From Irish Group member Ron Featherston - I found this in Trove - The Advertiser Tuesday 6 October 1936. I think it will be of interest especially to those of us who are interested in the Mary Dugdale and to the Donnellan family. Note John Rodgers is from Westmeath and probably something to do with Montague Chapman who owned land near Kapunda - his agent Bagot was lucky enough to select the good bit). Where Kapunda Might Have Been During this week Kapunda people are justified in holding Centenary celebrations because hundreds of pioneers must have passed through, or settled there in the placid old days of bullock team conveyances. Perhaps the most interesting story concerns the founding- of the town, as told me yesterday by a friend of mine. He said it was not intended that the town should occupy the site it now does; it should be located at St. Johns, about four miles away. There on April 4,1850, the foundation stone of the Catholic Church of St. John the Evangelist was laid by the first Bishop of Adelaide (Dr. Francis Murphy), assisted by Father Fallon, the first parish priest, to whom a memorial was dedicated in St. Johns cemetery on Sunday by Archbishop Killian. The church was built on land made available to religious bodies under the State Aid to Religion Act. and was used for religious services until the late 1880s, when a move was made to Kapunda, which, by this time had be come an important mining centre after copper had been discovered there in 1843. Additional evidence of the intention to establish a township at St. Johns can be found in the ruins of stores on the property of the late John Rodgers. who was born in Ireland in 1797, and came to this State in 1840 with his wife and family in the ship Mary Dugdale. The stores were built by the late Mr.Donnellan, and the two cement crosses, which surmount the old church, were taken by James Rodgers from Port Adelaide in a bullock dray. Father Fallons remains were interred beneath the altar of his church, and years later were removed to the cemetery by the late John Ryan. St. Johns is now but a farming district.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 02:13:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015