Letters from America

Among Paul’s documents are a set of letters which demonstrate that the lines of communication between the American and New Zealand branches of the Melody Clan were open two generation after William Melody left Illinois.

They are letters from a distant cousin in Illinois to Eric Melody. Dated 1934-5, the writer, Melody Moore, was 20 years old. Eric would have been 36 and his sons Hayden (Paul) 9 and Barry 4 years old.

Eric has noted that Melody’s grandmother was William Melody’s sister Margaret.

8719 S. Carpenter St
Chicago Ill.
Oct 10 1935.

Dear Eric.

I received your letter of Sept. 5th and got quite a chuckle out of those summer trips of mine you were envious of. We took a trip last weekend. One of the boys of the crowd owns a beautiful cottage in Kansasville, Wisconsin. 10 of us drove down there on Sat night. The place was like an icebox. The boys got a fire going and we huddled around the fireplace in blankets. Finally all five girls went to bed – (in the same bed) and I guess the boys did the same. During the night we had snow – the first of the season and about 2 months early. We came home Sunday night or rather Monday morning – arrived at 3 am. There ends our summer.

My family didn’t like the snapshot I sent you but I think it looks like me. I’m so sorry the tractor had so much of me – I’ll try to better next time, but there really isn’t much of me to see. I’m not a very tall girl.

Your Hayden is a very handsome boy. Mother thinks he looks very like you. Does he really? I’d love to see Barry too.

Speaking of pubs – we call them Taverns here – you must find the same sort of enjoyment we do. We went to a Tavern for chicken last night and we drank highballs for three hours. Do you have a favorite drink? Some countries have a national drink for which they become famous. We Americans really mix our drinks – we try any and everything. You probably read that after the world war we had prohibition for many years. We had a great number of bootleggers and many gang slayings. Our present President repealed that amendment and now all taverns can have their doors open wide instead of hiding. I was too young to drink then but I’ve heard stories of having to give 3 knocks on a door and having someone peer out at them to see if the are just a citizen or a policeman before they could buy a drink.

I’m sorry you haven’t heard any more about the job you applied for. Would you like to live in a strange place? Of course it is British territory and probably isn’t much different than from moving from one state to another as we do here. But I wouldn’t care to live in any other state than Illinois. One of my sisters lives in California and another in Indiana. What would your wife think of moving? Where were you born Eric?

I haven’t been working for 6 months. I am a dental assistant and assist the dentist in operations and in his laboratory work – making bridges - inlay – plates, etc. I suppose I’ve lost my technique by now. I haven’t really looked for work. Mother needs someone to help manage the house. Then too, I’m thinking of being married. I haven’t any definite plans yet. Jimmie and I are waiting to see the outcome of A job he has applied for. He’s working now and makes $30 a week. That is a really good amount considering the depression we have but living expenses are so high that we would rather wait for this other job – which would pay about $45 a week and also a pension. Jimmie is a steel cutter – he guides an electric needle. It is dangerous work and he wears protective goggles to protect his eyes.

I enjoy horse racing but I don’t like to loose money. We have some beautiful tracks here – three in all – and just a short drive to reach them. American people are great gamblers. Somehow it disgusts me. We have a number of bookies here – places where you can place a bet from 50c up. I’ve gone with Jim a few times and saw the old ragged people betting there last ½ dollar and probably going without supper if they loose. It’s all the old cry “take a chance!” but I can’t see it.

I don’t play golf at all so I can’t say anything about the digging. Play very little tennis.

Our sport to enjoy are baseball but when the season is over football takes its place and there is just as much enthusiasm for it. We have so many college games and the boys are such good players. Our baseball is all professional and I don’t enjoy it half so much as football.

I hadn’t heard anything about the wheelbarrow derbies until you mentioned them. I don’t understand what you mean by a 14 stone man? Is that his weight – don’t you say so many pounds? - as for instance I weight 110 pounds.

I hope you have received “Napoli” by this time. And I do hope I brought the right one.

Mother asks if you could get data on your family history and send it to her – that is on the branch of the family over there. She said she would be glad to send you data if you are interested.

I’m sending some papers by separate mail. I’ve sent quite a few but you haven’t mentioned them – I received all you sent plus the railroad magazine – and very interesting it is.

Write soon and I’ll do like wise.

Love Melody

Melody mentions Eric applying for work overseas in a British territory? Where was that, Canada or Australia perhaps?

Melody also talks about sending “Napoli” was a musical score. In her other letters she talks about sourcing various scores for him including this one by Del Staiger who was a very popular trumpet and cornet artist. Chicago was in the height of the jazz age at this time so it must have seemed very exciting and exotic to Eric, a keen and accomplished musician. His relationship with his cousin enabled him to be up with what was cutting edge in the music world. Melody talks about going to various clubs and promises to remember the names of the Orchestra and the music they play.

The Road William Melody walked to Ballarat in the 1850s

From The Age, Urban Legends, Saturday August 29, 2009 by Jenny Brown

Road to Gold Paved in Sweat


This thoroughfare was well worn by diggers in search of riches, writes Jenny Brown.

THE road is handsome now, lined in the main with interesting heritage shops and houses as it meanders up a ridge to broaden out at Essendon into one of Melbourne's grander boulevards.

In 1851, when news of the easily won gold at Mount Alexander (Castlemaine), Ballarat and Bendigo had begun to draw prospectors into the new state of Victoria, it was the very definition of the beaten trade

It is said three-quarters of all arriving diggers started their week-long tramp to the goldfields along Mount Alexander Road, which quickly became a dustbowl in the summer months and, according to one old digger, "a mere bog" in winter.

In the wet, "Mount Road", he said, "became a series of muddy holes and it was painful to see bullocks strain to pull their loads through the sticky mire".

It must have been amazing to see the foot traffic, too. Diggers moved in convoys for protection against bushrangers who haunted' the nearby ranges to the first camping place, at Queens Park in Essendon. This large, natural waterhole, surrounded by red gums, served for years as "a perpetual tent town', a scene of 100 campfires blazing through the night. "A lively camp."

The "mixed human stream" of hopefuls began as a trickle of types that John Sherer identified as "clerks, shop owners, doctors, lawyers, shepherds and sailors from all countries". The Chinese moved in long single files "at a half trot".

Five hundred sailors abandoned their ships in Port Phillip in late 1851. Several state parliamentarians left their new jobs. And almost all of the towns constabulary (38 of 40) deserted their posts to hump their heavy swags and push and pull their loaded handcarts and wheelbarrows along Mount Alexander Road.

Other transport was so prohibitively expensive that most excess equipment was quicldy abandoned en route. Bullockies could charge £150 a ton to take equipment to the fields, when gold was paying £4 an ounce.

By 1852, the traffic was so relentless that 1000 people a day were moving up the road.

One day, 3000 were counted crossing paths with the gold escorts who, in just 12 months, had brought 83,500 ounces of gold back down the track to Melbourne's coffers.

English author William Howitt noted "almost every man had a gun or pistols in his belt and a huge dog, half hound, half mastiff, led by a chain".

They shouldered bundles and bedding that weighed as much as a man and clanked and rattled with tin billies and panning dishes, "with their picks and spades tied together as they marched up country".

Howitt knew from experience that "there is no slavery to man and beast like that of getting up to the diggings".

Mount Alexander Road begins in Flemington. Melway 43 B1.

William John Melody

The following was sent from John Goodman, a former pupil of William John Melody.

William John Melody was the headmaster of Karori School from around 1948 or so until 1953 I believe. He replaced the former retiring headmaster, Mr Henderson.

I was a pupil there, and have very fond memories of him.

He introduced copper-plate writing, and I admit that I excelled at it.

He had played tennis at Wimbledon, and very much encouraged the sport at Karori School. He would sometimes take some of us out of class for a game. One of my classmates, Richard Hawkes later played Davis Cup tennis himself.

Bill introduced paddle (we called it padder tennis) tennis to New Zealand, and had courts painted on the tar seal immediately alongside the school. Wonderful game.

I became a prefect at the school, and when I left to go to Wellington College, Bill gave us a party treat of strawberries and icing sugar.

I purchased the 1953 Who's Who in NZ, with Bill's entry, and still own and treasure the book

Bill and his wife lived between Northland and Kelburn, just through the Karori tunnel.

I was shocked to hear of his death, and I still mourn him.

He had more influence on my life than anybody else.

I will never forget William John Melody

John Goodman, Berry, NSW, Australia

Melody Family and Australia.

THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION
By Paul Melody

As well as emigrating to the USA from their home country of Ireland, members of the Melody family also shipped across to Australia. Plenty is known about the American connection, but very little is known about the life of early Melodies in Aussie. Many modern Australians like to claim they have descended from their country's big early convict population, but the original Melody clan in Australia were strongly Irish.

William Melody, the founder of the New Zealand Melody clan trekked from goldfield to goldfield when he joined the big gold-rush in California in 1849. From there he moved to Ballarat in Australia, where he met an Irish girl, Eliza Moran, daughter of a family from County Galway. When they married in 1856 he was 28 and she was 21. Their first child, Sarah Marie, was delivered in a tent on the Ballarat gold -fields in 1857.

William and Eliza stayed in Ballarat for 4 years until he was tempted by the great gold fields at Gabriel’s Gully in Otago, New Zealand. In 1861 and crossed the Tasman to check out the prospects. He was so impressed with the Gabriel’s Gully gold finds that he hurried back to Oz to collect his wife and young daughter and return with them to Otago to try his luck.

Now the Coleman family enter the picture. In 1864 a girl named Ellen Coleman was born to Edwin and Ellen (nee Dunn) Coleman, who lived in a tiny gold-mining settlement in the state of Victoria, titled Porcupine flat.

By coincidence when the original exodus of William Melody and his parents took place in 1840, the Melodies were in immediate contact with a family named Coleman in Illinois, who were said to be their cousins.

Mary Ellen Coleman grew to the age of 16 with her family. who included a brother, James Just Coleman, and three sisters. They were Susan, who was in 1943 living in Maldon. Katherine (Maldon) and Agnes (Auckland).

Photo from a 1969 Women"s Day article, with Eric"s note beneath.

When the teenage Mary Ellen came to New Zealand in 1880 she immediately took a job as a housemaid at Whangaehu Hotel, 10 miles from Marton, which was owned by her uncle, Owen McKittrick. This man had been a champion of William during his South Island goldmining days at Hokitika. Both men operated hotels along the famous Revell Street in Hokitika in the mid 1860s.

Marriage: It's not known where Mary Ellen met John Patrick Melody, but seven years after landing in New Zealand She and JP were married at Patea, where he worked as a butcher in the local freezing works. This was early in 1887, when JP was 24 and she was 25.

Johnny and Polly Melody and their Children.

By Paul Melody

John Patrick and Mary Ellen, or 'Johnny and Polly' as they called each other, had 8 children.

• William John (Bill) 18888-1959
• Eileen 1889- 1980
• Mary Violet (Madie)? - 1974
• Francis Martin (Frank)1896- 1971
• Edwin (Teddy) died as a child, named after his maternal grandfather from Australia.
  
• Anthony Eric 1899- 1974
  
• Mary Magdalene (Penny)1901-1969
• Murial Veronica (Bubs)1906-1994

Their first child was born later in 1887 while the couple lived at Patea. He was baptized William John Melody, Later known as Bill or Will.

Wanganui Move: By 1900 the family had moved to Wanganui where Mary Ellen brought a middle-sized farm in Brunswick Road at Aramoho, including a block which was overlooked by high hills. Some years later the block on the easternside of Brunswick Road, was purchased by Kempthorne Prosser Ltd, who built a large fertiliser manufacturing plant on the front section. The manure works was popular with district farmers for many years.

Accident: Meanwhile .JP and Mary Ellen had settled on an 8-acre block on the opposite side of the road where they developed a small farmlet. JP continued in the freezing industry, working as a butcher for the Imlay Company. Unfortunately in 1913 he was the victim of an accident at the Imlay works which ended his working days. A meat hook suspended from an overhead track fell from a considerable height inside the works and struck JP on the top of his head. He suffered concussion which laid him off work for some time, and he was affected by health problems ever after. Until then he had been an active man who provided well for his family, but the accident ruined this part of his life. He was only 50 at the time and lived for another 29 years.

The generous freezing company paid him 65 pounds ($130) in compensation.

Income Loss: To meet the loss of income which resulted from JP's accident Johnny and Polly had to bring up their family on the proceeds from a small herd of less than 10 dairy cows. Both of them milked the cows by hand, and the boys in the family delivered milk from house to house each morning before going to school. Son Eric recalled in later years that he took his turn at carrying the buckets of milk in the streets around the Brunswick Road farm and ladled it with scoops into billies and tins placed at customers' gates. He claimed that the heavy buckets stretched his arms so that they were longer than the average.

Plentiful Produce: They sold plumbs, quinces, apples, black and rd currants, cape gooseberries and vegetables, all harvested from the prolific gardens expertly cultivated by John Patrick.

Milk. butter, cream, and eggs from a well stocked fowl run sold well to the neighbours who came regular to buy from a tiny cold store in the back garden.

Well Educated: In spite of the tight conditions brought about by a low income, the growing family of Melody young'uns were well educated, and progressed well in later life. All attended the Aramoho primary school.

Will became a school teacher , teaching at Wanganui Technical College before reaching headmaster status at Hutt Valley High School, Thorndon School and Finally Karori School.

Bill married a South African girl, Myrtle Anderson, who rose rapidly through the tennis ranks and became New Zealnd woman's champion in the mid 1920s. She and Bill played at the Wimbledon Championships following this win, but without major success.

Eily became a country postmistress at Hokoia in the Taranaki district. Incidentally, her postal knowledge trapped her small nephew, Paul, in a serious juvenile crime one day. Paul spent several month each year for four years staying with his grandparents, Johnny and Polly, during which he attended St Anthony's Convent school at Aramoho. Just before Guy Fawkes Day one year he was persuade by a schoolmate, Laurie Coxon, to draw money out of his Post Office savings account for a splurge on fireworks, which they both gleefully exploded underneath the Aramoho Bridge. Very spectacular!

Not long afterward Aunt Eily as she was known paid a visit to the old family homestead to stay with her parents. She spotted Paul's Post Office savings book tucked away in a cupboard. Naturally interested in the savings record of her nephew, she opened the book to find that the large sum of 25 shillings ($2.50) had been drawn out, without explanation. The explosion from the grandparents which followed was worse the an the fireworks display!

That was the first time I learnt that old saying: ”Your sins will always find you out!”

Frank (he and Bill both served in the NZ Armed Forces in WW1) was a successful traveller Levin and Co's Wanganui branch. He brought the Whangaehu Hotel which had been operated in the 18808 by the family's distant relative, Owen McKirttrick and where his own mother had worked as a young girl. He also brought a grocery store at Raurimu.

Frank: The soldier on the extreme left is Frank Melody in preparing to go to WW1. His oldest brother went also and fortunately both returned.

At the Aramoho School Eric, aged 12, won a scholarship which took him to Wanganui Collegiate School for two years. He spent years on the clerical side of Livestock businesses at Wanganui, Hawera and New Plymouth. Then he took over managing a small general store at Raurimu , not far from National Park for his brother Frank. This prompted him to take over a similar store on his own account located at Erua, a small timber village not far from Ohakune, in which he was helped by wife Gwen and son Barry.

JP and Mary Ellen left their Aramoho farm in the late 1930s. Johnny lived with Eric's family at New Plymouth for a time, and Polly spent many years with daughter Bubby, who travelled from town to town with her small children and their father, Bill Coleman, who was also a school headmaster. Eventually the Colemans settled at Auckland, where this wonderfully hospitable family continued to look after Mary Ellen until her death in 1958 at the age of 96.

Bubs: Murial Veronica or Bubs married William Coleman in 1931. The Bridesmaid was her sister Penny and the flower-girl was probably Pat Hood. This is one of many marriages between Colemans and Melodys. Bubs's mother was a Coleman from Australia and there are Coleman connections in the American branch of the family as well.

Johnny had died much earlier, in 1942, aged 79.

Looking back on the lives of our grandparents, we can see that they were indomitable in the face of the considerable hardship caused by JP's illness. Much of the burden fell on Polly, who not only cooked and tended for a large family, but also helped with the daily milking (twice a day, by hand) and was always around to help with the hay harvest each season.
When Paul first stayed with then she was 72 and still handling many farm chores. He remembers that between the ages of 7 and 11 years he helped with the easy part of haymaking by trampling down the hay as it was forked up onto the hay stack. The person using the hay fork was his 74-year old grandmother, who kept the loads going: from ground level.

Mary Ellen Near the end of her life aged around 93.

Poetess: Mary was a small but determined lady with high moral ideals. She was also quietly humorous, and I can remember her home-made poem:

In the shade of the old apple tree
A bulldog came right up to me.
He gave me a punch
Where I'd just had some lunch
'Neath that old, old apple tree.

On top of her normal day's hard work Mary Ellen wrote numerous letters to her family around New Zealand. And she even wrote regularly to me when I was at boarding school at Silverstream - all in a wonderfully neat hand, in a friendly, chatty style which was always interesting.

Grandpa John Patrick played a quieter part in family affairs, but will always be remembered as a kindly man with a cheery word for his grandchildren who often visited the Aramoho farm with their parents.

JP concentrated on the big gardens around the house section, which were always in neat and tidy shape. When he stayed with Eric's family in New Plymouth near the end of his life he soon whipped their gardens into high production.

Mystery Photo - which branch of the Melody clan is this?

Posted by Lesley Melody

This mysterious photo was in Paul Melody's collection without any reference to the members of the family pictured.

With luck the identities will be revealed in time.

Looking at the clothing I think it must be about 1918 just before the flapper look of the 20s became the vogue and clothing radically changed. If this is so, I can only speculate that this may be Mary Ellen Melody (wife of John Patrick) aged about 55 yrs and her female children (Eileen 28, Madie, Penny 18 and Bubs 12) plus perhaps a daughter-in-law and a couple of grandchildren.

This is pure speculation, hopefully someone can shed light on this mystery. The clue is doubtless in the clothing. Any guesses anyone?

Update. Mystery Solved!

Melody Gard has kindly filled me in on who the women in the photograph may be.
The woman holding the baby is probably Agnes Coleman and the baby is Marion (later Fox) and the little boy in the front is Fredrick (Bill - who is Melody Gard's father). It is probably a Coleman family photo taken in Maldon or possibly Melbourne, Australia in about 1902. The Matriarch is Ellen Coleman with her daughters Susie and Kitty. The photo would have been sent to the daughter missing from the family group, Mary Ellen who was of course by then in New Zealand.

Melody Family of Lake Forest, Illinois 1840

Our American Cousins
By Paul Melody

Of the nine children of Patrick and Sarah Melody, from Bonniconlon, William was the only one who strayed away permanently from the United States, which became the family's second home.

At a distance of 8,000 miles it may seem difficult to trace the history of our American cousins, but fortunately we have the benefit of several newspaper obituary notices sent to us by USA relatives, which paint fascinating pictures of the activities of some of William's siblings.

The first is about his brother, Martin Melody, in the form of a newspaper obituary which appeared in the Lake County Review on July 3, 1918, written by Professor John J Halsey, a family friend and prominent educator. Professor Halsey wrote:

Martin Melody died at his home in Lake Forest (Illinois) last week, Monday night. after a long and painful illness which he endured with much patience and resignation.

He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, March 19, 1827, the son of Patrick and Sarah Holmes Melody.

He came with his parents to Lake County in 1840, and spent his early years on a small farm on the Telegraph Road, immediately north of the present Arcady Farm and about opposite the long consecrated site of St Patrick's Church. In fact, his mother lodged and fed the masons who laid the bricks of the second edifice, built in 1853.

In 1881 he went to work for his uncle, S Coleman, on the farm that he later inherited and which he sold to J Ogden Armour in 1904. But. this original home was in Shields township, and all his business and church connections were in Shields and Lake Forest.

His first wife, who had been Miss Julia Kelly, died December 9, 1894, after a married life of nearly 24 years. In January 1896 he was married to Miss Anna Frances King - a woman of remarkable intelligence and beauty of character, who died July 23, 1915.

In his long and honourable career Martin Melody was a splendid illustration of the best type of pioneer families. Sturdy in body (until the last few years), vigorous in mind, keenly attentive to all going on in the world about him, honoured and respected by all who knew him, he has been an epitome for two-thirds of a century of our township and county history.

Without the help of his retentive and receptive mind it would have been almost impossible to write an adequate history of this section. During an acquaintance of many years, filled full of long conversations about the men and women of the past, the writer recalls no unkind or hurtful expression concerning anyone.

Mr Melody embodied in his life and his attitude to others the highest ideals of earnest and faithful manhood, Professor Halsey concluded.

This was the home built by meat Mr. J. Ogden Armour, heir to the Armour meat packing fortune, on the site of the Melody Farm in 1904-1908 at a cost of ten million dollars. I doubt if Martin Melody saw much of that amount. Since then, the property has been parceled off. The mansion d is used primarily for weddings and events. Part of the original property bears the name Melody Farm Nature Preserve, as is located at 350 N. Waukegan Road in Lake Forest, IL.

A Corduroy Road in the Wilderness

Another view of the early Melody pioneers in the USA came in a news article, headed 'My Ancestors', written by Almon Frost on June 20, 1935, at the time of the Deerfield centennial celebrations. He wrote:

My great-great-grandfather Melody (Patrick Melody - the original ancestor that left Ireland) and my great-grandfather Nolan and their families came to this country, which was then a wilderness, and settled in Deerfield township in 1840.

They settled next to the Corduroy - or as it is now called, the Skokie. It was all marsh land there, but the families cut the trees and laid them in the marsh on top of each other to make a bridge (a corduroy bridge, meaning the logs were laid in rows, in ribbed formation).

My great-great-grandfather Patrick and his oldest boy, John, used to walk to Chicago to work on the drainage canal. John, while working, was killed when the ground caved in on him.

His (Patrick's) youngest daughter, Ellen Melody Doyle, is now living in Lake Forest. She was born October 24, 1842 on a farm adjoining the corduroy bridge. Later she and Thomas Doyle, her husband, ran a tavern, store and post office across from the home.

When the families came here there were a few Indians, deer, rattlesnakes and wolves, said Almon Frost.

My great-grandfather Nolan's farm was bought by Swift and Company, and they still have it. It was known as Conway Farm.

Notable American Melody

The Melody family have a strong Catholic tradition. Monsignor William Webster Melody (died 1925) was a descendant of Martin Melody, William Melody's brother back in Illinois. Monsignor Melody was a Professor of Theology at Washington Roman Catholic University and was known as a powerful and charismatic speaker. It can be a comfort to us living Melodies that when we shuffle off upstairs at least we have someone in the family with good connections.

John Patrick Melody 1863-1942

The Family of John the Baptist
By Paul Melody

Note: click on the image to enlarge
There's a custom among New Zealanders to bestow nicknames on friends and relatives which are the opposite of the real thing. For instance, a bald man will be nicknamed Curly and a tall person will be called Shorty or Stumpy.

Some time after he and his family moved to Aramoho, at Wanganui, John Patrick Melody, son of William and Eliza, gained the name of "John the Baptist" from his neighbours. In the true Kiwi tradition, this was because J.P. was not exactly a saintly person!

Before that he'd become a freezing works butcher, and for a while was at the Patea works. While in Patea, he married an Australian girl of Irish descent, Mary Ellen Coleman from Maldon in Victoria. He was 23, she was 22.

Mary Ellen's-birthplace was the tiny settlement, of Porcupine Flat. At the age of 16 she came to New Zealand, and at first worked at the Whangaehu Hotel, between Marton and Wanganui, where an uncle, Owen McKittrick, was the publican.

J.P. and Mary Ellen - they called each other Johnny and Polly - had seven children, most born in Wanganui. Their order of arrival was: William John (Will or Bill), Eileen (Eily), Francis (Frank), Mary (Maidie), Eric (called Wira by his sisters), Magdalen (Penny) and Muriel (Bubs).

The family settled at Brunswick Road in Aramoho about 1900, where they owned a property which was later bought from them by Kempthorne Prosser's fertiliser company. J.P. became a butcher at the Imlay freezing works in Wanganui, and the family made their home on a 7-acre farmlet at 4D Brunswick Road, from where the children attended the Aramoho School.

In 1913 John Patrick was injured in a works accident, when a steel fitting from a travelling overhead chain fell on his head. He was unable to work at his trade again, but received only 65 pounds compensation.

As a result he and Mary Ellen raised their family on the meagre income from this tiny unit, which ran 8 dairy cows.

Polly sat alongside her husband on a stool and helped him to milk the cows. I have a vivid memory of this small, energetic lady at the age of 65, clad in a dress covered by a sugarbag apron, and wearing gumboots, as she rounded up each cow, then tethered them by a leg-rope to hold them while she milked.

As well as selling homemade butter, eggs, cream and milk the couple sold apples, plums, cape gooseberries, black and red currants and qµinces.

J.P. was a tall man, about 6ft in height, in contrast to his three sons, who were around 5 1/2 ft each. Maidie was the tallest girl, around 5ft 10ins.

In stature Mary Ellen was about the same height as her sons.

John Patrick had a wicked sense of humour and was an expert imitator. Eric recalled that often the Melody youngsters couldn't eat their meals at night because they were so exhausted by laughing at their father's imitations of people he'd met during the day.

PILLION PASSENGERS

The children all inherited J.P.'s sense of fun. The girls were a lively and attractive bunch, often to be seen perched as pillion passengers on motorbikes flashing around the streets of Wanganui during the Roaring Twenties.

Their mother was of sterner mould, though she showed quiet humour in later life. When Eric joined the Queen Alexandra Brass Band at the age of 15 (in 1916) he was obliged to sneak out of his bedroom window at night to attend practices because his mother refused to allow him inside a bandroom, believing they were dens of vice haunted by the criminal element.

I wonder if she knew he was also spending time in billiard rooms, where he became something of an expert. One day Dad and I went to Fitzgerald's billiard saloon in Palmerston North, when I was 26 or 27. Casually remarking that he'd had a misspent youth Dad played his first snooker game for many years and proceeded to wipe me off the table. Realising that he was playing against an incompetent, he gallantly gave me a 7 blacks start, and won that game too!

Gran, as all the Melody cousins called Mary Ellen, was a convert, having become a Catholic at the time of marrying John Patrick. As most Catholics know, converts are stricter about religious rules than those born to the Faith, as Dad found when he discovered his ability to play marbles.

While attending the Aramoho School Eric won a scholarship, at the age of 12, which admitted him to Wanganui Collegiate School. The gift of sharp eyesight which was useful in his later snooker playing days also served him well in games of marbles against his fellow Collegiate students, with the result that he won pocketfuls of marbles from them every week. Naturally he took the marbles home with pride, but his mother objected.

She declared it was unfair and unethical for Eric to be taking the marbles from his less skilful school-mates. So a pit was dug near the fowl-house on the Brunswick Road farm, where he was forced to throw his ill-gotten gains every week. And the cache of boyhood marbles probably is still buried there.

Of his spell at Collegiate, Eric recalled he didn't enjoy it because of the snobbishness and bullying he met as a scholarship boy and a Catholic. His best friend was a Jewish scholarship winner who was given the same treatment.

Night life for the Melody teenagers was strictly controlled by Mary Ellen, but the rules weren't always obeyed. One night Eric and his gay young sisters arrived home around 2 am from a dance, and queued to climb in a bedroom window. The girls were giggling merrily while Eric waited to follow them through the window.

Suddenly out of the darkness a voice complained, "Tell those girls to stop giggling, or we'll all get caught!" It was their father, John the Baptist, who had also enjoyed a night on the town!

Eily, Penny and Bubs.

John Patrick was the only son of William and Eliza Melody. He was claimed to be the first white child to be born in Arrowtown.

Anthony Eric Melody 1899 - 1974

Anthony Eric Melody 1899 - 1974
By Paul Melody

The youngest son in the family of Johnny and Polly Melody was Anthony Eric (known as Eric), born in Wanganui on May 31st 1899. Like his brothers , Will and Frank, his height was in the 5' 5 range, but whilst they were bald at the early age of 25, photographs show Eric retained his hair to the end of his life, on August 11 1973 aged 74.

Scholarship: A pupil at the Aramoho primary school, he spent a year at Wanganui District High School in 1912 where he won a scholarship which took him to Wanganui Collegiate School in 1913-14. Clerical work in the stock and station agency business followed, with 14 years in the merchandise, shipping, and wool departments of Johnston & Co and Levin & Co at Wanganui and Hawera. Then he spent 16 years in the overseas buying and hardware sections of the Farmers Co-op head offices in New Plymouth.
Photo: Eric and Gwen, Castlecliff Beach, 1925.

Sportsman: An active sportsman, Eric enjoyed tennis and swimming and excelled at golf, where his handicap dropped to the low figure of 3. This was quite an achievement on the demanding New Plymouth courses. Because of his lower height he said he couldn't drive further than 200 yards, so his short-iron play had to be immaculate. He won the junior championship title.

To improve his chipping ability Eric would empty a 200-size bottle of aspirins onto his house carpet, then chip them into a bucket with a sand iron.
Photo: Eric on the golf course 1962.

Musical Talent: Eric's chief after-hours interest was music, which first surfaced at the age of 15. He wanted to join the Queen Alexandra Brass Band, but his mother, Mary Ellen, firmly believed that bandrooms were dens of vice, in the same class as billiard rooms, and she refused to allow him to attend band practices. So her son was forced to climb out of his bedroom window to creep off to night-time practices and to sneak home afterwards.

Eric showed real talent as a cornet player at a time when the "Queen Alecs", as they were known, were trained and conducted by George Buckley, a famed name in band circles. Under this experienced tutor Eric became a skilled player and developed a dexterity which stayed with him all his life and made him an asset among many musicians in Wanganui and New Plymouth in later years.

Concert Player: He was also welcomed by audiences at numerous concerts and recitals over a period of 55 years. During his time in New Plymouth he was with the cornet section of the Taranaki Regimental Band and played in several dance bands. They included Fred Williams' orchestra and finally Eric's own orchestra, the Melodians.

This group, who included drummer Laurie Smith, saxophone players Merv Bennett and Clarrie Wallace and trumpeter Alph Ramsay, had a regular Saturday night dance spot on the top floor of the Electricity Building, on the road to Pukekura park for several years.

Soloist: Eric was also in demand as a soloist, especially during the Second World War, when he was on the programme for numerous wartime concerts. And he was often the trumpeter at Anzac Day ceremonies in New Plymouth, where he played the "Last Post" with quiet style.

His playing opportunities faded during his grocery store days at Raurimu and Erua, but they revived when he and Gwen shifted to Palmerston North to live, about 1970. There he joined the Manawatu Savage Club's orchestra and also played in the orchestra for musical comedies produced by The Palmerston North Operatic Society.

Artist: Another of Eric's talents was his ability as an artist. In earlier years he entertained his friends with sketches of people, later with imaginary scenes around the Egyptian Pyramids though he'd never seen them in real life. He produced numerous pyramid sketches, some of which disappeared from his collection, until one day he visited a friend at Fitzroy in New Plymouth. While Eric waited at the open front door of his friend's house he looked down the passage and spotted his missing sketches - all framed and hanging on the walls of the hallway. What a friend!

Teacher: Eric's musical abilities included playing the double bass (a super-cello) as a slap-bass at dances. Also he taught music to several young pupils in New Plymouth, including the flute, cornet or trumpet and violin.

He had a quiet but clever sense of humour which further made him popular among his friends.

Offices: Eric's accounting experience led him to take on several clerical posts in Palmerston North, from which he retired in December 1969, as wages clerk for the Reliance Tyre & Rubber Co.

Many musical friends and Savage Club members were among the mourners at Eric's funeral in St Patrick's Cathedral in Palmerston North in August 1974.

Note: Eric was the son of John Patrick and Mary Ellen, and the grandson of William Melody.

William Melody was a lively Irishman - Part 1

A Tale of an Irish Goldminer
By Paul Melody

A colourful personality, with a fair share of the Irish characteristics, William Melody was a veteran goldminer by the time he settled in New Zealand in 1861. His hunt for gold began with the Californian gold rush in the United States in 1849 and ended when he left the South Island goldfields of New Zealand about 1880.

William spent most of his lifetime among Irish people, though he had actually left his home in Ireland at the age of 12.

He lived among Irish relations in Illinois when his family settled in the USA, he was with a big band of Irishmen who flocked to the Victoria gold fields in Australia after 1851, and he was a lively member of the Irish communities of Otago and the West Coast of New Zealand.

In New Zealand, William - he was known as Bill by his mates - made a name for himself in 3 ways.

Firstly, he was one of the party led by William fox which discovered the rich field of gold at Arrow River in Otago in 1862.

Secondly he was a hotelkeeper at Arrowtown between 1863-65 and later at Hokitika between 1866-69.

Thirdly, he was one of the leaders of the Irish demonstration at Hokitika against the 1867 execution of the Irish patriots in England. The Hokitita uprising took place in 1868.

Born in a village in County Mayo in Ireland in 1828, William was one of the family of five sons and four daughters of Patrick and Mary (nee Kelly) Melody. The family lived at Bunnyconnellan village, near the border between County Sligo and County Mayo, where Patrick Melody was a farmer.

In 1840, when William was 12, the entire family migrated to America, settling in Lake Forest, Illinois on the shores of Lake Michigan.

It's very probable that the reason for the mass departure was as quoted by Bill Melody (NZ) - that William's brother Patrick (a man of substance, recorded at 16 stone 8 pounds) flattened one of the residents of Bunnyconnellan during a fist fight, an activity causing such a local reaction that the family were forced to flee from County Mayo to the USA, where Patrick's youngest brother James Melody had already made his home around 1837-38.

Another story is that the Melody family left because they were evicted by their landlord. This may have been the outcome of the fight episode. The father, Patrick Melody was 50 when they emigrated, whilst his wife Sarah was 38.

The four Melody brothers were William, Martin, Patrick and Anthony. A fifth brother was born in the USA but died age 6 from a brain tumour in 1850.

Editors Note 1: The 1850 census of Lake County, Illinois lists 2 Melody families living there:

1. Patrick Melody (aged 60) with wife Sarah (aged 48). Children living with them were:

• Mary (age 28, b 1822, d 1909, married to John Nolan and appears to be living elsewhere at the time of the census)
  
• John Patrick, the fighting first-born is recorded in Almon Frost's notes as having died from a work accident in Chicago, working alongside his father on the drainage canals.
  
• Anthony (age 23)
• William (21)
• Margaret (19)
• Bridgett (17)
• Martin (13, born 19 March 1837 - died 1918, married Julia Kelly)
• Ellen (8, born in USA October 21, 1842 in Lake Forest, Illinois. Married name Doyle, married to Thomas.
• John (6, born in the USA, died the year of the census from a brain tumour)

2. James Melody (aged 40) with wife Margaret (age 35). Children all born in the USA:

• Michael (12)
• Margaret (11)
• Sarah (9)
• Mary (5)
• Anthony (3)
• Martin (1 month)

Editors Note 2: an internet reference suggests the following party made up the immigrant Melody group:
1. Patrick (b 1790) with wife Sarah Holmes (b1802)
2. James (b 1810) - later information from the 1850 census with a 12 year old child born in the USA shows James emigrated first.
3. John (b1800) married Bridget (b 1798)

The newly arrived family fitted in well at Lake Michigan, in Illinois, where their relatives the Colemans, were fully established.

In 1848 the California gold rush began, and in the following year William, then aged 21, and a friend left home for the goldfields. They were true "Fortyniners", as the gold seekers of that year were called.

William paid some dollars for the privilege of clinging to the back-strap of a 'prairie-schooner' all the way across America. When the wagon-train reached the Western desert, William took sick, and as the wagon train couldn't wait, he was 'put ashore' with some food and a great friend, who volunteered to look after him. They hid in a ravine, but while the friend was away foraging for some food he was killed by hostile indians. William finally recovered and reached California alone.

They were among thousands of eager miners at the Californian gold-rush in 1849-50. How successful William was isn't related, but William and his brother Anthony eventually were lured away to Australia by reports of gold discoveries there.

William once again back-tracked across America by prairie schooner (probably to pick up brother Anthony in Illinois, and visit the family for the last time), then at Boston they caught a ship and headed East for the Australian goldfields. En route they stopped at Naples in Italy, where either William or his brother narrowly escaped being knifed by a stiletto wielded by a jealous Italian female!

There's no record of William's 1849-50 career as a miner, nor of the years immediately afterwards. But clearly he had been bitten by the gold bug, for by at least 1856 he was in Australia, where gold had been found in Victoria in 1851. He married Eliza Moran, an Irish girl, at Ballarat in 1856 and in 1859 their first child, Sarah Marie, was born.

Sarah was a real goldfields child, having been born in a tent on the Ballarat diggings.

Whilst William stayed in Australia, Anthony headed back to North America and joined the gold-rush at the Klondyke. He mined a useful batch of gold but lost it all when near drowning in the White Horse River in the Klondyke. All the others in the party were drowned, and in order to save his bacon, he had to cut away a heavy-laden belt of gold. He sufffered some paralysis as a result of the accident. Later he joined his brother Martin to settle in Illinois.

William stayed at Ballarat with his family for the next two years. Then the lure of the gold fields which had opened up at Gabriel's Gully in Otago on May 2, 1861, drew him - without his family - to New Zealand in that year.

Excited by the prospects he returned hastily to Ballarat after a short time to collect his wife and 2-year-old daughter, then came back to New Zealand.

William Melody was a lively Irishman - Part 2

Melody Family Move to New Zealand in 1862
By Paul Melody

The Melody trio left from Melbourne for Port Chalmers (Dunedin). Also in their part were William (Bill) Fox, a sailor who spent 14 years gold mining in California and Victoria, John (Jack) O'Callaghan and Richard Cotter.

The newcomers headed for the Arrow River in Otago. In October of 1862 William, O'Callaghan and Cotter made up a party led by Bill Fox, which discovered the high paying goldfield along the Arrow River. The settlement they started was at first named Fox's, the Arrowtown.

At least Fox claimed he, with his party, found the exceptional field. In fact he claimed the total credit for the great discovery, though it was known there were four men in his party. Other claimants were McGregor and Low, and also Peter Stewart. Another in the picture was Jack Tewa, know as Maori Jack, who was widely acknowledged to have found gold traces as far back as November 1861, but he believed it was not a paying site.

Several gold history researchers have held differing opinions about the identity of the original finders of the Arrow field but only a matter of two days is involved.

Whatever the truth may be, it is certain that William Melody was among the earliest finders - though it does not seemed to have paved the way to immense wealth.

As an indication of the richness of the Arrow deposits, in three weeks Fox, Melody and Co. won 40 pounds weight of gold - at the time worth £2055 sterling, certainly the beginnings of a fortune for the quartet.

Gold was strewn amid the surface of the Arrow river gravel "like beans and peas", according to one writer. It was "so rich that it had to be seen to be believed".

Probably as an outcome of his share in the Fox's party proceeds, William Melody opened the only hotel on the Arrow River beach in 1863, naming it the Galway Arms (County Galway in Ireland lies below County Mayo).

In the same year he moved to Arrowtown itself to take over the Royal Oak Hotel in Buckingham Street.


Relations between the Fox party members didn't always go smoothly. An entry in the records of the Wakatip (Wakatipu) Arrow Police Station stated that William Melody and John O'Callaghan had become involved in a violent dispute. At 1.30 in the morning of May 22 1864, Melody reported to the police that he had been assaulted by O'Callaghan, who was forthwith arrested and brought before the magistrate. He was remanded on bail in two sureties of £75 each and one in himself of £100. The outcome of the affair was not known because the case went to a higher authority to be resolved.

On August 7, 1863 Eliza and Williams only son, John Patrick, was born - one of the first white boys to be born in Arrowtown.

Also in 1863 William caused a minor sensation in Arrowtown. Barmaids were in desperately short supply at the town's booming hotels. Young women flocked to the Arrow community to take up jobs behind the bars, or as dancing partners. So starved were the miners for female company that crowds of then greeted young women when they arrived for service in the pubs and many of the newcomers were married within a week.

William was so frustrated by the rapid turnover of barmaids in his hostelry that he contacted a friend in Dunedin with the urgent request: "Bring me the ugliest woman you can find!" The friend obliged and a suitably ugly woman arrived to work in his bar. She established an Arrowtown record by serving unattached for a fortnight. Then she too was married.

This amusing episode is mentioned by almost every writer about the Otago gold fields, so it was clearly a striking incident at the time (see cartoon). It also illustrates the quirky Irish humour of William Melody, which has passed through all generations of the Melody family.

As a sign of the popularity of the woman arrivals at Arrow, one woman claimed to have received 50 offers of marriage within a week!

Came 1865 and William returned to Arrow River beach to operate the Galway Arms Hotel again.
The combined population of Arrowtown and the nearby Shotover district - scene of the richest strike anywhere in the world - was estimated at 3000 by 1863. Many of the miners had crossed from Australia, although there were plenty of New Zealanders among the gold seekers. All became noisy and quarrelsome customers of the various hotels., Williams Melody's inn among them.

At times during the family stay at Arrowtown William worked on the construction of the road between Arrowtown and Macetown, the site of yet another gold strike.

In 1866 the Melody family hived off to Hokitika. By then the family numbered five: William and Mary, Sarah Maria, John Patrick and a third child born June 28, 1864, at Arrowtown.

At Hokitika William opened the Spread Eagle Hotel. This was one of the 82 pubs in Revel St, the principle thoroughfare. The total number of hotels in Hokitika in 1866-67 reached 102 and with 15,000 miners crowding the streets every night the joint must have really been jumping.

It was easy to establish a hotel in those mushroom times. Some publicans simply set up a few sapling poles on their site then draped calico over the top. The pubs themselves were often tents at the back. Better pub building came later.

Whether Melody's Spread Eagle was in the calico class isn't known, but William was in business as an innkeeper for at least three years.

William Melody was a lively Irishman - Part 3

Melody Arrested in the Fenian Uprising in 1868.
By Paul Melody.

In 1868 William made his mark yet again.

Illustration: Mock Funeral, lithograph by Richard Lysaght, Hokitika Evening Star, 1868

In November the previous year (1867) three Irish patriots were executed by hanging in Manchester, England, for their part in a successful attempt to rescue two men charged with being leaders of the Fenian movement - an Irish revolutionary group. News of the execution didn't reach Hokitika until the following February, where it provoked hostile rage among the Irish Catholic community.

The Catholic priest at Waimea, a mining settlement not far from Hokitika, Father William Joseph Larkin, headed a move to hold a mock funeral procession through the streets to honour the executed patriots. William Melody was chosen as one of the two captains to lead the parade.
Writer David McGill in his book "The Lion and the Wolfhound" (1890) said:

"In 1868 a quarter of the 26,000 men on the West Coast goldfields were Irish-born, and 90 per cent of them were Catholic...The 10 per cent of the Irish on the Coast who were Orangemen (member of the Orange Lodge, an anti-Catholic organisation) or Protestants regarded the Catholic majority as a righteous enemy, and vice versa."

The procession began to take place on Sunday, March 8, 1868. Author McGill reported:

"Melody of Melody's Hotel acted as marshal, assisted by John Manning (publisher of an Irish Catholic newspaper, "The Celt"), McQuilkin of the Belfast Hotel, and Dooley the cordial manufacturer."

A crowd of about 190 set off on a march to Waimea and back. By the time the parade returned to Hokitika the number of marchers had swelled to 750 men, 50 women and up to 30 children.
The footsore contingent arrived in Hokitika headed by Father Larkin and four men carrying a Celtic cross. In spite of the angry shouts among the big crowd of bystanders of "Finians!" and "Blasphemers!" the marchers kept their heads down and marched with solemnity.

The miners wore red Crimean shirts and moleskin trousers tucked into long boots, and were wearing green sashes and green rosettes surrounded by black crepe. Some had green feathers in their American wideawake slouch hats.

Historian McGill said: "Melody and the Waimea storekeeper and goldfield representative James Clarke rode ahead of the procession to the cemetery ... Clarke and Melody dismounted and produced tools. They were asked not to break anything and were shown how by knocking aside a couple of nails they could lift the gate off its hinges. This they duly did.

"The procession moved into the cemetery and to the Roman Catholic portion, where they assembled around a makeshift alter and the Celtic cross. The mourners, estimated at 3000 (with double that in bystanders) knelt. Father Larkin led the burial service in Latin..."

After the funeral oration by Father Larkin, honouring the Manchester martyrs (William Allen, Michael O'Brian and Michael Larkin) the company dispersed. The events of the day aroused outrage among the non-catholic and law-abiding citizens and there was much to-ing and fro-ing among officials determined to make an example of the Hokitika protesters.

The sequel came on March 27 when two policemen went to Melody's Hotel and arrested its proprietor and Father Larkin, while other leading procession figures were arrested elsewhere. The priest was reported as "submissive, but the publican restive."

The mock funeral had been peaceful, there was no violence, and the only damage caused was that inflicted by William Melody on the nails holding the gate to the cemetery. This damage was assessed at 3 shillings (30c). However, the authorities persisted in viewing the events as an outbreak of Fenianism and set out to prosecute the ringleaders.

After an emotional trial at Hokitika the upshot was that Melody and the four other sub-leaders were fined £20 each for organizing an unlawful assembly. But Father Larkin and publisher John Manning were each imprisoned for a month, on charges of seditious libel.

So ended an exciting and memorable chapter in William Melody's life. How long the family of five stayed in Hokitika after the trial is unknown, but they were recorded as living at Half Ounce (Westport) in 1878.

Also in 1878 they lived in Okarito (home of New Zealand's only white heron nesting area), where they made the acquaintance of John Brennan, from County Sligo. As related in the late Patricia French's history of the Melody and Brennan families (elsewhere in this collection), the Melody quintet and Brennan moved to Wanganui between 1878 and 1880, where Brennan married Sarah Melody in 1880.

It seems likely that William worked for his son-in-law in the pub he established in Wanganui.

The curtain rang down on William Melody's colourful life in November 1899, when he was 71.

He went missing during a walk on Castlecliff beach in Wanganui on November 4, and was presumed to have drowned in the Wanganui River. His body was found on the beach near the mouth of the Whangaehu River 15 days later and he was buried at the Wanganui cemetery on November 22, 1899.

His wife, Eliza, had predeceased him when she died at the home of their daughter, Sarah Brennan, at Maxwell on August 7 1891. She was 54.

Sarah Brennan died on February 2, 1913 at New Plymouth and is buried at Wanganui. John Brennan died in 1922.

John Patrick Melody died on June 28, 1942, aged almost 79.

The third child Elizabeth, who married Christopher Brownlie at Wanganui when she was 21, died at Kai Iwi on March 9, 1902, and is buried at the Wanganui Catholic cemetery. She was 36 and was survived by six children.

Simplified Timeline of the life of William Melody and descendants

Ireland

• 1828: William Melody born. Parents Patrick and Mary (Kelly) Melody. Bunnyconnellan, County Mayo, Ireland.
• 1840: Melody family emigrate to the USA, settling in Illinois. See http://genforum.genealogy.com/melody/messages/57.html

United States of America

• 1848: Gold rush begins in California
• 1849: William Melody, aged 21 becomes a Forty-Niner
• c1851 - 1856: William leaves California, re-crosses America to travel via Boston to Australia with brother Anthony to seek fortune gold-mining.
  

Australia

• 1854-55: Eureka Stockade incident occurs at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Many Irish miners involved - was William Melody? See Wikipedia's summary of the events.
  
• 1856: William now in Australia married to Eliza Moran in Ballarat, Victoria.
• 1859: Sarah Marie, first child born to William and Eliza in Ballarat in a tent on the diggings

New Zealand

• 1861: William travels to gold strike in Gabriel's Gully, Otago, New Zealand. Followed closely by his family.
• 1862: William part of the Fox Party discovering gold in the Arrow River, gathering 260 ounces of gold in 3 weeks.
• 1863: William uses his new wealth to set up the Galway Arms pub on the Arrow River beach, and took over the Royal Oak Hotel in Arrowtown itself.
• 1863: John Patrick born, one of the first white boys born in Arrowtown.
• 1863: The Ugly Barmaids incident.
• 1864: Third child Mary Elizabeth is born.
• 1866: William and family move to Hokitika, opening the Spread Eagle Hotel.
• 1868: Irish Patriots incident in Hokitika in which William Melody was arrested as the leader of the Fenians.
• 1878: Family recorded as living in 'Half Ounce' (now known as Westport), also living at Okarito at some stage that year.
• 1880: Now living in Wanganui, with eldest daughter Sarah marrying John Brennan whom they met in Okarito. The couple set up a pub in Wanganui.
• 1891: Eliza dies in Wanganui
• 1884 : John Patrick Melody marries Mary Ellen Coleman. Children: William, Eileen, Maidie, Frank, Anthony Eric (known as Eric) and Penny.
  
• 1899: The patriarch William Melody dies, aged 71 in a drowning incident in the Wanganui River.
• 1902: Mary Elizabeth dies aged 36, leaving 6 children.
• 1913: Sarah dies, February 2 in New Plymouth and is buried in Wanganui.
• 1927?: Hayden Paul Melody born to Anthony Eric and Gwen nee Wilson
  
• 1930: Barry Patrick Melody born to Anthony Eric, son of John Patrick.
• 1942: John Patrick Melody dies, June 28.
• 1958: Mary Ellen dies July 31 aged 97.