My small collection of personal records about grandmother Catherine, who died several years before I was born, has allowed me to become more familiar with her. These records join with family oral history to add revealing details not included in public and official records. One of the most interesting of these is a post card written to one of her daughters, Lizzie (Elizabeth Jane) from Longreach. Unfortunately the postmark date is illegible. However it shows that Catherine could spell and write well enough to communicate with her daughter, despite the lack of formal schooling opportunities she would have had as a child moving from one small mining community to another during the 1870s.
Catherine Heffernan was born on 26 August 1867 in Crocodile Creek, a gold mining field south-west of Rockhampton.[1] Her birth to Jane Hope and Francis Theobald Heffernan, was not registered, despite the fact that most of her siblings’ births were. By this time Crocodile Creek gold miners were moving on to other fields in the Rockhampton district; perhaps the family were on the move soon after Catherine’s birth and the registration papers did not reach their destination.
By 1876, Catherine’s father had begun working on the railway line being built westward from Rockhampton. By the following year, the family had reached Duckworth Creek (modern-day Bluff). In January, Jane Hope died, giving birth to unnamed twins who both died within the month. Francis was left to care for six children aged from eleven to four years. The family continued to move west as construction progressed.
Stories passed down several lines of the Heffernan descendants indicate that each of the three elder girls, including Catherine, began domestic service at a young age. My mother’s use of ‘hospital corners’ to tuck in bed sheets was taught to her by her mother, who said that she had learnt that way when she was in service. Catherine married at 15 years in Comet to Philip Shepherd, a carrier. John and Susannah Crawford, local storekeepers were witnesses to the marriage. It is likely that Catherine had worked in their home.
The couple’s first son, Philip Mathew was born a year later, November 1883 in Bogantungan, further west along the railway line and then its terminus. Philip, junior died of dysentery on 8 May 1885 and was buried in the Bogantungan Cemetery. The next son James Henry (Jim) Shepherd was born in December 1886 in Jericho, which had been opened as the rail terminus in June 1885. This is where Catherine and Philip spent the rest of their lives. They lived in a small cottage, possibly built soon after 1892 when Philip purchased two town allotments. Living next door to the school head teacher, Catherine benefited from her friendship with Myfanwy Hanger, whose husband Thomas was headteacher of Jericho State School from 1903 to 1908.
Along with several other women, Catherine worked as one of Jericho’s midwives until the passing of Queensland Health Acts after 1900 led to opportunities for training midwives and raised the fears of local women that they may face arrest, particularly if a birth was not successful.
Catherine gave birth to some of her own children at home in Jericho, also one in each of the larger towns of Blackall (February 1889) and Longreach (December 1893). We know that Catherine and their children sometimes accompanied Philip on his long trips as a carrier of wool and stations’ supplies from grazing properties to a railway terminus. In early 1887 and early 1888, Catherine did not collect letters addressed to Mrs Philip Shepherd, Jericho from relatives elsewhere in the colony.[2] She may have been with her husband and toddler on a carrying trip and these births may have coincided with other journeys.
Catherine’s eldest daughter, Margaret (1889-1967) told her granddaughters about her use of a sewing machine when opportunities arose during a carrying trip. Sewing and needlework were skills practised by all Catherine’s daughters – perhaps they learnt them from their mother. The sisters made their own dresses and hats for the wedding of brother Jim in February 1913 and most likely those worn by younger siblings. The wonderful wedding photograph illustrates this skill. Catherine is seated three from the left, her daughters those seated on the other side of the groom and wearing hats trimmed with flowers.
February 1912 marked a turning point in the family’s life as Philip gained a licence for a small block of 3,122 acres/1,263.5 hectares about 3 miles/4.8 kilometres east from town and named Rosewood Valley. Philip, as a retired carrier whose older sons had taken on his business as carriers, raised sheep for wool and provided grazing for the horse teams. The five younger children would have lived with their parents in the small house.
During World War I, Catherine, with her sister-in-law Mollie Heffernan as well as her daughter Lizzie Kenyon and future daughter-in-law Dora Bloxsom became involved in work for the local Red Cross by serving on the committee. While much of their knitting and sewing of socks, mittens, pillowslips and other items would have been done at home, they gathered in Jericho for their meetings and the community functions – dances, euchre, sports and children’s Cinderellas to raise money. If the men were away, Catherine would have walked to town for Red Cross meetings. One of Catherine’s granddaughters recalled holding on to her grandmother’s long skirts as they walked to Jericho.
Following his death on 11 September 1938, Philip Shepherd’s estate was transferred – the farm and two town allotments – to Catherine. When Catherine made her will in 1941, she bequeathed her estate to the two sons who remained living on Rosewood Valley. Catherine Shepherd died in the Alpha Hospital on 18 October 1941 and was buried alongside her husband the same day. Local papers included obituaries for both and an appreciation for Catherine, written by her son-in-law Sydney S.S. Adams.[3] Along with other kind words about ‘one of nature’s gentlewoman’, he stated that:
‘Although she went through the hard and rough pioneering life with her husband she never lost that sense of refinement which is the expression of the true inner soul.’
Precious personal records and the shared stories of descendants are such important additions to our understanding of our ancestors. From those who did not write diaries or journals, important snippets remain.
[1] General Registry Office, Brisbane, Marriage Certificate, Shepherd-Heffernan, No. 1311 152.
[2] Dead Letter Office returns, Queensland Government Gazette, 20 April 1887 p. 1362; 18 May 1888, p. 419.
[3] Longreach Leader, 1 November 1941, p.15.
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