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Jack Mc Vicars Snr
Born: 19 January, 1850 Airdrie Lanark, Scotland
Married: 11 August 1872 Torryburn Fife Scotland
Died: 16 January, 1924 Ipswich Queensland, Australia
Jane Beveridge
b: 23 Sept 1838 Clackmannan Scotland
d: 23 April 1916 Korumburra, Vic Australia
Children:
Jane, b: 1873, Clackmannan Scotland,
Agnes b: 1875 Bannockburn Scotland
John b: 1877 Ipswich Queensland Australia
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Coal Miners from Fife
The men of the McVicars family were Scottish coal and Iron stone miners, mainly in and around Fife. The mines were often small holdings that employed small numbers of miners. Miners and their families often moved from one mine to another.
The Firth Iron Works was a big user of coal and played the mines off against each other. John's father worked in the Fife mines for a number of years and finally settled in Torryburn where he was the Post Master.
Jack McVicars appears to have moved around the various mines in Fife, and Clackmannan before emigrating to Australia in about 1875. (I have not as yet located a point of arrival. However general history of coal mining in Queensland indicates that miners were recruited from England, Scotland and Wales.) After they left Scotland the family at home never heard from this branch of the family. So it was not until after the death of their father that several of Jack's brothers and their families were able to go to North America. There are descendants of the McVicars family living in Montana and Arizona
Like the mines in Scotland the early mines Queensland were small companies employing up to 20 miners. Jack Snr was working at the Tivoli mine, Ipswich in 1876 when his son was born. By 1878 there was growing concern among the miners regarding pay and conditions. It was then that the first meetings were held by the miners in Ipswich regarding the formation of a friendly society to represent their interests to the government, the mine owners and managers. Jack McVicars Senior was a member of the first 12 member committee that established the Coalminers Association in Queensland. At this time trade unions were outlawed.
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The family moved to Mt Kembla and was there from 1884 to about 1893. (I have not had an opportunity to research this period as yet. However, given his involvement in other areas it would be unusual if Jack snr were not involved in some way with the miners struggle for pay and conditions.)
John McVicars junior became a miner when he turned 14 years old. His first job was as a trapper boy at the Mt Kembla mine in 1891. In 1893 father and son left NSW to go to the newly opened mines at Korrumburra in Victoria. There was no housing for miners and they would have had little money to pay any board even if it were available. So to start with they lived in a tent and then later built a hut from slabs and palings so that they could send for Jane and the girls.
After his wife died in 1916 Jack left Korumburra, staying for a short time with his daughter Agnes in West Wallsend and then heading for Ipswich and his old mates. He traveled as far as Cooktown but returned to Ipswich where he died in Jan 1924
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Old Flour Sacks Tell a Tale
The old quilt has gained a life of it's own people come to see it. It is borrowed and displayed at special events and on special occasions it has pride of place when it goes on display.
This old quilt lay in the storeroom cupboard of the Wonthaggi Hospital for twenty or thirty years. It was only when the new matron decided to have a big clean out that it came out into the light again. At first it seemed like a pile of old sheets gone grey with age and lack of use. As the two volunteers opened it up the embroidered names emerged. Doris, one of the hospital volunteers, recognised the names of many important and ordinary people from Wonthaggi's past.
The names of over 500 individuals and families had been embroidered in blue thread on the patches of recycled fabric. The white material came from old flour sacks. The quilt is the concrete evidence that survives, a by-product of a fund raising activity completed about seventy years ago. The central rectangle contains the blue words "Presystery of Flinders, W. Cooper Moderator Wonthaggi District Hospital". This indicates that it was undertaken by the ladies of the Presbyterian Church to support the local hospital. The project was probably carried out during the depression years of 1925 and 1926. Nothing was ever wasted certainly not the fabric of good flour sacks and every penny in fund raising would have been hard won.
The flour sacks themselves indicate the careful collection, washing and recycling that was part of everyday life during the 1920s and 1930's in the old mining town. Nothing was ever wasted by the women of Wonthaggi. They never knew when their men would next be called up from the mine to emphasise the union's case for better pay or conditions.
These flour sacks probably came from the hospital kitchen or the local bakery. Each of the squares resulting from the careful stitching by one of the five or six volunteers who each sewed for many hours to record all those names.
If the finished quilt had been raffled off perhaps it would not be as well preserved as it is today. When I saw it the quilt it was in care of the current custodian. Doris keeps it well wrapped and protected in tissue paper. It is then encased in plastic. From time to time it comes out of its cacoon to be displayed for local people and visitors to view.
I received a special showing. We spread the quilt out on the bed so we could see the names and so it could be photographed. The names included Dr Sleeman the respected and long suffering local doctor, Matron Munro, Mr Cooper the Presbyterian minister, then Gannon, Easton, Short, Glare and many others. All these people contributed to the hospital fund. Perhaps they gave a few pennies or was it sixpence or a shilling to have their names recorded for us to see. Even my grandparents Mr and Mrs J. McVicars had their names recorded there on the quilt.
I can feel the pride these women must have felt when they completed their task. They would have felt satisfaction as they presented the money and the quilt to the Hospital fundraising committee. They can hardly have realised what a gift they had created for the community or that the quilt would be revered by future generations of local history enthusiasts and genealogists.
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