Deaths in the Smithfield area 1879-1915
Old Smithfield Township was abandoned in 1879, with just a handful of locals staying on in the area as farmers. The following deaths were recorded in the Smithfield area after the township was abandoned:
- Ah Pan
- William James Legren (Le Grande)
- Bertha Helena Richter
- Kate Barry
- Beatrice Ryan
- Frederick Condon
- John Willoughby
- Robert Joseph Sullivan
- Louis Kopp
- Martha Hudson
Ah Pan (?-1881)
Ah Pan was a Chinese market gardener who grew bananas and pineapples at Smithfield. On Saturday 15 January 1881 he set off for Cairns, carrying baskets of fruit and vegetables. When he did not return home, his fellow countrymen went searching for him, but found no trace. The matter was reported to the police, and Police Magistrate Robert Taylor Hartley despatched Sergeant Halligan in the pilot boat with instructions to drag the river for a body.
On Sunday 23 January, Halligan found Pan’s baskets “about a hundred yards below the crossing of the river on the Smithfield side … the pineapples with which he left his garden being intact”. Hartley concluded that as Ah Pan was crossing the river on a rising tide, “the unlucky fellow was carried off by a saurian reptile”.
The crocodile was assumed to have been a well-known, large animal called "Big Ben of the Barron" who frequented the Barron River crossing. Big Ben was poisoned in early February 1881, when a cow’s liver and entrails were laced with a pennyweight of strychnine and left at the river crossing. The receding tide exposed a 16-foot-long crocodile ‘belly-up’ on the bank. When the putrescent and swollen carcass was cut open, several undigested human bones were found in its stomach, along with “a Chinaman’s pigtail … prima facia evidence that [Ah Pan] and the saurian had made an acquaintance”.
William James Legren/Le Grande (4 November 1883-12 November 1883)
William Jame Legren was born to Carl Leonhardt Løvgreen (1856, Norway–1945, Charters Towers) and his wife Mary Ann Frezell (1861, Ireland–1944, Freshwater), on 4 November 1883. Legren’s family did not live in the Smithfield area, but his father was a construction worker on the Redlynch-Myola section of the Cairns to Herberton railway. On 12 November 1883, eight-day-old William suffered a bout of convulsions and died. He was buried at Smithfield the next day.1
Bertha Helena Richter (26 June 1886-5 March 1887)
Bertha was born to Smithfield farmer Carl Richter and his wife Anne Charlotte Ernestine Hein on 26 June 1886. When Bertha was 8 months-old, she died of 'convulsions' and was buried at Smithfield the next day.2
Kate Barry (23 May 1887-15 June 1887)
Kate was born to James Barry and his wife Cecilia Moran on 23 May 1887. 23 days later, baby Kate died of unknown causes and was buried at Smithfield.3
Beatrice Ryan (28 February 1887-19 June 1887)
Beatrice was born to John Ryan and his wife Mary Ann Greenalch on 28 February 1887. Four month-old Beatrice died of unknown causes on 19 June 1887 and was buried at Smithfield.4
Frederick Condon (c.1850-21 June 1887)
The Cairns Post reported the death of ‘Mr. Connolly’ at a boxing match held at the Jubilee Day Sports Competition at Kamerunga on 21 June 1887. Connolly had been boxing with William Hanley when he lost consciousness and died the following day. Hanley was arrested and charged with manslaughter.5
A post-mortem examination, conducted by Dr. Queerly on 22 June, found that Connolly had an enlarged liver which had haemorrhaged, resulting in his death.6
An inquest, held by Justice Michael O’Malley P.M. in Cairns on 27 June, found the death was accidental and Hanley was released. The inquest also determined that ‘Mr Connolly’ was in fact Frederick Condon, a labourer who was about 37 years old.7
Condon was buried at the Smithfield Cemetery on Wednesday 22 June 1877 by John Roddam, a builder and contractor from Sachs Street, Cairns, witnessed by William S. Hart, publican of Hart’s Hotel, Kamerunga, and the service was read by the editor of The Cairns Post, Archibold Meston.
John Willoughby (c.1851-18 July 1887)
On 18 July 1887, 36 year-old John Willoughby died in a blasting accident on during the construction of the Kuranda Range Railway, and was allegedly buried at Smithfield.8
Robert Joseph Sullivan (1 March 1886-20 September 1887)
Robert Joseph Sullivan was born to Ambrose John Sullivan and his wife Mary Ann McLean on 1 March 1886. At the age of 1 year and 5 months, Robert died of unknown causes and was buried at Smithfield.9
Louis Kopp (1828/1831, Heidelberg, Baden–13 July 1893, Smithfield)
German born Louis Kopp and his Norwegian wife Johanna 'Karen' Kopp ran the dairy at Smithfield.
After Smithfield township was abandoned, the Kopps were one of only six farming families that settled north of the Barron River. They applied for an 80-acre homestead lease and built their farmhouse on the big freshwater lagoon at West Smithfield by the Government Road.10
During the 1879 Wet Season, the Barron River broke its banks, the Kopp's lagoon was flooded, and Louis and Johanna spent 24 hours sitting on the top rail of their stock yard waiting for the waters to subside. In 1881 the Wet Season flood was even bigger and the water rose so high that Johanna was forced to leave the farmhouse. She jumped into a small boat, which she managed to tie to a tree to avoid being washed away. She spent several days alone in the boat, surrounded by swirling floodwaters, and survived by eating a small pig that she caught as it was swimming by. She only had a tomahawk in the boat to butcher the pig and she ate it raw, for “there is no person who can honestly starve when they have wholesome raw pork”.11
In 1893, 65 year-old Louis fell ill and was treated by Dr Edward Albert Koch of Cairns. Three days later he died of rheumatic fever and hyperpyrexia. On Friday 14 July 1893 he was buried at Smithfield by the undertaker Frederick Lawsen. The burial was witnessed by the mayor of Cairns, A.J. Draper, and owner of the Central Hotel, Willie Munro.12
German born Louis Kopp and his Norwegian wife Johanna.
S.E. Martin, The Cairns Jubilee: Official Historical Souvenir, (Cairns: Cairns Jubilee Celebrations Committee, 1926): 68.
The Smithfield Cemetery was adjacent to James Stewart's cane farm, and James' grandson, Maxwell Stewart, who was born 35 years after Louis' death, recalled seeing Kopp’s name “freshly painted on the ... only grave standing” in the Cemetery. If Maxwell's recollection is correct, then it is likely that he saw Kopp’s name painted on the decorative iron grave marker in the Cemetery. This marker has since been damaged and removed from the original grave by the careless actions of cane farmers. Part of the grave marker has survived, but the location of Louis' grave is unknown.
Cast-iron grave tablet at Smithfield Cemetery. Inscription reads: ‘In Affectionate Remembrance of … ’.
Martha Hudson (nee Carpenter, 1865, Skipton, England–10 January 1915, Cairns)
The final burial at Smithfield Cemetery was was in 1915 when Martha Hudson of Redlynch was interred.
Martha Carpenter arrived in Australia in 1885, married Charles John Hudson in Brisbane in 1889 and had six children. The Hudsons moved to Cairns and bought ‘Rylsmere’ farm on the Barron at Redlynch. Their arrival in Cairns was many years after the township of Smithfield had been abandoned.
Martha died on Sunday 10 January 1915 at St. Margaret’s Private Hospital, Lake Street, Cairns and was buried at Smithfield Cemetery the same day.13 The undertaker was John Griffiths of McLeod Street, the service was read by Methodist minister, the Reverend H. Denny. The witnesses were Arthur Keeble and William Walter Mason of Acacia Bank farm, Stratford.14
Widow Charles John Hudson moved to Buchan Point, died in 1949 and was buried in the Martyn Street Cemetery in Manunda.
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This webpage is an excerpt from the upcoming book Old Smithfield: Barron River township (1876-1879) by Dr Dave Phoenix. Find Out More Here |
Featured Artefacts from Old Smithfield:
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1. Queensland Death Certificate: 1883/C900 ↩
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2. Queensland Death Certificate: 1887/C661 ↩
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3. Queensland Death Certificate: 1887/C757 ↩
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4. Queensland Death Certificate: 1887/C724 ↩
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5. Cairns Post, 22 June 1887: 2;
Cairns Post, 25 June 1887: 2-3;
Brisbane Courier, 24 June 1887: 5; ↩ -
6. Inquest ID: 348743, Queensland State Archives. ↩
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7. Queensland Death Certificate: 1887/C708 ↩
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8. Telegraph (Brisbane), 1 August 1877: 4;
Inquest ID: 2728704, Queensland State Archives;
Queensland death certificate 1887/C723 ↩ -
9. Queensland Death Certificate: 1887/C723 ↩
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10. L. Kopp, Homestead Lease No. 57, 80 acres,
see plan C157.314;
Queenslander, 14 January 1882: 57. ↩ -
11. Cairns Post, 3 December 1917: 2;
Cairns Post, 1 November 1926: 11. ↩ -
12. Queensland Death Certificate 1893/C811. ↩
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13. Cairns Post, 11 January 1915: 2. ↩
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14. Queensland Death Certificate 1915/C178. ↩