Daniel Ward 1830 - 1915

Daniel Ward, born 1830, County Wexford, Ireland.  Died 01 May, 1915 at Thornton

Our first Daniel Ward, my great-grandfather.  Well, the first that I know of at this stage.  He was born in 1830 in County Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland.  The area was founded by Vikings; Wexford means ‘inlet of mud flats’ in the Old Norse language.  It is now known as the 'Ireland's sunny south-east' because of the high amount of sunshine.  It is also the site of an invasion by Normans in 1169 which lead to the colonisation of the country by the English.  Goodness knows what blood we Wards have running through our veins.
  

He was 25 years old and his wife, Eliza (Elizabeth Kavanagh, also a native of County Wexford) was 26 when they arrived in Australia in 1855 on board the ship Cambodia.  I’ve established the Cambodia departed on 4 April, 1855 and they were listed as assisted immigrants.  TheShipList web site says when she left but not from where (I assume it was Gravesend) and arrived in Moreton Bay on 1 August after 103 days at sea.  There were 144 assisted immigrants on board, 144 males and 111 females, plus 64 children.   Ships were paid for the passengers that arrived alive.  Births during the voyage were added and deaths deducted.  There were only 2 adult female deaths on board the Cambodia which was very good in those times when typhoid often broke out on board.

I find it hard to stay focused on the search for information from the immigration records.  For example, I am easily distracted by info like this:

From The Times April 05, 1855:

Ship News

April 4

Sailed.- The Cambodia, for Moreton Bay

From The Times, May 9, 1855

Naval and Military Intelligence

On the 23 of April, the Cambodia was seen by sailing transport Cornwall, Captain King in latitude 44' 28, longitude 16' 10 with emigrants outward bound.

Many of the ships used to bring these early settlers to the colonies were described at unseaworthy and very inadequately supplied with provisions.  Even under the most favourable conditions, those who made the long voyage out to Australia in those days had inevitably to bear some hardships and privations for which, however, most of them found ample compensations in the pleasures of sea travel—so long as the weather was fine. But when a large number of men, women and children were crowded together in between decks of a sailing ship it can be imagined that their experience would be most unpleasant.   The Cambodia did not have the reputation for being one of the worst on which to sail. 

 

Only hardened criminals, and recidivist prisoners had been sent to the Moreton Bay Convict Settlement. It acquired a reputation for violence, and death from disease.  No settlement was permitted within 50 miles of the penal colony.  The numbers there peaked at 947 but fell away to 374 in 1835 when it was closed.

The development of Moreton Bay after it had become a free settlement had been held back in its early years by the lack of suitable labour. Manual workers, shepherds, tradesmen and domestics were sorely needed by the free settlers and by those living within the town boundaries. This demand led to the sending out of the first immigrant ship under Government auspices towards the end of 1848.   Between 1850 and 1859, the year in which Queensland achieved her separation from New South Wales, a number of ships were sent out with settlers for Moreton Bay.

Our Ward ancestors settled in Ipswich where they are reported to have stayed for 24 years before taking up a selection at Thornton in the Laidley Creek Valley which had been discovered in August 1828 but not settled until a bridge was built giving access to land along the banks of Laidley Creek. 

Ipswich was growing quite quickly at that time, the population had increased from 18,500 in 1856 to 28,500 in 1861.  

Extract from 1861 census report:

“As a general rule, it may be safely laid down that a great disproportion of the sexes is a great evil, particularly where the population is dense and collected in large masses ; it however admits of some question whether this assertion is not weakened, and the evils considerably modified, by the peculiarly isolated condition of most of the inhabitants of the country portion of this Colony. It is, however, an existing evil, and one which I hope and believe every succeeding year will tend to cure.”

The majority of settlers were British or German.  There was a large Irish community and the St Patrick's Day parade on March 17 was a major event.  Many German families settled in the country areas around Ipswich and many small country towns received names with German origin eg. Marburg.  There was also a small Chinese population with the fist Chinese coming to this area because there was an acute labour shortage on the large properties on the Darling Downs. 

How will I ever get this done?  There are so many distractions.  This one gives an interesting insight into attitudes of the time.

Letter from Queensland State Archives (from EDU/Z215, letter 5343 dated 13 September, 1886)

To the Honourable the Minister for Public Instruction:

We the undersigned householders of Blackstone beg leave to submit to you this requisition in reference to the Schoolmaster, which you are about to appoint to the charge of our school.

We deem it expedient to have a man who is in sympathy with us and who understands not only the English Language but also the Welsh, the majority of the inhabitants being of Welsh extraction, many of whom do not understand the English Language and we think it absolutely necessary to have a man who will be able to deal with them in their own language when necessary.

We recommend to your notice one Evan Davis of Brisbane who we believe would be a fit person to be appointed, having made himself very popular amongst the Welsh community in Brisbane and who is known to many here. We respectfully urge you and earnestly pray you to accede to our wishes.

J. Orr, Secretary to the School Building Committee Blackstone.

OFFICIAL COMMENT (written on left hand side of letter by a Government official)

I regard this application as unreasonable and absurd. The Department has never considered national peculiarities in its appointment of teachers, except in a very small degree in localities inhabited to Germans.  To pay any great heed to this prayer would be, I believe, contrary to the general public policy of the country which is to weld all nationalities of the order 'Primates' into good men of the genus 'Briton' of the family 'Australian' of the species 'Queenslander'. The sooner those Welshmen lay aside whatever of their national distinctiveness hinders them from freely mixing with their neighbours .... the better it will be for them.

Oh dear, how little things have changed!!

Daniel and Eliza became settlers in the Thornton area, along the banks of the Laidley Creek, around 1879.  Which parts of the farm came first I don’t know but eventually there were just under 1,000 acres.  It seems land was acquired bit by bit, wherever it became available within a reasonable distance.  The first block I found trace of him purchasing was in the Fassifern Valley 1872.  That would be more than a reasonable ride by horseback over the mountain at the back of the farm.  Maybe they went there first but then must have gone back to the Ipswich area as their son Daniel was born in Purga in 1869.

I haven’t unravelled a couple of mysteries.  Esther was a name given to his son, Dan Jnr’s daughter.  On the same day in August, 1882 and in the same court proceedings that Daniel is reported as buying 80 acres at Thornton, and Charles acquired 80 acres in Mt Mort (just on the other side of the mountain), an Esther Ward acquired 80 acres in the Fassifern Valley.  His son, Charles would have been 27 years old, so maybe he was striking out on his own.   But, try as I might, I can’t find any trace of Esther. 

When his wife, Eliza died in 1900 after a painful illness of 10 months duration, (as reported in the Queensland Times), her obituary notice says she left 4 adults sons and a daughter and when Catherine Mary married Patrick John McGrath in 1886 she is referred to as the youngest daughter, so perhaps Esther was another older daughter.  They were very precise in their language in the newspaper reports in those days.  I suspect that had there only been two daughters, she would have been referred to as the younger, not the youngest. 

Charles, born in 1855 in Ipswich in the same year that they arrived from Ireland, died 1941

Mary Anne 1859-1878

Catherine 1860s - 1915

Peter 1861 – 1930

Daniel 1869 – 1942

Esther ?

Still missing another son.  Could he be James?  There is a report in the Queensland Times in Oct 1892 of a riding accident,  involving James Ward who resided at Hungry Flat who came to grief while jumping his horse over a log resulting in spinal injuries (from which he recovered).  The area that was Hungry Flats is now a suburb of Ipswich and is known as Brassall.  

On 2 October, 1883  Peter Ward, son of Daniel and Eliza, aged 22 was riding in company with a brother and some other companions when his horse bolted and ran him against a tree.  The rider fell but was dragged about 14 yards before his foot came clear from the stirrup.  He was taken home unconscious and remained so until 3 am the following morning when he was taken firstly by dray to Laidley and then by train to Ipswich Hospital where he was found to have a fractured skull.

Four days later he was reported to be considerably improved and the doctor hoped for a full recovery.

Peter later married (Mary) and lived in Forrest Hill.  I found several mentions of him in the late 1800s and early 1900s when he tendered for road construction work.  

By 1886 Daniel was buying two blocks in the Townson/Thornton area, totaling 227 acres and another 16 acres at Townson in 1900, the year his wife, Eliza died.  Dan, Jnr was 31 by then, so that may have been his purchase.

I think it’s fair to say Daniel was quite prosperous.  Surely there must have been a degree of wealth for a maid to be hired.  Margaret, who Dan Jnr married in 1895 , came to the home as a maid. 

After Eliza died in 1900 he lived in the comfortable home he had established with Dan and Margaret until his death in 1915.

The Ward homestead

Part of the original Ward farm