Trove Tuesday: The Carlton Brewery in pictures

No title (1870, December 10). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), p. 10 (TOWN EDITION). Retrieved June 6, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219366218

The Carlton Brewery was five years old in 1870, when the woodcut above was published. The accompanying extensive article describes a large and busy operation with a smoke stack 105 feet high (30 metres). On site were boilers, crushers, a steam engine, refrigeration, thousands of bags of malt and hops, liquor in various stages of fermentation, not to mention barrels of the finished product.

The large stables (at the back left of the woodcut image) could house 20 horses “with every convenience that a man who regardeth the life of his beast could desire”. It sounds like life was pretty good for the beasts.

I wonder what life was like for the neighbours?

This image was a particularly good find for me, because Francis McMahon and Ellen Keogh (my 2xgreat grandparents) lived next to Carlton Brewery in Ballarat street (a street which no longer exists) for at least 40 years. From my reading of maps and street directories, I think they lived in one of the houses I have shaded red, below.

A later newspaper article (1904) also found on Trove provides a glimpse into the interior of the Brewery buildings and gives some idea of the scale of the Brewery.

“The Boiler House”

“Engine Room
Hercules Refrigerator or Ice Machine, having a capacity of 40 tons per day”

“Bottling by Machinery”

More images are available in the article.

VICTORIAN INDUSTRIES. (1904, November 3). Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925), pp. 25-26. Retrieved June 6, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article175405919

Trove Tuesday: Letters to “Aunt Connie”

The Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954) ran a regular column of letters from children called “They Young Folks” by “Aunt Connie”. These letters from my grandfather’s sister, Bessie Ada French, describing her life at Avoca Lead were among them.

 

FOR THE COT. (1906, September 15). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), p. 43.
Retrieved January 14, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222530226

FOR THE COT.
Avoca Lead, 26th August.— Dear Aunt Con-
nie, — This is the first time I have written to
you, and I hope you will accept me as a
niece. I have six brothers and three sisters.
My eldest sister is married, and she has two
little girls. I have to walk two and a half
miles to school. I like going to school very
much. My three brothers have been working
on a cyanide plant. They are carting wood
to the Avoca Lead dredge now. There are a
lot of dredges about here. It makes the place
very lively. I always read the "Young Folks' "
page, and I think the letters are very nice, es-
pecially Hilda Russel's, We have a few fowls
and a pig, two horses, and seven lovely snow-
white ducks. The golden wattle is out in
bloom now. I love to go out in the bush and
gather bunches of the blossom. We are mak-
ing a garden at our school. There are about
200 children going to the Avoca school. I
am sending 3d for the Cot. With love to Uncle
Ben, Cousins Connie and Florrie, not forget-
ting yours, I remain, your loving niece,
BESSIE FRENCH, age 10 years. Please,
Aunt Connie, may I write again?
(I am pleased to have you for a niece,
Bessie. You may write again.— Aunt Connie.)

 

TOO STONY FOR FLOWERS. (1907, January 26). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), p. 35.
Retrieved January 14, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221254557

TOO STONY FOR FLOWERS.
Avoca, 16th January. — Dear Aunt Connie, —
This is the second letter I have written to
you. I have been staying at my sister's for
the last three weeks. Mr brother is working
at Donkey Hill on a cyanide plant. He only
comes home once a week, as it is ten miles
from home. We begin school again on Mon-
day. I am in the third class at school. We
have a flower garden at our school, but the
flowers do not grow very well, as it is situ-
ated on a stony hill. I will be eleven years
old on the 1st of February, and my little
niece will be four on the 4th, so we are go-
ing to keep both birthdays up on the same
day, and have a tea party. We are having
some warm weather now. With love to Cou-
sins Connie and Florrie, Uncle Ben. and your-
self,— I remain, your loving niece, BESSIE
FRENCH.

Trove Tuesday: The Gallant Sorter of the G.P.O.

The Gallant Sorter of the G.P.O
5FT. 9IN., and Wore a Mo

A young girl named Jane Davis
about 20, proceeded against an ex-
public servant named John McMahon
for the maintenance of her illegitimate
child.

…

Excerpt from: The Gallant Sorter of the G.P.O. (1895, August 9). North Melbourne Gazette (Vic. : 1894 - 1901), p. 2. Retrieved February 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107123768.
Note: The full article is much longer than the excerpts included with this post. Follow the link above if you wish to read it.

This article had my attention for two reasons. Firstly, I believe John McMahon – the ‘gallant’ mo-wearing post office employee – was my grandmother’s uncle. That would make the illegitimate child my first cousin twice removed.

Then there’s the “Mo” itself.

Here in Australia, “mo” is a slang term for a moustache. I was surprised to see the term in print as early as 9 August 1895.

I wondered how long the term had actually been around for. The free online dictionaries I could find weren’t very helpful. The offline dictionary on my bookshelf included the term, but gave no start date. Then I thought to check if the National Library of Australia’s electronic resources included a more complete Oxford Dictionary than the free online version.

Success! The Oxford English dictionary gives the earliest use as…
… drumroll … 4 August 1894.

One year earlier than my find, almost to the day. So close! It would have been fun to find an earlier usage.

But back to John McMahon. The mocking reference to his mo in the headline came about because having dumped the pregnant girl, it was claimed that he then showed her a letter he intended to send in reponse to a matrimonial advertisement.

…
He had shown witness a letter
which he intended to send to a girl in
answer to a matrimonial advertise-
ment in the Age. She identified the
letter.

Mr. Daly read the letter, which was
to the following purport :—
Letter Carrier's Room, G.P.O.
13th December, 1894.
“Dear Nellie,—I take great pleasure
in answering your advertisement in
to day's Age. I am a letter sorter at
the G. P. O. at an annual salary of £158
and will receive my annual increment
of £12 shortly.
“I am 5ft 9¼in in height and scale
11 stone 2lbs, and a good all round
athlete. (Dr. Lloyd : yes, a good all
round man—Laughter). I am con-
sidered good looking, of dark complex-
ion and I wear a moustache”.—(Loud
laughter).
…

I have found and obtained the birth certificate for the child but don’t yet know what became of her or her mother.

Missing Friends–Trove Tuesday

It turns out that I’m not the only one searching for my Ancestor, Catherine Lucy Darcy (married James Bennett). Look what I found in the “Missing Friends” section of The Australasian.

Advertising. (1894, June 9). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), p. 1. Retrieved September 11, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138594818

Unfortunately, I found this article 120 years too late. We could have helped each other. I could have told them where she was, and they could have told me more about where she came from.

In 1894 Catherine was still living in Avoca. She’d had three more children born after 1858. All six of her children survived to adulthood and had families of their own. By 1894 Catherine had a large number of grandchildren. She died in 1896.

I would love to pinpoint Catherine’s time and place of birth, and find out her mother’s name. Catherine’s mother is the most elusive of my 3 x great grandparents!

I have wondered what the trigger for this “Missing Friends” ad was. Did one of Catherine’s parents fall ill or die? It would have put her parents at a ripe old age, but it’s within possibility. Perhaps a sibling wanting to find her? Or perhaps really just a friend hoping to get in touch again.

I tried searching Trove for the post office box number given and found a few wanted listings, both before and after the date of the “Missing Friends” article. There’s a bit of a theme running through them…

Advertising. (1892, September 3). Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), p. 3. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112595594

Advertising. (1896, March 17). The Sydney Morning Herald(NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14041631

Advertising. (1897, November 27). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) , p. 3. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136275006

I get the impression it’s a personal post office box, not a business one. I think that maybe just maybe they might have liked boats. Messing about with pleasure skiffs sounds to me like a pursuit of the wealthy.

There’s a name – A.G.Wood. Is H.A.S. a person’s initials, or some sort of acronym? The dates are too early for the electoral rolls, and I don’t fancy digging through directories searching out all the A.G.Woods at this stage. They could well have posted the “Missing Friends” advertisement on behalf of someone else. Maybe one day I’ll look into it further, when I don’t have dozens of other more promising leads all over my family tree to follow!