The guests at the party

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks | Week 5 - Heirloom

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Signature tablecloth of Fred McKinlay and Francia Dow

We are very fortunate in our family to have myriad wonderful heirlooms, but perhaps the most splendid of them is a tablecloth. This is not just any ordinary tablecloth but a signature cloth that dates from the engagement of my great-grandmother Francia Dow and great-grandfather Frederick McKinlay. Yes, the same young couple we met in last week’s scandalous post.

As I learned through the correspondence relating to the incident in Broadmount, Fred and Francia became engaged to be married in approximately September 1905 and the occasion was celebrated with a large party at the bride’s parents’ home in Maryborough, Queensland. Each guest signed a tablecloth and after the party each signature was embroidered over and a decorative border of shamrocks, perhaps as a wish for good luck to the young couple or maybe as a salute to Frederick’s mother’s Irish heritage. Francia’s mother Catherine and sister Eva were accomplished needlewomen (and pieces of their work are some of our family’s other treasured heirlooms). Francia also had skills in this area as she won several prizes for needlework during her school years. We don’t know for sure who did the embroidery on this tablecloth but it’s reasonable to think it was Catherine or Eva, as Francia was working at this time. The tablecloth features the names of 114 guests at the party, providing insight into the family dynamics and social set of this couple. This included, of course, the happy couple along with Francia’s parents and all five siblings and both of Fred’s sisters, but not his brother or parents.

Interestingly, also in attendance was the odious Mr. Fleming (who so harshly raised the matter of Fred visiting Francia alone on weekends – see last week’s post), along with his daughter Isabella May (who was the same age as Francia), Alexander Main (Mr. Fleming’s business partner and Treasurer of the Broadmount School Committee), David Mathieson, President and Secretary of the school committee, and his wife Patience Mathieson. So clearly the relationship between Francia and the school committee was not always as strained as it became after the Broadmount School was closed in 1906. I’ve also used the names on the cloth as clues to help to try to establish the identity of Eva Dow’s beau. Family folklore says he died in the war and this is why Eva never married (you can read more about this in Feeling Blue About the Browns, August 2015).

Researching the people behind the other names on the tablecloth is an ongoing project. The full list of names appears below. I’d love to hear from anyone who has a connection to any of the people listed.

Mabel A Adam	Ruby Crooks	Ruth Hayward	Percy Millard
F Appel	C E Culverhouse	Florrie Hayward	Elsie Milcs
I Appel	Francia Dow	T Hewitt	Willie Mills
John J Archibald?	Edgar G P Dow	R C Hill	James A Mulhern
Marie Ball	C E Dow	William Hill	Lois Nelson
Herbert John Barker	Eva Faenza Dow	May Hobau	Regina Neuman
_________ Barrett	Louis Henry Dow	William Jackson	Sydney Vincent O’Kane
Olive Bell	Victor H Dow	Isabel Julin	R Jno Orkney
M E Bell	John McD M Dow	E Julin	Nancy Orkney
John Bell	Louis S Dow	A Kelman	Bessie Petersen
Susie Bradesy	Edwin Dunlop	Mary Kruger	Bertie Roberts
James Brannelly	George Evans	E T E L_______	H. Naomi Roberts
P M Brannelly	Ida Evans	Isabel La Barte	E M Roberts
Fred Brooks	Lizzie Evans	Finlay John Lawson	H J Roden
C G Brown	Daisy Evans	Robert Liddle	Luke Schenalback
I Brown	Robert Fleming	Con Macnara	Berry Schemalleck
F B Brown	Isabel May Fleming	Alexr Main	H Sewell (Henry)
H Brown	F O Foster	Jesper Nielsen Mark	Ada Sewell
Alfred Bryant	Lucy Foster	Lucy E Marsh	Ethel Sewell
Bob/Babs Butcher	Alfred G. Freeman	David Mathieson	A A Sinclair
W John Byrnes	Florence French	Patience Mathieson	Frank Sommers
M S Cameron	Chas G French	J S McCallum	Tess Streeter
Madeline L Chambers	Violet French	Frederick William McCourtie	Imelda Struber
Harold Charles	Ethel French	Fred McKinlay	Harry W Sutton
Amy Charles	Frederick Charles Gamball	Helena McKinlay	Ethel Telfer
Joseph Cook	Ethel Griffith	P McPherson	Margaret Thomas
Thomas H Cook	Adah Hastings	Will Merrick	Roy Tabor Thomas
Jeanette B Turner	Lily Wockner	Annie Wockner
Walter Watson	Emily Wockner	Cecilia Emily Woodward

Scandal in Broadmount

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks | Week 7 - Valentine

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Francia Dow, 1904

Any number of love stories from our family tree spring to mind in response to this week’s theme. There’s great-aunt Jean who married her childhood sweetheart (who was also her first cousin) amidst much family disapproval; great-great aunts Eva and Annie who never married after losing beaus in World War I; and my grandma Rosina who lost her handsome husband far too soon. But I’ve chosen my great-grandmother, Francia Dow (1884-1943) whose romance with my great-grandfather caused a brief, but rather intense, scandal in a small central Queensland community in 1906.

Francia was born in 1884 in Maryborough (Queensland) the second of six children of Louis Henry and Catherine (nee Simpson) Dow. She excelled academically in her primary education at Albert State School and was awarded a scholarship to Maryborough Grammar School in 1898. Francia then undertook teacher training and, at the age of 19 years in 1903, was admitted as a teacher by the Department of Public Instruction. Teaching offered an honourable and profitable career to educated women at this time and with steadily rising numbers of children of school age, female teachers were increasingly utilized by the Department. There was no teacher training college in Queensland at the turn of the century and teachers were recruited and trained through the pupil teacher system. Although no records have been located, this is presumably how Francia received her training.

Francia’s first posting was to Broadmount Provisional School. Broadmount was a small, and quite isolated, port community on the Fitzroy River east of Rockhampton. The population of Broadmount was never large and dwindled as use of the port was scaled back. In 1906, the Broadmount Provisional School was closed due to small attendance numbers.  

The community was upset by the closure of their school and local businessman, Robert Fleming, sent an angry missive to the District Inspector, Thomas R. Brown. For reasons that remain unclear, much of his ire was directed at Francia, with accusations of ‘falsehoods’, ‘hoodwinking’, and ‘carrying on during school hours’. He further intimated that Francia had in some way orchestrated the closing of the school and that a gross impropriety had taken place in Francia receiving 6 weeks holiday rather than the standard 5. He asserted that this alleged misconduct was a result of ideas having been “put into her head by a young man a school teacher in the Leichardt School Rockhampton” (Robert Fleming, February 13, 1906).

The young man to whom he referred was Frederick McKinlay, another of the district’s school teachers. He was also a friend of the Dow family and, more importantly, he was Francia’s fiancé. Mr. Fleming goes on to allege that:

…this young man has been in the habit of riding down to B’Mount very near every week end, and as our teacher is living in a cottage far separated from any other house, every one can draw their own conclusions where he stops… now sir do you think such carrying on is right with young people especially teachers of young children (Robert Fleming, February 13, 1906) 

Mr. Fleming also asserts that Francia's farewells to this young man on the wharf at the end of these weekend visits were too fond.   

Fortunately, Francia appears to have had an ally in the District Inspector, Mr. Thomas Brown, who gave the young couple an opportunity to respond to the charges, accepted their representations, then staunchly supported them in defense of the allegations against them.

Although Mr. Brown had indicated that he would not involve Francia’s father, Fred happened to meet up with him, informed him of the matter and Louis lost no time in penning a letter in support of his daughter and her fiance:

I have the honour to state that my daughter is engaged to be married to Mr. F. McKinlay with my consent and her mothers. I have been acquainted with the fact that Mr. McKinlay has visited Broadmount every weekend and have quite approve [sic] of his having done so.  Mr. McKinlay will inform you of my wishes in the matter.  I have known Mr. McKinlay for sixteen or seventeen years and have always considered him and his family as most intimate friends. (Louis H Dow, March 2, 1906) 

Mr. Brown’s response to Mr. Fleming took a firm stance, urging that:

It will be well I think to consider separately what you say with reference to Miss Dow in her capacity as teacher, and the very serious reflections you make on her honour and reputation as a woman.

He closed the matter by stating:

In the present state of my knowledge of these matters I come to the conclusion that there are no substantial grounds for your charges and insinuations, and no call for further inquiry unless fresh facts are laid before the Ministers.  (Thomas R. Brown, District Inspector, 1 March, 1906)

Francia Dow and Frederick McKinlay
on their wedding day in 1908

Fortunately, nothing further appears to have come of this matter. Francia moved on to her next posting, Mt. Chalmers Provisional School where she taught for several years. Fred and Francia were married in 1908 and had three children – Mavis, Rae and Jock. Fred continued to teach at various schools around central Queensland, ably but unofficially assisted by Francia (as she was required to resign her position upon her marriage), until his death in 1936.

The events of 1906 were but a small chapter in Fred and Francia’s lives (albeit no doubt quite distressing at the time). For me, reading about it in school correspondence files over 100 years later, I was given a glimpse of my great-grandparents as typical young couple in love, finding opportunities to be together whenever and however they could.

The grandest of names

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks | Week 6 - Favourite Name

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Charles Leon Mathurin DeLaine

This week’s challenge is to write about a favourite name. I’m finding it a challenge to differentiate between a favourite name and a favourite ancestor and even then there are so many. So I’m going to write about the ancestor with what is possibly the grandest name in our tree – Charles Leon Mathurin DeLaine, my paternal 3 x great-grandfather. Charles also has the added attraction of purportedly being French which, in my daughter’s eyes, instantly elevates him above other ancestors. I’ll be honest and say I haven’t done a lot of research on this branch of the tree, largely because there is a published history of the DeLaine family in South Australia. However, in reviewing this publication to write this article, I find that there is plenty of scope for further research. But that’s for another day. For now, here’s a brief biography.

Charles Mathurin Leon DeLaine (Sr) is believed to have been born in LeHavre, France in 1818. He arrived in Australia some time before March 1843, when he married Jane Lucas in the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Adelaide, South Australia. There are many stories about how he arrived in Australia, none of which have been able to be verified to date.

Jane Lucas

Charles (as he was known) and Jane lived for the first 30 years of their married life in Sturt Street, Adelaide. They bore 12 children (although Jane’s obituary states she had 13), 10 of whom lived into adulthood. The oldest child, daughter Caroline married George Mills – these were my gr-gr-grandparents. The fourth child, son Charles Mathurin Leon DeLaine Jr married George’s sister Julia.

From 1845 to 1869 Charles was employed in the Metropolitan Police Force. He subsequently returned to his prior trade as a butcher, operating from premises on Sultram Place, Adelaide, from the rear of the family home on Clarke Street, Norwood, and in a shop he had built in 1883 on The Parade, Norwood as an outlet for his growing smallgoods manufacturing business.

Charles died in 1886 of asthma and Jane in 1909 after a brief illness. Charles and Jane are buried together in West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide. At the time of Jane’s death in 1909, there were 50 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren. By the time of the publishing of the history of this family, Charles and Jane’s descendants number 1382. I’d say that’s a grand effort befitting of a man with such a grand name.