A very special birthday

I was invited to a birthday party for John Maher, a first cousin of my late mother. John turned 88 last week, and his family threw him a party at the Railway House B&B in Daylesford. I drove over from
Castlemaine, through lovely green countryside, and was warmly welcomed by the large family gathering. Seven of John's children were there, plus several grandchildren, a couple of cute grandbabies, and a rather fetching Collie dog.

Sadly, John's lovely wife Theresa died last year, but I know she would have been pleased to see the love and respect so evident for John today.

There were photos, cakes with candles, speeches, and lots of stories to share.

And confirmation of a story I related here a while back about my grandfather, Pat Maher, and his final journey. You may want to refresh your memory here.

My cousin Barry had related how Pat Maher died in Sydney, and his son and two nephews drove up there from their home in Minyip to bring his body home. Barry was only a small boy at the time, and I wasn't entirely sure if it happened as he remembered.

Today John Maher told me it was indeed true, and in fact he owned the car in question, a Ford V8. John didn't want to go into the details of how exactly it was done, and no-one was too sure that it was quite legal to carry a deceased person in a private car. But it definitely happened. So glad we've cleared that up.
Barry died earlier this year, and I'm sorry for doubting him, he had it right all along.

An American connection

The story of my great-grandfather Micheal Maher is the perfect illustration of what happens when family details are not recorded and passed down. Micheal (that's not a typo - he signed his name to several documents with that spelling) is something of an enigma. No records have been found of his arrival in Australia.
In 1868 he married Annie Hassett, in the Catholic church at Hamilton.

The marriage certificate shows that he was born in 1842 at Thomastown, Kilkenny, and his parents were Thomas Maher and Mary Read.  He began his life in Australia as a labourer, but when he died at Minyip, Victoria in 1913, he was a wealthy man, owning nearly 2500 acres of land.

 He and Annie had five sons and two daughters. His sons were each left a farm, and the daughters received 500 pounds each - a large sum in 1913.

When Micheal and Annie married, their residence was Port Fairy, but they moved to Ararat - at least two of their children were born there.

In 1874 the family moved to Minyip, taking up land near Annie's brothers, the Hassetts.

Over the years, Micheal continued to buy land and pay it off - his long and complicated Will gives details of several farms, some still mortgaged.

Some time between 1908 and 1913, Micheal returned to Ireland. It must have been after 1908, because he brought back a present for my mother, Annie Maher, his first grandchild. The present was a child's knife, fork and spoon set, with ornate silver handles, in a leatherette case - now owned by one of my nephews.

Micheal presumably still had some family connections in Ireland, but that information is now lost to us. What remained was a story of relatives in America - either Micheal or one of his sons supposedly exchanged letters with a Stephen Maher, who had settled in America. My mother had a vague memory of this, and thought Stephen or one of his sons was a doctor...
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it's now much easier to research your family tree. Using Ancestry.com, several family members have discovered that the American story is true!

Stephen Maher was actually Micheal Maher's uncle; he left Ireland in 1825 and settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and two of his grandsons were indeed doctors. There are many Maher descendants still living in Connecticut today.

 Anne & Jane Maher

Micheal and Annie's children (not necessarily in order, I don't have all their birthdates) were -
Thomas m. Grace Kenny - no children
William, m. Ellen Kenny - stillborn child
Michael, m. Amelia Sullivan - Frank & Mollie
John, M. Elizabeth Drum - Michael, Kathryn, Veronica & John
Patrick, m. Agnes Sullivan - Annie, Eileen, Kathleen & John
Anne (Sr. Philomena, Brigidine Convent, Wangaratta)
Jane m. James Hickey - no children

Two of Micheal and Annie's sons also visited Ireland.
Thomas retired from farming and took an extensive world trip, including Ireland.
Pat (and probably Ag) went to Ireland, and brought back souvenirs - a silver Celtic cross pendant for my mother, with her initials, A.M. engraved on it. Mum treasured her cross, and wore it often; my sister has it now. Pat also sponsored an Irishman, who worked on the farm for some years.

Pat Maher (on right) and his cousin, Pat Kelly.
Annie Hassett's sister, Honorah, married James Kelly, and the two families were always close.

Micheal died in 1913, and is buried with his wife in the Minyip cemetery. Some of his descendants still live at Minyip.

That brings my Irish history to a close, I hope it hasn't been too confusing! All the information here, plus a bit more, will  be published on my website, Marcie's Memoirs. Still tinkering with that, I'll reveal it soon...

Now it's time to tackle the history of my German ancestors, and be warned, I have LOTS of information about them!

Grandad's last trip

Yesterday my sister and I attended an annual cousins' gathering, all of us descended from two Sullivan sisters who married two Maher brothers.


We lunched at the historic Craig's Royal Hotel in Ballarat.

This gorgeous old pub is a Ballarat landmark, built in 1853 at the height of the goldrush, and recently refurbished to full Victorian glory.
There were eight cousins in attendance, plus partners, and we had a great time. We've known each other for sixty or seventy years, and grey hair and wonky knees haven't dimmed the fellowship.
Josephine brought a treasure trove of family photos, and Brian and Bernadette heard the story of our convict ancestors for the first time. There was a great-aunt's diary, a collection of old newspaper clippings, and lots of reminiscences.
Barry told the best story of the day, about the death of my grandfather, Pat Maher. Pat lived all his life on the farm in Minyip, but when he retired, he used to divide his time between visiting various family members. In 1949, he went to visit his sister Jennie in Sydney. Unfortunately, he died there. The family knew he'd want to be buried in Minyip beside his wife and daughter. So...his son Jack, and nephews Frank and Michael, decided to bring him home.
Barry was just a nipper, but he remembers it well. The war was over, but petrol was still rationed - they wouldn't be able to buy any on the way. "Dad had all these 4 gallon drums." Barry told us. "He filled them up with petrol, put a bit of rag over the hole, and screwed the caps on tight. Then he stacked them in the boot." Jack's car was a big old pre-war American model, something like this one.

It's about 1000 kilometres from Minyip to Sydney, and on the roads of the day, the trip probably took them about 24 hours each way. "They collected Pat, and brought him home on the back seat, with the three cousins sitting in the front. They delivered him to the undertaker in Minyip, and went home and had a beer."
Understandably, this story gave rise to a few questions. There was a spirited debate as to whether you could have fitted a coffin across the back seat of the car. Consensus - no, you couldn't.
Barry stuck to his version of the story, backed up by his sister Pat. You really don't want to hear all the suggestions that were made for the best way to convey your deceased relative home in the back of the family car...
When we stopped laughing, we wondered - are there laws about that sort of thing? Do you have to get permission to take a body interstate (with or without a coffin)?

Anyway, that's how Pat Maher made his final journey, and was duly interred in the Minyip cemetery beside his beloved Ag. And I'm sure Jack, Frank and Michael treated him with all the care and respect he deserved - he was much loved.

Edit: some doubt has been cast on the truth of this story, I'm hoping to verify it - or not - soon.

Bachelors and Spinsters

After the death of their mother, Annie and her sister Eileen lived at the farm in Minyip, keeping house for their father and younger brother Jack. There was plenty to do; housekeeping without electricity is no easy job – no vacuum cleaners, washing machines or refrigerators. Cooking was done on a wood-fired stove. At haymaking and harvesting time there would often be extra men to feed – and they expected hot dinners, too!

Outside the house there were poultry to feed, cows to milk, and gardens to tend. Most people were as self-sufficient as possible, making butter, preserving fruit and growing vegies.

 You might think that life in a small country town would be pretty quiet – dull, even. But you’d be wrong. Country people are pretty good at entertaining themselves! Annie and Eileen had a very busy social life. Perusal of the local newspapers of the time show that there were plenty of social events - a kitchen tea, a concert, a card night, a twenty-first birthday party.

There was plenty of sport for those so inclined: football, golf, tennis and cricket. Lavish afternoon teas and suppers were the norm.

Mum used to tell the story of a school friend from Ballarat, who came to stay on the farm for several weeks, and Annie and Eily did their best to show her a good time. When the lass returned home, she spent several weeks in bed, suffering from “nervous exhaustion”!

By the late twenties, most people had a car; the Mahers had a Ford, a ‘tin Lizzie’ and it went everywhere, over the roughest of roads, and even across paddocks. Their next car was an Essex, followed by a Chev.

Every little community for miles around had at least one Ball; Bachelors and Spinsters Balls were all the rage (not the drunken affairs we hear of nowadays) and people drove a long way to attend them.

One the way home from one such occasion, in wet weather (the main ball season was winter) the car skidded on the greasy road (I’m talking here about an unsealed road which consisted of two wheel tracks with a grassy centre – you can still see a few tracks like that in the Wimmera - and landed in the table drain (wide shallow drain at the side of the road). They were hopelessly bogged, and had to trudge across the paddocks in full evening finery - long dresses for the girls - to the nearest house where they stayed the rest of the night. It was not uncommon for them to return home early in the morning, when the boys would milk the cows and then go to bed.

Everyone had dance programmes, with a little pencil attached, so the boys could book dances. 

When Mum died, we found a few of them among her keepsakes. 

In this one, the writing is my father’s, and I wondered why it had been kept for so long. The date was July 15^th, 1927, and Fred had four dances with Ann. 

She would have been just 19, Fred a couple of years older. What happened that night that caused one of them to keep the dance programme for all those years?

Over the next years, Annie had several boyfriends, but they all fell by the wayside; in a couple of cases, Mum said, because they were drank too much, and there was No Way she would ever marry a drinker! She had seen several relatives suffer the miseries of living with a drinker.

But Fred was always there, a good-looking, rather shy chap, and a beautiful dancer, too. Trouble was, he wasn’t Catholic, and thus not a suitable partner for a good Catholic girl. At what point Mum changed her mind on this, I don’t know, but Fred and Annie announced their engagement at St. Patrick’s Ball in Minyip, in 1936. Not a popular choice with her family, as I’ve written elsewhere.

By now, Eileen was about to be married, and brother Jack would soon follow suit. When that happened Jack would take over the farm, according to the custom of the times, and Annie and her father would have to move out. In those days, sons got farms; daughters were expected to marry (probably another son with a farm, but at least someone who would support them). But Fred, the next-to-youngest of thirteen children, was never going to inherit a farm, so they would have to provide for themselves. Fred had worked for an older cousin since leaving school, and was saving as much as he could to buy his own farm.

Annie at back, right

Annie would also need to earn a living, and she had already arranged to train as a nurse, at the Ballarat Base Hospital. She would not be paid for the first six months, but would at least have her keep, and could live in the Nurses’ home.

 

Annie enjoyed her training, and made many friends among the other nurses. The work was hard, but interesting. During her third year at the Hospital, she caught diphtheria, and was very ill, missing weeks of training.

 She still managed to pass her finals, and became a registered Nurse. She had to make up the lost weeks, of course, but finally she and Fred were able to marry.

(See also “A marriage of two cultures”)

Ag and Pat

 My grandparents, Agnes Elizabeth Sullivan and Patrick Nicholas Maher, married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat, in Feb. 1907, Both were aged 27. They had probably known each other as children, for Pat was born and lived all his life at Minyip, and Ag had lived there as a child with her parents – her two younger brothers were born there.

According to my Aunt Eileen, they met again as adults when Pat had sheep agisted near Ballarat, and before long they were married. It’s a beautiful dress, isn’t it? Perhaps made by Ag’s sister Kit, who was a tailoress…

Pat had a farm just out of Minyip, and their house was called “Looranna”. A few years later, in 1911, Ag’s older sister Millie married Pat’s brother, Michael Maher, who had a farm just across the road.

(According to Mum, another Maher brother, Jack, was keen on Ag’s younger sister Belle, but she turned him down. Mum also thought Ag had been engaged to someone else before she married Pat.)

Ag and Pat had four children. The first was my mother, Annie Agnes Maher, born in Ballarat in 1908. Then came Eileen Mary, b. 1910, and Kathleen Theresa, b. 1911 – all born in Ballarat – apparently Ag went home for each birth. The youngest, John Patrick, was born at Minyip in 1912.

They had a happy marriage, by all accounts - when they were at home on the farm, Ag would always go everywhere with Pat, even just for a drive down the paddock in the buggy. She said her husband was more important, and household tasks could wait. 
Ag’s health was ‘delicate’ though no-one seems to know exactly what was wrong with her. She was apparently prone to bronchitis, (no antibiotics in those days) and it seems that all the coughing weakened her heart. Mum said she always had help in the house when her children were young.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why the children were all sent to boarding school at an early age. Mum was just six years old when she was sent to board with the Brigidine nuns at Wangaratta. Presumable this was chosen because Pat’s sister Anne (Sister Philomena) was there, and would keep an eye on the little girl.

At the time, many Catholic families sent their children away to school, because there were no Catholic schools in the smaller towns. Annie, understandably, hated it; she said she used to cry herself to sleep every night. A couple of years later she was joined at Wangaratta by her sister Eileen, and then the youngest sister Kathleen. Their brother Jack would in his turn be sent to St. Pat’s in Ballarat for his education. At least he had family in Ballarat, and could presumably go to them on weekends. The three little girls in Wangaratta weren’t so lucky – they only went home once a year, for the summer holidays.

Kathleen Maher

This arrangement intensified the tragedy when the youngest girl, Kathleen, died at boarding school, aged just nine. She apparently had Bright’s disease, which would now be called acute nephritis – inflammation of the kidneys. There was no treatment then, and by the time the nuns realised that she was very ill and contacted her parents, it was too late. Kathleen died in May, 1920, and is buried beside her parents at the Minyip Cemetery.

I have never been able to understand how any parents could send their children away like that, but I suppose it was considered normal then. It had a profound effect on my mother, who always found it hard to show affection – she was not a ‘huggy’ person.

The two older girls did not return to Wangaratta, finishing their schooling in Ballarat, where they boarded with their Grandmother Sulllivan, and Aunties Kit and Rose.

Ag’s health worsened, and Pat installed a share farmer and moved to Ballarat for five years, so she could escape the heat of the Minyip summers. Ag had a dreadful cough, and TB was suspected, but no doctor could ever find any trace of it. They must have gone back to Minyip, for Ag died there on the farm on October 17^th, 1927. 

Annie had already moved home to Minyip to look after her mother, and remained there to keep house for her father and brother Jack, while Eileen stayed in Ballarat.

The farm was eventually passed to Jack, and Pat divided his time between visits to various family members. I remember him staying with us at Lubeck, a quietly spoken man, with endless patience for small girls. Sometimes I would sit on Granddad’s knee and play with his pocket watch, and occasionally I was even allowed to help fill his pipe! The plug of tobacco was kept in a small tin, and Granddad would shave bits of tobacco off with his pocket knife, which then had to be carefully packed into the bowl of the pipe – “but not too firmly dear, or it won’t draw”… Pat died in 1949, while on a visit to his sister  Jane in Sydney.