Who was Patrick Dunlea?

[MegsyB007]

How this story began

When I first saw an unusual grave in the Graytown Cemetery in central Victoria, I thought it was very strange indeed. Mostly because it had a tree growing right in front of the headstone; and secondly, that the tree was quite odd too.

But going back a bit now Ive done extensive family ancestry research, and the Find a Grave website has been really helpful for information about my ancestors, in England and Scotland, in particular. So I now contribute to this website to help other people overseas to find their ancestors here.

And as we all know, a lot of them came from all over the world to the goldfields and are now buried in little cemeteries in the middle of the bush. Places that are now ghost towns, or completely gone - such as Graytown - and the cemeteries are really all thats left of some of them.

So I took photos of all the headstones at Graytown Cemetery and put them on the Find a Grave website. Some were already on there, but a lot werent, so I added the ones that were missing.

But this one grave has stuck with me. Its been a year since I took this photo, and every time someone has mentioned a funeral or a grave, this one grave keeps coming back to my mind and Ive seen lot of graves! Why this one kept coming back to my mind became a curious quandary!

So when it happened again last weekend, I decided to find out who this man was, and work out if there was some reason why his grave wouldnt leave my memory, as all the others have now.

It became a project that I actually enjoy. I love doing ancestry research, and have done it for a few families now, including my own that Ive traced back to the year 610 in one branch! No kidding!

What Ive so far uncovered about this man and his family has been quite interesting, as it involves the gold rush, and is a true story of what happened to some people who came here searching for riches in the Australian goldfields, and the opportunities the gold rush presented in the new Colony of Victoria.

I thought you might be interested too, and have decided to post it in this thread in a series of chapters, or installments, for you all to learn the answer to the question that I felt I had to work out for some reason...

Who was Patrick Dunlea?

 

[MegsyB007]

The Grave

The headstone says, Sacred to the memory of Patrick Dunlea. Native of County Cork Ireland. Died 28th June 1870. Aged 29 years. May his soul rest in peace. Amen.

What struck me, was how clean and undamaged this headstone appeared, compared to the others in the old graveyard. Graytown Cemetery has had a bad history with bushfires in the area that have destroyed a lot of the wooden crosses; blackened a lot of headstones; and even broken others with the extreme heat.

A restoration effort has been ongoing to restore the worst of the damage on the ones that can be saved. So seeing this headstone, so white and the letters so clear to read, it was strange that it hadnt seemed to have been effected by the fires, anywhere near as much as the others have been.

Obviously it has been cleaned and the fence around the grave painted too, but its still in remarkably good condition for a headstone thats been through several bushfires and a lot of harsh Aussie weather.

 

[MegsyB007]

The odd tree

And as for the odd tree Normally trees have branches that angle upwards from the trunk, but this one had some lower branches sticking straight out of the trunk, like someone had drilled a hole through it and stuck two branches in the hole! And the other branches went in every which way - up, down, and some even curled around!

It was peculiar, to say the least

See how the lower branches stick straight out from the trunk? Other branches grow downwards, others grow up, and some even curl around.

The tree looks dead in this photo, but its not, as you can see by the trunk in the upper photo. It is still alive and growing.

This photo was taken in winter, so its lost its leaves and I dont know what species it is. I would like to find out though.

Its a kind of crazy looking tree, right? And maybe its been effected by the fires to look this crazy or maybe not

 

[MegsyB007]

Time to find the answers...

As mentioned, Im big on doing ancestry research and have done family trees for a few different people now. Ive traced one branch of my mothers family back to the year 610 to King Harald Hildetand of Norway, and can probably go back even further because the royals keep very good records of their ancestry, but the names got crazy so I stopped there. You try and work with names like, Solveig Halfdansdotter from Trondheim, Sor-Trondelag, Norway, and not want to take a break for a while! I felt like my head was going to explode, working with names like that one, for hours on end!

But anyway, I logged on to ancestry.com and started a new family tree beginning with my friend, Patrick Dunlea, from County Cork, born in 1840 or 41, and died 28th June 1870 in Graytown.

And thats all I had to go on, which is not a lot to start a family tree usually. But I got the search engines going, and after a whole weekend, and a week of nightly searching (so far), I came up with some answers.

Unfortunately, they werent all great answers But once again, I was amazed at the information to be found online these days.

 

[Mackka]

I just love cemeteries, a fascination I have had since a child. I will watch this story with interest.
As a side comment, I saw a young man and his girlfriend sitting in a clear section of Toowong Cemetery on a picnic blanket, nothing unusual there, except he was playing a banjo. How beautiful I thought, looked back in my rear vision mirror and no one there.
Mackka :flowers:

 

[MegsyB007]

The first information...

I started on Trove.com, and it didnt take long to find a story in the Launceston Examiner, of all papers! And it said this

Mr. Patrick Dunlea, a young man, and the owner of the largest store in Graytown has committed suicide. It appears that the deceased, who was of an eccentric disposition, went deliberately from his store into the back yard, and jumped head first into his large water tank. The storeman, hearing the splash, ran out, and tried to extricate the drowning man, but without success, and then, instead of calling for assistance, hurried to the camp for the police, but by the time they arrived, life was extinct.

At the inquest, a document was produced which the deceased had written just prior to the committal of the rash act, wherein he very logically endeavours to prove his insanity

"The writer of this paper, having only a few hours to live, desires to place on record the true result of the unfortunate causes which have led to this fearful end. In the first place he must state that he has for some years past, been more or less of unsound mind, which has increased considerably on Spring Creek; that from this and other causes he has been only partially able to attend to his business; that he is unfortunately given to reposing confidence where it is not deserved, and he has been robbed of the whole of his property on Spring Creek; by this, means his Spring Creek experiences have been very unfortunate, and money has been lost all the time from various causes. This so preyed on this mind that it rendered his insanity more permanent, until now his mind is completely gone - quite incapable of even thought. This will be the more apparent when it is seen that although at great and considerable loss, the business was still carried on until nearly everything is lost. There only still remains 90 Goldsborough shares, some Walker Reef shares, a paddock, and interest in a bill of sale at Dunolly, and store stock and outstanding accounts on Spring Creek, amounting to nearly 1000, and twenty-five shares in the Commercial Bank. I should say the value of the property that is left stands in 1800 if well realised, 120 shares in the Crushing Company and other sundry affects. If the mind of the writer was sound, he would remain and try to close his business. The diseases with which he is afflicted are very virulent and stupefying, and he is glad of any change to get out of his trouble. The mind is completely gone, and hopeless idiotcy (sic) is fast setting in. I have still some hope from the mercy of God, and I do not altogether despair of hereafter; regretting the unfortunate results of this act, but seeing no other way out of the difficulty - quite unable again to work up - I certainly struggled hard in the early days and worked up well - but the trail of the serpent is over them all. Oh! What a privilege it is to lead a good and holy life. Spring Creek is but the vestibule of hell. To sleep - perhaps to dream."

The jury accepted deceased's version of the cause that led to his death, and found that he was insane at the time he committed suicide by drowning himself in a water tank.

So that wasnt what I was hoping to read about Patrick It did seem like an oxymoron when he sounded quite logical when he explained his insanity though! But as we gold prospectors know, miners often used mercury that causes insanity, and Im afraid this might have been what caused his loss of sanity.

 

[MegsyB007]

The same story had a slightly different tone in the Melbourne Argus Newspaper, via the Bendigo Independent correspondent

Dont you like the way they worded things back then? But by the time they arrived life was extinct. Not just hed drowned.

But I learnt that he was a wine, spirits and general store merchant; had shares in the Goldsborough Mining Company in Dunolly, where he had done some business before going to Graytown; and was also a member of the local council.

So there was more to Patricks story than just going insane and drowning himself, and I kept looking

 

[goody2shoes]

That is something I have wanted to do about my last name....

But I don't no enough about it all...

Goody

 

[MegsyB007]

Going on the information that he owned a store there, the next thing I found was a map of Graytown, (which was formerly called Spring Creek, that Patrick called The vestibule of hell) and I found where his store was there. The thing is, it was dated after he died, and the name on it was J. Dunlea.

Hmm interesting Who is this J. Dunlea? I wondered Was he married?

 

[MegsyB007]

And then I found this

Article in The Melbourne Argus newspaper. Thurs 28th July 1870

RE PATRICK DUNLEA, Deceased. Pursuant to the provisions in that behalf contained in "The Statute of Trusts, 1804", notice is hereby given, that all creditors and other persons having any claims or demands upon or against the estate of Patrick Dunlea, late of Graytown, in the colony of Victoria, wholesale grocer, deceased, who died on the twenty-eighth day of June last, intestate, and administration of whose goods, chattels, credits, and effects was granted by the Supreme Court of the said colony, in its Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, on the twenty-first day of July instant, to James Dunlea, of Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, in the said-colony, merchant, a brother and one of the next of kin of the said deceased, are hereby required to SEND in PARTICULARS of such CLAIMS or DEMANDS to the said James Dunlea, as such administrator of the estate of the said deceased, at the office of his solicitor, Mr. Samuel Gillott, No 1 Market-square, Collins-street west, Melbourne (et cetera, et cetera, deleted legal mumbo jumbo) Dated this twenty-seventh day of July, 1870.

So it was his brother not a wife who was also a merchant in Melbourne. And obviously two of them came to Australia, so I checked the immigration records and found James arrived in Melbourne, in December 1854, aged 23. That made him 10 years older than Patrick, and I assumed that there would have been other siblings in between them. I couldnt find a record of Patricks arrival though, so Im not sure when he came to Australia yet (I dont give up that easily, and thats been bugging me!) So the search continues

I did find this little tidbit for a clue though In 1864 George Costick moved to Dunolly where he purchased a store and went into partnership with Irishman Patrick Dunlea. So he was here in 1864, and if he was in Dunolly, quite possibly getting a fair bit of gold together while he was there, besides going into partnership in a store and buying shares in the Goldsborough Mining Company. So he must have put some good cash together to do that by then. I'd say he'd done well on the goldfields!

 

[Manpa]

Nice research and an interesting tale Megsy.

 

[MegsyB007]

And then I found this The actual Administrators account of Patricks estate by his brother James.

Its a few pages long and hard to copy because it goes over an A3 sized page, but the gist of it says,

Receipts: By amount realised in the collection of debts and sale of groceries, wine, spirits, and personal estate of deceased except interest in machinery of Graytown Public Crushing and Gold Mining Company. Total: 1,885.3.9. By amount realised upon the sale of the machinery and plant of the Graytown Public Crushing and Gold Mining Company registered mortgaged to the late Patrick Dunlea, deceased. 530
Total 2,415.3.9.

And then after all the disbursements were paid out, mostly to suppliers for goods for his store, including 499 to his brother James Melbourne store! And a bank loan and 100 for legal fees, of course They were left with 800 to distribute to his next of kin. Who I reckon was his brother James! But perhaps not

Then again, there was the funeral and that indestructible headstone someone had to pay for too, and I believe James organised all that for his brother Patrick.

 

[MegsyB007]

OK that's enough for now...

For the next chapter, I'll post tomorrow night, we move onto big brother James and his story.

Let me know if you think this thread is worthwhile, and I welcome any helpful opinions and comments...

Cheers,
Megsy

 

[Ded Driver]

great research work there Megsy. This is an interesting story :Y:

 

[Booney]

Very interesting read you could put a book together with this sort of thing great window into the past thanks Megsy . :Y:

 

[sand surfer]

yes keep it going megsy got me hooked,amazing research and great story :trophy: :Y:

 

[RM Outback]

Great thread Megsy :Y: keep it going :Y:

 

[HectorBlows]

interesting stuff , same thought came to mind about the mercury , they just didnt know at the time

 

[HectorBlows]

and i agree about that tree , it seems to be hugging him !

 

[Franco]

Very interesting Megsy. Amazing that you have found as much as you have!
Looking forward to the next installment.