Alexander WALKER:
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Born Saturday 14 November 1840, Newry County Armagh Ireland
Died Wednesday 15 September 1920, Bright
Buried Thursday 16 September 1920, Beechworth Presbyterian Sec.No. 1339
Occupation: Draper
Jack Walker has indicated he thought Alexander had a brother that went to the USA.
Alexander lived in Victoria for 58 years
Obituary: Alpine Observer September 17 1920 (discovered by Rae Walker)
A very old and esteemed resident of the town in Mr. Alexander Walker, passed quietly away on Wednesday morning. Mr. Walker had been in indifferent health for some time, and consequently his end was not unexpected. A native of County Armagh (Ireland), Mr. Walker came to Australia when quite a young man, and settled in Beechworth, where he was engaged in business. About 33 years ago he came to Bright, and followed the occupation of general hawker. He was 80 years of age, and leaves a widow and family of eight - four sons and four daughters. Mr. Walker was a member of the Court Robin Hood (A.O.F.) Beechworth. His remains were taken to that town on Thursday morning for internment.
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Born April 1850, Redruth, Cornwall UK
- died of heart disease,
- was buried in Beechworth,
- had arrived in Victoria 5 years earlier (1852),
- was married to Ann Kempt in Cornwall6 years earlier, and
- had one child Elizabeth (5).
- her father was the recently deceased Abraham Snow,
- he was married in Cornwall in February 1852,
- his wife was "Mary Ann formerly Kemp" and
- there was an existing daughter Elizabeth.
Died Thursday 9 March 1939, Bright, Vic
Buried Saturday 11 March 1939, Bright, Vic
After death of mother was adopted by Colonel Summerville (both Nell Clark and Elizabeth Farrelly have heard this said, but no documents to confirm this have been obtained yet)
From Pat Mogan:
The Journey from Redruth to Bright
Kate Walker (nee Kemp)
Kate Kemp was born in Redruth, Cornwall, UK, in April 1850 to Ann Beer and Richard Kemp. She was the second child in the family. Her brother Richard Kemp was born two years earlier in Redruth in 1848.
Tradition has it that Kate’s father Richard emigrated alone to Beechworth to work as a gardener. However, a search of both Victorian passenger arrival lists and death records has been unable to confirm Richard’s travel to Australia. Tradition also has it that Kate’s mother Ann had a card reading that caused her to depart Cornwall and travel to Australia with her two children.
"Katherine Kemp came to Australia about the 1860’s also, with her mother and brother to join the husband in Beechworth (the gold rush enticed him too) He was not a miner, he was a horticulturist on a large estate in Cornwall. After he left England, his wife had the cards read (Tarot cards I imagine – the Cornish are a superstitious lot, as you probably know) and was told she would never see her husband alive again. So she forthwith, sold up house and home and took passage to Australia."
Facts and the historical records tell a slightly different story. It would appear that Kate’s father, Richard Kemp, was still alive in Cornwall around mid 1849. It’s also documented that Kate’s mother, Anne Kemp was remarried to Abraham Snow in Cornwall in February 1852. This would mean that Richard Kemp died somewhere between late 1849 and early 1852 in an unknown location and most likely he never went to Australia. While the card reading story above may be true, it appears that the ‘husband’ who went to Australia, whom Ann and the children later came to join, was Abraham Snow and not Richard Kemp.
A review of passenger listings on the internet indicates that an Abraham Snow (30), his brother Samuel Snow (20) and James Snow (26) departed Cornwall mid-year 1852 and arrived in Australia in Sept 1852 aboard the ship Persia. They made their way to Beechworth, probably as part of the gold rush.
Four years later Ann and family left Redruth and traveled to join Abraham in Beechworth. A search of passenger ship arrivals in Melbourne confirmed that a "Rich.d" Kemp aged 7 and Catherine Kemp aged 5 departed Liverpool in late July 1856 on the Fulwood. The voyage took 4 months (140 days was the estimate) for the 124 souls onboard. The manifest shows Richard and Kate were accompanied by Anne Snow (age 33) and her daughter Elizabeth Jane Snow aged 3. The ‘proof’ that the party of 4 (Anne, Eliz, Richard & Kate) traveled together is they are grouped together on the passenger manifest and have the note "80" in the margin on the manifest. The manifest also shows that in addition to Richard and Kate, Ann had a 3rd child with Abraham Snow as the father, before he departed for Australia
Nell Clark has recorded some of Kate’s memories of the voyage. Kate would have been 5 or 6 years old at that time!
"It was a long, lonely voyage but the children ran around the decks chasing one another and picking the flowers off a cauliflower piled with other vegetables on the deck. Our grandmother said she and her brother did this until the cauliflower was bare."
Presumably the party of four then traveled to Beechworth soon after their arrival in Melbourne in November 1856 to rejoin Ann’s second husband Abraham Snow. While that reunion may have been joyful, the next two-year period in Beechworth proved to be eventful ones
Seven months after they had stepped ashore in Melbourne on 20 July 1857, Abraham Snow (miner) aged 35 died at Spring Creek (near Beechworth). The death certificate indicates he
Less than two months later on 12 September 1857, Harriett Snow is born in Spring Creek. Her birth certificate is a gold mine (excuse the pun!). It confirms that
It turns out by a streak of luck that on the same page of the Schedule of Births for Beechworth that contains Harriett’s birth details, there is another birth recorded 11 days earlier on 9 Sept 1857. Samuel Snow and his wife Ellen Snow formerly Potter had a baby son Samuel Snow.
At this stage the story becomes sadder. Here is Ann with 4 children aged from an infant to 9 years old, widowed for the 2nd time, and living in a frontier gold mining town in a strange country. The only possible consolation may have been that her brother and sister in law, Samuel and Ellen, were close by in Eldorado Flat.
If life was not difficult enough already, within 8 months of Harriett’s birth, Ann Snow died on 1 May 1858 in Spring Creek of typhoid fever. Her death certificate is another key document as it makes the Samuel Snow connection as a brother in law, confirms Ann was from Redruth, Cornwall, verifies she arrived in Victoria 2 years prior to her death, and that she was married to Abraham Snow.
With Ann’s death, this then meant that in May 1858 in Beechworth there were 4 orphaned children:
Richard Kemp aged 10
Kate Kemp aged 8
Elizabeth Jane Snow aged 5
Harriett Snow aged 8 months
Here Nell Clark picks up the story
"Katherine was adopted by Colonel Summerville (an English Army Officer) and his wife and the boy by a farmer and his wife who lived near Albury."
There is no indication what happened to the two Snow children. Maybe Samuel and Ellen Snow stepped in and adopted them? Obviously another area that can be looked into!
Skipping ahead 13 years, on 10 July 1871 Kate’s brother Richard Kemp died of pneumonia at age 23 in Belvoir, the name for early Wadonga. The death certificate shows he was unmarried and had been 15 years in Victoria. The certificate indicates the informant on his death was "John Kempton Humphrey of Belvoir authorized friend". However the certificate also indicates Humphrey was the undertaker. There is no other information on the death certificate that might indicate who the farmer was that adopted Richard Kemp. Also a check of Belvoir cemetery has not found a gravesite.
At the time of her brother’s death, Kate Kemp would have been a young woman around 21 years old who had lost her father, mother, brother and step father. Nell Clark’s June 1985 letter provides additional information on Kate.
"She attended a "Dame School" in Beechworth and grew up in gentle, well bred atmosphere. She became engaged to a young man who went to South Africa to make his fortune in the gold rush there. When his situation was well established, he wrote asking her to join him. But the Somervilles would not let her go alone and she remained unmarried until Alexander Walker by now a widower with four children asked her to marry him."
But before we go to the Walker marriage, on 25 October 1875 Elizabeth Jane Snow, Kate’s younger stepsister, married Alexander Kyle, a carpenter from Glasgow, Scotland. The marriage certificate confirms her mother was "Ann Snow maiden name Beer" and her father as Abraham Snow Bootmaker. The marriage was performed in Beechworth by a Presbyterian Minister, Robert Kirkwood Ewing, at the house of Mr. Ingram on Chiltern Road. The witnesses appear to be Elizabeth Kyle (Bridegroom’s mother) and John Falla…..
Moving ahead to 24 March 1883, Kate now aged 33 and a seamstress, married Alexander Walker a draper and widower, aged 37. The marriage was in the Presbyterian Minister’s house in Beechworth (John Gordon Mackie). The witnesses were Stephen Joseph McLean and James Greig. Kate had a very distinctive signature, with very stylized "K’s" for ‘Kate’ and ‘Kemp’ on the wedding certificate, perhaps proving the Dame School education taught her excellent handwriting.
At the age of 33 Kate became the stepmother of 4 children from Alexander’s first marriage to Mary Anne Sheddan. Mary Anne had died 4 years earlier on 23 April 1879. The children were;
Mary Jane Walker aged 10
William Dunlop Walker aged 7
John Thomas Walker aged 6
Martha Anne Walker aged 4
There had been a 5th child from Alexander and Mary Anne’s marriage. Robert Arundel Ward Walker who was born in 1873 died at age 11 months in February1875.
On 6 February 1884 Kate’s first child was born. Alexander Richard Walker was born in Sydney Road, Beechworth. Approximately 7 months earlier, perhaps 50 or so miles away at Smoko Creek, on 27 August 1883, twin sisters were born to Mary Anne O’Reilly and Christopher Miley. The eldest of the twins, Elizabeth Miley would 25 years later marry Alexander Walker in Bright.
After the birth of Alexander Richard, the large Walker family all moved from Beechworth to Bright where three more Walker children were born.
Katherine (Kate) Frances Walker in Sept 1885
Edith Florence Walker in Sept 1887
Ernest Alfred (Alf) Walker in 1890
We are lucky that Nell Clark took an interest in her grandmother Kate Kemp. Nell chronicles that her grandmother
"..was a petite woman with a firm, decisive personality – very English to her dying day, in speech and manner. She always called her children ‘you colonials’. This is understandable given her birth and early childhood, and her growing up years in the Somerville household. For her general appearance you have only to look at Isabel Sharp. She is to my mind so like our grandmother."
As Alexander Walker aged he was "difficult to live with" and he lived with in Bright with Billy Walker, his eldest son from his 1st marriage. Kate Walker lived with her son Alf (bootmaker) and daughter Kate (dressmaker) in Gavan St. On 15 Sept 1920, Kate’s husband Alexander Walker died of senility and bronchitis in Bright at the age of 79. He was buried in Beechworth with his 1st wife Mary Anne.
On the 9th March 1939 at almost 89 years of age, Kate Walker died in Bright ending the journey that had taken this woman from a young child in the tin mining country of Cornwall, to the gold mines of Beechworth and then to Bright.
Truly Kate Kemp as a pioneer was a brave, strong woman. Her legacy has been
4 children
9 grand children
14 great grand children
35 great great grand children
8 great great great grand children
Photo provided by Elizabeth Farrelly (nee Sharp)
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