I was recently contacted by Jeannine Nolan who has very kindly allowed me to tell the story of her Great Uncle Jack. She came to get in touch through a story I did last year about John Hindhaugh. There may be a family connection as Emily Marion Hindhaugh married Ezra Chappel, Jack’s uncle. Sadly Emily died of Typhoid in 1896 and is buried in the Menzies Cemetery in WA. Ezra and his brother Ralph then packed up and returned to Victoria.
Jonathan Oswald Noel Chappel (Jack) 1878-1910
Jack Chappel – taken at Black Range WA
Our Great Uncle Jack had lived, worked, and died at Sandstone on 2 January 1910. He was born in 1878 in the Victorian goldfields and educated at the Bendigo School of Mines. By c1906, he was employed at the Oroya Black Range GM battery when he met Mollie Sutherland. They were married in the Black Range Anglican Chapel in 1907.
Jack and Mollie (nee Sutherland) Chappel
The happy couple was blessed with a daughter they named Esdaile in 1908. But their time together was tragically shortened by his illness. Jack was diagnosed with meningitis and died suddenly on 2nd Jan 1910, aged only 32. Their second child was a son, Noel, who was born about three weeks after his father’s death.
Mollie, Noel, and Esdaile Chappel
Jack Chappel’s Grave in the Sandstone Cemetery – 2021 with the tree planted by Jeaninne
At the time, Jack’s brother – Jeannine’s grandfather, Percy Chappel, was working at one of the Maninga Marley mine sites. He wrote home to tell their widowed mother, Emily Chappel (nee Payter) in Rochester Victoria the sad news. She replied asking Percy to plant a wattle tree on his dear brother Jack’s grave in the Sandstone Cemetery.
Note: Im sure he would have carried out his mother’s wishes but the tree hasn’t survived.
Jeannine says: It is with thanks to the Men’s Shed project who have mapped the locations of the known graves in the Sandstone Cemetery that I was able to identify quickly where Jack was buried – 106 years later. I planted the Wattle tree, water is still scarce and I used all I had in our drink bottles. The next morning before leaving Sandstone, I took more water back to pour on that little seedling as a gesture of hope for its survival. The ground was covered with the slithery marks of snakes on that hot dry red earth. They were everywhere and I determined I wouldn’t be camping nearby at any time soon.
Note: If anyone is up that way perhaps they can spare some water for this little memorial.
Jack Chappel outside his tent.
Printed in the ‘Rochester Express’ on 22 Jan 1910 and in ‘The Black Range Courier and Sandstone Observer 1907-1915’ available TROVE website – 7 January 1910 Page 2
We regret to record the death of Mr. Jonathan Oswald Noel Chappel which took place at the Black Range District Hospital on 2 January. The deceased had been ailing for some weeks and succumbed on Saturday to meningitis. He was only 32 years of age and was employed at the Oroya Black Range gold mine as an amalgamator. Deceased had resided in Sandstone for about 2½ years and was an active member of the UAOD in which body, as well as by his fellow workmen, and the staff of the mine, he was much respected and this was fully exemplified by the number of persons who followed the mournful cortege to the ceremony – it is the largest funeral to have taken place in the district. The first portion of the burial service was read at the Anglican Church at the graveside by the Rev Mr. Brewis.
Then followed the solemn Service observed by Bro A Rowe, the District President of the Druids. A large number of wreaths were sent, among these being one from Mr. and Mrs. Pollard, and a handsomely designed cross by the Order of which deceased was associated. Mr. Chappel was a native of Victoria and leaves a young widow and one child to mourn his loss for whom much sympathy has been extended by the residents of Sandstone. The mortuary arrangements were in the hands of Mr. McDonald. Deceased was a son of Mrs. J Chappel of Rochester.
The Oroya Black Range GM NE Side.
Two weeks later, the above obituary also appeared in the Rochester Express (Victoria) sent from Sandstone via a wire over the Overland Electric Telegraph Line.
The Oroya Black Range Battery
The Oroya GM Steam Engine
Sandstone Western Australia
Hack Street Sandstone 1913
The goldfields townsite of Sandstone is located 660 km northeast of Perth and 158 km east of Mount Magnet. Gold was discovered in this area in the early 1900s, and by 1905 there were enough miners in the area for the government to be requested to declare a townsite. Correspondence in 1905 refers to the area as “Hans Irvine’s Find, also known as Sandstone” and that a large amount of money had been spent on Hotels, Banks, Stores, etc. When the townsite was gazetted in 1906 the name of Sandstone was approved, based on the recommendation of Warden Lawlers who reported “I have since been to Black Range, but could not get the native name of the locality, and cannot suggest a suitable native name. I would recommend the town be called ‘Sandstone’ or ‘Sandhurst’. The place is now well known as Sandstone but a small change such as to Sandhurst would not take the public long to get into the way of calling the town by the correct name, but I would prefer the name ‘Sandstone’.”
Books of interest…………….
Barb of the Spear by Bob Shepherd
Published by Warrigul Press 1987
Sandstone – From Gold to Wool & Back Again
by Sally Senior
Published by the Shire of Sandstone 1995
Available from the Shire of Sandstone
Postscript: Mollie went ‘home’ to Collie and had to support the two young children. She has remarried a widower with children, handed Esdaile over to the nuns to look after, and sent Noel over to his grandmother, Emily Chappel (nee Payter) in Rochester Victoria and he was about 16 when he came back. He served in WWII, was taken prisoner-of-war in Crete, and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. He married Valerie (nee McGovern) and had three children.
On his return to Australia after World War II, Noel Chappel married a widow, Maisie, who had a son named Desmond. There were no children of this marriage.
by Jeannine Nolan about our Great Uncle Jack (March 2021) – jeannine.nolan@outlook.com
Moya Sharp
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