Thomas Keighran

  General Notes:

EXTRACTS FROM "FROM EARLY BEGINNINGS" - HENTY, NSW, CENTENARY 1986:

Original Properties In The Henty Area


Doodle Cooma - This property included the township of Henty, north of the
"Round Hill" Station. Mr Thomas Keighran held the lease when it was first
noted in February 1850. The exact date of the formation of his run is
uncertain, but it is known that he had lived there for some years. Thomas
Keighran and John Keighran appear to have been associated with this property
from the very early days. The rent was increased from ú10 to ú23 in 1865 and
the following year the area is given as 16,000 acres, estimated to carry 640
head of cattle with the rent being increased to ú62/10/-. Mr John Cox of
Mangoplah showed an interestin the property soon after, but the lease was
still held by Thomas Keighran in 1871.

"The first person to take up the area of land Henty stands on was Burke: he owned Buckaringa or "Bucki" as it is known today. Thomas and John Keighran sought grass after the 1840's drought, which affected the whole of NSW. They brought their stock, mainly cattle, down from Brungle, 16 miles east of Gundagai near Tumut, to the Doodle Cooma Swamp. They built a shepherd's hut on "Mumble Hill." Burke objected to them being there, but they won the day with Land Commissioner Bingham, because they were living there. This was in 1847...

"The Keighrans who took up land here were the second generation of the descendants of Patrick Keighran (1769-1819) and Katherine Kitt (nee Conway) - (1788-1816),who arrived in Sydney in 1800. They were married in St Phillip's Church in Sydney in 1810. Patrick appears to have been a political convict. They were well known in the Catholic Society in N.S.W. - 1788-1860 (Sydney University Press, 1974, James Waldersee).

"They had land in and around Camden and near Appin and were good friends of Hamilton Hume, the explorer. The Thomas Keighran who first took up land at Brungle and "Doodle Cooma" was the son of John Keighran of Campbelltown, described by Mary Kennedy in her "Recollections of an Australian Squatters Wife" - (Mitchell Library) as "everyone knew John Keighran."

"John married Catherine Byrne and they had "six sporting sons." He bought "Glenalvon" a beautiful Georgian mansion in Lithgow Street, where he died in 1858. He also owned many other properties.

"His son Patrick owned a racehorse (The Mormon) that came ...second in the first two "Melbourne Cups." This explains our Tom Keighran's love of a good horse. Some of our older citizens can remember him riding about on his black stallion. He was known as "The Baron."...

"The Brungle property was situated in a beautiful valley with hills rising to three hundred metres. It was ideally situated and Keighrans had mainly cattle, beef and dairy. For cash they sold their by-products of cheese, cream, butter, lard and tallow in Campbelltown and Sydney...

"It was in the eastern part of Brungle, that the Tumut and Murrumbidgee Rivers join to make much stronger the Murrumbidgee. It was here also that Thomas Keighran Jr was born in 1852, and spent nearly 70 years working "Doodle Coma."

"Keighrans actually had the properties of "Brungle" - 14,000 acres, "Doodle Cooma" - 16,000 acres and "Mount Misery" - 16,000 acres, run mainly by Michael Hugh Keighran. I have been unable to find "Mount Misery" - it could be at Lake Boga, south of Swan Hill....

"Doodle Cooma" was owned by Thomas and Frank Keighran. Their father was Thomas, who according to the Government Gazette had left "Brungle" by 1866. He died in 1872....

"When the Keighrans took up their search for grass in the 1840's they were classed as "Squatters" - people who did not own the land but paid a yearly rental of £20 to the Governor for Capital Improvements to roads, bridges and amenities...

(In February 1923 the "Doodle Cooma Estate" was sold at auction. Nine blocks totaling 2,894 acres were sold, these comprised only a small part of the original lease, presumably the remainder had been sold off earlier. The seller was Thomas Keighran, and the sale was necessitated by his father dying without leaving a will.)

CATTLE INDUSTRY OF THE HENTY DISTRICT

"...In the early 1900's "Darbalara" Beef Shorthorns of Gundagai became famous in the area. "Doodle Cooma East" (Thomas Keighran) having an off-shoot branch of them, so locals had a close supply of "Darbalara" blood line bulls..."

SHEEP AND WOOL IN THE HENTY DISTRICT

"...About 1890, Tom Keighran built a shearing shed of corrugated iron. It was ground level and the only protection for the sheep would have been inside the shed. The position of this shed is where the Henty Golf shed is today. There were eight shearing stands, eating quarters, and sleeping areas..."

DAN "MAD DOG" MORGAN

"There is no doubt that Tom Keighran was known to Dan Morgan. The both came from Campbelltown - Appin district, south west of Sydney. All the other stations around "Doodle Cooma" had felt the taste of Dan Morgan's anger. He had visited the Posts in the east (Cookardinia), "Round Hill" in the south (Culcairn), in the west "Wallandool" (Pleasant Hills) and in the north, "Mittagong" (Yerong Creek). Each had suffered according to the "justice" Morgan dealt out to his enemies and informers.

"In the "Ovens and Murray Advertiser" on September 10, 1864 we read:

"At the beginning of September 1864, Sergeant Smythe and a party of police having information that Morgan was in the neighbourhood, camped at "Doodle Cooma Station", belonging to Mr Keighran and about a mile and a half from the Sydney road. They unfortunately lit a fire. At about 10 o'clock, when they were sitting around it, two shots from different quarters were fired into them. Without having a chance to return the attack, no less than 10 to 12 shots (by the police accounts) were fired at them before the affair was over.

One bullet, unfortunately, struck Sergeant Smythe, entering his right chest and coming out through his shoulder blade.

According to Morgan's boasting, he had followed Sergeant Smythe for five days. Sergeant Smythe was conveyed to Albury in a cart, hospitalised and died on October 1."

"...Morgan's trade was a horse breaker, but even though he was masterful with horses, he was often cruel. His greatest stock in trade was training a fast horse to escape when necessary...

"The Keighran's were good horsemen. From a clipping which has no name or date, I was fortunate to procue this news item of a Pat Keighran, a cousin to Tom Keighran:

"Bushranger Morgan Terrified Owners - Few racehorses now travel any long distance by road. They are transported by motor float and sometimes by air, but back in the early '60s - when even railways were lacking - owners had to make long road pilgrimages and often were in peril of bushrangers."

"P.J.Keighran, member of the Melbourne fim of Jhn George Dougharty and Co, cattle salesman, owned a horse called "Mormon". In his day, Mormon cut almost as big a figure as "Carbine" 30 years later. Carrying 10.1 (stone) he ran second to "Archer" (9.7) in the 1861 Melbourne Cup, and was again runner up to Archer in 1862. He won the coveted Champion Stakes in 1861 and 1864, and was second in 1863 when Archer filled third place. But Pat Keighran's confidence in Mormon's ability the 1864 Champion Stakes (was) equalled by his fear of bushrangers between Albury and Wagga.

"So Keighran joined forces with a friend who was also taking a horse to Wagga. Said Keighran: "The haunts of Dan Morgan, the bushranger, are betwee Wagga and Albury. The bigger our party the better it will be for us."

"Armed with a double barrelled gun, Keighran headed the expedition in a cart. David Jones, trainer of Mormon, lead that horse, keeping about 20 to 30 yards behind the cart, with the third member of the party a similar distance away. Jones carried a small revolver. They agreed to fight if necessary.

"Nothing happened on this journey and the horses were stabled about a mile out of Wagga, where Mr Bill Simpson, a noted jockey of the period, was to ride Mormon in the Champion Stakes.

"Simpson travelled by coach from Melbourne to Albury and thence to Wagga on horseback, but because of his late arrival, Keighran imagined him to be lost. Simpson rode up to the stable door about 2 am on the day of the race and called out to Jones who was sleeping in Mormon's box. From his hut about 20 yards away, Keighran heard his shouts. Seizing his revolver, he yelled, "If you are Morgan and attempt to get off that horse I will put a bullet through you", the frantic reply was: "Don't shoot! It's Billy Simpson."

"After this, Tom Keighran received a letter from Morgan: "Mormon" is quite safe, I know you Keighran." As they had grown up in the same area as boys, they had played together at the same school.

"After murdering seven men, Morgan was eventually caught of "Peechelba" Station at Wangaratta on April 9 1865.

"After he selected a horse to ride away with that Suday morning, he was shot by a man in a posse collected from Wangaratta. He bled to death in a corner of a barn."

(From Early Beginnings - Henty Centenary 1886-1986)

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Lorna Sharf

• Property. According to notes from Lorna Sharf he was a sponsor in Mudgingbilly Creek Tumut & in 1848 took up Dudal Corner which had 60 000 acres and is west and south west of Henty and north of Round Hill and included the site of Henty township. A considerable area still remains with his descendants despite it being much reduced by development

According to Stephen Lidd [stephenlidd@hotmail.com] Thomas lived in Brungle but he left there and went to Henty where he was about the first settler in that area in 1850.

In the 1860's the Keighran family were in Jindera with the opening of land under the Robertson Act which stated:
1. The area to be not less than 40 acres nor more than 320 acres
2. The price to be one pound an acre of which the selector must pay 5 shillings deposit and the balance in instalments
3. The selector to reside on the selection

• Occupation. stockman for Hugh Byrne, Camden & a squatter accordiing to Alan Stevens @ genes

• alt birth, 9 Mar 1808, Sydney, NSW Australia.

• alt death, 16 Jan 1872, Doodle, Cooma, NSW Australia. ⁴²¹

Thomas married Helen (Ellen) Martin in 1842 in Yass, NSW Australia. (Helen (Ellen) Martin was born in 1818 in Ireland, died on 16 Oct 1860 in Henty, NSW Australia and was buried in Oct 1860 in Albury Cemetery, Albury, NSW Australia.)