Eldorado Hotel, August 1857 - UPDATED

Image from the British Library Photostream

IMMENSE ATTRACTION

El Dorado Concert Room,

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and

Thursday evening. 

Positively the last week of the present

company 

MR & MRS. PENDLETON

Will appear in their celebrated characters of

the COOK AND FOOTMAN. 

Teddy O'Rourke and his pupil Biddy O'Shanasy.

THE ROVING GIPSIES.

Pretty Polly Hopkins and Mr Tomkins.   

Also their side splitting deleniations of domestic bliss, entitled 

MATRIMONIAL SWEETS,

MRS. PENDLETON

Will sing a choice selection of most popular 

ballads. 

MR. PENDLETON

Will appear in his laughable character of the

UNFORTUNATE MOTHER 

and introduce his comic abilities on the Light 

Fantastic Toe.

Also in his unequalled performance on the

BONES AND THEIR TAMBOURINES.

Assisted by

HERR KRAMER, MESSRS. GRIFFITH,

ZEPLIN,

And other professionals. 

The Performance on Thursday Evening will

be for the Benefit of

MR. AND MRS. PENDLETON.

Admission Every evening Free

Advertising. (1857, August 12). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 3. Retrieved October 9, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113016336

According to various advertisements in the Ovens & Murray Advertiser, the Pendletons seemed to be musical hall variety artists, while Herr Kramer claimed to be a celebrated vocalist from Buda and Pesth, Hungary.

UPDATE  Richard Patterson, in Nobblers and Lushingtons,(pp 30-31) described the El Dorado hotel as a substantial wooden building on the corner of High and Church Streets, Beechworth.  In 1857 the licensee  was Robert Winter, who made extensive alterations throughout, and included the El Dorado Concert  Room.

The Tyrolese Minstrels. June 1857

The Tyrolese Minstrels may have looked a little bit like this image which shows a group of the same name in The Illustrated London News, London, Saturday, 6 December 1851, p. 699.

THE TYROLESE MINSTRELS.
Star Theatre

THE TYROLESE MINSTRELS. These performers made a successful debut in this district at the Star Theatre, attired in their picturesque national costume Madame Haimberger and Miss Kramer attracted the admiring gaze of a crowded audience, while their finished delivery of the mountain airs peculiar to their own homes, astonished and delighted all alike. The musical "Iodelu", which is the refrain of almost all their songs, never fails to hang on the ear and to please the memory long after its sound has ceased. The ladies really deserve the. high encomiums which have been passed upon them elsewhere, and which they most assuredly find echoed by the good folks of the Ovens. It is a great pity that the racy and original words of their songs cannot be understood by the majority of their hearers, as the absence of this understanding deprives the performance of half its merit......

...The entertainment was varied by performances on the harp and violin by Messrs Zeplin and Griffith.

THE Ovens [?] Advertiser. (1857, June 9). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113015646

Again George performed in partnership with George Zeplin.  George Frederick Zeplin, a member of a musical family, arrived in Melbourne in October 1852 on the Nepaul aged 20.   The rest of his family, including parents, arrived in 1859 and were immediately employed as Zeplin Family Quadrille Band.

Unpaid Wages, March 1857 UPDATED

Robert O'Hara Burke, circa 1860.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection

 POLICE COURT.
Friday, March 27, 1857
(Before R. O'H. Bourke, Esq., J.P. and J, S. Morphy, Esq., J.P.)

WAGES
George Zeplin v John Johnson.
A claim for £5 6s 8d, balance of wages, for playing a harp at defendant's house for two weeks and two days at £5 per week. Plaintiff had received £5, and now sued for the balance.

Mrs Griffith was sworn, and stated that she was present when Zeplin agreed with Johnson to play for him at £5 per week each. Would swear positively that the word "each" was mentioned.

Mr Johnson, having been sworn, stated that he engaged the plaintiff and his mate for £5 per week, and board, but never dreamt of paying them that amount each.

The magistrates said they had no...........the amount claimed.  

[There appears  to be a fold in the newspaper in the above sentence, and it is not clear just what the magistrates thought.] 

 WAGES.

George Griffith v John Johnson. A claim for £5 6s 8d.
This case was exactly similar to the last, and judgment for the amount was taken by consent.

POLICE COURT. (1857, March 28). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113014651

George Zeplin was a fruiterer and greengrocer (and evidently a harpist) at Woolshed, per Ovens directory 1857.  John Johnson was a publican at One Mile (about one mile south of the centre of Beechworth).    Henry Johnson was listed in the Ovens Directory as a publican at Woolshed.  According to Nobblers and Lushingtons: a history of the hotels of Beechworth and the Ovens District, by Richard Patterson, Johnston's Hotel was located at Upper Woolshed, where it had been from 1856. In September 1858 the hotel was described as 'the best finished house on the Woolshed'. (Patterson, p 302.)


The most interesting aspect of this post, to me, was George and Susan's brush with fame - the case was heard before Police Magistrate Robert O'Hara Burke, who would later go on to lead the ill-fated Victorian Exploring Expedition in 1860.

In the nineteenth century citizens were probably more familiar with the inside of a Magistrates' Court, which they used to chase wages owed, payments for goods, unpaid rent or board, and so on.

We learn from this that George was employed at £5 a week in a hotel to play what one imagines woud have been popular music.   We don't know what sort of week that entailed - all day for six days, or every evening for six days, five days?  The wage for a carpenter was £1-10-0 per day, a bricklayer could earn £1-5-0 per day, and a labourer between 15 shillings and £1 a day.  So these musicians (had they been paid) would have been earning less than a labourer - or the day was not a full working day.  It is hard to know unless we can shed some more light on it.

At the Ovens goldfields, 1850s.

This photograph by Walter Woodbury, said to have been taken circa 1855, shows the mining settlement at Woolshed Creek, a village of canvas and shingles.  Woodbury set up a studio in Beechworth in 1857, so it is possible that the image dates to this later period.  Source:  The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum. Inventory no: 2003-5001/2/23789

I am now going to wind back the dial on the time machine to 1855 when we will find George and Susan Griffith on the Ovens goldfields of northern Victoria.  I have already mentioned the children born and baptised in Fitzroy between 1865 and 1876, but there was an older group of children born among the tents, bark huts and gold workings in the Ovens Valley.  These were:

Edward George,  born 14 Apr 1855 at Wangaratta  (died 24 Feb 1856 Wangaratta)
Mary Jane           born 10 Aug 1857 at Silver Creek
George                born circa 1859 Indigo                     (died 1859 Indigo)
Ann Catherine    born circa 1861 in NSW      (turned out to be Chiltern, Victoria)
Louisa                 born 2 Jun 1863 at Beechworth

George was listed in the 1857 Ovens Directory as a Professor of Music, Woolshed.  Woolshed Creek was north west of Beechworth.  It had long been a matter of puzzlement to me as to whether George used his musician's hands to dig for gold, and I spent a bit of time researching this in the dark ages of research prior to the widespread use of the WWW.   I was able to find some traces of him, which didn't really resolve the question.   He invariably gave his occupation as 'musician', but it turned out that he did have a Miner's Right.  This information came from the card files of Fay Johnson, who had recorded that in the 1856/57 Electoral Roll - Legislative Assembly - Reid's Creek and Woolshed Division (Ovens District) on page 31, George GRIFFITHS of Woolshed, miner, was included on the roll by virtue of a Miner's Right.

Ros Shennan, another researcher of the Ovens history had recorded an advertisement which was included in a publication called History of the Parish of Beechworth about the Catholic Parish of Beechworth, by Father Leo Lane.  In this ad for St Patrick's Day at St Joseph's Church, Beechworth to be held on 17 March 1858, a Grand High Mass was to be held with orchestral accompaniments provided by Mr G Griffiths, first violin; Mr Welchman, second violin; Mr P Hurley, flute; Mr W Radford, viola; Mr Barlow, cornet; Mr Jenkins, sax tuba, Mr Wright violincello and Herr Esther double bass.

I found this interesting because it placed George's musical skills at the top end of the scale of fiddlers, with the capacity to play complex liturgical pieces, and also as the first violinist - the orchestra leader.

That was about the extent of my findings until last year when I decided to give the Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1855-1866), based in Beechworth  a thorough going over to see what else I could find about the activities of the Griffiths family, and shed more light on what type of music George was performing, and was he combining that with mining.

The next few posts will have a look at those findings.

Potchefstroom again

Potchefstroom King Edward Street

Potchefstroom Lombard Street

 

Potchefstroom Market Square & Dutch Ref Church & Government Buildings

Just checking the eGGSA postcard collection, I found further pictures of Potchefstroom had been added since I last looked.  It is a wonderful site if you are looking for particularly South African postcards, but there are others from elsewhere in Africa and world-wide, with more being added all the time.

Four little Owens

"Dear Mary Jane, Just a few lines to wish you a Merry Xmas, hope you are quite well also the Family. Lou is quite well also Hughie & myself. No more. Your affec sister Em. x x x x x x   Happy New Year to all".  Photographer: Sidney Riley.  Rozelle & Rosetti Studios, Balmain.

This postcard from Emily Owen in Sydney to her sister Mary Jane in Melbourne has turned up in a tin box which had belonged to Mary Jane.  This appears to show Emily's four living children: Gwendoline, Emily, Winifred and baby Jack who was born in Balmain in 1912. All were born after their parents' return from South Africa. 

Return from South Africa, 1904

SS Narrung.

Emily's sister Charlotte Blay, who was present for the baptism of Emily's baby, Alfred George Henry Owens at Potchefstroom on 24 April 1904, was still there to support Emily when the baby died six weeks later.  Charlotte finally returned to Melbourne on the Medic.  The Medic had left Liverpool and picked up passengers in Cape Town, where Charlotte joined the ship.  She was recorded as being married, aged 30, occupation 'household duties', destination Melbourne.  The Medic arrived on 21 July 1904.    There was no-one else on the ship with whom she would appear to have been travelling.

A few months later Emily returned via the ss Narrung, in steerage.  She had joined the ship in Cape Town, listed as Mrs H Owens, aged 31, occupation 'Lady', nationality Australian, her destination Melbourne.  The Narrung arrived there on 2 November 1904.   Again, Emily was not obviously accompanied on this journey. 

The Owens family

"Gwen aged 2 years and 1 month, Emily 4 months."

Perhaps the death of her first baby was the impetus for the return to Australia.

The unassisted inwards passenger lists show Mrs H Owens, aged 31, arriving in Melbourne on the ship Narrung in November  1904.  Trove newspapers report the Narrung had arrived from Cape Town. There is no sign of Hugh, but it occurs to me he might have worked his passage as a ship's carpenter, though it was a short enough trip to bother.


On 17 May 1905, Emily and Hugh had a little girl called Gwendoline Louise, born at 492 Lygon St, Carlton.  Whether that was a small hospital or a residence I don't know at this stage, but when Emily gave the information on 14 June 1905 for the registration, she gave her address as 28 Laurie St, Northcote.

The children whose births I have been able to discover are:

Alfred George Henry Owens, bp 24 April 1904, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Gwendoline Louise Owens, b 17 May 1905, Carlton, Victoria
Emily Elizabeth Owens b 1907, Leichardt, NSW
Winifred Frances Owens, b 1909, Balmain, NSW
Jack Henry Owens, b 1912, Balmain South, NSW

By 1930 the family was living at 9 Parsons St, Rozelle, where Hugh was working as a carpenter, Winifred as a typiste, and Emily junior as a milliner.  When Jack was listed, his occupation was electrician.  Gwen appears to have married in Victoria and lived there.

Emily Frances Owens died in 1945, registered at Rozelle, and Hugh Owens in 1947, registered at Balmain.    Hugh's parents were recorded as Hugh and Elizabeth.

Potchefstroom, North West Province

Potchefstroom in the Park, a postcard showing treelined streets in Potchefstroom.  Souce:  eGGSA website

Moving along to Potchefstroom, where the groom Hugh Owens had been residing prior to his marriage, I examined the Baptisms recorded on the  The Genealogical Society of South Africa eGSSA branch website.

This turned up a transcription from the St Mary Anglican Church, Potchefstroom, for the baptism of a child:

Alfred George Henry
Baptised: 24 Apr 1904
Born: 19 Mar 1904
Parents: Hugh & Emily OWENS
Occupation: Carpenter
Residence: Potchefstroom
Witnesses: J. CLARKE - C.H. LINDSAY - C. BLAY
Baptised by: A. ROBERTS
Source: Potchefstroom - St Mary (Anglican), Potchefstroom, North West Province. Baptisms register, 1891-1910, entry number 188. Repository: Wits University, William Cullen Library. Transcribed by Gary Cannon, independently


The first thing that struck me about this record was that a witness was C Blay.  I presume this to be Emily's married sister, Charlotte Blay, nee Griffith.   Charlotte had married in Fitzroy, a suburb of  Melbourne in 1886 to Douglas James Blay, a printer.  Charlotte had no children of her own, but adopted a child some years after Emily's children were born.  Having both leisure and money evidently enabled Charlotte to travel to support her sister for this first birth.

Unfortunately the baby died aged only six weeks.  Again, the eGGSA website provided a transcript:


OWENS Alfred George Henry
Residence: Potchefstroom
Age at death: 6 weeks
Buried: 28 Apr 1904 by A. ROBERTS
Source: Potchefstroom - St Mary (Anglican), Potchefstroom, North West Province. burial register, 1891-1921. Repository: Wits University, William Cullen Library. Transcribed by Gary Cannon, independently

SS Australasian for Natal

This notice from The Argus on 2 May 1903 advises passengers how to get themselves and their luggage aboard the  SS Australasian.    Further reference to Argus reports of vessels "cleared out" from Melbourne on 6 May lists the saloon passengers of the Australasian (amongst whom Miss E Griffiths was nowhere to be seen), but also mentioned a further unnamed 200 steerage passengers.  If Emily was this Miss E Griffiths, she evidently travelled in steerage.

Travel to Durban - UPDATE

The Australasian, from the State Library of Queensland, John Oxley Library.

How and when Emily travelled to Durban is not certain.  However, by consulting the Public Records Office Victoria Outwards Passenger Index, using the search terms Griffith*, E*, and narrowed from 1900-1903, there is only one vessel travelling to Africa.

A Miss E Griffiths, aged 23, was listed aboard the Australasian which left for London, Capetown and Natal, via Albany, in May 1903.

Emily Griffith was actually 29 when she married, so it is not clear that it was her, but she may have reduced her age preparatory to her marriage.  Or the age may have been mis-transcribed from the shipping record.  I'll try and examine the film at PROV in the next few weeks.

I may now have to revise my idea that because Banns were called, the wedding had not been performed in a hurry.  The 2nd of June in 1903 was a Tuesday.  Presumably the Banns were called on the three preceding Sundays - 17, 24 and 31 May.  If the ship left Melbourne on 6 May, it would have been very hard pressed to have arrived in South Africa inside a fortnight, which suggests, if this is the right voyage, that the Banns were called before Emily actually arrived in Durban.  If anyone can clarify just how long it would have taken a steamship to travel from Melbourne to Natal, I would be very interested to hear.

UPDATE.    I came across the dates for a passage from Albany to Capetown in 1901 which took 16 days - but regrettably failed to record where I saw it. Probably in Trove in reference to vessels heading off during the South African War.  The length of the trip would depend on the size of the vessel, the weather, stops on the way, currents, all manner of things, but if you add in the trip from Melbourne to Albany as well as the passage to Cape Town, it looks to be a journey of more than a fortnight, getting closer to three weeks.

This might indicate that the Miss E Griffiths on the Australasian mentioned above was not Emily Griffith.

Marriage in Durban 1903

Due to the wonderful assistance of Deryn on the British-Genealogy South African Genealogy Forums, an image of the marriage record for Emily Griffith and Hugh Owen was located in Family Search.  

This is the search path, starting by clicking on the location "Africa":

South Africa, Church of the Parish of South Africa Registers, 1850-2004 > South Africa > Natal > Natal, Durban, St Paul > Marriages 1849-1923

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure how  Deryn located the marriage, as there does not appear to be an index, but with 1902 as a starting point, the marriage turned up in the records of St Paul's Parish Church, Durban, Natal on 2 June 1903.

The groom was Hugh Owens, of full age, Bachelor, Carpenter, residing at Potchefstroom, Transvaal.  The bride was Emily Francis (sic) Griffith, of full age, Spinster, residing at Durban. 

The marriage was by Banns, which indicates that they were not rushing into the marriage after Emily arrived.  

A good perusal of the wedding photo indicates that the wedding was not a grand affair.  None of the attendants were wearing matching outfits.  There were flowers, ribbons and button-holes, but the bouquets are not elaborate. Emily is not wearing a wedding gown, but a good frock which will see her through many Sundays at church. 

The witnesses do not strike me as being family members of the Griffith family, so they are possibly friends or family of Hugh Owen.  One of the witnesses is H Thomas, and the other is less easy to read.  There is a flourish of squiggles at the beginning, but I am inclined to read the name as H Thompson, with possibly a middle initial.

If anyone would like to have a go at deciphering the first signature, please get in touch, or leave a comment.  Especially so if you know either witness.

Emily Griffith's South African Adventure

I'm going to take a break from New Zealand research for the moment, and take a side trip to South Africa.  The wedding portrait above, a rather battered photo from the family collection, was unexpectedly identified by someone I met at a genie talk I was giving to a group visiting from Sydney.  This group included the grand-daughter of the happy couple, Emily Frances Griffith and Hugh Owens.  This was said to have taken place in Durban, South Africa, which I found rather astounding.  Any wonder I couldn't find what became of George Griffith's daughter Emily in Victoria!  After returning from South Africa they settled in New South Wales, which again tended to obscure what had happened to Emily.

So the next few posts are going to be looking at what Emily got up to in South Africa.  I will be asking the question, how and where did she come to meet and marry Hugh Owens?  I am not sure I will be answering the question, but it will be fun trying.  South African research is reputed to be difficult, so others may find it of interest just what records can be accessed.