TOCAH Stories

A very widely known and highly-respected lady, Mrs Ellen WATKINS, passed away in Toowoomba, on March 24, in a private hospital.

Frank was born in 1869 to Archibald and Agnes Fraser, part of a large coal mining family in New Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Mary was born on 6 April 1869 just over 3 years after her parents Robert WATKINS and Ellen BURNS were married in Clifton. She had an older sister Ellen, and her parents went on to have more children.

The death occurred at Beaudesert Hospital on Monday of Mr. Charles Crum Fenton, only four hours after he had been admitted. Mr. Fenton had that morning been proceeding to his work at the railway pumping station on a rail trolley, when the rail motor, bound from Beaudesert to Brisbane, struck the machine on which Mr. Fenton was riding.

Patrick Stephen Bishop, the oldest child of John and Hanora Bishop of ‘Deep Creek’ Maidenwell Queensland, was born on 26 December 1902.  His brother George was born in 1906 and his sister Mary in 1911.

Stuart Raymond John Bishop, known throughout his life as Ray, was born on the family property around midnight on 1 August 1920. 

We (“Toowoomba Chronicle”) regret to record the death of another Queensland pioneer, Mr. Robert Watkins, having passed away on the 23rd of March, after a lingering illness, at the ripe age of 77 years.