Helmcken's in Australia

Obituary: "GRANNY CANE" ­ ANN MARGARET CANE

NEPEAN TIMES Sat. 13 May 1916. Page 2.

DEATH OF A NONAGENARIAN

When the poet Wordsworth wrote in regard to his imagery of the ideal patriarch the haunting lines--

"An old age serene and bright And lovely as a Lapland night Shall lead thee to thy grave"

he had, no doubt, before his poetic vision such a deservedly revered aged personality as that of the late MRS. E. CANE, of HIGH ST., PENRITH, who just before midnight on Thursday evening of last week, passed away at the truly patriarchal age of 94 years, a wonderful lengthy span of life: which comprised so to speak a human Iliad of the greatest rectitude, kindliness, and industry; and a life experience indeed with quite exceptional force and directness, might serve to controvent, in this instance, the generally accepted Shakespearian aphorism that "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interned with their bones."

The announcement of MRS. CANE'S death came somewhat unexpected, for the remarkable vitality of the alert and cheerful old lady was so evident, and she had so happily and healthily passed so far down the nonagenarian aisle of years that many citizens, including members of her home-circle, felt that she might, if nothing untoward in the way of illness or shock happened, attain the "century", but the Grim Reaper intervened, and "GRANNY CANE" (as the patriarchal lady was familiarly and affectionately called by relatives and friends) has passed away in the very zenith of age, into that world of undreamt felicity, where her virtues and her legacy of good words compiled in the "Vale of Tears" will be divinely appreciated; for such is the assurance of all forms of deistic religion; and such even humanly considered should be the blissful reward of one whose memory so greatly deserves the Psalmist's adjuration ­ "De mortius nil nisi bonum", "Speak nothing but good of the dead."

It will be remembered that Mrs. Cane's exhaustive find of reminiscences of the early days was from time to time "drawn upon" and published in our columns, and that, in connection with the Western Road Centenary demonstration, her photo and an interesting resume of her life history appeared in the leading Sydney Journals. In an issue of the NEPEAN TIMES, in JUNE 1914, there appeared the descriptive sketch of an interview of our representative with MRS. CANE at her home (the residence of her daughter and son-in-law, MR and MRS JAMES BAKER and family with whom MRS CANE resided) and we are thus enabled to quote from that report details of MRS CANE'S earlier annals and her later Australian experiences.

The deceased lady was a native of the world's famous ancient metropolis, LONDON, her natal locality being MAIDEN LANE, CHEAPSIDE, the date of her birth being 29th MARCH 1822. MR CLAUS HELMCKEN, MRS CANE'S father, was employed in a big Sugar Refinery Coy in LONDON; and MRS CANE had a vivid recollection, naturally of her childhood and girlhood's days in LONDON while GEORGE IV was yet KING of ENGLAND, the famous DUKE of WELLINGTON, PRIME MINISTER and the (then) new LONDON BRIDGE just opened, and the First Reform Bill made law; the old lady who had a good memory for dates, oft recounting that the latter noted event came into political being on MARCH 1st. 1831, when MRS CANE was just entering her ninth year. How far back seems now the perturbed period of those epoch-marking events of eight or nine decades ago, even indeed the momentous period of the fifties, at the beginning of which the "IRON DUKE" (WELLINGTON) died, and amongst those who reverently saluted his bier was MRS CANE'S husband.

The national Education system was then in a semi-formative stage it appears in Britain; The "Ledge" school master was in fact much of a general "institution" in the country districts, and in the City (LONDON) itself, private schools were more numerous, relatively, than at the present time. MRS CANE received her early education at such a school near her home, which was also attended in childhood by her brother, who as the Hon. JOHN HELMCKEN, was destined in later years to become one of the leading men of BRITISH COLUMBIA, and who occupied, amongst other public offices, that of Speaker of the House of Representatives of the province of VANCOUVER, BC in the sixties. Hon. JOHN HELMCKEN who, by the way entered the medical profession in his youth in ENGLAND, and is entitled to place the magical letters M.D. after his name, is still hole and hearty in his 92nd year, and is living a mellowed old age in the city of VANCOUVER. By the way, MR HELMCKEN'S wife (said deceased) was a daughter of the GOVERNOR of BRITISH COLUMBIA at the period.

Reverting to MRS CANE'S schooldays in London the old lady recalled with an affectionate pride in the circumstances that an extraneous part of the "curriculum" was Knitting and Sewing, and she was want to remark that she knitted a good many pairs of socks for the British Soldiers in the foreign wars, then disturbing Europe. One day she remembered desiring to take a respite from sewing work, having hard study to plot out, and left the material at home. Her mother, however, objecting to such a procedure promptly sent the socks that were to be darned to the school, with the strict injunction that it had to be done under the teachers supervision. The old lady had a mellowed pleasure in recalling such memories. Some specimens of MRS CANE'S remarkable aptitude with the sewing needle in her girlhood are amongst her daughter's (MRS BAKER'S) most prized heirlooms, and one depicting a cottage home in a country district, the trees, flowers and whole contour of the landscape being excellently marked out, worked by MRS CANE in her 10th year, is verily a work of art of its kind.

Some years after her marriage in ENGLAND to the late MR EDWARD CANE (who predeceased her some 18 years ago) our subject, with of course her husband and three children, all of whom are yet living, resolved to come out to Australia, then famed far and wide as the EL DORADO of the world, and to that end, booked their passages per the sailing ship "BLANCHE MOORE", which left SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS on June 19th 1857(*) on what transpired to be an eventful voyage of 16 weeks to the ANTIPODES. The family paid passage money at the rate of 16 pound per head, having besides to find nearly all of their victuals on the voyage. MRS CANE described the voyage as anything but an unmixed pleasure, the vessel being buffeted by many a storm and being blown leagues out of its course at times, and to make matters worse the captain proved to be one of that blustering, boozing pattern of rough-hewn seadogs that oft "boxed the compass" and defied oceanic disaster in its worst form in lurid language in that transition period of the mercantile marine, which predated the coming of the great liners and the universality of steam power on the rolling main.

During the voyage MR CANE had the misfortune to have his right leg fractured while helping some of the crew at a time or urgent stress on the ship, and this accident impeded him physically for some years.

The "BLANCHE MOORE" unshipped her passengers at Melbourne, and thence the CANE family and others came on to Sydney in the coasting vessel "WONGA WONGA", reaching Port Jackson only about a week before the now historic wreck of the "DUNBAR" off South Head on October 4th 1857.

In reference the tragic wreck, MR CANE and his sisters MESDAMES J BAKER, and HAYNES in strolling along the beach near the scene of the disaster soon after the occurrence, picked up several sad mementoes of the lamentable affair, whose sole survivor (the late CAPTAIN JOHNSON) died only last year. One of those relics of the "DUNBAR" wreck is a faded felt hat, which MRS CANE retained as a sacred reminder of the tragic incident.

After a brief sojourn in Sydney the CANE family learned that PENRITH was a flourishing township at the time, decided to take a prospective view of the country, as it were, and so one fine spring tide morning they took their passages by ELLIOT'S COACH, then the chief means of passenger transit from Sydney to the West, and in good time found themselves in the then unorganized and formative outpost at the foot of the BLUE MOUNTAINS. PENRITH, "all told" at the time comprises no more than 30 houses, the chief "ports of call" being the five hotels which were doing a lively trade, it being the zenith, so to speak of the western gold discoveries, the Turon, Isabella and other fields being the rendezvous of a myriad legion of gold seekers from all parts of the world. Hence the PENRITH hotels were "hives" of business, day and night, and in that rude but flourishing and Picturesque period, with the crowded coaches and the lumbering wagons and bullock teams traveling loading and grain etc. to and fro from the fields to the cities, with the incessant passing and camping of all sorts and conditions of way farers to the diggings (not forgetting an army of the "Yellow Agony") the "poor publican," like Tubal Cain in the days when the world was young, was a power in the land and a kind of bucolic foster father to the public in regard to supplying provender, accommodation and refreshments for man and beast. Closing time then practically was at any old hour and the devil take the hindmost. The hotels of PENRITH at the time of the CANE family's arrival were MR ANDERSON'S STAR HOTEL, situated on the present site of MRS PRIDDLE'S shop, HIGH ST; PERNY'S COMMERCIAL HOTEL, now (improved) in the occupancy of MR LEAVY, at the top of the hill. HIGH ST., while immediately opposite almost was the ROYAL HOTEL, kept by MR KENDALL; MRS WHEATLEY was the owner of another hotel not many chains away from the ROYAL, while at the West End were MR KELLY'S "Wheelwrights' Arms" (on the present site of MR BISHOP'S coach building establishment) and MR WILSON'S historic hostelry, now MR BENNETT'S residence. The old lady was in fact a veritable encyclopedia of the PENRITH doings and associations of old times, as her published reminiscences will prove. She oft recalled with graphic appreciation the many instances of personal self-sacrifice in the carrying out of their onerous sacred duties by the devoted Christian Ministers of old PENRITH of the fifties and sixties and onward, and related with pleasure that a lively feeling of mutual personal regard existed, then as now amongst the estimable guides of the spiritual order, amongst whom Rev. ELIJAH SMITH was the Anglican minister Rev. Father BRENNAN, the R.C. priest, Rev. MR VERCOE the Wesleyan minister and the Rev. MR OGILVIE was local head of the Presbyterian Church. Those esteemed clerics, and others of their generation for great part of their time, undoubtedly lived the "simple life" on the real pioneering pattern, oft having to camp out on a quickly gathered couch of gum leaves in the shade of the spreading forest trees, being overtaken betimes, one or other of them, by the night on their journey to outlaying parts of their vast pastorates. True missionaries of the gospel were those venerated clerics of the formative days for --- "Ere to raise the lowly was their pride, and e'en their foibles leaned to virtues' side".

Soon after coming to PENRITH in 1857, MR and MRS CANE entered into the general storekeeping business having bought out a MR BRADLEY who had been running a store at the West End (PENRITH) for some time. A rather strange coincidence relates to the business relationship of MR CANE and MR BRADLEY. The later had left ENGLAND some 18 months before the CANES, and MR CANE on the eve of his voyage to Australia, chanced to meet a friend of BRADLEY'S who asked him, MR CANE, to take out a letter this individual had written to MR BRADLEY and deliver it to BRADLEY if he chanced to meet him. Soon after coming to PENRITH, MR CANE had occasion to take a trip per coach to Sydney, and on getting into conversation with a fellow passenger discovered that this individual was the "missing" BRADLEY. A few weeks later MR CANE bought MR BRADLEY out and for several years maintained a prosperous business in the old store, which has long ago passed into the limbo of the memories of the past. By the way, the first coil of rope sold out of the store by MR CANE was purchased by another famous NEPEAN pioneer, viz. MR M LONG, of CASTLEREIGH, reference to whose interesting annals, in part also appeared in our columns.

MRS CANE and her family had good reason to feelingly remember the great flood of 1867 for it literally swept them, for the time being out of house and home. The street waterways of VENICE were only insignificant trickles compared to the flood-bound, almost oceanic appearance of PENRITH town and countryside during that unprecedented inundation. Boat loads of drenched and half drowned residents from the low-lying West End were conveyed (the CANE family amongst them) to the courthouse, which was just above the reach of the by-wash of the flood, and for once in a way the stately abode of law and order was transformed into an emergency accommodation house, presided over by Sergeant McCOOK, the genial chief of police officer of the time "And the law was, it seemed, till the Law of the flood should have been amended".

The aftermath of the flood ­ the cleaning up operations ­ was, as MRS CANE was wont to say "a work of ages". Bridges (including a costly new bridge just then lately erected over the NEPEAN), wharves, riverside dwellings, timber sacks, fences and hay stacks, vegetables and fruit, sheep and even horses and cattle were swept away in that "cobborn baal gammon" flood (as the aboriginals called it) that aggregated a valve of tens of thousands of pounds. Several human lives were lost; but happily the worst of floods, or even wars (except, as some theologians remind us, the spiritual war between the world, the flesh and the devil) do not last forever.

MRS CANE'S memories concerning the days of crossing the Nepean by the punts, the bushrangers (GILBERT it was averred, was arrested at the outset of his career one morning while trying to escape from the police through the garden at the rear of MRS CANE'S residence), the passing of the aborigines, with their weird barbaric corroborees, their tribal fights and depredation's on the settlers' stock and isolated homes, the tumultuous golden epoch, the days of the bullock team in excelsis, and the coming of the railways, which relegated "Bill the Bullocky" to second place as the chief pilot of heavy traffic throughout the country, and "per contra" succeeded in displacing amongst other things, the tweed manufacturing industry on the banks of the Nepean ­ all those phrases were familiar recollections of the deceased patriarchal lady, and indeed she seemed, as one faithful to the old order, to prefer the fashions and impulses of that epoch of the historic past to the new fangled rush and hustle of the "industrial evolution" of today.

MRS CANE had been a consistent and practical Christian lady all her life, and on the growing infirmity of age preventing her continuing to attend the Sunday services at ST STEPHEN'S , at which she had been a constant worshipper up to her 90th year, she read passages during church time from her prayer-book at home, and was certainly present at the service in spirit. It had been her great desire that Rev. GEORGE BROWN, who officiated at her husband's obsequies, would be enabled to read the burial service in her case, he having been associated for a long period with the pastorate of ST STEPHEN'S CHURCH some years ago the Rev. gentleman, however owing to pressing ministerial calls, regretfully found it impossible to attend in time. MRS CANE was in possession of her faculties up to the moment of death. A few minutes prior to her decease, she cautioned her daughter (MRS BAKER) concerning "leaving the candle a bit to close to the bed", thinking that the light was too near for safety, thus showing her keen observation of matters to the last moment. Her wish, somewhat frequently expressed of late, to the effect that she "hoped the Lord would soon see fit to take me" and which she expressed just prior to her death, as she had grown weary of the drama of life, would seem to have been spiritually granted in accordance with the old lady's pious prayer.

MRS CANE'S demise, calmly and happily consummated, alike the time ordained fall of an ancient oak in the forest, in the natural order of things, was a fitting finale to a well ­ ordered and peace ­ loving life, which leaves behind it as it were the spiritual cadence of a sweetly haunting olden organ tune, the hallowed vision of a pleasant and gracious memory.

MRS CANE'S husband pre ­ deceased her by some 18 years, and her three children (all living as we have noted) viz. MR EDWARD CANE of WOLLSTONECRAFT, Nth. SYDNEY-aged 68years, MRS HAYNES, LEMONGROVE, 71 years and MRS J BAKER, HIGH ST WEST, 65 years¬bid fair, like their revered mother to become patriarchal celebrities, in point of years.

There are 13 grand children and 21 great grand children living.

The coffin which was a plain black one at the deceased's special request was borne from the home, MRS J BAKER'S residence, to the hearse and from the hearse to the church, ST STEPHEN'S, and to the grave by four grandsons, viz. MESSES FRED, ISWALD and HAROLD BAKER and HENRY HAYNES. A short service was held in the church prior to internment in the ST STEPHEN'S CHURCH of ENGLAND Cemetery, which service, as also the reading of the burial service at the graveside, was performed by the Rev. M G HINSBY (rector). A large cortege of respect to the memory of deceased, the funeral being a very representative one, included in which were a number of members of the ORDER of ROYAL FORESTERS, of which lodge the deceased's late husband was one of the founders of the PENRITH Branch many years ago.

We beg to tender our sincere condolence and sympathy to the bereaved relatives of the deceased lady in their sad bereavement.

(*)The "BLANCHE MOORE" departed LONDON 31st March 1857. Warmest Regards, Lesley Whitla Legs@nor.com.au