FORBES & COBAR, NEW SOUTH WALES

John Joseph WORTHINGTON

b. 1856 Glen Kenny, Lake George, NSW ; parents James WORTHINGTON & Mary Theresa BYRNE

m. 13 May 1880 Forbes, NSW

Mary Ann DONOHOE

b. 10 Jun 1855 Wangaratta, Vic. ; parents William DONOHOE & Annie REARDON ;
d. 20 Mar 1917 Sydney, NSW ; buried Rookwood Cemetery, NSW ; m1. 1875 Parkes, NSW Reuben DOWNEY – 3 children:

i. Ann Isabella DOWNEY
(b. 1875 Grenfell, NSW ; d. 1901 Cobar, NSW ; m. 1901 Cobar, NSW – Charles HOWELL – 1 child)
ii. Mary Elizabeth DOWNEY
(b.1877 Forbes, NSW ; d. 1912 Paddington, NSW ; buried Rookwood Cemetery, NSW ; m. 1901 Hay, NSW – Sydney Edward Keelty – 2 children)
iii. Rubina DOWNEY
(b. 1878 Forbes, NSW ; d. 1879 Forbes, NSW)
Reuben Downey died in 1878 at Grenfell, NSW, and Mary Ann may have taken the children to live with her half-sister Annabella Fitzgerald who, with her husband Mark, ran the  Moonbi Hotel, not far from where her second husband was farming. Baby Rubina died the following year and the death was registered at Forbes.

Children

1. Reginald Mark WORTHINGTON b. 1880 Forbes, NSW

2. Austin Patrick WORTHINGTON b. 1882 Condobolin, NSW

3. Mildred ‘Clara’ WORTHINGTON b. 2 Jan 1884 Camp Hill, Forbes, NSW ; d. 16 Jan 1950 Coogee, Randwick, NSW ; buried Rookwood Cemetery, NSW

4. Francis Edward WORTHINGTON b. 11 Sep 1887 Forbes, NSW ; d. 16 Apr 1937 Hay, NSW ; buried Hay, NSW ; Occupation : Well borer.
m1. 1909 Cobar, NSW – Jessie THORBURN(b. 1888 ; parents John & Elizabeth THORBURN &  ; d. 24 May 1911 Cobar, NSW ; buried Cobar, NSW) – 1 child:
i. Elizabeth Jane WORTHINGTON (b. 1910 Waterloo, NSW ; d. 21 Feb 1911 Cobar, NSW ; buried Cobar, NSW)
m2. 1922 Cobar, NSW – Ada May CRESSWELL (b. 1897 Malparinka, NSW ; parents James Albert CRESSWELL & Mary CARTER ; d. 1974) – 4 children
Obituary

5. Kathleen Amelia Theresa WORTHINGTON b. c1889 Forbes, NSW ; d. 22 Jul 1949 ; m1. 1912 Sydney, NSW – Albert William HUNTER (b. 1882 Yea, Vic. ; d. 1954 Walgett, NSW) – 3 children. m2. 1930 – George TUFNELL

6. Leo Albert WORTHINGTON b. 26 Sep 1893 Forbes, NSW
Article: Photo Gallery of a Petty Criminal

7. John Joseph WORTHINGTON b. 6 Nov 1894 Forbes, NSW ; d. 17 Dec 1960 Concord, NSW ;
m1. 5 Mar 1921 Surrey Hills, NSW – Dorothy ‘Rita’ LEANEY (aka BARBER) (b. 1901 Sydney, NSW ; parents Frederick Baynton LEANEY & Rose Claire DRUMMOND ; d. 1958 Darlinghurst, NSW) – 3 children:
i. Gordon A WORTHINGTON (d. 1921 Hamilton, NSW)
ii. William Thomas WORTHINGTON (b. 3 Nov 1923 ; d. 5 Feb 1990)
iii. Frederick WORTHINGTON (b. 2 Oct 1925) ;
m2. c1958 Sydney, NSW – Henrietta Lily FAIR nee WALDER (d. 17 Aug 1981)

On 18 Oct 1916 in Seymour, Vic., John Joseph enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, 38th Battalion. He was discharged on 20 Dec 1919 after receiving a gunshot wound to the wrist in action in France.

8. Eugene Henry WORTHINGTON b. 26 Aug 1896 North Hill, Forbes, NSW ; d. 21 Apr 1968 Stanmore, NSW ; cremated 24 Apr 1968 Rookwood Crematorium, NSW ; m. 1915 Sydney, NSW – Dorothy May FROST- 1 child: i. Robert Leo WORTHINGTON (b. 1916)

On 28 Sep 1915 at the Holsworthy Barraks, Sydney, ‘Gene’, a 22 year old labourer, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, 19th Battalion. He was in training camp for 87 days before being discharged at the request of his wife. Dorothy had written stating that she was 16 years old, six months pregnant and recovering from an operation for empyemia. 
On 18 Oct 1917 at Holsworthy, he enlisted again, this time in the 53rd Battalion. He was discharged on 20 Sep 1918 after losing three fingers on his left hand in combat in France.

Tragedy befalls the family

In 1891 things were going well for the family. Land maps show that John Joseph Worthington was farming on a piece of land at Moonbi but he, along with so many farmers in the area, were forced off the land owing to drought and economic depression. They moved to Forbes and John worked as a labouring contractor to support the growing family. As labour was in short supply, he left Forbes to travel north looking for work and never returned. A notice, above, appeared in the Police Gazette indicating a warrant had been issued for his arrest for desertion. 

Mary Ann took the children to Cobar, where her mother resided. In 1901, Mary’s oldest daughter from her first marriage, Annie Isabella Downey, married Charles Howell at Cobar, then died aged only 26 years, after giving birth to a boy, John Charles Howell, who also died. On 4 Apr 1905 Leo, aged only 12, was convicted of stealing from a railway carriage at Cobar and was sent to the Carpentarian Reformatory for three years. In 1906 at the age of 22, Clara gave birth to a boy with no father listed in the registration, but whom she named Harry Oswald Budd Worthington. The likely father was a man four years older than Clara named Harry Oswald Budd. The baby Harry died in 1907 aged only 15 months of a cardiac arrest resulting from a week-long bout of bronchial pneumonia, and was buried at Cobar. In May the following year, Mary Ann’s mother died aged 85 of a cerebral haemorrhage.

In 1912, Mary Ann’s second daughter, Mary Elizabeth Keelty (nee Downey) died in Sydney in 1912, aged only 35, and leaving behind young children ranging from newborn to 14 years of age.

At some stage Mary Ann contracted tuberculosis. She was admitted to the Waterfall Sanatorium (hospital for consumptives) on 8 Sep 1914, her hospital admission papers state that she was a widow and farmer of ‘Walla Walla via Forbes’.

Her condition having improved, Mary Ann was discharged from Waterfall on 7 Mar 1916 but she succumbed to the illness at Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst, Sydney, a year later on 20 Mar 1917. 

(Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Mar 1917, p. 10)

Mary Ann’s sons John Joseph (Jack) and Eugene Henry, returned from military service after the death of their mother. I cannot find a record of military service for Reginald Mark (Reg). It is interesting that Leo has not been mentioned in this notice, nor have Mary Ann’s daughters from her first marriage to Reuben Downey.

Above is a map showing some of the various addresses the siblings of this family had around the Sydney area

Marriage of one of Mary Elizabeth Keelty’s daughters in 1922

(Sunday Times, 30 July 1922, p. 9)

Obituary: Francis Edward Worthington

One of Hay’s well known and highly respected business men, Mr Frank Edward Worthington, died at his residence, Moore Street, at noon today, after a long and painful illness. A native of Forbes, where he was born in 1887. Mr Worthington came to the Hay district from Cobar, in 1920, where he had been well and favourably known. His business enterprises consisted mainly of well boring and the activities incidental thereto. He invested in some Lachlan Street properties, and later built a residence for himself in Moore Street, at the rear of them. He married, in Hay, in 1922, Miss Ada Cresswell, who, with their family of two sons and two daughters, whose ages range from 14 to 8, survive him. Mr Worthington also leaves four brothers, Pat, Eugene, and Leo, who live in Brisbane, and Jack, who lives in Sydney, and two sisters, Mrs McBlane and Mrs Tufnell, who live in Sydney. (Riverine Grazier, 16 April 1937, p.2)

Missing from Frank’s obituary is Reginald Mark (Reg) who may have passed away by this time.