week. This doesn’t seem particularly fair. Luckily we do not have any must-make-it dates in the next few weeks.

The theme for this week is Solitude.

A recurring theme in my mother’s father’s family. My great grandfather Francis (Frank) Darchy was born in 1854 on an Australian outback sheep and cattle station to a wealthy grazing family. Together with his six brothers he attended an expensive private boys’ school in Melbourne. His family were famous for entertaining with “bumpers of champagne”. But the family’s sheep and cattle properties were mostly disbanded during the Depression of the 1880s and most of the brothers were forced to earn their own livings. Most took off for the loneliness and solitude of the Australian bush, the only life they knew. They became stockmen and later the more able became managers of cattle/sheep stations. Stockmen drove stock sometimes for thousands of miles across the Australian continent. The Australian Banjo Patterson’s poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ describes the life of a stockman beautifully.

Clancy of The Overflow [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Incidentally my grandfather worked at The Bulletin, where this poem was first published, and I went to school with a granddaughter of Banjo.

Initially Frank was an outback mailman, travelling between Dirranbandi, Camooweal and Anthony’s Lagoon – a particularly lonely job, spending weeks on horseback, leading a packhorse with perhaps a dog for company, going from one remote cattle station to another – covering hundreds of miles. His wife ran a boarding house in a country town. How often did he see her?

Two of Frank’s sons Dick (1882-1938) and Ted (1885-1947) fought in the First World War. Ted was badly gassed in France. Returning home, he also returned to the outback and the lonely life of a stockman. At the time of his death in 1947 he was working on the ironically named Gallipoli Station in the Northern Territory (he did not fight at Gallipoli but in France), maintaining one of the outer pump stations which were so essential for providing water from artesian wells for the stock. He spent his days alone, being supplied with food and smokes every few days. He died alone, coughing his heart out judging from the position in which he was found. In lonely solitude.

This week’s theme: Begins With a Vowel. I’ve chosen two A’s, with links to an I.

My paternal Great Grandmother Adela Campbell Scott Macloskey was born in 1848 in Greenock, Scotland, the last-but-one of 14 children of John Macloskey and Mary Ann Brooks. She was only six years old when the family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia where father John, a successful merchant and tailor, died three months later of dysentery.

When Adela was just eighteen she married Dubliner Frederick Wentworth Wade, an up and coming young accountant, later to become a solicitor and barrister and one of Invercargill’s founding fathers, on 29 August 1865 in Invercargill, New Zealand. Was it with her parents’ blessing? What was she doing in New Zealand?

It is curious about Invercargill. Close to the southernmost tip of mainland New Zealand, five separate Macloskey wives married there, yet none were born there. Two of the elder Macloskey girls journeyed to NZ in 1860; one of them married in December 1861, the other six months later. Adela’s future husband also arrived in Invercargill that year. Perhaps he had met the Macloskey family earlier in Melbourne, or met the married sisters in Invercargill. Then Adela visited her sisters …

Adela and Frederick had six children in the space of nine years. When the youngest, my grandmother Bertha was six months old her mother took her to Melbourne presumably to meet her extended family, and Adela died there of pthisis (TB) aged 26.

It is not known how Bertha was returned to her father in Invercargill, but just two years later Frederick married again, in Melbourne – Adela’s niece Ada Gresham Macloskey, aged 19, who became mother to five children aged between three and 11, and then two years later had one of her own – Florence Ada “Fonna” – six children to manage when she was still only 21!

A fuller story of the Macloskey Wives of Invercargill is at https://nancyvada.me/genealogy/the-macloskey-wives-of-invercargill/