GODSCHALL JOHNSON FAMILY IN AUSTRALIA

 

AUSTRALIA

RALPH EDWARD GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, was the eldest son of Godschall Johnson, by his first wife, Lucy Bishop.

        He was born in England, though he claimed to be born in Antwerp, in 1812, whilst his father, Godschall Johnson, was serving as His Majesty's Consul to Antwerp.

         He married, it was said, in London, (of which there is no confirmatory record), England, in 1832, at age 20, Eleanor Sarah Butler[1]. There is a possibility though, seeing English marriage records were scrupulously kept, for the marriage to have occurred either on the Continent or in Ireland.

        Ralph and Eleanor Godschall Johnson had seven children, three of whom appear to have been born in France.

        The eldest was Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, born about 1833/4, probably in London, County of Middlesex.

        The second son was Charles Godschall Johnson, probably also born in London.

        The third son was Frank O'Neill Godschall Johnson, born about either 1836/7, which is May Thornton's date (in which case he was probably born in London), or 1844 (another source), which places him in the middle of the French period.

        The fourth son was Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson, born in 1846 at St. Omer in France.

        The youngest son was William Butler Godschall Johnson, born in 1849, possibly back in England.

        The daughters of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Sarah Butler were Ellen Elizabeth Ann Godschall Johnson and Frances Lucy Godschall Johnson, known as Fanny.

        Ellen Elizabeth Godschall Johnson was born in 1841.

        Frances Lucy (Fanny) Godschall Johnson was born in 1842 at St. Omer in France.

        Eleanor Godschall Johnson died about 1853, leaving Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson a widower with seven children ranging in ages from 5 to 20.

        Family chipped in to help with the children. Ellen and Fanny lived with the Thornton family at the Rectory at Basingstoke. Frank, aged 10, and William, aged 5, boarded at a school at Chilton, Andover, four miles away, and spent the holidays at the Rectory at Basingstoke with the Thornton household. In fact, William had started with that boarding school the year earlier, at the tender age of 4, and it is expected that Frank had already spent a number of years there by the time his mother died.

        Frederick, aged 8, was billeted in Ireland with other family members, Uncle Fred and Aunt Fanny, where he was to receive further education. The education he received was Catholic, and he was expected to enter the Church, but he refused to take the vows.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson sailed to Australia in 1854 with his two eldest sons.

        He took with him his eldest son Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, and another son Charles, leaving the daughters and other and younger sons to be educated in England.

        On 4 October 1854 Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson landed in the Port of Brisbane aboard the coastal steamer Boomerang, which was the regular conveyance by sea, to and from Sydney to Brisbane. He was probably seeking appropriate employment, suitable to a man in his station in life. He returned to Sydney straight after Christmas, leaving Brisbane on 3 January 1853, aboard the Boomerang, with Captain Wickham and other notables aboard. Captain Wickham, as Police Magistrate, was the Senior Government Official in the Colony of Moreton Bay at the time.

        Ralph Edward and lady companion returned to Brisbane aboard the schooner Shamrock on 28 January, 1855, and his two sons Ralph and Charles aboard the Boomerang on 29 January 1855.

        Ellen, Frances, William and Frank arrived in Queensland in 1860. They travelled from London to Sydney aboard the ageing sailing ship Vimiera, arriving in Sydney harbour on 16 August 1860, after a five month voyage. Also on board was Bishop the Right Reverend Edward Wyndham Tufnell, and six other, and mostly young, Anglican clergymen. The Godschall Johnson party of four was accompanied by a lady chaperone, in the young ladies' interests. Queen Victoria had established the Colony of Queensland, by Letters Patent, in 1859, the previous year, and also by Letters Patent, had created an Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, within the new Colony, so that the spiritual needs of Queenslanders could be catered for. The clerical party was to staff Churches and Administration within this new Diocese, and administer to the spiritual needs of the Colony. The Vimiera dropped anchor in Sydney Harbour on 16 August 1860. The Godschall Johnson party stayed in Sydney, until they could take passage on the coastal steamer, Yarra Yarra, to Brisbane. The Yarra Yarra weighed anchor from Sydney Harbour on 29 August 1860, and after a slow five days up the coast of northern New South Wales, sailed up the Brisbane River, on 2 September 1860, where the newly arrived party were greeted by their father Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson.

        Frederick Flower was said to have arrived about 1865.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson was appointed "Assistant Clerk in the Department of the Legislative Assembly" on 26 July, 1860 at a salary of 300 pounds per annum; he held that position until his death in 1876. Up till his death, he resided in a large Queenslander style house in Tank Street, Brisbane, which was purchased in 1878 by Marrs to become a boarding house.

        Both he and his son-in-law, the Rev. John Sutton, purchased land at Redcliffe in the early days: he purchased Portion 188, comprising of 21.5 acres on the eastern foreshores of what was then known as the area of Humpy Bong, on 30 December 1867 for 22 pounds fifteen shillings. The Rev. John Sutton got in on the same land sale at Humpy Bong, and purchased Portion 189, of 26.5 acres for 20 pounds 5 shillings, on 1 January 1869, Portion 193, comprising 20.25 acres for 20 pounds 5 shillings on 1 January 1869, and Portion 227, comprising 21 acres, for 21 pounds, on 12 September 1865.

        Ralph also purchased a small allotment of land at Bulwer on Moreton Island.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson had an interest in Bloomsbury station in the 1870's.

        Bloomsbury run is north of Mackay. It was first established from five runs bought by W. J. McCartney, his brother and brother-in-law, in the 1860's. A few years later the partnership was dissolved and McCartney took runs 4 & 5 which he called Bloomsbury, the southern boundary of which was St. Helen's Creek.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson sent his son Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson after the latter's marriage to Margery Dill Reid at Bowen in 1872 to look after his interests in Bloomsbury and it was there that their second born son, Ralph Godschall Johnson was born.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson died at Tank Street, Brisbane on 8 July 1876.

        He was 64 years of age at the date of his death.

        He died from Dropsy of Abdomen from diseased Liver, as Certified by Dr. Andrews.

        On the Death Certificate, his father's name was shown as Godschall Johnson, British Consul, Antwerp. His mother's name was not shown. It was also stated that he was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and had spent 22 years in the Colony. The Informant for the Death Certificate was Fanny Loewe, Householder, of Tank Street. It should be pointed out at there is no record of his birth in Antwerp.

        It was also stated in the Death Certificate that he had been married in London, at age 20 years, to Eleanor Sarah Butler, and that he was survived by Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, aged 38, Ellen Elizabeth Ann, aged 35, Fanny Lucy, aged 34, Frank O' Neill Godschall Johnson, aged 32, Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson, aged 30, and William Butler Godschall Johnson, aged 27, and that 1 male child was deceased.

        Note that the spelling of Cholmondeley was altered subsequent to the original registration on 12 July, 1876, probably by someone in the family other than the Fanny Loewe, householder, who provided the original details. It was originally entered in the register as "Cholwondely". Given the variants in spelling that have occurred in respect of this name, it is interesting to note that, in 1876, an original member of the family took positive steps to ensure that the name was spelt "Cholmondeley". The second "o" seems to have gone missing a few times in later years.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson was buried in Portion 1 Section 32, Allotment 10, 1st Avenue, 8th Plot, in the General Cemetery at Toowong, Brisbane. He was buried on 8 July 1876, the day after he died.

        The funeral was presided over by the Rev. A. Bulgin, Church of England Minister, although the Rev. John Sutton was there and signed his name as a witness to the burial. The Rev. John was probably too emotionally involved to conduct the Service itself, although he probably contributed a Eulogy.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson was known widely as "Gentleman Johnson", and would have retained the dignity, breeding, and good manners of a true English gentleman until the day he died.

        This is borne out by a letter he wrote to the editor of the Brisbane Courier on 10 December 1859:

        Sir: Under the heading of "On dit", I read in your paper of this morning a paragraph wherein my name is held up to ridicule and contempt, in a way at once offensive and cowardly: offensive, in as much as the assuming or accepting the title of "Captain" would be a contemptible absurdity, of which the "on dit" implies me to have been guilty, (but which by the way has never been applied to me, nor do I think there is a truthful man in Brisbane who would venture the assertion); and cowardly, inasmuch as the enemy strikes at me in the dark. I am sorry that there is anyone (I had nearly written man!) in Brisbane, mean enough to crack his (not very clever) joke by bringing another's name thus unenviably before the public, and I am sorry that you should open your columns as the vehicle for such personal annoyance. If I were a public officer, my public acts would become legitimate objects for public criticism; but as a private individual I protest against my name being dragged thus publicly forward, by any designing coward who may have access to the columns of a newspaper: and as to the "friends" who would be glad to give me "a receipt in full", etc., I venture to say that the fabricator of your "on dit" is not one of those,

        Your obedient servant,

        Ralph E. G. Johnson.

        Brisbane. 4 December 1859.

        The article which had raised Ralph's ire had appeared in the issue of the Brisbane Courier for 6 December 1996, written by a journalist under the heading Local Intelligence:

        On-Dit: That the Honourable Ralph Godschall Johnson, commonly known as "Captain Johnson", has been invited to accept the office of Colonial Treasurer in Queensland... the numerous friends of the first-named gentleman will doubtless be glad to hear of his good fortune, as there are very many of them who would be glad to renew their acquaintance with him by giving him a "receipt in full" of all demands.

                                                 CHAPTER 2

        Charles Godschall Johnson never married.

        At some unspecified point he disappeared into the outback of Australia and was never see again. One story has it that this disappearance occurred about two years before the girls came out in 1860, ie. 1858.

        He was not alive at his father's death in 1876, and is the "one child deceased", recorded at the foot of his father's Death Certificate.

        What happened to Charles remains a complete mystery.

                                                 CHAPTER 3

ELLEN ELIZABETH ANN GODSCHALL JOHNSON:    

        Ellen Elizabeth Ann Godschall Johnson was born in 1841, possibly in France.

        Ellen was in the second party of Godschall Johnsons to emigrate to Queensland.

        Ellen came with Frances, William, and Frank, aboard the Vimiera in 1860.

        There is a photo of her and her sister Frances, on board the Vimiera, with their chaperone, and another unidentified lady, listening to two clergymen, one of whom was the Rev. John Sutton, later to marry her sister Frances.

        The Vimiera arrived in Sydney on 16 August 1860. The group of young Godschall Johnsons might have stayed with their Darvall relatives in Sydney, whilst waiting for the coastal steamer Yarra Yarra to leave Sydney Harbour on 29 August 1860, thirteen days later.

        The Yarra Yarra took five days to get to Queensland, arriving on 2 September, 1860. The party was greeted at the wharves by their father, Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and possibly also by brother Ralph.

        Frances was probably one of the bridesmaids to her sister when she wed the Rev. John Sutton on 22 January 1861 at St. John's Church, William Street, Brisbane, although the chief bridesmaid was a cousin, Edith Flora Darvall, who had come up from Sydney for the occasion.         

        Ellen herself was to be married, at Maryborough, Queensland, a year later, in 1862, by the Rev. Duncan Mackenzie, to John Andrew Bonar (1855-1874), then a squatter living in Gladstone, Queensland, the eldest son of Andrew Bonar of Edinburgh (see Burke's Landed Gentry, under Bonar of Kimmerghome).

        By then, her married sister Fanny Sutton, was helping her new husband the Rev. John Sutton, establish the new Parish at Gladstone, the next bit of incipient civilisation just up the coast of the new Colony.

        Ellen and her husband John, had only one son, John Andrew Macdonnell Bonar.

        John Andrew Macdonnell Bonar was born in Queensland, probably at Maryborough, on 1 September 1863.

        John Andrew Bonar sold out of his share in the sheep station and headed north to Bowen about 1866/7.

        They were at Bowen in 1870 when William Butler Godschall Johnson drove a mob of cattle to Bloomsbury from Rodds Bay near Gladstone and called in.

        John Andrew Bonar (the father), died in 1874.

        Ellen Elizabeth Bonar, now widowed, left Bowen in about 1879 for Sydney and then to England, taking her only son with her.

        Ellen Elizabeth Ann Bonar, nee` Godschall Johnson, died in 1877 in England.

JOHN ANDREW MACDONNEL BONAR;

        John Andrew Macdonnell Bonar was born on 1 September 1863.

        He was the only child to be born to John Andrew Bonar, and his wife, Ellen Elizabeth Ann Bonar, nee` Godschall Johnson.

        He married and had three children, a son Alastair John Macdonell Bonar, and two daughters May Louise Macdonell Maher Bonar, the eldest, and Marsali Glengarry Macdonell Bonar, the youngest.

        John Andrew Macdonnell Bonar died in 1922.

ALASTAIR JOHN MACDONELL BONAR:   

        The son, Alastair John Macdonell Bonar was born in 1891.

        In 1923, he married Lorna Docker. They had one daughter, Joanna Lorna Macdonell Bonar, who was born in 1924.

JOANNA LORNA MACDONNEL BONAR:

        Joanna Lorna Macdonell Bonar was born in 1924.

        In 1959, she married Major Federigo Stuart, and they had a daughter, born in 1960, Marsale Lorna Macdonnel Stuart.

MAY LOUISE MACDONNELL MAHER BONAR: 

        May Louise Macdonnell Maher Bonar was born in 1888.

         May was the author of this original manuscript, which she wrote in or about 1961, aged 73, after thirty years of poring through parish and other records.

        In 1946, May married her third cousin, Hugh Cholmondeley Thornton, grandson of the Rev. Francis and Mary Louise Thornton. Hugh was later knighted, and May became known as Lady Thornton.

MARSALI GLENGARRY MACDONELL BONAR: 

        Marsali Glengarry Macdonell Bonar was born in 1898.

        In 1944, Marsali married Humphry Gifford.

BONARS:

        As the Bonar name is fairly rare, it would not do any harm to mention other Bonars in early Queensland, who may be related.

        A James Young Bonar married an Isabella Hunter and their children were James Bonar (born 1865), William Bonar (born 1867), and David Bonar (born 1868).

        A David Thomas Bonar married a Rosannah Darrach, and they had one child, a Janet Darrach Bonar (born 1868).

        In 1901, a William Brandon Bonar, and in 1903, a Thomas Young Bonar, were born to William Macadam Bonar and his wife Alice Hannah Wellbourne.

        In the 1901 Postal Directory, a William M Bonar is shown as a mine manager at Herberton, in North Queensland. That is probably William Macadam Bonar. When the mining town of Herberton became a Municipality in 1888, pioneer store keeper John Newell became its first mayor. Another mayor of Herberton during its brief life as a Municipality was William Macadam Bonar, who held office between 1890 and 1892, and again in 1893.

        William Macadam Bonar was said to be an expert mining man. He was in turn the Manager of the Great Northern Mine and the Bischoff Mill on the Walsh river, He came out from England in a sailing ship as a teenager, and became a shearer on outback sheep stations in the pioneering days. He gained his mining experience in the Herberton area. He died in Herberton in 1925. His wife lived to be almost a centenarian, winning prizes in the Atherton show for cooking as late as 1959. The future Mrs. Bonar landed at Port Douglas and was carried ashore in a lighter, as was the custom, and travelled by Cobb & Co. coach to Herberton, and then to Nigger's Creek (Wondecla). She married W. M. Bonar in Mrs. Jack's home at Watsonville, then set off on horseback to spend their honeymoon, riding with packhorses and cattle down the range to Cairns. That story is told as being typical of pioneers in those days.

        In the same directory, there is only one other Bonar mentioned. An A. J. Bonar is shown as manager of the cyanide works at Cawarral.   

        Cawarral is near Chillagoe.

                                                 CHAPTER 4

FRANCIS LUCY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:  

        The second daughter of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Butler was Frances Lucy Godschall Johnson. Frances was born in 1842 at St. Omer, France.

         She married, in St. John's Church, William Street, Brisbane, Australia, on 22 January, 1861, the Rev. John Sutton. The Rev. Sutton had been educated at Oxford, and was one of a party of clergymen, mostly young and single, who had accompanied the first Anglican Bishop of Queensland, Bishop Tufnell to Australia aboard the Vimiera in 1860. It was onboard the Vimiera that Fanny met the Rev. Sutton. Fanny was attended by her cousin Edith Flora Darvall as bridesmaid, and her sister Ellen. Others at the wedding included her father Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, and her brother Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson.

        In the booklet entitled Redcliffe 160 Years , by Leslie Edgar Slaughter, written in 1959, there appeared the following segment:

        John Sutton: When Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent on 6 June 1859, she appointed Sir George Ferguson Bowen as the first Governor of the new Colony of Queensland.

        At the same time, she created the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, and appointed the Right Reverend Edward Wyndham Tufnell D.D. as its first Bishop.

        A shipboard romance: When Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson left England in 1859, with Governor Bowen's party, he left his family behind. They were Ellen, Frances and two brothers. Johnson was a widower.

        Early in 1860, the four members of the family, with a chaperone, left England for Australia, on the sailing vessel "Vimiera".

        On the same vessel was the first Bishop of Brisbane, the Right Reverend Edward Wyndham Tufnell and seven bachelor clergymen, most of them young.

        Frances Johnson (she was Fanny to her relatives and friends) was an attractive girl of 18 years. Therefore, the chaperone was careful to advise her against allowing her charms to affect the young clergymen.

        A sea voyage from England to Australia, in those days, in a sailing vessel, occupied from four to five months.

        The Reverend John Sutton was older than the other clergymen, being 41 years of age.

        When the chaperone noticed a friendship developing between Frances and the Reverend John, it caused no concern to her. She thought that the difference of ages of the two would be a safeguard.

        John Sutton was born in 1817 at East Hanney, Berkshire, England.

        The "Vimiera" arrived in Sydney on 16 August 1860; Bishop Tufnell, six clergymen, the Johnsons and the chaperone disembarked. (One of the clergymen died on the voyage).

        They left Sydney on the coastal steamer "Yarra Yarra" on 29 August, and arrived in Brisbane on 2 September 1860.

        The Reverend John Sutton lost no time in visiting Government House where Ralph Johnson, Frances' father, was living with Governor Bowen. The Reverend John's mission was to ask for Mr. Johnson's approval of Frances' engagement to himself. Johnson readily granted this request.

        The Reverend John Sutton's first appointment was to establish an Anglican Church in Gladstone.

        In January 1861, he returned to Brisbane for his marriage to Frances. It took place at St. John's Church, William Street, on 22 January, 1861. Bishop Tufnell officiated.

        Robert J. W. Herbert (later Sir Robert), first Colonial Secretary (today the Office is called Premier), was best man and Edith Flora Darvall was bridesmaid.

        Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson was an Englishman. However, his daughter Frances, was born in St. Omer, France.

        He was appointed "Assistant Clerk in the Department of the Legislative Assembly" on 26 July 1860.

        The Reverend Sutton purchased land in Redcliffe in 1867, and also subsequent to that time.

        Their children were Florence, Percy, Cholmondeley, Holly, Sydney, May and Joseph.

        in later years, the Reverend John Sutton was rector of St. John's Church, William Street, Brisbane.

        He retired to Hurley House (later called Sutton House), Redcliffe in February 1886.

        He was an early member of the Redcliffe Divisional Board and had a prominent part, in mnay ways, in the early progress of Redcliffe.

        Frances or Fanny Sutton, lived her latter years in Redcliffe. She was referred to as "Granny Sutton". Everybody who knew her loved her.

        She died on 4 October 1909.

        Sutton Beach, Sutton and John Streets, and Sutton House, perpetuate his name.

        The article in the Redcliffe 160 Years publication was accompanied  by two reproductions, one a photo of Frances Sutton, and the other entitled "On board the sailing vessel "Vimiera" in 1860, Second from left, Ellen Johnson. Fourth from left, the Reverend John Sutton. Fifth from left, Frances Johnson. It is evident in this scene, that the Reverend John has made an interesting remark to Frances".

        On 13 October 1993 the Courier Mail announced the demise of Sutton House Redcliffe.

        The announcement in 1993 read:

        A long chapter of Brisbane property development history is about to acquire a footnote as one of Redcliffe Peninsula's oldest landmarks disappear under the bulldozers to make way for redevelopment.

        Historic Sutton House on Marine Parade on the Redcliffe waterfront was built in 1886, the same year as Brisbane's Bellevue Hotel.

        The Redcliffe landmark was built by one of Brisbane's earliest European settlers, the Rev. John Sutton, as a retirement house. It was originally named Hurley House.

        Mr. Sutton, something of a real estate entrepreneur in his day, advertised his property as part of "The Redcliffe Estate" in the Brisbane Courier in May 1878.

        He described his development as "60 large marine villa sites, each having frontage to the Bay...the distance to which is only three hours steam from the city and about 31/2 to 4 hours drive over a first class road".

        However, the house still stands and was built around by the developer.

        The Suttons first charge was to establish a new Anglican Parish at Gladstone.

        Aunt Jane Cholmondeley gave the Suttons some money, and John Sutton took up some country some 80 miles from Gladstone.

        In 1862 or thereabouts, younger brother Ralph Edward Godschall Johnston left school, of which he had done but one year after arriving in Australia with his sisters, and went to Gladstone to the Suttons. He was engaged upon the property that the Suttons had bought, shepherding sheep. He worked there until 1864.

        Later, the Rev. Sutton was appointed Rector of St. John's Anglican Church in William Street, Brisbane, and they moved back from Gladstone to Brisbane, probably about 1865.

        They had a large family:

Violet Edith Fanny Sutton, born on 22 October 1862,

Florence Jane Sutton, born on 2 June 1865,

Percy Sutton, born on 6 March 1867,

Ada Mary Sutton, born on 3 February 1869,

John Francis Cholmondeley Sutton, born on 20 February 1871,

Ernest Sutton, born on 30 November 1872,

Cecil Hervey Edward Sutton, born on 9 April 1874,

Horace George Sutton, born on 1 October 1875,

William Cyril Sutton, born on 9 September 1877,

Mary Eleanor Sutton, born on 15 August 1879,

Frank Comas Sutton, born on 12 November 1881.

        Of those numerous children, three did not survive infancy. Ada Mary died in 1870, Cecil Hervey Edward died in 1875, and Ernest died in 1874.

        The Rev. John Sutton B.A. had, it was said, brought with him from Oxford, to St. Johns, what was known as the Catholic spirit. When Bishop Hale succeeded Bishop Tufnell in 1880, the Diocese of Brisbane was generally said to be Low Church, with two exceptions, All Saints and St. Johns. All Saints, its parishioners, wardens, and rector, tended towards High Church; St. Johns, to a lesser extent.

        The Rev. John Sutton purchased  considerable land on the Redcliffe Peninsula. In 1865, he purchased Portion 227, of 21 acres. Then in 1867, his father-in-law, Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, purchased Portion 188 of 21.5 acres. Then in 1869, the Rev. Sutton purchased Portions 189 and 193 of 26.5 and 20.25 acres respectively. A map shows that, apart from adjoining Portions 188 and 189, the other two Portions are discrete. All fronted the Bay. Portions 193 and 227 are separated by Wharf Reserve Portion 226.

        In A Journalist's Memories by Reginald Spencer-Browne  (1856-1943), written in 1927 by a former journalist on the Brisbane Courier, who had married a granddaughter of the Rev. Sutton, a description is given of the Rev. Sutton's holdings:

        The Rev. John Sutton had the Redcliffe town area from the jetty to the creek south of Orient House, then back to the main Woody Point - Scarborough Road.

        Spencer Browne was part of a syndicate that purchased an allotment off the Rev. Sutton when the latter subdivided and sold his land.

        Spencer-Browne also gave an interesting insight into life on the Redcliffe Peninsula at the time:

        In 1881, we played cricket at Redcliffe on Sundays... the remembrance was spurred by the decision of the Municipal Councils to allow sports in the Brisbane parks on Sundays...The Rev John Sutton stood Umpire at one end and the Rev. T. Jones stood Umpire at the other. The parsons had no objection to spending the afternoon in that way, but they imperatively insisted that every player had to have been to Church in the morning...We either went to the Church of England service where Hurley House was built a year or two later, or the little Congregational Church on the Woody Point Road.

        The Rev. John Sutton died on 9 June 1897, and Fanny Lucy Sutton, nee` Johnson, his widow, died on 4 October 1909.

        There has survived a book of the Rev. John's sermons.

FLORENCE JANEY SUTTON:

        Florence Janey Sutton was born on 2 June 1867.

        She married the Reverend. Herbert Cramer Beasley, who had been born in England.

        They had two children: Violet May Fanny Louisa Beasley, and Edward McPherson Howard Beasley.

        Violet Mary Fanny Louisa Beasley was born on 5 September 1902.

        She married Claude Delpratt. They had no issue.

        Florence Janey Beasley, nee` Sutton, died on 3 September 1931.

        Her daughter Violet Mary Fanny Louisa Delpratt, nee` Beasley, died on 22 July 1965.

VIOLET EDITH FANNY SUTTON:

        Violet Edith Fanny Sutton married  Reginald Spencer Browne.

        Reginald Spencer Browne was born at Oaklands, Appin, New South Wales, on 13 July 1856, the son of William James Merrick Shawe Browne, pastoralist, and his wife Rachel, nee` Broad.

        His father, a native born scion of an already old Australian family, was superintending officer of Yeomanry and Volunteer Corps in 1854.

        Reginald Spencer Browne was educated at Appin, Corowa, and in England. He became a journalist, and, in the words of H. J. Summers, contributor to the Australian Biographical Dictionary, he "precociously" published slim volumes of verse in 1874-75 from the offices of the Deniliquin Pastoral Times and the Albury Banner. He was subeditor of the Townsville Herald in 1877, and editor of the Cooktown Herald in 1878. When Sir Thomas McIlwraith arranged a cabinet syndicate to control the Observer in 1881, Browne moved to Brisbane as its editor and married Violet Edith Fanny Sutton of Maryborough on 13 October 1881.

        Spencer Browne joined the Brisbane Courier in 1882, and stayed there for nearly all his working life. An associate editor of the Queenslander, he discovered and encouraged the poet George Essex Evans. Spencer Browne was commissioned in the Queensland Mounted Infantry on 20 December 1887. He was said to have found work briefly on the London press to facilitate military study. He published Romances of the goldfield and bush, a volume of slight prose sketches in London in 1890.

        Spencer Browne commanded a flying column of his regiment in western Queensland during the shearer's strike of 1891 but was, nevertheless, always sympathetic to trade-unionism. He was promoted captain in 1891 and major in 1896. In November 1899 he sailed for South Africa as a special service officer with the first Queensland contingent, carrying the local rank of major. With active service in many fields, he was appointed C.B., received the Queen's Medal with five clasps, was invalided to Australia in November 1900 and mentioned in dispatches in 1901. His return to Brisbane was said to be a triumph.

        Spencer Browne progressed slowly through the literary hierarchy of the Courier, but devoted much time still to soldiering as Lieut-colonel commanding the 13th Light Horse Regiment from 1903, and colonel of the 5th Light Horse Brigade from 1906; in 1911, he was transferred to the reserve.

        Spencer Browne was disappointed in his aspirations in 1906 to become Lieut-Governor of Papua and in 1908 acting State Commandant. As an old friend and political adherent of Sir Littleton Groom, he transmitted regular political intelligence and worked informally for the Liberal Party.

        On 4 March 1915, Spencer Browne joined the Australian Imperial Force as Colonel commanding the 4th Light Horse Brigade. When it was broken up, he took over the 6th Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli, at the age of 59. He served at Lone Pine and Quinn's Post and was evacuated on 10 December 1915, but, too old for further service, was given charge of the Australian Training and General Base Depot at Tel-el-kebir, Egypt, on 20 March 1916 as Brigadier General.

        Publication by him in 1915 of The Heroic Serbians won him the Serbian Red Cross. In 1916 in England, he commanded the Australian Training Depot at Salisbury Plain, then moved to No. 2 Command Depot at Weymouth where he probably met the novelist Thomas Hardy.

        He returned to Australia, unfit, in November 1917, commanded the Molonglo Concentration Camp at Canberra from February to December 1918, was then demobilised, and was formally retired on 20 October 1921 as honorary Major General. For two years he was State President of the Returned Soldiers' and Sailors' Imperial League of Australia.

        Between 1925 and 1927 Spencer Browne contributed a weekly article in the Courier, giving his memories of men and events in Queensland of his time. These were published as A Journalist's Memories in 1927; the book is still the source of much of both the history and legend of early Queensland.

        In later years Spencer Browne was a famous Brisbane identity. He was nominally financial editor of the Courier Mail, reporting only the limited operations of the Brisbane Stock Exchange. He also edited the Queensland Trustees Review. His first wife Violet Edith Fanny Sutton having died shortly after his marriage, with no issue, on 7 August 1889, he had remarried Catherine Fraser Munro, a noted musician and amateur actress. He died childless on 9 November 1943, his second wife having predeceased him the year before.

PERCIVAL SUTTON:

        Percival Sutton died unmarried.

JOHN FRANCIS CHOLMONDELEY SUTTON:

        John Francis Cholmondeley Sutton married May (or Pearl) Beasley in 1910.    

HORACE GEORGE SUTTON:

        Horace George Sutton married, on 24 March 1903, Margaret Ellison Coolson.

        Margaret Ellison Coolson was born on 7 January 1879.

        They had two children: Margaret Francis Lucy Sutton and Reginald Thomas John Sutton.

        Margaret Francis Lucy Sutton was born on 10 December 1904.

        Reginald Thomas John Sutton was born on 25 June 1906.

        On the 15th June 1956, Margaret Francis Lucy Sutton married Jack Morrell Higginson.

        They had no issue.

        Reginald Thomas John Sutton married Ruby Alice Hobbs.

        Ruby Alice Hobbs was born on 19 May 1906.

        Reginald Thomas and Ruby Alice Sutton had three children: Judith Margaret Sutton, Spencer John Sutton, and Barbara Alice Sutton.

        Judith Margaret Sutton was born on 4 September 1942.

        Spencer John Sutton was born on 13 April 1934.

        Barbara Alice Sutton was born on 12 July 1935.

JUDITH MARGARET SUTTON:

        Judith Margaret Sutton married Murray Richard Quick.

        Murray Richard Quick was born on 12 September 1937.

        They have two children: Wayne Justin Quick and Stewart Richard Quick.

        Wayne Justin Quick was born on 10 January 1967.

        Stewart Richard Quick was born on 24 June 1968.

SPENCER JOHN SUTTON:

        Spencer John Sutton married Sheilagh Deidre Hudson.

        Spencer John and Sheilagh Deidre Sutton had two children: Sean David Sutton, and Jonathan Peter Sutton.

        Sean David Sutton was born on 4 February 1965.

        Jonathan Peter Sutton was born on 29 January 1968.

BARBAR ALICE SUTTON:

        Barbara Alice Sutton married Bernard Earle.

        Bernard Earle was born on 13 March 1933.

        Bernard and Barbara Alice Earle had two children: Graeme Robert Earle and Michelle Louise Earle.

        Graeme Robert Earle was born on 10 September 1963.

        Michelle Louise Earle was born on 9 August 1966.

        Horace George Sutton, born 1876, died on 14 August 1948.

        Margaret Ellison Sutton, nee` Coolson, died on 27 June 1955.

CYRIL WILLIAM SYDNEY SUTTON:

        Cyril William Sydney Sutton never married.

MARY ELEANOR SUTTON:

        Mary Eleanor Sutton was born on 15 August 1879.

        She married Aubrey Earnest Webb.

        Aubrey Earnest Webb was born on 20 July 1876.

        They had three children: Constance Nay Webb, Hope Madeline Webb, and Phyllis Nancy Webb.

        Constance May Webb was born on 6 December 1901.

        Hope Madeline Webb was born on 21 March 1903.

        Phyllis Nancy Webb was born on 6 November 1918.

        Constance May Webb married Cecil Arthur Hamilton Curtis, born 5 September 1895.

        They had two children: Geofrey Cecil Hamilton Curtis, born 7 August 1932, and Anne Eleanor Hamilton Curtis, born 28 April 1935.

        Geofrey Cecil Hamilton Curtis married Barbara Ellen Angus, born 1 October 1936.

        Hope Madeline Webb was born on 21 March 1903, and married Thomas Rolfe Crouch, born 23 August 1903. They had no issue.

        Phyllis Nancy Webb (daughter of Aubrey Earnest Webb and Mary Eleanor Webb, nee` Sutton, and born 6 November 1918), married Leslie Henry Shea, born 23 April 1916. They had three children: Katherine Francis Nancy Shea, born 11 December 1945, Donald Kenneth Shea, born 28 September 1948, and Timothy Stephen Shea, born 24 March 1953.

        Mary Eleanor Sutton died on 16 June 1932.

        Aubrey Earnest Webb died in November 1959.

        Constance May Curtis, nee` Webb, died on 28 July 1968.

        Cecil Arthur Hamilton Curtis died on 9 July 1970..

                                                 CHAPTER 5

FRANK O`NEIL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:  

        Frank O'Neill Godschall Johnson was the third son of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Butler.

        Frank O'Neill Godschall Johnson was born in 1834, at Stomer in France.

        He was educated at a boarding school at Chilton, Candover, between Winchester and Basingstoke, in England.

        He worked for a while at Miriam Vale station near Gladstone, then in 1870 headed for the Gulf of Carpentaria to manage a cattle station named Koolatah in extremely primitive pioneer conditions.

        He returned to Brisbane to marry Alice Harriet Atkinson.

        Alice Harriet Atkinson was born on 8 September 1864 at Brisbane, the daughter of Paul Atkinson and his wife Jane Creech, who had emigrated from County Cork in Ireland in 1862.

        Paul Atkinson was the son of Richard Atkinson and Ann Kent.

        Jane Creech was the daughter of Samuel Creech and his wife whose maiden name was Smyth.

        Paul Atkinson and Jane Creech had other children:

        Jane Atkinson, born on 15 November 1862,

        Henry Wallace Atkinson, born on 22 April 1866,

        Ida Kathleen Atkinson, born on 22 August 1869, and

        George Frederick Handel Atkinson, born on 21 August 1871.

        A letter is included, from Alice to Fanny Sutton, which mentions some of her family.

        Paul Cole Atkinson, the father died on 14 May 1906, having been substantially predeceased by his wife, Jane, who died on 16 August 1885.

        Frank O'Neill and Alice Godschall Johnson headed for the wilds of north Queensland and had Harold, the first of their four children there. All four children are listed below:

Harold Lionel Godschall Johnson, born on 23 July 1886,

Evelyn May Godschall Johnson, born on 21 May 1888,

Eleanor Frances Godschall Johnson, born on 26 November 1892,

and Cyril Francis O'Neill Godschall Johnson, born on 26 June, 1894.

        On 29 September 1886, Frank wrote to his sister Fanny (Sutton) a letter from Koolatah Station as follows:

        Alice has just given me her letter to you to read, by it you can form no idea of what she has gone through, or what a plucky woman she is, the blacks are very bad here, & we never sit down to a meal, without revolvers & rifle within arms length- we have been attacked by blacks several times, but Alice has never yet shown sign of fear, & often at night we have alarms, when we have to get up, and fire into the darkness hardly a day passes without cattle or horses being speared.

        We don't intend to live here very long; as it is rather trying, what with fever & blacks, centipedes & snakes, but intend to live in England, & then you will see us, I hope; with kind regards to your husband & love from Alice & Harold to you.

                                                          I remain

                                                          Your affectionate brother,

                                                          Frank G. Johnson.

        To set the scene for these comments about Aboriginals, the following passage is taken from A Thousand Miles Away- A History of North Queensland to 1920 by Professor G. B. Bolton from the Department of History of the Australian National University:

        Marketing and pasture problems may have dispelled the squatter's optimism, but the most wearing strain on morale came from the hostility of the Aborigines...Most settlers came expecting trouble. They soon had it. Resentful of trespass on their lands, within two or three years the Aboriginals were spearing stock and stockmen, until shepherds refused to work in danger areas where basalt ridges or rugged hill country gave the natives cover...Robert Gray estimated that between 10 and 15 per cent of the white men in outback North Queensland were killed by Aborigines during the sixties. Accustomed from previous Queensland experience to such hostilities, the squatters and the native police took ample retribution. The manager of Reedy Creek station spoke for many in asserting that "life was never safe, and the only wise thing to do on seeing a black was to shoot and shoot straight, otherwise he would certainly spear you"( George Elphinstone Dalrymple, tenth son of an Aberdeenshire baronet, writing to Governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen 1 August 1864).(North Queenslanders at this period usually spoke of the "blacks". "Natives" was a term reserved for Australian-born whites).

        Even within a few miles of Townsville and Bowen, this guerrilla warfare lasted throughout the sixties. The conflict between naked spearsmen and police rifles was not entirely onesided. The Aborigines showed uncanny skill at dodging punitive action, while leaving a sorry trail of slaughtered sheep and maimed cattle: "if the owners do not get protection", exploded the manager of a station not twentyfive miles from Townsville, "they will have to take the law into their own hands and exterminate every Black within the limits of their run, or abandon the country".

        Angered and baffled by the Aboriginal psychology, many settlers were tempted to take the shortest method with them. But others, especially those with wives and young children, found the constant vigilance and struggle too demanding. Several stations were abandoned, and other owners sought the first opportunity of selling out.

        Koolatah station was pioneer frontier land. It was way up in Cape York Country near the Mitchell River, which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The headwaters of the Mitchell River were constituted by the Palmer, Little Mitchell, Lynd, Walsh, Hodgkinson and Tate Rivers. Other pioneer cattle stations last century in this broad expanse of area were Drumduff, Dunbar, Lochnagar, Rutland Plains, Strathleven, Highbury, Frome, Koolburra, Gamboola, Wrotham Park, Mount Mulgrave, Fairview, Bulimba, and Blackdown.

        Said Evelyn Maunsell, wife of Charlie Maunsell, manager of Mount Mulgrave Station from 1911 to 1920:

        The possibility of death was a thought we had with us constantly in the Peninsula in those days. Less than sixty years ago it was still untamed country, with large cattle runs, managed often by one white man with a few black stockmen, and no other white inhabitants within 25, 50, or even 100 miles...most of the Aboriginal tribes had been cannibals, some to varying degrees.

        As well as Aboriginals, gulf fever was also a killer that struck down many a white person pioneering this remote area.

        Said Reginald Spencer Browne:

        The Alice River was named by a pastoral pioneer, Frank Johnson, who was the first manager of Koolatah Station, taken up for McEacharan and Bell many years after my time in the North (he was employed at Townsville for a while). Johnson named the River after his wife, who was a daughter of Mr. Paul Atkinson, a well known musician in Brisbane in the eighties, and a sister of Mr. H. (Henry) W. Atkinson, architect of Brisbane.

        Did they make it back to England as they had hoped to do so?

        They did make it to Brisbane, be it briefly, as witness two further letters, written by Alice H. Johnson, nee` Atkinson.

        The first is dated 3 November 1887, and the second 26 December 1887. The first was written from North Quay where the family may have been staying with Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, the father; the second was written from "Haroldene", Norman Street, East Brisbane. On both letters appears a Godschall Johnson Coat-of-Arms, the Castle and Motto "Le Bon Tempe Viendra", the good times are coming.

        Both letters were addressed to Fanny Sutton.

        The first read:

        My Dearest Old Fan,

        You will have heard from Jane that we all arrived here safely a month ago & wasn't I thankful to be once more in civilisation-They are all spoiling Harold as hard as they can go - we have had his photo taken, it is simply excellent - I am sending you one, also one of Idas - mind you watch out for them.

        Jane will have told you that No.2 is over three months on the road - isn't it awful to think of it, but I suppose it can't be helped - one thing I won't be in the wretched hole I was with the first - I suppose your little man is growing quite a big fellow - I do wish we could see him. Harold runs about all over the place & chatters away like a little magpie - We are leaving for Sydney on Saturday that's a treat in store for me - I am afraid our trip to England will have to be postponed, but we won't despair - Jane is coming to Sydney with us - it is simply astonishing how frightfully thin she keeps. Ida has grown into a fine handsome girl, & as for George I hardly knew him - Henry is quite a young man now - Liz looks just about the same as ever; and is awfully fond of Harold.

        We are going to buy a place here a little distance out of town & furnish when we come back from Sydney - We have a great many articles of furniture already, but there is so little room here that we must wait now till we get a place to store it in -

        This is really only an apology not a letter Fan so I hope you won't mind not getting more news - I didn't like just sending the photos without a line-

        I will write and tell you all about our trip when we come back-

        Now Fan dear, adieu for the present with fondest love from all, to you all, & lots of kisses to the dear baby from Harold as well mind.

                                      from your loving Sister

                                      Alice H Johnson

        PS. We went down to Humpy-Bong last Saturday and stayed till Monday. We means Liz, Ida, George D'Arcy, Frank, Harold, Lilley (little gin) & self - We got Harold christened while there by his Uncle-

                                      Ally. 

        The Uncle who christened Harold was the Rev. John Sutton.

        The second letter is dated Boxing Day, the 26th December 1887, and is addressed from "Haroldene", Norman Street, East Brisbane, to Fanny.

        My Dear Old Fan

        I only received your letter dated Sept 21st on Saturday last - it was lying in Normanton all this time.

        Fortunately I happened to wire up to the Post Master asking him to forward any letters or goodness knows how long they would have lain there - but still I have written to you since I came down & sent one of Harold's pictures which I hope you got safely - We have such a beautiful little home now everything that we can wish for & a darling little boy into the bargain - he is growing such a fine little chap, rushes about everywhere & tries to say everything he hears - he is getting on very well with his teeth he has 10 including 4 double ones - do you remember my telling you that we thought he was never going to have any -

        I had the family out to dinner yesterday (Jane, Ida, dear George & young George) & about 8.30pm Henry who had just returned from Gympie after having been there a week on business -the others were just getting their hats on to go when Henry arrived, so they had quietly to wait until he had something to eat as he was just famished -

        I can scarcely write with the noise that's going on; people fancying they're singing & making the most horrible noise - its a great wonder to me that Baby can sleep - I hope your little Harold is thriving & that you keep well - we were talking about you last night while we were sitting out in the moonlight-

        Jane is writing to you by this mail, so I won't give you a very long letter this time - I am sending you a photo that we had taken while in Sydney-

        We did not remain there very long; the weather was so miserable - the first 10 days it rained almost incessantly.

        Frank is particularly anxious to finish this for me but I think I have said enough as Jane will be giving you all the news so I will say goodnight wishing you all the compliments of the season with very best love from all.

                                      from your loving sister,

                                      Alice H. Johnson

        Alice Harriet Godschall Johnson, nee` Atkinson, died on 6 July 1894 at Winton.

        Francis O'Neil Godschall Johnson died on 23 June 1907 at Winton.

HAROLD LIONEL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Harold Lionel Godschall Johnson was born on 23 July 1886 at Koolatah Station, in North Queensland.

        He died on 28 December 1912, at Winton in Western Queensland, when killed by lightning. He had taken a horse out to a paddock, when a thunder storm developed. He took shelter under a gum tree, only to be struck by lightning. It was a sad end to a 26 year old, who, as a baby, had been the pride and joy of his mother' heart, as witness the pride in her baby evidenced in the correspondence written by Ally to Fan.

        Harold's niece wrote of her Uncle:

        My Uncle Hal had the family ring with the crest on it, and while swimming in the dam at Winton, got into difficulties and nearly drowned, and in the process lost the ring. He went back many times to look for it but never found it.

EVELYN MAY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Evelyn May Godschall Johnson was born on 21 May 1888 at Brisbane.

        On 2 October 1907, she married, at Winton, John William Wood.

        John William Wood was born on 12 March 1872 at Condicote in Gloucestershire, England.

        They had no issue.

        John William Wood died on 7 July 1958 at Brisbane.

        Evelyn May Wood, nee` Godschall, died on 25 November 1971, at Brisbane.

ELEANOR FRANCES GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Eleanor Frances Godschall Johnson was born on 26 November 1891 at Brisbane.

        On 21 July 1911, at Winton, she married William Ryan.

        William Ryan had been born on 27 September 1893 at Hughenden in Queensland.

        They had one child, Evelyn Gwendoline Ryan, born 1 December 1911.

        William Ryan died on 12 May 1952 at Townsville.

        Eleanor Frances Godschall Ryan, nee` Johnson, died on 11 August 1981, at Brisbane.

EVELYN GWENDOLINE RYAN:

        Evelyn Gwendoline Ryan was born on 1 December 1911 at Brisbane.

        On 31 August  1932, at Tolga, on the Atherton Tableland in North Queensland, she married Thomas Henry Gibbins.

        Thomas Henry Gibbins was born on 3 August 1908 at London, England.

        They had one child, Gwendoline Dorothy Gibbins, born on 28 August 1933 at Atherton.

        Thomas Henry Gibbins died on 31 December 1984.

        Evelyn Gwendoline Gibbins, nee` Ryan, later name changed from Gibbins to Bevan, died on 11 April 1988 at Brisbane.

GWENDOLINE DOROTHY GIBBINS:

        Gwendoline Dorothy Gibbins was born on 28 August 1933 at Atherton.

        On 7 April 1956, at Brisbane, she married Keith Johnson.

        Keith Johnson was born on 19 April 1928 at Murwillumbah in NSW.

        They had one child, Elwyn Johnson.

        Elwyn Johnson was born on 29 December 1957, at Brisbane.

        Gwendoline Dorothy Gibbins married again on 22 February 1964, Bruce Hampton Todd.

        Bruce Hampton Todd was born on 1 April 1918 at Brisbane, and died on 18 July 1984 at Brisbane.

ELWYN JOHNSON:

        Elwyn Johnson was born on 29 December 1957 at Brisbane.

        On 29 November 1980, at Southport, in Queensland, he married Trena Lynette Moris.

        Trena Lynette Moris was born on 8 May 1961 at Wellington in New Zealand.

        They have two children: Sean James Johnson, born on 27 April 1984 at Southport, and Aaron Keith Johnson, born on 15 November 1985 at Southport.

CYRIL FRANCIS O'NEILL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Cyril Francis O'Neill Godschall Johnson was born on 26 June 1894 at Winton, in Queensland.

        He married Emma Burdell.

        They had one child, Emmaline Alice Joyce Godschall Johnson, born on 23 August 1939 at Winton.

        Cyril Francis O'Neill Godschall Johnson died on 16 February 1968 at Rockhampton in Queensland.

        Emma Burdell Godschall Johnson, nee` Burdell, died on 26 December 1970 at Rockhampton.

                                                 CHAPTER 6

FREDERICK FLOWER GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson was the fourth son of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Butler.

        He was born on 5 May 1846, in St. Omer, France.

        He was the last to come to Australia of the family, and is believed to have arrived about 1865. This may have been shortly after he declined to enter the Catholic priesthood. He had been raised and educated in Ireland by an Uncle Fred and Aunt Frances, who may have been Catholic, and they may have destined him for the priesthood. He did not wish to take the vows.

        In 1879, in Queensland, he married Margaret Isabella Macdonald.

        Margaret Isabella MacDonald was born on 10 October 1856 at Brewarrina in New South Wales. Margaret Isabella Macdonald was said to be the daughter of Dr. George Macdonald. New South Wales birth registers give little assistance in tracing her origins. Their is one close entry for a Margaret Isabella Macdonald born in 1854 with parentage unknown, and the next preceding marriage entry for a George Macdonald in New South Wales, is that of an 1845 Marriage between a George Macdonald and Elizabeth Dowse.

                     Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson and Margaret Isabella MacDonald were married at the Cullen-la-ringo station of Renny and Elizabeth Spencer Wills on 1 February 1879.

        Cullen-la-Ringo is of course the site of one of the biggest massacres of white people by aboriginals in Australian history.

        Cullen-la-Ringo had been taken up in October 1861 by Horatio Wills who had come up from Victoria with a party of 25 persons and 10,000 sheep to pasture, and began building the first huts for his new homestead, Cullen-la-Ringo.

        Horatio Wills' experience of Aborigines  was gained from southern tribes, and he apparently believed that as long as he treated the northerners well, there would be no trouble. He was deceived. The natives saw the stores being unloaded and watched. During the morning of 17 October, about a fortnight after the Wills' party had arrived, about 60 Aborigines came into the camp, but left before dinner-time, apparently on the best of terms with everybody. They had been scouting out the lie of the land. Exactly what happened next is not known. No-one lived to tell the tale.

        During the evening of the next day, the Aborigines attacked. The whites were caught totally unprepared. Only one hand, John Moore, remained hidden to effect an escape. Before doing so, he witnessed Mrs. Baker, the overseer's wife, scream "Murder" and then heard the thud of a nulla-nulla crack her skull open. Moore escaped camouflaged by a flock of sheep, ran for his life arriving exhausted at Rainworth Station thirty miles to the south. Mr. Gregson, the owner of Rainworth, mustered a posse of nine shearers, but by the time they reached Cullen-la-Ringo it was dark and they could do nothing. Daylight revealed the terrible disaster. Ten bodies were stretched out grotesquely on the ground among the huts and tents. Horatio Will's body lay about three yards in front of his tent, a revolver by his left hand, a double-barrelled gun by the other. Only one shot had been fired. Some of the slain women still had sewing in their hands, and the children, their heads smashed in by nulla-nullas, were lying next to their mothers. All the bodies were horribly mutilated. Those killed in the Cullen-la-Ringo attack were Mr. H. S. Wills, owner of the station, Baker, the overseer, and his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was 7 months, Patrick Manion and his wife and two children, and seven other men. Mr. T. W. Wills, the owner's son and James Baker, a son of the overseer, were absent collecting stores at the time and escaped.

        It is noted that one of the avenging parties was organised by Mr. P. F. Macdonald of Yaamba Station. He may have been a relative of Margaret Isabella Macdonald.

        Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson and his wife Margaret Isabella Macdonald had ten children:

Margaret Ellen Johnson, born on 30 October 1879,

Bertha May Johnson, born on 27 May 1881,

May Johnson, born on 4 September 1882,

and Violet Johnson, also born on 4 September 1882, and a twin to May,

Constance Ema Godschall Johnson, Jessie Sarah Godschall Johnson, Mabel Cecelia Johnson, Charles George Johnson, Frederick William Johnson and Robert Godschall Johnson.

        A lot of their descendants live in Western Australia, where Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson ended up after spells in Queensland, then Victoria. The Western Australia Dictionary of Biography records:

        Johnson: Frederick Flower Godschall, arr. c. 1904 from Victoria. Married 1879 in Queensland Margaret Isabella MacDonald who was born in 1855 in NSW, died on 8 November 1944 in Western Australia, daughter of Dr. George MacDonald. Children: Margaret Ellen, Violet & May (twins), Jessie, Bertha, Mabel Cecelia b. 1888, Constance, William, Charles, Robert. Timber inspector in Bunbury district in Government employ. He inspected timber used in Government buildings, railways, bridges etc.

        In 1910 it is said that he became Surveyor General in Western Australia, at Bon Bridge, with Sir James Mitchell. Whether this is true remains doubtful given any reference to it in the official biographical note.

        Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson died in 1915.

        Margaret Isabella Johnson, nee` Macdonald, died on 8 November 1944, as per the above biographical note.

        A very interesting relic surviving in respect of Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson is a letter sent to him by his grandmother A. Butler, mother of Eleanor Butler, wife of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, who died in 1853 before the remaining family migrated to Australia in 1859 (father, and two eldest sons), 1860 (two sons and two daughters), and 1862 (Frederick from Ireland).

        The letter is undated and reads:

        My very dear little Fred.

        You much ... of mine Miss Wills and Frankeys

thanks for your kind enquiries on one sheet of paper as Miss Wills is out shopping. Frankey is at school and I am left alone to make use of the pen. I am sure you must be happy with such a kind aunt and uncle. What a pretty little nail and tooth brush your uncle bought for you; were you not delighted with them? You must indeed be a pet to deserve such nice little things and I am sure that you will find that your Aunt and Uncle love you too well to give you what you do not deserve. Ralphy walked from Petworth to Winchester on Friday the 6th, and walked back again on last Thursday. Frankey sends his love, and says he will write when he has time. If he were obedient he would be one of the best boys in the world, but he has never been thought to obey yet, and even he finds it a hard task. Frankey likes school because he has a master who drills him, lends him a little musket, and teaches to exercise like the soldiers. Your name is written very nicely dear Fred. How pleased you must be with your wickets and bat. What a lovely present. Does Aunt Dot know the place where I live? Very near the West Gate. I had a family cushion sent me from Peterworth on Saturday the 7th my birthday. Give love to your Uncle from your affectionate grandmother A. Butler.

        All send you abundance of kisses...

        Hazarding a guess, the letter was written shortly after Frederick's mothers death in 1853 when Frederick, as the second youngest child of the family was aged about 7. His younger brother William, was 4, at his mother's death, and was obviously staying with his Grandmother Mrs. Butler, and his nanny, Miss Wills. We learn later that William, at age 4, went to the same boarding school at Chilton, Candover, where his elder brother Frank already was. Candover is between Winchester and Basingstoke, where the Rev. Thornton was rector. It was with the Thorntons that the two girls, Frances and Ellen stayed when their mother died. The girls had a governess at the Rectory. The Rectory was about a mile from the school, and William recalls that he used to spend his holidays, with Frank, at the rectory.

        This letter suggests that Grandmother Butler was nearby also. She mentions that Frank walked on two occasions to Winchester and mentions the name Petworth (which is east in West Sussex) as one place where he started his walk. Grandmother Butler talks of living at the West gate. Would that be West Gate, Winchester?

        Grandmother mentions an Aunt Dot, and enquires whether Dot knew her, (grandmother's), address. It is understood that Frederick was brought up by relatives in Ireland after his mother died in 1854, until he was despatched to Australia about 1862.

William Butler said, in his later years in 1935, that Frederick stayed with Uncle Fred and Aunt Fanny in Ireland.

        The mention of a gift of wickets and cricket bat, unconnected with a normal occasion such as a birthday or Christmas (which would otherwise have been mentioned, if that were the occasion), suggest a close proximity to his mother's death and subsequent relocation to relatives with a gift to an 7 year old to assist him to overcome his childhood sense of parental loss.

        We proceed now to mention the children of Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson.

MARGARET ELLEN JOHNSON:

        Margaret Ellen Johnson was born on 30 October 1879 in Queensland.

        She married Clarence Theodore Elphick.

BERTHA MAY JOHNSON:

        Bertha May Johnson was born on 27 May 1881 in Queensland.

        She married James Blechynden.

        Bertha died in 1921.

        She left 19 descendants in the Bridgetown area of Western Australia.

        A postcard has survived written in the handwriting of Frederick Flower Godschall Johnson, addressed to his granddaughter Miss Ellar Blechynden on her first birthday.

        The postcard bears a one penny Western Australia stamp. It is addressed to Miss Ellar Blechynden, Springfield, Upper Blackwood, via Bridgetown.

        It reads:

        M B Wied

        Many happy Returns of the 1st little Birthday. Best love to Mummy, Con, & Daddy. Look out for a little parcel by this mail & if it doesn't come - let me know

Garfarner

        At Bunbury was the old house Sunnymead where Frederick Flower and Isabella Godschall Johnson lived for many years, and where a number of their grandchildren were born.

VIOLET JOHNSON:

        Violet Johnson was born on 4 September 1882, at Emerald, in Central Queensland,  and was a twin to her sister May Johnson.

        Violet Johnson married Robert Williams.

        Violet died in 1962.

        She and her sister May kept up correspondence with May Thornton in England.

MAY JOHNSON:

        May Johnson was born on 4 September 1882, at Emerald in Central Queensland, and was a twin to her sister Violet Johnson.

        May Johnson married Charles Victor Draper.

        May died in 1963 and left descendants.

CONSTANCE EMA GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Constance Emma Godschall Johnson was born in 1885 in Victoria.

        Constance Emma Godschall Johnson married George James Chidgzey.

        Constance died in 1938, and left descendants.

JESSIE SARAH GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Jessie Sarah Godschall Johnson was born in 1886 at Brighton, in the State of Victoria.

         She married Arthur Vincent Elphick.

        Arthur Vincent and Jessie Sarah Godschall Elphick, nee Godschall Johnson, had eight (8) children:

Walter Arthur Frederick Elphick, born in 1913;

Doreen Margaret Elphick, born in 1914;

William Humphrey James Elphick, born in 1916;

Edgar Basil Elphick, born in 1918;

Leonard Harold Elphick, born in 1912;

Geoffrey Edward Elphick, born in 1923;

Colin Vincent Elphick, born in 1925;

Harold Eustance Elphick, born in 1927.

        Doreen Margaret Elphick married and had a daughter, Margaret Kay, now Davey. Doreen died in 1982. Margaret has a daughter Shirley, who lived in Adelaide.

        Dr. Bob Elphick and his wife Dorothy and family are descendants and live in Western Australia.

        So too are William Humphrey James and Joy Elphick who live at Mandurah in Western Australia.

        There is also Frederick Edward (Ned) and Patricia Elphick and their children and families. Ned and Patricia lived at Bunbury.

MABEL CECELIA JOHNSON:

        Mabel Cecelia Johnson was born in 1888 at Cranbourne in Victoria.

        She married Donavon Russell Elphick.

        Mabel died in 1979.

        She had a daughter Poppy who married Ernest Knight.

CHARLES GEORGE JOHNSON:

        Charles George Johnson was born in 1889 at Brunswick in Victoria.

        He married Jean Cunningham.

        They had a daughter, Betty Johnson, now Oaks, and a son, Robert Clinton Johnson, and he has a son Clinton, and grandson Jai.

        Robert, Clinton and family live in Adelaide.

        Robert, Clinton and Jai are changing their names by deedpoll to include the name Godschall.        

        Betty lives in Perth

        Charles died in 1953.

FREDERICK WILLIAM JOHNSON:

        Frederick William Johnson was born in 1891.

        Frederick served in England during World War I, as did his brother Robert.

        Frederick married Mabel Constance Jarvis.

        Frederick died in 1964.

ROBERT GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Robert Godschall Johnson was born in 1894 in Gisborne, Victoria.

        He served during World War I in England as did his brother Frederick.

        Robert married Agnes McDermott.

        They had a daughter Jean Alice, who had four children and ten grandchildren.

        Robert Godschall Johnson died in 1961, his wife Agnes in 1960.

                                                 CHAPTER 7

WILLIAM BUTLER GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The fifth and youngest son of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Butler, was William Butler Godschall Johnson.

        William Butler Godschall Johnson was born on 30 July 1849, at Worthing in England.

        On 1 January 1877 he married Jessie Emma Collins, at Thornhill Station in Queensland.

        Jessie Collins was born on 7 March 1858, the daughter of James Carden Collins and his wife Mary Helena Glennie.

        James Carden Collins was the son of Thomas Collins and his wife whose maiden name was Danvers.

        Mary Helena Glennie was the daughter of James Glennie and Susan White.

        James Glennie was the son of William Glennie and Mary Gardiner.

        Thornhill Station was at the time of William Butler Godschall Johnson's marriage to Jessie Collins, managed by her father James Carden Collins, but owned by James Glennie and his wife Susan, his wife's parents.

        Jessie had an older sister, Mary Denvers Collins, born 2 May 1856, and younger brothers Charles Henry Collins, born 7 December 1859, and Arthur Percy Collins, born 26 May 1861.

        Arthur Percy Collins died on 14 August 1862, and Charles Henry Collins died on 9 March 1963.

        Mary Helena Collins, nee` Glennie, died on 6 December 1870 of pneumonia; her father died on 10 September 1876, but her mother live to a considerable age, dying 8 April 1898, well over 90 years of age.

        Note that a Sophia Pamela Collins, nee` Danvers, died in 1863. She was the daughter of James Danvers and Elizabeth Andrew.

        She may have been James Carden's Collins mother, and accordingly one of Jessie Collin's grandmothers, the other being Susan Glennie, nee` White.

        After Mary Helena Collins, nee` Glennie, died, in 1870, her widower husband, James Carden Collins later remarried Susan Jane Cox Pugh, and had further children: Florence Montgomery Collins, born 2 April 1871, Arthur John Collins, born 26 March 1873, Ellen Margaret Cox Collins, born 27 December 1874, and Carden Noad Collins, born 12 August 1876.

        Alfred Carden Collins died 17 June 1871, and Florence Montgomery Collins died 1 December 1871.

        William Butler Godschall Johnson says that, when he married Jessie in 1877, she was on Thornleigh Station. He also said that when his first wife Mary Helena Collins, nee` Glennie died, (1870), her father married again and was appointed manager of Torrilea Station, as Thornleigh really belonged to his first wife's parents James and Susan Glennie, and that other grandsons Fred and Frank carried on the work of Thornleigh.

        However the 1868 Postal Directory shows James Carden Collins as "superintendent Toorilla, Yaamba". This was two years before his first wife's death.

        Thornleigh is about 50 miles out of Bundaberg, on the now Bruce Highway.

        William Butler Godschall Johnson and Jessie Emma Collins had a very large family indeed, namely of ten children:

Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson, born on 4 December 1877,

Jessie Glennie Godschall Johnson, born on 29 April 1879,

Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson, born on 19 May 1881,

Maud Alice Godschall Johnson, born on 20 October 1883,

Evelyn Mabel Godschall Johnson, born on 9 October 1886,

William Virgil Godschall Johnson, born on 4 January 1890,

Eric Lesleigh Godschall Johnson, born on 26 December 1892,

Cardew Hamilton Godschall Johnson, born on 23 June 1894,

Robert Earl Godschall Johnson, born on 19 July 1896,

Phyllis Muriel Godschall Johnson, born on 16 September 1901.

        In the 1895 Postal Directory, William Butler Godschall Johnson is shown as residing, without any further annotation, at Ingham. Succeeding postal directories show the same curt reference, but the 1901 one expands it to manager of Stoneleigh Station at Ingham. Stoneleigh Station was at the head of the Stone River, and was a cattle station he managed at that time. His whereabouts throughout his life can best be gained from a reading of his own life story, which has been included in its entirety.

        It was at Stoneleigh Station that his eldest daughter, Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was to marry her cousin Ralph Godschall Johnson, in 1897, and also his second daughter, Jessie Glennie Godschall Johnson, was, in 1904, to marry Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson.

        William Butler Godschall Johnson died in 1935. He performed the duties of a Justice of the Peace for most of his life, which in the country, meant taking turns at sitting on the local Justice's bench. He would have been a prominent figure in the local community. He left an interesting account of his life, written by him in 1935 and addressed to May Thornton in England:

        In my last days I give you an outline of my life up to the present. Perhaps a few details and incidents during that time may interest you. I will begin with my earliest recollections. I don't remember ever seeing my mother - she must have died when I was very young.

        My first recollection was a small boarding school at Chilton, Candover, a parish between Winchester and Basingstoke, where the Rev. Thornton was rector.

        My brother Frank was at school with me. I think I must have been about four years old. We used to go to the Rectory for our holidays, which was, if I remember rightly, about a mile from the school, and where my two sisters Ellen and Fanny lived with the Thornton family, and were taught by their governess.

        I don't remember about my brother Fred. He must have been sent to Ireland before that, to Uncle Fred and Aunt Fanny.

        I do not remember seeing my father and his two eldest sons, Ralph and Charley - they must have come to Australia, before that.

        I must have been at that school for 7 years because in 1860, my two sisters, my brother Frank and myself were sent off to Australia in the old sailing ship Vimiera. On board was the first Anglican Bishop, Bishop Tufnell, and a number of clergy, to come to Queensland.

        It was just after Separation from New South Wales. The Governor who had just arrived was Sir George Bowen.

        Some very fine English gentlemen formed the first Parliament of Queensland about this time - very different from the present regime.

        My father was the Assistant Clerk of the first Legislative Council. He was a fine old Englishman, and was called Gentlemen Johnson.

        He held that position until he died in 1876.

        His greatest friend in Brisbane was the Honourable Douglas Hamilton, a younger brother of the then Duke.

        Mr. Hamilton had a run with a herd of cattle about 40 miles from Brisbane, where he resided with his wife and family. His family consisted of 3 sons and 2 daughters.

        A nephew, Algernon Hamilton, was also staying with them.

        At the time I was staying there, he married the eldest daughter, Ida. Afterwards he became Duke. I think his son is the present Duke. This is by the way. I am telling you this because the three sons of Douglas Hamilton and I became great friends, and 2 of them were associated with me a few years after, Alexander (Sandy) and Pat.

        My sister Fanny married one of the clergy, John Sutton, and they went to live in Gladstone where John was Parish Priest.

        I met my father when we first arrived and I went to school for a year.

        This was the first time I saw my father, and my brother, Ralph, came to see us when we were there.

        Charley had been lost in the bush and was never seen again.

        After a year at school, I went to the Suttons at Gladstone.

        Aunt Jane Cholmondeley gave them some money, and John took up some country about 80 miles from Gladstone. There I had to shepherd the sheep and sleep near the yard at night to keep the wild dogs (dingos) away.

        The blacks were not too safe in those days, and I got a great fright one night. I was asleep on the ground under my blanket, (but no roof over me), and my sheep dog was lying beside me. I woke up with a weight on me, and a struggling mass on by blanket. I found some wild dogs were attacking my sheep dog on top of me. I did not know then that the dingo does not attack human beings, and I was very afraid.

        In 1864, I got a job on a cattle station and started work on my own account. I should like to tell you a few incidents that happened while I was working on that station, "Kolonga", whose owner Mr. Holt, was very kind to me.

        He (Mr. Holt), taught me to ride, milk, and do all kinds of cattle work.

        One day, while working in the yard, a wild cow, instead of running out of the yard as the gate was opened, charged me, caught me on her horns, and dashed me against the fence. I did not recover consciousness until the next day. I was very badly bruised, but there was no serious injury.

        On another occasion I was training to ride some of the horses in a race, and, as I was a little too heavy, I had to reduce weight by sitting in an improvised Turkish bath - a chair, with a pail of hot water underneath - and covered by a blanket. A black fellow covered me up, head and all, and he went away. Mr. Holt came on soon after, and, seeing my head covered, pulled the blankets off, to find that I had fainted; but I rode the race the next day and won.

        There were very few women folk on stations in those days, but the Carden Collins station was an exception. It was about 15 miles from Kolonga. The family consisted of 3 sons and 3 daughters: Minnie, Jessie (who afterwards became my wife), and Mabel, the youngest.

        They used to give parties sometimes, and we used to ride over and dance nearly all night, and then ride home and start work again.

        That is how I came to know my dear wife, when she was a young girl.

        My brother, Frank, was on a station called Miriam Vale, about 40 miles from Kolonga, and was therefore 25 miles from Thornhill - the Carden Collins station, and we often used to go there to the dances. This was in the 60's (1860s).

        The only noticeable event that happened out of the ordinary was the capture of a bushranger called the "Wild Scotsman", who was not a very bloodthirsty man, but had robbed the mail a few times. The mail was from Gladstone to Maryborough, by horse once a week, and on two occasions, Mr. Holt and I, armed to the teeth, escorted the mailman to the neighbouring station on the Maryborough road. The manager there escorted him a little further.

        The second time we went, the manager of that station, called Monduroo, saw a man waiting on the road ahead who, when he saw the escort with the mailman, went off into the bush.

        The manager, Mr Nott and his man gave chase and caught the bushranger, for it was he. He was in a destitute condition, having lost his ammunition, and he had no food with him.

        It is remarkable, but that manager, Mr. Nott, later married my wife's aunt, and got a station of his own west of Rockhampton. His wife, who is older than I am, is still alive and has children and grandchildren.

        About 1864, I think, my sister married your grandfather, and he bought a share in a sheepstation, but sold out in a year or two and went up to Bowen.

        About a year later, my brother came to Australia and I saw him for the first time.

        In 1870, my brother Frank started for the far north of Queensland, where he took up country and made money for a few years. Afterwards, he went to Brisbane, married there, went into business and lost all his money. He got a billet as Government Stock Inspector in the west of Queensland, where he lived for some years, and he died out there. His family consisted of 2 girls and 2 boys.

        His eldest son, Harold, when he was about 22, was living in Winton, a western town, took a horse out to a paddock a short distance away. A thunder storm coming in, he sat down under a tree for shelter, when a flash of lightning struck the tree and killed him instantly.

        The other boy I have never seen, but believe he is still out in the western country.

        The 2 girls are married and living near Atherton. I often see them. The elder has no children; the younger, Eleanor, has one daughter about 19.

        When Frank was travelling north he got three boys from the blacks near Mackay, and, calling at Townsville, he got them some clothes, and had their photos taken. I will send you the old photo, taken about 1871, of the three boys. Only Alec, the small boy on the left, is alive. Frank handed him over to me when he went to Brisbane, and he has been attached to me ever since. He is now a very decrepit old man.

        This can't be such a very unhealthy climate; my wife's grandmother lived till she was over 90, and Glen's mother-in-law Mrs. Atkinson, died here at 93 years of age.

        In 1870, I left the station I was working on, and went droving - that is, taking cattle from one part of the country to another, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of miles.

        I took a mob of bullocks from Rodds Bay near Gladstone to a station between Bowen and Mackay called Bloomsbury, and when I came back from the droving trip to N.S.W., he wrote asking me to go up north and buy a mob of 500 cattle for him, and deliver to Bloomsbury, which I did.

        As I was passing Bowen, I rode in and called at the house. Your father, a small boy, came out to the gate and asked me to give him a ride on my horse. I put him on the horse which i thought would be quiet, but never having a child on his back, he began to buck and threw Johnny before I could take him off. Fortunately, he was not hurt, only frightened.

        My brother Ralph, was sent down to take care of father's interests there - Bloomsbury - Ralph had been lately married and he took his wife to Bloomsbury with him, where his son Ralph was born, and what seems a strange coincidence, young Ralph and I should, after about 60 years, become interested in Bloomsbury again.

        There is a railroad station and small village at Bloomsbury now, and Ralph and his sons took up a sugar farm there and asked me to join them. I did so, but sold out to him later.

        After delivering the cattle to Bloomsbury, I went back to my old district, and after droving here and there for a year or two, got the management of Moolboolaman station, as the owner, Mr. Barton, was going home to England to get married.  (The Mr. Barton mentioned here was Augustus Purling Barton)

        I stayed with him for some years. He brought his wife out, but I stayed on.

        He went to England again in 1876, and I got married while he was there, on 1st January 1877, to Jessie Collins of Thornhill, about 30 miles away.

        The day before the wedding, I had to ride 90 miles. One of my fiancé’s trustees lived 30 miles from Moolboolaman, and I heard at the last minute that I must get his consent in writing before I could get married, so I started early in the morning and rode the 30 miles to the Trustee's station, then riding back to Moolboolaman and then 30 miles to Thornhill.

        In 1879, Mr. Barton returned from England and took full charge, so I left and stayed for a short time at Thornhill.

        At about that time your grandmother left for the south on her way to England.

        A few years before this, my wife's mother and eldest brother died at Thornhill: the former from pneumonia, and the brother from a fall from a horse.

        Her father married again, and was appointed manager of Torilea station; Thornhill really belonged to my wife's grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Glennie, and the other 2 grandsons, Fred and Frank, carried on the work of the station.

        After leaving Thornhill, we took up a block of country about 40 miles north of Rockhampton, and put cattle on it.

        My eldest daughter, Mary, was then 2 years old, and there, Glen was born, 29th April, 1879.

        I sold out of there and got the management of a station adjoining Thornhill, called Warra. This was about 55 miles from Gladstone, where I had to go sometimes on business. I used to drive in a buggy with 4 horses, and would often take Mary with me, strapped on the seat beside me, as she was only a little over three years old.

        Old Mrs. Glennie was very proud of her great grandchildren, but Glen was of course the favourite. We often used to visit there. The old lady used to say in comparing the children: the difference is that Glen is a Glennie and Mary is a Johnson.

        Glen could do no wrong, even when one day she caught 2 of the old lady's little turkeys and held them under the water in a tub to see the bubbles come up.

        Cholmondeley was born there.

        In 1882, I thought I could do better for myself by going into business - a fatal mistake. I bought a share in an auctioneering business but was not suited for that sort of life.

        I bought a farm about 8 miles out of Brisbane, and used to drive in every day to business, and take the 2 girls and Cholm to school.

        Maude, Mabel and Virgil were all born here.

        About 1887 gold was discovered at Croydon, and, as I had failed in business, Pat Hamilton and I went to try our fortune, over 1000 miles away. We got a little gold, but not much. The climate was very unhealthy, and we both got malaria there. I recovered but poor Pat died.

        I went back to Brisbane, and, in 1888, started bee culture, and tried to make good on the farm, but unsuccessfully.

        I was then offered a billet of droving a number of bulls to a station near Ingham called Stoneleigh. That took three months. I only had two blackboys with me, Alec and Larry, the boys my brother Frank brought down from the north, and whose photos I sent you.

        A very remarkable incident of faith cure happened on the way. I must tell you first, that a few months before leaving Brisbane, Alec was in the Brisbane hospital suffering from hydatids on the liver, but seemed to be well on leaving, but after being on the road for sometime, the swelling over his liver showed again, and one day his horse falling on him, the swelling must have burst inside, and the boy was very sick. We went close to a station called Borralee, and I asked the owner to allow me to stay for a day or two to give the boy a rest, but he seemed to get worse.

        The blacks on the station told Alec that a few miles away was a camp of blacks, with a very good medicine man among them, and Alec was sure that if he could get there, the medicine man would cure him.

        So I arranged to take him to the camp, and watch the operation, which was as follows: the man laid the boy on his back on the ground, and with a long needle, put the point over the place where the swelling had been, but did not ever break the skin, then he put his mouth to the place and sucked for a time then spat out a piece of bad meat. Again sucking produced a piece of chewed string, and next time a few nails. That completed the cure, and in two days, the boy was well as ever.

        The man must have been a bit of a conjurer, for, although I watched very closely, I did not see how he got all those things into his mouth, for he was quite naked, and had nowhere to conceal things.

        Alec is still alive, but past work.

        When I got to Stoneleigh, I had word from Brisbane to take 1000 bullocks to N.S.W., and that took me another seven months, so it was about October 1891 before I got home again.

        Then the Queensland Investment Co. offered me the management of Stoneleigh, so I sold out everything in Brisbane and took all the family, consisting of Mother and 6 children, the youngest being Virgil.

        After being there for a time, I wrote to Sandy Hamilton to come up, and we rented a farm from the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., which Sandy managed. We grew sugar cane for the company for some years.

        The estate was about 20 miles from Stoneleigh, and Sandy was often up staying with us. He was a very fine man and a great friend of ours.

        We had some Kanakas working in the cane, and one of them got very ill. Sandy nursed him through his illness, which turned out to be tuberculosis, and I think Sandy must have contracted the disease then, for a few years afterward, he developed T.B. and died, although he was a very strong man, much stronger than me.

        While I was at Stoneleigh, there was a man butchering at a tin mine about 16 miles away, and I knew he was stealing cattle, so I was there one night and watched his yard all night, and just at daylight I saw him come down to the yard and shoot the animals, so the man who was with me, and I ran down to the yard and I said "Whose cow is that?" - he said "it isn't yours".

        Anyhow I looked at the brand, and saw that it belonged to a neighbouring station, from whom I had authority to act, so I took the hide straight to the police in Ingham, with the information.

        The case came up for trial at Townsville, and the man got off scott free, through some legal technicality, and the barrister who defended him told the jury that I was no better than a bushranger, robbing the poor man of his beef.

        In 1895, the tick pest began to make its appearance. This is an insect introduced into the Northern Territory by buffalo, which caused a disastrous fever called Redwater, and killed thousands of cattle.

        When the ticks first arrived there were 12,000 cattle on the station, and after two years, there were only a little over 1,000.

        All sorts of experiments were tried to relieve the cattle, but it was only after three years, it was discovered, that dipping the stock in a solution of arsenic would relieve them of the ticks, and after a time, the stock became immune to the disease, but we still have to continue dipping to relieve them of tick worry.

        While we were at Stoneleigh, Eric, Carden, Earle, and Phyllis were born, the latter in 1901, the year we left.

        Mary was married to Ralph while we were at Stoneleigh in 1897.

        They went south to Melbourne, and in 1899 went home to England, taking Glen with them.

        Glen also married at Stoneleigh in 1901 to Tom Atkinson, and went to Kangaroo Hills station, of which Tom was a part owner.

        We then went to the range near the tin mines, and I bought some mules and started packing goods up to the mines and tin back to Ingham.

        We had nearly 100 goats (partly angora), which we used for milk and mutton, and the children had a team of them to cart wood and water for our house.

        One day the goats were missing, and did not come home at night. They were away for two days before the children found them on the top of a high hill in the midst of a quantity of a poison plant called "Gastro tobrien Grandiflora", and nearly 60 of the goats died. There was great weeping and lamentations over the loss of a lot of their pets.

        We did not stay long on the range; it was a very out of the way place, and no wheeled vehicle could get up there, so everything had to be carried on horseback; some very awkward things I had to pack, among them a quantity of train rails.

        We went to live in Ingham for a time, but I still continued my packing business and made a fair amount of money.

        It was while at Stoneleigh I was made a Magistrate of the territory, and I still continue to sit as a Justice of the Peace.

        Then an old pioneer called Stone left the district, and we bought his estate called "The Grange". This is where the photo of the whole family was taken under a very old fig tree in front of the house. This was a very fine old place, with a quantity of fruit trees, mango, cumquats, guava, brazilian cherries etc., but the soil was not much good for sugar growing.

        There were a number of snakes about this country, and one day, I heard a commotion outside and someone calling me; I ran out and found Mabel holding a death adder down with a rake, so I soon despatched him. On another occasion, the boys were down in the field with their little fox terrier. the little dog ran after a big brown snake, which turned and bit the dog and then disappeared into a hole. The boys picked up the dog and started to carry it home, but the poor little thing died before they got to the house. The death adder and the brown snake are the most venomous snakes we have in Queensland.

        When we first went to the Grange, the boys used to ride all the way to Ingham to school every day, a distance of 10 miles.

        Afterwards the Government built a school about four miles away which made things easier for them.

        Then one of the teachers, a Miss Jones, came to stay with us, which enabled Phyllis to go in a small trap, which we lent the teacher. One night Virgil and Eric were driving along the road after dark, to some performance at the school, when they met some lads galloping along the road, one of whom rode straight at the vehicle they were driving, the shaft of which entered the chest of the lads horse, killing him (the horse) instantly. The lad got a bad fall but was not seriously hurt.

        About this time I took a contract to erect some miles of fencing on a selection about 95 miles from Gunnawarra station, so I engaged a couple of men and took my dray and horses and travelled up the 130 miles and camped at the place where the fence was to be erected.

        I had a small tent to myself, and the men had another a small distance away. One night I was rudely awakened by something biting my nose. I knocked it off and struck a match, and there close by was a native cat with all its bristles on end looking very angry. It ran away before I could get anything to hit it with, and I had the marks of its teeth on my nose for some time after. The native cat is a small animal, not quite as big as a rabbit. They are very savage, but I never heard of them attacking anyone unless cornered.

        On another occasion, riding home with my son Eric and a blackboy, through the bush in very wet weather, we came to a plain covered with water, on which were some lagoons, which could not be distinguished owing to the quantity of water.

        Suddenly our horses lost footing and began to swim. The blackboy and horse swam well and reached footing first. My horse swam well, but Eric and his horse disappeared under the water. I let my horse go with the idea of helping Eric, but he came to the surface quickly and swam off better than I could as I was hampered with a waterproof coat, which got round my legs, and I should have certainly drowned had not the blackboy managed to reach me and pull me into the shallow water. In swimming horses, one generally gets out of the saddle, holds on to the horse's mane, and lies flat on the water, and the horse will carry one a good long distance in that way.

        While we were living at the Grange, a Mr. and Mrs. Dyott, with an infant daughter came and stayed a few days with us. They came out from England, globetrotting, and strange to say, while I am writing this, 23 years afterwards, the same people, with 2 grown up daughters and a girl friend, have come to stay at Gunnawarra for a few weeks, to see bush life. Glen heard they were in Cairns and invited them to come and stay awhile. They intend going from here to Hong Kong on their way home to England, so we are a very big party now.

        But to get back to the Grange; we lived there growing sugar for about 10 years.

        Virgil and Carden enlisted from there in 1915 I think, and in 1918 we left the Grange to Cholmondeley and came to Atherton and started dairy farming, sending our cream to a factory close by.

        I went up first on to the farm that belonged to Glen and her husband. The house had been unoccupied for some time and was very dirty. I was not at all comfortable, all by myself, as cats used to race through the house squealing at all hours of the night and opossums walking on the ceiling sounding like a man's footsteps, making me think of ghosts; especially as I was told that the place was haunted, the former owner having had a man killed there.

        Afterwards, I hired a man to work for me, and he was taking some iron off a roof of an outhouse when he fell through to the ground, on to some iron, and was killed.

        Eric got married about that time and took up a farm, with the assistance of Tom Atkinson, about 12 miles from us, and also went in for dairying.

        The boys came back from the War in 1918, and came and stayed with us for a time, then Carden went to Ingham and joined Cholm.

        Virgil and Earle took up a dairy farm near Malanda, about seven miles from us. They had very hard work clearing heavy timber off the land, and Earle was nearly killed by a tree falling on him and fracturing his skull. They had to carry him a long way before they could get to a road leading to a hospital, and it was a very long time before he truly recovered.

        The farm is just now beginning to repay them for all their work.

        While on the subject of accidents, I must record a terribly sad one that happened to a lad some few years ago. He was riding one day in the bush and, passing a dead tree with a small hole in it out of which he saw a very pretty parrot emerge. The hole was too high for him to reach it while sitting on his horse, so he stood on his saddle and inserted his arm into the hole, trying to reach the young birds. Something startled his horse, which moved off, leaving the boy suspended by his arm, which he could not extricate. The horse went home and a search party went out. They found the poor boy next day, still suspended and covered with blood. He evidently managed to get his knife from his pocket and tried to cut his arm off - no doubt bleeding would have caused his death.

        We lived in Atherton for some years dairying in partnership with my son-in-law Lex Clark-Kennedy, till 1923, when my dear wife died.

        I then went to Mackay and took up a sugar farm with my nephew Ralph Johnson, where I lived for 3 years.

        Then I lost my farm, and also the sight of one of my eyes through an unskilful operation. I was in hospital in Brisbane for some time, then I came up to Gunnawarra to Glen, where I have lived ever since.

        In the early seventies (1870's), I was head man under the owner on a station in the Burnett district. The owner, we will call him, Mr. Brown, was a fine old English gentleman, very short-sighted and very eccentric. In those days we used generally to employ, beside the stockmen, a married couple - the wife to do the cooking and house work and the man to milk, get firewood and make himself useful. It was a strange thing, but we seldom got a couple who were both good, At the time I speak of, we had a couple, the woman was very good, but the man was impudent and lazy, and the boss disliked him very much.

        One day I took a pair of boots out to the kitchen and told the man to clean them. He refused to do so, saying he was not there to clean boots and was very impudent. I did not say much to him as his wife was present, but I waited till I saw him go out to the dairy which was about 20 yards away. I followed him in and asked him what he meant by refusing to clean my boots. He told me something rude and impudent, so I boxed his ears. Come outside he said and I'll show you. At this moment, the boss came down and was rubbing his hands and calling out "give it to him my boy, give it to him." I had just finished him off, with a broken nose and two bloody eyes, and knocked him down to the ground, when his wife came running to his aid from the kitchen with a broom stick waving in our direction, whence Mr. Brown and I fled. Needless to say, the couple gave us notice at once.

        On another occasion, a blackfellow whom he had in our employ bolted just after he had been given a nice suit of clothes, consisting of a good shirt and a pair of moleskin trousers. The boss said "you go after him my boy, and give him a good hiding and bring back the clothes".

        So off I went to a neighbouring station, where a friend of mine, Jack Dee by name, was in charge. He told me that Paddy the nigger was in a camp  across the creek, so after tea, Jack and I went over. Jack had a new pair of spurs on which tripped him up as they had very long reeks, so he took them off and carried them in his hand. He also had a small pistol carrying a bullet in it about the size of a pea. We found Paddy sitting by the fire quite naked. I said: "where are those clothes?'. He pointed to the ground where he had been sitting.

        I then proceeded to give him a hiding, as I thought, but there was no-one there to referee, so Paddy closed with me, and, being much stronger, threw me on the ground and proceeded to choke me, when Jack came behind and jammed both spurs into Paddy' naked ribs. Paddy must have wondered what had bitten him for he jumped up and ran for his life, and a shot from Jack's pistol no doubt gave him a bigger fright. My throat was sore for days, but I took the clothes back to Mr. Brown who was very pleased and asked me if I had given Paddy a good hiding. I said that I had tried to.

        I recall an incident which happened while on my way up to purchase cattle for your grandfather - the aboriginals in those days were very troublesome, murdering people and spearing cattle. I had a man with me and we were camped by the fire, when about 10 o'clock at night we were awakened by terrible shrieks nearby. I immediately jumped up, fired a shot with my revolver and we took our blankets back into the darkness, thinking that the blacks were upon us. We took turns to watch for the remainder of the night, but nothing further happened. I learned afterwards that some men were camped some distance away and they had a Kanaka with them. The Kanaka wandered away in the night and came running back to their camp saying he had been attacked by blacks. I think that when he saw our fire, he thought we were blacks, and the rest was pure imagination on the part of the Kanaka. The shot from the revolver may have frightened him also.

        At Eolonga, the native dogs (dingo), were very numerous. One night I went up to the yard where we had killed a bullock for beef to see if I could shoot a dingo with a little pistol I had - about six inches long and carried a bullet about the size of a pill. I was lying down against the fence peeping over the bottom rail, when an old dingo walked past on the other side of the fence, but within a yard or two of me. I shut my eyes, and fired, and the dingo snapped, and snapped, I thought, at me, and I jumped to the top of the fence very quickly. I thought afterwards that he was snapping at his wound, for I had hit him in a vital place and found him dead next day. Mr. Holt was a very kind man, and took a great liking to me, and I used to play some harmless little tricks. Once riding alone with him on the road to the station, he was riding a horse with a very short tail, and I got a stick of grass-tree and put it under his horse's tail. The horse started bucking furiously but Mr. Holt was a splendid horseman  and was not thrown. He only laughed at the joke when I told him.

        There was a great friend of Mr. Holts living on the station, a Doctor Sewell, a very gentlemanly man and a clever doctor,; he used to visit all the neighbouring stations when required, but his great failing was drink. I was sent to a neighbouring station to bring the Doctor to attend a sick man. When I got there, I found the Doctor very drunk, as the manager had just brought out a jar of spirits. However, I got the horses up and saddled them, and got the doctor on to his horse, which started bucking, throwing the old doctor, and breaking his arm near the elbow, His arm remained stiff ever afterwards.

        On another occasion I was sent for him again and found him in the same state again, but I got him safely away. When we got about 4 miles on the road, he stuck his spurs into the horse, which threw him, and he lay insensible upon the ground.

        I dragged him to the shade of a tree, and saw that his arm was broken again, with a compound fracture, the bone sticking out through the skin. I galloped back to the station and they sent a buggy out and took him in. He always had a stiff arm to the day of his death, He died many years later at Dunwich, a home for indigent old men on an island in Moreton Bay near Brisbane.

                                                 CHAPTER 8

MARY ELEANOR GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The first child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson.

        Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was born in 1878.

        In 1897, Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson married her cousin Ralph Godschall Johnson at Stoneleigh Station.

        They had a large family of ten children

        Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was to die on 12 May 1921, at Mackay in North Queensland.

                                                 CHAPTER 9

JESSIE GLENNIE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        The second child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Jessie Glennie Godschall Johnson.

        Jessie Glennie Godschall Johnson was born in 1879.

        In 1904 she married at Stoneleigh Station, Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson.

        Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson was the son of James Atkinson and Catherine Good.

        James Atkinson was born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1824, but was of Scottish descent. Two brothers, John and William Atkinson, who had married two Scottish sisters, emigrated from Scotland to Ireland about 1660 at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy. They received land grants in what was known as the Plantation of Ulster, and started the Irish linen industry, leaving a long line of descendants.

        James Atkinson was the youngest of eleven Irish born children, to Henry Atkinson and Jane Glendenning, and in his twenties, was an officer in the British army, stationed at Farnham, south of London. After his father's death, an allowance he had been receiving ceased. He felt that he did not have sufficient means to keep up his Army life, and hearing of bright prospects in Australia, arrived in Victoria in the early 1850's. He made sufficient money at the Victorian goldfields to invest in a small property near Port Fairy, Victoria, where his cousin, another James Atkinson had received a grant of 5000 acres at five shillings an acre, consisting of the whole of Port Fairy, which he named Belfast. This was in 1839, when Victoria was still part of New South Wales.

        His cousin James Atkinson, was a much older man, and lived at Marion, Parramatta, outside Sydney. He effectively was an absentee landlord in respect of his Port Fairy holdings.

        James Atkinson had ten brothers and sisters. Five emigrated to Victoria. One brother, Robert Atkinson, had three properties near Port Fairy. His home was called Moynalla. He died unmarried, and left his properties to the three sons of James Atkinson (Henry, Robert and Tom, (being the Thomas we are concerned with here)).

        James Atkinson married Catherine Good in Victoria in 1860.

        Catherine, or Kate, Good, had arrived in Victoria from Ireland to housekeep for a bachelor brother, John Good, who, in the 1850's, had established a shorthorn stud called Jnjemira, a part of which is still owned by descendants.  

        They had their first child, Elizabeth Catherine Atkinson, at Tower Hill, Port Fairy, in 1861.

        In 1864, James and Kate Atkinson, with three year old daughter, Elizabeth, made the long overland trek by bullock drays to Bowen in North Queensland.

        Their next child, a boy, Henry John Atkinson, was born at Firth's Lagoon, on the Burdekin River on 12 July 1864.

        In partnership with a hardy pioneer Ezra Firth, James took up Mount Surprise, the most northerly run at the time.

        There, James and Kate had further children, Robert James Atkinson, on 16 December 1866, and Joseph Thomas Good Atkinson (whose preferred to be known as Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson), on 19 September 1869, both born on Mt. Surprise Station.

        Said Glenville Pike in Pioneers' Country:

        The Firth and Atkinson families were in the forefront of the migration of the pioneers northward. James Atkinson joined Ezra Firth and his family on the northward trail and he and Firth were partners on Mt. Surprise Station in early times. James Atkinson established Farnham near Ingham in 1871 and bought Wairuna about ten years later. He founded a dynasty of pastoralists.

        James Atkinsons' partner on Mt. Surprise Station was Ezra Firth. Ezra Firth was a former stonemason from Yorkshire, embued with a spirit of adventure, headed for the northernmost frontier of the infant Colony as fast as his sheep could walk and his bullocks could pull his dray. The Moreton Bay District became the colony of Queensland, and the northernmost outpost of Bowen was established in 1861, and so, on moved Ezra Firth to the limits. For two years the Firths lived by a lonely lagoon on the headwaters of the Burdekin River (later known as Firth's Lagoon), then moved on over the Divide on to Gulf waters and took up Mt. Surprise - so called because of the sound of the drays bumping over the basalt boulders startled a tribe of Aborigines who fled into the scrub on the mountain. It was then 1864.

        It was from Fossilbrook, an outstation on Mt. Surprise, that in June 1872, an exploring party led by William Hann (pioneer of Maryvale and Bluff Downs), set out with a party of five men, including surveyor Frederick Warner, a team of packhorses, and five months supplies, furnished by the government of the day, to explore this remote region. Hann crossed and named the Walsh, Tate, Palmer, Normanby, Kennedy, Stewart, Hearn (Laura), Bloomfield, and other rivers. Hann reported excellent grazing country on the Lower Walsh River and Elizabeth Creek, which led to the arrival of a hardy Scot who had been a former commanding Officer in the Queensland Rifles, named A. C. Grant, in 1874, the first pioneer thereon, who selected the country for Henderson and Skene of Havilah Station, inland from Bowen, and entering into partnership with them, returned late the same year with 700 head of cattle and occupied the run to become known as Wrotham Park.

        It also should be mentioned that Mt. Surprise figured in the fifth expedition of James Venture Mulligan in April 1875, which was financed by the Government. They had set out from Cooktown, crossed the McLeod River, a headwater of the Mitchell, discovered the Barron River, passed the future site of Mareeba, crossed the wild River, rode over the future site of Herberton, noted the tin deposits in the Wild, and followed the Wild down to the Herbert River, and finished up at Mt. Surprise before heading back to Cooktown.

        Ezra Firth, by the way, is later noted, during the pastoral reverses of the 1870's, for accompanying the bullock-dray taking his wool-clip to Townsville, walking 200 miles barefoot, because, with wool prices then at 6d a pound, there had been no money to spare from the previous clip to stock up on boots.

        But going back to the start of the pastoral rush in 1861, most of the good grazing country in the newly opened Burdekin district was taken up during the first year, 1861, the land was thrown open.

        That is why Ezra Firth had to cool his heels for a while on third-rate land near the top of the Burdekin.

        The fertile Valley of the Lagoons had been secured early by the explorer who had opened up the Burdekin, George Elphinstone Dalrymple. Lacking capital for its development he entered into partnership with the Premier of Queensland, Robert Herbert, in this holding, on the understanding that when the Premier visited England in 1862, he would endeavour to attract capital investment in the property. This he did. and formed a syndicate, which consisted of Dalrymple, Arthur Scott, who was 29 years of age, and eldest son of a rich English squire from Hampshire; his brother Walter Scott, who borrowed five thousand pounds to put into the venture, and the Queensland Premier, who was a sleeping partner.

        It was said that the Scott brothers sailed back to Queensland with Herbert in 1862.

         The Valley of the Lagoons was situate west of where Ingham was later to be situate, inland, and at the headwaters of the Burdekin. The race for title to some of the new pastoral runs which opened up with the declaration of the Kennedy District, had been fast and furious initially, but slowed down when reality (the unsuitability of sheep, the distance to markets, aboriginal attacks etc) set in, and from 1866, expansion ceased completely in the Kennedy district, no new pastoral lease being taken up for 6 years from 1866.

        After 1863, with the Burdekin watershed almost all taken up, the Government declared new pastoral districts of Burke and Cook open on 1 January 1864. This led to runs being taken up on the Etheridge and the Einasleigh, and, with J. G. Macdonald leading a foray to the Plains of Promise in October 1864, this touched off a rush to the Gulf country. Most of these runs were taken up by squatters already operating in the Kennedy district and were partly stocked from there.

        All roads led to Bowen. Roads led south to Rockhampton, southwest to Bowen Downs and the Barcoo, and northwest as far as the new runs on the Etheridge. Bowen itself grew into a town of some substance with its own jetty, municipal council, and newspaper, the Port Denison Times.

        Dalrymple dropped out of his interest in the Valley of the Lagoons, around 1864, to become first member of Parliament for the Kennedy District in 1865. 

        It was said that James Atkinson attempted to occupy the run on its being vacated by Dalrymple in 1865, but that he was been beaten to it by two days by the Scotts. That appears a family legend which appears unsupported by facts.

        The Scotts were in North Queensland by 1863 and definitely by January 1864, for in that month, George Dalrymple and Arthur Scott took charge of an official expedition by sea to Rockingham Bay, later named Cardwell, and was successful in blazing a trail up the Seaview Range to the Valley of the Lagoons, thus giving their Station a shorter and more convenient outlet. They were granted by the Government over 2000 pounds in expenses in opening Cardwell as a port, which is only natural seeing the Premier had an interest in the run. Robert Towns was endeavouring to open Townsville as a port about the same time.

        After the successful blazing of a track to the Valley of the Lagoons they returned to Cardwell with a small mob of cattle. On the way they had seen some very good country at the foot of the Seaview Range which they named "Herbert Vale". Herbert Vale was taken up by them and Henry Stone appointed as manager there. Henry Stone was to return to manage the Valley of the Lagoons in 1870. In 1873 the Palmer Valley gold rush enabled the Valley of the Lagoons to get rid of the last of their sheep for good profits to ravenous gold seekers.

        Walter Scott died in 1890, aged 55. He had been managing partner of the firm of Scott brothers. Incidentally, before he came to Australia in 1862, he had undertaken a term as secretary to the Governor of Mauritius.

        Arthur Scott died in England in 1895. He was survived by his wife Mary, sister to the 3rd Duke of Wellington, and had been county alderman and deputy lieutenant of the County of Hants.

        Younger brother Charles inherited his estate.

        Charles intended selling the Valley as soon as possible, and sold to Fenwick and Ramsden who owned the neighbouring Kangaroo Hills (later to be managed by Tom Atkinson before he bought Gunnawarra). Fenwick and Ramsden exchanged Kangaroo Hills for Lake Lucy, then owned by McDowall, which, with the Valley of the Lagoons, became one station. Fenwick later bought out his partner, then in 1906 sold the Valley to Owen Micklem. It was later sold to the Love Estate, eventually falling to the Atkinsons.

 But concentrating on Gunnawarra for the moment, it was in the year 1865, that the Scott brothers, Arthur Jervoise Scott, Walter Jervoise Scott, and Charles James Scott, together with the Premier Robert Herbert, applied for a lease on Gunnawarra Station to the north of the Valley of the Lagoons. The term of the lease on Gunnawarra ran from 1 January 1866. Rent was payable on an area of 50 square miles, but, upon a proper later survey, this was shown to be 80 square miles.

        The lease to Gunnawarra was forfeited in 1869, and between 1873 and 1877 it was twice sold at auction and forfeited, until March 1877, when it was purchased by William Baker. He in turn transferred it to W. E. Ewan in 1878. In 1879, the lease was held in partnership of Dangar, Bell, Bell and Ewan, and in 1888, it was transferred to James Ewan.

        In March 1887, Ewan applied to consolidate the other nine leases he already held with Gunnawarra into one holding to be known as Gunnawarra. Under the provisions of the Crown Lands Act of 1884, this holding was then divided into two sections, James Ewan was granted a lease commencing 1 July 1888 on an area of 391 square miles, and the remainder of the holding, comprising 164 square miles, was resumed by the Crown.

        James Ewan retained the lease of Gunnawarra until his death, and Atkinson interests took it over.

        Meanwhile, returning to the James Atkinson, in 1870, James Atkinson left Mount Surprise, and his share of the sheep to Ezra Firth. The Aborigines were savage and warlike. The Firth's homestead was attacked and burnt. By 1870, he had decided that sheep breeding in the North was a failure - grass seeds, dingoes, and wild blacks, made inroads into the sheep and as there were no fences, the sheep had to be shepherded during the day and yarded at night. Bowen had been for a long time the nearest port for Mount Surprise, until Townsville had developed, and it had taken three months to take the wool clip down and another three months by bullock dray with the yearly rations, and wool was only bringing 5d per pound.

        In 1870, James Atkinson moved to Ingham. He took his wagon, all his horses and cattle and family and came down the Seaview range, following a track that had been marked by blazes on trees about six years before.

        There he took up 1000 acres of land, and freeholded it for 2/6d an acre. He decided to build his house on this Herbert River land, and called it Farnham.

        There were only two other white women in Ingham at the time, besides Kate Atkinson: a Miss McKenzie, and a Mrs. Smith. Miss McKenzie married a Mr. Stewart who ran the mail by boat from Cardwell to Dungeness.

        Ingham derived its name from William Bairstow Ingham, who had arrived in Australia with sixty thousand pounds to invest, and bought land from Gardiner, and the town of Ingham was named after him. But he later sold his Ingham lands and bought a paddle steamer to trade in the Islands and enlist Kanakas for the canefields.

        Ingham started to grow after the gold boom of the late 1870's, and land suitable for sugar production started to be taken up. Other settlers followed fast after the Atkinsons arrived, such as the Allinghams and Cassidys. Neame Bros and Hawkins had been there prior to James Atkinson’s arrival. A Hawkins pioneer grave lies in an isolated cemetery close to a sugar cane farm that figures elsewhere in this Chronicle, owned in later years by Godschall Johnsons. The Neames were neighbours.

        James Atkinson also took up Wairuna Station about 1880, and this was later worked by Henry Atkinson, who also worked Greenvale station. About the same time he also purchased Abergowrie on the Herbert River below the Seaview range, from the Valley of the Lagoons.

        Wairuna Station was a pastoral lease of about 600 square miles, on the head of the Burdekin River, which was first taken up by a partner of Henry Stone in the late 1870's.  Henry Stone figured earlier in Dalrymple's expedition, and at the time that the Wairuma lease was taken up, was manager of Valley of the Lagoons under Walter Scott. It was not stocked at first and was later sold unstocked to James Atkinson.

        James Atkinson died in 1899, but his sons continued the pastoral tradition.

        Bob Atkinson married in 1894 and managed Abergowrie at first. They had a record flood in the Herbert River in 1894, and cattle were washed out to sea. Then in 1896 came the tick plague.

        In 1904, Bob Atkinson took over Cashmere.  

        Also in 1904 the lease to Gunnawarra was transferred by the executors of the late James Ewan to the Atkinson brothers, sons of James Atkinson, namely Henry, Robert, and Tom. It remained in the partnership until 1922 when the lease was transferred to Thomas Atkinson solely. By the, the two older brothers, Henry and Robert were living at Greenvale and Cashmere. Tom lived at Gunnawarra, although prior to acquiring Gunnawarra, he managed Kangaroo Hills station from about 1896 for the then owners Ramsden and Fenwick.

        It was to Gunnawarra that he brought his new bride Glen Godschall Johnson, in 1904.

        They were to have seven children: Nell Atkinson, Bill Atkinson, Jessie Atkinson, Nancy Atkinson, Bruce Atkinson, Geoffrey Atkinson, and Vernon Atkinson.

        Tom Atkinson died in 1930 and his widow ran Gunnawarra till her death.

        Jessie Glennie Atkinson, nee` Godschall Johnson, was to die in March 1955, at Gunnawarra.

        The property was then run by Geoff Atkinson, who wrote the following treatise in 1978 upon the Centenary of Gunnawarra:

        The story of Gunnawarra station goes back to the early days of the Valley of the Lagoons. This, although initially taken up by Carwithen and Hodgson in 1861, appears to have been consolidated into one area with several other leases by 1864 when it was owned by the three Scott brothers (Arthur Jervoise Scott, Walter Jervoise Scott, and Charles James Scott), Robert G. W. Herbert and George Elphinstone Dalrymple.

        In 1865, the Scott Brothers and Herbert applied for a lease on Gunnawarra to the north. The term of the lease commenced on 1 January 1866. Although rent was paid on an area estimated as 50 square miles, a later survey of the run showed it to be 80 square miles.

        The lease was forfeited in 1869, and between 1873 and 1877, it was twice sold at auction and forfeited, until March 1877, when it was purchased by William Baker.

        He in turn transferred it to W. E. Ewan in 1878.

        Dangar, Bell, Bell, and Ewan acquired the lease in 1879, and in 1888, it was transferred to James Ewan.

        In March 1887, Ewan applied to consolidate the other nine leases he already held with Gunnawarra, into one holding to be known as Gunnawarra.

        Under the provisions of the Crown Lands Act of 1884, this holding was then divided into two sections.

        James Ewan was granted a lease commencing 1 July 1888 on an area of 391 square miles, and the remainder of the holding, comprising 164 square miles, was resumed by the Crown.

        This division was gazetted after approval by the Land Board in 1890.

        In 1904, the lease was transferred by the executors of the late James Ewan to the Atkinson brothers.

        It remained in their partnership until 1922, when the lease was transferred to Thomas Atkinson.

        The three Atkinson brothers were the sons of James Atkinson, who had come from near Warrnambool, in Victoria, in 1860, and taken up Mt. Surprise Station in partnership with Ezra Firth.

        He returned to take up the Valley of the Lagoons, a few years later to find that the Scott brothers had done this two days previously.

        The two older brothers, Henry and Robert, lived at Greenvale and Cashmere. It was the youngest brother, Tom, who came to live at Gunnawarra.

        Although sometime before 1877, the first slab buildings were erected there, which included the saddle shed and adjoining quarters, later storage sheds, and probably part of the horse yards, it was not until Ewan came in 1878 that the homestead was commenced.

        Ewan employed an Englishman by the name of Jack Broad to do the building, who, in later years, also built Kirrima homestead on the Range.

        Although Ewan was over six foot tall himself, the verandas on both buildings were rather low; however, it is possible that the combination of the uprights sinking and the later inclusion of timber floors produced this situation.

        The builder Jack Broad, and his partner, Williams, later bought Euramoon on the Herbert River, and he lived there until his death at the end of the 1920's.

        The homestead was constructed from cypress pine, cut locally, for the uprights and rafters, with the slabs and shingles being made from stringey bark. This was brought in by dray from an area 20 miles distant, now called Splitters Swamp, where they found the timber split easily.

        The walls were adzed by hand and a solid construction built which has not deteriorated over the years. The floor was dirt, of crushed ant-bed, which when watered and rolled, would have given a hard surface. In later years, hessian would have been hung to line the walls, which whitewashed regularly, kept the rooms cool and clean looking.

        Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson had owned Kangaroo Hills Station near Ingham in partnership with Lionel O. Micklem.

        When Lionel O. Micklem enlisted for the Boer war, they decided to sell out, and Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson bought Gunnawarra.

        However, although he purchased it in 1901, it was 1904 before he brought his wife Glen, nee` Godschall Johnson, and daughter Nell, to live there, travelling on horse-back with the 18 month old child up in front of her mother. When they arrived, they moved into the slab building sheltering under two pepper trees, with a cumquat tree flowing around the corner, and a gay red hibiscus on the lawn in front of them. The two latter still flourish today, but the peppers were replaced by mango trees during the First War.

        Glen Atkinson recalled the early years at Gunnawarra as being difficult ones as the country was still suffering the effects of the 1902 drought.

        However, in 1908, they were able to build an addition to the homestead, a bedroom wing in tongue and groove cedar. By this time, brothers, Bill and Bruce, had joined Nell and the family were often accommodating visitors, many of whom were travelling through to Herberton or the coast.

        The journey in those days took two days to Herberton with an overnight stop at Innot Hot Springs. They would change horses between Gunnawarra and the Springs, and then again between the Springs and Herberton. Cobb & Co. had a mail change at what is now called Russian Gully outside Mt. Garnet, which was then known as Mail Change Creek; it is possible that other travellers changed horses there too.

        In those days there was a doctor in Mt. Garnet, and when, in 1911, during his father's absence in the mustering camp, little Bruce contracted what was thought to be diphtheria, his mother dispatched a man on horseback to procure medical aid. When the doctor came he injected the child with anti-toxin, which he knew, was old, but there was no time to procure more. Soon afterwards, the boy very suddenly died, and the burial had to be arranged. The doctor refused to take the service, claiming that he "was not a believer", so the sad task was left to Glen to perform.

        Like other members in the bush, Glen had to meet and deal with many sicknesses, accidents and other crises, without recourse to outside assistance. However, the advent of the telephone in 1914 made such assistance seem less remote. It also provided another kind of link with the outside world, for during the war years they received daily reports over the phone of the news from France.

        The Atkinson children, of whom there were seven, were mostly born in hospital, even in those early days, and this reflects a pattern not evident in many European countries until at least thirty years later.

        The family would go and stay in Herberton or Port Douglas or wherever it might be, until the baby was old enough to travel home.

        There was no regular water supply to the homestead in those days, and when the well went dry, which was an annual occurrence, water would have to be carted by dray from the "Big Lagoon" two miles away, having been loaded into tanks with a bucket brigade of helpers.

        The washing was also brought down to the edge of the lagoon; however, this had its compensations, as the water was very clear and soft, unlike the well water at the house.

        It would be 1928 before a mechanical pump was mounted on the well to give an improved supply of water, which, in turn, has been replaced by a reticulated supply from a dam behind the house.

        During the 1914-1918 War, the Atkinsons bought their first motorcar, an American Chandler, whilst holidaying in the south. They hired a man to give them lessons, and spent a month practising around Stanthorpe and Toowoomba before returning north. The car was sent by sea to Cairns and thence by rail to Mt. Garnet. Tom Atkinson met it there and proceeded to drive home. Unfortunately, the centre stub between the gates, which then crossed the road seven miles from town, tore the sump cap off. Tom Atkinson, not knowing what the trouble was, continued driving until the car eventually stopped a couple of miles from the homestead. It was then put away for six months before a Mr. Hayden came, who recognised the problem and repaired the damage.

        Tom Atkinson, well known as a first class horseman, both in the show-ring and the mustering camp, was not interested in driving, so Glen became the chauffeur. This meant that she had to become a mechanic too, as there was no local garages in those days. She became an expert at all repairs, and maintenance, and undertook many hazardous trips, including one overland to Stanthorpe. This was a demanding feat as roads were non-existent and they had their share of breakdowns on the way.

        This mechanical aptitude stood her in good stead in later years when they mounted pumps on various bores to replace hand-hauling of water for stock in hot, still conditions. She supervised the installation and maintenance of these, and, when Tom Atkinson died in 1930 as a result of an accident in the stockyard, she was able to carry on, conversant with the jobs to be attended to.

        In 1912, the Gunnawarra Races were started, the Club being registered as the Gunnawarra Picnic Hack Race Club. A course was cleared on the banks of the Herbert River, which formed the eastern boundary of the property, and country people from as far a field as Mt. Surprise to Ingham would ride over and set up camp for a week of festivities.

        Jack & Newell's Store from Mt. Garnet and the local bank would set themselves up under bough shelters, and do a brisk trade with all their customers. A cement slab was laid for a dance floor, but, ultimately, in 1928, a large room was added to the homestead 4 miles away, and the dances took place up there. The Cook family from Mt. Garnet looked after the catering on the course, and were kept bust throughout the proceedings. These races were continued with enthusiasm until 1937 when regretfully they were terminated and the Mt. Garnet Race Club took over the local meeting.

        Even in the Atkinson's early days at Gunnawarra their supplies came from Jack & Newell's Store in Mt. Garnet, which had developed around the copper enterprises at the turn of the century. The supplies would be bought out on a wagon twice a year, and there are numerous tales of perilous trips over flooded creeks. Tom Atkinson, who was a strong swimmer, could swim across the swirling waters of Rudd Creek, with a bag of flour on his head, whilst other goods would be floated across in rafts constructed out of upturned packsaddles and sheets of canvas.

        The mail came out once a week on pack horses; the run, which went through to the Valley of the Lagoons, and returned via Meadowbank, and St. Ronan's (both then part of Gunnawarra), took a week to complete. The mailman, Tom Smith, had a day's rest at the end of the trip and then set out once again. In 1925 he acquired a truck and used this in good weather, but had to resort to packhorses again when the wet season made roads impassable.

        James Cook, who took over the mail-run from him in 1933, drove a truck from then on, and he never missed a single mail-day in 33 years. His round, which took him 2 days, went as far as Wairuna and then back through Meadowbank.

        In the early years of Gunnawarra, the Scott partnership ran sheep there; but finally, the terrain and the native spear grass convinced them that this country would be more suitable to cattle. Certainly since Ewan's time in 1889, good class cattle were bred here. For many years, the herd was a Shorthorn/Devon cross, and Gunnawarra in the first thirty years of this century was noted for its good herd. In 1938 the smaller type Shorthorns were introduced for the overseas markets, and this eventually spoilt the herd to an extent.

        After severe losses amounting to half the herd during the series of droughts during the 1940's, it was finally decided after Glen Atkinson's death in 1955 to introduce Brahmin blood, which has proved to be ideal for the climate and conditions generally. Other breeds have also been experimented with, but until the return of stable markets these trials have been suspended.

        When Glen Atkinson died, the family remaining on the property decided to divide it. The third son, Geoffrey, retained the homestead block. Jess, married to A.C. Hassall, remained on Meadowbank, which they had managed since their marriage; whilst the youngest son, Vernon, took a section south of the property which he named Minnammoolka. It included a large swamp abounding with wildlife which was declared a sanctuary and fauna reserve.

        It is recognised today what a contribution the local aboriginals made to the development of the area. Many will be remembered down the years for their faithful service, and a memorial tablet was erected at Glen Atkinson's request after her death, to three who died in the 1918-19 influenza epidemic. This tablet is located in the family graveyard.

        Up until about 1926, the local tribes would come into the station regularly and hold corroborees there, but later, as they were collected up and shipped to Palm Island and other settlements, this of course ceased.

        The name Gunnawarra is of course aboriginal in origin, and means "little home", "gunya - home, warra - little or small". In the early days before white settlers, this area was one of their regular tribal camping grounds.

        The homestead today covers 100 squares, the present owner, Geoff Atkinson, having replaced the cedar bedroom wing built by his father, with a modern structure after the old wing was badly damaged in the 1956 cyclone. Also part of the old fernery was filled in to provide a modern kitchen and living area. In 1973 it was one of the first buildings in North Queensland to be classified by the National Trust; as such it remains the focal point for a way of life which droughts, floods and market recessions will never later, and which this and future generations will struggle to preserve

        Other Atkinson relations can be mentioned.

        James Atkinson, the pioneering pastoralist who had come up from Victoria in 1861, had a nephew John Fraser, who came north in 1874 to seek pastoral land. Equipped by his Uncle James, John and a companion Arthur Temple Clark set off from Farnham on the Lower Herbert (James Atkinson's station), for the North. They avoided the jungle on the western edge of the Atherton Tableland and followed down Granite Creek to the Barron. They could have been 12 months ahead of Mulligan and his abovementioned expedition, but Mulligan's journey was official and John's was not. On the headwaters of the Mitchell, John decided to take up several hundred square miles of country. It was well grassed and watered. He called it Mitchellvale. In late 1875, he returned with 400 head of Lower Burdekin cattle to stock it.

        In the 1890's, Mitchellvale was divided to form part of Brooklyn, Font Hill and Southedge. The Mary River, where the Maryfarms tobacco community was later established, was named by John after his sister Mary Fraser, who had married William Baker, who for a short time in 1877-78 held the lease to Gunnawarra, and who was to become the mother of Harry & Eric Baker. Harry Baker resided for most of his life in their historic old homestead near Mt. Molloy (now demolished); Eric died in Mareeba in 1979 aged 91. Eric was born at Font Hill in 1888 and had spent his life amongst cattle and horses, on stations and long droving trips.

        The Kokokulunggur tribesmen speared John Fraser's cattle and horses, but he tried to treat them with sympathy. He also befriended a white man who was an outcast for a time.

        This was the mysterious Christie Palmerston.

        John was in his mustering camp one day when a bearded fierce-eyed man in red shirt, moleskin trousers, and worn top boots, suddenly appeared out of the scrub. He carried a Snider rifle, a Colt revolver, and a Bowie knife. He said that he was Christie Palmerston, was wanted on the Palmer for the murder of a chinaman of which he was innocent, and vowed he would never be taken alive. He told John he had found a route over the mountains to Island Point (Port Douglas), and that his mate was now at Thornborough to claim the reward that was offered for finding such a track.

        Years late, John wrote: "He eventually got a reward and a pardon but he still remained in the bush. He was a brave man and would face anything".  Today, Christie Palmerston, the son of Madame Caradini, a famed opera singer of the times, (although even another account says that Christofero Palmerston Carandini was the Australian born son of an exiled, for political reasons, Italian Count and his English wife), is an almost legendary figure, but all accounts agree on his superb bushmanship in the dense rain forests of the country behind Cairns. Palmerston's friends on the Hodgkinson were evidently working on his behalf, for on 11 June 1877, an official report on the new route was issued, giving Christie Palmerston full credit for the discovery. In fact on 16 June 1877, outside the Royal Hotel in Thornborough, a meeting of miners and citizens accepted a motion by Mr. Byers, after whom Byerstown was named, that a subscription be taken up to reward Christie Palmerston, and the good citizens contributed over 200 pounds to him in gratitude.

        A road was pushed through, by axemen, on Christie Palmerston's route to Port Douglas, and this was mainly used by heavy bullock and horse teams. It was opened in Sept 1877 and the first dray to ascend the range was Mackie's six-horse team loaded with stores for John Fraser's Mitchellvale Station.

        To show just how legends about people develop, one need only read the version of Christie Palmerston written by Hector Holthouse in River of Gold:

        It was during this period (1874+) on the Palmer that the man who was to become the scourge of the Chinese came into his own.

        Christie Palmerston was one of the most remarkable men the north ever knew. To the diggers he became a friend in need, to the Chinese a death-dealing terror, and to the cannibal blacks a legendary figure who moved among them unmolested. He had shot blacks down in defence of white diggers, but on the other hand he had doctored and saved the lives of many who had been wounded by the bullets of the diggers' Sniders, and once he had stayed with a myall tribe for weeks to look after a sick child. He had an uncanny knack of handling the wild blacks. At a time when white and Chinese diggers alike were being killed and eaten by them, he was always able to make friends among any tribe he chose and recruit young bucks who would follow him anywhere. For years he roamed the unexplored ranges with a private army of myalls, picking up gold wherever he could find it, defying the law whenever it suited him. But for the Chinese he had a fanatical        hatred. He raided them ruthlessly, robbed them of their gold and stores, killed them by the dozen, and, it was alleged, bartered those he took prisoner with the cannibal blacks knowing they would be used for food.

        The first thing that is definitely known of Palmerston is that he turned up in Rockhampton in 1870, a young man of about 20, with plenty of money which he set out to spend in one of the wildest sprees the town had ever known. Slightly built, black haired, wiry and quick as a tiger cat, he had a partly withered left arm that he would never talk about. One day in a pub brawl, he nearly killed a man. Before the police could catch up with him he disappeared.

        He arrived on the Palmer early in the rush (1873), bearded, and unkempt as a blackfellow, with a carbine slung over his shoulder, a Colt revolver on his hips, and a small army of half-wild myalls at his back. No one ever saw him digging for gold, but he always seemed to have a good supply of it. Old diggers muttered darkly that it came from miners who had been murdered by the blacks. In Cooktown's gambling dens he was nearly always lucky, and in the dance halls women flocked about him.

        In the rugged country between Cooktown and the goldfields, Palmerston seemed to know his way about as well as the blacks themselves, and, with the help of his black bodyguard, he developed the uncanny knack of knowing everything that was going on in it. Several times, myalls, massing along the track to ambush diggers, found themselves mown down by a fusillade from the Sniders of Palmerston's men. Even the police admitted that Palmerston was worth a whole regiment of troopers for the work he did in controlling the blacks.

        But this only made his attacks on the Chinese the more embarrassing to them. Little though many of the police liked it, part of their duty was to protect the Chinese. In the early days of the rush, Palmerston had organised his myalls into gangs to carry rations up from the coast. When coolies began to compete, he retaliated by raiding their pack trains with his blacks, stealing their stores to sell to the diggers himself, and, according to some of the Chinese storekeepers at any rate, paying his cannibal recruits by letting them have the Chinese prisoners as food. The blacks by then were doing so much raiding on their own account that no one could tell whether Palmerston had any part in it or not. Most of the white diggers could not have cared less anyway.

        They told the story of a white woman about to give birth to a baby, let alone in an isolated shack while her husband went for help. A rising river delayed him, and when he got back with the doctor, expecting the worst, he found Palmerston's blacks camped in the bush nearby and his wife and her baby safe and well. Palmerston had arrived at the shack in time to act as midwife and had looked after the woman and her child until she recovered her strength. When she tried to thank him, he just stood up and, without saying a word, walked into the bush and disappeared. His blacks had remained to keep her supplied with everything she needed. When the husband went out to look for them, they had also vanished.

        There were also stories of lost diggers, almost dead from starvation, being tracked down by Palmerston and brought back to camp. There were others he had found helpless from fever in tents and nursed back to health. With stories like this going around, it was hardly likely that the diggers would help hunt him down for the robbery of a few Chinese.

        There was nothing Palmerston seemed to enjoy better than finding a big gang of Chinese scouring the gravel in some isolated gully. With his myall mob at his heels, he would charge down on them, firing wildly, screeching the same hideous cockatoo battle cry as the blacks themselves, and, as often as not, scarcely distinguishable from them. The Chinese would scatter in panic, and while his followers pursued them, Palmerston would methodically go through their chamois leather bags for gold.

        Once the Chinese set a trap for Palmerston that nearly ended his career. They knew that he was in the district, and when in due course he and his screeching band came charging down on them, they dropped their tools with more than usual haste and fled. Palmerston picked up a promising looking bag, judged the weight of it in his hand, and unfastened the string around the top. He was about to insert his hand when the head of a death adder shot out, missing him by inches.

        Christie Palmerston never compromised in his hatred of the Chinese. His depradations never slackened. Influential Chinese of Cooktown and the goldfields never ceased to lay complaints about him, and the police were regularly out looking for him-ostensibly- for one outrage or another committed against Chinamen. Warrants for his arrest were issued regularly, but there is no record of any of them ever having been executed. There was always some grateful digger to tip Palmerston off, or to put the police on a false scent to enable Palmerston to escape. Once a digger who was sheltering him kept a pursuing police constable in conversation while Palmerston sneaked out the back door, round to where the constable's horse was tethered, and rode away on it.

        Every so often, no matter whether the police were looking for him or not. Palmerston would come into Cooktown for a spree. Always inclined to the dramatic, he generally rode in dressed in an old cabbage-tree hat, goggles, and shabby overcoat which the romantically inclined claimed still bore the label of one of London's Bond Street tailors. The disguise deceived no one, but the police were never known to interfere while Christie was being welcomed and feted in every bar in town.

        The gay ladies of Charlotte Street found Palmerston irresistible. It was said in those days that it cost a good-sized nugget and a fight to have Palmer Kate for the night- but she was Christie's for the asking. As a gambler, his luck was equally good. Losers claimed he cheated, but none dare challenge him to his face, or follow him into the bush where he camped at night, surrounded by his black bodyguard.

        The fact that he would disappear into the mountains for months at a time, and that he always seemed to have gold, led to a rumour that he and his blacks were working a secret claim. A party of disgruntled prospectors decided to track him back to it and, the first time his back was turned, jump it. Day after day, at a safe distance, they followed Palmerston and his blacks up through rugged mountain country and deep gorges. They pushed through vermin infested jungle, wallowed through swamps, and were nearly driven mad by leeches and mosquitoes. Food ran short, and they went on half rations. The only thing that kept them going was the sight of Palmerston's tracks in front of them. But every day the going got worse, and every way they looked there were more mountains.

        At last they found themselves on the top of the Conglomerate Tableland and stopped by a sheer precipice in front of them. They looked round for any trace of Palmerston. There was none. He had laid a blind trail, doubled back, and was probably miles away. Weeks later the would be claim jumpers staggered back into Cooktown. They were lucky to have got out of it with their lives.

        It was generally believed that Palmerston had discovered a path across the mountains that he had never revealed to anyone. Time after time when police were following him he would vanish from under their eyes. Those who said that the police were not trying were probably right. There were worse men loose on the Palmer than Palmerston. His favourite hideout was a small hollow in rough country in the south of Cooktown, which had come to be known as Christie's Pocket. No one else knew how to get into it. There he had grass for his horse, water, and a safe shelter to take it easy for as long as he like.

        So confident was he of help from the average digger that he too it for granted. A man who had been a boy on the Palmer recalled how a bearded rider had reined in his horse beside his parent's wagon, said good-day, and got straight down to business: "I'm Christie Palmerston. I'd like you to get a few things for me at Byerstown. Bring them out when you are on your way back. here's a list and money to pay for them- cartridges, tea, sugar, matches, tobacco, flour, soap, and other goods. Say nothing about seeing me. I'll be here to meet you".

        He rode away singing, the writer recalled, and a fine voice he had too. The song was Afton Water.

        Some said Palmerston got his singing voice from a famous Italian opera singer who they claimed was his mother. Whether this was true or not, all who knew him agreed that Palmerston, though often morose in his manner, was always ready to sing. Afton Water was one of his favourites when in Cooktown, while on the track many a digger's first hint that Palmerston was about was the sound of Christie's rather high-pitched voice raised in a popular song of the day called The Girl with the Pretty Little High Heeled Boots.

        Though he could mix easily with anybody he chose and fight at the drop of a hat, he had an innate aloofness that always kept him on the outer fringe of the wilder types of goldfield ribaldry. His normal company was his own, and his normal place the bush where he and his wild followers blended with their surroundings like the trees.

        Christie Palmerston one night after he had drunk more brandy than usual produced from his pocket a bundle of white woman's golden tresses a couple of feet long. He said that he had found them in a black gin's dilly bag.

        The listeners immediately recalled the killing of the Johan Strau and his wife and daughter.

        In 1874, Johan Strau, his wife, and little girl, had proceeded with their wagon on the road to the Palmer, when they were attacked by blacks just past the Normanby turnoff.

        A party of diggers later found Strau's body under his dray, and, a little distance away, the body of his wife. A spear had been driven through her mouth and had her pinned to the ground. Her clothing had been torn off and she had been horribly outraged before her death. Of the little girl there was no trace.

        Next day another party of diggers had come upon the scene.

        "There's something moving there in the scrub", yelled one.

        They found the little girl, lying on her back, an ugly gash across her forehead, her stomach ripped up by a wooden knife,; they had disturbed a black who had skunked off into the bush after trying to rip the dead little girl's kidney fat out.

        Arthur Temple Clark, who is mentioned several pages back as an acquaintance of John Fraser owned Cashmere for a while, after purchasing it from William McDowall, who had originally purchased it from John Atherton and family. John Atherton and family had trekked north from the Rockhampton district in 1875 and set up a run 6 miles from the telegraph station at Cashmere. They left Cashmere shortly after 1879, disposing of the run to William McDowall, and moved to Emerald End, near the later site of Mareeba. The town of Atherton is of course named after this prominent pioneer, whose son, Paddy Atherton later became a Minister for Mines in the Queensland Parliament.

        Arthur Temple Clark purchased Cashmere off William McDowall, but, after the death of his young daughter, sold the run back to McDowall who also owned Greenvale.

        Arthur Temple Clark's young daughter is buried in the small cemetery at Cashmere. In the same cemetery lies later owners, Bob Atkinson, his wife, Connie, and her sister, Kitty. Bob Atkinson is the son of James Atkinson and brother to Thomas Joseph Good Atkinson.

        McDowall sold Cashmere after the drought of 1900-01, and Bob Atkinson bought it very cheaply in 1903. Bob Atkinson put a caretaker in, a cousin Foster Atkinson, and then moved his family up the Seaview Range from Abergowrie in 1904.

        The only means of transporting goods at the time was by horse teams from Mt. Garnet which was a copper mining town that had come into existence about 1898 when John Moffat formed a syndicate to build a private railway line from Lappa Junction to Mt. Garnet and built a smelter to work the copper there. The loading was brought out twice a year by an old teamster named Harry Evans. He had two wagons and the 45 mile trip would take over a week with the last part of the track from Gunnawarra to Cashmere being very rough country with several steep creeks to cross.

        In 1909, Bob Atkinson bought two properties about 25 miles south of Cashmere. These were grazing farms, selections resumed from the Valley of the Lagoons, on the Burdekin watershed. One block was called Glen Harding and had originally been taken up by Charles Harding, a commission agent and auctioneer living in Herberton. The other adjoined Glen Harding and was owned by John Moffat and Linedale. They had taken up these selections to breed draft horses for their mining operations and also to grow maize and lucerne for their working horses at the mines. Combined the two properties were renamed Glen Dhu and were used by the Atkinsons to fatten steers.

        Bob Atkinson also bred light horses which were sold as Army horses exported to India, both remounts and the light active ones as gunners. He also worked on improving draft horses. The heavy drafts were sold to the Irvinebank Mining Company.

        Cane farmers and teamsters hauling logs around the Atherton and Ravenshoe area also competed for good drafts.

        Sons of Bob Atkinson, Ken, Alan and R. L. Atkinson successfully tendered for Valley of the Lagoons (what was left after several blocks had been resumed by the Crown) in 1963 when the Trustees of the James Simpson Love Estate put it on the market, which just goes to show how the wheel can turn a full cycle from the story that their grandfather James Atkinson was beaten to it by a few days by the Scott brothers decades earlier, back in 1865. It was turned into a Droughtmaster stud, run by a family company incorporated as Valley of Lagoons Pty. Ltd, with Alan Atkinson as manager.

        Henry John Atkinson was the eldest of the brothers, and a partner in Atkinson Brothers until the dissolution of that partnership in 1914. He then continued operations on his own account on Greenvale Station.

        The Greenvale homestead block had been acquired during the existence of the original firm of Atkinson brothers, but had been enlarged considerably since. With the Greenvale block, Henry Atkinson retained Wairuna and Mount Lang as his share of the previously united interests, but subsequently sold the two latter properties to his brothers and devoted his interests in the district to Greenvale, including Mount Helen, a freehold property of over 10000 acres on the coast near Ingham, and considerable real estate in Townsville and Ingham. He married Isabell Frances Mackay, daughter of Herbert Mackay, in 1898, and had three sons and a daughter. Herbert Mackay was Northern District surveyor.

        Their daughter died in 1919. The sons were James Herbert Atkinson, born 9 May 1900, Henry Delwyn Atkinson, born 10 December 1904, and John Reay Atkinson, born 20 October 1910.

                                                CHAPTER 10

CHOLOMONDELEY EDWARD GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The third child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson.

        Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson was born in 1881.

        Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson married Janet Tooth from Ingham in 1908. Janet Tooth was the sister of William Macanash Tooth (1876-1928), a cane and dairy farmer in the Ingham district, born at Ingham, customs-excise officer with the Ingham Sugar Mills, Vice-President of the Australian Sugar Producers Association in 1927, Chairman of the Victoria Mill Co-operative, and President of the Ingham Show Society.

        In fact Janet Tooth came from a family that could almost be described as dynastic.

        Janet Tooth was born on 11 April 1881, in Queensland, to Charles Frederick Louis Tooth and his wife Anne Macanash.

        There was a Dr. Macanash who with his wife, was killed in the Indian Mutiny in 1857, leaving three girls as orphans. The girls were sent from India to John Macanash, brother to the deceased doctor, and his married sister, Mrs. White, at Canning Downs Station. Jane, one of the girls, later met and married Samuel Maunsell, a former royal Navy Midshipman, who took over the management of Talavera station in southern Queensland. Their eldest daughter, Frances, and two sons were born there, and while Samuel was out mustering all three contracted dysentery and both boys died. There was no other white woman within miles. The station blacks and gins helped Jane dig graves for the two little boys and bury them, she herself reading the service. Then she had a fortnight to wait for her husband to return so she could tell him his sons were dead and buried.

        Samuel and Jane left Talavera Station after that, and while Jane was staying with her sister at Walloon Station, about 130 miles west of Bundaberg, Charles Maunsell was born at the nearby town of Bundaberg. In 1883, Samuel went to manage Strathmore Station, about sixty miles southwest of Bowen, in northern Queensland, and Jane and the children joined Samuel there.

        While they were at Strathmore Station, another daughter, Phoebe, was born.

        Samuel died in March 1899, aged 59. When eldest daughter Frances married, Jane and younger daughter Phoebe, went to live with Frances at Thornleigh in Sydney.

        It is probable that Anne Macansh was the sister of Jane Macansh mentioned above, for Anne Macansh married Charles Frederick Louis Tooth and bore the following children:

22 May 1862, Charles James Tooth;

3 November 1863, John Tooth;

16 April 1865, James Frederick Tooth;

15 August 1867, Annie Elizabeth Tooth;

26 June 1868, George Tooth;

28 June 1870, Frederick William Tooth;

16 September 1872, Beatrice Annie Tooth;

14 September 1875, William Tooth;

28 April 1878. Archibald Tooth;

11 April 1881, Janet Tooth; and

2 August 1883, Maria Catherine Tooth.

        Janet Tooth is the child born in 1881. Her full name was probably Janet Newnham Tooth, for that is the name she used when recording the death of one of her children. The "Newnham" again indicates family.

        Her elder brother George married a sister of Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson, Maud Alice Godschall Johnson.

        Janet's father name was Charles Frederick Louis Tooth.

        Charles Frederick Louis Tooth was born in Sydney in 1837, the son of John Tooth and Elizabeth Newnham.

        John Tooth and Elizabeth Newnham had numerous children:

1832 Fanny N Tooth; 1834 Janet M J Tooth; 1835 Catherine B. Tooth; 1837 Charles Frederick Louis Tooth, 1840 John N Tooth, 1847 Agnes E B Tooth; 1847 Charlotte B A Tooth, 1841 Elizabeth A Tooth; 1843 Nicholas E N Tooth, 1849 George A Tooth.

        So who was John Tooth?

        John Tooth was born in 1803 at Cranbrook, Kent, in England, the son of Robert Tooth, and his wife whose maiden name was Butler. John had an elder brother named Robert, born in 1799, and another brother William. William married Anne Fulcher and farmed at Cranbrook. Robert married a Mary Ann Reader and was engaged as a hop merchant at Swifts Park, Cranbrook, Kent.

        Robert Tooth and his wife, Mary Ann Reader had a family which included several sons who were to emigrate to Australia: their eldest son was Robert Tooth, who was born on 28 May 1821, their second son was Edwin Tooth who was born on 28 August 1822, and their fourth son was Frederick Tooth, who was born on 14 February 1827. All these were nephews to John Tooth.

        William Tooth and his wife Anne Fulcher had a family, a number of whom also emigrated to Australia. Two sons were William Butler Tooth, who was born in 1823, and Atticus Tooth, who was born in 1827. A considerable part of this family emigrated to Australia, including both the abovementioned sons and a number of sisters.

        But we return to the senior emigrant, the uncle to all these Tooth nephews and nieces, who was John Tooth. John Tooth was the first to emigrate. He arrived in the Colony of New South Wales in 1828; next came Atticus and part of his family in 1839; then William Butler Tooth and two of his sisters arrived in 1841; then came Robert and Edwin Tooth in 1843; and then Frederick Tooth came out in 1853. It was a real case of chain migration, and one that was to prove a great success in their new land of choice.

        John Tooth arrived in Sydney in the Bencoolen in 1828. He brought with him considerable family trained skills as a brewer with mercantile abilities. He received a 2560 acre grant in County Durham. He then went on to acquire numerous cattle runs and set up as a general merchant and commission agent in Spring Street, Sydney. He had gone back to England in 1830 to wed his betrothed, Elizabeth Newnham, daughter of John Newnham, brewer and timber merchant. They were wed at Cranbrook on 22 March 1830. Not only did he bring his new wife back out to Australia, but he also brought or was responsible, no doubt, for the emigration to the land of opportunity of his wife's brother, Charles Newnham, who had already acquired considerable experience as a brewer in Kent. John Tooth and Charles Newnham entered into partnership in September 1835, and opened the Kent Brewery on a 4 acre site on the Parramatta Road in Sydney. Charles Newnham withdrew from the partnership in 1843, and on 1 September 1843, John Tooth leased the brewery to nephews Robert and Edwin Tooth who had arrived on the Euphrates on 5 August 1843. They set in train the merchant and brewing firm of R. and E. Tooth.

        Frederick Tooth joined the partnership about 1853.

        The business ventures the Tooths engaged in were widespread.

        For instance, the first importation of alpacas from Peru occurred in 1850, and were brought in by Robert Tooth in conjunction with T. S. Mort.

        Another venture engaged in by Robert and Edwin, along with names such as Mort and the Mannings, was the formation in 1852 of the Twofold Bay Pastoral Association which acquired some 400,000 acres on the south coast of New South Wales and Monaro, with their head station being named Kameruka. Robert also speculated in buying other pastoral properties. He rose to becoming a large squatter with over 600 employees, took a seat on the Legislative Council, and ran unsuccessfully twice for the Legislative Assembly of NSW. Their business interests spanned both Australia and England. Their London house was known as R & F Tooth and Mort, and acted as agents for Smyth's Sydney Marine Assurance Office, and the Peak Downs Copper Mining Co. Robert Tooth's pastoral interests extended into Queensland, and with partners Robert Cran, Sir F. F. Nixon and brother Frederick Tooth, held Yengarie near Maryborough until 1872, and other interests in the Wide Bay and Burnett Districts. These early Queensland runs were held from the 1850's, but Robert Tooth progressively added to his Lachlan and Wide Bay interests by adding Jondaryan and Irvingdale, almost 300 square miles on the Darling Downs and some 28 runs, amounting to 700 square miles, in the Maranoa district of Queensland.

        Robert Tooth was a director of the Bank of New South Wales (today's Westpac), in the 1850's and 1860's, and was President thereof in 1862-63. He was a director of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. in 1855-63, R. E. & F. Tooth being the second largest shareholders when the company was established in 1855.

        Robert Tooth built a home, Cranbrook, at Rose Bay in 1859, but sold it to Robert Towns (the founder of Townsville), in 1864.

        The firm of R & F Tooth and Co, as it was later known upon the admission of J. S. Mitchell as partner, acquired most of its not inconsiderable profits from importing wines, spirits, and beers, as colonial beer was not widely drunk until the 1880's.

        Robert Tooth's first wife was Maria Lisle, daughter of Captain G. B. Forster. He married her in May 1849 at St. Mark's Church, Pontville, Van Diemen's Land. His second wife was Elizabeth Mansfield who he married in 1871. Robert died at Bedford in the United States of America in 1893.

        Edwin Tooth had pastoral interests outside his partnership with Robert until 1855. He had bought J. C. Lloyd's stations, and also runs in the Gippsland District of Victoria. He was in pastoral partnership with his father (Robert Tooth snr.), brother Robert, Holt and T de Lacy Moffat. He was a director and shareholder in the Colonial Sugar Refining Co.

        Edwin lived in Tasmania for many years, then settled in Sydney in 1852, but left the Colony in 1855 for London. In London, he was on the London board of the Bank of New South Wales. He died in 1858 at Staffordshire and was buried in the family plot at St. Dunstan's churchyard, Cranbrook, Kent.

        He had married Sarah, daughter of Francis Lucas of Blackheath, Kent, in 1844 and had 3 sons and 3 daughters.

        Frederick Tooth was a director of the Southern Insurance Co. Ltd., the Bank of New South Wales (including a period as president), and the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. In England he was on the London board of the Bank with Edwin and lived at Sevenoaks, Kent. He died in 1893, survived by his wife, son and three daughters. He had married three times: first to Jane Jackson of Southsea, Hampshire, England; second to Susan  Frances Gosling; third to Fanny Peach of London.

        The enduring legacy of this enterprising pioneer family is the Kent Brewery on its original site on the Parramatta Road, Sydney, and the famous "Tooth's K.B." beer. Tooth & Co. Ltd. became a public company in 1888 and took over Edmund Resch's Waverley Brewery (Resch's beer) in 1929.

        Robert, Edwin and Frederick Tooth were great uncles to Janet Tooth and George Tooth who married into the Godschall Johnson family in North Queensland in the early part of the twentieth century, (or was it a case of the Godschall Johnsons' marrying into the Tooth dynasty?).

        Other great uncles, but this time descended from their grandfather, John Tooth's other brother, William Headley Tooth (Robert Edwin and Frederick were sons of brother Robert Tooth), were William Butler Tooth and Atticus Tooth.

        William Butler Tooth was born in 1823, and Atticus in 1827, at Cranbrook, Kent, England, to William Headley Tooth aforementioned and Anne Fulcher. They were nephews of John Tooth and cousins to Robert, Edwin and Frederick Tooth.

        William Headley Tooth was one of the sons of William Tooth and Catherine Butler who had married in 1792. He was born in 1797; other sons were Robert, born in 1799, John, born in 1802 and Frances Barham, born in 1827. William Tooth, the father was a son of John Tooth and Sarah Knight, and was baptised in 1773; his brothers were Robert, born in 1775, and John, born in 1779.

        Catherine Butler may be descended from the same French Boteler family who landed in Kent from France, that Eleanor Butler, who later married a Godschall Johnson, was descended from. In England the Boteler family anglicised their name to Butler. There is only one recorded birth of a Catherine Butler, (spelt Botoler), prior to 1792, in Kent; that is for Catherine Botoler to Thomas Botoler and Elizabeth Morrice in 1747 at Tilmanstone.

        Part of the family, including Atticus, came to New South Wales in 1839 and settled near Camden. William reached Sydney in the Lalla Rookh in December 1841 escorting two sisters. The brother's probably gained pastoral experience on their uncle, John Tooth's, stations. In 1846, they overlanded a herd from the Murrumbidgee to Wide Bay, Queensland, to occupy an abandoned run, then settled on Widgee Widgee using it as a base to acquire further runs in the Wide Bay, Burnett and Darling Downs districts. In 1853 they bought Clifton station near Allora from the Gammie estate for 30000 pounds. They travelled constantly, acquiring more stations from the Murrumbidgee and Darling Rivers to the Gulf of Carpentaria. For five years they operated a boiling downs works at Ipswich.

        In Aug 1850 William Butler Tooth married Lucy Ann Harris, sister of George Harris.

        In 1856 the brothers William Butler Tooth and Atticus Tooth separated.

        William Butler Tooth lived in Sydney representing the United Pastoral Districts of Moreton, Wide Bay, Burnett, Maranoa, Leichhardt and Port Curtis in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1858-59. A founder of the Union Club, he was a committee man of the Sydney Club, the Society for the Suppression of Cattle Stealing and the Agricultural Society of New South Wales. He lived in fashionable suburbs and his children attended prominent schools.

        William Butler Tooth was notoriously litigious and his obvious desire to live like an English squire led to constant disputes with neighbours and workers. From 1857 to 1861, he fought a long technical battle with Joseph Fleming over the stock of Talavera Station, Queensland, and threatened a Privy Council appeal. In 1872 his violation of traditional bush hospitality led to the burning of Clifton woolshed by a disgruntled traveller. In 1874 he lost 500 pounds in damages and costs to a selector who charged him with malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. He began a long court battle in 1876 with a selector who challenged his right to close a road, but after he, William Butler Tooth, died of cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy, the case was dismissed.. His widow and 9 surviving children were left with a debt of 102,000 pounds, owing mainly to the Bank of New South Wales, which had held title to Clifton since 1875. A select committee recommended an enabling Act of Parliament in 1879 authorising the family to break the will and disperse the estate, but most of it went eventually to a reluctant Bank.

        Atticus Tooth was probably of a more adventurous disposition. Atticus joined George Elphinstone Dalrymple's expedition to Port Curtis in 1859 and settled near Bowen as a station manager.

        In December 1869 Atticus married Sarah Emmerson, daughter of a grazier. As a grazier, he rejoined William Butler Tooth, who was the settled at Clifton. After William's death, Atticus managed the Brisbane Municipal Markets but returned to Bowen just before his death in January 1915. He was survived by his wife and 11 children.

        There are still more Tooths in the family that made a name for themselves.

        There was a third cousin to Janet and George Tooth: Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth.

        Robert Lucas-Tooth was born in Sydney in 1844, the eldest son of Edwin Tooth and Sarah Lucas. He was educated in England at Eton and returned to Sydney to join the firm of R. & F. Tooth & Co., and became active in the management of the Kent Brewery, later becoming a partner in the firm. He had bought the Kameruka estate near Bega from his uncle Frederick in 1864, which, due to land selection, was later reduced to a third of its original size. He turned Kameruka into a very English style estate. With his uncles Frederick and Robert he was a partner in Tooth and Cran in various business ventures in Queensland. In Sydney in 1873 he married his cousin Helen Tooth daughter of Frederick Tooth. In 1880 he won the Monaro seat in the NSW Legislative Assembly. He was a director of the Bank of New South Wales in 1894-1907, served on its London board and was sometime chairman. He was a large shareholder in the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., and a director in 1888-89. In 1888 the brewer Tooth & Co became a public company and he was, briefly, its first managing director. In 1889 he took his family to England and settled there. He assisted many charities and was created a baronet in 1906 for services to the Empire.

        The children of Cholmondeley Edward and Janet Godschall Johnson, nee` Tooth, were Jessie, Cholmondeley, Nigel, Edward (Ted), Janet (Sue), and Bill.

        The Death Records also show a son Donald Macansh Godschall Johnson dying in 23 January 1913 whose parents were Cholmondeley Edward Godschall Johnson and Janet Newham Tooth. He probably was a child who died in infancy.

                                                CHAPTER 11

MAUD ALICE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The fourth child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Maud Alice Godschall Johnson.

        Maud Alice Godschall Johnson was born in 1883.

        She married George Tooth of Ingham. This is the George Tooth mentioned above.

        They had four children: George Tooth (Sandy), Noel Tooth, Dick Tooth, and Jessie Tooth.

                                                CHAPTER 12

EVELYN MABEL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The fifth child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Evelyn Mabel Godschall Johnson.

        Evelyn Mabel Godschall Johnson was born in 1886.

        On the 4th October, 1915, she married A. E. Clark-Kennedy at Cardwell in North Queensland.

        Alexander Ewart Clark-Kennedy was born on 13 May 1887 to William Frederick Clark-Kennedy and his wife Sarah Alice Gordon.

        Other children of William Frederick Clark-Kennedy and Sarah Alice Gordon (who were married in 1882), were Alma Maud Clark-Kennedy, born on 11 April 1883, Allan Gordon Clark-Kennedy, born on 17 August 1884, Kenneth George Clark-Kennedy, born 17 February, 1889, Wilfred Muriel Clark-Kennedy, born 30 March 1890, and Aimee Dorothy Clark-Kennedy, born 14 August 1896.

        A related family was that of John Charles Clark-Kennedy who married Lucy Archer, and had children: Ellie Henrietta Clark-Kennedy, born 1 July, 1887, Herbert Clark-Kennedy, born 25 June 1889, Aletta Muriel Clark-Kennedy, born 20 June 1882, Ethel May Clark-Kennedy, born 27 November 1883, Minnie Clark-Kennedy, born 24 July 1876, Ruby Jean Clark-Kennedy, born 26 November 1877, and William John Clark-Kennedy, born 20 February 1879.

        Alexander Ewart and Evelyn Mabel Clark-Kennedy, nee` Godschall Johnson, had four children: Ewart Clark-Kennedy, Mabel Clark-Kennedy, Zuill Clark-Kennedy, and Alice Clark-Kennedy.

        Alexander Ewart Clark-Kennedy was to die on 17 October 1932.

        His widow Evelyn Mabel Clark-Kennedy, nee` Godschall Johnson, was to survive him another 25 years, and died on 29 July, 1957.

                                                CHAPTER 13

WILLIAM VIRGIL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The sixth child of William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was William Virgil Godschall Johnson.

        William Virgil Godschall Johnson was born in 1890.

        He married J. C. M. Grant of Mandalee Station, Mt. Garnet.

        Jessie Cecilia Meredith Grant was born on 22 November 1899 to Franklin Stanhope Grant and his wife Jessie Rosina Meredith.

        An older brother was Franklin Leslie Meredith Grant born on 23 October 1898, and a younger brother was James Lionel Le Neave Grant born on 1 April 1902, who married Phyllis Muriel Godschall Johnson, sister to William Virgil Godschall Johnson.

        In Pioneers Country by Glenville Pike, he says:

        The Mt. Garnet area was then (when it started in 1896), on part of the Mullabulla Station, run by R. Perrott of Evelyn. Grant Bros. bought Woodleigh from the founder O. C. Garbutt, in the late 1880's. F. S. Grant took up Mandalee in 1896.

        That would have had to have been shortly after his marriage in Brisbane to Jessie Rosina Meredith.

        In the 1908 Postal Directory F. L. Grant is shown as being at Mandalee Station, Mt. Garnett, and Franklin S Grant, a grazier, at Innot Hot Springs. Later directories show F. L. Grant continuing at Mandalee and F. S. Grant, station owner, living at Herberton.

        Franklin Stanhope Grant was the son of James Grant and Charlotte Thomas. Franklin Stanhope Grant died on 20 December 1926.

        The 1900 Postal Directory which shows not only Franklin Stanhope Grant as a grazier at Innot Hot Springs, but also a James H. Grant as the Manager of Woodleigh Station, Innot Hot Springs, suggests that the father was still alive in 1900. He is not mentioned in the 1908 Postal Directory.

        James Grant married Charlotte Thomas at Cromdale and Inverallen and Advie, Inverness, Scotland, on 9 March 1860.

        William Virgil and Jessie Godschall Johnson had five children: William Butler Godschall Johnson, Felicity C. Godschall Johnson, Franklin Stanhope Godschall Johnson, James L. Godschall Johnson, and David Virgil Godschall Johnson.

                                                CHAPTER 14

ERIC LESLEIGH GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The seventh child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Eric Lesleigh Godschall Johnson.

        Eric Lesleigh Godschall Johnson was born in 1892.

        He married R. E. P. Davidson of Mackay.

        They had a child Alister who was adopted.

                                                CHAPTER 15

CARDEW HAMILTON GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The eighth child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Cardew Hamilton Godschall Johnson.

        Cardew Hamilton Godschall Johnson was born in 1894.

        He married Marie Johnson of Ingham.

        Marie Johnson was born on 13 November 1898 to Joshua Johnson and his wife, Marie Fitzgerald.

        They had no children.

                                                CHAPTER 16

ROBERT EARLE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The ninth child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Robert Earle Godschall Johnson.

        Robert Earle Godschall Johnson was born in 1896.

        He married Mary Cole of Brisbane.

        Mary Cole was probably the daughter of Michael Joseph Cole and Rosanna Marsch, born 27 February 1899.

        They had a son Earle Godschall Johnson.

        Robert Earle Godschall Johnson died in 1963.

                                                CHAPTER 17

PHYLLIS MURIEL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The tenth and youngest child to be born to William Butler and Jessie Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Collins, was Phyllis Muriel Godschall Johnson.

        Phyllis Muriel Godschall Johnson was born in 1901.

        She married James L Grant of Mandalee Station, near Mt. Garnet.

        James Lionel Le Neave Grant was born on 1 April 1902 to Franklin Stanhope Grant and Jessie Rosina Meredith.

        James Lionel Le Neave Grant was a younger brother to Jessie Cecilia Meredith Grant who married Phyllis' brother William Virgil Godschall Johnson.

        They had two children: Lionel Grant, and Lenore Grant.

                                                CHAPTER 18

RALPH CHOLOMONDELEY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:         

        Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, the eldest son of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson and Eleanor Butler, was born in 1838.

        On 7 July 1870, he married Margery Dill Reid. Margery was born in 1849 in Rathmelton, County Donegal, Ireland to James Reid and his wife Eliza, nee` Smith. Rathmelton, previously called Ramelton, is on the shores of the ocean-fronting Lough Swilly. James Reid was a Presbyterian Minister whose family had emigrated to Ireland in the late 17th Century from Edinburgh. His father, John Reid, was a farmer with a University education, who had three sons, all of whom secured a University education at Glasgow University. John Reid, his three sons, Andrew, Mathew and (the Rev.) James, and (the Rev.) James' three sons, James Smith Reid, Douglas Reid, and George Macfarlane Reid, and his only daughter, Margery Dill Reid, were all born in the same cottage on the banks of Lough Swilly.

        John Reid's wife was Margery Dill. The Dills were originally of Flemish stock, like the Godschalkes, and had emigrated to England about the same time as Jan Godschall. Later, the Dills came across to Ireland about the same time as the Reids, namely at the time of the Plantation 1608-1620. They settled too in various parts of Protestant Northern Ireland.

        When Griffith did his valuation of County Donegal in 1858, there was one Dill name mentioned in the Barony of Kilmacrenan. That was of Anne Dill, no doubt a relation, in Main Street, Town of Rathmelton, who tenanted a house and land to the value of 5 pounds.

        But the Dills had a considerable family history behind them:

DILL:

        The Dill lineage as derived from Burke's The Landed Gentry of Ireland, is as follows:

        John Dill of Tullinidale (Tullynadall), in the County of Donegal, married around 1635 a Miss Jordan, and had one son, David Dill.

        David Dill, of Glenalla (Dill's Byre), was born in 1640 and in 1665, he married Catherine Sheridan of Drogheda (a lady of great pride and courage, who reputedly killed the last wolf in Ireland), and had four sons and two daughters.

        The four sons were Joseph, Francis, Samuel and David.

        The eldest, Joseph Dill, of Forthill, Aughadrenagh, married Nancy McFarlane, and had issue.

        The third youngest, Samuel Dill, of Aughadrenagh, married Martha Hall, and had two sons and two daughters. The eldest of his sons was Alexander dill, whose descendants went to America. The youngest of his sons was William who died young.

        The fourth son of David Dill and his wife Catherine Sheridan was also named David Dill. This David Dill married a Miss Fullerton, and his second marriage was to Anne Moore, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, most of whom emigrated to America.

        The second son of David Dill and Catherine Sheridan was Francis Dill. He lived at Springfield and acquired the Manor House and Estate of Springfield from a Mr. Patton. This Francis Dill was born in 1675, and, in 1720, he married Catherine (Kitty) Anderson. They had two sons and five daughters. The two sons names were John Dill, born 1723 at Springfield, County Donegal, and Marcus Dill, born 1741 at Springfield.

        The eldest son, John Dill, who shared the Springfield estate with his brother Marcus, married in 1764 Susan McClure, daughter of Richard McClure of Convoy. They had six sons and four daughters. John Dill died in 1804.

        The youngest son of Francis Dill and Catherine Anderson was Marcus Dill. Marcus Dill was born in 1741. In 1741 he married Mary McClure, daughter of Richard McClure of Convoy, and sister to Susan who married his elder brother.

        Marcus Dill had Mary McClure had six sons and six daughters.

        One of those daughters, the second youngest, was Margery Dill, who married farmer, John Reid of Ramelton, and the Reid lineage is the one which concerns us in this family history.

        The six sons were Francis, John, Marcus, Robert, Richard, and William.

        The six daughters were Catherine, Susan, Margaret, Rebecca, Margery, and Mary.

        Father Marcus Dill died in 1831.

        Eldest son Francis Dill became a Minister at Manor Cunningham, and married Isabella Hamilton. They had two sons and three daughters. The Reverend Francis died in 1848.

        The second son of Marcus Dill and Mary McClure, John Dill, of Springfield, M.D., M.R.C.S., R.N., settled in retirement at 19 Regency Square, Brighton,. He had been born in 1778,, married Elizabeth Hall, daughter of Timothy Hall, and died without issue in 1875.

        The third son Marcus (Mark) Dill, was born in 1779, also became a doctor, and died unmarried in 1833.

        The fourth son, Robert Dill, died young.

        The fifth son, Richard Dill, continued an esteemed lineage.

        The sixth son, William Dill, was born in 1798 and died in 1818.

        Of the daughters of Marcus Dill and Mary McClure, the eldest Catherine Dill, died young. The next, Susan Dill, died unmarried. The third, Margaret Dill, married a Mr. King. The fourth Rebecca Dill died unmarried. The fifth Margery Dill married John Reid, as aforesaid. The sixth Mary Dill, married Samuel Campbell of Fannet, had offspring, and died in 1870.

        We shall now continue with the fifth son of Marcus Dill and Mary McClure, Richard Dill, who like his eldest brother Francis, became a Reverend.

        Richard Dill was born in 1786, was educated at Glasgow University, gaining a Master of Arts, and was appointed Minister at Ballykelly. In 1812 he married Jane Gordon, daughter of Thomas Gordon of Carnstone House, County Antrim. They had four sons and three daughters. The four sons were Marcus Gordon Dill, Robert Gordon Dill, Francis John Dill, and Richard Dill. The daughters were Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane Gordon. The Rev. Richard Dill died in 1854.

        The eldest son Marcus Gordon Dill was born in 1814, acquired a Regiments Colonel, married in 1843, Margaret Colquhoun. They had three sons and two daughters. Colonel Dill died in 1865.

        The second son of the Rev. Richard Dill and Jane Gordon was Robert Gordon Dill, who was born in 1817, and died unmarried in 1839.

        The third son of the Rev. Richard Dill and Jane Gordon, was Francis John Dill, who was born in 1820, married Catherine Cameron, and died in Natal, in 1889 leaving three sons and three daughters in South Africa.

        The fourth son of the Rev. Richard Dill and Jane Gordon was Richard Dill.

        The eldest daughter of the Rev. Richard Dill and Jane Gordon was Elizabeth Dill. Elizabeth Dill was born in 1823 and married the Rev. Andrew Long of Coleraine, bearing one son and three daughters.

        The second daughter of the Rev. Richard Dill and Jane Gordon was Mary Dill, who was born in 1826, and died unmarried in 1841.

        The third daughter was Jane Gordon Dill, who was born in 1833, and married the Rev. John Kingham.

        Returning to the youngest son of the Rev Richard Dill, and Jane Gordon, namely Richard Dill.

        This Richard Dill, was born in Ballykelly in 1822. He was educated at Edinburgh University, M.A. & M.D. He moved to Brighton, where he took over the practice of his Uncle, Dr. John Dill, and resided at 19 Regency Square, and Birchwood, near Burgess Hill, which he built. He married Augusta Caroline Wale, daughter of General Sir Charles Wale, K.C.B., of Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and they had three sons and two daughter. This Dr. Richard Dill died in 1912.

        The eldest son of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale was John Frederick Gordon Dill.

        The second son of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale was Richard Marcus Gordon Dill, who acquired a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College, Cambridge, became a barrister-at-law. He married Mabel Reid, served in World War 1, and died of wounds in 1918, without issue.

        The third son of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale was Robert Charles Gordon Dill, who was born in 1861. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, acquiring an M.A. and M.D., and upon entry into the medical profession, M.R.C.S. (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons), and M.R.C.P. He became a Surgeon-Captain in the 10th Royal Hussars. He died, unmarried in 1895.

        The fourth son of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale was George Francis Gordon Dill, who was born in 1865, became a barrister-at-law, and died in 1907.

        The eldest daughter of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale, was Augusta Helena Cecily Gordon Dill. She was born in 1863 and in 1891, married Ashley William Graham Allen, only son of William J. Allen, Bengal Civil Service. In 1896, she married Montague Stevens, son of General Arthur Stevens, and had one son, in the U.S.A.

        The second daughter of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale, was Mildred Henrietta Gordon Dill. She was born in 1867, and in 1889, married Jonathan Charles Darby, D.L., J.P., of The Leap Castle, King's County, Ireland, and died in 1932, leaving issue.

        The eldest son of Dr. Richard Dill and Augusta Wale, was John Frederick Gordon Dill. He was born in 1859, educated privately, and at Caius College, Cambridge, (M.A., M.B., 1884, M.D. 1887). He married, in 1886, Mary Kathleen Martin, daughter of Simon Nicholson Martin, J.P., and grand-daughter of Sir Ranald Martin, F.R.S. They had two sons. In 1943, he married Clarice Josephine Faire, daughter of Louis Clarence Faire, of Humberstone, near Leicester.

        John Frederick Gordon Dill, served as a Major in World War 1, in the Norfolk Yeomanry. He acquired an F.R.C.S., and M.R.C.P. and lived at Birchwood, Sussex. His sons were John Martin Gordon Dill and Richard Wale Gordon Dill.

        The youngest son, Richard Wale Gordon Dill, was born in 1896, and was educated at Eton. He served in both World Wars 1 and 11, as a Major in the first Life Guards. In 1923 he married Mary Wroughton Morris, daughter of Herbert Francis Morris, of Ashford, and had one son and one daughter. They were divorced in 1936. The son was David Gordon Dill, born in 1924, served in World War 11 (Croix de Guerre) and was killed in action while serving with the Special Air Service in 1944. The daughter was June Rosemary Gordon Dill, born 1926, married in 1947 Capt. Yvo Laurence Michael Fitzherbert, late of the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars, and they had two daughters.

        The eldest son of Major John Frederick Gordon Dill and Mary Kathleen Martin, was John Martin Gordon Dill. John Martin Gordon Dill was born in 1890, and served in World Wars 1 and 11, as a Major with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers and 16th/5th Lancers. He was educated at Eton, and Trinity College Cambridge (B.A.). In 1914 he married Ethne Charleton, only child of John George Murray, D.L., J.P., of Wrest Park, Bedfordshire and Coles Park, Hertfordshire. He lived at Stream Hill, Doneraile, County Cork, and had two sons, John Michael Gordon Dill, and Richard Patrick Gordon Dill. Major John Martin Gordon Dill died in 1949. His eldest son, John Michael Gordon Dill was born in 1919, educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A.), and served in World War 11 as a Captain with the 16/5th Lancers, and was killed in action in Italy in 1944. The youngest son was Richard Patrick Murray Gordon Dill of Stream Hill, Doneraile, County Cork, born in 1921, educated Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A.), served with the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

        A lot of Dills emigrated to Canada, Nova Scotia and U.S.A. A few made it to Australia. Samuel Sears Dill from County Cork arrived in Sydney in 1841 as a bounty emigrant, married there, and then went to live in Van Diemen's Land in 1845. His father was John Dill, a Protestant like most of the Dills (although there are a few Catholic Dills in southern Ireland). Samuel's brothers, William Baker Dill and Robert Baker Dill also emigrated, to Melbourne. All three, and father John, were cabinetmakers.

        Many of the later generations of Irish Dills were Presbyterian Ministers. Many had rather big families. Most of the Dills were said to be tall. In the 1800s, as witness their family history a lot of Dills were doctors, and, in the 1900s, soldiers of note. But there were also farmers and tradesmen.

REID:

        Mathew Reid also held a house and land in Main Street, Rathmelton, of good value to 10 pounds, but that was not all that Mathew Reid held. He tenanted land over 22 acres in the Parish of Aughnish in the townland of Rathmelton, a corn mill and kiln to the value of 14 pounds in Pound Street, Rathmelton, and a garden in the Lane off Church Street, Rathmelton.

        Andrew Reid tenanted house, offices and a garden in the Town of Rathmelton and five separate allotments of land totalling over 22 acres in the townland of Rathmelton, Parish of Aughnish, juxtaposed with holdings of Mathew Reid and the Rev. James Reid.

        The Rev. James Reid in 1858, held house offices and garden in Back Lane, Rathmelton, to the value of 12 pounds, next to the National Schoolhouse, and another allotment with house offices and garden on the other side of the schoolhouse in Back Lane, as well as 3 acres of land in the townland of Rathmelton, Parish of Aughnish in close proximity to his brothers holdings.

SMITH:

        Eliza Smith, wife of the Rev. James Reid, was the daughter of James Smith and his wife Mary Macfarlane. James Smith was a leading lawyer in Glasgow. Mary her mother came from the Macfarlanes of Luss. Eliza was one of nine children of James and Mary Smith, six boys and three girls.

JAMES REID:

        The Rev. James Reid was to be the first Presbyterian Minister to come to Queensland, arriving in Bowen in 1861. Unfortunately the Rev. Reid died on 12 April 1866, after only five years in the Colony. He was well appreciated by his parishioners, and had started a Boarding School at Bowen.

        An account of the Reid's voyage to Australia, as told by Douglas Reid, one of the three brothers to Margery Dill Reid, includes:

Douglas Reid, wrote for me in 1920 this account of the family's life in Northern Ireland, voyage by sailing ship to Queensland, and sojourn in Australia.

        His father, Rev. James Reid, M. A., the first Minister in Northern Queensland, only survived some four years in the prevailing rather primitive conditions. But he was well appreciated and remembered, as an extract from "Bowen Charge 1864-1935 (the History of Presbyterianism in Bowen & District) shows.

        The following is that extract:

        "Bowen was settled by 111 souls under George Elphinstone Dalrymple on 13th April 1861.

        Arrival of Re. James Reid. M.A. A long-felt want was supplied when Mr. Reid not only undertook to establish the Presbyterian cause but also provided facilities for the education of youths by running a Boarding School in which he taught English and Classics, while Mrs. Reid taught French, music and Drawing. Mr. Reid also took a prominent part as a citizen and advocated strenuously for the suppression of bushranging which was rampant in the district.

        Passing of Rev. James Reid M.A.: Died at Bowen on 12th April 1866, at the age of 51. He was held in the highest regard by the community indicated by the demonstration of respect at his passing, when the flags of the town were flown at half-mast. His wife Eliza Reid died on 6th August 1900 at the age of 77. (At `Rostrevor', Adelaide, South Australia). Their graves in the Bowen cemetery are marked by a handsome Aberdeen granite stone erected by their sons."

        Sir Ranald Macfarlane Reid in his foreword:

        Left without financial resources the mother and family of 4 sons and a daughter battled on achieving very considerable success both for themselves and in the development of Australia.

        The eldest son, J.S. Reid, seventeen when his father died, was always the leader. Early in the newspaper business, he started and ran no less that seven in Australia mostly in the mining fields, pioneered and promoted railways (particularly that of Silverton, Emu Bay etc.), and became one of the greatest mining promoters in Australia. See "The Rise of Broken Hill" by Geoffrey Blainey.

        His records are in the Melbourne Archives which bear witness to his great drive and ability. As does his lovely home Rostrevor in Adelaide (now the centrepiece of the Marist Brothers College), and another  home `Duneira' on Mount Macedon, Victoria.

        My father (Sir Ranald Macfarlane Reid is speaking here), George, the youngest brother, pioneered for some thirty years in Australia, then on a trip "home" met and married my mother Gertrude, daughter of Re. Alexander MacQuistan D.D., of Inverkip, near Glasgow, and settled in Scotland. He became a director of the Australian Sulphide Corporation, which was started by J. S. Reid.

        The Macfarlane Reids in Western Australia and in Scotland, together with the Scottish Lumsdens of Arden are his descendants.

        Douglas Reid, the brother, also married and settled in the U.K., and was a London director of Broken Hill Proprietary.

        Most of the family remained in Australia and prospered: the Dewez family of Sydney and the Grice family of Melbourne and western Australia among them.

        I have had this article by mu uncle Douglas Reid printed as a memento to these pioneer Reids and I hope it will be of interest to their descendants in Australia and in Britain.

        So concluded the foreword written by Air Vice Marshall, Royal Air Force (Retired), Ranald Macfarlane Reid, (Sir Ranald Macfarlane Reid K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.) in Perth, Western Australia, in October 1970.

        Next is the account written by Douglas Reid in 1920:

        George Macfarlane Reid, my brother, was the youngest of the family of four sons and one daughter of the Rev. James Reid and his wife, Eliza.

        Our grandfather, John Reid, of whom as a very old man, I have some slight recollection, was a strong-minded, devout man.

        He was a farmer with a University education - not very uncommon in his day.

        His wife, whose maiden name was Margery Dill, was described by my mother as the best woman she had ever known: accomplished, well-read, and deeply religious, she was of a most happy disposition.

        The elder of her two brothers showed an enterprising spirit which was well rewarded. Considering their father's small estate, left to them in equal shares, was insufficient for the two of them, he let his brother take the lot on condition that he was supplied with the means to carry on until he was in a position to maintain himself.

        Each had had a university education, and the elder, then well over 30, returned to college to study medicine.

        After taking his degree, he practised in England, and ultimately became a man of considerable reputation as Dr. Dill of Brighton.

        His patients included royalty, and he died worth upwards of 100,000 pounds, thought to be great wealth for a doctor fifty or sixty years ago.

        The Dills were masterful men, most of them in the learned professions. Their strength of character was advertised in their strong features, and in particular the "Dill mouth" was something out of the common, so much so, indeed, that some of them were credited with being able to whisper in their own ears.

        They claimed to have come from a Dutch family, long resident in England, while the Reid's originally hailed from near Edinburgh, and were said to have been learned people.

        The Rev. James Reid, our father, had two brothers, and all three took their degrees in Glasgow University.

        Young men worked for their education in their days: most of them walked to and from College, and for the serious business of crossing the Irish Channel, they had to charter small fishing boats.

        On our mother's side, our grandfather was James Smith, in his day the leading lawyer in Glasgow.

        His wife, and the mother of his six sons and three daughters, was, as the Scots lawyers have it, Mary Macfarlane or Smith, she being a Macfarlane of Luss, and it was to her that George was indebted for his second name,

        At the time when our grandfather practised, there was neither typewriting or shorthand, and busy lawyers such as he found their correspondence and other composition a heavy tax on their time, but he at least was equal to it.

        Our mother as a girl often called for him to be taken to some entertainment or other. It happened at times that she had to wait until he had finished for the day, and she used to sit and listen while he kept three clerks writing as fast as they could to his dictation.

        His habit was to walk to and fro with his hands behind his back, and as each of the clerks gave the last word, he was told the next sentence or part of a sentence for the letter or legal document he was writing.

        A successful lawyer, all went well with him until sorrow came suddenly and heavily in the death, almost together, of his wife and two sons, John and Douglas. The latter (Douglas) drowned in the Clyde River.

        On the shore of the beautiful Lough Swilly  my father had a little thatched cottage on quite a small property, which included three tiny islands just out in the Lough.

        In front was an artificial stone plateau, with a sea wall to forbid the Atlantic entering our front door.

        At the back was a ceaseless flow of pure sparkling spring water, and a sweet little garden, with flowers and fruit and box-bordered that had a common meeting place in the centre, under the "arched tree". These were really two trees, rowans, with trunks six or seven feet apart. They were united at regular intervals by four arches of solid, living wood, almost as thick as their trunks. These had been formed by bringing together some of the topmost branches and binding them firmly. My father, as a boy, had made the highest and last arch.

        This was our frequent and to us children, altogether delightful, summer home. It was directly over the water from the commanding situation of the High Cairn.

        It was the birthplace of our father and our grandfather.

        It was also here that, in June, 1854, (died 1919, 65 years), that our dear brother George came to us. It was a small world that he entered, but a good one, holding for us few troubles.

        The account then continues of their voyage to Australia and subsequent adventures there.

        James Smith Reid made a career in newspapers, running seven in all, and promoted railways, such as Silverton, Emu Bay and Chillagoe, and mining ventures, including the Broken Hill mines.

        George Reid pioneered in Australia for some 30 years, then returned to England. He married Gertrude MacQuistan, daughter of the Rev. Alexander MacQuistan D.D. of Inverkip, near Glasgow, and settled in Scotland. He became a director of the Australian Sulphide Corporation, a corporation started by his brother Smith Reid.

        Douglas Reid married and settled in the United Kingdom as a London Director of Broken Hill Proprietary Limited.

        Margery Dill Reid was 20 when she married Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson. In her marriage certificate, she was designated by the title of "Lady". Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was 28 when he married Margery Dill Reid. He was described in the marriage certificate as a surveyor.

        His place of birth was given as Middlesex, England.

        His parents were described in the Marriage Certificate as Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, Clerk, and Ellen Butler. The description of Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson as "Clerk" substantially understates his true position and role in history.

        Both parties to the marriage gave their usual place of residence as Bowen.

        James K Black, Officiating Minister, celebrated the marriage in “Mrs. Reid’s” house at Bowen according to the rites of the Church of England.

        The witnesses to the marriage were James Smith Reid, and John Reid.

        The couple were married on 7 July 1870. The same day Ralph made out his will in favour of his new wife Margery, and appointing brother in law James Smith Reid, of Bowen, brother in law John Sutton, of Brisbane, and David Allan Day, Postmaster, of Bowen, his executors. All these erstwhile gentleman were at the wedding. He describes Margery as his wife, so the Will was executed after the nuptials, on the same day. James Smith Reid and John Sutton witnessed the Will. The Will was handwritten by Ralph. It is a steady handwriting, so that, if alcohol were consumed at the wedding reception, the celebrations had probably not yet commenced. When Ralph died on 17 February 1884, after but fourteen years of married life, none of the named executors sought to act as such. Widow Margery took out Letters of Administration.

        But we turn to the period when they were married and both alive.

        Their first child, Ralph James Godschall Johnson was born on 12 May, 1871, at South Brisbane, but he was to die 6 months later, on 6 November, 1871.

        Their eldest surviving son, and second born, was Ralph Godschall Johnson.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson was born on 12 August 1872, at Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury is the cattle station in which Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson had an interest and is mentioned in the story of William Butler Godschall Johnson.

        Their third son was John Godschall Johnson. John Godschall Johnson was born on 17 August 1877.

        Their fourth son was Frank Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Godschall Johnson was born on 22 November 1878.

        Their fifth son was James Reid Godschall Johnson.

        James Reid Godschall Johnson was born on 2 December 1880.

        Their sixth son to be born was Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson.

        Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was born on 26 February 1884, 6 days after his father's death.

        Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson is listed in one of the rare post office directories in 1864, as a surveyor at Bowen. This was 6 years prior to his getting married, and 9 years after he had landed in the Colony. Bowen itself was started in 1861. Ralph could have been there almost from its beginning, as a single man.

        Pastoralists looked to the Burdekin Valley after the 1856 report from A.C. & F. T. Gregory on their journey from Victoria River to Brisbane. Before the separate State of Queensland had been formed, a Sydney based syndicate backed a land-based expedition to explore the Burdekin by George Elphinstone Dalrymple. Dalrymple had with him Ernest Henry, Phillip Selheim ( who later became one of the most respected wardens on the Queensland Goldfields),and Henry Stone, a surveyor (after whom the Stone River was named).

        A seaward approach was taken by another party of Captain Henry Daniel Sinclair, aboard the Santa Barbara, who cruised from Rockhampton to Upstart Bay, and discovered an excellent harbour which they named Port Denison in honour of the Governor of New South Wales.

        The New South Wales Government, three weeks before relinquishing control of the north, declared two new pastoral districts open, Mitchell and Kennedy. The Kennedy extended from Cape Palmerston to Halifax Bay and extended inland to include the Burdekin watershed. The new Queensland Government stalled this pastoral expansion, and reassessed the region. They sent Lieut. J. W. Smith in the Spitfire with Dalrymple and Henry Stone on board to compile another report.

        They reaffirmed the value of Port Denison, and the Government decided to found a township there, to be named Bowen, in honour of the Governor. On 11 April 1861, the first party of settlers landed, from the Jeannie Dove in time for the proclamation of the township of Bowen. Bowen then started to become the base for the pastoral conquest of North Queensland. The Lands Office in Bowen was headed by Dalrymple who was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands in the Kennedy District.  Another member of his initial exploring party, W. H. Thomas was appointed a Clerk in the Lands Office there, as his reward. With the boundaries of squatting runs to be an initial priority, as pastoralists sought the rich grazing lands of the Burdekin region, the services of a surveyor or two would have been needed. Such no doubt provided Ralph's opportunity.

        In the Queensland Government Blue Book for 1868/69, he is shown as Land Agent, Bowen, and Recording Clerk, Kennedy. His appointment as a Land Agent Class IV at a salary of 50 pounds per annum, dates from 1 December 1869. This compares with the salary of his father Ralph Edward Godschall Johnson, in Brisbane, as Assistant Clerk to the Legislative Council, which was 300 pounds per annum. He married the following year, probably feeling that he had a steady enough job to support a wife.

        He performed numerous surveying jobs for the Queensland Government, including surveying the centre of Townsville, Walker, Sturt and Flinders Streets, in August 1874. This survey was done nine years after Townsville was first settled. Townsville was started in 1865 when Robert Towns, Sydney based merchant, on the verge of retirement, could not resist one more enterprise: so he took up land at Cleveland Bay, and erected a wool-store, wharf and boiling-down works. He abandoned his failing cotton interests and concentrated on Townsville, which the Government named after him, envisaging his own ships carrying his own wool out of his own harbour. With this he took up and with J. G. Macdonald, stocked stations on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Towns was 70 when he did this; he suffered a stroke in 1870 and died in Sydney in 1873. Because the place was more an egocentric town initially, it had a slow start, and competed initially with Cardwell. Townsville, of course, won in the long term.

        Ralph's report dated 3 August 1874 to the Surveyor General in Brisbane mentions the existence of only two houses and two huts on the area he surveyed. This was a year after Towns' death, and wider interest in Cleveland Bay as a port open to all, rather than the deceased Towns' private interests, may have prompted the Government to regularise the future growth there.

        Ralph reported:

        Townsville. 3 August 1874

        re: 74 220. Sections 55 to 64, Town of Townsville, and also allotment 2 of section no not known.

        Sir,

        I have the honour to transmit herewith Plans, Field-Books, and account in 5xplicate of Surveys noted in the margin. And I hereby declare that I have personally surveyed and marked out on the ground all the boundaries of the abovementioned portions, and that the Plans and Field-Books are correct, and the whole survey performed with care and in strict accordance with the regulations and practice of the Department.

        I have the Honour to be Sir,

        Your most obedient servant,

        R. C. Godschall Johnson,

        Licensed Surveyor.

        On making the plans of survey of Sections 55 to 64...On allotment 16 of section 61 there is a house which I value at 22 pounds; on allotment 2 of Section 60 is a hut I value at 8 pounds. On allotment 12 of section 61 is a hut which I value at 9 pounds. These are the only buildings of any value on these sections.

        I may also mention that the Corporation have run their road through the South east corner of allotment 1 of suburban Section 1A, and that consequently, the line I have surveyed has crossed it.

        On allotment 2 of section not numbered, there is a house of Mr. Harman's which I value at 18 pounds.

        He was also involved in surveying Cooktown. A total of 54 survey maps appear to have been compiled by Ralph during his career with the Lands Department, between the years 1872 and 1875. They cover Bowen, Proserpine, Townsville and Cooktown. His survey of Cooktown is dated April 1875. The gold rush to Cooktown commenced following a Mining Warden's Notice on 3 September 1873, so 19 months later, Ralph was in that burgeoning swashbuckling town doing the first survey therein. One of the maps of Cooktown states that it was "surveyed under verbal instructions from the Surveyor-General dated 8 April 1875". This is believed to be the last of his surveys done for the Queensland Government.

        It is not known what Ralph did between 1875 and his death in 1884. He could have picked up an illness from Cooktown such as dysentery or Gulf fever, which reduced his ability to be gainfully employed. He could well have pursued his profession as licensed surveyor. He might even have been tempted by one of the post Palmer gold or other mineral (tin or wolfram) rushes, between the years 1880 when JR was born and June 1883  when lastborn Douglas Reid was conceived. It certainly would have been a strong enough temptation, despite the responsibility of a young family.

        Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson died on 20 February 1884, according to his death certificate, in Brisbane. It is understood that he was sick, and went to Brisbane for medical treatment. His wife, Margery Dill Godschall Johnson gave birth to her youngest child Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, in Townsville, six days later, on 26 February 1884. She would have been in no position to accompany her dying husband to Brisbane for medical treatment. It should be noted though that in her application for Letters of Administration of her husband' estate, Margery said that her husband died at Woogaroo. Such is contained in an affidavit she swore in support of her Application, which affidavit was filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland on 20 September 1884.

        Margery Dill Godschall Johnson, now a widow, resided at "Mayfield" at Mt. Louisa, near Townsville, after Ralph's death. This may have been the family residence for a considerable period of time that the family resided in Townsville while Ralph was alive. The clue came from a reference in the diary of Margery's mother, Eliza, to Margery having her hands full with young children at home at Mayfield.

        The entry in the diary is dated 9 August 1890:

        This is Margery's birthday. I suppose she will be home at Mayfield now with her boisterous boys.

        It is preceded by an earlier entry in Eliza Reid's diary:

        Wed 3rd Au. Dear Smith. Margery left Sydney last night by the Cinda. The boat was to have left Saturday 5pm. But did not go till 11 pm. She saw the great fire. It was a grand sight.

        A map of Townsville published by the Surveyor general's Office in 1886, two years after Ralph's death, shows Portions 111, 165, and 326 , Parish of Coonamble, as being owned by R. C. G. Johnson. The road shown along the eastern boundary of Portion 111 in this map, although unconstructed, was known as Hastings Street, Mt. Louisa, and connected with the Dalrymple Road at the south-eastern corner of Portion 111. A camping reserve at Mt. Louisa adjoined these portions. Dalrymple Road was gazetted through the Camping Reserve after 1886, and Portions 111 and 165 eventually had frontages to this road. Portion 326 fronted Thorn Street. A later map, dated 1931, shows the owner's name for Portion 326 as M. D. Johnson, but the other two portions remained in the name R. C. G. Johnson. This map may merely be retaining the names of the original selector. All three portions have since been subdivided into smaller allotments.

        Mayfield was probably the family home till Margery's death in 1912. The children would have left home in due course as they grew up, although this may not have been till they were in their twenties. Eldest son Ralph, for instance, may have resided there when he took a job with the Townsville Municipality. His letter of resignation from this job has survived and is dated 1891. Son John, known as Jack, could have left home early as he was known to have become a miner and an adventurer to the south seas Islands. He would have been fourteen in 1891, and that may have been the age at which he set off.

        It is not known how Margery supported herself. She certainly could afford a trip to Sydney to see her mother. She could have had insurance from her husband's death. For someone who was prudent enough to get her husband to execute a will in her favour on the date of their marriage, life insurance, very common in those days in the absence of any government pension support, would have been a natural step. Mind you, she was no stranger to a husband dying early and leaving a widow with a young family to support. Her own mother was left the same way, and all the young Reids went out to work.

        Margery Dill Reid died in 1921.

                                                CHAPTER 19

DOUGLAS REID CHOLOMONDELEY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:  

        Dealing firstly with the last born of Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, and Margery Dill Reid, namely Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson.

        Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was born on 26 February 1884 at Townsville in North Queensland.

        In 1912, he married Alice Elizabeth Caseley.

        Alice Elizabeth Caseley was born on 5 November 1888, at Poplar, England.

        They had eight children, six sons and two daughters. One son died in his teenage years.

        The sons were John Godschall Johnson, Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson, Peter Godschall Johnson, Frank Godschall Johnson and Thomas Godschall Johnson.

        The daughters were Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson, and Rachael Godschall Johnson.

        The eldest son, John Godschall Johnson, was born on 4 November 1912, at Brisbane, in the State of Queensland.

        The second eldest son, Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was born on 11 August 1914, at Brisbane.

        The third eldest son, Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson, was born on 19 April 1916, at Brisbane.

        The fourth oldest son, Peter Godschall Johnson, was born on 21 August 1921 at Brisbane. He survived only to 15 years of age and died on 12 July 1936 at Townsville.

        The fifth oldest son was Frank Godschall Johnson. Frank Godschall Johnson was born on 10 May 1923 at Townsville. It is noted that by 1923, the family had moved from Brisbane to Townsville.

        The youngest son was Thomas Godschall Johnson. Thomas Godschall Johnson was born on 18 September 1929, at Townsville.

        The older of the two daughters was Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson. Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson was born on 31 December 1919 at Brisbane.

        The younger of the two daughters was Rachael Godschall Johnson. Rachael Godschall Johnson was born on 18 November 1925 at Townsville.

        Douglas Reid Godschall Johnson died in 1965.

        His obituary, as it appeared in a Townsville newspaper, read:

        Mr. Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, who was well known in Townsville, died recently in Sydney at the age of 81. Mr. Johnson was born in a private residence at the corner of Alexandra and Stuart Streets North Ward (Townsville), in 1884, and he lived in Queensland all his life, mainly in Townsville. He conducted a newsagency near the Old Queen's Park Hotel in North Ward, and later lived at Belgian Gardens and Stuart (then known as Stewart's Creek). In his retirement, Mr. Johnson resided at Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island. His father, Ralph Godschall Johnson, was one of the original surveyors in the planning of Townsville following the first settlement, and his grandfather, known as "Gentleman Johnson", was the first Clerk of the Queensland Parliament following this State's separation from New South Wales. Mr. Johnson had many interests, especially in the field of natural history. While at Nelly Bay he found several aboriginal stone axes, and he presented the best preserved of these to the Sydney Museum. Mr. Johnson also presented a large specimen of stonefish to the Adelaide Museum and made others available to the Nelly Bay School. Mr. Johnson is survived by his widow, Mrs. Alice Elizabeth Johnson and seven children- Rachael, Henry, Frank, and Thomas, of Townsville, and John, Douglas and Charlotte of Sydney. His remains were cremated at Rookwood, Sydney. The ashes will later be placed in the family grave in Townsville.

        As the Obituary stated, Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was survived by seven of his eight children.

                                                CHAPTER 20

JOHN GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        John Godschall Johnson, the eldest son, married Phyllis Sarah Mather.

        John and Phyllis had three children: Peter Douglas Godschall Johnson, Ralph George Godschall Johnson, and Alice Elizabeth Katherine Godschall Johnson.

        John is a violinmaker extraordinaire. There is a separate pages dedicated to his achievements.

                                                CHAPTER 21

DOUGLAS REID CHOLOMONDELEY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The second son of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson.

        Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, (the younger), was born in Brisbane in 1914.

        Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson married Ellen Elizabeth Hardy.

        Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Ellen Elizabeth Hardy had two children: Ian Douglas Godschall Johnson and Leslie Godschall Johnson.

IAN DOUGLAS  GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Ian Douglas Godschall Johnson married Christine Emma Seddon.

        Ian Douglas and Christine Emma Godschall Johnson, nee` Seddon, had two children, Mark Ian Godschall Johnson, and Daniel Eric Godschall Johnson.

LESLIE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:       

        The second son of Douglas Reid and Ellen Elizabeth Godschall Johnson, nee` Hardy, was Leslie Godschall Johnson.

        Leslie Godschall Johnson married Jennifer Dawn Moore.

        Leslie and Jennifer Dawn Godschall Johnson, nee` Moore, bore what may have been the first Godschall Johnson to be born in the Mother Country, England, in over 100 years, namely Joseph Brendon Godschall Johnson.

        Joseph Brendon Godschall Johnson was born 1981 at London.

                                                CHAPTER 22

ALFRED HENRY COLE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:       

        The third son to be born to Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson.

        Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson was born 1916 at Brisbane.

        Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson married Edna Greer.

        Alfred Henry Cole Godschall Johnson and Edna Greer had three children: Lindsay Godschall Johnson Barbara Godschall Johnson, and Peter John Godschall Johnson.

                                                CHAPTER 23

CHARLOTTE EMILY COLE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The eldest daughter of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson.

        Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson was born 1919, at Brisbane.

        Charlotte Emily Cole Godschall Johnson married Stephen George McNeil.

        Stephen George and Charlotte Cole McNeil, nee` Godschall Johnson, had no children.

                                                CHAPTER 24

PETER GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        The fourth son of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Peter Godschall Johnson.

        Peter Godschall Johnson was born 1921, at Townsville.

        He died at age 14, on 12 July 1936, and is buried in the Townsville General Cemetery.

                                                CHAPTER 25

FRANK GODSCHALL JOHNSON:       

        The fifth son of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Frank Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Godschall Johnson was born 1923 at Townsville.

        Frank Godschall Johnson married Valerie May Collins.

        Frank Godschall Johnson and Valerie May Collins had five children.

        The surviving children were Linda Joy Godschall Johnson, Catherine Gay Godschall Johnson, Jennifer Ellen Godschall Johnson, and Elizabeth Audrey Godschall Johnson.

                                                CHAPTER 26

RACHAEL GODSCHALL JOHNSON:  

        The younger daughter of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley is Rachael Godschall Johnson.

        Rachael Godschall Johnson was born 1925 at Townsville.

        Rachael Godschall Johnson married Gilbert Thomas Francis.

        Gilbert Thomas Francis was born in the United States of America.

        Gilbert Thomas and Rachael Francis, nee` Godschall Johnson, had nine children: Gilbert Thomas Francis, Diana Elizabeth Francis, Douglas Henry Francis, Rachael Godschall Francis, Rebecca Alice Francis, Clare Emily Francis, Richard Joseph Francis, Charlotte Christiane Francis, and Eva Louise Francis.

        Gilbert Thomas Francis, husband to Rachael Godschall Johnson, died on 27 April 1974, at Townsville, in north Queensland.

                                                CHAPTER 27

THOMAS GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The youngest son of Douglas Reid Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Alice Elizabeth Caseley was Thomas Godschall Johnson.

        Thomas Godschall Johnson was born 1929 at Townsville.

        Thomas Godschall Johnson married Yvonne Suzette Morphet-Berridge.

        Thomas Godschall Johnson and Yvonne Suzette Morphet- Berridge have five children: Coralie Yvonne Godschall Johnson, Vivienne Alice Godschall Johnson, Richard Thomas Godschall Johnson, Glen Anthony Godschall Johnson and Rodney Stephen Godschall Johnson.

                                                CHAPTER 28

JAMES REID GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The second youngest son of Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, and Margery Dill Reid, was James Reid Godschall Johnson.

        James Reid Godschall Johnson was born in 1880.

        In 1913, he married Marguerite Helen Landy (“Pearl”).

        Pearl Landy was a daughter of Patrick Landy and Mary O'Keefe.

        Patrick Landy was a son of James Landy and Honoria Wallace from Frankford, in the County of Kilkenney, Ireland.

        James Landy and Honoria Wallace had twelve children; Nicholas Landy, born in 1833, Edmond Landy, born in 1835, Catherine Landy, born in 1836, Patrick Landy, born in 1837, John Landy, born in 1839, James Landy, born in 1841, Mary Landy, born in 1843, Michael Landy, born in 1845, Margaret Landy, born in 1849, Richard Landy, born in 1851, another Richard Landy, born in 1853, and Margaret Landy, born in 1856. Some of these may have died young.

        Nicholas Landy is known to have married Johanna Cormack;, and had children: John (1873), James C. (1873), John (1875), Nano (1877), Richard (1878), Michael (1880), Mary Jos (1882), and Margaret (1884).

        John Landy married Alice Egan, and had children: James (1884), Honoria (1885), Brigid (1887), Margaret (1888), Brigid (11889), Mary (1891), and Larry (1892).

        Patrick Landy married Mary O' Keefe. Patrick Landy and Mary O'Keefe had seven children: James Landy, Patrick Landy, Wallace Landy, Gertie Landy, Kathleen Landy, May Landy, and Pearl Landy.

        James Landy married N. Bunworth and had a son, Peter Landy.

        Patrick Landy, (son of Patrick Landy and Mary O'Keefe), married C. Cosgrove, and had eight children: Patricia, Maureen, Barry, Pat, Sheila, Billie, Brian and John.

        Wallace Landy married L. Hendry and had five children: Frank, John, Kevin, Pat and Elma.

        Kathleen Landy married D. Ryan.

        May Landy married Behan, and had a son Harold, and daughters.

        Pearl Landy married James Reid Godschall Johnson.

        James Reid and Pearl Godschall Johnson had three children, Rita, Wallace and Reid.

        Rita married Fred Frame, a National Bank manager.

        Wallace is dead. He had a son called Ralph, who was in Mackay.

        Reid Godschall Johnson married a Rita and had daughters Rita Ann Godschall Johnson, and Constance Godschall Johnson. 

        James preferred to be known as Jim or "J.R."

        Jim used to own the Deluxe picture theatre in Ingham, in partnership with his brother Frank. They also owned the cafes and shops to either side of the picture theatre. Jim also owned a house on the beach at Lucinda. His brother Frank also owned houses on the beach at Lucinda, a two story one and a longish one.

        Jim was best man at the wedding, in 1910, of his brother, Frank Godschall Johnson to Leila Josephine Bonning. He himself was to marry three years later.

                                                CHAPTER 29

RALPH GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        The second, and eldest surviving son of Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Margery Dill Reid, was Ralph Godschall Johnson.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson was born on 12 August 1872 at Burnside on the O'Connell River, near Mackay.

        Ralph went to work at age 13 years at a printing office, in Townsville, and went to school at night. His hand was crushed in a printing machine. He refused to let the doctors amputate his hand. Later his hand returned to normal, and gave little trouble.

        It is also said that he lost a lot of money speculating in Broken Hill mining shares, but this cannot be verified.

        In 1897, he married, near Ingham,  his first cousin, Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson, daughter of William Butler Godschall Johnson. They lived near Ingham for several years in a lovely old home which is now an old peoples' home run by the Church of England. Their first three children were born there. The family then moved to the Antigua sugar farm, which Ralph farmed with his brother Frank.

        They had five sons and five daughters.

        Their eldest son was Ralph Godschall Johnson.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson was born on 24 August 1898.

        Their oldest daughter was Mary Gertrude Godschall Johnson (“Molly”).

        Molly or Mary Gertrude, was born on 3 May 1900.

        Their next son was John William Douglas Godschall Johnson.

        John William Douglas Godschall Johnson was born on 24 May 1901.

        All the above three first born were born in the old home at Ingham.

        Their third son, and fourth child, was Frank Edward Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Edward Godschall Johnson was born on 20 May 1904 on the farm "Antigua" at Ingham. This was when the family had moved out to the farm.

        The fifth child to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Margery Florence Godschall Johnson.

        Margery Florence Godschall Johnson was born on 28 June 1906.

        The sixth child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Mabel Jessie Godschall Johnson.

        Mabel Jessie Godschall Johnson was born on 28 June 1909.

        The seventh child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Joan Eleanor Godschall Johnson.

        Joan Eleanor Godschall Johnson was born on 16 August 1912.

        The eighth child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Benjamin Godschall Johnson.

        Benjamin Godschall Johnson was born on 26 May 1915.

        The ninth child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Betty Godschall Johnson.

         Betty Godschall Johnson was born on 19 December 1917.

        The tenth, last, or youngest child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson, was Macfarlane Edmond Godschall Johnson.

        Macfarlane Edmond Godschall Johnson was born on 12 May 1921.

        In 1898, Ralph and Eleanor fitted in a visit to England and Scotland, possibly on their honeymoon, where they were given an inscribed silver cup from Gerty Reid, wife of George Reid.

        Some years later, Ralph took a trip to South Africa, on business, with his wife and three of his children. While away the house at Antigua burned to the ground. They lost all their valuables. Eleanor was totally shattered. However, they rebuilt the home, and lived there for a few more years. They then moved into the township of Ingham.

        Ralph became an auctioneer and commission agent. Not making much money out of this, they sold their Ingham house, and the commission agency, and went to live on a big farm known as Loch Lea. This farm was bought, and later resold to John Rowe, who later became Queensland Primary Industries Minister in the Government. It was said that he had sold out before the good prices in the sugar industry. Whilst they owned Loch Lea they had tennis courts and a croquet lawn. Later, they moved to Runcorn, in Brisbane, where they rented a house for a couple of years. They then moved back north after the 1918 cyclone.

        Ralph was Town Clerk in Ingham for a short while. He also stood for Parliament in 1918.

        Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson had been born in 1878. She was to die on 12 May 1921 at Mackay.

        Some time after her death, her widowed husband, Ralph Godschall Johnson was to marry again.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson married a second wife, Flora Alice Mills.

        Flora Alice Mills was born on 24 December 1896 at Mt. Britton in Queensland.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson was to die on 5 December 1944 at Mackay.

                                                CHAPTER 30

RALPH GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        The eldest son of Ralph Godschall Johnson and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson, was Ralph Godschall Johnson.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson was born on 24 August 1898.

        In 1935, he married Marion Ethel Mott.

        They lived in Mackay, and had no issue.

        Ralph Godschall Johnson died at Bundaberg in 1964.

                                                CHAPTER 31

MARY GERTRUDE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:     

        The second child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Mary Gertrude Godschall Johnson.

        Mary Gertrude Godschall Johnson was born on 3 May 1900.

        Mary Gertrude Godschall Johnson was known as "Molly".

        Molly married Charles Davidson, later to become Postmaster General of Australia, and who was also later to be knighted to Sir Charles Davidson, thereby making Molly Lady Davidson.

        Charles Davidson was born on 14 September 1897, at Brisbane. He was the son of Alexander Black Davidson and his wife Marian Perry. Alexander, his father, came from Aberdeen in Scotland. His parents were William Davidson and his wife Agnes Mathieson, who were married on 11 January 1852 at Tarves, Aberdeen, Scotland.

        Alexander Black Davidson was christened on 23 June 1863 at Logie Buchan Aberdeen. His siblings were Margaret (1857), Mary Jane (1860), Isabella (1862), and Agnes (1866). All children were christened at Logie Buchan, Aberdeen.

        Charles was educated at Townsville Grammar School, and Trinity college, Cambridge.

        Charles served with the 42nd Battalion of the Australian Infantry Forces between 1916 and 1919. He was wounded in France.

        They were married on 21 December 1924 at St. Thomas' Church of England, North Sydney.

        From 1925, Charles and Molly engaged in sugar cane farming. Charles held various offices in the Queensland Cane Growers Association, and was Assistant Secretary of the Australian Sugar Producers Association.

        Charles served again with the 42nd Battalion of  the Australian Infantry Forces in the Second World War, between 1939 and 1944. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1942. Names like "Charlie's Hill" and "Davidson Ridge", in the battlefields of Papua New Guinea, owe their origin to Charles' wartime efforts.

        In 1955, Charles was made an Honorary Colonel of the 42nd Infantry Battalion (Capricornia Regiment).

        Charles was Member of Capricornia for the years 1946 to 1949 then Member for Capricornia for the years 1949 to 1963 in the House of Representatives for the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. He represented the Country Party and was Deputy Government Whip for the years 1950 to 1956, then Minister for the Navy 1956 to 1958, then Post Master general 1956 to 1963. During his time as Post Master general, both television and Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) were introduced and many other important improvements to postal and telegraph services were made.

        From 1964 to 1970 he was a Director of Telephone and Electrical Industries, and from 1970 to 1975 a consultant to Plessey Telecommunications. He was also a Director of Magellan Petroleum.

        Charles was interested in cricket and tennis. His clubs were the United Services in Brisbane and the Masonic Lodge in Rockhampton.

        Molly and Charles Davidson had three children: Joan Mary Davidson, born 1931, John Alexander Davidson, born 1936, and Margery Elizabeth Davidson, born 1938.

        Margery, later Stutchbury had children, Judith, Sarah, Elizabeth and Ralph.

        Lady Davidson lived at Yeronga, Brisbane in the State of Queensland, in her last years before her death.

        Evelyn Maunsell, wife of Charles Maunsell, of Mount Mulgrave Station, and later farming near Malanda on the Atherton Tableland, recalls:

        One day, plodding along the muddy track through our scrub, I met a bullock team pulling a wagon-load of logs and driven by a young man so spotless and clean in fresh trousers and Jackie Howe singlet that I stopped to talk to him. His name was Charlie Davidson, he was just back from the war, and was staying with his sister and brother-in-law and helping out by driving the bullock team.

        I met him again several times after that. People called him Prince. He told me it was to distinguish him because his uncle's, cousin's, and his own names were all C.W. Davidson. He was always so neat and spotless that the name suited him. After rising to the rank of Colonel in World War II, he played a prominent part in the organisation of the Country Party, became Postmaster-General, and now he is Sir Charles Davidson. But I shall always remember him that first day up at Malanda, spotlessly clean in the mud, and driving a team of bullocks.

        In 1968, Evelyn's one and only son Ron Maunsell, won a Country Party plebiscite and in March 1969, took a seat in Federal Parliament as Senator Ron Maunsell.

        Charles was the Member of the House of Representatives for the Electorate of Capricornia between the years 1946 and 1949, then for the electorate of Dawson from 1949.

                                                CHAPTER 32

JOHN WILLIAM DOUGLAS GODSCHALL JOHNSON: 

        The second son of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was John (Jack) William Douglas Godschall Johnson.

        John William Douglas Godschall Johnson was born on 24 May 1901.

        He married Selina Wilks.

        John William Douglas and Selina Godschall Johnson had a son, John Victor Godschall Johnson born 1935.

        It is understood that John Victor Godschall Johnson had a son.

                                                CHAPTER 33

FRANK EDWARD GODSCHALL JOHNSON:        

        The third son, and fourth child, of Ralph Godschall Johnson and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson, was Frank Edward Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Edward Godschall Johnson was born on 20 May 1904 at the sugar cane farm known as Antigua outside Ingham.

        Frank Edward Godschall Johnson married Doris Muriel Bell.

        Frank Edward and Doris Muriel Godschall Johnson had four children: Marsali Merle Godschall Johnson, Margery Elizabeth Godschall Johnson, Beverley Ann Godschall Johnson, and Frank Robert Godschall Johnson.

        All four children subsequently married.

        Frank Edward Godschall Johnson, husband to Doris Muriel Bell, and father to four offspring and grandfather to 12 of the next generation, was to die on 27 May 1976 at Mackay.

                                                CHAPTER 34

MARGERY FLORENCE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:       

        The fifth child of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Margery Florence Godschall Johnson.

        Margery Florence Godschall Johnson was born 1906, at Ingham.

        She married Cecil Thomas Wade, at St. Thomas's Church of England, South Brisbane.

        Cecil Thomas and Margery Florence Wade, nee` Godschall Johnson, had three children: Cecily Florence Wade, Thomas Ralph Wade, and Judith Rose Mary Wade.

        There were ten grandchildren.

        Margery Florence Wade lived at Charleville, and her sister Joan Eleanor Wade, nee Godschall Johnson, also lived at Charleville, but had no children.

                                                CHAPTER 35

MABEL JESSIE GODSCHALL JOHNSON:  

        The sixth child of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Mabel Jessie Godschall Johnson.

        Mabel Jessie Godschall Johnson was born 1909, at Ingham.

        She married an August Grimm of German extraction, and had two children: John August Grimm, born on 15 May 1935, but who died on 19 March 1937, and Ralph August Grimm, born 1938.

        August Grimm died on 19 May 1937 at Mackay, before he could see the birth of his second son.

        Mabel Jessie Grimm, nee` Godschall Johnson, married a second time.

        Her second marriage was to Alexander Atkinson.

        Alexander Atkinson was born 1902 in Northern Ireland.

        Alexander and Mabel Jessie Atkinson, formerly Grimm, nee` Godschall Johnson, had five children: Margaret Ann Atkinson, Ian Alexander Atkinson, Betty Edith Atkinson, Gwen Enid Atkinson, and Peter John Atkinson.

        Alexander Atkinson was to die on 17 May 1973.

        His youngest child, Peter John Atkinson, had died three years earlier, on 19 June 1970.

        There is a surviving note recording a conversation had with Mabel in later years, speaking of her tragic life. She said that her first husband was killed in a tractor accident at Blivisbury near Mackay in 1937; two months later her oldest child died, aged two years. Her three daughters and two sons from her second marriage were, at that time, still alive.

                                                CHAPTER 36

JOAN ELEANOR GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The seventh child of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Joan Eleanor Godschall Johnson.

        Joan Eleanor Godschall Johnson was born 1912, at Ingham.

        She married Stewart Munro Dunn.

        Stewart Munro Dunn was born 1909, and died on 31 July 1945, in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp.

        Joan Eleanor Dunn, nee` Godschall Johnson, remarried, to Theodors Francis Wade.

        Theodore Francis Wade was born 1913 at Charleville in Western Queensland.

        They had no children.

                                                CHAPTER 37

BENJAMIN GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The eighth child of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Benjamin Godschall Johnson.

        Benjamin Godschall Johnson was born 1915.

        He married Phyllis Ada Teale.

        Benjamin and Phyllis Ada Godschall Johnson had seven children, Pamela Godschall Johnson, Gloria, Mavin Godschall Johnson, Bernard James Godschall Johnson, Glen William Godschall Johnson, Laurel Joan Godschall Johnson, Gregory Steven Godschall Johnson, and Christopher Ralph Godschall Johnson .and had twelve grandchildren.

                                                CHAPTER 38

BETTY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The ninth child of Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Betty Godschall Johnson.

        Betty Godschall Johnson was born in 1917 at Runcorn in Brisbane.

        She married Arthur Williamson.

        Arthur and Betty Williamson, nee` Godschall Johnson, had four children: Mary Eleanor Williamson, Joan Ethel Williamson, Peter Arthur Williamson, and Paul Robert Williamson, and 13 grandchildren.

                                                CHAPTER 39

MACFARLANE EDMOND GODSCHALL JOHNSON:    

        The tenth and youngest child to be born to Ralph and Mary Eleanor Godschall Johnson was Macfarlane Edmond Godschall Johnson.

        Macfarlane Edmond Godschall Johnson was born in 1921.

        Macfarlane Edmond Godschall Johnson married Thelma Ethel Dinte.

        Macfarlane Edmond and Thelma Ethel Godschall Johnson had four children: Lex Macfarlane Johnson,

Diane Johnson, Lebon Edmond Johnson, and Trena Johnson, and four grandchildren.

                                                CHAPTER 40

FRANK GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The fourth son of Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson and Margery Dill Reid was Frank Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Godschall Johnson was born on 22 November 1878 at Townsville.

        On 24 November 1910, Frank Godschall Johnson married Leila Josephine Bonning.

        Leila Josephine Bonning was a daughter of George Bonning, carrier, of Ingham, and his wife, Mary O'Leary.

        Leila Josephine Bonning was born in Ingham in the north of Queensland on 20 August 1892.

        Leila was 18 when she married Frank Godschall Johnson.  

        The wedding was conducted at the Holy Trinity Church at Ingham, by Wilhaa Harne Bisset- Carrie, a priest of the Church of England.

        Frank Godschall Johnson is shown on the Marriage Certificate as a 31 year old farmer, a bachelor, of Ingham.

        He gave his birthplace as Townsville, and parents Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson, surveyor, and Margery Dill Reid.

        Leila Josephine Bonning gave her marriage certificate details as an 18 year old hospital nurse, resident at Ingham, unmarried, born at Ingham to George Bonning, carter, and his wife, Mary O'Leary.

        The witnesses to the signing of the marriage register were James Reid Godschall Johnson and Ethel Mary Bonning which accords with the wedding photo showing them as best man and chief bridesmaid respectively.

        The wedding was followed by a wedding breakfast at "Blythswood" after the 4 o'clock wedding.

        A wedding invitation addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Christie, has survived the annals of time. Leila's younger sister, Etheline Jane Bonning married William McNaughton Christie, on 20 August, 1913, almost three years later. The Mr. & Mrs. Christie were probably Peter and Grace Christie, who had emigrated to north Queensland from Inverary and Glenaray, Argyll, Scotland, with their children, in the 1880s.

        Leila Bonning was the fourth of ten children to be born to George Bonning and his wife Mary O'Leary. George Bonning and Mary O'Leary were married in Queensland in 1887. George was the son of Job Bonning and his wife Hannah Prior, both of whom had emigrated to Queensland, probably some time before, when their offspring (George, Charles, and Thomas Frederick) were small. Job's parentage was Thomas Bonning and Elizabeth Long. Hannah's parents were Thomas and Pamelia Prior.

        Frank and Leila Godschall Johnson had three sons and two daughters.

        The sons were Frank, Ron, and Marcus, and the daughters were Margery and Mary.

        In the early 1900's, Frank, in partnership with his brother Ralph, worked the sugar cane farm named Antigua, after their ancestral holdings in the West Indies, on the Stone River. At this stage, William Butler Godschall Johnson managed a cattle station Stonleigh at the head of the Stone River. Another person to figure later in this story, Steve Degiovanni, who, with his wife, emigrated to Ingham from Italy in 1911, built the hotel at the Stone River.

        Then Frank got married to Leila and took his new bride back to Antigua.

        In 1919, Frank and Leila built the White Rose Cafe in Ingham. Frank and his brother Jim also bought the Deluxe theatre in Ingham, and the cafes either side of it with shops. The White Rose cafe was leased to a family called Con for about fifty years before Leila finally sold it to them.    

        In 1925, Frank then developed a farm of his own on the Townsville Road, a farm that was to become one of the biggest in Queensland. It grew to 400 acres, by astute purchases of neighbouring soldier settlement blocks that were unworkable by their original allottees, and amalgamation became necessary through economies of scale. The farm would eventually generate a harvest of 16,000 tons of cane.

        In 1928, Frank built the expansive Queenslander house on that property. The timber for the house was ordered from Maryborough and railed up to Tokalon siding. There had been a disastrous cyclone and floods in 1927, and Frank said that he was going to build a nice strong house, which is what he set about doing. The posts used under the house were as solid as a rock, and were still standing in 1982. The floor was cyclone bolted to the posts, the walls were cyclone bolted to the floor, and the ceiling was cyclone bolted to the walls. It was a very big spacious house, and very roomy inside.

        They had a tennis court, and are remembered for the cordiality of their invitations with the younger set in the district for tennis parties. Dot, at the time girlfriend of Frank junior, also remembers evenings spent on the local beach in large groups of teenagers. Both Frank and Jim had beach houses at Lucinda. Marcus and Frank both owned fashionable Harley motorbikes in the 1930's, with sidecars for female friends.

        At some stage, the farm was named Fmaron, named after the three boys, Frank, Marcus and Ron.

        When Frank senior suffered a stroke about 6 or 7 years before his death, he had to be moved into Ingham to be cared for by his wife Leila, in a house property they had purchased in town, two doors down from where Leila's elderly mother was living.

        The farm was left to be run by the three sons. Frank had served in the R.A.A.F. during the years before his father's stroke, and made a decision not to return to the farm but stay in Brisbane after the war and work for the Valuer General's Department. Ron also decided to sell out. Ron too had served in the preceding war years in the R.A.A.F. Marcus purchased his brothers interests.

        One excerpt from a early newspaper shows that Frank was quite an inventive genius. Even before his marriage, he was quite adept at turning his hand to new inventions to service the farm.

        In a 1968 issue of the Herbert River Times, featured an article entitled "Looking Back", which said:

        Looking back today turns its attention to the year of 1904 and discovers that local farmers were as inventive then as they are now...

        Dec 5 1904:- The trash cutter invented by Mr. Frank Johnson of Antigua, Stone River, arrived during the week, and will be tested at Mr. Townson's place at an early date. Since the burning of trash has fallen into disuse farmers have gone to the expense of collecting it into drills preparatory to ploughing it in, and it is claimed that Mr. Johnson's patent will effect considerable savings in that direction besides being more efficacious.

        Frank died in 1951 and is buried in the Ingham General Cemetery.

        After Frank's death, Leila retired to live at Coorparoo to be close to her eldest daughter, Margery.

        Leila Josephine Johnson, nee` Bonning, died on 3 July 1988, aged 96, one month before her 97th birthday.

        She was 95 years old at date of death.

        She was survived by four of her five offspring, Leila Margery Godschall Johnson, then aged 77 years, Frank Godschall Johnson, then aged 75 years, Mary Evelyn Godschall Johnson, then aged 74 years, and Marcus George Godschall Johnson, then aged 71 years.

        Leila's funeral service was conducted in the Chapel attached to the Mount Thompson Crematorium, and it was during that service that the following Eulogy was delivered:

        We are here today to farewell a fine old Queenslander - Mrs. Leila Johnson, who was nearly 96 years old.

        Formerly Leila Bonning, she was born in Ingham in 1892 and, when about 17 years of age, began a nursing career at the local hospital. She was a dignified and quiet beautiful young woman, so, before long, she was married to a young cane farmer called Frank Johnson.

        They set up home on land outside Ingham - rather a primitive place (or was in those days) - dirt floors, no refrigeration, and only intermittent supplies from the township. In spite of this, or perhaps, because of it, she became an excellent cook and house-wife, managing always to keep a high standard of conduct and of the social niceties.

        As time went on, the couple moved to other areas outside Ingham, to carve out other farms. It was hard work in the heat, but the Johnsons struggled on, and finally took up virgin land on the Townsville Road, where they built a lovely Queenslander type home, with wide verandas, an orchard and gardens, set in the midst of what became a beautiful cane farm. By this time, too, they had also purchased a picture theatre and other real estate in Ingham itself, so in their middle years, they had something to show for all their effort.

        In her husband's last years, Mrs. Johnson gave up all outside interests and devoted herself entirely to his care. She was a good and faithful wife and was always, almost fiercely supportive of her children - home and family meant everything to her. On her husband's death at age 72, she bought a house in Coorparoo, and here she lived alone until three years ago.

        She had the sorrow of losing her youngest son, Ron, eight years ago, and, though deeply grieved, in her usual proud and quiet manner she made little outward show.

        Her other two sons and her two daughters are present today, and , with their families, are sad indeed at the passing of this reserved but valiant and strong-minded pioneer of Ingham sugar farming - their dear Mother.

        Christie and Bella King were full-blooded Aboriginals who worked on the cane farm. In 1917, Christie pulled young four year old Frank Godschall Johnson out of the well next to the shed on the farm thereby saving his life. Frank, senior, swore that for this act, Christie and his wife would find support and accommodation on their property for as long as they lived. Frank also swore that Christie King was one of the best workers he ever had. The family built a worker's cottage on the farm at Ingham where Christie and his wife Bella lived till they died.

                                                CHAPTER 41

FRANK GODSCHALL JOHNSON:       

        The eldest son of Frank Godschall Johnson and Leila Josephine Bonning was Frank Godschall Johnson.

        Frank Godschall Johnson was born in 1913 at Brisbane.

        Frank Godschall Johnson married  Doris Edna May Finter (“Dot”).

        Dot was a young school teacher at Ingham when she met Frank. Dot and her two sisters were born in the Tingalpa school house, where their father was schoolmaster.

        Frank served in the R.A.A.F. during World War II, then worked for the Valuer General's Department in Brisbane, after selling out his interest in the sugar cane farm at Ingham to brother Marcus.

        They had three children, Marilyn Godschall Johnson, Lorraine Godschall Johnson, and Rosemary Godschall Johnson.

        Frank died on 14 January 1993.

        The eulogy at his funeral read:

        Frank was born in Brisbane, but lived nearly all his early life in Ingham, the eldest son of pioneer sugar farmers. He went to school at All Souls Charters Towers, Brisbane Grammar School, and Gatton College. He married Doris in 1939 and became the father of three daughters. Frank served with the R.A.A.F. for two and a half years, including a time in Canada. Soon after the war, he sold his farm to his brother and brought his family to Brisbane to live. Having studied to become a valuer, he served with the Valuer General's Department until his retirement at age 65 years and spent the next 15 years living quietly at Hamilton.

                                                CHAPTER 42

RONALD CHOLMONDELEY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        The next son of Frank Godschall Johnson and Leila Josephine Bonning was Ronald Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson.    

        Ronald Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson was born 24 February 1923 at Ingham.

        Ronald served with the R.A.A.F. during World War II.

        After the War, he married Victoria Lina Lazzaroni.

        They had four children, Ronald Godschall Johnson, Jean Godschall Johnson, Gary Godschall Johnson, and Dennis Godschall Johnson.

        Ronald Cholmondeley Godschall Johnson died in 1980.

                                                CHAPTER 43

MARCUS GODSCHALL JOHNSON:    

        The next son of Frank Godschall Johnson and Leila Josephine Bonning was Marcus George Godschall Johnson.        

        Marcus George Godschall Johnson was born in 1917 at Ingham.

        Marcus George Godschall Johnson married Guglielmina (Mina) Degiovanni, daughter of pioneer Italians in the Ingham district, Steve and Maria Degiovanni, from Conzano near Casale, Monferrato in Piedmont, Italy.

        Mena's sister, Tessa, is renowned as an excellent cook who ran a well known restaurant, Chez Tessa, on Petrie Terrace. Tessa then became Tessa Morbelli. Tessa was also born in Ingham, as was Mena, as their parents emigrated to North Queensland immediately after their marriage in Italy.

        Marcus and Mina have two sons, Frank Stephen Godschall Johnson, and Marcus Godschall Johnson.

        Marcus was mentioned in the  Brisbane Telegraph on 1 December 1978:

        Rugby League football followers will feel at home at the new Bribie Island Hotel-Motel near the bridge at Sylvan Beach.

        The manager will be former captain of the Australian league team, and former Brisbane club player, John Sattler. He is pictured with hotel licencee, Mr. Marcus Johnson, and works foreman, Mr. Craig Unsworth.

        The $1.6 million hotel, under construction since May, will open for Christmas.

        It will include 12 self contained motel units, a drive in bottle department, and public and private lounges.   .

                                                CHAPTER 44

MARY EVELYN GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Mary Evelyn Godschall Johnson was born in 1914 at Ingham.

        She married Anthony John Miguel born in 1911 at Ingham.

        Anthony John Miguel served as a Dental Surgeon during World War II.

        His father was an original Spanish migrant and pioneer sugar farmer in the Ingham district, Antonio Miguel.

        Antonio (Senior) came from Santflieu in Spain, 40 km south of the French border, a coastal town. He was an orphan, who fled the advent of incipient fascism in Spain in 1909. The name Miguel is generally a Christian name, and may have been assumed as a surname by Antonio, as an orphan.

        Anthony John and Mary Evelyn Miguel, nee` Godschall, had a daughter Diane Mary Miguel, and a son, Anthony Gordon Miguel.

        Anthony John Miguel died on 2 August 1962 at Toowoomba.

        Before his death he practised dentistry in Toowoomba.

        His funeral cortege took up a whole street.

        The whole town turned out to show their respect.

                                                CHAPTER 45

LEILA MARGERY GODSCHALL JOHNSON:

        Leila Margery Godschall Johnson was born on 25 October 1911 at Ingham in North Queensland.

        She was the eldest daughter to Frank Godschall Johnson and Leila Josephine Bonning.

        In 1938, she married Ernest Frederick Kirchler.

        Ernest introduced to the State of Queensland the Hills Hoist rotary clothes line which replaced wire strung between two poles.

        They bore four daughters: Janelle Rosemary Godschall Kirchler, Carolyn Liane Godschall Kirchler, Cheryl Gillian Godschall Kirchler, and Paula Mary Godschall Kirchler.

        Ernest died 1992. Margery died 1 October 1996

        They are survived by their four daughters with 10 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

§§§§§§

Most of those who are still alive have been deleted from this chronicle, or mentioned only briefing in passing, in accordance with family history conventions. Those who are still alive have considerable exploits of their own, and are no doubt writing their own chapter in history at this very point in time.