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Deaths at Old Smithfield in 1877

George Matthews (?–c. 27 March 1877, Smithfield)

The first Anglo-Australian death at Smithfield occurred at the end of March 1877, just four months after the township had been established.
There had been plenty of rain during the Wet Season, and the rain continued throughout March 1877, with several minor floods in the Barron River. Crossing the river was hazardous and a tragedy occurred when a man was supposed to have been killed “by a shark or an alligator”.1 On 31 March 1877 two packers left Smithfield for the Hodgkinson, and about three miles along the track and about half-a-mile from the foot of the range they found the decomposed body of a man in a flannel shirt lying on the bank of the river close to the track. They did not touch the body, and, as their pack-horses were restless, they did not stay long and soon continued on their way. Shortly afterwards they met another packer, William Laird, heading down the track to Smithfield and they told him about their find and asked him to look for the body. Upon arriving at the river bank Laird could not find the deceased man, so he went to Smithfield and reported the incident to Constable John Collins. The next day a constable was sent to retrieve the remains, but he could not find the body either. As no one had been reported missing the incident was forgotten about.
The next day however, a passenger on the P.S. Louisa saw a body floating in the river a short distance downstream from Smithfield. Collins procured a boat and with the aid of three volunteers, they searched the river and found a man’s left leg, intact from the hip downward, the foot encased in a new blucher boot, with no hob-nails and no name written on it. The limb was very much decomposed and there were no marks to aid identification. Collins returned to Smithfield and left instructions for the limb to be buried.2 He went into Cairns and reported the matter to police magistrate Edmund Morey, who held an inquest at Smithfield the next day. Morey did not determine the cause of death, but Collins suspected that “an alligator must have dragged the body into the river and eaten part of it” as the remains he found looked as if they had been torn.
The Brisbane papers reported that a man’s body had been found which had been “partly eaten by alligators” and the Rockhampton papers reported that it was a “greatly mutilated headless body with one foot missing” that had been found floating in the river.3
Elizabeth Matthews of Charlotte Street, Cooktown suspected the remains were those of her husband, George Matthews, a cordial manufacturer.4 Elizabeth said that her step-son had left home unexpectedly taking her husband’s money and had gone to the Hodgkinson via Cairns. Matthews went after him to recover his property and set off from Cairns to walk to Thornborough alone. It was supposed that Matthews, “overcome by grief and whisky” lay down on the banks of the Barron to sleep and was taken by one of the “numerous and ferocious alligators”.5 The hob-nailed blucher boot was sufficient to identify the old Cooktown celebrity and soda-water maker.6 It was claimed that after being identified, Matthews’ body was afforded Christian burial in the Cairns cemetery in a well-attended funeral, while his left leg remained in an unmarked grave at Smithfield.

⇒ Read the Coroner's Inquest HERE.

John McGrath (?–2 May 1877, Smithfield)

At 4.00 p.m. on 2 May 1877, two men who had been drinking heavily at Croft’s Victorian Hotel at West Smithfield went into the yard at the back of the public house. Sawyer John McGrath called out “I am going to shew [sic] this boy how to box” and he and Evan Jones began sparring in a drunken way. Jones struck McGrath, who fell to the ground, but he got up apparently unhurt and went on sparring.7 Jones struck McGrath again, this time under the right ear and McGrath dropped to the ground. Jones said “come on old fellow, get up” and grabbed his hand and rolled him over onto his back, but McGrath was dead.8
Constable Lawrence Cronin of Smithfield was sent for and when he arrived an hour later, he found McGrath lying on his back with dried clotted blood around his nose and mouth and a small cut on his right jaw about two inches under his ear.9 Cronin arrested Jones.
The next day William Aplin J.P. held a preliminary inquiry in Smithfield when evidence was taken from seven witnesses.10 Later that afternoon McGrath was buried. This was the first non-indigenous burial at Smithfield. It is not recorded where McGrath was interred, but Smithfield did not have a gazetted cemetery at the time.11
Jones was taken into Cairns where Morey remanded him in custody. On 4 May Sergeant Armstrong requested that Dr. Clarke visit Smithfield to exhume the remains and conduct a post-mortem examination.12 It was later reported that the men had been engaged in a prize fight, but McGrath’s wife denied this was the case.13 Jones was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted at trial in the Cooktown Circuit Court.14

⇒ Read the Coroner's Inquest HERE

Mary Gernox /Geroux (1875–8 May 1877, Smithfield)

Two-year-old Mary Gernox, daughter of Henry and Dora of Macdonald Street,15 died of fever on Tuesday 8 May 1877, and was buried near the township.16

Benjamin Simmond (?–27 May 1877, Smithfield)

On Sunday 27 May 1877, Benjamin Simmond was found dead. He was buried near Smithfield township the next day.17

James Cummings (c.1819–15 July 1877, Smithfield)

On Sunday 15 July 1877, 58 year-old James Cummings died of intermittent fever and was buried near Smithfield township the next day.18

Erstine Hingst (1841–6 August 1877, Smithfield)

On Monday 6 August 1877, 36 year-old Erstine Hingst died of fever and was buried near Smithfield township the same day.19

Robert Jackson Craig (1844, Lanarkshire–1877, Smithfield)

⇒ Read about the murder of Robert Craig HERE.
⇒ Read the Coroner's Inquest HERE.

William ‘Bill’ Smith (c.1826/1833, Hertfordshire–1877, Smithfield)

⇒ Read about Bill Smith's suicide HERE.
⇒ Read the Coroner's Inquest HERE.

This webpage is an excerpt from the upcoming book
Old Smithfield: Barron River township (1876-1879)
by Dr Dave Phoenix.

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  • 1. Telegraph (Brisbane), 5 April 1877: 3;
    Rockhampton Bulletin, 20 April 1877: 2.  ↩

  • 2. Inquest ID: 348651 (JUS/N52), Queensland State Archives.  ↩

  • 3. The Week (Brisbane), 14 April 1877: 7;
    Rockhampton Bulletin, 20 April 1877: 2.  ↩

  • 4. Elizabeth Kerr or McKerr, married George Matthews in Cooktown in 1876 (Queensland marriage certificate 1876/C105). George died around 27 March 1877 and Elizabeth remarried later that year.  ↩

  • 5. Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 12 December 1883: 2, reprinting an article from the Townsville Bulletin.  ↩

  • 6. George Matthews was an aerated water and cordial manufacturer on Charlotte Street, Cooktown, see: Slater’s Queensland Almanac, Settler’s Guide and Miner’s Companion for 1876 (Brisbane: Geo. Slater, 1876), 37.  ↩

  • 7. McGrath was reported variously as John, Jack and Jason McGrath and was well-known on the racecourses of Townsville and Charters Towers, see: Daily Northern Argus (Rockhampton), 18 May 1877: 3, reprinting an article from the Townsville Herald.  ↩

  • 8. Daily Northern Argus (Rockhampton), 11 May 1877: 2, reprinting an article from the Cairns Advertiser & Smithfield Observer.  ↩

  • 9. Inquest ID: 348651 (JUS/N52), Queensland State Archives.  ↩

  • 10. Evidence was taken from the following Smithfield residents: Constable Lawrence Cronin, James Badka a saddler, Charles Lewis a cook, Cornelius Fox a labourer, Benjamin Boyd Wilder a carpenter and miners Francis Campbell and B.B. Williams.  ↩

  • 11. Burials in Cairns were conducted on the Esplanade north of the town until around September 1877 when a five-acre cemetery was established.
    See: Maxim Consulting Services Pty. Ltd., McLeod Street Pioneer Cemetery Conservation Plan (Cairns: Cairns Regional Council, 2012).  ↩

  • 12. Daily Northern Argus (Rockhampton), 11 May 1877: 2, reprinting an article from the Cairns Advertiser & Smithfield Observer.  ↩

  • 13. Queenslander, 12 May 1877: 1;
    Queenslander, 2 June 1877: 19.  ↩

  • 14. Evan Jones was committed for trial for manslaughter. Collinson claims that Jones was found guilty and imprisoned.
    See: James Warren Collinson, More About Cairns: The Second Decade (Brisbane: Smith Patterson, 1942), 92.
    However, the Northern Court Circuit suggest Jones was acquitted.
    See: Inspector Clohesy, Northern Circuit Court, 7 June 1877, Telegraph (Brisbane) 9 June 1877: 2.  ↩

  • 15. Henry and Dora were Johann Heinrich Christian Friedrich Gernox and his wife Willamina Dorathea Louise (nee Grimmann).  ↩

  • 16. Queensland birth certificate 1875/C2820,
    Queensland death certificate 1877/C325.  ↩

  • 17. Queensland death certificate 1877/C327.  ↩

  • 18. Queensland Death Certificate 1877/C329.  ↩

  • 19. Queensland Death Certificate 1877/C341.  ↩