The Story of Thomas Power and Ann Hyde 
and their family of Wyndham NSW and the Kameruka Estate

The other stories supplied by Bryan Power [bryanp2-at-bigpond.com]

 John Power Snr | Thomas Power  | Mary Ann Power | Jane Power | Honorah Power | Elizabeth Power | John Power Jnr | Edward Power | James Power | Henry Power | George Power | Ellen and Charles Power | Bridget Power |  Patrick Power |  

Foreword

This is the eleventh story in stage two of a series to record something of the lives of the 15 children of John and Mary Power of Creewah and Wyndham N.S.W.

The stage one story was the recording of John and Mary’s life which can be found on the Monaro Pioneers’ website www.monaropioneers.com 

On this website I have found and used genealogies of the Hyde, Rixon and Went families and have used that information in this story about Thomas and Ann.

The other twelve stories in stage two are also on that website and they tell of the lives of Thomas’s brothers and sisters: William, Mary Ann, Jane, Honorah, Elizabeth John, Edward, James, Henry, George, Ellen, Bridget, Charles and Patrick.

Bryan Power
PO Box 610 Gisborne, Vic 3437   (03) 5428 2795 or bryanp2@bigpond.com   

Thomas Power was the second child of John and Mary Power (nee Donovan). He was born on 19 August 1838, probably at Pennant Hills where John was a farmer, and was baptized at Parramatta in the following month by Rev J C Sumner who had married his parents in the previous year. The sponsors at the baptism were John and Ann Wayland.

Thomas was only two when his parents made the momentous decision to leave the comparative security of Pennant Hills to undertake the long journey to the Monaro where John took up the position of superintendent at a 16,000 acre squatting run named Creewah. As John and Mary’s first child William had died as an infant, Thomas became the oldest in the family. The next four children were girls and it wasn’t until Thomas was six that the next boy was born. As he grew older he no doubt became the one that John relied on to assist him with heavy work.

According to his niece, Mrs Mary Ann Strangwidge, Thomas grew to be a tall man – about six feet in height. She remembered him as being dark haired and with a black beard.

When he was 21 years old and working as a carrier in Pambula, Thomas married Ann Hyde at the registrar’s office in Bombala. Ann’s father, Joseph Hyde, and George Derbyshire were the witnesses to the marriage which took place on 5 May 1859. Ann was aged 24, three years older than Thomas.

Children of Thomas and Ann

1. Charles John Power                         born 1860                     at Lochiel

2. Martha Catherine Power                         1862                         Lochiel

3. Thomas Joseph Power                            1866

4. Ann Jane Power                               Nov  1867                        Bemboka

5. James Albert Power                                 1868

6. Mary Charlotte Power                              1869

7. Esther Power                                             1873        

8. Louise Emma Power                           20 May  1875                   Wyndham

9. Hyde Rose (or Ida Rose) Power

10. Arthur Edward Power                  16 April  1877                        Lochiel

11. Ada Matilda Power                    25 March 1881                         Lochiel

12. Ethel Adeline Power                   29 Sept   1884                         Pambula

At Kameruka

According to records researched by Neville de Costa of Candelo, Tommy Power commenced work as a stockman at Kameruka in the Bemboka area on 18 May 1863 at a salary of 50 pounds per annum. The Kameruka Estate had changed hands during the previous year when

Jersey cows in front of the clock tower at Kameruka.

James Manning sold his share to Frederick Tooth and so the whole herd of 10,000 cattle was to be branded with the new “BB” brand. The mustering and branding was a big job requiring 22 stockmen altogether to put the cattle through the Bemboka yards.

Neville also provided this quote from the recollections of George E Ward written in 1914:

“The most picturesque of the black stockmen were Briney and Bakalla. Briney rode a big brown horse named ‘Ironsides’, a notorious bolter. He substituted the ordinary bridle for an iron bar 9 inches long with a hole in either end to receive the reins. Two other celebrated horsemen were Tommy Power on ‘Snake’ and Harry Stewart on ‘Rainbow’.”

Frederick Tooth died in 1864 and bequeathed the estate to his nephew, Robert Lucas Tooth, who proved to be an enlightened and benevolent employer, providing well built and comfortable homes for his tenants as well as a school, church, hall, store and post office at Kameruka. So, apparently life for Tom and Ann and their two young children was going along well. Sadly, tragedy was to strike them hard.

Death of the Children  

On 3 August 1866, their first born child, Charles, aged 6, succumbed to diphtheria. Five weeks later, four year old Martha died of the same disease. And then, 20 months later, their fourth child, six months old Ann Jane, died of thrush.

Henry Wren, the manager of Kameruka, registered these deaths at the Eden registrar’s office. Neville de Costa believes that the children would have been buried in the old Bemboka Cemetery on Arthur Carpenter’s property which in those days was part of Kameruka.

There is a considerable gap here in my knowledge of Thomas and his family and more research will be needed to fill in the details of their lives between 1868 and 1875.

During that period three more children: James (1868), Mary (1871) and Esther (1873) were born but I have not, as yet, located official records of their births. Nor have I found a record of the birth of the third child, Thomas.

The births of four of the five next children: Louise (1875), Arthur (1877), Ada (1881) and Ethel Adeline (1885) were recorded at Eden as was the death of Arthur in 1877 at the age of three months. There is no record of the birth of Hyde Rose. The four birth records show that Thomas was a farmer at Wyndham in 1875, at Lochiel in 1877 and 1881 and at Pambula in 1884.

Neville de Costa found an entry in the “Candelo and Eden Union” of 22 March 1888 advertising that “Thomas Power formerly of Eden has pleasure in announcing he has secured the Rocky Hall Hotel.” Neville believes that the hotel burned down shortly afterwards.

Thomas died of pneumonia at Wyndham on 11 October 1891. He was 52 at the time and his occupation was given as farmer. His son James of Rocky Hall registered his death. His surviving children and their ages were listed on his death certificate as Thomas 25, James 23, Mary 20, Esther 18, Hyde Rose 16, Ada 12, Addie 7.

Louise Emma (born 1875) is missing from this list indicating that she had died (but I have found no record of this) or perhaps that Louise Emma and Hyde Rose were the same person.

Thomas was buried in Wyndham Cemetery and a large sandstone head stone was erected on his grave by Robert Lucas Tooth of Kameruka. The head stone surmounted by a Celtic cross (now broken off) reads:

In fond Memory of
Thomas Power
Who died Oct 11 1891
Aged 52 years
Erected by R.L.Tooth
As a token of respect
For his long and faith
ful service

In January 1972 my father (James Joseph Power) and I found that the head stone was lying face downwards on the grave. We borrowed a crowbar from the publican of the Robbie Burns Hotel and with great difficulty managed to get the head stone upright.

Bryan Power holding the broken Celtic cross in place. Note the headstone of Thomas’s youngest brother, Patrick, to the right and the headstone of two of his nieces in the foreground. Photo taken in January 1980.

The surviving children of Thomas and Ann intermarried with the following families: Sawers (pronounced Seers), Miller, Rixon, Spears and Went.

The descendants of Thomas and Ann were:

1. Charles John Power was six years old when he died of diphtheria on 3 August 1866. He is recorded as dying at “Karraruko” (probably meant to be Kameruka) Bemboka.
    

2. Martha Catherine Power died a month after her brother Charles (on 11 September 1866) at Bemboka of the same disease – diphtheria. She was four years old.
    

3. Thomas Joseph Power I presume was the third child. He was 25 when his father died on 11 October 1891 so he would have been born in either late 1865 or 1866. He had married Mary Ann Sawers (pronounced Seers) on 29 July 1891, three months before his father’s death. Mary Ann’s birth had been registered at Eden in 1873. They were both living at Rocky Hall at the time of their marriage which was celebrated by George Jennings according to the rites of the Church of England at Bombala. The witnesses were James Whitley and the bride’s father, James Sawers. The marriage was registered at Bombala. Thomas’s occupation was listed as carpenter.

The first birth registered was that of Ella Olive Mary but her registration indicated that there was already another female child born. Thus, according to the Eden registrar’s records, Thomas and Mary’s family was as follows:

1. a girl, born 1891 or 1892.
2. Ella Olive Mary Power born at Rocky Hall on 6 December 1892 (The age of Ella’s father, Thomas, was given as 28 on this birth certificate, indicating that he could have been born as early as 1864.) Ella married Albert Burton at Eden in 1912.
3. Jennet M Power born in 1895
4. Cecil T Power born in 1897. He married Harriette M J Nunn at Granville in 1922.
5. Ethel A Power born in 1905. She married John T Bennett at Granville in 1927.
    

4. Ann Jane Power Ann Jane was born at Bemboka in November 1867 and died six months later on 14 May 1868 of thrush.
    

5. James Albert Power was aged 23 when his father died in 1891; thus he was born in 1867 or 1868.

On 22 April 1891 he married Louisa Mary Miller at the Presbyterian Manse, Bombala. He was living at Rocky Hall and was a carpenter. Louisa was from Cathcart. Her father Francis Miller gave his consent. The witnesses were James’s brother, Thomas Joseph Power, and Sophia Catherine Miller. James was 25 and Louisa was 20 when their first child Victor was born on 27 December 1891.

1. Victor James Power was born at Rocky Hall and baptized a Catholic at Rocky Hall on 14 February 1892. He married Irene Bernadette Hobbs in Sydney in 1943.
2. Vincent Sylvester Power was born at 26 October 1894 and baptized at Rocky Hall on 23 December 1894.
3. Vera E Power was born in 1899. In 1919 she married Stanley Williams at Balmain North.
    

6. Mary Charlotte Power was 20 at the time of her father’s death in 1891 so would have been born in 1870 or 1871.

Mary married Arthur Rixon, a labourer from Rocky Hall on 28 December 1888. The marriage was conducted in accordance with the rites of the Presbyterian Church at the home of Joseph Hyde in Rocky Hall. James Spears and Ina Rixon were the witnesses. The bride was a resident of Rocky Hall.

Arthur was the fifth child of James and Sarah Rixon and had been born on 17 November 1868 at Greigs Flat near Pambula.. Ina was one of his younger sisters.

Arthur died in Kensington NSW on 29 April 1933 aged 64.

The births of their six children were all registered at Eden:

1. Arthur Ivon Rixon born  17 November 1889 in Eden. . In 1917 he married Mary A Davis in Lismore. Arthur died in 1951 in Liverpool NSW aged 62.

2. Madeline Linda Rixon born 1891. In 1916 she married John J Smith at Lismore. Madeline died in 1976 at the age of 85.

3. Dessie Hamilton Rixon born 28 November 1892. Arthur, his father, was a farmer at this time and was 24 years of age. Dessie married Jane V Mitchell at Waverley in 1916.

4. Cecily (or Sisceley) Anne Rixon born 1896. Cecily/Sisceley and Sylvia were twins. She married Herbert H Clarke in Lismore in 1917 and died in 1974 in Bingarra, NSW.

5. Sylvia I Rixon born 1896. She married Harry T Carlill at Lismore in 1915. Harry was born in 1892 in Casino, the son of Leonard F Carlill and Susan J Thomson.

6. Dora Rixon born 1896. Although registered as being born in the same year as the twins, Dora’s number was much higher – 21270.

The twins’ registration numbers were 3078 and 3079. Dora died in Burwood, NSW in 1926 aged 30.

7. Esther Power was born in Bega in 1872. Elizabeth Esther Power married a Rocky Hall farmer, James Rixon, at the home of Thomas Power in Rocky Hall on 27 May 1888. William Mansfield and Ina Rixon were the witnesses and the wedding was performed by a Presbyterian minister, James L. Forbes.

James Rixon was an older brother of Arthur who married Esther’s sister, Charlotte, seven months later that year.

James was born on 29 December 1866 in Broadwater, Pambula and was the fourth James in a line of descent from his great-grandfather, James Nixon, a convict, who had been sentenced to death at the Kent Assizes in 1797 for the theft of nine guineas. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was transported to Sydney Cove. There he met Amelia Ann Godwin and their second child James was the grandfather of Esther’s husband who died in Inverell in 1940 aged 74. Esther died in 1952 in Inverell aged 80.

The full details of the Rixon descendants of James Rixon and Amelia Godwin can be found at www.monaropioneers.com

The children of Esther and James were:

1. Edith Olga Rixon born 1889. In 1909 she married John Arthur Collins at Eden. John was born in Wyndham in 1893 and died in 1940 at Bega aged 47. He is buried at Candelo. John served in WW1 in the 3^rd Battalion Machine Gun detail from27 September 1915 to 19 February 1919. He was twice wounded and once gassed.

A year after John’s death Edith married Leo Vincent Fitzpatrick in Sydney.

Edith died on 13 October 1985 aged 96.

2. Hilda M Rixon born 1891 in Eden. Hilda married Mathew Rolfe at Inverell in 1911. Mathew had been born in that town in 1887 and died there in 1964 at the age of 77.

3. Andy Rixon born 1892. Andy married Ada Holmes at Eden in 1916.

4. May I M Rixon born 1894. In 1911 May married William J A Merchant   at Inverell. William was the son of Richard and Emma Merchant.

5. James Rixon born 1896 in Eden. Jimmy married Ruby V Ellis in 1917 in Inverell. Ruby had been born in that town in 1896.

6. Amyiess M Rixon born 1898 in Eden. She married William’s brother, James A J Merchant, in Inverell in 1916. Her first name was recorded in the marriage entry as Amyiness. James had been born in Inverell in 1891.

7. Ada C Rixon born 1903. Ada was also married at Inverell, to Colin C Bell in 1920.

There are records registered at Bega of the deaths of two males, James Rixon in 1893 and William Rixon in 1916. Both are registered as being the sons of James and Elizabeth Rixon but there are no birth entries for them. Note that the death of James predates the birth of Jimmy. All of the birth entries were registered at Eden but the two death entries were registered at Bega. Perhaps the two were at Bega because of the better hospital facilities or, less likely, they were from a different Rixon family.

8. Louise Emma Power was born at Wyndham on 20 May 1875. She would have been 16 at the time of her father’s death but she is not listed as a surviving child on his death certificate.
    

9. Hyde Rose Power, however, is the 16 year old mentioned on the death certificate. Were Louisa Emma and Hyde Rose twins or, perhaps, one and the same person? I have found no other records for Louise Emma but Ida Rose Power is registered at Eden as having married James Spears in 1893. The Eden register records that Ida and James lost a seven weeks old baby, Desmond Mervin Spears, on 10 January 1898. They were then living at Greigs Flat where James was a miner.
    

10. Arthur Edward Power was born at Lochiel on 16 April 1877. He was a sickly baby and died three months later on 22 July 1877. He was buried at Pambula.
     

11. Ada Matilda Power was born at Lochiel on 25 March 1881. Ada was 12 when her father died in 1891.

Ada married William Hibburd Spears in 1905 at Eden. William was a brother of James Spears, Hyde Rose’s husband.

12. Ethel Adeline Power was born on 29 September 1884 at Pambula. ‘Addie’ was 7 when her father died.

Addie married James Thomas Went at Eden in 1908. James was born on May 3, 1878 in Bega, the fifth child (of seven) of James Went and Sarah Whitby. James died on April 24, 1961 in Pambula at age 82, and was buried in Pambula Cemetery.

Ethel died on May 17, 1939 in Pambula aged 55.

Their one child was Lanelly James Went who was born in 1909 in Pambula and died on November 17, 1938 in Pambula, at age 29.

The genealogy of the extended Went family can be seen on www.monaropioneers.com

Ann Hyde’s Family

Ann, born in Cheshire in 1835, was the second child of Joseph Hyde and Ann Warburton. Joseph Hyde was born in Cheshire in 1809. Ann Warburton was born in 1811 in Manchester. They were married in the Parish of Cheadle, Chester on 20 September 1830. Their first six children were born in England, and after migrating to Australia after 1847, their next four were born at Eden.

Joseph died on 22 May 1893 at Lochiel. His wife Ann also died there on 12 December 1907.

Joseph Hyde was the third child (of 10 children) of Joseph L Hyde (b 15 August 1783 in Moston, Lancastershire) and Nancy Walker (b 14 January 1784). They had been married in 1801.

Ann Hyde’s six brothers and three sisters were:

1. Benjamin Hyde, born in1834 in Cheshire, married Sarah Harvey in 1853, died in1901at Eden.

3. Joseph Hyde, b 23 July 1837 in Stockport, m Elizabeth Whitby 1860, d 9 September 1921 at Towamba.

4. John Hyde, b 1842 in Cheshire, m Mary Farrell 1867, d 1909 in Eden.

5. Emma Hyde b 1845 in Cheshire, m William Burton 1863        d 1933 in Bega.

6. Mary Hyde    b 1847  in Cheshire m Thomas Beveridge 1874 d 31 July 1934 at Pambula.

7. Peter Calderbank Hyde b 1850 at Eden m Hannah Hart d 26 Nov 1938 at Pambula.

8. James Hyde  b 1852  at Eden m Emma Wilson 1876

9. Nancy Hyde b 1855 at Eden m Arthur Edward Shipway 1876

10. George Hyde b 1858 at Eden m Mary M Shea 1883

Ann Power (nee Hyde) died at Bega in 1928. She had survived her husband Thomas Power by 37 years.

The genealogy of the Hyde family can be viewed at www.monaropioneers.com