The Family become
The Rowland's become
"Selectors"
After
all the moving around it must have been a relief to finally settle in one place.
Some sort of farming activity must have been set up, as much to provide food for
the family as anything else. William
and Frances
would have had the
experience needed to successfully run a farm. However the living conditions the
family must have endured before they finally settled must have wreaked havoc on
William's health as he finally succumbed to the effects of consumption which he
had endured for some years, and died on 26 March 1855 and was buried at Avoca
. He was only 47
years old and left Frances with 10 children and although the elder boys were
obviously able to look after themselves, the youngest child would have been only
two years old. Frances would have been only about 41 when she was widowed.
However profits from the older boys mining ventures should have kept the family
in a reasonable financial situation.
Living
in a small community, the Rowland’s involved themselves in local affairs. On 1
October 1861 State School No.316 opened at Homebush
with Isabelle
Reynard as head teacher. The local school becoming of greater importance to
George, as he married in 1864 Mary Ann Smith on the 22nd April 1864 George
Rowland
and Henry Plowright
were appointed to the Local Committee of Common School No. 316 at Homebush. (V.G.G.
22-4 186p p917). And in September that year James Clover, Thomas Shaw
and Thomas Squires
were gazetted
members. Thomas Squires and his family became quite important to the Rowland
family. Thomas was convicted of being a pickpocket in England and transported
for life to Van Dieman’s Land on the convict ship “Mary” in 1830. He was
granted his ticket of leave in 1838 and worked as a police constable until he
became a free man in 1846. Thomas married Sarah Francis in St. Matthew’s
Church New Norfolk on August 25, 1834. Sarah
herself also having been transported for seven years for the theft of a roll of
ribbon. She arrived on the convict ship “Jane” in 1833. Sarah died in 1851
aged 43 and after this time Thomas with his sons George and John and daughter
Elizabeth Sarah was lured to the Victorian gold fields, finally settling at
Homebush.
It
was here in Homebush
that the Squires
made the acquaintance of the Rowland family. On October 29,1863 at Amherst, John
Squires married Eliza Rowland (born September 9, 1843) and together the two of
them produced a large family. The Avoca
Mail on 5 November
1864 announced a tea meeting in aid of the Homebush Common School, to take place
at “the new iron schoolhouse”. The Rev. T.B. Garlick (C of E) presided and a
lecture on "Comic Literature" was delivered by John Cooke Esq. Tickets
were 2s.6d. Obviously organized by the committee. On 19 November 1864 the Avoca
Mail reported at length on the function at the Homebush School, mentioning
Mesdames Rowland and Squires presiding over the appropriately named
“Bachelors” table at one of the school functions. However all these
“Bachelors” were not to be so for that much longer. George Rowland was
married, and his sister Eliza to John Squires. Next to marry were Richmond Easto
Rowland
and Elizabeth
Squires
, John Squires`
sister, in December of 1864. All of these couples settled on the land, taking up
farming and producing large families.
Two years after his successful land selection at Rathscar,
on
February 18, 1867 William
Anderton
Rowland married Elizabeth Shaw
at the
Wesleyan Parsonage at Amherst. According to the records, Elizabeth was 16 years
old and most likely had just found out she was pregnant. She was born in London,
England circa 1851, her parents being Thomas Henry Shaw, a blacksmith and
Jane Copeland Webb. With the likelihood of another large family growing in the
district, on 14 September 1867 J. F. Squires put an advertisement in the Avoca
Mail
looking for teachers for the Homebush
Common
School to look after the education of his and Eliza’s children as well as
others in the area, and by 1873 school attendance averaged from 60-99 children.
And I bet at least half of them were Frances
Rowland’s grandchildren!
During
these early years, the area was opening up to farming, as well as all the
mining activity that was going on. Notices were quite often seen in the local
newspapers from individuals applying to occupy crown land. Richmond had his turn
and the Avoca
Mail
published in June 1865 his application to occupy 20 acres of land adjoining
allotment 10, section 4, and parish of Glenmona, Homebush
. This
application was repeated on July 1,1865. Farming was obviously in the blood. A
few months later on December 23,1865 the Avoca Mail listed the successful
applicants in the land selections at Rathscar,
which was
4 miles from Homebush. The number of selectors was 45 and only 13 were
successful and William
and Richmond Rowland were among those listed. Their
properties became known as “Broadpark” and “Merrifields” respectively.
George
also selected land at Rathscar,
farming there for
40 years before retiring and transferring his land to his two surviving sons. In
fact nearly all the Rowland boys turned to the land to make their living,
although for some years mining still supplemented the income. By the 1860’s
many would be miners were back on the land and people generally were much better
off. Now running a farm at Rathscar, in November 1870, the Avoca
Mail reported
William
A. Rowland,
Cornelius Fitzgerald and William Graves as being appointed managers of the
Rathscar Temporary Common by the Avoca Shire. It was at Rathscar that William's
third child; George Arthur was born on September 27,1871. William’s mother
Frances
assisting at the
birth. In fact Frances appears to have been in great demand with her midwifery
skills, to attend the many of the births in the family. She certainly would have
had ample opportunity to keep her skills up to date!
Frances
was a busy and
active member of the community. With her daughter-in-law Elizabeth, Frances was
instrumental in establishing the Methodist Church in the area. Elizabeth was a
staunch member of the Methodist Church and in fact had religious services held
in her new home at Rathscar until her home became too small. With the consent of
the Avoca
minister Elizabeth
and Frances collected a large amount of the money needed to establish a church.
Elizabeth was also responsible for the establishment of the Sunday school. As
the church had no organ Elizabeth, who had a good voice, lead the singing for
over 15 years.
By
1867 the Avoca
Mail reported
Homebush
growing in size.
Mining still played
a large part
in the lives of the people. Every edition of the Avoca Mail had large parts of
the paper devoted to mining news. Regular items listed the mining companies
meeting and their decisions. At least two mining companies based in Homebush had
the memorandums of their meetings published. Many people living in the area, if
not actively mining themselves, took out shares in the various operating mining
companies. Some names that may be of interest to us are, George Squires of
Rathscar,
brother of John and
Elizabeth Squires
, who held shares in
the United No.2 Barnes Reef Gold Mining and Crushing Co. Ltd. in 1872. (George
was also appointed amongst others as a trustee of the Rathscar Cemetery in
October 1869). A William
Shaw, Homebush,
miner, held 6 shares in the Homebush Mining Co. in 1873. In Wrights` Australian
and American Commercial Directory and Gazette published in New York in 1881 was
the following description of Homebush. “124 miles north west of Melbourne, a
post town, county of Gladstone, electoral district of Avoca, on the Avoca
Maryborough line; State School and Wesleyan Chapel, population of district about
450.”
Frances
would have seen
many changes in the area during her lifetime. She died on January 3,1900 at
Moores Flat near Avoca
leaving behind a
prodigious number of children and grandchildren. She was buried the next day at
the Avoca cemetery. It is interesting to note on her death certificate that
under rank or profession is written, “Widow” and underneath “Nurse”.
William
Anderton and Elizabeth produced a family of 10 children in all. Eliza born in
September 1867, followed by William, George Arthur, Ada May, Walter, Alice
Frances Winifred (known as Winifred), Richard, Emily Frederick and last born
Florence in 1877. While Richmond and Elizabeth had a family of 12 children born
between 1865 and 1888. Sadly Theodore died at the age of 3 in 1875. All was well
for several years until Richmond died of a painful cancer of the face and two
years after their son Tasman Gordon died in 1895. Elizabeth then saw her
daughter Mabel die in 1902 followed ten years later by her youngest child Irene
died of typhoid fever in 1912. Disease, typhoid in particular was a big killer
in those times. George and his wife Mary Ann lost four young children to
typhoid, their last two Alfred and Cecil being the only children to survive. It
would have been terrible for them loosing their children, especially as other
family members were producing healthy children with monotonous regularity.
_________________________________
SOURCES
Family Oral
History - Norma Cornish nee Middleditch
Birth, Death, Marriage Certificates
Family Tree Information - Neilma Emanuel, Nan Middleditch
Family Bible held by Norma Cornish
International Genealogical Index - Family Search Computer Programme
Victorian Pioneer Index - microfiche
The Avoca Mail - State Library of Victoria
”Pioneers of the Pyrenees” - Margery and Betty Beavis
“Via
the 19th hole” – Neville Rowland Taylor
“Our
Pioneering Ancestors” – Vincent Ernest Squires
Maryborough a Social History 1854-1904 - Betty Osborne and Trenear Du Bourg
South Australian Land Returns 1843 - Andrew & Sandra Twining
The
Sun Newspaper – Melbourne, Victoria.
Records held by Mrs. Jan Andrews.