John Stitchell Hayes (1896-1991)
married 1923
Alice Christina Carkeek (1894 -1987)
Jack's story as told by his eldest daughter, Marie Mildren
Jack's young yearsMy Dad, John Stitchell, was born in the family’s Tooborac home to Edward and Sarah Hayes. He was soon dubbed “Jack” rather than John. When Jack was about twelve years old, the family moved into their beautiful new house ‘Mimosa Glen’. Here he learned to be a farmer alongside his two big brothers, Mark and Eddie and with their youngest brother Leslie. Sarah had her hands full with four daughters in the house – Mary Jane “Tottie”, Evelyn, Dora and Violet. Little three years old Winifred had sadly died on Jack’s first birthday from sunstroke.
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War ServiceOn the 5th April 1916, twenty year old Jack enrolled in the Army. He was placed in the 9th Platoon of the 7th Battalion and this unit embarked from Melbourne on board the HMAT A32 Themistocles on 28 July 1916. Having returned from the First World War on the 12th June 1919 he rarely spoke of the mud, misery and slaughter of the Somme but forged a lasting comradeship with many mates of the 7th Battalion. He attended the annual Anzac Day march in Melbourne as well as the 7th Battalion Church Service in Sydney Road Methodist Church in Brunswick. Jack regularly wrote interesting articles for “Despatches”, the 7th Battalion magazine.
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RomanceBack at home his younger sister Violet was away at Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne where she became friends with Vida Carkeek from Cudgewa. Visits to each other’s homes followed and Vida’s elder sister Alice was invited to Mimosa Glen. A romance thus developed between Alice and Jack, resulting in a Cudgewa wedding on the 5th September 1923.
Jack and Alice built a home across the road from Mimosa Glen in 1923 and called it “Glenora”, being a combination of Glen and ora, the Hendy’s Cudgewa home “Kyora”. Jack went to the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and collected the names of trees that appealed to him. He then surrounded “Glenora” with many beautiful trees: Cedars, Mexican Cypress, a Monkey Puzzle tree, plus a variety of fruit trees. He carried buckets of water from a spring across the road to establish them. |
Children
Four children soon filled Glenora. Marie Winsome was born in 1924; Keith Murray was born in 1925; Alan Edward was born in 1926 and finally Vida Alison in 1931.
Community Committments
He was very involved in the Tooborac community: the fire brigade, the church, the annual cull of kangaroos in the Warrawitchie Forest, the RSL, the Heathcote Show Society, sports days and the Masonic Lodge. He was also a good neighbour.
A example story: Bill Hayes has recounted how the late Laurie Campbell told him that during the depression Jack helped the Campbell family through difficult times. The Campbell boys helped Jack on the farm and in return he supplied them with food and clothes without which Laurie Campbell claimed they would have had great difficulty surviving.
A example story: Bill Hayes has recounted how the late Laurie Campbell told him that during the depression Jack helped the Campbell family through difficult times. The Campbell boys helped Jack on the farm and in return he supplied them with food and clothes without which Laurie Campbell claimed they would have had great difficulty surviving.
Dedicated FarmerHe was a dedicated farmer: he cared for the land and he ensured the animals were as well fed and cared for as his family were, through good times and bad.
His occasional day off was used to go to a clearing sale anywhere in the district and I still treasure some of the things that Dad came home with. I loved the stories from Mum of the things she had talked him out of buying on the rare occasions she had accompanied him. ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’ said he, while Mum would reply, ‘It’s just a dust catcher’! They made a wonderfully happy home for four children. The years went by and there we were in another war. Regular radio news meant we lived it every day. Red Cross work, army convoys on the road from Puckapunyal and planes overhead became part of life. In about 1950, the family moved to a farm, “Mossvale” near the Gippsland town of Leongatha for two years. Keith married a local Leongatha girl, Mary Dowling, while they were at “Mossvale”. Mary was a school teacher. From there they bought a property in the flat irrigation country of the Goulburn Valley and called it “Tregominion” from his mother’s Cornish heritage. (Sarah’s Hendy relatives still live on the original “Tregominion” farm in The Lizard, Cornwall.) This farm gave access to life in the nearby small village of Cooma and Shepparton was an hours drive eastward. |
Family highs and lowsYoungest daughter Vida married Donald Settle in 1952 in the Methodist Church in Cooma and over the years provided five grandchildren, a great joy.
Then tragedy struck with the death of Dad’s eldest son Keith in 1953, struck by lightning while out on the farm. My younger brother was gone so quickly at 27 years, having only been married for two years. His wife Mary never married again and eventually went back to teaching. Life would never be the same again for us all. Dad was by then in his 60’s and finally decided to retire and bought a home in Wangaratta. Son Alan married Jeanette Routledge in 1962 and supplied three more treasured grandchildren. |
Holidays and HobbiesDad bought a caravan and decided to winter up in Queensland. So off we went: Dad, Mum and I. Returning from Cairns, we called on cousin Muriel Virtue at Alstonville. Muriel, knowing my love of stones, took us to visit folk in Lismore to see their fantastic display of gemstones. Dad was instantly addicted to the beauty and wonder of the mineral world. On returning to home, he became an enthusiastic member of the Wangaratta Gem Club, learning to cut and polish stones. Lots of people treasure a stone that he cut.
During his time in England during the First World War, Dad had been able to visit our Cornish Hendy cousins and our Uren relatives in London. We remained in contact with the Cornwall relatives until very recent years. There are Hendy’s still on the Tregominion Farm in Cornwall. Dad developed a keen interest in family history and wrote letters to people far and wide, thereby keeping Australia Post solvent. Jack created a huge family tree laboriously and instigated the first Hayes Family Reunion in 1966. He maintained the tree proudly displayed at each reunion for many years. He wrote the story of Mark and Maria’s life; the histories of the Tooborac church, Sunday School, the district schools, and the Hayes family land acquisitions. He researched extensively. His son Alan and family have been to every reunion since that first one. Between family visitors and ‘rock hounds’ dropping in, the door bell at Grey Street, Wangaratta was rarely silent. |