John Rowe (1817-1886

John Rowe was the first born son of John Rowe and Joanna Symons, He was probably born in the last trimester of 1816 at  Penwinnick, St Agnes   as he was christened 23 Feb 1817 at St Agnes, Church in Cornwall.

The picturesque town of St Agnes with it's outlying  hamlets of Mount Hawke, Porthtowan, Mithian, Trevellas and Blackwater,  was a flourishing tin mining district, reaching its peak in the mid nineteenth century. Mining was fraught with danger and miners just managing to keep their families above the poverty level, had nothing to lose in deciding to emigrate to another country where new minerals were being discovered, and a better life was being offered.

John having followed in his father's footsteps appeared as a 25 year old Tin Miner with his parents and siblings in the 1841 census. He later ventured into the field of assaying which was no doubt less hazardous. Joanna's aged mother Alice was also living with the family.

Piece: HO107/149/2 Place: Pydar -Cornwall Enumeration District: 9

Civil Parish: St. Agnes Ecclesiastical Parish: -

Folio: 67 Page: 12

Address: Goonvrea

Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born 

ROWE John M 45 Tin Miner Cornwall 

ROWE Joanna F 45 Cornwall 

ROWE John M 25 Tin Miner Cornwall 

ROWE William M 20 Tin Miner Cornwall 

ROWE James M 15 Tin Miner Cornwall 

ROWE Alice F 15 Cornwall 

ROWE Abel M 14 Tin Miner Cornwall 

ROWE Joanna F 13 Cornwall 

ROWE Nanny F 11 Cornwall 

ROWE Francis M 8 Cornwall 

ROWE Samuel M 5 Cornwall

SIMONS Alice F 85 Cornwall 

John Rowe and Eliza Richards both at 30 years of age, married on the 20th August 1846 in the Wesleyan Chapel district of Truro, Cornwall. The marriage certificate records John's father as John Rowe and Eliza's as James Richard. All three men are listed as miners and Eliza is recorded as a single woman. John's sister, Alice Symon Rowe was one of their witnesses.

 

 About the time of his marriage,  The South Australian Colonisation Commissioner's English migration agent, Isaac Latimer of Truro, was active in promoting, emigration with advertisements of offers for free passage to suitable applicants.

 John and Eliza tempted by such an offer, bid farewell to their home country two months after their marriage, when they boarded t he 'David Malcolm.' Some minor damage she had received in the Sound, during stormy weather, caused a slight delay at Plymouth but she set sail, on the  13 October 1846 , with 167 Emigrants.   While at sea, and unbeknown to them, John's ailing father died at his home in Goonvrea, of Miners consumption on the 12 November 1846, aged 56 years. The 'David Malcolm' docked at Port Adelaide after a 13 week voyage, on 23 January 1847. 

 

 John and Eliza made their home in Pirie Street Adelaide. Shortly after his arrival in Adelaide, hoping to attract work, John placed the following advertisements:

 

South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851) Tuesday 23 February 1847 Page 5

To Mining Gentlemen, Agents, and Others.

JOHN ROWE, PRACTICAL assayer, begs to inform the Mining Gentlemen of this colony, that he has just arrived from England, and intends to engage himself in the above named branches of business, at Adelaide; and by strict attention thereto flatters him, self that he shall be able to give satisfaction to those who may favor him with their patronage and support.

Residence, No. 7, Borrow and Goodiar's Yard, head of Weymouth-street, Adelaide.

 

I recommend John Rowe with much confidence as an assayer, having given him several samples of copper ores for trial, the produce of which I had before ascertained; and found him to be uniformerly correct

JOHN BARKER Adelaide, Feb 19, 1847

 

  South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851)Tuesday 11 May 1847 Page 2

JOHN ROWE, practical assayer, is returning thanks to the mining gentlemen and others of this Colony, for their liberal patronage since he has commenced business in this town, respectfully announces that he has removed from Borrow and Goodiar's yard to the premises of Mr Goss (situate between Mr Walsh's brewery and the "Freemason's Tavern," Pirie-street), on which premises his business will in future be conducted.

 

Adelaide, May 10th, 1847.

 As an Assayer he worked out the amount of copper in the ore being raised. This was significant for the mine owners in determining profits, and also for the miners as they were paid according to the amount of copper contained in the ore they mined. The assayer's task was to treat an ore sample to the various stages which comprised the smelting process but on a much smaller scale. The end result was a button of copper which enabled him to calculate the amount of copper in the sample being tested.

 

 John assayed mineral samples from all over South Australia. In June 1848 he gave a good report on samples from the Port Lincoln Mines as well as for those of the Burra mine.

 

 On 11 August 1848 John and Eliza had a son at Chesser Lane, off Pirie Street, Adelaide. They named him John and he was baptized by the Rev. D. J Draper at the Gawler Place, Wesleyan Chapel in Adelaide. On the 24th May 1879 he would be married by Mr H. Hussey to Emma, second daughter of Samuel Bosher of Adelaide.

 

Eighteen months  after the death of his Grandmother, Alice Simons nee Stephens in 1847, the remainder of the family made plans to join John in South Australia. His brother Abel  (22) , together with his mother Joanna and siblings Alice  (24) , Joanna  (20) , Nanny  (17) , Francis  (14)  and Samuel  (12)   sailing from  Plymouth 8 Oct 1848 aboard the 'Samuel Boddington' and arriving  at Port Adelaide, South Australia 12th January 1849 .

 

 During 1850 John managed Wheal Barton after his resignation in 1849 from the Apoinga Smelting works near Black Springs, south of Burra. He soon showed an interest in politics and during the 1851 elections he supported Francis S Dutton. In 1852 John was living at Gilles Street but by 1854 he and his young family where living at Kapunda, where he had taken up the position of Chief Assayer for the mine.During the mid-1850s John and his brother Francis, as well as their sister, Nanny's husband, Thomas McGrath, were part of a large number of Kapunda men who tried their luck on the  Victorian Goldfields  . Not having met with great success John returned to  Kapunda   whereas his brother Francis went on to New Zealand joining his brother William  in Auckland, who was working as a carrier,  after the Kawau mining operation had passed its peak.

 Back in Adelaide John and Eliza's second son, James Richard was born on 10 May 1853. James later became involved with the postal service and started as a messenger at Kapunda in 1868. He did well and was promoted to operator in 1873. He married Elizabeth, fourth daughter of William Allen of North Adelaide on 20 March 1880 at the Wesleyan Church, Archer Street. This was followed by another promotion to Post and Telegraph Station Master at Morgan.

While at Morgan they had four children:

Ethel May born on 21 January 1881,

Hilda Maude on 14 October 1882, 

James Percival on 12 November 1884 and

Herbert Lawrence on 7 October 1887. 

They remained at Morgan for more than 20 years. In 1905 he was transferred to Streaky Bay and later to Large Bay and finally to Henley Beach where he drowned on the morning of 27 September 1911. At the inquest it was his son Herbert Lawrence, draper of Henley Beach, who identified his body.

After the birth of James Richard, John and Eliza had two more children, Elizabeth on 30 July 1855 and Samuel at Kapunda on 16 February 1857. 

In July 1859 John took up the position advertised in the 'Register' of Resident Mine Captain and Superintendent for the  Mochatoona   mine, situated about 3 miles N.N.W of Angepenga Station in the remote and desolate district of the  northern Flinders Ranges  . A few weeks later he left Kapunda, via Burra, for the mine with 13  experienced  men, and eight drays loaded with 12 months' provisions.

On 29th October of 1859 during an inspection of the Mochatoona mine by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief  Sir R.G. McDonnell, John strongly urged the necessity of Government expending large sums in forming roads between the supposed mineral districts of the north and the ports of export south, but His Excellency thought that the general taxpayers might not regard the area as being satisfactorily established.

At a general meeting of the Mochatoona Mining Company held on Wednesday 28th February 1860,  a lengthy and heated debate took place regarding Captain John Rowe, and it was moved that his conduct was most inconsistent, and that he be immediately superseded (on further investigation these allegations  were found to be unsupported and unfounded). Being some 400 miles away and unable to defend himself, on hearing of these allegations he placed the following notice:

South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900) Friday 30 March 1860 Page 3

MOCHATOONA MINE. 

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REGISTER .

Sir - As your published report in the above- named journal of the 23rd February of the proceedings of the half-yearly meeting of the Mochatoona Copper Mining Company is calculated seriously to injure my character, should I remain silent on the subject (as silence would be construed into consent), I hope you will, through the same medium as the report has been circulated, allow me to say a word or two in reference to the charges therein alluded to, and the persons (whoever they may be) who preferred them. Now what those charges where I have had no opportunity of knowing, but from the wording of the report I must conclude that they were of the gravest character, and their name legion. Now, Sir, I do think that the persons preferring those charges against a person 400 miles away, without giving him an opportunity of knowing anything of or about them, or of defending himself against them until they had been emblazoned by the public press, and done that individual an irreparable injury, have acted anything but gentleman-like - anything but the part of honourable men, and certainly very far wide of that rule, ' Do unto others as ye would wish that men should do unto you.' And as the report has made an unfavourable impression, I am bound to say, injustice to myself and my family, that I court enquiry, and challenge my accusers, or any other person, to prove that my conduct in any way, or in one single instance, since I have been the servant of the Company, has been such as is unworthy of their confidence, or has been detrimental to their interests. To this the deputation from the Board of Directors, sent to inspect the mine previous to the meeting, bear their written testimony. In a paper handed to me by them, bearing date January 23, 1860, these words occur, referring to reports then in circulation: - 'We have fully investigated these, and find them unsupported and unfounded. - James White and James Trestrail, Depuation from the Board of Directors, Mochaoona Copper Mining Company.' An insertion of this in your journal will oblige.Yours, &c., 

JOHN ROWE, 

Captain, Mochatoona Mines. 

Mochatoona Mines, March 17, 1860.

Not everything had turned out the way he expected. T he extreme drought in the north prevented cartage of a great deal of ore to Port Augusta, the state of the roads which  Joseph Curnow, who had discovered the copper deposit with Captain James Trestrail on John Baker's  Angepena   Station, later admitted freely were so bad in some places, that it would be impossible to make the mine pay, two horses could pull only one ton of ore .  Mochatoona was first considered to be a wonderful copper discovery warranting 'vigorous developmental work' but, as with most of the copper 'shows' in the Flinders Ranges, the surface lode did not extend to greater depths.  Other mining "experts" later gave similar opinions. For instance, according to Pascoe Carbiss, a practical miner of thirty years, both in England and Australia, the copper had simply run out and "no trial was made to find out where the lode went". 

Ultimately these unforeseen circumstances led to John Rowe's resignation as Captain and Resident Superintendent of the Mocahtoona Mines in April 1860, little was done with the mine after that. He returned to Kapunda where he continued his work as an assayer.

 

In 1862 he became a Member of Parliament after winning a by-election on 8 May as Member for the District of Light. This, according to the Kapunda newspaper, was to be expected as he could hardly have failed to catch the Cornishman's vote, being a man skilled in minerals and mineral prospecting and well up in his political catechism.

John was a radical and promised to have the mineral leases altered to allow a poor man to search for 12 months without having to pay rent. He was in favour of secular rather than denominational education. He opposed pensions but was all for free distillation. According to him every man had the right to make the best of his products.

Very little came of it as his political career came to an abrupt end when parliament was dissolved on 22 October of that year. It was during these hectic months that his mother, Joanna died at her home in Hindley St in Adelaide. She would have been proud of her first born child doing well in his adopted land and becoming a Member of Parliament.

The Rowe family posted the following notice:

Rowe - On 6th July 1862 at Adelaide, aged 73 yrs, Mrs Johanna Rowe, relict of the late Mr John Rowe of St Agnes, Cornwall, and mother of Mr Rowe, M.P. for the Light and of Messrs W & F Rowe of this city - a member of the Wesleyan Society from early life and a woman of exemplary piety. [NZ'er 27 Aug 1862]. A similar notice was also placed in the South Australian Register 23 July 1862.

While at Kapunda Captain John Rowe did assays for third parties too and in November 1864 called in at the Kapunda Herald office to show some very fine specimens of malachite from the newly opened Lacamore mine, situated about nine kilometres from Kapunda, also announcing that he had the utmost confidence in its future. He was later appointed as Lacamore's mine Captain. Some of this extra income he saved and by 1862 he had bought a house in Main Street, Kapunda which he rented out.

By the end of November 1869 John had joined William and Francis in Zealand, as had brother's Abel, his wife Elizabeth and their two children, and Samuel with his little son Samuel. His brother William was mine manager of the celebrated 'Caledonian' gold mine in Thames, from 1896 -1871. 

On 22 January 1870 and again on 16 February John made it known via

The Daily Southern Cross that he was a Practical Mining Manager and Assayer, with years of experience in both England and Australia, including Queensland, and was now located on the Thames Goldfields.

He was prepared to accept the management and direction of claims, inspect and report on them, and assess all kinds of mining labour. He also flattered himself that his long and varied experience would enable him to give satisfaction to those who employed him.

After an absence of some eight years he once more returned to Kapunda.

At Kapunda the foundation stone for the Kapunda Hospital was laid, with Masonic Honours, on 9 January 1877 by H.T Morris. After its official opening on 1 November 1877, John Rowe became its first patient after fracturing his leg at the door of his own home.

In 1886 he was living at 27c Coghill Street, Kapunda. Now aged nearly 70 he advertised that he had resumed the duties of his profession in Kapunda Street as assayer of gold, silver, lead, copper and any other mineral at the usual fee of 10 shillings and sixpence.

John Rowe suddenly died on 17 December 1886 at his home of a heart attack. He left a wife, three sons, John, James and Samuel, and a daughter Elizabeth, who had married John Charles Luscombe Chapple of the Great Northern Hotel at Marree. John was buried at the Kapunda General Cemetery. His wife Eliza died on 5 April 1893 at Goodwood, Adelaide but was buried with John at Kapunda.

 The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858-1889)  Wednesday 22 December 1886 Page 4-5

Obituary

Mr. John Rowe, a very old resident of Kapunda, died suddenly at his residence, Coghill-steet, on Friday morning last at the ripe age of 70 years. The Kapunda Herald gives the following particulars :- " He complained slightly on the previous Tuesday, but otherwise appeared in his usual good health. On Wednesday he became rather worse, when he was visited by Dr. Pentland, but even then it was regarded as only a passing indisposition. On Friday morning he rose at his usual hour, seeming no worse than on the previous evening. He ate a little breakfast, and a few minutes later Mrs. Rowe saw her husband prostrate on the sofa articulating indistinctly. He died almost immediately after. The cause of death was said to be heart disease.

The late Mr. John Rowe has played a prominent part in the history of Kapunda. He was born in 1816 at St. Agnes, Cornwall, and emigrated to Australia in 1846, settling in Kapunda three years later. Indirectly he was connected with the mine in the capacity of assayer. He was afterwards manager of the Mochatoona Copper Mine in the north, and travelled through the various colonies, filling the positions of mining manager in New Zealand and Queensland. After seven or eight years absence from Kapunda  he returned, and resided here till his death. On the appointment of Mr. F. S. Dutton, then M P. for Light, to the Agent-Generalship, in 1862, Mr. John Rowe was brought out by the townspeople as a candidate for the vacancy, and was elected, representing the district in the House of Assembly with Mr. J. T. Bagot as his colleague during the remainder of the cession. Mr. Rowe always actively associated himself self with public matters, and at ratepayers' and political meetings he invariably took part. Mr. Rowe took a very active part in the recent mayoral election, and it is thought that the excitement of the contest accelerated his death. He leaves a widow and three sons and one daughter, all of whom are married. The daughter is Mrs. Charles Chapple, of Hergott, and the sons Mr. John Rowe, of Goodwood, Mr. James Rowe, of Morgan, and Mr Samuel Rowe.