Lawler Daniel
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Also known as: | Daniel Lawler Foreman Mudla Wirra Council |
| Date of birth | 1846 |
| Place of birth | Clonmellon Ireland |
| Date of arrival | 1847 |
| Principal occupation | Foreman Mudla Wirra Council |
| Date of death | 1924 |
| Place of death | Hutchinson Hospital Gawler |
Daniel was born in severely troubled times in Ireland on the 25th of March 1846. This was right in the middle of the Potato Famine and it is indicative of the dangers of the times that he was baptised the day after in the Clonmellon Catholic Church. Daniel was born in Galboyston a low lying area just outside of the village of Clonmellon. He was the third born in the family but how many of his siblings were still alive is uncertain as only sister Mary has any presence in the record books. It is quite likely that his brother and eldest sister had already succumbed to the famine.
Throughout the summer of 1846, the people of Ireland had high hopes for a good potato harvest. But the cool moist summer weather had been ideal for the spread of blight. Diseased potatoes from the previous harvest had also been used as planters and sprouted diseased shoots. At first, the crop appeared healthy. But by harvest time the blight struck ferociously, spreading fifty miles per week across the countryside, destroying nearly every potato in Ireland.
Fortune smiled at last on the young family as Daniel’s father having little other option took advantage of his land holder’s offer to repatriate them to South Australia. In the early spring of 1847 the family made their way to Plymouth where on March 18th 1847 one month shy of Daniel’s first birthday the family set sail for South Australia. Daniel survived the voyage unlike three others aboard. He may also have been joined by brother Robert who could have been the one male born on the journey although this must remain conjecture as there is no record of his birth.
The family arrived in Port Adelaide in mid-winter but this would have seemed mild to a family fresh from an Irish winter. Daniel may have spent his childhood on the northern fringes of Adelaide as there is some vague evidence that his father farmed in the area until at least 1857. This would have meant that Daniel received the bulk of his schooling somewhere in this area. The earliest we know it could have been possible for Daniel to have lived in Keynton was around 1857. At that time there were several private schools in the district but the Public school was not opened until 1859 when Daniel would have almost certainly been in the work force. Where ever he was educated he did become literate and was eventually able to secure employment above the basic level of a labourer (but only just)
On Christmas day 1873 Daniel married Eliza Cork at her father’s home Pleasant Farm Keynton. Daniel at 27 had not been quite as enterprising as his younger brother Robert who had married Eliza’s sister Selina some five years earlier. Young Eliza was only 17 years old. She had been born at Moorooroo just a few kilometres to the East of what are now the famous tasting rooms of the Jacobs Creek Winery. A respectable 12 months to the day after their wedding they welcomed their first born Eliza Jane into what was to become quite a large family. Eliza Jane was born in Keynton as was Arthur (1876) and Edith (1879) and one would presume the family stayed close to the town during that time unless of course Eliza fled home to her mother for the difficult task of giving birth.
By 1884 Daniel had become a public servant. He was appointed as a Station man near Greenock. As a Station Man he was to have charge of a certain length of main road. As such he was required to: “attend to the general maintenance of the road including the breaking and putting down of materials. To rake in ruts fill in holes and keep the cross drains, side drains and water tables clear”
At times he would be called upon to manage casual labour and receive tenders to supply the material for road mending. He is listed as a contact for tender applications for the Greenock Daveyston road repairs in the 1884.He was required to live as close as possible to the road and it seems this may have been the part of what is now the A30 running from Greenock to Daveyston. His working day was designated to start at 7am and run until 5pm with an hours break for “dinner” at midday. Saturday of course was not as onerous and he could knock off at 4pm. Sunday was presumed as a day of rest.
While he lived at Greenock Eliza delivered two more children: Albert (1882) and Marie Ellen (1883). Indeed we have evidence that the couple were obliged to get Ellen immunized or else suffer dire consequences.
Daniel’s next move was probably a promotion as he was appointed Foreman for the Mudla Wirra Council just on the outskirts of Gawler in what is known as Willaston. This was an important position and came with a house. Daniel and Eliza moved in with their family on the corner of Main North Road and Redbanks road. It was duly marked in Daniel’s works diary as November 7th 1885.
Here Daniel was once again in charge of the roads but now it was for the local council and for all intents and purposes he would have been the second highest employee at the time. Other duties included keeping the Council pound and he is often referred to in press advertisements seeking the owners of lost animals. Indeed the family quite enjoyed it when they became the custodians of a lost cow as they got to keep the milk. One lasting legacy of Daniel’s employment is the row of large pine trees on the road to the Willaston cemetery which he planted and maintained.Daniel and Eliza’s family continued to grow in Willaston with the births of Jeffery (1885)and Florrie (1887). Two more additions were added in 1890(Clara) and in 1893 Howard Edward Daniel. The family was however no stranger to sadness as young Clara died at only 14 months of age. Daniel then became a lease holder in the very Cemetery that he helped set up and took care of which probably gave him an even deeper connection to his work. Then in 1905 after escaping from a sanatorium to a tent in the back yard of the Willaston home which was as close as the family dared he come, Albert died of Tuberculosis. In 1919 the family was once again in sorrow as their infant twin grandsons were lost soon after birth to daughter Edith.
Daniel seemed to have been an esteemed employee of the council to the extent that they sent the couple a congratulatory letter on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Sadly this letter carried a prophetic message as almost a year after it was written Daniel passed away in the Hutchinson Hospital Gawler at the age of 77.
One gets the impression that Daniel was a gentle and kind man not averse to hard work and obviously a valued employee and no doubt a respected boss. Looking at his photograph one is struck by his diminutiveness particularly alongside Eliza who was quite a sturdy looking lady. The council allowed Eliza to live on in the house for a rent of 4 shillings a week. She survived on the old age pension of 30 shillings a week and it seems she carried on some of Daniel’s old duties as pound keeper with the assistance of youngest son Howard. At the age of 76 she took on the care of her granddaughter Roma whose own mother had died. Daniel’s highly held esteem in the council did not lapse with his death as on her 80th birthday Eliza received warm congratulations and a month’s free rent.
On November 12th 1941 Eliza passed away at the age of 85 and was buried in the Willaston Cemetery alongside Daniel, and her children who had predeceased her, Albert and Clara and so ended another chapter in the life of an early Gawler family.
click here for photos We thank Peter Frick for sharing these photographs.
References
Memories of Lawler Daniel
Rememberer::Eugene remembers: I just checked the shipping list for the Trafalgar which carried over 100 people from Clonmellon parish in Ireland to ADELAIDE in 1847 and listed is a James Lawlor ,wife and three children. These people were sent at the behest of the local Landlord Sir.Montague Lowther Chapman.I am at present researching the event and can be contacted at sheridane@eircom.net
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