A Tale from Balmain

As I have made clear, my interview technique when I was 12 was not great (there is strong argument that it has not improved much since). But my grandfather, Leslie Keith Ashton O'Toole, did tell me some stories before I blew it. The following is my favourite.

The O'Tooles were all great swimmers. Les's dad, John O'Toole, was a founding member of Balmain Swimming Club and his mum, Mary Marcella ni Hall, a founding member of the Balmain Ladies' Swimming Club. Younger brother Will was a regular member of the swim team and the whole family could often be found at Balmain Baths (now Dawn Fraser Baths) or at one of Sydney's numerous beaches. They were not, however, to swim in the Harbour as Marcella was concerned about sharks.

Balmain Baths, from Town and Country Magazine, 4 Jan 1902, p.23. Image from Trove

When Les was about fourteen (which would have put this around 1915) he and his friends would dare each other to do mad things – jumping off moving trams, climbing things (I think buildings, but I am not quite sure) and swimming in the Harbour. The Harbour swim was Les's favourite dare because 1) it was easy and 2) he wasn't allowed to. The routine was this: “I dare you to swim from X to the ferry wharf”. Les would strip off and enter the water. His friends would then collect his clothes and secrete them near the wharf. They knew he had succeeded because he would meet them later clothed but damp. As he completed each dare, the swims got longer.

The O'Tooles were living in 21 Hampton Street at the time, just up the steps from the Balmain Baths and with a view out towards Cockatoo Island. When Les said “swim in the Harbour” he meant that side of the Harbour, not round near Circular Quay or Darling Harbour. The ferry wharf where the clothes were left was Balmain West Ferry Wharf off Elliott Street. Swims had been from the Baths round to the ferry wharf and from other spots on the Birchgrove side.

Les O'Toole, taken around 1914. Photo in private collection

Les never worked out how his mother found out. I wonder if she saw him at some point, either near the Baths or near the wharf. Nevertheless, Marcella found out. But it is a mark of the woman that she did not say anything to her son about it.

Impressed by his swimming prowess, Les's friends set him a big challenge – to swim from the point near Callan Park under the Iron Cove Bridge to the ferry wharf. No problem. Les and his friends walked round to the point, Les stripped down and began his swim. His friends bundled up his clothes and headed for the wharf. Unbeknownst to all, the friends were being followed.

Les completed the swim without any trouble. He told me he had seen sharks from time to time during his Harbour swims, but I don't know if he saw any that day. Let's just say that sharks became the least of his worries. He easily reached the wharf and waited till the coast was clear. Then he made his way to the place where his clothes were usually stashed.

Nothing.

He looked about for them.

Still nothing.

He started to search frantically, all the while trying to stay out of sight. This was after all 1915 in built-up Balmain and he was stark naked.

Still nothing.

So began a furtive and seemingly endless trip home, through back streets and pan man's alleys. Most toilets were pan toilets outside. The pans needed regular emptying and the pan men needed access, so Sydney had an extensive network of alleys. If you go to areas like Balmain, Newtown and Redfern you can still see them. Little lanes about 3 feet wide running behind yards or between buildings. So there was Les, ducking under cover, scooting down alleys and making a break for it when necessary if the coast was clear. It's about 500m from the wharf to Hampton Street as the crow flies, but a 14 year old boy, clothed or naked, isn't able travel as the crow flies. Les couldn't say how long it took, except to say that he felt like he would never get there.

The starting point of Les's swim is marked with the red star in the bottom left. Iron Cove Bridge is marked with "A40". The Ferry Wharf is the red star at the top. 21 Hampton Street is circled. This does not convey the route taken to get from the wharf to home. I don't think my grandfather was paying enough attention to have later mapped it at any rate. Image from Google Earth. Marking added with Microsoft Paint.

Finally he reached 21 Hampton Street, sneaking into the yard. He crept into the house and into his room which he shared with his younger brothers.

There, neatly laid out on his bed were his clothes.

Realising the gig was up, Les quietly dressed and went out to the kitchen to eat his tea. All Marcella said was “How was your afternoon?”

When he told his friends the next day they laughed like drains.

But Les never swam in the Harbour again.

Told to Megan Hitchens ni Ellem sometime in March 1980

Ancestral Trading Cards

Something a bit different today - a trading card to honour a female ancestor, in this case my great grandmother, Mary Marcella Hall.

 The  photo was taken in 1925 when Mary Marcella was 58 years old. She is smiling so happily because she is holding a new granddaughter.

Learning Curves

What schooling did my mother have? my grandmothers? my great grandmothers?

Mum went through Primary School and High School up to the Leaving Certificate, so at 15 she was out in the big wide world working.

Mum is at the far right, second row, with her hair in pigtails. She looks like my older sister in this photo

But later she went to Bible College, and since then Mum has always been learning. She learnt to speak and read Bengali when she was in Bangladesh and although she says she isn't much good at it, she can still read some and can still speak a little to the people at Nargi's, the local takeaway. Not bad for more than 40 years since she was there.

Then each time Mum took work she had to learn something new, go to training days. When Aid for the Children of Brazil started up Mum had to learn about not only the Australian legal requirements for overseas adoption and the correct forms and information from this end, but also about the Brazilian requirements and forms and information, how the Brazilian legal system works, and some Portuguese.

Now she is learning about computers - email, how to read this blog, online petitions, all sorts. And Mum always has something interesting to tell me that she has found out through all the things she does with her life - local government, street art in Sydney, the EDO (Environmental Defenders Office), the local museum. She has never stopped learning. Way to go, Mum.

I don't know much about my grandmothers' schooling. I know Nanna O'Toole went to the little school at Cox's River - one teacher, one room - and then was in school at Wentworth Falls for a while. It was unusual back then for girls to go beyond primary (it was unusual for boys in the area to go beyond primary), so I am not sure how far Nanna went. Nanna could read and write and was smart, she did the cryptic crossword every day, and I'm lucky to get one clue out, but I don't know that her schooling went far. I shall have to find out.

Tomorrow I go to see my Uncle Reg, so I can ask him about Nanna Ellem's schooling. She was no dunce either, but again, I just don't know. But I do know that Nanna was always able to turn her hand to a new trade when it was needed, just so long as you didn't ask her to sew or cook.

And as for my great grandmothers, Maud Elizabeth Parker (later Ellem) and Mary Ellen O'Dowd (later Davies), I'll ask Uncle Reg about them. I don't know about Mary Marcella Hall. Hannah Maria Amelia Pearce (later Shoobridge) went to school in Burragorang Valley, probably at the Cox's River School, but life was hard for her family and her mother, Elizabeth Pearce (ni Kerswell), had a child every two years or so and was not known for her devotion to housework, so Hannah left school early to look after her siblings, the house and her father, with help from her grandmother, Hannah Maria Kerswell (ni Rymes). My great grandmother often went out to work as well, to bring in extra cash for the family, and usually ended up keeping house for local women close to giving birth. Hannah often was present for the birth and acted as assistant to Mrs Longbottom, the local midwife. Hannah learnt a lot from Mrs Longbottom, the most respected midwife in the area, and when Hannah and her husband George William James Shoobridge and family moved up to Wentworth Falls about 1916, Hannah became a highly regarded midwife herself. So, like Mum, Hannah kept learning.

From what I know of the lives of my mother, grandmothers and great grandmothers, they all had to be resourceful and smart to keep their families together and fed and healthy and clothed. Although there may not be much formal schooling amongst them, they are and were smart women with formidable skills.

It all starts with a woman

I wasn't sure where to start, but then I read Lisa Alzo's blog on Fearless Females and I thought, "Why not?" We all start from our mothers (fathers too, but they are not as involved in our gestation and birth), so I'll start with the women in my family.

I'm going back a bit further than Mum for this first post - back to my great great grandmother, Anne Groves Leonard. She is a favourite female ancestor of mine because I am always struck by how much she endured in her life and how much her family loved her. But there are still questions unanswered.

Anne was born in Kingsland, Middlesex in 1832 (calculated from marriage certificates). I want to find a birth or baptismal date, so I need to find out what churches were in the area and where parish records might be held.

On 4 June 1848, Anne married Matthew Gambell Anthony, a grocer who went to sea and didn't return (he died of Java Fever off Indonesia on 8 January 1852). Anne and Matthew had a son, Matthew Joseph, known as Joseph.

Anne and her parents and siblings lived bang opposite the London Docks, on Upper East Smithfield, so it was no surprise that her second husband was a mariner by trade. Anne married Laurence O'Toole, from Wexford, on 25 July 1853 at St Mary Parish Church, Whitechapel and in less than a year, Anne, Laurence and little Joseph walked down the gang plank onto Circular Quay in the colony of New South Wales. It was very different from England, not so cold in winter but perishingly hot in summer. The family lived in a little house in Kent Street, which they soon were sharing with Anne's sister Lucy, her husband George Puzey and their son. The houses in their area were tiny, two small rooms with a lean-to kitchen out the back. Things must have been cramped with four adults and two young children. Lucy and George moved into their own home after about six months. More can be read about them in Keeping Up With The MacNamaras

Anne, Laurence and their growing brood moved about every few years, a common pattern for struggling renters in the colony. After Joseph, their first child together was Isabella, who was tragically killed in an accident at the age of two, run over by a fully laden dray that was not being properly supervised.

Then there followed William, Laurence and Archer who lived into their sixties and seventies. Frederick came along, named for Anne's deceased brother. Sadly, young Frederick was struck down during a measles epidemic. He was one of the last children to die before the epidemic came to an end. He was two years old, and Anne was seven months pregnant with John. It must have been a very frightening time for Anne. She had just lost one child, would her unborn baby survive as well? John did survive and lived into his seventies. Then there was Thomas and Benjamin and lastly James.

Joseph died in April 1880, after a severe illness, leaving a wife and child (their first baby had died as an infant). It is clear from the funeral notices how much his family loved and missed him. How it must have hurt Anne to lose Matthew's child.

In 1880 the probate of the will of Anne's first husband, Matthew, was finally settled in her favour. I have to get the papers for that. I have the application, I just need to sort an International Bank Draft. Why did it take 28 years to get sorted out? I suspect the answer is linked to Why are Anne and Joseph not mentioned on Matthew's headstone in Norfolk? (yes, his family paid to have his body shipped back). The money had an immediate effect on the O'Toole family. They were able to move out of The Rocks and into Balmain. Did they own their first home there? I need to check with the Land Titles Office to find out.

Things were looking up, but there was more to come - within two years of the move Anne Groves Anthony Leonard O'Toole was a widow once more. Laurence had come down with a bad case of diarrhoea and been admitted to Callan Park Hospital (it was a general hospital at the time, with a psychiatric wing). He died six days later and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery. His headstone does not survive.

The family pulled together, Anne's sons supporting her through this time. It looks like she moved in with Laurence Jnr, although I need to do some more checking through Sands Directory to verify this. But in 1889 Anne married again, to a widowed neighbour named James Leake. They lived first in College Street, Balmain, and then moved to 5 Hampton Street. Just when it seemed that happiness was assured, Anne's family again struck rough times. Benjamin developed Laryngeal Tuberculosis, a terrible illness for which there was no cure. It kills you slowly in one of two ways - either you starve to death because you are unable to swallow, or you suffocate. Anne nursed Benjamin over four months, unable to do little more than make her son as comfortable as possible while he slowly died. Anne was the informant on the death certificate.

In 1897 John O'Toole and his new bride, Mary Marcella Hall, moved in next door to Anne and James Leake, into 7 Hampton Street. They shared a common wall, and hopefully the grandchildren who followed brought her some joy. Little John McKay O'Toole died aged two days and I know Anne would have been a help to her son and daughter-in-law at that time and in other years. When Anne herself finally died in 1905, John had a nervous breakdown. You don't react like that to someone who refused to help in time of need. My mother's cousin, who remembers John, says he was very close to his mother and loved her dearly.

Anne died on 18 April 1905 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery, although not with Laurence. James Leake was the informant on her death certificate, and he made a right mess of it, and I can't help thinking it was deliberate. Anne's correct age is given for her marriage to Matthew, although he has O'Toole tacked on the end of his name. Laurence is not mentioned on the certificate at all (although Laurence and James attended the same church, so they would have known each other). James gives Anne's age at her marriage to him as her age when she married Laurence and claims all her children bar Isabella as his own. Isabella is attributed to Matthew. Had Anne's life with Laurence been so hard that James felt he had to do this? Was he jealous of the love Anne had for her dead husband that he wanted to wipe him out? Was he just confused, or addled by grief? I don't know if I can ever find the answer to this.

A long post, but Anne Groves Leonard had an eventful life. My goal is to one day find a photo of Anne. A number of her sons led lives of active public service and were very prominent in the Balmain Community particularly, so I am hoping that a photo will crop up sometime. I need to go to Leichhardt Library SOON to look at their photographic archive.

Well, that's a mouthful for a start, but we are underway. History is always in the making.