10. William and Sarah Cosstick’s Children

George Cosstick

George Cosstick was born on 8 August 1865 at Amherst. He learned the trade of carpentry and coach building from prominent Amherst coachbuilder Christopher Harling Barrett . Christopher Harling (he dropped the Barrett from his name) had trained as a coachbuilder in England before coming to Victoria in 1848. In August 1854 Harling moved from Melbourne to Maryborough and worked for James and Payne, wheelwrights and blacksmiths. It was the height of the first Maryborough rushes. By December 1854 he was able to establish his own business at Amherst. In 1857 he married Mary Ann Marshall and in 1872 decided to open a branch in Alma Street, Maryborough . In June 1880 he closed the Amherst works and moved to Maryborough . George Cosstick also went to Maryborough to work for Harling, who, by the 1880s was exhibiting his coaches, and winning prizes, in fairs at many country towns . It would seem that Harling’s new showrooms were so large that they were used for the main balls of the town. In 1883 there was an attempt to amalgamate Harling’s business with that of Richard Stamp, however the merger did not take place and Stamp went into partnership with Thomas Symons from Majorca .

In 1890 three employees of Harlings coachworks, Thomas Martin, Archibald Millgate and George Cosstick, established their own coach building business near the Albion Hotel . It was called the Victoria Coach Building Works, although usually known simply as Martin, Millgate and Cosstick . In this partnership Cosstick was the carpenter, Martin the blacksmith and Millgate the painter .

In the same year, 1890, twenty-five year old George Cosstick married nineteen year old Ada Allinson. Ada, the daughter of Thomas Allinson and Emily Barker, had been born on 22 July 1871. George and Ada Cosstick lived in Victoria Street, Maryborough . He named the house Croydon Villa after his father’s place of birth .
It is reported that George and Ada married because she became pregnant. There was hardly anything uncommon about that. But Ada apparently did not really like George, and would have preferred not to marry him . Despite this they subsequently had eight children.

The first daughter, Agnes Henderson Cosstick, was born on 3 August 1891 at Maryborough . She was probably named after George’s stepsister Agnes Henderson. One story states that, at the age of sixteen, she was attacked by a dog and became so mentally distressed that her parents had no option but to admit her to the Ballarat Mental Asylum. She died there on 6 September 1958 . Another version of the story was that Agnes was raped and that this led to her psychological instability. Either way, the event had tragic consequences.

The first son, William James Cosstick, was born on 31 July 1893. It has been reported that, at the age of twenty-seven, he announced his desire to marry the family’s maid, Amy Langdon. George and Ada opposed the marriage but William and Amy were determined and she soon became pregnant. The story goes that after the marriage William was disowned by his parents and thrown out of the home. When he celebrated his 95th birthday at his Clifton Hill home on Sunday 31 July 1988 the doctor ordered him not to do anything “different”. His sister, Jean, visited him for the first time in seventy years!

William James Cosstick learned the trade of wheelwright with his father at the Victoria Coach Building Works, and later served with the 14th Infantry Battalion of the AIF at Gallipoli, where he was one of the first ashore. At one time had his packet of cigarettes shot in half under his army cap when he put his head up to look out of a trench. He spent some of his leave at Halifax in the north of England where he met his mother’s family, the Allinsons. He thought they were “wealthy snobs” who owned a large pub .

It would seem that George Cosstick, and his brother Alfred, were able to purchase a block of terraced houses in South Melbourne during the early 1900s .

George and Ada’s other children were Dorothy Ada Cosstick, born on 27 December 1895. She married William Angus Wyllie in 1921. Samuel Alfred Cosstick, born on 11 March 1900; Ivy Myrtle Cosstick born 30 June 1903. Jean Cosstick, born 7 April 1905. And twins, Emily Caroline and Lillian Maud Cosstick, born on 4 April 1907.
During the depression of the 1930s George joined other members of the Cosstick family in reopening the Croydon Reef mine . By 1935 the Croydon-Pearl Gold Mining Company was undertaking serious work in trying to extract remaining gold from the mine.

On 19 January 1935 the Talbot Leader reported that work had reached the 300 foot level and that a northward drive had extended some sixty feet. Water was causing considerable problems. The whim shaft had been cleared down to 148 feet . As work continued the Talbot Leader expressed optimism about the renewal of mining in the district but was concerned about the lack of accommodation for the expected influx of men . By 16 March the northward drive had reached 164 feet with gold continuing to be found. The Croydon-Pearl Gold Mining Company made formal application for a lease on 30 acres of land owned by W.Hendrickesen and H. Henderson. C.F.Harris signed the application on behalf of the company . By 4 May the drive had reached 250 feet with continuing gold discoveries.

When George Cosstick died, on 29 December 1943, he was buried at the Amherst Cemetery next to the graves of his father and mother, William and Sarah , but in the same grave as his step sister Agnes Henderson who had died in May 1932 .

Lillian Cosstick married in 1944 and moved into the house next door to her mother. A few years later the Cosstick family home in Victoria Street burned down .

When George’s wife Ada died on 25 May 1950 she was buried with her sister at the Maryborough Cemetery . Although she had put up with George since their marriage in 1890, she apparently could not bear to be buried with him. The marriage was literally and only “until death us do part”.

Alfred Cosstick

William Cosstick’s second son, Alfred Cosstick, was born on 26 February 1864 at Amherst . On 15 February 1887 at the age of twenty-three, he married his nineteen year old cousin, Sophia, the daughter of John Cosstick. Witnessing the marriage certificate at the Amherst Church of England were Alfred’s twenty-one year old brother, George, and Sophia’s eighteen year old sister, Frances .

Alfred and Sophia's first child, Sarah, was born in 1887 . The second, George William Cosstick, was born at Talbot on 10 June 1889 . Their other children were Annie Holmes Cosstick, born on 27 October 1891 ; Violet Cosstick, on 31 August 1893 ; two unnamed children who died shortly after birth in 1895 and 1905 ; and Kathleen Mary Cosstick who was born in 1912 but died aged only six months and was buried at Amherst on 4 February 1913 .

Alfred worked as a miner around Amherst and Opossum Gully for many years . During the late 1890s when quartz crushing was becoming less profitable his father went into partnership with W.F.Fremersdorf of the Maryborough School of Mines, and built the Opossum Gully Cyanide Works to treat the sand left over from the crushing. Fremersdorf was at first the manager of the works but Alfred Cosstick soon took over that role when William Cosstick retired . A number of other family members worked at the Cyanide Works, including Henry Henderson , and James Edward Cosstick, who was the engine driver .

In 1897 the Argus and Talbot Leader reported the commencement of cyaniding at the Cosstick’s new plant .

The treatment of battery tailings in this district by the cyanide process has been commenced, and, judging from the particulars available, is likely to be attended with profitable results. There are at present two plants at work – one at the Croydon Battery, Opossum Gully, about six miles from Talbot; and the other at Bartlemore’s Paddock between here and Amherst. At the Croydon Battery the cyanide works have been erected under the management of Mr.W.F.Fremersdork, late of the Maryborough School of Mines, and are under his supervision, Mr.W.Cosstick, proprietor of the battery, being in partnership with him. Should the sand turn out in accordance with the assays made, these gentlemen have entered upon a long and profitable investment, as it is computed that there is about five years work before them. The Croydon Battery (a 12-head mill) has been running for about 38 years, but a very large quantity of sand has been washed away by floods or been tipped into shafts in the neighbourhood. Regarding the works it may be stated that there are two vats, each of 40 tons capacity capable of treating 160 tons of sand per week, but a third vat is in the course of erection, when 240 tons can be treated. The solution vats are of a combined capacity of 55 tons. Assays of sand gave 2dwt and over, and at the present time everything is progressing satisfactorily.

The cyanide works at Bartlemore’s had a capacity of only 80 tons per week and enough sand for about four months work .

In 1902 G.D.Reid, the Chemist at the Cyanide works described the operation.

A short distance to the north [of the Battery] is the cyanide works, which have now been in operation for over five years. This plant consists of three square vats and two circular wooden vats, each having a capacity of about 43 cubic yards, giving a monthly output of 1000 tons. The square vats are filled from a bridgeway, which stretches across the three of them, while the two round vats are filled from one side. The solution storage tanks consist of three combined square brick tanks, having a total capacity of 52 tons, and two circular brick tanks, having a capacity of 30 tons each. The solutions are manipulated by a 5 inch Tangye pump, which is supplied with steam from an underfired tubular boiler (Tangye). In these works the zinc precipitation process is used, and has given every satisfaction, though it requires a more thorough chemical knowledge and constant watching than the charcoal process. The assay and chemical department is fitted up with a furnace, roasting chamber, and also a muffle furnace for general assay work. A portable assay balance (Oertling), with the necessary appliances and a good stock of reagents, are to be seen, beside the general chemical apparatus, which is necessary in estimations. There is all the apparatus for the acid treatment of slimes and zinc, and to improve bullion, so that gold of a good quality may be turned out .

Alfred and Sophia lived in a house on the Adelaide Lead Road opposite the Croydon Battery, on land owned by David Paterson .

Alfred, like a number of his cousins, may have gone to Western Australia briefly during the early 1900s although his is listed in Post Office Directories as living at Amherst between 1910 and 1919 . Around 1920 Alfred purchased an orchard at Betley for his daughter, Sarah, and son-in-law, Peter Hardefeldt, and lived there for a number of years himself .

In the mid 1920s Alf and Sophia moved down to Talbot, to the area known as the Flat, and continued to grow fruit . They lived in a small weatherboard cottage there during the early 1930s .

Alfred died on 13 August 1931 and was buried at the Amherst Cemetery on 15 August . After Alfred’s death Sophia moved in to Talbot to a house in Scandinavian Crescent opposite Wilson’s Garage, which was later demolished to make way for the bowling green .

Alf and Sophia’s son, George William Cosstick, went Western Australia for a brief period, then to Queenstown, Tasmania in about 1912 where he married Catherine Agnes Moon in at the Roman Catholic Church in the town of Linda on 13 September 1921 . Catherine was the daughter of Alexander Bernard Reid and Agnes Annie O’Connor. She had been born in Northcote in 1891 and had previously been married to Charlie Moon. Charles Moon had died in 1917. She had one son, Alex Moon, who was born at Queenstown on 23 October 1918 .

George and Catherine later returned to Victoria with young Alex and lived in Carlton, then at 12 Mary Street, Brunswick . They subsequently had three children, Kathleen Agnes, Ann Sophia, and Alfred George.

During the depression of the 1930s George and Catherine returned to Amherst and Talbot in the hope of finding something among the old gold mines . They were at Amherst in 1934 and at Sophia’s Scandinavian Crescent home after her death in 1935 . They remained there at least until 1941 , after which they moved back to Brunswick.

The older daughter, Sarah, married Peter Alexander Hardefeldt, at her parent’s home in Talbot, on 1 February 1908 . Peter Hardefeldt was born at Dunach, just south of Talbot, in 1884. He was the son of Otto Hardefeldt and Elizabeth Duncan . After some years working as a miner and cyanider around Amherst and Talbot he found work with the Burnt Creek Mining Company preparing slum and sand for cyanide treatment. Burnt Creek was just south of Dunolly. After their marriage in 1908 Peter and Sarah lived in a boarding house and bakery owned by Mr G. Jenkin next door to the mine.
During the 1920s Peter took over the orchard at Betley from his father-in-law and expanded the farm to include dairy cattle and pigs.

While at Betley Peter became involved in many sporting and community events including the Bet Bet and District School Sports Association. After Peter’s death on 3 April 1948 his wife Sarah, or Sal, as she was known, presented a memorial shield to the School Sports Association .

Violet Cosstick, usually known as Dolly, worked on a property at Fish Creek in New South Wales for a number of years during the early 1900s and then went to New Zealand where she lived for seven years . While in Auckland, New Zealand, she gave birth to a son , whom she named William. He was born on 22 May 1918 .

Violet returned from New Zealand with her son and lived with her mother at Talbot. She told people that her husband had died in New Zealand – nobody believed her . As a young boy, William attended the Prince Alfred State School at Talbot until he was thirteen, then worked with his uncles Richard Hamilton (Red Dick) and George Cosstick on the re-opened Croydon Reef . When Sophia died on Wednesday 22 May 1935 Violet and William, then aged seventeen, moved to Prahran, an inner suburb of Melbourne. Violet married Walter Herbert Parnell and had two more children, Joan and Noel. The house in Scandinavian Crescent was left to the son, George, who lived there for a number of years before moving back to Brunswick .

After Peter Hardefeldt's death Sarah, then aged sixty, decided to move to Prahran to live with her sister, Violet. After Violet's death Sarah went to live in New South Wales at Joan Parnell's home. When she died Sarah was buried in Sydney .

Samuel Cosstick

Samuel Cosstick was born on 18 January 1863 and baptized at St Michael’s Church of England, Talbot, on 6 May 1863 . Samuel later moved to Dunolly where he married Ellen Jane Hayes, daughter of William Henry Hayes and Letitia Conelly, of Dunolly . The marriage took place on 16 July 1884 at St John's Church of England, Dunolly.

William Hayes had a store at Inkerman during the early 1860s. In 1864 he moved to Dunolly where he purchased a store and went into partnership with Irishman Patrick Dunlea. He was also a popular businessman in Dunolly and held a number of community positions on the Municipal Council, with the Church of England, and on the Dunolly Hospital Board.

Hayes and Dunlea had been invited to go into partnership with several others on a claim at the Bealiba Reef at Old Dunolly, or Goldsborough. It would appear that, after several years of legal wrangling over rights to the claim, Hayes received considerable dividends from the Goldsborough Company .

Hayes’ wife, Letitia Conelly was an Irish Catholic orphan who was sent to Australia by the British government on board the Derwent, arriving at Melbourne on 25 February 1850. After working as a servant with several people she met and married William Hayes in Brighton in 1856.

After moving to Dunolly Samuel Cosstick started a business as a Draper then became a Cycle Agent . Little else is known about what he did.

Ellen died on 2 May 1902 at Dunolly . She was only thirty-eight . Samuel then moved back to Amherst where he boarded with his stepsister, Agnes Henderson. He died at Amherst on 11 October 1907 . At the time of his death he and his brother George owned property in South Melbourne, although probate documents list his personal property amounting to only a buggy horse worth £5, a buggy worth £30, a ring, also £5, and an old silver watch and chain valued at £7 .

Samuel and Ellen Cosstick had one child, William Hayes Cosstick, who died in his first year and was buried at Dunolly on 31 December 1890 . They had no other children.