This week I'm telling the story of my paternal great grandmother,
Susannah (Susan) Fullagar Hukins (1851 - 1910).
When Susannah (known as Susan) was born in 1851 her father,
Adolphus Hukins was aged 27; and her mother, Mary Ann Farley was aged 21. She was born in a place named Jamberoo near Kiama, on the south coast of New South Wales.
Interestingly, my great grandmother was baptised Susannah Fullagar (the transcript has the surname recorded as Fallager, which is incorrect) which were the Christian and maiden names of her paternal Grandmother.
This appears to have been a bit of a family tradition - incorporating maiden names into descendants' names. Susannah's oldest brother's second name - Crittenden - was also the maiden name of his paternal great grandmother.
When Susannah was born, there were already two boys in the family.
Adolphus Crittenden had been born in 1849.
James Edgar had been born in 1850.
After Susannah, there were to be another 10 children born into the family - another 5 boys and 5 girls.
John Smith was born in 1853, when Susan was 1 year old.
Mary Barnes came along in 1854, when Susan was 3.
Thomas Richard was born in 1856. Susan was 5.
Adelaide was born in 1860. Susan was aged 9.
George Henry came along in 1861, when Susan was 10 years old.
Eleanor Sabina and twin sister Cassandra Elizabeth were born in 1865. Susan was 14 years old.
Alfred Edward was born in 1866.
Amy Jane in 1867.
Arthur E in 1869.
By the time that Susannah was 5 years old, her father, grandfather and uncles were all landowners on the Curramore Estate in Jamberoo. At this time, the region's economy was primarily centred on the dairying industry, and the Hukins family's plots were established as dairy farms.
Susannah's father Adolphus was however also a hotel keeper by this time, and running a pub named 'Four In Hand' in Kiama, not far from Jamberoo. This pub started originally as part of a family house, so it seems likely that Susannah's family were living in Kiama and not out at the farm in Jamberoo. It's also likely they were living quite comfortably at this time.
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Photo showing the hotel that had been run by Susannah's father,
after it had been sold and renamed |
By the time Susannah was 7 years old however, her father Adolphus was having great difficulty running the pub as a successful venture and was having creditor issues.
In 1858, the pub and family home in Kiama were sold at auction as a result of an insolvency proceeding. (It was renamed 'Steam Packet Inn') Susannah's father was however allowed to keep the household furniture and clothing.
I wonder what impression this all made on the 7-year old Susannah? I haven't yet been able to find any evidence about what happened in the period immediately after the family had to move out of the family pub/home. Did they pack up the furniture and clothes they were allowed to keep and move onto the farm at Jamberoo for a while?
At the time, Susannah was the third eldest in the family of six siblings, ranging in age from 9 to 2 years of age. Another seven siblings were born over the next ten years, and according to the birth records of these siblings, the family was still living in Kiama. It appears that during these years, Susannah's father Adolphus, was getting into a bit of trouble with the law as a result of drunkenness and larrikin behaviour, so it's likely this was a particularly difficult time for Susannah, her mother and her siblings still living at home.
By 1873, Susannah's father was in more financial trouble and the rather substantial farm at Jamberoo was was now being put up for public auction. Her father Adolphus had lost everything at this point. I don't know what Susannah, her mother and siblings were doing by this time, where exactly they were all living, and who was making a living for the family!!
It seems though that Susannah herself had found a way out of the situation. Perhaps it was true love, or perhaps simply the best choice at the time, but in late 1873 she got married.
Susannah (Susan) Hukins married
Thomas Edgar Connors in Kiama in 1873, when she was 22 years old. Her husband was aged 23.
Interestingly, neither of the bride's nor the groom's parents names were recorded on the marriage certificate. Susannah had been baptised Church of England, and Thomas baptised Roman Catholic, so there might have been some discord, although Thomas's eldest sister Margaret was one of the witnesses!
By the time I had got to this point in Susan's story during my research, I was hoping that her married life would be far more settled and a whole lot happier than it seems her childhood had been! I think it certainly started out that way and it does seem that she and Thomas were happy together, raising their large brood. They went on have 10 children over the next eighteen years.
I will refer to my great grandmother as Susan from here on in, as that was the name she was known as by her family, friends and the wider community during her married life.
Susan and Thomas's first child, Mary Ellen was born in 1874. Susan was 23 years of age at that time and as the birth place was recorded as 'Gerringong', then it seems that Susan was living on a farm with her husband further south of Kiama.
It appears that Susan was welcomed in the family life of Thomas's parents and his eleven siblings (the Connors clan) over the course of the following year. I wonder how much contact there was between Susan and her own family?
Sadly, Susan lost her eldest sister Mary Barnes Hukins the same year she gave birth to her first child.
Her sister Mary was living with their parents and died at the age of 19. The cause of death was dysentery, which she had been suffering for at least three weeks. Perhaps Susan made the trip into Kiama to visit with her sister, as she was obviously terribly ill for some time.
Whatever the circumstances were in regard to her own family, it's very interesting to note what came next for Susan. In late 1875 or early 1876 Susan, her husband Thomas Connors, and their daughter Mary Ellen joined Thomas's large family on a long trek to Wagga Wagga, in western New South Wales. The family group, consisting of 16 members, travelled by bullock and dray for quite a number of weeks.
It seems that both Susan and her mother-in-law Ellen, were pregnant during the trip, which must have created a close bond between the two women.
Typhoid fever was responsible for many deaths at this time in New South Wales, and unfortunately it was rampant in Wagga Wagga at the time the extended Connors family arrived there.
Tragically, within months of arriving in Wagga Wagga, Susan's brother-in-law John Connors, aged 8, died of typhoid fever in June 1876. Both Susan and her mother-in-law Ellen, gave birth the following month in July.
Susan had a son named John Edgar.
Tragedy continued though, with the death of a second brother-in-law Patrick, aged 22, in August and sister-in-law Ellen, aged just 15, in November; both from typhoid fever.
I'm sure that all the family members must have been heartbroken, but no doubt abject fear must have set in for both Susan and her mother-in-law at that time, worrying about who else the dreaded disease would claim. They were both nursing small babies, and Susan had a two-year old daughter.
It wasn't long after the deaths of Susan's brothers-in-law and sister-in-law, that most of the Connors clan left Wagga Wagga. Susan's father- and mother-in-law, along with a number of her husband's siblings moved to the Tumut area in southeastern New South Wales. Susan and her husband however, did not join them. They decided to move back to the Kiama region. Perhaps the reason for this was Susan's desire to be closer to her own family. Perhaps Thomas, her husband, wanted to return to a way of life he already knew.
Whatever their reasoning, that was where they were to spend the remainder of their lives. Whilst originally it seems they settled back on the coast in Kiama itself, within a year or so they had moved a little further south to a place named 'Broughton Creek' (later re-named as Berry in 1889).
Over the following ten years, their family grew.
William Adolphus, was born in 1878.
My grandfather,
George Thomas, was born in 1880. Susan was 28 years of age.
Alice Adelaide came along in 1882.
James Alfred was born in 1884.
Percy Jerome was born in 1886.
Cyril Ernest came along in 1888. Susan was 36 by then.
The following year, Susan lost another of her sisters. Adelaide Ann had married, had given birth to two daughters and was living in Ryde, close to Susan's parents.
Adelaide died in 1889, aged only 29. The cause of death was listed as 'phthisis pulmonalis', which is pulmonary tuberculosis, often referred to as consumption of the lungs. Adelaide had been suffering terribly for many, many months.
Only days before Susan's sister Adelaide lost her battle with this dreadful disease, Susan's mother Mary Ann, attempted suicide. Obviously their mother was driven by overwhelming suffering and feelings of hopelessness and despair. Thankfully, Susan's mother survived and returned to her family.
During all of this Susan was living near Berry in southern New South Wales with her husband Thomas and their family of eight children ranging in ages from 15 years to 1 year old.
Frederick Augustus was then born in 1890.
Erice Sylvester was born in 1892. Susan was now 41 years old.
Erice was to be the last born of the brood of 10.
Sadly, Susan's father, Adolphus, died that same year, 1892. The causes of death included hepatitis and peritonitus, which he had apparently been suffering for the six days before his death. It sounds very much like Adolphus had liver disease at the end of his life.
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Berry Estate 1896 - By Unknown - Samuel Cocks, Views in Shoalhaven, 1896,
Public Domain, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=29308291 |
In the following year, 1893, Susan's husband's (Thomas Connors) tender for land on the newly established Berry Estate had been accepted and he leased a farm of 19 acres for a period of 4 years. Susan was now a farmer's wife and raising her large family on a farm that was producing quite a comfortable income.
Four years later Susan lost her oldest brother, Adolphus Crittenden. He died in 1897.
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Obituary for Adolphus Crittenden Hukins,
known as Chris Hukins -
Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser Sat 23 Oct 1897 |
Susan's brother was single and working on the property of a Major Weston, known as 'Weston's Meadows', where fine bloodstock racehorses were bred.
He apparently became ill one evening while in Kiama, with a "slight stiffness about his face and could barely ride home."
The symptoms indicated tetanus, and he died just a few days later "after suffering great agony".
As an interesting aside, the owner of 'Weston's Meadows', Major Edward Weston, formed the Illawarra section of the New South Wales Lancers, which later became the Australian Light Horse. Susan's son, Cyril Ernest Connors, served with the 6th Light Horse in WW1.
By 1898 Susan's husband Thomas had quite a substantial property of 94 acres situated on an estate about four miles out of Berry, named 'Far Meadow'.
The property was principally used for dairy farming and employed four people. Susan, her husband and children were not only busy working the farm, but were quite active in the social life of the community as well.
Thomas, her husband, was a keen cricketer and a member of the local cricket club for many years. He was elected to the oversight council of the Berry Central Butter Factory in 1905, and this role continued for many, many years.
Susan, Thomas and their sons appear to have been very keen participants in the Berry Show and other agricultural and sporting events and associations over the years.
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Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser (NSW),
Saturday 14 February 1891, page 2 |
I've found articles referring to Susan's prize winning efforts in the Berry Show of 1891 and 1899, where she won second prize both times for her loaf of brown bread.
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Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser (NSW),
Saturday 9 December 1899, page 2 |
An interesting detail about Susan's life in 1898 ... when she was 47 years old, her first grandchild was born. Mary Ellen, Susan's first born, gave birth as an unmarried mother, and so it was that my great-grandmother Susan and great grandfather Thomas raised their granddaughter as if she was their own daughter.
In 1901 a horrible accident took the life of Susan's cousin, Sabina Montgomery Hukins.
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Evening News (Sydney, NSW),
Tuesday 2 July 1901, page 8 |
Susan's cousin was living with Susan's Aunt Cassandra. Sabina was the daughter of one of Susan's uncles, James Hukins. Both her parents had passed, so she was living in her Aunt Cassandra's house in Jamberoo.
Sadly, Sabina (aged 50) was crippled and completely bed-ridden, so when she knocked over a lamp or candle beside her bed, she was unable to escape the flames that quickly engulfed her room.
Apparently Cassandra, aged 72 at the time, tried to run into the building at some point in an effort to rescue her niece, but was beaten back by the heat of the flames. The effects of her attempt apparently caused blindness, which afflicted her for the remainder of her life.
This tragedy seems to have been the start of quite a number of traumatic events in Susan's life from that point onwards.
In 1906, when Susan was 55 years old, her son William Adolphus died.
William was single and still living on the farm with his mother Susan and father Thomas. Sadly, he had been suffering tuberculosis - consumption - for at least three years. This was the same disease that had killed Susan's sister nearly 20 years earlier. William lost his battle with this dreadful wasting disease at the age of 28.
As a mother, the loss of your first child would seem almost incomprehensible. Children are not supposed to die before their parents. It would appear though, that William had likely suffered terribly with the disease and perhaps Susan saw his passing as a blessed relief.
The words inscribed on his headstone seem to imply exactly that.
Isn't it strange the things you notice when creating stories for your ancestors?
The three men in her life with the name 'Adolphus', either as a first name or second (her father, her brother and one of her sons), all died before Susan herself.
By the time Susan's son William Adolphus had died on December 30th 1906, almost one half of her children had already left home. Her daughter Mary Ellen was aged 32, had married and had given birth to another child. John Edgar, aged 30, had married and started a family. My grandfather George, aged 26, married that same year, as had his brother James, aged 22. They had married the Brown sisters, Grace and Lillian and had moved north to Lismore. The other half - Alice aged 24, Percy aged 20, Cyril 18, Fred 16 and Erice aged 14 - were still living on the farm near Berry.
Tragedy struck again though in the year after Susan lost her son William. In 1907, Susan's son James also died. As stated on the coroner's record, he died of burns following an accident at his work place. The circumstances were truly horrific.
The Advertiser (Oct 17 1907) reported "Man Burnt To Death: James Connors, of Lismore, went into an oil store for oil, and trod on a match, which ignited the fumes, causing a case of methylated spirits to take fire and explode. He (James) rushed from the building blazing from head to foot, and was badly burnt. He died the same evening."
It's hard to imagine the depths of suffering for the Connors family, particularly for Susan herself, to lose another son in such tragic circumstances so soon after the loss of William. James was only 23 and left a widow and two very young children.
Another of Susan's sons, John Edgar had witnessed his brother's death and had come to the aid of his brother as he burned alive. The experience left an indelible scar on his psyche for the remainder of his troubled life.
A mere three years later, Susan herself passed away.
She died in 1910 at the age of 58. The cause of death recorded on her death certificate was cardiac failure and pneumonia. No doubt the grief and heartache associated with the tragic events in the last ten years of her life contributed to her demise.
The obituary for Susan, under her married name of Mrs. T. Connors, appeared in a local newspaper lists the cause of her death as double pneumonia and pleurisy which leaves the impression that she was quite ill in the last days of her life.
She was survived by her husband and eight of her children.
Susan was buried at the Harley Hill Cemetery in Berry, New South Wales.
Special Note to any family members: If you have and further information to share, can I graciously ask that you do so. Please use the comments box below or email me. It may prove to be invaluable to the story and provide future generations with something to truly treasure.
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