OBITUARY. MR. PATRICK CAFFERY, A RESIDENT OF 65 YEARS. An old and esteemed resident of Ipswich and West Moreton district in the person of Mr. Patrick Caffery, of the One Mile Estate, Ipswich, was laid to rest on Saturday afternoon, the 25th of June, his remains having been removed from St. Mary's Church and followed by a lengthy cortege of sorrowing relatives and friends to the Roman Catholic portion of the Ipswich Cemetery, the last sad rites at the graveside having been undertaken by the Rev. Father Prout. The deceased, who was a pioneer of West Moreton, passed away on Friday last, he having been ailing, more or less, for some time. He was 87 years of age, and had been a colonist for 65 years, during which long residence in what is now Queensland he had experienced a hard and strenuous life. The late Mr. Patrick Caffery was born in County Meath, Ireland, on Palm Sunday of 1834, and as he grew up into manhood he had obtained considerable knowledge of farming in the Old Country, which he resolved to put to a practical purpose in far off Australia, which new land was at that period, greatly boomed throughout the British Isles. Subsequent to being married, he, accompanied by his wife, left Ireland on the 7th of January, 1856, thence by boat from Dublin to Plymouth, England, where they joined the sailing ship Phoebe Dunbar (Capt. Tucker), which vessel, after four months' voyage arrived, off Moreton Bay, and, in the absence of any light, the captain mistook Amity Point for the entrance to Moreton Bay, where the ship ran on a sandbank off Stradbroke Island, and was wrecked on the 6th of May, 1856, it raining very heavily at the time, Mr. Caffery described the subsequent proceeding as something terrible, and were it not for the assistance given to the passengers on the Phoebe Dunbar by the blackfellows (some of whom had it was said, rendered similar help to the passengers of the ill fated steamer Sovereign, which vessel was wrecked in the same vicinity in 1847), it is hard to tell how the fellow passengers of Mr. Caffery would have fared. Due to the information conveyed to Brisbane by the aboriginals referred to, two steamers - the Bredalbane and the Hawk - were promptly despatched to the scene of the disaster, and the immigrants, along with their goods, were taken off he wrecked vessel and brought on to the Queen's Wharf, Brisbane, thence to the Immigration Depot. Mr. Caffery always had since a good word for the aboriginals after the hardships his wife and he had endured on their arrival in Moreton Bay. After a short sojourn Brisbane, Mr. Caffery, with others came on to Ipswich in the old steamer Hawk, whose agents were Messrs. Walter Grey and Co., and on arrival at the head of navigation the first person to greet them was the late Mr. John Murphy (who, later on, became the first Mayor of Ipswich). The deceased's, first engagement, for six months, was with the late Mr. Charles Yarrow, of Warril Creek, at the remuneration of 15/a week and rations for one. On the termination of his employment with Mr. Yarrow Mr. Caffery tried his skill at shearing, and in company with Mr. James Toomey, an old neighbour of his, they visited Normanby, Tarampa and Franklyn Vale stations at various periods, and when not shearing took on fencing contracts, one large job having been that of enclosing 5000 acres for the Maryvale station. Subsequently Mr. Caffery engaged in the carrying trade out as far as the Dawson, in the West, having purchased a team of prime bullocks from Mr. "Tom" Hill, the veteran of Borallon, on the Brisbane River. About this period he recorded his first vote In the colony for a New South Wales Parliamentary election, in which the late Mr. Arthur Macalister was interested. In the meantime he had purchased sufficient land from the late Mr. James Foot on which to start farming on a small scale. As the years rolled by, he increased the acreage of his land, and Mr. James Toomey and he went in for cotton growing extensively, which paid them, and he also engaged in the timber trade, this also proving a success. Indeed his 65 years' residence in the West Moreton district proved very satisfactory, in spite of the fact that he had his share of the "ups and downs" incidental to such a long career in this State, which he had seen grow from a wilderness to cities of remarkable prosperity. He had witnessed the rapid progress of Ipswich from small dimensions to its present dimensions. Mr. Caffery found time to assist in many capacities which were for the improvement of his surroundings and for years he was a councillor on the old Bundamba Divisional Board, some 32 years ago, and at the time of his demise he had been living a retired life at his residence at the One Mile Estate. His wife predeceased him by some years, and of late the deceased received the careful attention of one of his married daughters, Mrs. M. Ryan. He is survived by four sons (Philip, John, Charles, and Michael), and three daughters (Mesdames P. Gould, P. McCormack, and M. Ryan). There are 48 grand children and 11 great grandchildren, one of his grandsons having taken part in the recent great European war. Thus has departed from our midst a sterling pioneer of West Moreton, one who, at all times and in all seasons, evinced the greatest interest in the welfare, of the district generally.
