Ewen Cameron (1843 - 1913)

Born 30 Aug 1843 in Invergarry, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (McGruer) Cameron — married 2 Aug 1865 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 26 Jul 1913 at age 69 in Saint Arnaud, Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mark Dorney [send private message]

Biography

The master version of this biography is maintained at http://dorneyfamilyhistory.net/famtree_web/History_tricia_Pt2.pdf

Some of the information in this section was provided by Joan Hunt, Churchill Fellow and researcher with the Linton Historical Society.

At the time of writing, only four years of the St Arnaud Mercury were available on trove.nla.gov.au. It’s possible more information may come to light from this paper and others.

Ewen was born on 30 August 1843 near Invergarry, Inverness shire, Scotland. His parents were Ewen Cameron, a mason, and Ann McDonnell and he was the fifth of eight siblings. Ewen’s family probably spoke Gaelic. Ewen was baptised on 1 September 1843 at Fort Augustus. His sponsors were Donald McDonald and Peggy McIntosh.

The next record we have of him is in the 1851 Census. He was living in Newtown (not a town at all as the map shows) with his family. Ewen had probably been born only about five miles away, near Invergarry, at a place called Tacheamiscal, and moved to Newtown as a toddler.

Newtown is located three and a half miles south of the large village of Fort Augustus. The three substantial buildings below the word Newtown still exist. They housed about 50 persons in a dozen households in 1851. The Ordnance Survey name book of 1876 described Newtown as “A number of cotters houses in good repair with vegetable gardens arable land attached, the property of Mr Ellice M.P. and Mr. Fraser of Abertarff.” There are a number of place names on the map in Scots Gaelic; coille means wood, creagan means rocky place, toll is hole or hollow.

Toll na Meine translates as Hole of the Mine. In 1876 it was described as “A hole in an Ironstone rock where some mining operations were carried on; but the quantity of iron not being sufficient it was topped – hence the name.”

It’s tempting to imagine a young Ewen exploring the mine with some friends. Lochan nan Deala translates as Lake of the Leeches. The pastureland visible on the western half of the map is now devoted to forestry.

Fort Augustus had about 700 residents at the time. The fort from which the town takes its name was built in 1729 as a response to a Jacobite uprising in 1715, but only held a handful of soldiers and no large guns when Ewen was growing up there.

Two fairs were held in Fort Augustus every year, one in June and one in September, which I imagine would have been a highlight of the year for young Ewen.

The Catholic chapel they would have attended was on the southern side of Fort Augustus, but would still have been a six mile return walk every Sunday to attend Church. The chapel was quite new, having been constructed in 1842.

In 1852 Ewen came out to Australia with his family on the Chance. Two of his younger sisters died on the trip. More details about the journey are in Ewen’s father’s chapter. The immigration record records him as unable to read and write, but this was rectified when he started attending school in Australia.

Ewen likely worked as a miner, or in associated employment on the Springdallah goldfields, and we know his family were living there by at least 1861.

Ewen married Mary McGruer, another Happy Valley local, on 2 August 1865 in Ballarat^[1]. Their families had known each other for some time. The two families had both lived within a few miles of each other in Scotland, had come out on the same boat to Australia and their fathers were engaged by the same employer on arrival in Melbourne. If their parents hadn’t known each other prior to arriving in Australia, they would have soon realised they both knew people in common from back home.

Ewen and Mary not only had an astonishing fifteen children together, but all of them survived into adulthood. They had seven children while living in the Happy Valley area. They were Anne (1866), Mary (1868), John Alexander (1870), Jessica (1871), Catherine (1872), Louisa (1874) and James (1875). After moving to the Charlton area, they had another five children Ewen (1877), Allan (1878), Alexander Duncan (1879), Archibald (1882) and Lewis (1884). Isabella (1886) was born in nearby Wooroonook, Angus Valentine (1889) in Charlton again and finally William (1891) in Wycheproof. Ewen applied for 20 acres of land in July 1866 in the parish of Mannidabar, which bordered Happy Valley. They moved to the Charlton and Wycheproof areas after the Victorian Government had the Wimmera surveyed and thrown open for selection.

In the Government Gazette in December 1877, Ewen Cameron of Wycheproof was one of hundreds of lessees and licensees listed as being in arrears for rent and fees. His brothers Duncan, John and Lewis, all also of Wycheproof, were also named.

He wasn’t the only member of his extended family to move to the area. His father bequeathed 249 acres in the land to Ewen’s two older brothers, Lewis and Duncan, when he passed away in 1876. Ewen’s mother and parents-in-law also moved to the area.

Ewen was at the locality of Darkbonee when he died. It’s not exactly clear where this was, but there is the dry Darkbonee Channel that runs from about 12 km west of St Arnaud to about 12km north-west of St Arnaud. There is also the Darkbonee Bushland Reserve situated 7km from St Arnaud.

Ewen died on 26 July 1913 of heart disease, an ailment under which he’d been suffering for five years. He was 69 years old. Ewen is buried in the St Arnaud cemetery.

The single article about Ewen Cameron is available here http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-publictag=Ewen+Cameron+%28ca1843-1913%29&q=

Sources

1. ↑ Marriage registered at Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria, https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/indexsearch.doj, reg no 2994/1865

• Baptism: Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms at findmypast. From the Scottish Catholic Archives. Parish Ss Peter and Benedict, place Fort Augustus.
• Death certificate (attached)