Edward Flanagan McElroy (c1825-1903)
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top Mary Anne, left Alice, right Josephine, bottom Catherine.
The dresses the girls are wearing would have been made by themselves – all were excellent dressmakers and also made fittings for their father’s carriages such as upholstery and curtains. They remained very close all their lives.
Courtesy of Kath McKay
History
Edward Flanagan McElroy was thought to be born in Ireland. His parents were James Flanagan and his mother Mary McElroy. He left Ireland for America, then sailed to Australia arriving in Ballarat in 1853. According to family stories he switched his names around when he arrived in Ballarat (or Australia) in an attempt to appear more Scottish than Irish. He considered Scotsmen did better in business than Irishmen. Edward McElroy married Maria Pearce and they had a large family. There were six sisters and two brothers who survived to adulthood. Of the six sisters became a nun with Mary McKillop’s Sisters of St. Joseph’s and another sister died in childbirth in 1898.[1]
McElroy's coach and carriage building premises, E.F. McElroy Carriage Builder, were located (according to the Australasian Federal Directory) on Mair Street, Ballarat.[2] It was apparently a very successful business until towards the end of his life when his health started to fail and his children did not have the same business aptitude.[3] Edwards and Maria McElroy are buried in the Ballaarat Old Cemetery.[4]
Site
Corner of Mair Street and Raglan Street, Ballarat.
Obituary
- One of the oldest and earliest of the pioneers of Ballarat died yesterday morning, in the person of Mr. E.F. McElroy, the well-known carriage builder of this city. The deceased gentleman was born in County Monaghan, Ireland in 1826 and was therefore in his 78th year at the time of his death. Mr McElroy learned his trade in his native country and after finishing his apprenticeship emigrated to the United States. There he spent five years in New York studying American methods of work and business. He came to Australia in 1854 and worked at his trade in Melbourne but being seized by the prevailing gold fever headed for the interior , arriving at Ballarat in 1855. He was unsuccessful as a gold-finder and finally settled down as a carriage builder in Mair Street in which place he carried on business until about a year ago when advancing age and ill health compelled him to relinquish and lease his factory. Mr. McElroy was recognised as an expert at his trade – particularly in one branch, that of wheel making and his excellent workmanship, combined with his integrity gained him the admiration and esteem of all who had dealings with him. A charitable and generous disposition was a prominent characteristic of the deceased gentleman. He was pre-deceased by his wife about four years ago and leaves a grown up family. [5]
See also
Notes
- SIR,-I trust you will give me a small space in your valuable paper 10 say a few words in behalf of my former employer (James Davis Morgan, coachbuilder), who has been rather unfairly dealt with by our Ballarat historian in his chronicles in the supplement of The Star, 23th September, 1889. He says— "But Morgan was not given to thrift, much less money grabbing, and he let pleasure rather than presence take the helm.” Now, Mr Editor, this statement going forth unchallenged to future generations will blacken the character of a man that was a benefactor to the travelling public in the early days of Victoria. Mr Morgan was the first carriage builder to introduce the light speeding American carriage for the heavy lumbering English stage coach. This was a boon to the public that cost him dear, and was the great drawback to success, as it was impossible to get American trained mechanics at that time, and Mr Morgan to learn most of his hands at high wages for spoiled work that lies buried under the floor of his old smith shop. Mr Morgan is charged with having been thriftless. Well I made his acquaintance in the city of New York in July, 1854, and have worked for him in Melbourne and here in Ballarat; and do not think a baser calumny was ever uttered than that which tries to smudge my dead friend, who stood head and shoulders above his competitors. He had the respect of his men, and the confidence of his patrons; he was attentive to his business, and had every vestige of shavings and debris of the past day removed by his individual exertion before the men came to work at 7 o’clock in the morning; super-intended his business throughout the day, and saw that the night coach was ready before he retired. Mr Morgan’s great ambition was to excel, and to that end he got the best workmen he could find, and he had the happy knack of placing each man in the position he was best fitted for. Mr Lever made the bodies of most of the stage coaches, and no cleverer designer or better workman is in Ballarat to-day. Mr Crews, an able bodymaker, made most of the private work. Mr Murphy and Mr Redmond, good practical work men, were on carriage and general work. Mr Fish now foreman for the 'Bus Company, Melbourne, for the past 20 years, did all the best smith work. Mr Cutter, a good practical smith, kept the stage coaches in repair in the years succeeding '59, and had charge of the wheel department. These men and their aids were under the able superintendence of J. D. Morgan himself. He may have had faults, but it is as ungenerous as uncalled for to give them the coloring they have got in the Chronicles. I will say, without fear of contradiction, that none of his employees had ever to mourn the loss of unrequited labor, and it grieves me to find Mr Withers has been imposed on by some biased traducer to bespatter the grave of an old pioneer that has done much to for ward the carriage trade in Ballarat. Trusting to the fairness of The Star for inserting the above.
- -Yours, &C., E. F. M'ELROY, Carriage Builder, Mair and Raglan streets, 3rd October, 1889.[6]
References
- ↑ Research by descendant Kath McKay, 2016.
- ↑ Rogers, J. W. F. (ed.). (c. 1887). The Australasian Federal Directory of Commerce, Trades & Professions. Melbourne: J. W. F. Rogers.
- ↑ Research by descendant Kath McKay, 2016.
- ↑ Research by descendant Kath McKay, 2016.
- ↑ Ballarat Courier, 31 August 1903.
- ↑ Ballarat Star, 04 October 1889.
Further Reading
External links
--Beth Kicinski 14:43, 12 December 2011 (EST); --Clare K.Gervasoni 17:38, 12 May 2016 (AEST)