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The Eldorado Hollows - Joseph Hollow the eleventh child of Matthew Hollow and Mary Cocking.

Joseph Hollow 1817 - 1905

Joseph HOLLOW was born in Redruth, Cornwall on the 21/12/1817 and died on the 02/06/1905 at Eldorado. His wife Jane THOMAS was born on the 05/11/1818 also in Redruth and died on the 27/09/1890 at Eldorado. Joseph and Jane were married at Redruth in March 1840.

The children of the marriage were :-

Mary Elizabeth HOLLOW  b30/07/1840 Redruth d 14/09/1840, Redruth
Joseph HOLLOW  b 21/07/1841 Redruth d, Queensland?
Fanny Thomas HOLLOW  b 30/01/1843  Redruth d 02/05/1928, Thornbury
Emily HOLLOW  b 03/01/1845 Redruth d 30/05/1901, 
Elizabeth Jane HOLLOW  b25/09/1846 Redruth d ?, 
Charles HOLLOW  b31/07/1848 Redruth 21/03/1929, Glenhuntly
Alfred HOLLOW b 06/07/1850 Redruth d 20/02/1858, Redruth
Lucy HOLLOW  b 19/02/1853 Redruth d 1922, Cheltenham

The Hollows journey to Eldorado.

Joseph left Liverpool on 22nd. of November 1853 aboard the ship "Hibernia" and arrived in Melbourne on 21st. February 1854, he was not accompanied by his family but reportedly, "...came to Victoria with a large party of fellow townsmen..." The "Hibernia" was a ship of 1065 tons and carried 257 passengers, 219 adults and 37 children. Joseph went to Spring Creek (Beechworth), Victoria in February 1854 directly on his arrival in Australia.

His obituary reports he was an upholster by trade, but the 1851 census in Britain lists his occupation as a journeyman cabinetmaker. Whatever his occupation in Redruth he left to join the goldrush in Victoria as a miner. He began work at Spring Creek (Beechworth) where he built the first water wheel and during the next six years prospected and dug for gold at The Three Mile , The Woolshed and Sebastapol, all mining areas around Beechworth,.

In 1855 the mining commenced at Eldorado Flat. The first mining company established in Eldorado was the "Kneebone" in 1858. In 1859 he arrived at Eldorado when the Kneebone shaft had just been sunk and he was one of the sixteen tributers that took up an adjoining claim that was to become the Mc Evoy mine.

The company involved, among others, Joseph Hollow and two families who were to become related to Joseph by marriage, the Bawdens and the Oates. The McEvoy had sixteen shareholders, Joseph is reputed to have been one although in some references he is not listed.

The McEvoy Mine

The McEvoy mine was worked from 1859 to 1879 and then again from 1890 to 1901. The names of the original shareholders include at least four who are part of our family history. Fanny Bawden's obituary says the shareholders were mostly made up of the families of the Hollows and Bawdens but that may be an exaggeration.

First Gold at the McEvoy

As reported in a local paper

Joseph Hollow and Greg Rabey were working on the shaft when the first wash dirt with visible gold in it was found. Joseph who was on the brace, called out, "Come up Rabey" and Rabey replied , "No, I've got better down here". The Union Jack was then hoisted on one of the poppet legs.

The shaft was put down in 1859 so this happened before Joseph's family had arrived in Eldorado.

In 1895 there was a disaster at the McEvoy mine when six miners were entombed.

An inquiry was held and a jury of Eldorado residents was appointed,

*It is interesting to see the number of original shareholders that were on the jury of the enquiry.

The Family Reunited

The eldest son, also Joseph , arrived in 1857 on the "Gypsy Bride". John Bawden arrived on that ship with his son William Henry Bawden aged 10 and his nephew Joseph Hollow aged 11. William Henry Bawden later married Fanny Thomas Hollow in 1865. I have no evidence that John Bawden had a nephew JosephHollow at that time, but the Bawdens and the Hollows may have been close friends of Joseph and Jane Hollow and listed Joseph as a nephew to keep the group together on the voyage out to Australia.

If this is our Joseph his age and that of Henry Bawden were lowered for the trip as Joseph would have been about 15 and William about 14. The lowering of the ages probably meant the boys could travel with John Bawden, being over fourteen they may have had to travel as adults at a greater cost. The name listed on the PRO unassisted passenger index is Joseph Hollon, but the ship's passenger list shows the name to be definitely Hollow.

The rest of Joseph's family joined him in 1864 , His wife and five children left London aboard the ship "Red Rose" on 7th March 1864 and arrived in Melbourne on the 15th. of June. The "Red Rose" was a ship of 1445 tons and carried 155 passengers on the trip to Australia. It was a ship of the "Black Ball" line of British and Australian ex-Royal Mail packets.

The ship had an eventful trip, the Red Rose caught fire when off the Cape of Good Hope. The fire was about six feet forward of the main hatch. Fortunately the fire was quickly brought under control and the Red Rose was able to continue the journey.

The children who travelled with Jane were Fanny (aged 20), Emily (18), Elizabeth (16), Charles (14) and Lucy (12). Two of Joseph and Jane's children had died in Cornwall, Mary Elizabeth on 14/9/1840 and Alfred on 20/2/1858.

Life at Eldorado.

The family were back together again in June 1864 after ten years of separation but it wasn't long before it started to break up again. In 1865 two of the girls were married . Elizabeth Jane married James Dunstan and Fanny married William Bawden. The next year Emily married Charles Henry and in 1867 Joseph married Eliza Jane Oates.

Charles is listed as living at Newtown, Beechworth from 1868, he was an engineer according to the directories, he would have been 20 at the time. He married Anne Myline Fleming in 1878.

Lucy married in 1877 to Lewis Evan Thomas, a minister. Both Lucy and Charles were to lose their spouses within a year of being married and were to marry again , Lucy married Anthony Allen in 1899 and Charles married Margary Caudy in 1885.

Although the children were getting married they seem to have stayed in Eldorado and as you will see more often than not married Cornish people and mining people.

Copyright © 1997,1998, 1999  Colin Hollow
 

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