CHAPTER SIXTEEN Victoria:- Branches of the family-tree

William Cassidy, the first born of Thomas and Caroline was an original selector in the Apsley district. Apparently William selected his land at Bringalbert South while still single, as did Bridget Hawkins who took up an adjoining block. No doubt the selections were combined for all practical purposes when the couple were married in 1880, but apparently the original selections continued to be owned in the respective individual names which resulted in unfortunate consequences described later.

William and Bridget raised a family of seven children. The eldest William Francis joined the 27th Battalian AIF, was seriously wounded at Gallipoli and invalided home where he died shortly afterwards on Oct 27th 1919. His two sons Laurence ("Bill") and Gregor were raised by his sister Mary (Mrs Hearne).1 The second-born, John Thomas (b April 18th 1882) later married and became the father of Douglas, Val and Mary. He died sometime around 1964. James, the third son also served in the AIF before returning, marrying, and becoming the father of Nancy (Mrs Turner), James ("Peter"), Clare, Jean (Mrs Toomvali) and Mary (Mrs Rogers). He died in Feb 1942 as a result of injuries sustained when the car in which he was a passenger ran off a bridge in the main street of Edenhope. At least some of his children were also raised by his sister Mary. 2 Mary was actually christened Caroline Mary in 1888. She married but was deserted by her husband Michael "Pearly" Hearne. She did not have any children of her own but as has been mentioned she raised the children of two of her brothers. She was well known and revered as a very saintly person in the Edenhope district where she lived her entire life. As a young boy I recall meeting her when she stayed for a few days at our home in Geelong. This would have been in 1963 some 3 years before her death which occurred in 1966. The fifth child of William and Bridget was also a girl, Anne (b 1890). Anne died tragically as a teenager in 1908 from the effects of burns sustained when her dress caught fire while she was preparing to attend a dance. The youngest two members of the family were both boys. Robert Leslie (b Apsley, 1891) later married and moved to Western Australia. He had three daughters Hazel, Shirley and Patricia but died at a relatively young age in 1939. 3 Samuel Edward (b Apsley 1893) served with the Australian Light Horse in World War One. It is rumoured that he had married a Palestinian girl by whom he had two children whilst overseas; whether true or not, they did not accompany him home and he never married in Australia. Unfortunately in his final years he declined sadly until his death in the Queen Elizabeth Home in Ballarat in 1962 4

William himself had died in rather tragic circumstances. The "Casterton Free Press" of July 12th 1917 reported the event under the heading "Tragic Death at Lake Wallace" as follows:-"The announcement of the tragic death of Mr W. Cassidy of Apsley will come as sad news to many of that gentleman's friends in that and other districts where he was well known and respected. On Friday night last he drove his daughter to Edenhope so that she might take part in a Red Cross entertainment there and he left to go home at 6.30 pm. He did not reach home and next morning his horse and jinker were seen in Lake Wallace. His body was floating on the water, the reins being over his left arm and the whip in his right hand. Medical examination showed that the skull was fractured and death must have been instantaneous. It is thought that the vehicle overturned while passing through the water. The funeral on Sunday was largely attended. The deceased who was a brother of Mr E Cassidy of Dergholm, leaves a widow, three sons and a daughter. Two sons are at the war and the other has been invalided home." 5

As William had not made a will, his original selection and stock were sold at auction and the money divided between his wife and children. Luckily Bridget retained her home "Waterloo" as it had been built on her own block and she continued to live there with her daughter Mary and various grandchildren until her death on April 10th 1940. She is buried at Edenhope. 6

William Cassidy

Frances, the oldest daughter of Thomas and Caroline, seems to have been known as Annie for most of her life. She married twice. Firstly to James (or Alfred?) Morris (on Dec 12th 1881 at Mt Gambier) and secondly to a James Guinan in 1901. She had only one child, a daughter by her first husband, called Florence. Little else is known except that she lived in Brunswick for some time and in fact died there in 1939. In 1910 Florence married a Bob Cooper, a hotelier who later ran hotels at Northcote, in St Kilda Rd and at Wesburn (near Warburton) at different times. It is thought that they had an adopted daughter, Dorothy. 7

I have not been able to find anybody who can recall Caroline or who can even recall her being spoken of as she died when quite young. A reference to her (and to her sister and mother) was found in the Mount Gambier Hospital Patient Register. The entries in date order are:-

It is interesting that Frances was still in Mt Gambier in 1887 because as was mentioned previously it is likely that her mother had moved to Victoria by this time. Certainly her sister Caroline was in Victoria as it was where she married London-born Robert Thorn in 1886. A son Robert Henry Thorn was born at Northcote in the same year but tragedy was to strike in the following year with the death of Caroline. She died at Collingwood in 1887 when only 25 years of age. I have been unable to find any further record of Robert or Robert Henry Thorn

Edwin married a certain Anne Shaw (d l947) at Port Fairy in 1885, and at various times acted as a storekeeper in Edenhope, the proprietor of the "Edenhope Chronicle" between 1902-1908, the proprietor of the Dergholm Hotel and general store between 1911-1924 followed by a brief stint in a hotel at Pirron Yallock near Colac before embarking on his final business venture:- a haberdashery business in Gardenvale. It was not successful and he lived with his son in his declining years until his death in 1926 whereupon he was buried in the Brighton cemetery. He was the father of seven children. William (b.1886), became a hairdresser first at Portland then at Caulfield, married and reared two daughters. Caroline (b.1887 at Apsley) married a Nicol McFarlane in 1911, and lived the rest of her life at Macarthur where she is buried. She was the mother of two children Dulcie and Alfred Trevor. 8 Ethel (b Brunswick 1889) married John Clarke and lived for many years at Digby in western Victoria. She later shifted to Oakleigh where she died childless about 1973. 9 Edwin (or Edward?) was born at East Brunswick in 1891 but remained an invalid for all of his short life. He died at the age of eleven years in 1902 at Edenhope. Eileen (b Fitzroy, 1893) married twice, first to Edward Gull (1914) and secondly to Peter Jones. All of her eight children Edna (Feely), Elvie May (Mordant), Keith, Adrian, Alex, Verna, Austin and Maurice were by her first husband. Although she lived most of her life in western Victoria it is believed that at the time of my enquiries (mid-1980's) she was living in the north-east of the state. She died at Tallangatta in 1987. Alfred (b Apsley, 1896) joined the 24th Battalian AIF at the outbreak of World War I but became ill aboard ship on the way to Gallipoli. He was laid out on the deck of the ship but suffered sunstroke and died on May 29th 1915. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Chatby memorial in Alexandria, Egypt. Finally after an interval of some years Myrtle was born at Edenhope in 1903. Although married twice, first to Charles Sparkes then to a man called Croucher, she had no children. In the mid-1980's it was believed that she was still living in Melbourne. She died at Albert Park in 199110

Apparently an accident at some time in Edwin's life left him with a permanently stiff arm which he moved with an exaggerated sweeping motion - acharacteristic which impressed itself on the memory of those I have spoken to who can recall him. The other characteristic that seems to be recalled indicates that he may have inherited his mother's short temper. 11

Samuel Cassidy married Mary-Ann (Maud) Pullin on June 11th 1892, according to the rites of the Victorian Free Church in Moor St. Fitzroy. The marriage was witnessed by his sister Robina, and Robert Thomas Rea whom Robina married later in that same year. At the time Samuel's occupation was "tuck pointer" and his address was McPherson St Carlton. The couple later made their home in Nicholson St Abbotsford, and Samuel worked for the Melbourne Tramways before operating a shop for a time in Spensley St, Clifton Hill. Five of his children lived beyond infancy. Samuel Jr was born in North Fitzroy in 1894. He suffered from an intellectual disability and never married although he lived on well into his eighties before dying in 1978. Edgar (Eddie) was born in Clifton Hill in 1896 and became the father of Les whose wife Eileen researched much of the information contained in this account. He died in 1963. Ethel was born in Collingwood in 1897, later married Alex Holley, and had a daughter Shirley (Mrs Ron Brewer). After a divorce she married Len Wootton. I visited her in the mid 1980's. At the time she was living in Mordialloc. She died in 1993. Venus was born in Collingwood in 1901 and later married Frank Bottomley who became a Grand Senior Warden in the Freemasons. The couple had no children. Venus was living in Toorak at the time I met her while visiting her sister Ethel. She passed away in 1995. Finally the "baby" of the family, Cyril was born at Collingwood in 1907 but he died unmarried in 1935. There were at least three more children who died in infancy:- William lived for only 14 days after his birth in 1898; Stella lived for 5 months in 1903, and Melba who died at 18 months of age in 1907. The family's address for all of this time was Collingwood. 12 Samuel died on May 31st 1930 at Clifton Hill and was buried at Coburg. His wife Maud had died some five years previously. 13

Robina ("Beanie") married Robert Rea at Skipton (V) in 1892. She had five children; Myrtle Louisa, (b.1893; m William Hilliard in 1918) she later moved to Sydney around 1936 and had four children. She died in 1974; Harold Ormsby (1895-1908), Mabel (b 1898), Evelyn "Essie"(1900-1903) and Doris (1902-1903). 14 A photograph is in existence which reputedly depicts a Cassidy family picnic. The picture shows an extended family group gathered in front of the horse and cart that had been used to reach the picnic site. Discernible on the side of the cart are the words R T Rea, Princes St Carlton. As Myrtle was born at Carlton in 1893 and her brother at Neerim in Gippsland two years later, it would seem that a reasonable estimate for the date of the photograph would be sometime in the period 1893-1894. A search of Victorian directories reveals that a Mrs Jane Rea operated a grocery store at 86 Princes St in 1880 and a Noble Rea, a butcher, occupied the adjoining premises at No.88. The same entries occur intermittently in the directories for the next twenty yearsalthough some entries record an M J Rea at the address. There is no record of an R T Rea however. Robina died at Camperdown in May 1903 at the age of 33. According to the 'Camperdown Chronicle' which made mention of her death, she had been ill for some time. The article also makes reference to Robina as being the daughter of a station manager at Mt Gambier (see Ch 12) and that Robina and her husband had at one time resided in Gippsland before losing their home and belongings in a bushfire. They moved to the Heytesbury forest in south-west Victoria where again they lost everything in a another bushfire around 1901. They next moved to Naroghid near Camperdown, but by this time the strain of these events had apparently taken their toll on Robina's health which became even worse after their homestead was almost destroyed in yet another fire. Robina was buried in Camperdown. Later in the same year her daughter Eveline also died and this tragedy was to be followed by the death of another daughter, Doris from croup. The misfortune that seems to have afflicted the family continued with the premature death of Robina's only son Harold who died of food poisoning on April 26th 1908, just short of his thirteenth birthday. Robina's husband Robert was also to die in an accident in 1921 when he fell from the top of a load of timber being transported in Cheltenham.15

Elvira ("Elvie") married Dan McMenamin in 1892 and settled at Clifton Hill. She had one child, Arthur. Later in life she lived at West Preston where she died in 1951 16

Three of the daughters of Thomas and Caroline Cassidy. (l-r) Robina ("Beanie"), Elvie and Annie

Cassidy family picnic. The photograph seems to have been taken in Victoria around 1893 as the sign on the side of the wagon reads "R.T.Rea Princes St Carlton". Caroline could be the woman standing fourth from the right of the picture.

GO TO CHAPTER SIXTEEN FOOTNOTES