By Jenel Hunt
If there’s one thing that marrying into the Morgan family has given Rosemary Morgan, it’s a rich and vibrant history to keep her keen researcher’s heart happy.
When they were young, she and her husband Darryl didn’t even know about what a treasure trove their surname was, but one day an uncle started talking about the Morgans further up the family tree … and Rosemary was pretty much hooked from that moment on.
What she found as not only a family of interest but also one of great historical significance and political influence to the early settlement of Queensland. Since then she has committed many words to paper about the family and has even published a book, which is now out of print.
The funny thing is, they named their only son Clinton, not realising it was a family name (it was Sir Arthur Morgan’s wife’s maiden name) and the same uncle told them they should put the name Talgai in their son’s name. They did, not finding out until many years later what a historic name they had given their baby. Founding father of the Morgan clan in Australia, James Morgan, had a son Charles who was born at Talgai West Station. Charles’ more famous brother Arthur was born at Rosenthal when James was managing Rosenthal Station. In the fullness of time, Arthur had children who had the names Clinton and Talgai in their names.
Darryl’s genealogy goes back to James via his father Ted, grandfather Charles and great grandfather, also Charles, who was the first-born son of James Morgan. James grew up in County Longford, Ireland and educated at a private school in Edgeworthstown due to a property owner named Richard Edgeworth who believed every person in Ireland should become literate. He wanted children from all disadvantaged classes to be given a chance to be educated. His son Lovell ran the Edgeworth School. James’ exact start in life has been lost by the mists of time, but Rosemary believes he was probably a child from a single-parent home as she could find no information on his mother, or perhaps he was a child of a very poor family or even from an orphanage but probably lived with a guardian family in the village while going to the school.
He went on to do surveying and worked in Wales before coming to Australia aboard the ‘Palestine’ where he settled in Warwick and became a Local Government leader, an advocate who fought to fix inequities in the land ownership system and the owner of The Warwick Argus … which suited him just fine as it gave him an avenue to promote his very forthright views!
The story of the Argus is worth a spotlight of its own as it’s quite a fascinating tale. The printing press, brought up from Tenterfield by bullock dray to Warwick, now lives at the Pringle Cottage museum, and Rosemary has donated a silk hanging of The Warwick Argus to the museum as well.
“It wasn’t doing any good having it fading away on my wall. It belongs to the history of Warwick,” she said.
For Rosemary, the Morgans are living breathing beings because she has researched their history so much, but the Morgan name is not as prominent as perhaps it should be on the Southern Downs, considering the richly interwoven history of the Morgan family and the Warwick area.
‘Morgan’ was once a household name in Warwick and even now glimpses of the past are still readily visible around the district. There’s the Morgan monument at the corner of Palmerin and Albert Streets, where inscriptions remember Mayor and later the Member for Warwick James Morgan, Sydney Morgan who also became Mayor, Sir Arthur Morgan who during his time as an MLA was Premier of Queensland for three years, became the president of the Legislative Council and Lieutenant Governor of Queensland.
Later was Sir Arthur’s son Arthur Clinton Morgan, who represented the Darling Downs in Parliament and Franklin James Morgan who became the first chairman of the Queensland State Wheat Board.
Something that keeps the Morgan name alive in perpetuity is Morgan Park, an area of thousands of acres which was gifted by the Morgans to the Warwick community and which is now a hub for sports like car racing and polocrosse. In May alone, Morgan Park is listed as having motorsports ride days, Sprints, Autumn Historics, Driver Training, Practice, Masters Of Morgan Park, social days, charity events and of course at the polocrosse complex hosted the recent Australia Vs the Rest of the World Test Series, State against State series and club competitions. So the Morgan name is still there, but who really thinks about the family when they drive through the gates to Morgan Park?
But you distinctly get the feeling that Rosemary Morgan would like to see something a little more personal in Warwick to reflect the great impact the Morgans had in the 1800s and early 1900s.
There’s a huge statue of Thomas Joseph Byrnes (he was Premier of Queensland for about five months) at Warwick’s main CBD intersection and sandstone likenesses of the Leslie brothers (the first permanent European settlers in the area) can be found at Leslie Dam so it’s a bit surprising that Sir Arthur Morgan’s only real public recognition is a monument in Leslie Park – a sandstone column that when it was erected in 1911 was at the other end of the park closer to the CBD … and is now in need of the help of a monumental mason to bring it back to good condition.
“Sir Arthur gave up his seat to Byrnes because the party wanted to put Byrnes forward. I think that shows great generosity,” said Rosemary.
As it happened, Byrnes died within five months of becoming Premier and Arthur stood for the constituency again, winning by an even larger margin than ever before. He went on to become Speaker and eventually Premier, a role he held from 1903 to 1906. It was during that term of office that women were given the franchise in State elections and they first voted in 1907, the year he was knighted.
It’s easy to see that Rosemary is passionate about the Morgan history, but her own family’s history is also based in the Southern Downs region, including at a soldier settlement at Amiens on the Granite Belt. Her grandparents came to Texas in 1911 from England. Her grandfather went from being a professional soldier in England to working on a tobacco farm in Texas. He went away to the war and when he returned he took up a soldier settlement block at Amiens. The project didn’t succeed for him, but what it did was create friendships that have been passed down through the generations even when the family didn’t live in the district anymore.
Four years ago, Darryl and Rosemary Morgan moved to Glen Aplin then moved again to a property at Mt Tully. In their 70s, they like to keep busy in their own ways. For Rosemary, a fascination for the Morgan family history has kept her very busy indeed.
Rosemary has a favourite quote from Col Stringer, who wrote ‘Australia’s Christian Heritage.’ He said, “History is the dead record of events of what people or nations did, but heritage is a living thing. It is the character, the fibre and the soul of our ancestors. Heritage is something of value that has been passed down from generation to generation.”
She believes the Morgan men left a heritage more than just a history of their lives of service and even now would like to see them acknowledged in a way that gives them more public credit for their dedication to the Darling Downs region and to Queensland.
Snippets from the Morgan story
In coming weeks, Rosemary will share some interesting stories from her Morgan family history collection of writings.
