Pulling a thread

In 1983 The Strongest Thread was published. It described the life of a Manx family matriarch, her Northern Irish husband, and their 10 children born in Australia during the 19^th century. Unbeknown to the author Glad Stanford, research began two decades earlier, during the 1960s, summarising the life of one of those 10 offspring. This compilation bridges the two, requiring 21^st century resources to bring it fruition and relink the generations. It is based on a collection of papers preserved by Ian Campbell Jagelman. 

The collection includes documents obtained by Patricia Gwena Jagelman, daughter of John Steele Campbell and Edwina Hatton.  

1. A handwritten ode

Even song
 By Kinchela my loved one
O Come & walk with me
Where the great light of Smoky
Flames o’er the Eastern Sea

Now the old sun has left us
To wander in the West
& the rise clouds have faded
That tinged Toorumbee’s crest

 The swans are in the sedges
The flowers are closed in sleep
All nature is in slumber
Except the restless deep

 So let us seek Koorora
& linger by the Wave
Where round the rocky headland
The trampling surges rave

 While softly round your temples
Will blow the perfumed breeze
Where silvered by the moonlight
Stoop blossom laden trees

So later may we linger
& wander Evermore
By mystic seas of Gladness
Along a summer shore  

Initially it wasn’t exactly clear who wrote this poem, although the paper is stamped with the business details of Campbell & Son indicating that it was transcribed earlier than 1908. Further investigation revealed that it was the work of Dr Brabazon Casement, a botanist and medical doctor who practised in Kempsey until his early death in 1910. He was well-known for his humanitarian and botanical work, less so for his poetry published by his family in 1945. Curiously, this poem was not given the same title in the publication – it is labelled A Serenade to his Wife, Islet Casement. [1]

2. The 1960s’ certificates 

Patricia Jagelman obtained certificates in the 1960s which were generated by hand and typewriter [3]:

Birth of Ann Campbell, 1880, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages

Birth of Mary Mabel Campbell, 1882, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages

Death of Jane Campbell, 1884, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages

3. The postcard collection

John Campbell’s daughter Annie collected postcards during the first decade of the 20th century. Many were sent by Annie’s brother Jack while travelling for work. 

John Steele Campbell (Jack), 1888 - 1964

Jack’s father had drawn him into the family business in July 1908, but there were also exchanges between Jack’s step-sisters and friends. Here is a sample:

4. Land titles

Photocopies of documents pertaining to Charles Steele’s holdings in New South Wales, which are available on the website of the Land Registry, see Volume 4610, Folio 177. John Campbell took on responsibility for the block of land owned by Charles Steele which had rates etc. owing at the time of the latter’s death in 1886.

5. Family history pages

In a Biblical style, the pages impart counsel. John’s first family’s details may have been written by John himself.

The remaining pages, which seem to have been cut from a larger volume, show a range of different handwriting styles.

6. A curious note

Ann Quirk and William Campbell met when the Campbell family arrived on the Isle of Man, and moved into a farmhouse on the same road as the Quirk family. The other details are not yet proven.

7. Newspaper cuttings

Obituaries for John Campbell and his second wife Eunice Septima Campbell

JOHN CAMPBELL 

John’s first wife was Jane Leslie, born on 23 April 1858 at Tycannah (near Warialda in NSW) to Irish immigrants James Leslie and Jane Phillip. 

Messrs. Campbell and Scott. (1904, November 30).
Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), p. 24.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71517361

At the time of their marriage in 1879, John Campbell was a stock and station agent. John and Jane had two daughters: Ann, known as Annie, named for her paternal grandmother Ann Jane Quirk; and Mary Mabel, known as Mabel.

In January 1884, Jane died. Annie was three years old, Mabel almost two.

On 7 July 1886 John married Eunice Septima Steele, a daughter of Charles Steele and Mary Ann Weymouth, at Gladstone on the Macleay River. Eunice’s obituary describes her birth as having been unregistered due to a lack of a government office in Port Macquarie, but in reality her parents did not marry until 1860. [4]

John died in 1913, only two months after moving from East Kempsey to Port Macquarie. He was trying to overcome a serious illness.

JOHN STEELE CAMPBELL

John Steele Campbell, known as Jack, was the first and only son of John and his wife Eunice. He was born on 7 January 1888 at Kempsey.

After his father’s death, he enlisted twice, in 1914 and in 1918, but the second enlistment lapsed.  Both have been made available by the National Archives of Australia. [5]

He served in the 1st Light Horse Regiment for just over a year, but was demobilised after succumbing to two contagious diseases. He is listed on the Port Macquarie Presbyterian Church’s First World War Roll of Honour. On his return, Jack married Edwina Hatton, and they had a daughter Patricia Gwena Campbell in 1918. 

He “deserted” his wife and daughter in December 1920, ostensibly looking for work north of Manly. His war-attained illnesses do not seem to have affected his ability to have children, but post-traumatic distress may have led to his life taking unexpected directions.

There were some attempts by Jack’s sisters to contact him prior to the divorce petition lodged by his wife. Advertisements were included in Queensland newspapers as well as Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. He found temporary work at Goodwood Station near Boulia.

Jack did not inherit any of his mother’s estate when she passed away in 1940. He died in Roma Hospital, in Queensland, in 1964. 

PATRICIA GWENA CAMPBELL 

engagements (1940, June 9). 
The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), p. 5 (WOMEN'S SECTION).
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231459786

Jack’s daughter Patricia, known as “Paddy”, spent time with her half-Aunts Mabel and Ann when she was young. 

In 1942, when she married Ian Jagelman, her father was described as deceased on her marriage certificate. Paddy had two sons.

ANN LAWSON

Ann was the older daughter of John and Jane Campbell, and step-sister to Jack. She married Findlay John Lawson on 21^st October 1914, at 2 Table  Street, Port Macquarie. [6]

The bride was given away by her mother (in the absence of her brother, who left for the front with the Light Horse Regiment of the 'first Australian Expeditionary Force' [7]) – as Ann’s father John had passed away the previous year, and her brother Jack was already overseas.  

Eunice was Ann’s stepmother, but she raised Ann and Mabel from a young age after the death of their mother Jane. 

Ann died on 25 February 1962, and Findlay died on 28 April 1964 respectively, in Sydney. They did not have children.

MARY MABEL CAMPBELL

Mabel died on 29 May 1963, and was buried in the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens in Sydney. She did not have children. [8]

References

[1] Casement, B. N. (Brabazon Newcomen) (1945). Poems. N. Morriss, Newcastle, https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/23370558; held by the University of New England. The publication was explained in a newspaper article here: trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/173391566.
[2] State Archives of NSW, Register of Firms Index, Campbell & Son, 30 July 1908; file 17262. See also Advertising (1908, June 18). The Macleay Chronicle (Kempsey, NSW : 1899 - 1952), p. 7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174469726
[3] Extracts of certificates supplied by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in 1962. They are all typescript copies.
[4] It is possible that Charles Steele had married in his hometown of Forfar, Scotland prior to his travel to Australia.
[5] National Archives of Australia naa.gov.au, Item ID 1914: 1855169; Item ID 1918: 1854329. See also Item ID: 32545663.
[6] The History behind No.2 Table Street, Toomey, R. in Footsteps, Port Macquarie Family History Society, August 2019, https://www.pmdfhs.org.au/files/152-footsteps-pdf.pdf
[7] Wedding. (1914, November 14). The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW : 1882 - 1950), p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119154623
[8] Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 1963, p.22