The Kidd Family A Family History
The Cadden Family · William & Christina Cadden

The Storekeeper of Mount Poole

Frank Cadden

1860–1920

Goldfields storekeeper, first postmaster of Mount Poole and a King Street publican — who in his late fifties shaved exactly ten years off his age to serve in the First World War.

Born
3 August 1860, Brisbane, Queensland
Died
4 December 1920, Sydney
Married
Caroline Burke
Trade
Storekeeper, postmaster, hotel proprietor, storeman
Lived
60 years

Frank Cadden was born on 3 August 1860 in Brisbane, the second son and fourth child of William Thomas Cadden and Christina Mitchell.1 He grew up with the family’s wanderings through the Queensland goldfields, where his elder brother turned up one of the great Mount Wheeler nuggets, and then around Glen Innes, where a land-grant register, probably of the early 1880s, records two and a half acres made out to ‘Cadden F.’2

In March 1886 Frank was brought before the Inverell police court, charged with abducting a girl named Caroline Burke, and remanded on bail. Before the year was out the two were married at Inverell.34 A charge of this kind was usually brought by a parent when an under-age daughter left home without consent, and the sequence reads much like an elopement her family first opposed and then accepted. Their first known child, Emily, was born in the Glen Innes district in 1889.5

By 1890 Frank was a storekeeper and gold-lease holder on the Dalmorton field. He took up a lease with his father in June 1890, applied for a residence allotment in the township that November, and through 1891 joined in three more leases, one of them the family’s joint Gold Lease 18.6 At the census of April 1891 he was a Dalmorton householder, living next door to his brother John.7 He kept the Red Flag store there. When the Mount Poole rush broke that winter he built a branch store on the new field, and in November 1891 the Postmaster-General put him in charge of Mount Poole’s new post office, named Springbrook.89

By the mid-1890s the family had moved to Sydney: a daughter, Phyllis, was registered at Parramatta in 1896 and a son, Charles Oswald, at Newtown in 1899.5 Frank became a publican. The Sands directory lists him at ‘Cadden’s Hotel,’ 175 Clarence Street, on the corner of King Street, the house otherwise known as the White Hart, which his brother William managed for him. There, in the small hours of 14 July 1902, William shot and grazed a drunken sailor who had broken into what the charge described as ‘the dwelling-house of Frank Cadden.’1011 Through all of this Frank stayed close to his parents and siblings. He was the informant on both his parents’ death certificates, was living with his widowed mother at ‘West Brae,’ Glen Innes, when she died in 1907, witnessed his sister Christina’s wedding in 1908, and acted as William’s attorney in a Brisbane business dissolution in 1909.12

In April 1917, at fifty-six, Frank enlisted for Home Service with the Army Medical Corps, giving his age as forty-seven. He kept his true birthday, 3 August, but moved the year on from 1860 to 1870. Even so he was judged over age and short-sighted, fit only for service at home. He worked as a timekeeper in the quartermaster’s store at No. 4 Australian General Hospital, Randwick, living nearby at the A.J.C. Hotel.13 Taken ill with cystitis and eczema in December 1917, he was discharged while still a patient, and wrote a two-page letter to the Principal Medical Officer protesting the manner of it.14 Within a fortnight he had re-enlisted, and he served as a storeman at the Field Hospital at Liverpool Camp until, ten days after the Armistice, he asked for and was granted his discharge. A last brief stint at Randwick in early 1919 ended with his transfer to the Medical Corps reserve.15 His son Oswald had meanwhile gone on active service as a corporal with Carmichael’s 2nd Thousand, while Caroline was living at Petersham.1315

After the war Frank found work as a temporary storekeeper with the Department of Public Works, still giving his birth year as 1870.16 He died on 4 December 1920, aged sixty, his true age, and was buried in Waverley Cemetery.17

Frank’s eldest daughter, Emily Caroline, married Frederick Elmes Collins, an English-born former seaman from Hastings, at Canterbury in 1911.24 Early in 1914 the couple were renting a cottage at 11 Petersham Street, Petersham, sharing it with lodgers, and Emily’s younger sister Phyllis, then sixteen, came to stay. So did a 38-year-old labourer called Alexander Stewart, who had been following Phyllis about for months. When Emily asked him to leave, Phyllis went home to their mother, Caroline, at ‘Treadgold’ in nearby Yule Street. On the night of 1 March 1914, after Stewart had warned both sisters in the street that they would be ‘crying before the night is over’, the cottage was set alight while the lodgers slept. Emily, with her baby, her mother and her sister, arrived to find the firemen at work, and collapsed. At the inquest the sisters’ evidence sent Stewart for trial. At the trial, however, the defence produced Phyllis’s own letters to him, signed ‘Yours to a cinder, Phil’ and ‘Still your own Phil, with three kisses’. The judge told her she was ‘a young lady who talks a great deal’, and the jury acquitted.25

Frederick volunteered twice in the First World War, for the Mining Corps in 1916 and the Field Artillery in 1917, and twice was discharged medically unfit without leaving Australia. In 1917 Emily was living at 66 Young Street, Annandale, the same address given for her mother on her brother Charles’s enlistment papers.26 Frederick was later a commercial traveller, went bankrupt in 1927, and was working for the Navy at the Royal Edward Victualling Yard when he died in mid-1943. Their son Edward James, a mat maker, had died at Newcastle the year before.27 Emily spent her last years at Newington, the state hospital for aged women at Silverwater, and died in 1951.28

His daughter Phyllis Evelyn married Ernest Pantzer at the Registrar-General’s Office in Sydney in 1914, when she was about eighteen.18 Ernest had been born near Prague around 1889 and was by profession a ‘motor juggler’, a stage performer, but as a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire he was classed as an alien enemy in wartime Australia and could get no engagements. Instead he drove a motor for Grace Bros. In July 1918 he was fined at the Glebe Police Court for failing to report to the police after taking Phyllis in his motorcycle sidecar to Berrima, Fitzroy Falls and Nowra, a camera in his luggage. He told the court that many of his countrymen were fighting with the Allies.19 The marriage did not last. By the mid-1920s Ernest had left, and in 1926 Phyllis, then living in Hay Street, Leichhardt, had a warrant issued for his arrest for desertion and sued for divorce. The marriage was dissolved in March 1929.20

Frank’s son, Charles Oswald, enlisted in the AIF in July 1917 at eighteen, an apprentice machinist at the Government Workshops in Randwick. His mother signed his consent alone, and on the form he declared his father dead, though Frank was alive and serving at Randwick at the time. Charles trained with the 36th Battalion’s reinforcements, Carmichael’s Thousand, sailed in June 1918, survived influenza on the voyage, and joined the 2nd Battalion in France in February 1919, too late for the fighting. He came home on the Boorara that August.21 Later he moved to Brisbane, where, as ‘Charles Oscar Cadden’, he worked as an iron moulder and lived with his wife Elsie May in East Brisbane and then Greenslopes. The Depression was hard on him, and in 1933 he was convicted at Brisbane of imposition on the Department of Labour.22 He died in Brisbane on 28 February 1944, aged forty-four, and was buried in South Brisbane Cemetery. His widow’s funeral notice named no children.23

No death or remarriage has yet been found for Caroline. She is last seen for certain in the Petersham fire reports of March 1914, and as her son’s next of kin at Petersham and Annandale in 1917–18.2526

The next generation

Children

  • Emily Caroline (1889–1951)
  • Phyllis Evelyn (b. 1896)
  • Charles Oswald (1899–1944)

The Record

Sources & References

  1. 1

    Birth, 1860

    Queensland BDM birth registration 1860/B/273: Frank Cadden, born 3 August 1860; father William Cadden, mother Christina Mitchell. His birthplace is given as Brisbane, Queensland, on all his First World War papers (NAA: MT1486/1, CADDEN/FRANK).

  2. 2

    Land grant, Glen Innes

    NSW Register of Land Grants, p. 5281: Cadden F., Vol. 543, Fol. 27, at Glen Innes, 2a. 2r. 0p. Undated on the page; the register volume numbers suggest the early 1880s.

  3. 3

    The abduction charge, 1886

    Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 27 March 1886, ‘Northern Notes’: ‘At Inverell, Frank Cadden has been brought up at the police court for abducting a girl named Caroline Burke, and remanded for a week, bail being allowed.’

  4. 4

    Marriage, 1886

    NSW BDM marriage registration 5698/1886, Inverell: Frank Cadden and Caroline Burke.

  5. 5

    The children

    NSW BDM birth registrations, each naming father Frank and mother Caroline:

    • Emily C. Cadden — 20842/1889, Glen Innes
    • Phyllis E. Cadden — 33563/1896, Parramatta (mother indexed as ‘Cazdine’)
    • Charles O. Cadden — 23425/1899, Newtown; named by Frank as his son ‘Oswald Charles Cadden’ in 1917
  6. 6

    Dalmorton leases and residence area, 1890–91

    NSW Government Gazette, Register of Gold-Mining Leases, Clarence and Richmond District: Lease 182 (GL 56, parish of Nullama, 2 acres) to Frank Cadden and W. T. Cadden, delivered 8 December 1890. NSW State Archives, Gold (auriferous) Lease Registers (NRS 10101), index entries for Frank Cadden: Register 182 (applied 4 June 1890), 259 (16 July 1891, the joint Gold Lease 18), 260 (9 September 1891) and 261 (26 October 1891). NSW State Archives, NRS 13859, plan of Allotment 6, Section 6, town of Dalmorton, applied for by Frank Cadden as a residence area, 21 November 1890.

  7. 7

    Census, 1891

    1891 Census of New South Wales, Glen Innes district, township of Dalmorton: schedule 64, John Cadden (3 males, 1 female); schedule 65, Frank Cadden (1 male, 2 females).

  8. 8

    The Red Flag store

    Clarence and Richmond Examiner, 29 August 1891, ‘Mount Poole’: ‘Mr. Frank Cadden, of the Red Flag store, Dalmorton, is erecting a branch establishment at Mount Poole, and it is rumoured that a public dancing saloon and another store will soon follow.’

  9. 9

    Springbrook post office, 1891

    Glen Innes Examiner and General Advertiser, 17 November 1891, ‘Official Correspondence’: letter from the General Post Office, 5 November 1891, announcing a post office at Mount Poole, ‘to be designated “Springbrook,” on the 16th inst., under the charge of Mr. Frank Cadden.’

  10. 10

    Cadden’s Hotel

    Sands’s Sydney and Suburban Directory (undated page, c. 1900–05), alphabetical section: ‘Cadden Frank, Cadden’s hotel, 175 Clarence st, cor. King st.’ The same series lists a Frank Cadden at 65 O’Connell Street, Newtown.

  11. 11

    Break-in, 1902

    Australian Star, 14 July 1902, ‘Shot in the Vest’: William Cadden, manager of the White Hart Hotel, King and Clarence streets, ‘for his brother, Frank Cadden.’ Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 1902; NSW Police Gazette, 16 July 1902: John Tiernan, sailor, committed for trial for being found by night in the dwelling-house of Frank Cadden, King and Clarence Streets.

  12. 12

    Informant, lessee, witness, attorney

    NSW BDM death registrations 5395/1898 and 1208/1907 (informant Frank Cadden, son); Glen Innes Examiner, funeral notice, 5 March 1907; St Michael’s Church marriage register, Flinders Street, Sydney, 29 August 1908 (witness); Queensland Government Gazette, 1 January 1910 (dissolution of the Conqueror Manufacturing Company, signed by Frank Cadden as William’s attorney).

  13. 13

    Home Service, No. 4 A.G.H., 1917

    NAA: MT1486/1, CADDEN/FRANK — application to enlist and Home Service Medical Board, Randwick, 28 April 1917: of the A.J.C. Hotel, Allison Road, Randwick; timekeeper; age 47; married; unfit for active service, ‘over age, poor eyesight’; fit for Home Service. Attestation: born Brisbane; next of kin his son Oswald Charles Cadden, 138 Young Street, Petersham; appointed to the Quartermaster’s Store, No. 4 Australian General Hospital, Randwick; served 28 April to 19 December 1917. A torn slip in the file gives Oswald’s address as ‘Cpl., Carmichael’s 2nd Thousand, on active service.’

  14. 14

    Frank’s letter, 27 December 1917

    Same file: handwritten letter from Frank Cadden to the Principal Medical Officer, 2nd Military District, with a typed office copy. He had applied for his discharge in November on account of rheumatism, stayed on to cover for colleagues on leave, was admitted to H Ward on 15 December with cystitis and eczema, and found his discharge issued on 20 December while still a patient awaiting treatment.

  15. 15

    Home Service, Liverpool and Randwick, 1918–19

    Same file:

    • 3 January 1918: re-enlisted for Home Service, Victoria Barracks; storeman; age 47 years 4 months, born 3 August 1870; next of kin his wife, Caroline Cadden, Crystal Street, Petersham; both parents dead
    • Posted to the Field Hospital, Liverpool; on the sick list with chronic eczema, 24 June – 8 July 1918
    • 21 November 1918: discharged at his own request
    • 27 February – 3 March 1919: Home Service Staff, No. 4 A.G.H., Randwick, of 377 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst; discharged at his own request and the same day attested to the Australian Army Medical Corps Reserve
  16. 16

    Public Works, after the war

    NSW Department of Public Works, Temporary Officers’ record card: Cadden, Frank, born 3 August 1870; position apparently storekeeper (card seen only as a low-resolution preview).

  17. 17

    Death and burial, 1920

    Waverley Cemetery burial index: Frank Cadden, born 1860?, died 4 December 1920, aged 60; plot W-21-GE SP-640.

  18. 18

    Phyllis’s marriage, 1914

    NSW BDM marriage registration 13425/1914, Sydney: Phyllis E. Cadden and Ernest Pantzer. The 1928 divorce report gives the wedding as 23 [October?] 1914 at the Registrar-General’s Office, Sydney.

  19. 19

    Ernest Pantzer fined, 1918

    Glebe Police Court, 23 July 1918, reported in the Sun (Sydney), 23 July 1918, ‘Bohemian Fined’; Daily Telegraph, 24 July 1918, ‘Bohemian’s Mistake’; Maitland Daily Mercury, 24 July 1918, ‘Alien Enemy Fined’; Singleton Argus, 25 July 1918. Ernest Pantzer, 29, alien enemy, born near Prague, motor driver for Grace Bros. and professional ‘motor juggler’, fined £2 10s (60s in the Sun) for travelling with his wife to Berrima and Nowra, 29 June – 2 July 1918, without reporting to police.

  20. 20

    Pantzer v. Pantzer, 1926–29

    Sources:

    • NSW Police Gazette, 20 October 1926, p. 569: warrant, Glebe Bench, for the arrest of Ernest Pantzer, about 37, taxi driver, for wife desertion; complainant Phyllis Evelyn Pantzer, 36 Hay Street, Leichhardt
    • Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 1926: citation, Matrimonial Causes No. 1447 of 1926, divorce sought on the ground of desertion for three years and upwards
    • Sydney Morning Herald, 18 August 1928: decree nisi granted to ‘Phyllis Evelyn Pantzer (formerly Cadden)’
    • Sydney Morning Herald, 13 March 1929: decree made absolute
  21. 21

    Charles Cadden’s war service

    NAA: B2455, CADDEN C, service no. 51207: enlisted Sydney 8 July 1917, born Newtown, aged 18 years 1 month, machinist, apprentice at the Government Workshops, Randwick; consent signed by his mother Caroline Cadden, ‘Father dead’; 8th Reinforcements, 36th Battalion; embarked Sydney per H.M.A.T. Field Marshal 19 June 1918; influenza at sea, August 1918; 2nd Battalion in France from 2 February 1919; returned per Boorara, disembarked 26 August 1919; discharged 12 October 1919. British War and Victory Medals.

  22. 22

    Brisbane years

    Sources:

    • Commonwealth electoral rolls: Charles Oscar and Elsie Cadden, iron moulder, Phillip Street, East Brisbane (1928); 6 Grove Street, Marrickville, NSW (1930); 84 Dunellan Street, Greenslopes (1937); Charles Oscar and Elsie May Cadden, 64 Bunya Street, Greenslopes (1943)
    • Queensland Police Gazette, 4 February 1933, p. 40: Cadden, Charles; imposition; Department of Labour; three months’ hard labour suspended on a £20 bond and restitution of £20 10s 9d; Brisbane, 21 January 1933
    • NAA: J26, M49415, Repatriation Commission file, Cadden, Charles, service no. 51207, 1917–1943 (not yet examined)
  23. 23

    Death of Charles Cadden, 1944

    Queensland BDM death registration 1944/B/65534: Charles Oscar Cadden, died 28 February 1944. Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 1 March 1944, funeral notice: ‘Oswald Charles Cadden,’ beloved husband of Mrs E. Cadden, Leonard Street, Buranda, formerly of Bunya Street, Greenslopes; funeral to South Brisbane Cemetery, 2 March 1944.

  24. 24

    Emily’s birth and marriage

    NSW BDM birth registration 20842/1889, Glen Innes: Emily C. Cadden, father Frank, mother Caroline. NSW BDM marriage registration 12585/1911, Canterbury: Emily C. Cadden and Frederick E. Collins.

  25. 25

    The Petersham fire, 1914

    Sources:

    • Coroner’s inquest, 11 March 1914, reported in the Daily Telegraph and Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March 1914, the Sun, 11 March 1914, and the National Advocate (Bathurst), 13 March 1914: fire at 11 Petersham Street, occupied by Frederick Elmes Collins, 1 March 1914; evidence of Phyllis Evelyn Cadden (17), of ‘Treadgold,’ Yule Street, Petersham, and of Mrs Emily Caroline Collins
    • NSW Police Gazette, 18 March 1914, p. 133: Alexander Stewart, alias Alfred Clarke and three other names, committed for trial for maliciously setting fire to the dwelling-house of Frederick Elmes Collins
    • Darlinghurst Quarter Sessions, 29 April 1914, before Judge Backhouse, reported in the Sun, 29 April 1914, the Daily Telegraph, 30 April 1914, and the National Advocate, 1 May 1914, ‘Yours to a Cinder’: Stewart acquitted
  26. 26

    Frederick Collins’s war service

    NAA: B2455, COLLINS F E: born Hastings, England; no. 846, sapper, No. 2 Company Mining Corps, enlisted 28 January 1916 from 3 Central Road, Ashfield, put ashore sick from the Ulysses at Fremantle and returned for discharge, April 1916; no. 72325, Field Artillery, enlisted 12 March 1917, next of kin his wife Emily Collins, 66 Young Street, Annandale; discharged medically unfit, Liverpool, 18 February 1918.

  27. 27

    Later years; deaths of Frederick and Edward James

    Sources:

    • NSW Government Gazette, 1 July 1927: bankruptcy of Frederick Elms Collins, of 9 Barton Street, Enfield, commercial traveller
    • Commonwealth electoral rolls: Emily Caroline and Frederick Elmes Collins, 7 Anzac Street, Canterbury (1933, 1934); with Edward James Collins, mat maker, 57 Garrong Road, Lakemba (1936); 3 Railway Parade, Belmore (1943)
    • NSW BDM death registration 28387/1942, Newcastle: Edward James Collins, father Frederick Elmes, mother Emily Caroline
    • NAA: B2455, COLLINS F E: letter from the Royal Edward Victualling Yard, Pyrmont, 5 August 1943, reporting the death of its employee Frederick Elmes Collins and seeking his service particulars for his widow’s funeral-expenses claim
  28. 28

    Emily’s last years

    Commonwealth electoral roll, Auburn North (after 1943): Emily Caroline Collins, Newington Hospital, home duties. NSW BDM death registration 9579/1951, Parramatta: Emily Caroline Collins, father Frank, mother Caroline.