About a hundred years before I was born, the land which formed ‘The Farm’, at Glengarry, was ‘Selected’ by Walter Marstin Snr. Walter raised his family there. Three sons, Walter, Edward and Charles, and a daughter Louise. At about the time the Marstin family was growing up on the farm, George Hower was raising his family in one of the two pubs that were in Glengarry then. Years later that pub 'The Shamrock' was burnt down , and there has only been one pub there ever since.
| George Hower (my great grandfather) came from Gebhardshagen Germany. He sailed out here on ‘The Empress of the Seas’ which left Liverpool on 6th September 1860, arriving in Melbourne 73 days later on 18th November. | ||
|
|
In those days a 73 day trip was a very good trip. The average time then spent sailing between Liverpool and Melbourne was 100 to 120 days. His 1st. wife, Jane Morrow (my great grandmother), came from Count Castle, County Antrim Northern Ireland. | |
| She and her sister
Annie sailed out here on the ‘Gresham.’ They also sailed from
Liverpool arriving in Melbourne on 11th December 1863. |
||
George went through a number of name changes. He was
born Johann Carl Christian Hauer. He sailed out here under the name, Carel
Hauer. When he married Jane Morrow in the Presbyterian Church in Sale on
12 September 1865, he called himself Charles Hower, but then when
their first child Annie was born on 28 January 1867 he called himself George
Hower, the name he was known by for the rest of his life.
|
|
Ray Hower has written a short account of George’s life entitled ‘George Hower - Carel Hauer’. In that Ray mentioned George’s interests in timber mills, cutting and splitting timber, and gold mining. |
| Ray pointed out that George was first classified as
a Licenced Victualler on my Grand-parents wedding certificate in 1895. I think he was in the hotel long before 1895. |
Auntie (Annie Hower) married Edward Marstin in 1885 and on their marriage certificate she classified herself as a Splinter’s Daughter. But she told me stories about how she and her sister, Barbara, who later married Ted's eldest brother Walter, used to sneak out the back door of the hotel to visit the Marstin boys, However their sister Jane, (my grandmother) would be watching and tell their father where they were going. |
George’s wife, Jane, died in 1881 when Auntie
was only 14. Auntie then had to leave school to help raise the
rest of the family. The family consisted of 5 girls Annie (Auntie),
Barbara, Jane, Johanna, and Sophie, and 2 boys Charles and David. Auntie
resented having to leave school and also resented the new stepmother when she
appeared. In 1885 Auntie and Edward Marstin (Ted) were married in
Richmond. Auntie told me they were married there because her father
(George) did not approve of her marrying the Catholic Ted Marstin. (Auntie
was only 18 at the time, but gave her age as 21). But by then George was two
years married to his second wife, Anne O' Meara, a Catholic from Southern
Ireland. Then on 2nd. Oct. 1888 Barbara and Walter Marstin were married in
the Catholic Church in Morwell. In those days there was not a priest in
Traralgon, because Morwell was the main parish for the Traralgon,
Glengarry, Tyers etc. area.
After Walter and Barbara were married they went to live on
the farm because Walter was the eldest son. Walter and Barbara also had three
sons, Walter Junior, William and David. By the mid 1890’s Louise Marstin,
and her husband whose surname was Ord, were running the Royal Hotel at
Thargomindah
Queensland. They sent for Auntie and Ted to go up and help them.
Up until then Auntie and Ted had had a butcher’s shop and then the Cricket
Club Hotel in Cowwarr. They sold up and went to Queensland. Jane (my
grandmother) by then, was also in Queensland. She
married John McMaster on 24th April 1895 in South Comongin Station which was
just west of Charleville.
Fourteen months later Jane travelled to Thargomindah so that her first
children could be born where she could be
assisted by her eldest sister, Annie.
| On 13th. June 1896 my mother and her twin Uncle Ted were born in the Royal Hotel Thargomindah. |
