This year, in December, accompanied by my husband, I plan to make a family history pilgrimage to various sites in the state of Victoria, Australia. These sites include the birthplaces of my paternal grandparents and numerous places where my paternal grandmother’s parents lived and worked and raised their family. Time permitting, I will also visit the cemeteries in Melbourne where a number of my predecessors are buried.
Another reason for my visit to Victoria is to meet a fellow historian, someone who has helped me considerably in my research of the Proposch and Lowe families. He and his wife live at Horsham, in the heart of Victoria’s Wimmera region, approximately 300 kilometres (190 miles) northwest of Melbourne.
My husband Tony estimates that, in making the pilgrimage to Victoria, we will travel a distance of approximately 4500 kilometres (round trip by car).
Tony and I live in Queensland, where I’ve lived all of my life. My father, a Victorian, settled at Rockhampton, Queensland, after his marriage in March 1945 to a Queenslander and following his discharge from the armed services in December 1945.
Consequently, as a child I had little contact with my paternal grandparents – William Charles (“Charles”) Proposch and Elsie Antonia Proposch (nee Lowe).
I met my paternal grandmother, my “Nana in Melbourne”, just once in my life, when I was 3. Happily, she was a great correspondent and letter-writer, and she kept in touch with me right up until her death in July 1963. In the years following Elsie’s death, I became acquainted with my paternal grandfather, during visits to his home in Melbourne (1963 and 1971) and during his two extended stays with our family in Rockhampton (1964 and 1965).
My grandmother Elsie’s story (in brief) ) is the subject of Nana in Melbourne: Joy and a joy-giver (September 5, 2015), the first story I published on my blog. Furthermore, Elsie’s wartime diary and the relationship she had with her sons inspired the title of my website and my story A mother’s love (and a little black diary) (October 24, 2015).
Up until four or five years ago, I knew a little about the lives of my paternal grandparents. But I knew almost nothing about their siblings and respective parents (my great-grandparents).
In 2020, I decided to investigate further my paternal grandmother Elsie’s life story and family history. I focussed particularly on her parents James Samuel Lowe and Margaret Antonia Lowe (nee Neilson), and their six children. I published my findings in Four of six Lowe Family siblings fall victim to tuberculosis (October 12, 2021). It’s an incredibly sad story. The lives of my grandmother, her parents and siblings appear to have been full of pain and sorrow.
It’s the sombre intrigue of my grandmother’s life story and family history that compels me to make the pilgrimage to Victoria this year.
An earlier family history pilgrimage
Making a family history pilgrimage is not new for me. In January 2016, Tony and I travelled to Cottbus, Germany, to learn more about my Wendish roots and visit some of the places where my Wendish forefathers lived. Cottbus, the second largest city in the German state of Brandenburg, is located about 125 kilometres southeast of Berlin and 20 kilometres from the Polish border. It’s the political and cultural centre of the Lower Sorbs, or Wends, one of two minority Slavic people groups living in eastern Germany. I’ve written about this topic previously, in Easter in Germany: Sorbs, Wends and Easter eggs (April 12, 2017).
My 2016 pilgrimage to Cottbus focussed on the Proposch side of my father’s family.
During our stay in Cottbus, Tony and I visited two local history museums (one in Cottbus, the other in Dissen-Striesow) and a Protestant church in Dissen-Striesow. (Dissen-Striesow is a small Wendish village about 10 kilometres north of Cottbus.) At each museum we spent a couple of hours viewing and photographing the many exhibits. At the Wendish Museum in Cottbus, we even had a private meeting with the curator, who answered some of my questions about the Proposch family.
What I know about my branch of the Proposch family tree
The Proposch family tree has been traced back to Martin Proposch, who was born in the village of Sielow, near Cottbus, in 1714. He died at Sielow in 1781. The first mention of the name “Proposch” is found in records from this region dating from 1631.
George Proposch, a grandson of Martin Proposch, my three times great-grandfather, was born at Dissen, near Cottbus, in 1799. At 54 he migrated to Australia, along with his second wife Anna (nee Koal) and two of his children from his first marriage. They were among 50 or so Wendish migrants from Babow near Cottbus who came to Australia in 1854.
George, Anna and their children boarded the Malwina Vidal at Hamburg on 10 June 1854. The ship arrived in Melbourne on 5 October 1854 (nearly 4 months later). The family proceeded to Adelaide, South Australia, and settled there. They were sincerely pious Christians – Lutherans. George was a farmer. I am told that he had to be reasonably well-off to be able to afford the trip to Australia. George Proposch died in 1877, at Robertson, South Australia.
During my pilgrimage to Germany in 2016, Tony and I visited The Emigration Museum, Ballinstadt (Hamburg) where I obtained records confirming George Proposch and his wife and family’s departure from Germany in 1854.
Christian, George’s eldest son from his first marriage, was one of the migrants. Born at Babow in 1833, he was 21 years old when he left Germany. Soon after arriving in Australia, in 1854, Christian married Elizabeth Borrack, whose family also travelled to Australia on the Malwina Vidal. They had 11 children. Like their parents, Christian and Elizabeth, my two-times great-grandparents, were sincere and devoted Christians. In fact, Christian was one of the founders of the Lutheran congregation which met at Peters Hill (South Australia) from mid-1856. The Wendish (Lower Sorbian) language, as well as German, was used in their church services.
In 2016, the curator of the Wendish local history museum in Dissen-Striesow took Tony and me on a conducted tour of the village church – the Protestant church where my Proposch predecessors worshipped. The church is located next door to the museum. Here, our guide told us, church services are conducted in two languages – Wendish (Lower Sorbian) and German. It’s the only church in Germany today that continues to do so.
Christian and Elizabeth Proposch and family lived in South Australia until the 1880s. From South Australia they moved to Dimboola, a small town in the Wimmera region of northwest Victoria, where they resided for several years. Later, Christian and Elizabeth and some of their family moved to Melbourne, where they lived until their deaths in 1894 and 1903 respectively. They are buried in Melbourne’s Coburg Cemetery.
Wilhelm (“William”) Proposch, my great-grandfather, was Christian’s and Elizabeth’s 4th child. Wilhelm was born in 1861 at Peter’s Hill, South Australia. In 1883, he married Emily Mary Geach, of Burra Burra (South Australia), and the couple made their home at Dimboola. There William and Emily welcomed three children into their family.
My grandfather, William Charles (“Charles”) Proposch, the couple’s third child, was born on 30 September 1888. Sometime after Charles’ birth, the family moved to Melbourne, where William and Emily went on to have five more children.
Charles’ mother Emily, my great-grandmother, died on 13 May 1919, after an 8-month battle with stomach cancer. She was 53. Her mortal remains were interred in Melbourne’s Coburg Cemetery. William, Charles’ father, remarried the following year. He died on 8 May 1940, aged 79. William outlived his first wife, Emily, by 21 years.
At Northcote, on 2 December 1914, William Charles (“Charles”) Proposch married Elsie Antonia Lowe. Northcote is an inner northeastern suburb of Melbourne. At the time Charles, 26, a commercial artist, was living at Railway Street, Northcote, and Elsie, 24, a salesperson, was living at 10 Pearl Street, Northcote. The Reverend Robert Wilson Rock conducted the marriage ceremony at The Manse, Northcote, according to the rites of the Presbyterian Church.
Charles and Elsie went on to have three sons. The middle one, William Edwin, born 1919, was my father.
My grandparents’ marriage lasted 48 years. Elsie died on 12 July 1963, of heart disease, having suffered from angina for a number of years. She was 72. Her husband, Charles, outlived Elsie by almost 12 years. He died on 2 February 1975, aged 86.
My paternal grandmother’s family
My paternal grandmother, Elsie Antonia Proposch (nee Lowe), was born on 3 October 1890 at Riddell’s Creek, on the southern foothills of the Macedon Ranges, central Victoria. She was the sixth and youngest child of James Samuel Lowe and Margaret Antonia Lowe (nee Neilson).
Elsie’s father, James Samuel, born 1852, was the eldest of eight children born to John Valentine (Conway) Lowe and Margaret Lowe (nee Ferguson). John Valentine (1824-1880) was one of two sons born in Tasmania to freed convicts Judith Conway and James Lowe (1775-1842). Margaret Ferguson was born in London in 1833. She came to Australia in 1849 with her parents, English immigrants John Blair Ferguson and Christina Ferguson (nee McGlashen).
Elsie’s mother, Margaret Antonia, was one of nine children born to Scottish immigrants William Neilson and Jessie Janet Neilson (nee Dickie). William and Jessie married on 8 December 1850, in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Margaret Antonia was born in 1858 at Prahan, Victoria, Australia, the fourth of the couple’s nine children.
Elsie’s parents James Samuel Lowe and Margaret Antonia Neilson, married at Wedderburn, a rural town about 216 kilometres (134 miles) northwest of Melbourne, on June 27, 1878. James was 25, Margaret 20.
James and Margaret went on to have six children, between 1880 and 1890. Margaret gave birth to a child every two years. James Albert (“Bert”) was born in 1880, William Ferguson in 1882, Jessie Ethel in 1884, Winnifred May in 1886, Ernest Arthur in 1888 and last (but not least) Elsie Antonia in 1890.
Tragically, of the couple’s six children four, possibly five, died in early adulthood as a result of contracting tuberculosis. Only one, Elsie Antonia (my grandmother) survived and lived to an old age. This is the main subject of my earlier story, Four of six Lowe Family siblings fall victim to tuberculosis (October 12, 2021).
A family of schoolteachers
As I learnt more and more about my paternal grandmother Elsie’s birth family, I soon realised that this branch of my family tree contains many schoolteachers.
James and Margaret Lowe were schoolteachers, as were Margaret’s parents, William and Jessie Neilson. At the time of their daughter’s marriage, William and Jessie were based at Wedderburn, where William was head teacher, Wedderburn State School. James had just been appointed head teacher, Kurting State School (Hope Creek, near Inglewood), about 20 minutes’ drive from Wedderburn.
James’ mother, Margaret Lowe (nee Ferguson), was a schoolteacher. After raising seven children (one died soon after birth), Margaret taught for 7 years, from 1872 and 1878. Margaret’s parents, John Blair Ferguson and his wife Christina, were also schoolteachers.
John Blair Ferguson was head teacher, Templestowe Presbyterian School, a private school that opened around 1850. Christina worked as his assistant. After establishment of the Victorian Board of Education, the school merged with another denominational school at Templestowe to become Templestowe State School. John Blair Ferguson was appointed head teacher, Templestowe State School, a position he held from 1855 to 1872. (Templestowe is located in Melbourne’s northeast, about 16 kilometres from Melbourne’s central business district.)
The transitory life of a small school head teacher
Following their marriage, James and Margaret Lowe moved many times, as James took up head teacher positions at schools in various locations in rural Victoria. For at least 10 years Margaret assisted James as “work mistress” at the schools where James was head teacher. She continued in this role from 1878 until her resignation from the Victorian Board of Education in 1888. Clearly, for most of this time, Margaret juggled motherhood and her teaching duties. In 1888, Margaret gave birth to the couple’s fifth child.
James Samuel Lowe was a third-generation schoolteacher. With the exception of a hiatus of four years (November 1897 to November 1901), James’ teaching career spanned almost 50 years. Not that his teaching career was without controversy.
In 1897, a complaint by parents of pupils of Riddells Creek State School alleging misconduct on James’ part led to James’ dismissal by the Public Service Board. For the remainder of his teaching career, from November 1901, James was only ever offered temporary head teacher positions.
Furthermore, in this second stage of his teaching career, Margaret did not accompany James as he took up one appointment after the other and moved from one location to another. She lived in Melbourne and looked after the couple’s six children.
One of the aims of my family history pilgrimage to Victoria is to visit the sites of some of the schools where James and Margaret were teachers.
During the first stage of James’ teaching career, after Kurting State School, James and Margaret spent about 18 months at Yandoit Hills State School, where James was head teacher (late 1881 – May 1883). Yandoit Hills is about 130 kilometres or 80 miles northwest of Melbourne. James’ next appointment was to Parkes Plains near Rochester (about 180 kilometres or 112 miles north of Melbourne). For the next five years, James served as head teacher and Margaret assistant teacher at Parkes Plains State School.
In May 1888, James and Margaret and their (now) four children moved to Riddells Creek, where James took up the position of head teacher, Riddells Creek State School. Here, Margaret gave birth to two more children: Ernest Arthur in 1888 and Elsie Antonia in 1890. James’ appointment at Riddells Creek was the longest of his teaching career – nearly 8 years.
In the second phase of his teaching career (1901–1918), my great-grandfather James Lowe took up successive temporary (acting) head teacher appointments (ranging from a few weeks through to 3 years) at small (mostly) one-teacher schools throughout country Victoria. Some of these appointments were:
Tooberac State School, acting head teacher, from 24/10/1908 and 31/07/1911 (nearly 3 years). Tooberac is about 93 kilometres (58 miles) north of Melbourne.
Chillingollah State School, acting head teacher, from 1/10/1911 to 31/12/1913 (2 years). Chillingollah is located in far northwestern Victoria, near Swan Hill.
Black Range State School, acting head teacher, from 1/01/1917 to 27/08/1918 (approximately 18 months). Black Range State School was a small one-teacher school, located about 11 kilometres (7 miles) south of Stawell, a rural centre about 240 kilometres (150 miles) west northwest of Melbourne.
By 1918, James was in his mid-60s. He was approaching the end of his working life and (sadly) what appears to be a somewhat tainted teaching career. However, school inspector reports for the time he worked at Black Range State School were perhaps the most favourable of his entire teaching career. However, his appointment to Black Range State School was destined to be his last.
The deaths of James and Margaret Lowe
James Samuel Lowe (my great-grandfather) did not live to see his 66th birthday. He died at the Stawell Hospital on 27 August 1918, far from home, his wife and family. The following report, which appeared in the Stawell News and Pleasant Creek Chronicle on 31 August 1918, provides an account of his final hours:
James’ funeral took place on 30 August 1918, after his body was transported by rail from Stawell to Melbourne. His remains were interred in the Melbourne General Cemetery, in the same plot as his mother (died 1886), infant nephew John (aged 2, died 1897), and daughter Jessie Ethel (died 1907).
James died alone and intestate. At the time of his death, he had just £69 14s 3d in his savings bank account. I wonder if this amount (equivalent to about $6,500 today) would have covered, at the very least, his funeral expenses.
My father was born in August 1919, one year after James’ death. Consequently, he never knew his maternal grandfather.
However, my father did know his maternal grandmother, Margaret, as she outlived her husband by 12 years.
Margaret Antonia Lowe died on 16 September 1930, after a long illness (chronic nephritis). She was 72. The day after her death, Margaret’s mortal remains were interred at the Coburg Cemetery, in the same plot as two of her sons, William Ferguson (died 3 September 1912) and Ernest Arthur (died 29 November 1912).
My family history pilgrimage to Victoria
So, why am I going on this pilgrimage to Victoria? What do I seek to learn about my grandmother’s family?
I’ve often wondered what my great-grandparents, James and Margaret Lowe, were really like. Clearly, their lives, and the life of my grandmother, Elsie, were incredibly sad, and painful. They experienced so much loss and grief.
Regarding James, I ask: Was he a good teacher? Were the claims made against him by the parents of pupils at Riddells Creek State School valid and true? Was he a good husband and father? Or was he an irresponsible uncouth man and a drunkard? I do not know.
What I do know is that James loved his mother and cared for her right up until her death in 1886. Moreover, it is apparent he did all he could to support and provide for his wife and children. Sadly, James did not have a good example in his own father, John Valentine Lowe, whom it seems deserted his wife and left her to fend for herself and her seven children.
Perhaps visiting the places where James and Margaret lived and worked and raised their family may help me understand them a little better.
Meeting and spending time with my fellow historian may also help. He may point me to further sources of information. I hope he will accompany Tony and me as we visit a number of the sites of schools in the region surrounding Horsham where my great-grandfather was head teacher.
Like all pilgrims, Tony and I are looking forward to our impending journey with much excitement and anticipation, and a little trepidation.
