Part Six Descendants of Walter and Mary Adams of Bundaberg
Chapter 21
An Heir, a Tragedy and a Resolute Lady
George Manus Adams was born in Maryborough in 1855. To celebrate the event, Walter and Mary bought an allotment in the town in his name.
When Sommerville Plantation in the Woongarra was selected, he was a lad of 16 years, old enough to have been involved in its development; and in the running of the Adams (later Metropolitan) Hotel in subsequent years. Land Commission records show that George and his younger brother James assisted the then Bailiff, D. Kennen, in clearing the selection from February to June 1872. From August 1873 to August 1874 George served as the Sommerville Bailiff.
His first independent venture on record was an application in 1881 for a liquor licence. The Sugarcane Hotel was to be built on the corner of Chapellow’s and Kirby Roads in the Woongarra. The hotel traded in 1881, not in George’s name, but in that of his brother-in-law, Tom Riedy.
On 9th November 1882 Cecilia Mary (Lillie) Fogarty and George were married and in the following year, 1883, he was granted the licence of the Sydney Hotel which was located on the corner of Bourbon and Toonburra Streets. He retained this licence until he took over the licence of the Metropolitan Hotel in 1886 after his father’s election to the Legislative Assembly. George died in 1888 at the age of thirty-three years, leaving a widow and three year old son. The children of the marriage were Mary Elizabeth, who died as an infant, and Walter Thomas. (Appendix C1 – George’s Will)
Lillie was a daughter of Thomas Fogarty and Eliza Dal(e)y, natives of County Clare, Ireland. Thomas and Eliza were married at Launceston, Tasmania, on 13th February 1843 at ages of 23 and 19 years respectively. Thomas Fogarty died at Hobart on the 16th December 1863.
No records have been found of the births of Lillie or her elder sister, Margaret Gertrude; however, the deaths are recorded of unnamed male and female twins born to Thomas and Eliza on 6th April 1859 at Longford, Tasmania.
Margaret Gertrude Fogarty, aged 24 years, married Gerald Griffin, aged 34 years, at Deloraine, Tasmania on 10th February 1873.
In 1864 and 1865 a Gerald Griffin was a householder in Charlotte Street, Brisbane. He, therefore, may have experienced life in Queensland before moving to Tasmania.
On 24th February 1877, Elizabeth Fogarty died at Brisbane in Queensland. In that year the name of Gerald Griffin appears on the electoral role at Kolonga, a settlement near Mount Gaeta north-west of Gin Gin. Also in 1877, he was the licensee of the Criterion Hotel, North Bundaberg.
In February 1881 a Miss Fogarty, dressmaker, was resident at Edina and Kolan Streets, North Bundaberg. Lillie had probably moved to Queensland with Elizabeth, Margaret and Gerald.
Gerald and Margaret had three children, Michael, born 8th June 1877, Gertrude Theresa, born 26th June 1879, and Gerald born, 15th April 1881. Gertrude and Gerald died as infants, on 15th December 1880 and 9th April 1882 respectively.
On her husband’s death on 8th February 1881, Margaret assumed the licence of the Criterion Hotel and remained the licensee until 1884.
On 20th August 1884 Margaret married Lewis O’Mara. His occupation at this time is unknown; however, from 1886 to 1890 he was licensee of the Railway Hotel, which still operates on the corner of Perry Street and Hinkler Avenue, North Bundaberg. They had three daughters, Margaret Annie, born 28th June 1885, Ellenor Mabel, born 11th April 1887 and Cecilia Mary, born 31st October 1889. Margaret died intestate the day after Cecilia’s birth.
On 10th April 1883 Margaret sought a conditional purchase lease under the Crown Lands Alienation Act on 225 acres 2 roods of land between Sandy Creek and Welcome Creek, west of the current Moore Park Road. Walter Adams was trustee for the application. On 9th September 1885 the lease was confirmed and a Certificate of Fulfilment of Conditions was granted, after payment of total rents of £113, on 9th September 1889, less than two months before Margaret’s death.
On 26th January 1890, the Railway Hotel and billiard room was destroyed in the Great Flood. Lewis re-built the hotel and regained the licence in April but he transferred it immediately to Mary Moore.
On 24th December 1890, Lewis, now working as a clerk, petitioned the Supreme Court for administration of Margaret’s estate which consisted solely of a life insurance policy for £1,000 with National Mutual Life Association of Australasia. The company contended that the policy had lapsed through non-payment of premiums. Supported by a surety of £2,000 obtained from Charles Zacharie Bertheau, Lewis was granted administration on 12th January 1991. Whether the insurance was paid we can only speculate.
There is no record of Lewis re-marrying. He subsequently moved to Mount Morgan where he died of typhoid fever on 20th April 1898.
Two sisters of Margaret and Lillie, Gertrude Mary and Eleanor Marion, and a brother, William, are also on record in Queensland; however, there is no evidence of their presence in the Bundaberg district. Instead they moved to the North Queensland Goldfields/Gulf Country.
Gertrude Mary married Daniel Ryan in 1889 probably at Charters Towers. They moved to Croydon in 1890, then Townsville in 1891 where Daniel was Chief Postal Clerk. They had five children, Eileen Maud, Arthur Gratton, Mary, Gertrude Eleanor and Marguerite born in 1890, 1892, 1896, 1897and 1901 respectively.
Gertrude died in 1902 and Eleanor appeared on the electoral rolls in 1905 performing, ‘domestic duties’ at Daniel’s address, presumably managing the household and raising the young family. In 1908 Daniel and Eleanor married. They had no children.
In 1915 Daniel was elected as M.L.A. for Townsville in the T. J. Ryan Labor Government. After his defeat in the next election the family moved to Brisbane where Daniel returned to public service. Eleanor and Daniel died in 1942 and 1952 respectively while living at Ashgrove.
Eileen Maud married Daniel Ernest Hickey in 1920 at Brisbane following his return from service in the 11th Field Ambulance in World War 1. He worked as a salesman and manager in the photographic industry.
Arthur Gratton, apart from a short period as a cane grower near Innisfail, worked as a marine engineer. In 1932 he married Eva May Gagen and they had a daughter, Barbara Mary. Arthur died in 1945.
Mary Ryan died in infancy. Gertrude Eleanor and Marguerite did not marry and both lived at the residence of their father and step-mother until their deaths in 1957 and 1978 respectively.
In 1883 Lillie’s brother, William Fogarty, married Mary Jane Butler and from 1884 until his death in 1890 was resident in Normanton. He and Mary had three children, Lloyd William Montague, Amy and Jessie Eliza born in 1884, 1886 and 1888 respectively.
Lloyd William was a carrier/mail driver and teamster at Camooweal and Burketown and, later, a drover at Winton. In retirement he and Mary Jane lived at Kynuna and Kajabbi. Mary died in 1957 while they were at Kajabbi and she is buried at Mt Isa. Lloyd William was living at the Eventide Home at Charters Towers when he died in 1968. There are several gaps in Lloyd William’s Queensland electoral record and it is reasonable to assume that these gaps represent forays into the Northern Territory. An examination of recent Territory electoral rolls suggests his descendants occupy or occupied significant pastoral holdings near Mount Connor and in the Victoria River and Plenty Highway districts of the Territory. The daughters of Lloyd William and Mary Jane, and their descendants who also remained in Queensland, had married names of Collins, Mitchell, Lloyd and Fuller.
No record, other than her birth, has been found of Amy Fogarty. Jessie Eliza married Francis William Binstead, a stockman on Rocklands Station near Camooweal in 1906. They had a son, Herbert Francis, in 1907 and a daughter, Alice Evelyn, in 1909. After that year there is no record of the couple in Queensland. Both girls presumably moved across the border into the Territory.
Returning to Lillie and George in Bundaberg
- they had two children, Mary Elizabeth, who died at the age of 32 months, and Walter Thomas.
A year after George’s death, Lillie was left with the care of her own son, not yet five years, a twelve year old nephew and three nieces, aged four and two years and a babe in arms.
Lillie became licensee of the Metropolitan Hotel on George’s death and retained the licence until 1898. In that year she applied for the licence of the Burnett Hotel but there is no record of the licence being granted. It is of note that Lewis O’Mara died in 1898. It is possible that Lillie received funds from his estate to be administered in trust for his children. In April 1899 she opened the new Leichardt Hotel in Bourbong Street and she ran this hotel until 1904. On her departure the hotel was renamed the Commercial Hotel.
From 1907 to 1910 Lillie was licensee of the Queensland National Hotel, Laidley. Did the death of Mary Adams in 1904 have an influence on her departure from Bundaberg? We can only speculate.
Lillie retired from the hotel trade in 1911. By that year her son and Margaret’s children were all adults. Lillie died in January 1918 and was returned to Bundaberg to be buried alongside her husband George.
Michael Paul Griffin married Blanche Ethelwyn Coombe on 13th June 1900. Ethel was a daughter of James Knight Coombe of J. K. Coombe and Sons, ‘Smiths, Engineers, Implement Makers and Horseshoes’ of Targo Street, Bundaberg. The partnership running the business was dissolved in March 1898 but Paul may have learned his trade of patternmaker under his future in-laws before joining the Bundaberg Foundry Limited where he worked until his death in 1935. He not only was a co-worker of Richard Walter Adams at the Foundry but also he and Ethel were close friends of Watty and Ellen Elizabeth Adams. Paul and Ethel had four children, Gerald Francis Knight (born 20th February 1901, died 19th March 1903), Leslie Staniford (born 31st December 1902, died 1929), Clare Sergent (born 30th August 1904) and Elsie (died 26th August 1908). Clare married Francis William David Watson in 1927.
Annie O’Mara married Francis Edward Field on 4th February 1913; Francis, a hotel keeper, appears to have died at a relatively young age, possibly in Victoria. Annie, as a widow, continued in his profession as licensee of the Prince Alfred Hotel and of the Hotel Grande, Ipswich, from 1936 to 1941 and 1941 to 1946 respectively. She died in 1971.
No post-birth record of Ellenor Mabel O’Mara has been found.
Cecilia O’Mara married John Patrick Hall, a clerk, on 19th October 1910. They had four children, Cecilia Margaret, Joan Therese, John Lewis and Josephine Eleanor. John died in 1931 and Cecilia in 1965.
Walter Thomas (Watty) Adams was educated at Nudgee College, Brisbane. In 1904, at the age of twenty, he represented Bundaberg as a player in its Rugby Union team and in the following year he was selected to represent Queensland. On the family moving to Laidley, Watty worked as a barman at the Queensland National Hotel. In 1911 he married Emily McGrath, daughter of pioneers in the Lockyer district.
Hanorah Moroney landed at Moreton Bay on 6th July 1852 as a ten year old from the Marie Somes with her parents, Thomas and Mary, brothers, Patrick and Mathew, and sisters, Ellen, Mary and Margaret. Thirteen days later the Argyle arrived at the colony and Philip McGrath, an eight year old, disembarked with his parents, Patrick and Bridget, and brothers, James, John, Patrick and Michael. Both Thomas and Patrick were labourers and the families were from Clare and Tipperary respectively. At the turn of the century, Philip and Hanorah were farming at Burnside on Laidley Creek.
Following his marriage Watty established a cordial manufacturing business in Laidley, a trade he may have learned in Charles Zacharie Bertheau’s factory before leaving Bundaberg. Among civic positions held by Watty were Chairman of Lockyer Centre Q.A.T.B. and Secretary of the Laidley Amateur Race Club.
Watty and Emily had one daughter and four sons, Honora Cecilia (Noreen), George Philip Walter, Philip Walter (Phil), Walter Thomas (the Young Wattie) and Patrick Joseph (Spud).
Noreen married a stock and station agent, John William (Jack) Lalor around 1942 before Jack enlisted in the AIF. On discharge in 1945, he was a Corporal in the 47th Battalion, a unit involved in the capture of a major Japanese base at Salamaua on the Huon Gulf in north New Guinea in September 1943 and the Bougainville campaign in July and August 1945. Jack embarked at Rabaul, New Britain, in December 1945 to return to Australia. Jack and Noreen had two sons, John William Jnr. and Peter Thomas, and a daughter, Helen Marie.
In 1955 George followed the tradition of his great grandfather, grandfather and grandmother by holding the licence of the Metropolitan Hotel, Bundaberg and, following in his father’s footsteps, George represented Queensland in Rugby League (Walter Thomas was Rugby Union – no League in his day) in the half-back position. A move to Mount Isa and Darwin followed by enlistment in the army terminated this representation. From 1940 George was licensee of the Don Hotel at Darwin, and he was there on 19th February 1942, when mainland Australia came under attack for the first time when the Japanese armed forces mounted air raids on Darwin.
The Don was destroyed in the attacks so George joined the ‘Adelaide River Stakes’ in the exodus of Darwin’s inhabitants to the south and whilst at Adelaide River he joined the AMF on the 24th February. In July 1942 he joined the AIF and on discharge in 1946 he was a Sergeant in a Security Section.
While licensee of the Metropolitan Hotel in Bundaberg, George married a widow, Emily Winifred (Dem) Ovenden. Dem together with her family provided George with strong support in his subsequent hotel and post office management roles and in retirement.
Philip (Phil) enlisted in the AMF in 1940 and served in a Garrison Company. He married after discharge and he and his wife, Monica Elwyn (nee Kelly), had a daughter Kathleen Lorraine Mary (Lorraine) and a son, Brian Philip. The son of Phil, Brian Philip, is the only known descendant of the original Walter Adams who has retained the Adams surname into the fourth generation.
Walter, (the Young Watty), enlisted in the AIF and served as a Private in the 8th Motor Ambulance Convoy.
Patrick, (Spud), also served in the AIF as a Signaller and Driver in an Air Support Control Unit. He later joined the younger Watty in the 8th Motor Ambulance Convoy.
Other descendants of George and Lillie bear the names of Payne and Purcell.
Lillie Fogarty/Adams was a remarkable woman. Not only did she lose her husband as a young man but she also lost her sister and was the main, and soon, only source of support for Margaret’s children from two marriages. The loss to the Adams family on the death of the heir to the family’s fortunes was compounded when this woman of substance left Bundaberg.
APPENDIX C1a
The will of George Manus Adams – Page 1
APPENDIX C1b
The will of George Manus Adams
- Page 2.
Note the Signatures of Walter Adams and Father Rossolini
- Probably written when George was seriously ill with pneumonia