Kezia Rose

Kezia was my maternal great grandmother, Charles and Mary Rose’s first child, born in 1869.

Kezia died at age 70 in 1939, with an obituary published in the local paper the Huon and Derwent Times.

 

From all reports, Kezia was quite an amazing woman. For many years she worked as a Nurse and Midwife, often moving in with the new mothers for two or more weeks and delivering hundreds of babies in the Franklin area. 

One of her daughters described her as the best mother a girl could want, and others have written of the many reports of kindness and work for the families of the district. ‘She was a wonderful woman and someone to be proud of’, wrote one of her granddaughters. She also wrote, ’ I think she had a hard life as William (her husband) was ill for a long time before he died, and she had to keep the family going as best she could’.

William Cupit and Kezia Rose married at Dover in 1895.

 

Of Kezia’s life before her marriage, little is known. Possibly she remained with her parents, helping with the many brothers and sisters she had. Her youngest brother was born in 1894, the year before she married. Perhaps she worked for other families, or as a domestic servant for one family.  What is known though is that in 1886 at age 17, Kezia had a son. The Rose family then lived at Flutery’s Point, Castle Forbes Bay. Her father registered the birth. The baby boy was registered as Sir Wilfred Arnal, with the Sir written in smaller lettering. The father was stated as a carpenter, Thomas Groves. The ‘Sir’ has long puzzled me. Sometimes Latin or other words were used, perhaps indicating illegitimacy, but I cannot tie this to any term seen on any other registers. My best theory is that if her father Charles was an abusive man, perhaps he insisted that the Registrar, Mr Ruddoch, write this in, as some sort of caustic stab at his daughter and his first and illegitimate grandson. As was common then, Wilfred was almost certainly brought up by Charles and Mary as their son. A baptism record from 1888 states Wilfred was baptized with the father listed as Charles Rose, and the mother as simply Kezia.

 

I can find no Thomas Groves who might be a candidate for the father of Wilfred.

 

In 1892, Kezia had another child, Ada Roseland, this time no father was recorded, and Kezia kept her baby.  Whatever the circumstances, Kezia would have suffered from the social shame and disapproval of her peers in these isolated communities of the Huon. When she married, she brought her three-year-old to their home, and the newly wed couple raised her as their own.

Together Kezia and William raised ten children:

Ada Roseland b 1892

David William Frederick b 1895 (David’s story is called WW1 Part 3 and was blogged here in April 2018)

Martin Henry b 1897

Albert Edward Victor b 1889- known as Top

Alma Corrina Martina b 1901- known as Ivy

Coraline Ivy Victoria b 1901- Known as Corrie, she was my grandmother and a twin to Ivy.

Jane Myrtle Myrene b 1903-known as Rene

William Leslie William Russell b 1905

Gordon Stanley Livingston b 1907-known as Dick

Robin Ernest b 1910- known as Slim

 

Kezia and William’s children were all born at Dover, but by the 1914 census, they had relocated to Franklin.

 In the first decades of the twentieth century, Franklin was a bustling town. It had branches of Hobart’s big stores, busy Friday night shopping, dances, concerts and lantern shows with music supplied by bands such as the Cygnet Joy Spreaders or the Middleton Melody Makers, with moving pictures being screened regularly at the Franklin Town Hall. The late 1800’s and early 1900’s saw the construction of substantial dwellings with the availability of lathe and plaster and wallpaper. Upon renovations in recent years, the Cupit’s attractive gabled home revealed newspaper linings in the upstairs bedrooms.

                                Cupit Home, south of Franklin. Source propertyvalue.com

Franklin was the only smaller town outside Hobart to have electric lights. In 1916 a mini hydro plant behind the town on Price’s Creek, powered both industry and domestic needs. For a flat rate of a six monthly £3 fee, townsfolk could use all the power they wanted and had no metres. No one ever switched off their lights.

Owen 'Skipper' Linnell in the Price’s Creek power station circa 1920's. (photo courtesy Rob Linnell)     Franklin History Group inc     ://www.fhgtas.com/gallery.html

 

The children all attended the State School in Franklin. The local newspaper reports frequently the Cupit girls’ achievements at school and in community life, while the boys feature more in their sporting achievements. School attendance could be hit and miss in the Huon. In 1925 Glen Huon school recorded only one student on the first day of the school year. Children were expected to work alongside their parents picking fruit or look after the younger children while their mother worked. January would have been the busiest time of year for the less robust berry fruit picking. Corrie received recognition for full attendance, while, young Martin had his father threaten to pull his son out of school in 1910.

Franklin State School choir

                                            Ivy Cupit, standing on left........Corrie Cupit, standing above choirmaster

Photos taken at Frank's Cider House & Cafe (on the wall, hence the poor quality)

(Frank's Cider is wonderful) (I love the cherry)

 William had reported physical cruelty at the hand of Martin’s teacher Mr Ross. Mr Ross was vehemently defending his innocence of the excessive canning of Martin, claiming, contrary to William's, that only two cuts, through clothes, did not draw blood or severe bruising. After a full enquiry into the matter, charges were dropped. Mr Ross in fact suggested that William’s complaint may have been ‘a feeble retaliation for my reporting him for his child’s irregular attendance’.  

A young Martin Cupit outside the Huon Times Office, opposite the Lady Franklin Hotel.

It was Martin's youngest brother, Rob who (sadly) demolished the Lady Franklin Hotel and built the new one.

                   Photo: Franklin History Group inc     Lady Franklin Hotel.       www.fhgtas.com/gallery.html

 

                                     Lady Franklin Hotel.   Photo: tripadvisor.com.au

My grandmother Corrie, rarely spoke of her childhood and only ever referred to where her family lived as, The Huon, or The Channel. The one memory she once shared fondly was of her and her twin sister stealing apples and laughing at the angered orchardist from the roof of his shed. As they jumped up and down, they fell through the roof. Family writings tell of Kezia walking to church with her daughters and the local lads watching from behind the hedges!

Many published writings contain memories of these pre war years being a very happy time.

 

William was a fisherman and later ran a grocery store in Franklin. Kezia completed her training as a midwife in Hobart in 1918, probably to avoid prosecution in the untrained delivery of babies, and to increase her earning capacity as William was aging. Throughout the first decades of the twentieth century, census records always list Kezia with ‘home duties’ as her profession. This was a time that did not recognize a married woman’s profession. Her role as nurse and midwife was obviously considered as an extension of her domestic duties, and much of her care would have been unpaid for. Ada did not marry until 1925, and it was her who cared for the family while Kezia worked in her role as nurse and midwife. These women were both described as extremely hard workers by family.

                                               Kezia in her midwife uniform. Photo E Cupit- Ancestry.com

 

William died in 1925 at age sixty. Family records indicated he was unwell and possibly had contracted polio, as he had a limp. A newspaper report tells of an incident in 1924 which tells of his physical disability. William fell into the water while repairing his boat on the jetty in front of his Franklin residence, “Being a partial cripple, he was unable to get out of the water’, is reported. Eventually he was aided but had been in the water for over an hour.

William in his boat. Photo E Hardinge

                         

    Standing L to R: Kezia, daughters Rene and Ada, Walter Watson (Ada's husband), unknown, circa 1930

Kneeling: Martin and Gordon Cupit & Cecil Berhens (Ivy's husband)     Photo E Cupit, Ancestry.com 

Kezia had seventeen grandchildren and fifty-seven great grandchildren.

This does not include Wilfred’s children, the story of which needs more detective work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

Trove articles

Libraries Tas Names Index

‘Centenary of the Settlement of the Huon’ supplement in the Huon & Derwent Times 1936

Days Gone by in the Channel. M Lowe

Full and Plenty, an Oral History of Apple Growing in the Huon Valley. C Watson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eva Rose

 

Evine Albina Rose was born in 1875. Eva, as she was known, was Charles and Mary Rose’s fourth child, the next youngest after Lillian (previous post).

Like her three older siblings, Eva grew up at Castle Forbes Bay.

                                     Castle Forbes Bay                  Tas Archives, Libraries Tasmania

Eva was married in 1895, aged 20, to Alfred Christie. They married at the home of W. Christie at Esperance (Dover). My family jottings state Alfred was a Danish man. “We all loved Uncle Alf, he was a gentleman”, my great aunt was quoted as saying. This statement suggests that sisters Kezia and Eva were close, and that the families interacted with each other.

Finding Uncle Alf’s Danish heritage came easily. Alf’s father, Mr Henry Christie, was well reported in newspapers throughout the late 1930’s and early in the 1940’s as a nonagenarian, and, as a well-respected pioneer, was often interviewed. Henry died at age 99 in 1943.On his 94^th birthday interview, Henry recalled his boyhood memories of Denmark, and of working on ships with his father. With a love of the sea in his blood, in 1860, he was glad to take up the offer of his wealthy uncle, Jacob Christie, to sail with him to Van Dieman’s Land. They landed at Hobart, then at Port Esperance, where Jacob had a property. Jacob’s intention was to sell the land and return to Denmark. Three years later, Jacob died, and Henry was left to make his own way. He worked for twelve months at Cascade Brewery, then returned to Esperance, working as a bushman for thirty years, followed by forty years on the west coast. Although he spent nearly all his life in the bush, he still loved the sea and remembered the delight to the eye of the old sailing ships when he first landed in Hobart Town. Henry was married three times, but his family of fourteen was with his first wife, Martha. When Martha died in 1918 at Zeehan, she left five sons (one of whom was Eva’s husband, Uncle Alf) and three daughters. 

Her son Victor was at the front, two grandsons were in active service, with a third who had recently fallen in action fighting for King and Country. Private John Henry Rueben Christie fell in 1916, somewhere in France. 

Eva and Alf had seven children:

•  Alfred known as Rheuben b. 1897
• Idella known as Annie b. 1900
• Alice b. 1901
• Ronald b. 1907
• Doris b. 1909
• Eva known as Belle b. 1912
• Lewis known as Marshall b. 1914

 

Throughout the 1920’s, and probably prior to this, Eva was practicing as a nurse. In January 1917, Eva was charged with breaching the Midwifery Act. Eva pleaded not guilty, but after evidence was given, she was found guilty. The conviction was recorded, the costs remitted, but the bench held that there were extenuating circumstances. Quite possibly, Eva assisted a woman in labour when no other help was available or affordable.

This event possibly prompted Eva’s sister Kezia, also a nurse, to complete training in Hobart in 1918, and to obtain her qualifications to practice as a Midwife.

Between 1914 and 1924, Eva and Alf lived in a double story, fourteen room place on Shipwright’s Point, formerly the Alabama Hotel. Built in the early 1860’s, the Alabama was a landmark of the Huon. In January 1924, the old hotel caught fire, and family and neighbours worked to salvage as much of Alf and Eva’s furniture and possessions as possible, knowing they were unable to save the structure. The report of the fire says the old Alabama had witnessed many happenings illustrative of the strength and weakness of human nature, such as the days when “Cranky” Jack and “Yorkie” Paterson would, for a small consideration, box one round which might go for a half an hour, or a half a day. Recollections of when the State Governors with all their old-time frills and trappings, and gaudily attired attendants would be present at the Huon Regatta receptions were mentioned, as on these occasions the Alabama was seen at its best.

But the Alabama was most important from the 1880’s as a shipping aid.  Reminiscences of the early days in the Huon, tell of Jimmy Dance’s Alabama Hotel and the steamers which would arrive from Hobart in the early hours of the morning. The captain and crew would at times be working up to their waists in water, loading fruit, turnips, and potatoes. Fruit had replaced wool as the state’s most valuable product, from the point of view of employment, so collection points along the Huon were vital.[i] Very often in winter, with boisterous winds and thick fog, and with no river lights, Jimmy Dance would fire a gun to enable the captain to get directions to Shipwright’s Point. In Sir John Evan’s recollections, Jimmy Dance would “always have something hot for us to partake of, and I can assure my readers that it was as welcome as the flowers in May”.[ii]

Shipwright's Point: Regatta. Above picture almost certainly would be the Alabamab Hotel. Tas Archives, Libraries Tasmania

By the time Eva and Alf lived there, the old place was described as showing signs of old age and losing the fight against the elements.

In 1930 Alf and Eva moved to Hobart, to 312 Argyle Street.

In 1943, Alf Died.

By 1945, Eva was aged 70 and suffering from debilitating osteoarthritis and high blood pressure. Her son Marshall requested a discharge from service in the R.A.A.F. to care for his mother. He states the house they lived in at 312 Argyle Street had been sold and they were served with a notice to vacate. He was granted discharge.[iii]

Eva died on the 15^th of April 1955, on her 80^th birthday and is buried at Cornelian Bay Cemetery.[iv]

                 This photo of one of the Rose ladies, thought to be Eva as it is signed "Sincerely E"

 

Writing Eva’s ancestor bio was far less harrowing than her two sisters had been. She had married a good man, raised a family, worked professionally, and lived to a good age. However, late into the research an extremely distressing piece of information came to light.

I would like to include a caution.

I read several articles regarding advice on how a genealogy writer handles uncovering history that makes the heart sink; crimes, transgressions, or character stains, and how we grapple with these. The goal is not to whitewash our histories, but also to determine what is appropriate to include in the story narrative.[v]

Details on public record are just that, and there is nothing to be done to hide the contents. Is this account so painful that you can't find any reason to reveal it? Or would the pain of the story explain the pain of someone else's story? [vi]

Everybody will react differently.

I set out to find the answers to the hardships, disadvantage and dysfunction of a family spanning over several known generations and even still existing today. After much heart battling have decided to share this triggering information.

However, my prime motivation here was to honour Eva herself.

In the world I live in, crimes against women are still only beginning to be dealt with, but here, I go back to 1891, when there were no Sexual Assault Units, no movements, no media heroines leading by example, and very little hope for women in court to have any successful outcome at trial. Mostly, these secrets were kept.

The young 17-year-old Eva Rose must have been an incredibly brave young woman.

She would have “brought shame” publicly to her family, risked family and social alienation, and even “blemished” her own future prospects, to stand up and openly testify to the terrible crime committed against her. I cannot imagine how she would have felt, taking the long journey into Hobart to publically testify. What support she had, is unknown. Perhaps her oldest sister Kezia, and perhaps Linda and Lillian, perhaps even her mother. 1891 is the year her family left the district of Castle Forbes Bay and relocated to Port Cygnet, then, to Dover.

But Eva did stand up, her voiced was heard, and she took the risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[i] (1932, April 1). Huon Times (Franklin, Tas. : 1910 - 1933), p. 6. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page15689176

[ii] Political, Industrial, Municipal (1935, February 28). Huon and Derwent Times (Tas. : 1933 - 1942), p. 18. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137248542

[iii] https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=4400808&S=25&N=67&R=0

[iv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212904536/eva-albina-christie

[v] Anette Gendler. https://familytreemagazine.com/storytelling/writing/uncomfortable-details-family-stories/

[vi]https://therabbithole.heirluminaries.com/genealogy/sharing-the-bad-stories-in-your-family-tree

 

All other sources: Trove newspapers, Libraries Tasmania Name Search, My Heritage, hand written interview with Rene Tuck, niece of Eva.

Broken Families. Lillian Rose and John Lockley

 

                                                                                      

LILLIAN ROSE 1872

Allilia Mary Rose, known as Lillian or perhaps Lucy, was born in 1872 to Charles and Mary Rose at Castle Forbes Bay. Charles was stated as a splitter on the birth registration. Lillian was the third child to Charles and Mary.

Castle Forbes Bay was a thriving community at this time, with most men employed by various mills and timber cutters. Now only six minutes by road and seven kilometres away from Franklin, in 1872, communities such as this were then remote, and needed to be self-sufficient. The Governor’s tour of the district in April 1875 describes well the state of roads which with even a slight rain turn into a muddy slough, while bridges were remarked on to be in highly dangerous condition, with most being utterly unsafe for horsemen.

The day His Excellency visited Castle Forbes Bay, he was reportedly astonished at the culture of the pupils at the town’s school, and on hearing them read and examining their writing, granted the little ones a holiday on his behalf before departing on his brief, but muddy ride to Shipwright’s Point.

Lillian would have spent her childhood here with her brother Victor (two years older than her), and her sister Kezia (two years older again). She would have attended the school and watched her mother bring a new baby into the home every two years until the family moved to Dover in 1889, where the last four of the fourteen children were born.

Lillian married at age 19, to William John (John) Lockley. They married at Strathblane, he was age 31 and a wagoner by trade. John was the second son of convict Robert Lockley and Catherine Hingley. This large family settled in the Channel area and Bruny Island.

I came to this ancestor biography with no knowledge of Lillian, except for a reference written after a conversation with one of Kezia’s daughters. When questioned about her Rose aunts and uncles, Lillian was reported as having many children, and as having “ran off to New Zealand”. A footnote asks, “did she take the children?!!”. This comment would seem to reveal that contact with her aunt and cousins was lost, and that blame was perhaps placed on Lillian.

 

To settle the question of how many children Lillian and John had, was found readily in the Names Index on Libraries Tas site. 

1.      Charles Albert b 1894

2.      William Denis b 1896

3.      Alberta Emily May b 1898

4.      Cedric Athol b 1899

5.      Avaca Ethel Pretoria b 1900

6.      Eather Williamenor Vera Elizabeth b 1902

7.      Eli Foster b 1903

8.      Francis Herbert James b 1905

9.      Edith Grace Elizabeth b 1907

Not all was well for Lillian. In August 1908, Lillian sued her husband for maintenance of her seven children. It took a brave and desperate woman to take legal proceedings against a man in these times, as women usually fared badly in the courts.  Lockley, it was reported in the newspaper, brought provisions home, but as he was locked out, he took the food and left. The bench dismissed the information, as the man was unable get in the house.

 

Records for Lillian disappear after this, however Family Search and other MyHeritage records show Lillian married to Joseph Tippett in New Zealand in 1919. With no proof that this is “our Lillian”, I can pencil in my first clue that may confirm that she did indeed ‘run off to New Zealand’. Records place her at Greymouth. This is where her younger brother Charley worked and enlisted in 1914. Charley is memorialised on the Greymouth War Memorial.

Now begins my quest to answer the family’s question and to trace the whereabouts and lives of her children.

CHARLES 1894

I find the eldest boy, Charles, enlisting in 1914. He states he was born at Port Cygnet, his age as 20, his family contact as his father, Mr. J Lockley (John as he was known) of Franklin, and his only conviction as riding a bicycle without a light at Franklin. His war record tells of his wounding at Gallipoli, injuries to both legs and fracture of the lower jaw by gunfire at Heliopolis, and of his being drunk on duty at Abyssinia in Feb 1916. He was medically discharged in September 1916. On his return home it was reported that his wounds prevented him from engaging in work.

Online records state that Charles died 24^th of June, 1957 at Greymouth, New Zealand, and had a wife, Mima.

 

ATHOL 1899

The next enlistment I find is Athol Lockley, presumably Cedric Athol as the age is correct. Athol states his next of kin as his brother Sydney Lockley of Dover. Sydney now enters the frame as a potential brother, but with no record on the Name Search, I’ll have to search further.

Charles and Athol are both named on the Dover State School Honour Roll.  

Athol married Mary Winchester in 1927. They had two children. Athol died in 1957 and Mary in 1995, both buried at Cornelian Bay. They then lived at 90 Hill Street.

90 Hill Street. Google Images

 

WILLIAM DENIS 1896

 

ALBERTA 1897 

Alberta married waterside worker Clarence Grant in 1918 and had five children. They must have had a long and happy marriage as a Silver Wedding announcement was made on September 25, 1943. She died in 1973 and is buried at Cornelian Bay Cemetery.

                                                                                                   131 Warwick Street, Hobart. Google images

AVACA 1900

Various online records state Avaca, (sometimes Avonca), as marrying Andrew O’Grady in 1922 in New Zealand. Avaca and Andrew had two daughters.

Avaca’s second marriage was to Haaken (Harry) Samuelson. Avaca died in 1974 in New Zealand.

                                                 

EATHER 1902

Eather was born on the 27^th of October 1902, and died on the 4th of February 1903. Her name is recorded as Heather on her death registration.

 

ELI FOSTER  1903

Eli Foster went by his middle name, as seems to be the case with most of his siblings. He married Ruby May. Ruby used her surname and was known as May.

At age 12, Foster was living in Dover, most likely with his grandparents Charles and Mary. By then Mary and her youngest son Ted (Andrew), had joined the Salvation Army. The Huon Times reports on the Salvation Army Festival in 1916 when Foster performed a recital and a fife solo. The following year Foster, still at Dover, regularly entered, and won cash prizes in the Robor tea competition.

Once married, Foster lived and worked in Hobart, Gormanston, Cardigan River, Russell River, but by the late 1930’s he had moved to Moonah. There he worked as a tram driver. In October 1931 the Mercury reports an incident between Foster and May and another couple. Foster and May were walking with a baby they had informally adopted. They had had the baby for at least ten months. The parents stopped them on the street and the mother grabbed the baby and ran. A scuffle ensued and the four of them ended up in court.

This child was returned to the Suttons.

After this unfortunate circumstance, May and Foster did soon acquire their sought-after family of two sons, and subsequent ten grandchildren.

 

FRANCIS 1905

Frank Lockley escapes detection. One record states he married Beatrice Mabel Brooks, another Beatrice Mabel Clark, most have no wife recorded and no children. I can find no death or burial information. The Examiner and the Advocate newspapers both report on a Frank Lockley who sustained extensive head injuries on Saturday night 11^th April, 1931. He was reported as being in a brawl in the city, near his home in Melville Street, Hobart. He was admitted for treatment. If this was our Frank, he was 26 at that time.

EDITH 1907

Information about Edith is scant. Online records show she married Harry Edgerton in New Zealand and that she died there in 1987.

HEALTH & WELFARE

My next search for indications of their mother leaving and what may have happened to the children is in the Health and Welfare files, a likely place to find disadvantaged children in a place and time of hardship and very little social assistance.

Here I found the heartbreaking file of Athol Lockley with an Order of Committal to the Care of the Department for Neglected Children on the 7^th of February 1910.

Information on Athol states he was in 1^st Class at Hastings State School, that he was living with his brothers William (14) and Chas (16) at Hastings, that his nearest relative of good repute was Grandfather Charles Rose at Dover, and that his father left the district six months ago. The mother’s details state she lived in New Zealand and had left the state with a companion (male).

The file contains the saga of a father, a deaf man, moving from place to place , working to pay the mounting Welfare bill, at times unable to work, losing a finger in a sawmill accident, and probably supporting his younger children too. In 1911, Lockley reports he is ill, but wants the boy returned to him. He reports that the mother wants the children and he’ll be pleased when she returns because he is ‘sick of the way I have to look after them and pay for them”. He is denied the return of his son.

One document headed ‘Dover 3-6-13’ lists the children and their whereabouts, perhaps information given by Charles and Mary Rose.

Sid Lockley, age 22. Married

Charles Lockley, age 18. Employed at Saw Mill Clennett

Emily May Lockley (Alberta), age 16- with Mrs Hope, Argyle Street, Hobart

Topsey (hard to decipher the handwriting) Lockley, age 12- with Mrs Mackey, Port Cygnet

Frank Lockley, age 5

Athol Lockley, age 14- in Boyshome

Foster Lockley, age 9.

‘The girls were together with their aunt in Hobart, but now Topsey is with Mrs Mackey’, the letter states.

With no mention of Edith, Lillian having taken her to New Zealand would be the most likely explanation.

It was the Acting Administrator of Charitable Grants that requested this information from Senior Constable Lisson of Dover. Included in this request was the tragic statement that ‘one son is being maintained at the expense of the State in the Boy’s Home, Hobart, and another has been an inmate of the New Town Infirmary and Consumptive Home for some time but died last week’. This son was William Denis.

 

                                                                                                       -Sophia Dembling

                                                                                                   Sophia Dembling Louis Fleckenstien, 1912 

Research has unpacked some of the lives of Lillian Rose, John Lockley, and their children, most of who, grew up to lead productive lives with families and hopefully happiness. Far harder is to solve the complexities of their lives, motivations, and the hardships of the past that we from our position can’t help but speculate on. We do this on the living, and we do this on the dead. Our ancestors are silent, so we fill this silence with our interpretations. Lillian ‘ran off to New Zealand’, leaving her children, but we have no context of the true circumstances of her life. It is also impossible to know of John’s character and struggle.

It cannot be said that Lillian abandoned her children completely, with Charles, Avaca and potentially Edith, all residing in New Zealand.

 Aside from one criminal record stating- committing a nuisance, detained for 12 hours, native place (birth) Oyster Cove; John Lockley’s only other records are of his death. He died in the New Town Rest Home, 17/9/36 , was senile and had no known living relatives. A very sad end for John, as Foster, Alberta, Athol and perhaps Frank, were all then living within several kilometres of their father in his final months. I can’t help but wonder if even Foster, Alberta, Athol and Frank were strangers to each other, after being separated from such a young age.

 

SYDNEY

A final long-standing puzzle piece has also been solved, that of Sydney Lockley.

Sydney, born 1890, was indeed part of the family, but with no birth record, was he John’s son when he and Lillian married in 1892? John was 12 years older than Lillian. Was he Lillian’s? For a long time, a John Sydney Rose had sat on my ‘Charles and Mary Rose’ family tree. He was born 1890 (less than 9 months after his ‘brother’, which MyHeritage had reminded me of as problematic) and records state he was christened as Charles and Mary’s son. At 3:00 am one night, I reminded myself to check this “son”, surely, he was indeed a grandson. With this new theory, his birth record was finally found.

 

John Sydney, father John McLeod, mother Lilian Mary Ann McLeod, formerly Rose, registered by Grandfather Charles Rose, Franklin. The fact that Lilian was married to McLeod was a potential little lie, her marriage certificate to Lockley states she was a spinster.

 

At the risk of making this post too long and introducing an entirely unrelated story, I am going to do this very thing.

 

I glanced at many articles in Tasmanian newspapers searching for “Lockley”, but one caught my eye. It was headed ‘A Tyenna Assault Case’.

Mrs Dinah George, of Tyenna, proceeded against Mrs Mary Lockley for assaulting her at Tyenna on June 22^nd(1923). Immediately this name pinged a sticky note in my brain. Mrs Dinah George was the mother of Gladys who married Wilfred Rose. Wilfred had also been sitting on Charles and Mary’s tree as a potential son (but more of him later).

So, Wilfred’s mother-in-law, stated she was at ’home and went outside to see Mrs Lockley fighting with Richardson(?). As she passed by Mrs Lockley’s gate, Lockley hurled an insulting remark at her and rushed out and struck her, as she fell Mrs Lockley jumped on top of her and continued striking her until her husband and daughter (Thelma) came to her assistance’.

Mary then stated her side of the story and that she was going out of her gate when Dinah and Thelma ‘went by, insulted her, and picked up a piece of wood and struck her over the eye. In self-defence, she struck back’. They both fell and Mrs George caught hold of her hair and wouldn’t let her up. Olive May and Esther Lockley corroborated this evidence.

The case was dismissed.

But wait, Joseph George (husband) and Dennis Lockley (son) were involved. Dennis Lockley pleaded not guilty of assaulting Joseph George on the same day. Going to the women’s assistance, Joseph caught Mrs Lockley by the arm and Dennis struck him a severe blow on the mouth and broke four teeth. With Mrs George’s hands entwined in his mother’s hair, Dennis admitted to pushing Joseph but not striking him. The Bench found him guilty, and ordered him to pay a fine, costs and witness expenses.

A scrap on the streets of Tyenna between two women makes for exciting reading, and perhaps it was exciting gossip for the locals in the following days.

My first response was where is Tyenna?

Wikipedia tells me its is 44 km’s inland from New Norfolk and states its history:

Many settlers had already settled and started to clear the heavy forest in the area when it was officially gazetted as a town in 1918. Early timber fellers established sawmills in the area. The mills were reliant on the Tyenna River and Marriots Falls Creek for steam power. Before the establishment of the towns of Fitzgerald and Maydena it was the resupply base for Adamsfield osmiridium miners travelling McCullum's Track. At its peak it boasted at least two hotels, two dance halls, a combined shop and post-office, a school, cricket ground, a blacksmith's shop, sawmills and Millars Timber and Trading Company. During the 1930s hops were grown along the river, processed in oust houses and sent on the rail to Hobart, Raspberries, currants, and other produce also went by rail to Hobart.

Tyenna Post Office opened on 1 August 1893 and closed in 1957.

Bushfires have since claimed much of old Tyenna, but there are still many small holdings along the main road. In spring, these farms are ablaze with Vansion daffodils that have naturalised.

                                   Photograph - Construction of Russell-Tyenna Railway, Derwent Valley line 1914. Libraries Tas

                                                       Distant view of TYENNA township date unknown. Libraries Tas

 

Tyenna was, it seems, quite a township, and quite close to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had come up in my research as where both Andrew Rose and Wilfred Rose were living at around this time. These men had presumably found work here and relocated.

Section of Adamsfield Track from Fitzgerald to Adamsfield showing corduroy. Libraries Tas

                                        

                                                                                              Fitzgerald, logs for newsprint mills. Libraries Tas

While Mary and her son Dennis are relatives only by marriage to Lillian; Olive, Esther were Lillian’s childrens’ first cousins and Dinah’s daughter Thelma was Wilfred’s sister-in-law. The reporting of an incident on the streets of Tyenna does give some insight and context to the hard times experienced by folks like the Roses and the Lockleys in this era.

 In the immediate Post-war years Tasmania’s apple industry collapsed when growers could not get space on ships. The timber industry would have also collapsed as a result. This would have been catastrophic and directly affected families in the Huon extremely badly, with bushmen like the Rose men losing their livelihoods. Funds were being directed to returned soldiers, and by 1923, Tasmania’s economy was in decline with population loss reaching 'alarming proportions', according to Sir Nicholas Lockyer in his 1926 report on Tasmania's financial position.

 By 1930 the world, not just Tasmania, was on the brink of the Great Depression.[i]

                                                     

I must say, researching both Lilian’s and Linda’s families has saddened me, but is beginning to explain stories of the Rose family I have gleaned over the last several years. These stories are of family dispersion, parental conflict and loss, grief, trauma, dreadful economic conditions, and coercive, voluntary or forcible removal of children.

Also, it reveals stories of much tenacity and strength. At times I have felt I am exploring and feeling the burden of, very personal and intimate family matters. I try to recognise that records are only that, and records don’t include the myriads of life’s joys, sorrows, reactions, personalities, and love.  

 

 

 

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[i] https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/B/Boom%20and%20Bust.htm

 

All other references from Libraries Tas Names Index, Trove, Google Images, Wikipedia and

THE LOCKLEY FAMILY - as of May 2021 Compiled, collated etc. by Kathy Duncombe (Bruny Island History Room, Alonnah).