In Remembrance: Joseph Henry Jones: 1839-1895
My great great grandfather
Joseph Henry JONES was my Great Great grandfather. He was born in 1839, at Hobart, to parents Thomas JONES and Catherine. So far, I haven’t been able to find his mother, Catherine’s surname.
After the death of his wife, Ellen Virginia Lowe, Joe was left with seven children to care for, ageing from 16 years down to 4 months. His eldest son, Thomas James, predeceased him, due to a mining accident, that was witnessed by his father. Unfortunately there was more tragedy and sadness for Joe, in the coming years. In 1974, daughter Catherine Virginia passed away from epilepsy, age 12, followed by their son William Lowe at age 18, in 1893. I’m sure times were very tough in the years following the death of his wife.
Death
It took me many years to find the record of Joe’s death. It wasn’t until I found that his son was killed in a mining accident, and saw that Joe gave evidence at the inquest,that I was able to track it down. There was no record previously that the family had lived in this area. Once I had the death certificate and inquest for his son, it was much easier to find the death certificate of my great great grandfather.
Joseph Henry Jones had been reported missing a few days earlier, and the Constable went searching for him. Quite soon he found him deceased in the bushland behind the hotel, where he had been taking a short cut to where he was living.
The death certificate gives the date of birth as ‘about 24 October 1895. The cause of death was alcoholic poisoning and exposure. The doctor ordered that the body be buried, without an inquest into his death.
The following obituary gives an understanding of the life of Joseph Henry Jones.
Obituary1
I love the colourful writing and the dramatic tone of this obituary. Obituaries in old newspapers make much more interesting reading than those of today, and definitely leave us feeling that we know the person being remembered”
From: Jamieson Chronicle, Saturday, November 9, 1895
Our representative at Gaffney’s Creek, The Other Vagabond reports: One of those horrible discoveries, which makes the most hardened of us shudder, was made on Wednesday last, by Mounted Constable Polmear. He had that morning received information that a man named Joseph Jones, an alluvial miner who was ‘a hatter’,2 on the Goulburn River, a few miles above Knockwood, had not been seen at his home for nearly 3 weeks.
The energetic constable at once set about finding the missing digger. The result of shrewd and careful inquiries caused him to take an old and unused bush track leading from Luarville, to the German Spur. Mr. James Cadam accompanied Mr. Polmear, and they had not proceeded more than a quarter of a mile from the Commercial Hotel, when the gruesome spectacle of poor Joe’s dead body, in a very advanced stage of decomposition, barred the way.
The unfortunate man, who was known by the sobriquet of ‘Joe the Quacker’,3 had taken this track as a shortcut to his temporary home on the Goulburn River, never dreaming, no doubt, that instead of reaching his camp in good time, he would never see it again; that he would die a lonely and miserable death, within sight of the houses and active bustling humanity.
He was about 60 years of age and though not of robust constitution, was lively and active but….Ah, the but….Joe had periodical failings. ‘Tis the old, old, very old story; an empty whiskey bottle; an empty pain killer bottle; a grinning corpse; a ghastly spectacle; a noisome thing; a hideous putrid mass to be tumbled into a coffin to fill a pauper’s grave; just one more nameless mound, which will for a short time mark the spot, where a little of the flotsam and jetsam of the bush were covered up out of sight. But the remains of unfortunate Joes are not buried as I write. The putrefactive remnants lie in an outhouse at the Commercial Hotel awaiting official enquiry.
*Please note: Punctuation and paragraphs have been added to the above transcription for ease and speed of reading.
The Jamieson and Woods Point Chronicle, Saturday November 9, 1895
Goldfieldsguide.com.au: Hatter - A miner who works alone. He differs from the fossicker who rifles old workings, or spends his time in trying abandoned washdirt. The hatter leads an independent life, and nearly always holds a claim under the by-laws.
Goldfieldsguide.com.au: In the context of 19th-century gold mining in Australia, a "quacker" refers to a type of mining tool used for separating gold from dirt or gravel. Specifically, it was a hand-operated device that employed a series of vibrating or "quacking" motions to help sift through material. This tool helped miners more efficiently extract gold nuggets and flakes from their excavated material. The term might also be colloquially used to describe a miner who used such tools or someone involved in gold mining activities during the gold rushes. The gold rushes in Australia, particularly in the 1850s, brought a large influx of miners, many of whom used various methods and tools to search for gold.