The Story of Catherine O'Donnell / Memories ... September 25

This post tells the poignant and rather short story of my maternal Grand Aunt, Catherine O'Donnell  (1884 - 1898). 

Our common ancestors are:  Edmond O'Donnell and Bridget Burke.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of her birth.

Catherine was born in September of 1884 in a small community known as 'Irish Town', situated just outside Toowoomba, in the southern reaches of Queensland, Australia.  Her birth marked the arrival of the first-born child to Edmond O'Donnell and Bridget Burke.

Edmond and Bridget were two Irish immigrants who had arrived in Australia just the year before, seeking opportunity and a fresh start in a distant land.  Their arrival in February of 1883 was followed shortly by their marriage in July of the same year, in the township of Toowoomba.

Catherine's birth certificate has her first name recorded as "Kate".  This information was provided by her mother, and was likely the name used affectionately by her family.  Later in life however, she would be formally known as "Catherine", a name her mother also provided when Catherine passed away.  I shall refer to my grand aunt as Catherine throughout this post.

View of Irish Town c.1884

At the time of Catherine's birth, her father Edmond was a young man of 22, working as a farm hand in the local area; while her mother Bridget, a decade older at 33, had secured work on a dairy farm outside Toowoomba.

Irish Town would have provided a supportive network of fellow Irish immigrants for this family, but Catherine's mother also had the support of her much older brother William, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1865 and had established a life for himself and his family in Toowoomba.

As a baby, Catherine would have heard the lilting accents of her Irish heritage daily in Irish Town, but about a year after her birth, in 1885, the family left Irish Town and moved into Toowoomba proper, likely seeking better opportunities in the growing township.

When Catherine was just 1 year old, her brother John Patrick was born in early 1886.

When Catherine was 3, her brother James (my grandfather) was born in October of 1887.

Life for the young family was about to be marked by loss for the first time.  Tragically, in early 1888, just as Catherine was approaching her fourth birthday, her brother John passed away.  The loss of John would have left a sorrowful mark on her parents, but it's unlikely that Catherine herself would have carried memories of John.

Catherine's only sister, Mary Margaret, was born in November of 1890, when Catherine was 6 years old.

Since the family had moved into the township of Toowoomba they had faced constant economic challenges.  Despite both parents working - Edmond as a carter for the local brewery and Bridget as a dairy keeper - there was little income, and the family lived in temporary shelter at the Showgrounds, where the constant struggle for food and warmth would have been a daily reality.  

Milking cows in a milking shed
Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria
Photographer: Gabriel Knight 
Photo taken c. 1903

The children were no doubt by their mother's side from very early in the morning to the early evening, as she milked cows and maintained the diary sheds.  

Catherine would likely have spent her time caring for her siblings throughout the day and assisting her mother in whatever way she could. 

By the time brother Maurice Patrick came along in late 1892, when Catherine was 7, the family had finally moved into a house on James Street, where they would have experienced a little more comfort, privacy and protection from the elements.

Tragically, when Catherine was just 8 years old, she experienced the devastating loss of her father Edmond, who died in 1893.  His death left Catherine's mother a widow with four young children to support and raise alone in a world where options for widows were limited.  

Penniless and facing an uncertain future, Catherine's mother made a bold decision to apply for a license to run the Free Selectors' Hotel, a modest establishment on the corner of James Street and Ruthven Street that provided meals and lodging, along with a bar that served alcohol to patrons.  The family would have also used a couple of the rooms upstairs as their home.

This grainy old photo holds the only image of Catherine that I've been able to find.  The photo shows B. O'Donnell's Free Selectors' Hotel and standing in front of the sign is mother Bridget with Catherine to the right and James (my grandfather) to the left.

  

Did you notice the ladder lying on the ground?  The thought that came immediately to my mind was it's likely that Catherine's mother used the ladder to climb up and add the sign "B. O'Donnell's" - her name, Bridget O'Donnell!  This photo was taken in 1894 after Bridget had become the licensed victualler of the establishment and Catherine at the time would have been 9 years old.

The death of her father and then the change in lifestyle when her mother became a businesswoman would have been huge turning points for young Catherine.  Suddenly the family was thrust into the world of running a hotel.  With her mother working long hours, Catherine, as the eldest child, would have taken on many new responsibilities.  She would have helped her mother from early morning until late at night, cleaning rooms, preparing meals and Catherine would also have been expected to shoulder significant responsibility for the care of her younger siblings.

Catherine's childhood would have been cut short.  Life at the hotel meant a constant bustle of guests and patrons, and as she took on the roles of caregiver and household manager in the midst of the busy, often rough atmosphere of this working-class hotel, Catherine was shouldering very heavy responsibilities for someone so young. 

Just two years after her father's death, life changed once again when Catherine's mother re-married in 1895.  With a new stepfather in the household, Catherine faced the challenge of adapting to a new family dynamic, which was soon followed by the birth of another brother in 1896.

By 1898, when Catherine was only 13, she had fallen gravely ill.    

Over the course of six months, Catherine's health worsened as she suffered from dropsy (now known as edema), which caused swelling in her body due to fluid retention.  In her final days, she slipped into a coma and passed away at the family's residence in the Free Selectors' Hotel on Ruthven Street, surrounded by her loved ones.

The primary cause of death, as recorded on her death certificate was 'Bright's Disease'.  It's a term that's no longer used in the medical world, and refers to kidney disease.  

A funeral notice appeared in the local newspaper on April the 5th indicating that the funeral service was held at the Free Selectors' Hotel and then the mourners moved onto the cemetery from there.  The death certificate lists Reverend Thomas Lane, a Roman Catholic priest, as the person who conducted the service.

Catherine's death marked a heartbreaking end to a short life filled with hardship, loss, poverty and responsibility. She was buried alongside her father Edmond at the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery. 

The inscription on her headstone reads:  "Hark they whisper, Angels say, Sister Spirit come away."  This is an excerpt from a poem written by Alexander Pope named "The Dying Christian To His Soul" and specifically refers to the call of angels for her soul to go to heaven.   To her family, death was not the end for Catherine, but a passage to a spiritual existence.  It's quite moving!