Joseph Butler

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. & Pat Spence who writes:
Joseph Butler arrived in Brisbane on the immigrant ship the Maryborough as a single man aged 27 travelling steerage. The ship arrived in Brisbane on 15 April 1870 after a departure from Gravesend 9 December 1869. There were no other related Butler family members on board.

This account written in 1988 by Gladys Wressdell "Dell" Rutherford [26 Main St Chinchilla] granddaughter of Joseph Butler includes the following details of Joseph Butler's life in Queensland:

Joseph Butler emigrated to Australia around 1870 at roughly the same time as his brother's Henry, Thomas and Charles. After he landed in Brisbane Joseph set out for the gold and silver fields of southern Queensland but he met with little successand returned to work in Brisbane on the racecourse in that city. Then he went on a prospecting trip leaving Brisbane for Stanthorpe then known as Quart Pot Creekwhere he resided for 5 or 6 years and in which area in 1875 he married Emma Ester Livesey at Thirteen Mile Creek, being at the time employed as an engine driver. Grandfather was also engaged in mining at Vegetable Creek in the same area. Three of the children of the mariage were born in that locality - Harry, Joseph Owen, and Harriett Rhoda (Mrs William Rutherford). Harriett alone was eventually to arrive at Cardwell.

From the Stanthorpe area the family in or about 1878 travelled to the Borack silverfield on the Queensland border where they spent a further three years and where Grace (Mrs William Dallachy) was born. Hearing that good tin was being obtained a the Wild river near Herberton on the Atherton Tableland the family came to North Queensland where they resided for about three years and where Mabel Alice (Mrs Charles Arnall) was born in the town of Herberton. By 1884 the family was again on the move their destination this time was Magnetic Island where grandfather's brother Harry and his wife and family had been living since the time of their arrival in Australia. Josephine Olive (Mrs Sedborough Elias Rutherford), Myrtle Acacia, and Joseph Shelley were born on the Island but Joseph Shelley lived only for a little over a year. About 1889 the family had taken up residence at Port Douglas and also went to the Irvinebank and Tate river areas where they spent the intervening tears till they moved to the township of Cardwell. Charles Oswald and Joseph Wilfred were born at Port Douglas, the latter dying at the age of one year.

In the hope that a quiet country life might be more congenial and enable him to keep in close contact with his brothers my grandfather and grandmother
with the family came to Cardwell in the early months of 1900 to live on the property "Fringford" (Portion 18v Parish of Tyson), then owned by a brother to grandfather, Thomas Butler, at the upper reaches of the Murray River, where my father Victor Livesey Butler the youngest member of the family was born. By 1901 grandfather had sellected in that area a property whereon he built his home 'Yabbon' on the bank of the Murray River. The walls of the home were built of the bark from the stringybark trees on the property, only part of the girth being cut from each tree to preserve the life of the trees, while the roof of the home was thatched with blady grass. By 1902 the family had taken up residence at 'Yabbon' where grandfather had a citrus orchard, grew tobacco and maize, reared pigs and grazed cattle, the produce from the farm being sent to Townsville. A drying kiln for tobacco being built to the instructions of a Mr Neville of the Department of Agriculture wasnot finished due to the death of my grandfather. The property provided the family with extras according to dad, such as wallaby meat, wild turkeys and scrub hens, in an effort to bridge the gap between dinners and dinnertimes.

Whilst grandfather could now cope with the farming activities the lure of mining was still in his veins and occasionally, taking Josephine Olive [called Aunt Olive] with him, proceeded up the north branch of the Murray River to the foot of the range prospecting for payable minerals with the hope that even at this late stage in his life Dame Fortune might still present him with that Pot of Gold for which he had so long been seeking. These expeditions of about a month or two according to Aunt Olive were to meet with some success with the recovery of a small amount of gold.

In 1900 Aunt Olive opened a private school in the house of John Gillespie who had died in that year. This home on Portion 23v Parish of Tyson across the road from the now Murrray River Upper State School, was built against a turkey's nest which took the place of of a stairway. The downstairs portion of the house which was entered by a trapdoor was built of slabs with holes in them suitable for rifle work in cases of attacks by the native people. Aunty who had been funded to some extent by the Department of Public Instruction continued her private school till 1904 when a Provisional School was opened. This school was altered in status to a State School in 1909.

Grandfather died in 1909.

Emma Ester Livesey [my grandmother]: After the death of my grandfather grandmother occasionally boarded schoolchildren, of whom some of those would have been May and Catherine Johnstone whose parents William and Mrs Johnstone had a property at the 'Bluff' Landing on the Murray River [portion 31 Parish of Meunga] which property was located along the first road north of Cardwell. Other such school children were Violet and Daisy who were daughters of Eustace and Mrs Cahill which family was then living at Dallachy Creek. Both of these families were far removed from any chance of schooling for their children. It is recalled that the Cahill family about the year 1910 were living at 'Mallestang' the former property [Portion 7v Parish of Meunga] of Phillip J Hull [Clerk of the Cardwell Shire Council] at the earliest crossing of Dallachy Creek on the original road to the north of Cardwell. This crossing was approximately three kilometres downstream from the present main Northern Highway bridge over that creek. Mango trees and wild cherry trees still grow at the location of that early residence. Being so much out of the way the family had few visitors, the mail contractor to the Murray river and Kirrama Cattle station however called each week on his rounds. On one of the postman's visits he was to find Mrs Cahill in bed very ill. She had been bitten by a brown snake and according to usual practice had applied a ligature to her leg and had cut open the place of the snake bite in an endeavour to suck out the poisoned blood. At the same time her husband and eldest son were away working, leaving only herself three children and a baby at home. Mrs Cahill expected to die but what could she do about the children ahe would leave behind out in the wilderness? The home was eighteen to twenty kilometres away from Cardwell and possibly the same distance from my grandmother's home at the Murray River. Mrs Cahill instructed her eldest daughter of eight years to look after the baby outside of the home, being fearful that she would die before help might arrive, and instructed her son about ten years and the younger girl to walk to the Upper Murray River [now Murray Upper] along what was only a dray track to inform my grandmother, or anyone else, of their mother's predicament. However the two children for some reason turned back within a kilometre and a half of their intended destination, according to an examination of their tracks on the raod by members of the Thomas Butler family. The postman [Jack Murray] of Glencoe reported the illness of Mrs Cahill to grandmother who immediately saddled up her horse to spend about a week attending to Mrs Cahill who was a very sick woman but who eventually recovered.

For family sport a tennis court had been constructed in the early 1900's within reserve 162 on the right bank of Gillespie Creek on the Murray River side of Middle Murray Road, and many a visitor to the properties thereabouts enjoyed an afternoon of tennis on this court. On the same reserve on the opposite side of Middle Murray Road and area almost free of forest growth, a racecourse had been constructed providing further entertainment for locals and visitors alike. This area is now studded with tree growth. A few years later when a school building had been erected on landf excised from "Fringford" dances were held in the school room. Races and other entertainment in Cardwell generally known through the medium of the mailman, saw many young people of the area on horseback heading for that town. These would include Alwynne and Eric Collins [sons of Edgar Dowse and Mary Eileen Collins] from Kirrama station across the range from the Murray River and some times their sister Marsey who spent many years as Hospital Matron on the Aboriginal /reserve on Palm Island, Ormand [Ormy], Shirley, Ashley, and Florence [Durdie] Butler children of Thomas and May Butler, Sid and Fiddes Skardon [sons of Andrew and Heather Skardon] Ida Skardon [daughter of John and Mary Skardon] Arthur Henry [eldest son of John and Florence Henry] and my father Alwynne and Eric Collins who received their schooling at the Southport Grammer School where they learned the new dances of the era and introduced to Cardwell the maxina, veleta and the varsoviana. These special visits to Cardwell always coincided with the Race Meetings and Race Balls, New Year Celebrations etc. their routine generally consisting firstly of stabling their horses, at the rear of the Marine Hotel, in almost the same position where people are now 'stabled' dancing on the first noght, races or sport on the next day with dancing to midnight, after which they would leave Cardwell to return home. Milk drinks were a favourite drink to these relatively young visitors to Cardwell but such milk came not over the counter of a cafe but from tins of condensed milk which were always in constant demand from the local storekeeper.

Grandmother always presented a stately image in her buggy drawn by two horses sometimes with a loal accompanying its mother, when she paid an occasional visit to Cardwell where she always called on her friend, Ethel Hubinger, wife of John Hubinger Snr who was then conducting a butchery in Cardwell.

Grandmother died in 1933.

Children of Joseph and Emma Ester Butler:
After the death of my grandfather Uncle Charles Oswald [called Uncle Oswald] became an agent for the singer Sewing Machine Company and later followed the trade of carpentering. In 1912 he built a second home on the Yabbon property for Aunt Olive who was then living at Port Douglas with Uncle Sed who was very ill. Uncle Sed ahd to go to Brisbane for treatment but Aunyt Olive came to live in the second home for about two to three years. In 1914 when grandmother was attending Uncle Oswald's marriage to Ivy Gray the thatched roof home was destroyed by fire so grandmother took up residence in the second house. The children of the marriage fo Uncle Oswald and Aunt Ivy were Ivy, Joan (Mrs Leonard Goodin of Nambour], Phyllis [Mrs Harry Hiscock] of Monto, Oswald, and Keith. Ivy and the later two children died early in life. About 1931 Uncle Oswald with his wife and family returned to Murray Upper from Ayr to live at 'Kaurivale' [Portion 19v and 29v 2 Parish of Tyson] the original home of Aunt Grace and her husband Uncle Bill Dallachy, Uncle bill had died in 1918 and Aunty at this time was living with her son George Dallachy on a property [Portion 2 Parish of Rockingham] at Hewitt's Railway Siding where Uncle Bill had run a butchery originally on his own initiative and later with John Skardon [son of Andrew Skardon]. Oswald cleared an extra part of the land at "Kaurivale' and grew bananas and for some years carried on the mail contract for the area. with the advent of World War 11 he and his family moved to Magnetic Island, off the coast from Townsville.

My father Victor Livesey Butler who did not leave school till 1914 continued to work on the farm and in that year erected a shed of bean tree timber split with wedges, which timber he had obtained on the property. In 1915 he went to Townsville where he was employed by Rooney's Ltd Sawmill and by 1916 he was agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. By 1917 he had enlisted in the 1st AIF although under age at the time and on his discharge from the army worked for a time with the Ross River Meatworks in Townsville where in 1919 he married Gladys Mabel Jensen. Moving to Home Hill in the following year he entered the electrical trade residing in that town till 1926 when he returned with his kwife and family to resume farming at 'Yabbon' to face in 1926 the biggest flood known at the Murray River, the year in which a cyclone struck Cairns. The produce from the farm - pigs, corn, potatoes etc. was sent through Cardwell to Townsville outletsfor sale. To supplement his farming income during the years 1930 to 1935 Dad carried on a twice-weekly Mail Contract for the Murray River area with his T model Ford. In 1948 he built a new residence which still stands and by 1951 was dairy farming at Noosa Vale outside Gympie and later, in 1959, moved to Chinchilla for a period of two years. In 1952 he sold the 'Yabbon' property to his cousin, Ormy Butler. After his sojourn at Chinchilla my father went north to work on the Atherton Tableland at Innot Hot Springs and Herberton where he engaged in tin scratching, later to return to the Murray River at 'Fringford' and whilst living there built a seaside cottage at the small township of Tully Heads for his cousin Ormy . On Ormy's death the house at Tully Heads reverted to Dad, on which property he now resides [1988]. [Allotment 4 Section 9 Parish of Rockingham].

That was the account of Joseph Butler's life written by his granddaughter 'Dell' Rutherford of Chinchilla in 1988.

Joseph died in Townsville in 1909 of TB. His grave at Belgian Gardens cemetery also contains the remains of Oswald Charles Butler aged 12 years who was his grandson.

• connection. The connection between Neil & Catherine Saltzer & myself is as follows:

Catherine ? married Neil Saltzer
His father is Garry Saltzer
His father is Norman Saltzer
His father was William Harry Saltzer & he also had William Henry Saltzer (1913) who married Ivy Butler (1919)
Her father was Charles Butler (1889)
His father was Joseph Butler (1848)
His father was Richard Butler (1806)
His father was Mathias Butler (1769)
His father was Mathias Butler (1744) & he also had John Butler (1774)
He had Reuben Butler (18020
He had Joseph Butler (1844) who married Elizabeth Roser (1844)
Her father was John Roser (1838)& he also had John Roser (1838)
He had George Roser (1868)
He had Charles Roser (1897)
He had George Roser (1923) who married Olive Elliot (1924)
Her father was Frank Elliot (1891) & her mother was Doris Emery (1903)
Her father was John Emery (1867) &her mother was Phoebe Davies (1876)
Her father was Joseph Davies (1852) & he also had G. A. Davies (1894)
He had Colin Davies (1925)
He had me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Joseph married Emma Esther Livesey, daughter of John Livesey and Martha Bunting, on 2 May 1875 in Queensland Australia. (Emma Esther Livesey was born in 1857 in Lenton, Nottinghamshire England and died on 27 Mar 1933 in Tully, North Queensland Australia.)