Rosewood History

John Farrell and Margaret McKew

Name: John FARRELL
Occupation: Railway Worker, Farmer, Contractor
Birth: 2nd February 1836, Hollyford, Tipperary, Ireland
Immigration: 3rd September 1864, General Caulfield arrived Brisbane, Queensland (Departed Southampton 26 May)
Land: 15th May 1868,  40a Walloon Homestead – application accepted
Land:  4th November 1870, 153 acres 2 roods Ferguson – accepted (Portions 6 & 7)
Land:  Portion 342 -134 acres 2 roods 18 perches – parish of Walloon
Death: 22nd December 1918, Rosewood, Queensland aged 82 years
Burial: 23rd December 1918, Ipswich Cemetery
Religion: Roman Catholic
Father: Thomas FARRELL
Mother: Mary BREEN (BRYAN)

Spouse: Margaret MCKEW
Birth: c. 1843 Anacarty, Tipperary, Ireland
Immigration: 9th April 1863, Queen of the Colonies arrived Moreton Bay (Departed Queenstown 5 January)
Death: 19th November 1925, at her residence in John Street, Rosewood aged 82 years
Burial: 20th November 1925, Ipswich Cemetery
Religion: Roman Catholic
Father: Lancelot “Lanty” McHUGH/MCKEW
Mother: Catherine “Kate” BREEN (BRIEN)
Marriage: 10th September, 1864 Ipswich, Queensland

Children: 11
Catherine FARRELL (1863-1942) = Bernard Jeremiah SLOANE
Michael FARRELL (1865-1940) = Mary Ellen SLOANE
Mary Ann FARRELL (1867-1956)
Margaret FARRELL (1869-1955) = Joseph Patrick WALSH
John Andrew FARRELL (1871-1927) = Ann Jane SMITH
Johanna Agnes FARRELL (1874-1952) = Walter Edwin THOMAS
Thomas Francis FARRELL  (1876-1946) = Alice Bridget HANLON
Ellen FARRELL (1878-1957)
Patrick James FARRELL (1880-1896)
Maud Ethel FARRELL  (1883-1969) = Hugh RAFTER
Evelina FARRELL (1885-1886)

John Farrell arrived in Queensland in September 1864 after an uneventful 100 days’ voyage on the General Caulfield. The health of the 276 passengers was excellent, and the ship had a remarkably clean appearance. This was mostly because the ship was a first class ship which was built expressly for the Indian troop service. It was fitted with Dr. Edmundson’s ventilating apparatus which had been adopted by the Royal Navy. A ship could be be perfectly ventilated during times of no wind by merely directing a current of steam from the condenser into the ship’s hold, which expelled foul air effectually in a few minutes.

John and his fellow shipmates were taken to Ipswich Immigration Depot by the steamer Brisbane.

Margaret sailed with her parents and siblings in 1863. She was a single woman in the later stage of her pregancy. How did she fell about leaving Ireland I wonder? 

Margaret’s voyage was more eventful than John Farrell’s was to be. Twenty-six people stowed away on board the ship at Queenstown and they were not discovered for a considerable time after the vessel left the port. Then measles spread amongst the passengers and thirty-five people died, all infants. 

On arrival, and while the Queen of the Colonies was anchored off the Cape Moreton light-house, a life-boat was manned to convey the body of Mrs Barnfield to shore for burial near the lighthouse. The poor lady was in sight of land when she died in childbirth. When the life-boat returned to the ship, a violent squall pushed her away while the crew were trying to attach a rope. The boat was adrift for a several hours before reaching land. When the search party finally found the wrecked lifeboat on the rocks below Moffatt’s Headland, they went ashore at what is now known as Dicky Beach at Caloundra. On the headland above they found a Pandanus palm tree with its trunk freshly carved with the inscription “1863-Queen of the Colonies”. This lead to a vigorous search and the fourteen people from the life-boat were recovered after a fortnight of exposure, hunger and hardship. (In 1963, a concrete memorial was erected on the site and the section of the tree trunk bearing the inscription was relocated for display at the Royal Queensland Historical Society’s museum in Brisbane.)   Read about the incident here.

I can’t help but think how distressing his wife’s death must have been for Mr Barnfield and how very fortunate Margaret must have felt at the time. The reason I say this is that just short of two months after she sailed, Margaret gave birth to her daughter Catherine (25 February). Margaret would have been very fearful of losing her baby when so many other infants were succumbing to the outbreak of measles. Then, on the verge of landing in a her new country, she would have been aware that a fellow traveller lost her life delivering her own child, and she’d almost made it to land. “There but for the grace of God go I.” – John Bradford.

Catherine’s birth was registered in Brisbane naming John Farrell and Margaret McCue (sic) as her parents. It must have been love because seventeen months later on 3 September 1864, John arrived at Brisbane. He married Margaret in Ipswich a week later on the 10th. 

Catherine was later to become Mrs Bernard Jeremiah Sloane, and the well known proprietress “Cissy” of the Rising Sun Hotel.

John immediately gained employment working on the construction of the railway line, Ipswich to Bigge’s Camp. He was employed as a lengthsman in the Rosewood district and was very proud of the fact that he worked on the first railway bridge erected. He was also flag-man for the contractors Peto, Brassey, and Betts for a year before the Government took the railway over.

He arrived in Rosewood at the end of 1864, the same year he landed. The township, as we know it, was a dense scrub. At that time there was only one house in Rosewood and that was the Rising Sun hotel. The rest of the people lived in tents. 

John Farrell claimed to have been the first resident of Rosewood Gate. After the railway line went through he was appointed to look after the level crossing as the gate keeper. He built a small gate house in the corner of the school yard facing the railway line opposite the hotel, which would later become the site for the Rosewood School of Arts. John Vance and then William Mathew took over as gatekeepers. Later on Margaret Farrell was the gatekeeper and remained as such until Kingsborough Black was appointed as the first Station Master in July 1878.

On the 15th May 1868, after the Macallister Homestead Act came into force, John Farrell took up a 40 acre block in a rich area of scrub land in the parish of Walloon. He took his family to live on his selection.

His wife’s brother, Thomas McKew and his wife Ann, came to live at the gate-house. Their daughter Ellen Mary McKew (born 1868) married Matthew Fraser. In 1945 Ellen Fraser’s obituary said: The late Mrs. Fraser, who before her marriage was Miss Ellen McKew, was born at Rosewood 76 years ago, her home being where the School of Arts now stands.

For many years John was a foreman in the maintenance department of the railway, and was also engaged on the construction work on the first section of the Esk line. After twenty one years he retired from the railway. During these years he had accumulated 500 acres of land where he and his family carried on dairying.

John Farell then became a successful contractor in the local shire. He was the contractor who turned a cleared stretch of rough ground into the main street of Rosewood Gate.

While on the subject of roads, I might mention that the residents of Rosewood have been much pleased with the way in which the main street is being formed, and which, when finished, will be a credit to any town ship. Our Divisional Board has certainly made a happy choice in allotting the contract to our old friend and neighbour, Mr. John Farrell, who is making a really good job. I would say to the Mutdapilly Board and others, “‘Come and see for yourselves; and, if you make your roads after this fashion, you will not be going in for patchwork from month to month, for, when the job is completed, you have a road for years.” [1] 

John had a bad accident one Saturday afternoon in early December 1887. He rode into Ipswich that day, and left his horse at Messrs. Cribb and Foote’s stables. After finishing his business he returned to get his horse and mistakenly got astride a horse belonging to someone else. The horse realised, resented it, and took off up the street. In its wild race the horse ran into a Chinaman’s spring-cart, and finally threw John Farrell off into the gutter. He was picked up and taken to the Ipswich hospital, where he arrived and was attended to by  Dr. Thornton at about half-past four that afternoon. His left hand was very severely injured, the flesh was completely torn off the back of his hand and most of the tendons were ruptured and hanging out of the wound. In fact, about 6in. and 8in of one of the muscles of his forearm was protruding from the back of this hand. The injuries happened when John came into contact with the spring-cart. He was also badly bruised all over. He recovered well from the incident.

In June 1888 he built a shop and houses in the main street.

Advance Rosewood is evidently the motto of some of our citizens, as new buildings are constantly being built. A shop in John street is now being erected to the order of Mr. John Farrell, the contractor being Mr. J. Thompson, and it is said that two dwelling houses are to be put up in the same street to the order of the above-named gentleman.  [2]

Margaret bought land in 1876 – Subdivision 4 of Portion 283 (from W. Mathew’s Selection) which was the land adjoining the Post Office (Nos 9, 11, 13, 15 in John Street). Later parts of 13 and 15 were sold to F. Boughen so “Pictureland”, the first picture theatre, could be erected.

In February 1907 John and Margaret went back to visit their family in Ireland. 

Their home towns Hollyford (Áth an Chuillinn) and Anacarty (Éire Óg) were about 6 miles (9.6 km) away from each other. Both were small villages. When they visited Hollyford there would have had about ten houses, a Catholic Church, a grocer and spirit shop and a school. The counrtyside is hilly with a stream running through it stocked with brown trout. Anacarty would have had about 6 houses, a multi purpose shop and a Catholic Church. It was good for dairying in one area but the rest was boggy. They mainly grew oats and potatoes.

These words were written about John Farrell in March 1909, forty five years after he decided to make Rosewood his home. Today there is no better known man in the district than John Farrell. He always meets the mail train for his paper and to use his own words, he is as happy as a king. 

John worked well into his old age, retiring only a few years before he died. Margaret and their surviving children, three sons and six daughters were all at his bedside at the time of his passing.

Some of John’s contracts.
July 1885  Contract No 11 forming and gravelling near Hallam’s £127, five months accepted.
June 1887 Contracts 4 & 5 Minden and Lowood Road £217 and for six months maintenance £27 accepted.
April 1888  Metalling etc at Rosewood £92 accepted
April 1890 Contract No 24 £25 three months accepted.
June 1891 Contract No 3 £8 accepted.
July 1891 Contract No 2 work on Evan’s hill £7 four weeks accepted Contract No 4 £5 six weeks accepted.
August 1891 Contract No 15 £4 10s, four weeks accepted.
November 1891 Contract No 37 £11 5s 6p one month accepted.
June 1892 Contract No 30 £8, five weeks accepted.
September 1892  Rosewood-Marburg road between Ulric’s and Smith’s farms  Tenders of D. Pfrunder for clerk and J Farrell for overseer £40 each accepted.
November 1892 eleven chains forming at Rosewood £9 16s one month accepted.
March 1894 Contract No 4 work on the Rosewood and Calvert Road £17 6s time three months accepted.
July 1894 Contract No 14 £11 six weeks accepted.
July 1896 Contract No 21 repairs on Rosewood-Minden road £11 4s 6p six weeks accepted.
April 1897 Contract No11 Fourteen chains of forming, loaming etc in McKillip’s paddock £19, two months accepted.
May 1897 work on Tarampa-road £20 accepted.
January 1898 Contract No 23 small cutting and six chains gravelling on Mountain-road £9 8s 6d accepted.
February 1898 Contract No 1 work near the co-operative dairy at Minden £9 18s, six weeks accepted.
April 1898 Contract No 55 £20 4s accepted.
December 1898 Contract No 121 Work at Johansen’s corner-£18, 10 weeks accepted
April 1899 Contract No 9 work on Rosewood-Calvert-road £49 17s three months accepted. Contract No 12 work on Matthews-street £6 five weeks accepted.
May 1899 work on Rosewood-Marburg road and September on Rosewood-Calvert road.
August 1900 Contract No 32 11 chains loaming near B. Sloan’s £17 two months accepted.
June 1901 Forming and loaming at Box Flat, subdivision 1 for £39 accepted
April 1902 Contract No 4 four chains of forming and six chains of top dressing on Marburg-Rosewood-road £8 one month accepted.
May 1915 Tender for work on Railway-road £39 10s accepted (metalling)

Q.T. 11 August 1903

Q.T. 21 September 1907

© Jane Schy, 2024

Sources:
[1.] Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser,  Saturday, 2 June 1888, page 5
[2.] Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Thursday, 10 February 1903, page 9Queensland Registry (Births, Deaths, Marriages)
City of Ipswich Cemetery Records
Immigration Indexes – State Library of Queensland
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915