Rosewood History

John William VANCE and Olivia Harriett JOHNSON

Name: John William VANCE
Occupation: Teacher; Storekeeper; Farmer
Birth: 30th November 1824, Castletown, Queen’s Co (now County Laois), Ireland
Education: 1833 Castletown; 1836 Mountrath, Queen’s Co, Ireland
Immigration: 12th August 1864,  the Young Australia arrived at Moreton Bay from London 8th May.
Land Purchase: 13th August 1874, 80 acres (Portion 445) in the Parish of Walloon.  See Land Purchase
Land Purchase: 24th September 1874, 133 acres (Portion 644) in the Parish of Walloon. See Land Purchase     See Proof Fulfilment Conditions
Land Purchase: 23rd May 1877, Selection Seven L in the West Moreton Agricultural Reserve, County of Churchill, Parish of Walloon -78 acres 2 roods 27 perches.
Death: 20th August 1882, Rosewood, Queensland aged 57 years.
Burial: 22nd August 1882, from his late residence, Rosewood Gate, to the Ipswich General Cemetery (Grave number 2479)
Religion: Church of England
Father: Joseph VANCE (Writing Clerk 1824)
Mother: Frances (Fanny) BALDWIN

Spouse: Olivia Harriett JOHNSON
Birth: c.1831, Quarrymount, Killeigh, Queen’s County (Laois), Ireland
Residence: Quarrymount House, Killeigh, Queen’s County, Ireland
Immigration: 12th August 1864, the Young Australia arrived at Moreton Bay from London 8 May 
Death: 19th December 1886, Rosewood, Queensland aged 55 years.
Burial: Ipswich General Cemetery (Grave number 3513)
Religion: Church of England
Father: Edward JOHNSON (Farmer)
Mother: Olivia THOMPSON
Marriage: 3rd September 1856, Offerlane, Laios, Queen’s Co., Ireland
(Registered Mountmellick, Ireland Volume 8 Page 299)

Children: 8
Mary VANCE (1857-1954) = Joseph William EVANS
Olivia VANCE (1859-1944) = Thomas MAKEPEACE
Victoria VANCE (1860-1947) = John HUCKER
Albert Johnson VANCE (1862-1946) = Elizabeth HOLT
John Baldwin VANCE (1864-1924) = Janet Elizabeth WILSON
Joseph Edward VANCE (1866-1950) = Mary Ada FALLON
William Pitt VANCE (1868-1924) = Mary Salome KENDALL
Frances VANCE (1870-1940) = Edwin Robert MAKIN

John William Vance J.P. was among the “movers and shakers” in the development of Rosewood. The progression of small settlements anywhere would not have been successful without the intellect, initiative and drive that was innate in men like John Vance. Oftentimes John was the instigator of meetings, drawing other like minded men to action to address community needs.

From his early years in Ireland he was an avid reader, in fact he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and admitted to reading even while walking down the Strand in London. He was interested in French and German and was continually being tutored in these languages. 

John wrote in 1850, “Life is like a book. It has a beginning and an end. Everyday of our life is like a leaf, and every morning as we rise, we turn over a new leaf of the great book of life. There is no going back on what we have already past, we must go forward, and read on to the end.” (1)

He married Olivia in 1856 and they spent their honeymoon at the Lakes of Killarney. 

John, Olivia and their first four children, sailed into Moreton Bay in August 1864. They paid their own passage and landed with £700. They sailed on the Young Australia, which made nine voyages to Moreton Bay for the Black Ball Line before she was wrecked near Cape Moreton on 31st May 1872. 

On board with the Vance family were 286 passengers, 18 in the saloon, 53 in the second cabin and 215 in steerage. The Vances were among the 215. The ship had favourable winds and made great strides across the ocean with runs of 320 and 330 miles per day. The trip took 84 days from land to land. They encountered one bad storm with gale force winds when lightning struck the main mast and a large number of sails were blown away. There were only two deaths, a nine month old baby who died from convulsions, and the ship’s carpenter who fell overboard during the storm. Two boys and a girl were born. The Young Australia was off the coast of Tasmania on August 3rd but had to stay well away from the coast because of the violent gales. She reached Moreton Bay five days later and arrived at the anchorage on the night of the 12th. 

See The Young Australia Times: published on board the ship “Young Australia”, Captain Charles Grey, during the passage from London to Brisbane, 1864.

The passengers and luggage were bought up to Brisbane town on the steamer Settler three days later. The Settler conveyed 80 of these people to the Ipswich depot on Thursday 15th. The new arrivals were described as a “first class lot”. Most were pleased with the conditions at the depot except that there was not a separate department for the married couples. The males were in one house and the females in another. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but I can only guess that to the newly arrived it felt slightly discomforting at the beginning of their new lives.

The family lived in Brisbane for a while.

Their first home was at the Gabba and they went into a grocery shop, an unsuccessful venture. Olivia went out and sold silver (cruets, teapots etc) to raise cash. The family then moved to Wolston (Wacol) and had Chinamen growing pineapples. (1)

Sometime after the railway line from Ipswich to Bigge’s Camp opened in July 1865, John was appointed Station Master at Gatton. His son Joseph Edward was born there in December 1866. He moved on to the same position at Grandchester then on to Oakey.

There is a John William Vance listed as one of the officers (Inner Guard) of the Hiram Lodge elected at the Masonic Hall in Brisbane on St John’s Day in January, 1867. (2)

The Vance family came to Rosewood Gate about 1869. John recollected that when they arrived the only two houses were the old Rising Sun and the gatehouse (built by John Farrell, the first Gatekeeper). John Vance became the Gatekeeper for a short time before being appointed to the position of Station Master at Walloon. 

There is a report of John sending a copy of the “Irish Times” to the Superintendent of the Woogaroo Asylum in Toowoomba (now Baillie Henderson Hospital) in June, 1870. Dr. Henry Challinor had only been Acting Superintendent for a month at the time. Henry left his medical practice in Ipswich which he started in 1849, to take the position. John Vance must have known him.

After they arrived at Rosewood Gate, the family lived in the old Rising Sun building, locally known as O’Brien’s Hotel. It had been uninhabited since 1867 and was owned by Cribb & Foote, large retail merchants of Ipswich.

On the 9th August 1870, John Vance called a meeting to rally support for a primary school and teacher’s residence be set up at Rosewood Gate. He wrote to the Board of Education asking about it and submitted the names of children between the ages of 5 and 15 who could conveniently attend school. The names were: Mary Vance, Olivia Vance, Victoria Vance Albert Vance, John Vance, Margaret Mathew, Mary Mathew, John Matthew, Catherine Farrell, Michael Farrell, Mary Farrell, William Mason, John Mason, Richard Mason, Lawrence Ryan, Francis Pedrazzini, Fanny Nicol, Maria Nicol, Mary Beavis, Robert Beavis, Walter Beavis, Michael McCarthy, Henry Eaton, William Eaton, Anna Bunyan, Rosie Bunyan, William Martin, James Madden, Caroline Dutney, George Dutney, Francis Farrelly, Elizabeth Farrelly, Anne Farrelly, Bernard Farrelly, Michael Kolb, Charles Kolb, Francesca Friedland, Louisa Friedland, Johann Friedland, Jacob Friedland and John Hallam.

In the meantime, Cribb & Foote gave permission for the dining room of the old hotel to be used rent free as a provisional school. This was a temporary school before a state school was established. The Board of Education appointed Walter Hore as the teacher. 

Walter Hore and his wife and two daughters, a toddler and a three month old, arrived in Rosewood almost straight off the ship from London in May 1870 and stayed until November 1872. It is probable that both the Vance and Hore families lived in the old inn for at least part or all of the duration of Walter’s stay. 

It would not have been the first time that John and Olivia had lived in an old hotel. After their marriage they lived in a building that had previously been a hotel in Castletown.

School classes were held in the dining room. Both families had daughters born in that time and altogether there would have been eleven children at the old inn.

After Walter Hore left Rosewood, John Vance took over as unofficial teacher, charging each pupil 6d per week. 

On 27th June 1873, a further list of possible attendees of the school was submitted to the Board of Education. Julia Moran, M. Pedrazzini, Charlotte Latcham, Isabella Latcham, Hannah Latcham, Emma Latcham, William Hudson, Eliza Hudson, Gregory Dove, Collin Dove, Marjorie Dove, Arthur Bensley, Oscar Bensley, Anne Wyles, John Wyles, Joseph Wyles, James Scanlan, Joseph Scanlan, Richard Scanlan, M.J. Scanlan, William Bulgin, Edward Bulgin, Albert Bulgin, M.A. Eaton, William Hannant, and Fred Hannant, Eliza Hannant, Alice Hannant, Martha Banbury, Kate Green, O’Donnell Ryan, R. Mulholland, L. Mulholland, William Perron, Harriet Perron, Fred Perron, Hezekiah Perron, Ambrose Farrelly.

Inspectors Report August 1873 – I this day visited Rosewood. During my visit I was occupied in meeting and inspecting the premises proposed to be used as a school room in seeing as many of the residents as time would allow and an interview with Mr Vance. That they should manage to collect £42 (which sum now lies to their credit with the Board) is almost surprising to me. I recommend that the funds collected supplemented by the Board’s grant should immediately be spent in erecting the schoolhouse on the school reserve. To conclude I recommend that Mr Vance be appointed teacher of a provisional school at Rosewood without delay. Note: the supply requested was sent and Mr Vance was appointed on 1 September 1873 to use his own home. (3) 

John Vance was sent to Alfred (Calvert) school four miles away to acquaint himself with the routine of the primary school. He opened his school on 9th September 1873. Classes were held in a 15’x13’ room plus verandah in the Vance’s home. Three desks and three forms were the only furniture initially. John had 52 children on his roll. He received a salary of £50 pound per year, which was half of what a railway labourer on the line could earn (£100.08).    

John wrote to the Board again on 4th October 1874.   Read his letter.

John Vance built Rosewood’s first shop in the main street at the location where Evans Garage was later situated (now Rosewood Hardware). In this building the first Post Office was opened on 2 April 1874. John Vance was the Post Master. He was paid £12 per annum. This was raised to £20 in 1878 because of increased responsibilities.

Some families found it hard to pay the school fees and the school’s enrolment dropped to 25.

Inspectors report June 1874 – On roll 18 boys, seven girls. Total 25  Present nine boys, four girls. Total 13. The school is held in a room of the teacher’s cottage. The apartment is too small and unsuitable in every way. The books are all in a tattered condition and seem to have received very severe usage. Regularity – bad. Over 70% of the children in the locality do not attend. The school is a farce and fails to meet the educational requirements of the district. (3)

John wrote again a year later asking for fair rent for the use of the room or he said the Board could find someone else. His resignation became effective on the 30th September, 1874.   Read his letter

Inspectors Report  12th of October 1874 – The teacher Mr Vance has resigned and the school has been closed. The new buildings are in the course of erection and will be ready for occupation in January 1875. Most of the timber is on the ground, the frame completed and the men are busy putting on the shingles. (3)

Mr John Byers was the contractor for the new school (cost £303). Mr Dave Bourke’s bullocks pulled the stumps for the building.

On 13th August 1874, John selected 80 acres of homestead land (Portion 445) in the parish of Walloon for £11 5s, subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. One condition was that he had to continuously reside there for the next five years and make the necessary improvements. In September, he selected another 133 acres (Portion 644) in the Parish of Walloon. The same conditions applied to this land.

William Mathew, another early pioneer, had an uncle also named William Mathew, living at Rosewood Gate. This man helped clear the land for the Vance family. He wouldn’t have been a young man at the time as he died in 1879 aged 72. Olivia Vance’s younger brother John Edward Johnson built a house for them. Edward Johnson fought in the Maori War in New Zealand and then joined the Queensland Police Force. He was stationed at Marburg and later built the Royal Hotel in John Street.

John Vance was granted his Certificate of Fulfilment of Conditions for his selection on 5 March, 1880. His neighbours, Richard Mason and Robert Boughen signed as witnesses to his continual residence on the selection. His improvements were described as one slab humpy with shingle roof and one room of weatherboard and iron roof costing about £20. Also 110 chains of two rail fence @14s per chain totalling £77.

Throughout the years he was instrumental in calling public meetings. He attended many others which were held for various reasons like the formation of roads and other infrastructure during the formative developmental years of the town. He was on the committee of the Farmers’ Club from its inception and was Secretary in 1881.

In August 1874, in his role as Secretary of the School Committee, he held a meeting of the subscribers to the Rosewood School Fund at the Provisional School. The discussion was about a reserve of 1 acre 1 rood and 7 perches of land having been allocated by the Government for the site of a school at Rosewood Gate. 

In March, 1875 John and Olivia went to Sydney on the steamship City of Brisbane after the death of a relative. John caught a cold or virus in his left eye and lost his vision in that eye.

John must have been proud and pleased when the first state school, the Rosewood Gate Mixed Primary School, was built. It opened in July 1875 and was situated on the other side of the old Toowoomba road and opposite the old Inn.

In 1876 he was appointed as Assistant Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths for West Moreton. He was also a storekeeper and had 20 acres of maize under cultivation at Rosewood Gate. (4)

James Foote M. L. A. sold and transferred his selection (Seven L) of 78 acres 2 roods 27 perches to John Vance in May 1877 (see map above). That selection comprised the land on the western side of John Street from Railway Street up to Lanefield Road. That month John was appointed as one of the trustees of the Walloon general cemetery reserve, a position he held until December, 1879.

Also in 1877 he donated a piece of land next to the railway station for the Government to sink a well and gave the Primitive Methodist Church half an acre of land as a gift. The church building fronted the main road and was opposite Mr. D. Pfrunder’s shop.  (Now St Luke’s Anglican Church)

John arranged for a home to be built in town for his family’s use on Lot 25 of his estate (2 acres 2 roods 26 perches). The land had frontages to John Street and Albert Street and Vance Lane (Royal George Lane). He also expanded his business.

Mr. J. W. Vance is the local storekeeper, and has found it desirable, owing we suppose to increase of business, to enlarge his premises, a new building being in course of construction. He is also the Rosewood postmaster. On a piece of land given by this gentleman a well has been sunk by Government at a considerable cost, but no use whatever has been made of it as yet, the water, we were told, being insufficient in quantity and of bad quality. Besides cultivating a fair-sized garden, Mr. Vance took a crop of corn and pumpkins off about nine acres of land last season. (5)

A public meeting was held to discuss the political situation in the lead up to elections to be held in late 1878. The townsfolk felt it was necessary to get local people to stand if possible. John Vance stood as a Liberal Party candidate for the Rosewood electorate but was beaten by James Brady.

In May/June 1879 he engaged a contractor to build the Rosewood Hotel. His name was John Reilly, from Booval, Ipswich (my great, great grandfather) and he was assisted by his leading hand Anthony Pocock and his brother James Pocock. (6)

In February 1880 John Vance submitted a tender to the Walloon Board to value all of the lands and buildings within the division within four months. It was accepted. (7)

John ran his store until May 1881 when he rented the shop to John Herman, a baker, who built a bakehouse and oven at the back. Herman became insolvent and Charles Rumpf, another baker, occupied the store in 1882. The premises burned down in July 1883 (after John’s death) and Olivia had it rebuilt. One of John and Olivia’s sons, John Baldwin Vance, then ran the family store and advertised that he was a Draper, Grocer and Produce Dealer Etc. He was also an agent for the Courier.

In February 1882 some “evil-disposed persons” cut off the tails and manes of two horses belonging to John Vance. The police identified the parties as well as the motives which prompted them to commit the crime. Apparently they were neighbours, with whom he was on unfriendly terms.

John died aged 57, from enlargement of the liver and dropsy. He was described as a gentleman possessing literary abilities of a no mean order. He appointed two sons-in-law, Joseph William Evans and Thomas Makepeace as executors of his last will and testament. He left all of his real and personal property to his wife Olivia for life. He directed the executors at her death to sell and dispose of his property, and after payment of his debts and a legacy, to divide the proceeds into eight equal parts to be paid to his sons and daughters.

Olivia must not have been satisfied with those arrangements. In September 1882 the executors renounced the trust, probate was granted (Personalty £700 to Olivia) and John Macfarlane M. L. A. was appointed the trustee of the will in the room of Evans and Makepeace.

Olivia went to court to try and establish that the land was in reality hers, and that she paid for it with her own money. She claimed that on the 22 August 1867, she applied to lease selection Seven L, paid for it with her own money, and was declared the lessee of the said land. 

She said:-
She paid the rent when it was due out of her own money with the full knowledge of her husband.
In August 1874, at the request of, and for the benefit of her husband, she borrowed £100 from Mr. James Foote on the security of the land.
On the 3rd August she transferred the lease of the land to Mr. Foote by way of mortgage.
In February 1877, her husband, without her knowledge or consent, repaid Mr. Foote the money borrowed from him by her.
Mr. Foote, without her consent, transferred the land to her husband, and he was issued a certificate of title.

Olivia was successful in her action, but the the original titles don’t reflect her claim for these resaons:-
On the 22nd August 1867, James Foote purchased Free Selection Seven L for £78/13/5.
James Foote transferred the title to John William Vance on the 27th May 1877. (8)
None of the intervening events Olivia described as happening between the time John bought and sold the land is recorded on the titles.

A Certificate of Fulfilment of Conditions was granted to Olivia for Portion 644, 133 acres at Walloon in 1883.

She sold the Rosewood Hotel in September 1883 to Martin Beavis. The hotel was razed to the ground by fire in 1914 and another was built.

In April 1884 this was reported.
During the last few weeks swarms of caterpillars have been silently destroying pasturage in the Rosewood district. A paddock of Mrs Vance’s, recently attacked by these destructive creatures, has been stripped of its summer grass and young maize throughout an area of fifteen acres; and several other persons in the vicinity have suffered considerable loss by the voracity of these pests. However, the appearance of a large number of turkeys in the immediate neighbourhood leads to the belief that they are deeply interested in this caterpillar movement, and that they are evincing a practical sympathy with it which is highly pleasing to the Rosewood farmers. (9)

Olivia started subdividing and selling off her land in June, 1884. See an Ad.

I am given to understand that a gentleman from Toowoomba purchased from Mrs. Vance, last week, at a very respectable figure, a plot of ground opposite the station for building purposes; and it is the intention of Mrs. Vance to have about one half of her farm surveyed and laid out in building lots, and streets, one chain wide, for which at the present time there are numerous applications. If some of our men were as energetic as Mrs Vance we should command more prosperity. Of course, the proposed action will cause more work for the Divisional Board, for it will mean additional streets. (10)

In January 1886, Olivia sold 21 large allotments with frontages to the main road at Rosewood. 

Olivia died aged 55 years. She left her daughters Mary Evans and Victoria Hucker a block of land each.

On the 19th December, at Rosewood, Olivia, relict of the late J. W. Vance, daughter of Edward Johnson, Quarrymount House, Queen’s County, Ireland, and sister of the Rev. Pitt Johnson, rector of St. Alban’s, Devonport, England, and also of Edward Johnson, Marburg, Queensland aged 55 years. (11)

On the 21st December, 1887 Portion 644, was put up for auction at the Vance Estate Sale. Five other agricultural farms and 18 Allotments in Rosewood Gate were also auctioned in order to wind up her estate.

John Street, Albert Street and Makepeace Street in Rosewood are named after members of the Vance family. What is now known as Royal George Lane was originally called Vance Lane and later George Lane.

n 1937 a collection of 12 books was gifted to the Oxley Memorial Library by Mr. J. H. Hornibrook. One of those was a very rare book, “The Poetry and Writings of John William Vance,” Gordon & Gotch, 1885.

These two photos (taken in 2017) and information were kindly provided by Diane Vance. Diane’s late husband Dr. B. J. A. Vance, was the great grandson of John William and Olivia Vance and grandson of Joseph Edward Vance.

The first photo depicts a bridge in Castletown, known as the bridge at Danganroe. It is a six-arch limestone bridge over the River Nore (c.1750). In the 1830’s, John William Vance’s father was the contractor for the widening of the bridge by over 8 meters on the downstream (incorporating new arches).

In John Vance’s writings, published by Olivia after his death, John describes sitting on the riverbank as a child watching the construction of the bridge underway.

The second photo is of Quarrymount House, the Johnson family home, which is known as a ‘Cromwellian’ house because of its style and period of building. It was built by Captain Johnson, a soldier in Cromwell’s conquering force. There are gunslits in the basement used for defending against the ‘natives’ i.e. the Irish. Diane’s eldest son, great great grandson of John And Olivia, is standing in front of Quarrymount House.

© Jane Schy, 2024

References:
Main Photo: Mr and Mrs John Vance, 1873 (State Library of Queensland)
(1) Vance Johnson Family History, Klan 1980
(2) Brisbane Courier Saturday, 19 January 1867 page 3
(3) 125th Anniversary 1875 Rosewood State School 2000 – Erinport Publications
(4) Pugh’s Almanac (Theophills P. Pugh)
(5) Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Saturday 14 September 1878 page 3
(6) Family knowledge
(7) Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Saturday 28 February 1880 page 3
(8) Personal copies of Land Purchase and Certificates of Title for J. W. & O. Vance
(9) Brisbane Courier, Wednesday 23 April 1884, page 5
(10) Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Thursday 26 June 1884, page 5
(11) Queensland Times Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Thursday,  23 December 1886, page 5
Queensland Registry (Births, Deaths, Marriages)
City of Ipswich Cemetery Records
Immigration Indexes (State Library of Queensland)
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915