John Callaghan and Eliza Murphy
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Birth: 1842, Kilbreedy Minor, Mount Blakeny, Limerick, Ireland
Death: 2 Feb 1901, Hectorville, Adelaide, South Australia
Burial: Adelaide, Adelaide City, South Australia
Spouse: Elizabeth (Bessie) Murphy
Birth: 1847, Adelaide, South Australia
Death: Australia
Father: Timothy Murphy (1815-1911)
Mother: Bridget Regan ? (1825-1899)
Marriage: 5 Nov 1867, Adelaide, South Australia
No children (as far as is known).
John Callaghan was born sometime in 1842. We do not know his actual birthdate because Effin Parish records do not exist before 1843. His birth year is established by a shipping record, his marriage record, and his tombstone. That is as close as we can get.
John was the sixth child and fourth son on John Callaghan and Nora Carroll. By family naming tradition, his brother should have been John, after his father, but the great saint took precedent, and the name fell to the fourth son. John was born in Kilbreedy Minor, Mount Blakeney, Limerick, on land rented from the Blakeneys and worked by the Callaghans for 100+ years. The land was half way between Kilmallock, Limerick, and Charleville, Cork. It is unlikely that John remembered anything about Kilbreedy Minor, because, in 1844, when he was only two, his father was evicted. A year of threats, arrests, and outright fighting occurred over the next year until the family was pushed out of their home. They lived for a short time on a neighbor’s property in a mud hut. Then the Blight struck.
In the Autumn of 1845, a blight appeared unexpectedly among the potatoes. It was a black mold or fungus that caused much of the crop to rot in the fields, marking the beginning of the Great Famine (An Gorta Mor). The unique feature of the potato blight was the speed with which it spread. Eye witnesses said that a crop of potatoes in a field would be perfect in the morning time and by evening would be a rotting mass.
East Limerick, like East Galway and Roscommon, suffered slightly less than some other areas nearby because the land was more fertile and were planted with grains like wheat, barley, and oats, as well as potatoes. The famine was particularly bad in the west Cork area and in Kerry, but it was also bad in and around Charleville town. 72% of the people living in bothán near Charleville were wiped out by the famine. But not all people suffered during these years as some wealthy Irish Catholic middle-class farmers did very well buying land from tenants whose small holdings had been affected by the blight. With their potato crop failing, they had to sell their plot of land to buy food for their family and/or their passage out of the country.
The family survived intact, but they had to move onto land rented by John’s maternal uncle John Carroll, near the holy well behind the old Effin Church yard. GoogleEarth shows the plot as the square surrounded by hedges in the top tight. The Holy Well is the circle on the top left. They eked out a living as best they could. This would have been the home John remembered.
In 1854, John’s oldest brother William went off to America to find work and to hopefully send money home. Three years later, his sister Mary left for Australia. Around this time, his mother died and his father decided it was time for the whole family to relocate.
In 1854, John’s oldest brother William went off to America to find work and to hopefully send money home. Three years later, his sister Mary left for Australia. Around this time, his mother died and his father decided it was time for the whole family to relocate.
John would have grown up with several Carroll cousins his own age. They all would have done work on the farms, but they would have also attended school—though not in the Hedge Schools of his father’s time. That name would have been anachronistic by his father’s time and students would not have been taught hiding among the hedges. By John’s time, there was an extensive National School system for the basics of the three Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic). Latin and religion would still have been taught before Mass on Sundays.
In July of 1858, a 15-year-old John Callaghan boarded the Bee—a 1200-ton ship built in Boston in 1853—with his father and siblings, bound for Australia. They arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, on October 9, 1858, after a journey of 98 days during which six people died (five of them children under 1) and six more were born aboard the ship. Details of the voyage were posted in The South Australian Advertiser, Monday 11 October 1858:
The ship Bee, from Liverpool, arrived in our waters on Saturday, the 9th instant, having made her voyage in 98 days, although having very adverse winds to contend with throughout her progress. She reports leaving Liverpool on the 2nd July, and from her log we extract the following particulars of her voyage:
The Callaghan family on the passenger list included the father, John (42), along with his children William (20), Michael (19), Patrick (17), John (15), James (11), and Kate (7). [The William with them seems to have been a cousin, not John’s brother.]. On the passenger list published at http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/bee1858.shtml, the family was designated with an N, meaning they were Nominee Emigrants. Nominee Emigrants had their passage paid in exchange for staying in South Australia as laborers for at least two years. This was to keep the young men from running off to the gold fields in Victoria.
John Jr, Patrick, and James are also listed on the Incoming and outgoing Passenger Lists as having attended school aboard the Bee. It is noted that none of them had education in reading, writing, nor arithmetic at the start of the journey. After 57 days of schooling under Schoolmaster of the Ship John A. Boyd (himself listed as a General Emigrant), they had progressed through the 3rd book of reading instruction. John was noted as being “very perseverant,” James was “most attentive,” and Pat was “very attentive.” James, being younger, was still writing “large,” but his brothers had both progressed to “small” writing. They achieved different levels mathematically, but there is no legend explaining the designations of C.M, C.S., and C.A., respectively. William and Michael attended the Men’s school. They progressed from S.A. to S.D., indicating they came aboard with some education in the three R’s. Ellen and Kate did not attend the school.
Unlike his older brothers, John stayed around Adelaide for the rest of his life. And because the area was more urban and John never had children, he left a much smaller footprint on history than his brothers. He became a gardener and lived the next 43 years in Parkside, Modbury, and Hectorville—suburbs of Adelaide. Somewhere along the way, he met Bessie Murphy.
Even less is known about Eliza Murphy than John Callaghan. She was a native of Adelaide, born in 1847 or 1848 to Timothy Murphy. Her mother might have been Bridget Regan, but that is currently unconfirmed. She was a domestic servant who lived in Mount Pleasant from 1864 to 1867, and, from the age of 17, she was in and out of the Adelaide State Hospital with an eye condition referred to as “opacity of the cornea” and typhoid fever in 1866.
John and Bessie were married on November 5, 1867, at St. Patrick’s Church in Adelaide. He was 24-years-old and living in Hectorville, and she was 20 and living in Blumberg. The witnesses were William Dempsey, a stoneman, and Mary Murphy, likely Bessie’s sister. They were together for 31 years, but they were never blessed with children. John was a gardener and they lived in Hectorville in the 1870s and 1880s. They later moved to Mount Pleasant and then to Modbury.
In July of 1858, a 15-year-old John Callaghan boarded the Bee—a 1200-ton ship built in Boston in 1853—with his father and siblings, bound for Australia. They arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, on October 9, 1858, after a journey of 98 days during which six people died (five of them children under 1) and six more were born aboard the ship. Details of the voyage were posted in The South Australian Advertiser, Monday 11 October 1858:
The ship Bee, from Liverpool, arrived in our waters on Saturday, the 9th instant, having made her voyage in 98 days, although having very adverse winds to contend with throughout her progress. She reports leaving Liverpool on the 2nd July, and from her log we extract the following particulars of her voyage:
The Callaghan family on the passenger list included the father, John (42), along with his children William (20), Michael (19), Patrick (17), John (15), James (11), and Kate (7). [The William with them seems to have been a cousin, not John’s brother.]. On the passenger list published at http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/bee1858.shtml, the family was designated with an N, meaning they were Nominee Emigrants. Nominee Emigrants had their passage paid in exchange for staying in South Australia as laborers for at least two years. This was to keep the young men from running off to the gold fields in Victoria.
John Jr, Patrick, and James are also listed on the Incoming and outgoing Passenger Lists as having attended school aboard the Bee. It is noted that none of them had education in reading, writing, nor arithmetic at the start of the journey. After 57 days of schooling under Schoolmaster of the Ship John A. Boyd (himself listed as a General Emigrant), they had progressed through the 3rd book of reading instruction. John was noted as being “very perseverant,” James was “most attentive,” and Pat was “very attentive.” James, being younger, was still writing “large,” but his brothers had both progressed to “small” writing. They achieved different levels mathematically, but there is no legend explaining the designations of C.M, C.S., and C.A., respectively. William and Michael attended the Men’s school. They progressed from S.A. to S.D., indicating they came aboard with some education in the three R’s. Ellen and Kate did not attend the school.
Unlike his older brothers, John stayed around Adelaide for the rest of his life. And because the area was more urban and John never had children, he left a much smaller footprint on history than his brothers. He became a gardener and lived the next 43 years in Parkside, Modbury, and Hectorville—suburbs of Adelaide. Somewhere along the way, he met Bessie Murphy.
Even less is known about Eliza Murphy than John Callaghan. She was a native of Adelaide, born in 1847 or 1848 to Timothy Murphy. Her mother might have been Bridget Regan, but that is currently unconfirmed. She was a domestic servant who lived in Mount Pleasant from 1864 to 1867, and, from the age of 17, she was in and out of the Adelaide State Hospital with an eye condition referred to as “opacity of the cornea” and typhoid fever in 1866.
John and Bessie were married on November 5, 1867, at St. Patrick’s Church in Adelaide. He was 24-years-old and living in Hectorville, and she was 20 and living in Blumberg. The witnesses were William Dempsey, a stoneman, and Mary Murphy, likely Bessie’s sister. They were together for 31 years, but they were never blessed with children. John was a gardener and they lived in Hectorville in the 1870s and 1880s. They later moved to Mount Pleasant and then to Modbury.
Bessie died on December 2, 1898, at their home on Robert Street in Parkside. She was 54 years old. It is unknown where she is buried.
John survived for three more years before dying February 2, 1901, in Hectorville at the home of his brother-in-law John Burns. He was buried with his father and sister in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.