George M. STEVENS
| First name | George M. |
|---|---|
| Last name | STEVENS |
| Country of Origin | Cornwall, England |
| Date of Birth | 1814 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1849 |
| Submitted by | Marlene P. AUSTIN |
Story
George Matthews Stevens and his future bride Charity Thomas were both baptised 15/5/1814 at Zennor Cornwall, and married there 8/6/1839. His parents were Vivian Stevens and Grace Matthews Richards of Treveal, her’s John Thomas and Catherine Christopher of Boswednack. The Stevens probably descended from survivors of a shipwreck at Wicca Pool in 1470 (farmers from Dungarvan, Ireland).
George and Charity had 3 surviving children in Cornwall. George was moving around looking for work, and the Govt. offered free passage overseas to relieve overburdened England and the acute labour shortages in the colonies. George chose South Australia. The morality of SA (never a convict settlement) appealed to Methodists, also the Burra mine was the richest in the world, and thousands flocked there. In 1848 when labour was plentiful, the SA Mining Co. reduced wages and the miners went on a 4 month strike for a wage on which they could live. The WILLIAM MONEY arrived on 3/1/1849 with George 34, Charity 34, George 8, Andrew 2, Vivian inf. In January 1849 the strike ended. The mine was working 24 hours a day 6 days a week and son George probably worked as a pickie boy sorting ore or driving the whim horses.
In 1851 when gold was found interstate, miners left en masse. George M Stephens left on QUEEN OF SHEBA 20/3/1852 for Victoria. It is believed Vivian died at this time, plus another unnamed son and an unnamed daughter, but John Thomas Stevens was born safely on 21/4/1852. George returned in 1853 and after 5 years in SA they left for Victoria on the SEA WITCH on 11/11/1853, settling at Campbells Flat near Castlemaine, where Catherine Thomas Stevens was born 12/4/1857. She grew up to be a tomboy and laughingly recalled her 3 brothers chasing her until she fell over in pig offal. On 12/1/1858 their last child was born Charity Thomas Stevens with “4 other children living, 4 dead” so with Charity that made 9 in all.
They moved to nearby Tarilta and in 1863 G M Stephens registered a claim for 4 men on Table Hill, Tarilta, for himself, his brother and 2 sons now 23 and 17. In 1866 when Charity was 7, George was appointed by the Board of Education to the school committee and was described as miner, Wesleyan, lived 100 yards from the school of 60 pupils. Population was 500, with 3 quartz crushing machines and 3 horse puddling mills, also a hotel and a band of which George was bandmaster, and when they practised Charity would bake scones for supper and Catherine would eat a hot buttered scone as she listened in bed.
On 12/12/1870 George 57 farmer died of old age and low fever, and was buried in Vaughan cemetery. On 22/1/1879 Charity 67 died in hospital from a splinter under a nail causing blood poisoning (offical cause apoplexy and coma), and is buried with George. Of their 5 surviving children –
George Stevens 1840-97 Miner. Went to Queensland and lost touch, dying in hospital at Aramac, a mining area in central Queensland. Age 57, bronchial asthma, hemoptysis, asphysia. Did not marry. Buried Aramac.
Andrew Stevens 1845-1905 Miner at Vaughan 59 died Castlemaine hospital of tubercular peritonitis and exhaustion. Did not marry. Buried Castlemaine.
John Thomas Stevens 1852- Miner. Yet to be located.
Catherine Thomas Stevens 1857-1946. In 1881, 24, married Ernest Warmbrunn, 40, widower, a wood and coal dealer of South Yarra who when 12 had travelled with his family from South Australia where he had been born in 1840. They had 5 children (Mary 1882-1952, Alf 1884-1966, Fred 1886-1948, Kate (Mrs Gorwell) 1889-1970, Millicent (Mrs Trenberth) 1893-1965) and lived in their Beaconsfield home called Tarilta after Catherine’s childhood home. Ernest 74 died 1915 of lung cancer, and Catherine in 1946 of pneumonia, 3 days short of her 89th birthday. Both buried Berwick cemetery with 4 of their 5 children.
Charity Thomas Stevens 1858-87. Was a servant at Geelong, and overwork caused dementia. She was not physically strong as in 1885 she was in feeble bodily health, unable to speak or help herself, and was admitted to one of the few places able to care for her, the Kew Lunatic Asylum, where she died of phthisis, and is buried in the Melbourne General cemetery with members of her brother-in-law’s family.