| [Index] |
| John Henry (Jack) MADDEN (1895 - 1982) |
| Commercial agent |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
|
Living Living |
John Henry (Jack) MADDEN (1895 - 1982) + Audrey Jane PERRY (1902 - 1986) |
Julian John Edward MADDEN (1869 - 1954) | Henry St.John MADDEN (1840 - 1922) | Henry St.John MADDEN (1810 - 1873) |
| Honorah AUSTIN (1818 - 1858) | ||||
| Isabella Bowcher ELWORTHY (1842 - 1921) | George ELWORTHY (1813 - 1878) | |||
| Emma BOWCHER (1810 - 1854) | ||||
| Helen Mutch DIACK (1874 - 1946) | John Craigen DIACK (1850 - 1929) | James DIACK (1807 - 1855) | ||
| Helen MUTCH (1810 - 1881) | ||||
| Margaret MUNRO (1845 - 1909) | Hector MUNRO (1815 - 1877) | |||
| Ann Jean FRASER (1826 - 1883) |
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| Pic 2. aged 22 |
| b. 14 Sep 1895 at Homestead, Queensland, Australia |
| m. 04 Jul 1925 Audrey Jane PERRY (1902 - 1986) at Queensland, Australia |
| d. 13 Nov 1982 at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia aged 87 |
| Parents: |
| Julian John Edward MADDEN (1869 - 1954) |
| Helen Mutch DIACK (1874 - 1946) |
| Siblings (5): |
| Lillian Margaret Ann MADDEN (1894 - 1977) |
| Florence Helen MADDEN (1898 - 1951) |
| Helen Nell May MADDEN (1904 - 1974) |
| Edward MADDEN (1912 - 1912) |
| Julian George MADDEN (1915 - 2013) |
| Children (2): |
| Grandchildren (5): |
| Events in John Henry (Jack) MADDEN (1895 - 1982)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| 14 Sep 1895 | John Henry (Jack) MADDEN was born | Homestead, Queensland, Australia | 1895/C006967 | ||
| 04 Jul 1925 | 29 | Married Audrey Jane PERRY (aged 23) | Queensland, Australia | 1925/C2416 | |
| 1934 | 39 | Electoral Roll | Townsville, Queensland, Australia | Note 1 | |
| 13 Nov 1946 | 51 | Death of mother Helen Mutch DIACK (aged 72) | Ayr, Queensland, Australia | Certificate | |
| 1949 | 54 | Electoral Roll | Nundah, Queensland, Australia | Electoral Roll, Gardner St | |
| 25 Aug 1954 | 58 | Death of father Julian John Edward MADDEN (aged 85) | Ayr, Queensland, Australia | 1954/004382 | |
| 13 Nov 1982 | 87 | John Henry (Jack) MADDEN died | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | 37 | |
| Burial | Aspley, Queensland, Australia | Pinaroo Lawn Cemetery | |||
| Note 1: Electoral roll, Cleveland St, Melton Hill |
| Personal Notes: |
|
John Henry Jack MADDEN - 14 September 1895 to 13 November 1982
(These reminisces were written by him about 9 years before his death in response to a request by his grand-daughter, Emily Prewett, when she was at Secondary School. Emily later became a Doctor of Medicine.) “Born in September, 1895 in the reign Queen Victoria, at a small township west of Charters Towers in North Queensland. At that time the early settlers were timber-getters, cutting and hauling sleepers for the Charters Towers to Hughenden Railway. The sleepers were cut, split and trimmed with broad axes. No sawmills in those days. Houses were built of materials at hand; rough bush timber, walls and roof of sheets of bark, lined inside with hessian or calico, ant-bed floors. I was born in one of these. When I was 18 months old my parents moved to Charters Towers where the gold mining was at its peak. My father worked underground. Miners’ phthysis caused by the dust underground was a serious hazard to health. In 1901 my father moved back to the open country to timber getting. Demands for mining timber, pit-props etc had increased. Teams of 16 to 18 horses drew the big timber wagons. Horse busses ran in Charters Towers streets and horse “cabs” did taxi work. Poppet legs of mines dotted the landscape. Several crushing batteries set up a great din day and night, stopping only from midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday. Miners worked the same shifts. Pay was £3 per week. From the batteries the sand coming away from the stampers washed across quick-silver plates leaving the heavy gold behind. It was cleaned at the end of the day. I remember going to Charters Towers to see WORTHS CIRCUS. It was at its best with two rings operating at the same time under the “big top”. One star item was a man shot out of a cannon to be caught by a trapeze artist high up in the roof. I have memories of my early years in Queen Victoria’s reign. One is a picture of the old Queen on the wall of our sitting room. Another was hearing a carriage full of people singing Boer War patriotic songs (“Goodbye Dolly, I must leave you”) (“It’s the Navy”). We were coming home on a picnic train which took us to see the new Steel Bridge across the Burdekin River. The first Steel Bridge in North Queensland. There was a procession through Charters Towers streets to honour the Queen’s Jubilee and school children received souvenir medals. My school at Homestead was built of galvanized iron; one large room on ground level with verandah all round. It was a “Provisional” School. That means the parents paid for the building and for the one teacher. Aboriginals had a camp in the creek nearby but none of their children attended the school. The school-room was also used as a social centre. The desks and other furniture were moved out for the regular Saturday night dance. Bush accordions provided the music. Once the MONCRIEFF Travelling picture show came to town and their now-famous daughter GLADYS sang a few songs without accompaniment. The school had no piano. Our singing lesson was tuned with a “tuning fork”. I had to help my father with his wagons and horses, rising at 4 a.m. to muster any which had strayed during the night. One early morn I saw HALLEY’S COMET approaching from the East – just visible at first; then each morning for a week it grew larger until its tail spread right across the horizon. Then it was gone – to return in 76 years. In 1902 a Railway sawmill was built and it did away with splitting logs with maul wedges. All sleepers were adzed at both ends to provide level settings for the rails, and this meant a supply of “chips” which I collected for my mother’s wood stove. She baked all our bread. The yeast was simply made of flour, sugar and water. It was so powerful it would blow the cork to the roof and the children had to search for it. A miraculous invention was the “talking machine”. A traveller stopped for a one-night show. He charged 3d. for a “listen” to a record on a cylinder. The sound came through a rubber tube placed in the ear. Later, we were the proud owners of a gramaphone. Cylinders were 6” and 8” and there were two speaking funnels, for small and loud volume. Harry Lauder was popular in those days. I did most of the changing of records and winding the machine. Lots of visitors came to listen and Mother would put on some supper. Occasionally, if she was short of milk I would sneak out to the goat-yard to milk a goat. The goats also provided us with mutton. Our vegetables came from the Chinese gardener who went from house to house in his horse-drawn spring-cart. Children’s clothes were all home-made. Girls’ dresses were half-way between knee and ankle. Boys’ trousers reached just below the knees. Boys went into long trousers about 14 years. Women’s frocks were ankle length and they “put their hair up” at 18 years. When I was 16 years old, I came home one day from cutting hay in the bush (it was drought time) and was told that I could begin as a Lad Porter at the Railway station next day. This was a lucky change in my life as it lifted me out of the bush timber worker, to an interesting railway career for the next 6 years. I rose by promotion to Station Master. The Station was also the Post Office with all its services. No telephone so contact with other Railway stations was by Morse code, which I soon learned. Public telegrams were sent and received. The electric power for this was developed by a series of 50 large glass cells into which were plunged copper plates, blue stone and magnesia. Old age pensions came in about this time. They were 10/- per week. Steam engines were not very powerful. 150 tons was the maximum weight for a train. Westinghouse Brakes were just being fitted to carriages. Previously “Hand brakes” worked by the Guard and the Fireman had to steady the trains down grades. Passenger carriages had oil lamps lowered into position through the roof. Some cars had removable seats so they could be used for freight if necessary. There was no rail connection with South Queensland. Rolling stock was shipped from Brisbane to Townsville. The first motor car came our way during my latter school years. The roads were only tracks made by horse teams. 12-16 horses, two abreast and iron tyred wheels. No bridges across creeks and they all had deep sandy beds. The first Motor Car had to be pushed by us children to make the crossing. The first aeroplane with its one pilot landed at Homestead and portion of its canvas-covered wings had to be stitched by the local women. In 1914 I was transferred to Townsville Railway station. Military training was compulsory for 14 year-olds in the city, but I had, until then, lived outside the training area. The first call I got was to enter camp at Kissing Point Townsville on 14th August. World war I had started. The next week, a force comprised of all military trainees and civilian riflemen from all over the North joined the “S.S. Kanowna”. Then off to Thursday Island, stopping at Cairns to pick up more troops. Our mission at Thursday Island was to defend the cable station and man the fort there. A week after our arrival 500 of us volunteers continued with the Kanowna to Port Moresby to defend the Radio Station there. In 6 week we were discharged and back in Townsville. With us was Captain QUINN, whose name is commemorated by QUINN’S POST on Gallipoli. He was one of the Anzacs who lost his life. I studied Book-keeping by correspondence with Hemmingway and Robertson. I worked with the North Queensland Railways until I resigned in 1919. The next few years were of mixed interests. I went sugar farming with my father in the Burdekin district. Then we all went to Sydney and lived for a year at Bondi, before returning to North Queensland. Before leaving Sydney I decided to start up as a Manufacturer’s agent, being inspired by the number of such agents in Sussex St. I put an advertisement in the “Herald” and got 72 replies. Not very attractive ones. From this poor start my business developed. That was 1923. I became a Commercial Traveller and covered all the territory from Mackay to Mosman and West thereof. Finally I travelled by ship and train and then by aeroplane. My first trip to Mackay was by ship because there was no rail link from Townsville. No harbour at Mackay so passengers were put off on to a launch to go up the Pioneer River. When the weather was rough (as it was for me) we were lowered in a sling to the deck of the launch by the ship’s crane. I went on a small launch from Cairns to Cooktown and was horribly sea-sick all the way. Many years later I met KINGSFORD SMITH and his brother at Atherton where they were “barn-storming” with the Southern Cross (the “old Bus”) trying to raise finance for another overseas flight, and I asked if I could go with them to Cairns the next morning. They agreed and I paid £1.10.0 for the flight over the Barron Falls down to the coast. The Southern Cross is now housed at Brisbane air-port. Another plane flight I had was with Pilot Croucher when I was the only passenger on his first flight to Mt. Isa. He autographed my ticket. Later he joined QANTAS and I heard of him in London. On one occasion I flew in a Flying Boat from Brisbane to Townsville. It was during the war and the seats were just forms, placed along the sides to carry troops. In 1925 I married Audrey Perry. My wife was interested in Crossword Puzzles, a new craze at that time and still in vogue. In 1932 we bought a radio and heard the opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge by de Groot. A year or so later a cyclone hit Townsville and lifted the roof off our house, carrying the iron up over Melton Hill. In 1937 my wife and 2 daughters came with me to England by ship via the Suez Canal and back via Canada and USA across the Pacific. We were a few days late for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth but we saw them in street processions with the two little Princesses and we also saw the decorations in the city shops and street and in the Abby and St. Paul’s. We returned in 1938. After World War I the population of North Queensland was increased by immigrants, especially Italians who bought sugar farms. During the Second World War Townsville was a garrison town. Schools were closed. Complete black-out was enforced. Japanese planes bombed the Harbour on 4 nights. Air-raid shelters were built in backyards. The Strand was barb-wired. A machine gun post was manned on our lawn. Coupons were issued for clothing, petrol and some foodstuffs. Man-power was mobilised and I worked with the Allied Works Council in clerical duties. My own business of commercial travelling was at a standstill. In 1944 we moved to Brisbane so that our daughters could attend University. We are proud that they both graduated. In 1959 we bought a Television set when the first stations were established in Brisbane. I worked in the Hardware business until I retired in 1963. We made frequent holiday visits to Sydney and Melbourne, once or twice to Hobart, and to Perth by sea and return. SOCIAL CUSTOMS “No smoking” signs were in all dining rooms and places where food was prepared. When women took up smoking things changed and ash-trays were provided on the tables. No entertainment was allowed in hotels – now-a-days there are nightly cabarets. Wives of Government officials were not allowed to take a job. Union rules kept the women out. World War I saw women enter the work force. Short hair for women came into fashion and permanent waves. A popular song was “Shall I have it shingled or bobbed”. Talkies came to Townsville in the Nineteen_Twenties. The first talkie we saw was Al Jolson in “My Mammy”. Previously we had enjoyed watching films in an open-air show, sitting in canvas chairs. A pianist played appropriate tunes on the piano. Breakfast foods were introduced in the twenties such as Cornflakes, taking over from Rolled Oats in hotel dining tables. In my school days all men wore moustaches, some wore beards. Then came clean-shaved faces. I have always been cleanshaven. 1897: Moved to Chaters Towers 1901: back to Homestead. 1911-1919: Railways - porter to station master 1923: Manufacturers agent 1944: moved to Brisbane. |
| Source References: |
| 2. Type: Book, Abbr: Devon to Downunder, Title: Devon to Downunder, Auth: Bettie Elworthy, Publ: Bookbound, Date: 1997 |
| - Reference = 154 (Name, Notes) |
| 37. Type: Web Page, Abbr: Rob Perry Geni tree, Title: Rob Perry Geni.com tree, Auth: Rob Perry, Locn: geni.com |
| - Reference = (Death) |