Johanna McMahon 70 years in a Gympie Home
In our previous blog post, we featured the story of the 1917 Easter wedding in Gympie of Rose McMahon to Edmund O’Connor. This blog post features Rose’s mother and her residence, “Rossmore”.
Seventy Years in the One Home.
How many of us can say we have lived in one home for seventy years. This is the story of Irish lass Johanna McMahon who recently celebrated her 90th birthday at “Rossmore”, Jubilee Street, Monkland, the home she has lived in for seventy years.
Johanna was born in 1862 and baptized on June 20th at he Parish Church Clonulty, one of several children born to parents Cornelius and Catherine (Chidle) Hayes. Clonulty was a small village in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Johanna in front of “Rossmore”
In 1883 Johanna Hayes age 20yrs accompanied by her sister Ann 18yrs, left home and family in Ireland and arrived in Brisbane, November 1883. They were passengers on the ship ‘Duke of Buccleuh’. Johanna continued on the Maryborough by steamer then on to Gympie by rail. “Mary Street was just a line of tents and there weren’t many shops. There were no roads in that time, just tracks weaving in and out, between the tents.”
“Duke of Buccleuh”
Shortly after arriving in Gympie, Johanna met an Irishman from County Down, Arthur McMahon, who had been boarding at McSweeny brothers boarding house. They were married in 1885 by Dean Horan and went to live at “Rossmore” in Jubilee Street, Inglewood Hill where they lived all their married life. They were blessed with a family of five girls and on boy.
In June 1952 the Irish lass Mrs. Johanna McMahon of Jubilee Street, Monkland, celebrated her 90th birthday. “She has lived in the home she is now in for seventy years. Strong and active and still maintaining all her faculties, Mrs. McMahon does all her own housework and is keenly interested current events.” Her birthday was a festive occasion, with all her family there. A large birthday cake graced the beautifully decorated table which was laden with good things to eat. Birthday cards, telegrams, phone calls and gifts made it an exciting event. “Today, the same voices that echoed through the rooms of the old home for half a century will again be heard when the family reunites.”
Mrs. Johanna McMahon who passed away peacefully at her residence “Rossmore” on April 24th 1957 at the age of ninety four was one of Gympie’s oldest and highly respected pioneers. The high esteem in which she was held was shown by the large gathering which paid respects at the funeral, which took place from the Crypt of the Holy Name Cathedral to Nudgee Cemetery where she was laid to rest alongside her husband who predeceased her by twenty nine years.
The story of Johanna (Hayes) McMahon was taken from newspaper cuttings in a scrapbook kept over a number of years by Mrs. Rose O’Connor, daughter of Johanna and Arthur McMahon. Both Johanna McMahon and Rose O’Connor were gracious ladies of the Monkland area, Gympie.
This story was compiled by Val Buchanan
This story first appeared in our newsletter, ‘Gympie Gazette’ of November 2020 which you will find here.
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