NEWS DESK
The Jeremiahs of Tyabb By Doreen Jeremiah JOHN Jeremiah, together with his wife, Joanna and large family, took up land in Old Tyabb in 1894. Consequently there have been Jeremiahs in the Western Port area for over 120 years and I welcome this opportunity to tell a little of our family history. The tricky bit is that so many of my ancestors were called “John” but I will do my best to avoid any confusion. *** Welsh Beginnings The first ancestor I have been able to find was John Morgan who was born in Brecon, South Wales. John was a shoemaker and, after he married Mary, they moved to the prestigious area of St. James, Westminster, London. While living there they had three sons, one of whom was Edward. After some time in London, John and Mary moved back to Aberdare in South Wales where John and his sons continued to work as shoemakers. There was apparently another shoemaker in Aberdare whose name was Morgan and, not wishing for his work to be confused with that of a less skilfull craftsman, John changed his name from Morgan to Jeremiah. The choice of the name is a mystery, but in Wales at that time religion and the church played a significant part in the lives of most people. Edward, my great,great, grandfather, had been born in the Naval Hospital in Greenwich in 1808 before the move back to Wales. He became quite heavily involved in the church and was a reader and orator of some repute. If the minister was running late, Edward would commence the Sunday service himself, opening with a prayer: “Good Lord, see us this day, having been disappointed by your emissary-if indeed he is your emissary-if he could have come but has decided against making the effort-chastise him-scourge him: but if it is that he has tried to come and has failed, forgive him. For him, no more than me, is not perfect.” It sounds like a harsh start to the service and one wonders
Top: The Welsh Shoemaker Right: The Ben Nevis
how the minister could recover from there. Edward Jeremiah married Margaret Thomas on 26 April, 1828 in the Parish of Aberdare and they lived, rather appropriately, in Temperance Street, Merthyr Tydfil, a large iron and steel manufacturing town. The 1861 census indicates that the family had moved back to Aberdare and between the two locations eleven children were born. While some of them stayed in Wales, others journeyed to distant lands such as Australia and America. To the Goldfields John Jeremiah was born in Aberdare in 1835, the third son of Edward and Margaret. Like most young men of those times, John was keen to avoid an existence in the mines and preferred to try his luck on the Australian goldfields. Accordingly, in 1856 he and a cousin, Richard Davies, booked a passage on the “Ben Nevis”and, on arrival, they made their way to Dunolly. John lived at Cochrane’s Creek and there he met Johanna Williams from nearby Sandy Creek (now Tarna-
gulla). Johanna, born in Rhymney in Wales in 1845 came to Australia with her parents, Abraham and Margaret, on the “Timothy Castle”. John and Johanna were married at the Dunolly Congregational Church in 1861. Between 1861 and 1883 John and Johanna Jeremiah had thirteen children but only four of them survived to adulthood; this was not uncommon in those days with disease, poor sanitation and with women coping alone. When it came to naming children, the same name was often re-used if the original bearer had died. Consequently there were three “Johns” amongst the thirteen; the last of them was John Edward, my great grandfather, who was born in 1880. John must have had success on the goldfields for he was able to buy a 1,000 acre wheat and sheep farm at
West Carrapooee (also known as Peter’s Diggings) in 1867. Under the guidance of Mr. H. Edwards of St. Arnaud, the local miners gathered stones from the mineshafts on the hill opposite and built an Anglican church. The sound workmanship and generations of care by a devoted band of worshippers have ensured that the building has stood the test of time. The tiny church still stands in an isolated location on the St. Arnaud-Dunolly Road, Carrapooee. A deterioration in Johanna’s health necessitated a move from the area, however, so John left his eldest surviving son, Abraham, in charge of the farm. Abraham later became an agent for Massey Harris farm implements and started one of the first reaper and binder units in the St. Arnaud district. He married Emma Golding in 1893
and they had seven children. Some of their descendants still live in that area. The Move to Old Tyabb After a few years in the Werribee area, John and Johanna left with intentions to buy land they had seen advertised in The Argus of 2 December, 1893. There were 600 acres for sale divided into blocks ranging from 6 to 60 acres in the area which became known as “Old Tyabb”. John intended to buy all 600 acres but they were held up by the ferry at Mordialloc Creek. When they arrived at the auction, held at the Mechanics Institute in Hastings, most of the land had been sold and they were only able to obtain 104 acres. The property was called “Elm Bank” and a few elm trees can still be seen there today. Apple orchards were
Far left: John Jeremiah (1835 - 1906) Left: Johanna Jeremiah, nee Williams (1845 - 1918) Below: St Peter’s Anglican Church (“The Pebble Church”), Carapooee.
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Western Port News
23 October 2019