Daniel Lawler 1838 : Short Biography

Daniel Lawler

Daniel (my great grandfather) 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 possible that his brother and eldest sister had already succumbed to the famine.

The Famine had begun quite mysteriously in September 1845 as leaves on potato plants suddenly turned black and curled, then rotted, seemingly the result of a fog that had wafted across the fields of Ireland. The cause was actually an airborne fungus (phytophthora infestans) originally transported in the holds of ships traveling from North America to England.  Winds from southern England carried the fungus to the countryside around Dublin. The blight spread throughout the fields as fungal spores settled on the leaves of healthy potato plants, multiplied and were carried in the millions by cool breezes to surrounding plants. Under ideal moist conditions, a single infected potato plant could infect thousands more in just a few days. The attacked plants fermented while providing the nourishment the fungus needed to live, emitting a nauseous stench as they blackened and withered in front of the disbelieving eyes of the Irish peasants. There had been crop failures in the past due to weather and other diseases, but this strange new failure was unlike anything ever seen. Potatoes dug out of the ground at first looked edible, but shrivelled and rotted within days. The potatoes had been attacked by the same fungus that had destroyed the plant leaves above ground.

The townsfolk of Clonmellon had a number of theories as to the cause of the blight. Perhaps, it was thought, static electricity in the air resulting from the newly arrived locomotive trains caused it. Others reasoned that 'mortiferous vapors' from volcanoes emanating from the centre of the earth might have done it. Some Catholics viewed the crisis in religious terms as Divine punishment for the "sins of the people" while others saw it as Judgment against abusive landlords and middlemen.

Daniel’s mother Rose most likely had to resort to Corn Meal donations to give her the nourishment to feed her baby. The corn meal itself also caused problems. Normally, the Irish ate enormous meals of boiled potatoes three times a day. A working man might eat up to fourteen pounds each day. They found Indian corn to be an unsatisfying substitute. Peasants nicknamed the bright yellow substance 'Peel's brimstone.' It was difficult to cook, hard to digest and caused diarrhoea. Most of all, it lacked the belly-filling bulk of the potato. It also lacked Vitamin C and resulted in scurvy, a condition previously unknown in Ireland due to the normal consumption of potatoes rich in Vitamin C. Out of necessity, the Irish grew accustomed to the corn meal. But by June 1846 supplies were exhausted.  Daniel was then only 3 months old and was in dire circumstances.

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.

Survival particularly for the infant population was unlikely as dying became endemic amongst the population.  Most died not from hunger but from associated diseases such as typhus, dysentery, relapsing fever, and famine dropsy, in an era when doctors were unable to provide any cure. Highly contagious 'Black Fever,' as typhus was nicknamed since it blackened the skin, was spread by body lice and was carried from town to town by beggars and homeless paupers.

The dead were buried without coffins just a few inches below the soil, to be gnawed at by rats and dogs. In some cabins, the dead remained for days or weeks among the living who were too weak to move the bodies outside. In other places, unmarked hillside graves came into use as big trenches were dug and bodies dumped in, then covered with quicklime.

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. Wherever 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. Robert however had been spurred on by the fact that his bride was six months pregnant on their wedding day.

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. This house is now an office of the CFS and stands much as it would have been externally from those early times. Daniel and Eliza moved into the house 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), Florrie (1887), Clara (1890) and my grandfather Howard Edward Daniel in 1893. 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 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.

Jeffery and Jane Lawler 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   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, my mother 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. Eliza was it seems quite a strong and even stern person quite in contrast to the traits of Daniel. Later some of Roma’s memories of her can be read.

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 Lawler story.