HURSTVILLE CITY LIBRARY

QUEEN STREET, HURSTVILLE

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOYCE PICKUP, 2005

KOGARAH PIONEERS DOWN UNDER

This book was launched on St. Georges Day, 23 April, 2002 at 10.30am in the St. Paul's Church Hall, Kogarah by Ron Rathbone. Pam Samuels introduced and welcomed Ron and all the descendents who were present for the ceremony. Ron gave a most interesting and humourous speech about his early memories of the graveyard, having attended Kogarah Intermediate High School which used the old graveyard as a playground. This event would not have possible without the industrious work of Jean Jehane and June Lane and all the other researchers. Thanks should also go to all the caterers and the ladies of St. Paul's who cleaned up after the event.

Photograph taken by Lyn Vincent, 2002

Photograph taken by Lyn Vincent, 2002.

From Left to Right: June Lane, Ron Rathbone and Jean Jehan

STORIES FROM A SCHOOL BURIAL GROUND by PAUL ELLERCAMP

When Ron Rathbone was a teenager, he and his schoolmates would play the sort of games that only kids could play.

The playground of the Kogarah Intermediate High School was, in those days, the former graveyard of St. Paul's Anglican Church.

The headstones were gone by the time Ron attended the School from 1944 to 46, but the graves remained.

He and half a dozen friends would sometimes clump together and stamp on the ground, hoping "to get the ground to collapse" over an old grave.

Occasionally they would succeed and the ground would sink "in the shape of the grave".

A macabre pastime, perhaps, but they were kids.

Mr. Rathbone, the long-time Rockdale councillor and former mayor, was back at St. Pauls on St. George's Day to launch a history of the church and its graveyeard compiled by Hurstville Family History Society.

There were 42 known graves dug at St. Pauls between 1872, when David Hannam was buried there, and 1924, with the interment of Martha Wilkinson.

But there are 71 known people, some of them four to a grave, according to June Olane, one of the researchers who prepared the history, Kogarah pioneers down under.

The graveyard all but closed down in 1912, when the department of public works took over the land.

At that time, no-one had been buried there since 1903, although Martha Wilkinson received dispensation in 1924.

The graveyard was eventually taken over by the Department of Education to extend Kogarah Public School.

According to another researcher, Mrs. Jean Jehan, it contains the remains of a number of district pioneers, including the Rev. John Done, the first minister of St. Pauls; William Berghofer, one of the church's founders; and Joseph Shelton, a founder of the school.

Fourteen members of Hurstville Family History Society spent three years researching the book, which can be purchased from Gladwyn, the local history resource centre of Hurstville City Library ($15 plus $4 p/p.

Ron Rathbone had another story to tell, too.

His Latin teacher at Kogarah was Basher Grant, who doubled as the physical education teacher.

One day, Ron said, Grant had the boys in the playground "giving us an on-the-spot demonstration of marathon running".

Up and down in the one spot, he went, until suddenly the ground collapsed and Basher sank 30 cm into a grave.

Taken from St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader, Tuesday, April 30, 2002, page 20.

IN A LETTER TO THE EDITOR BY JEAN JEHANE

On St. George's Day, April 23, 1999, the Hurstville Family History Society lauched their Hurstville Pioneers Down Under book consisting of background stories about those who lie buried in the graveyeard of St. George's Anglican Church, Hurstville.

We are now carrying out research on the pioneers who were buried in the graveyard of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kogarah, which will be our project for St. George's Day 2001.

It is intended to launch the book on St. George's Day, 2002.

We would be pleased to hear from any descendants of those who were buried in the graveyard.

So far the names we have collected are: David Hannam Sept 1872, Rev. John Done 1877, Janette Done 1887 and their daughters Caroline & Alice, Esther South 1881, Jane Clarke 1881, George Day 1881, Joseph Shelton 1887, Susan Shelton 1880, Jane Morse 1886, Thomas Morse 1886, Thomas Draper 1887, Susan Draper 1880, Jane Twiss, John Selmon 1873, Harriet Selmon 1886, Lewis Griffiths 1876, Lucy Walker and 2 sons, Emily Eleanor Favell 1884, John Wm. Lawrence 1886 and his father William Lawrence, Anna Gertrude Lawrence 1895, Albert Lawrence 1896,Philip Mulhansen 1885, Thomas Wilson 1881, Thomas and Mary Neale, William Berghofer 1890 and members of Berghoffer family, Elizabeth Skidmore, 1884, Frederick Skidmore 1902, Sarah Dominey 1877, Thomas S. Schofield 1901, Schumann 1893 and John Douglass, 1885

As this graveyard is defunct and there is no burial register we are searching for more names.

There are no doubt more families who were buried there, so we would be very pleased to hear from these descendants.

JEAN JEHAN. Research Officer,
Hurstville Family History Society
9579 3262.

DIGGING INTO THE PAST

PAST MASTERS… Members of the Hurstville Family History Society have launched a search for the names of people buried in the now disused graveyard of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kogarah.

By John MULCLAIR

The old graveyard of St. Paul's Anglican church at Kogarah is being asked to give up its secrets.

It was demolished in 1943 when Kogarah Public School was extended but the burial register no longer exists.

This is a problem for the Hurstville Family History Society which is researching the pioneers who were buried in the graveyard for a book it plans to publish.

The research officer for the society, Jean Jehan, said the names of more than 70 persons buried at St. Paul's have been collected.

It has also been established that the last burial took place there in 1924.

"One of the people interred there is Joseph Shelton, a founder of Kogarah Public School", Mrs. Jehan said.

"We will be publishing a book which will contain the history of the church and graveyard, and the stories of the people buried there. It will be launched at St. Paul's on St. George's Day, April 23, 2002."

BOOK MARK

Hazel Hawke(left) presenting a certificate and $700 cheque from the NSW Heritage Office to June Lane from Hurstville Family History Society recently. The money will be used to publish a history of St. Paul's Anglican Church, Kogarah, and the pioneers in its graveyard. The book will be launched on April 23, 2002, at the church hall.

Taken from: St. George & Sutherland Shire Leader dated 20 December 2001, Page 25.