Читать книгу The Secret Love Letters - Dolores San Miguel - Страница 8

In late August of 1870, 19-year-old Antonio San Miguel, the dark, broad-shouldered, handsome second son of successful Catalan wine grower Cipriano San Miguel and wife Francisca (née Mirambel), of Alella, Spain, set off from his homeland in a spirit of adventure to seek his fortune in Australia. Besides his parents, Antonio left behind his 22-year-old brother, Francisco, and sisters Carmen, twenty-seven, and Maria, twenty-five, who were both married.¹ He carried a ‘Passport for Abroad’, an identity card which gave him the right to travel to France and overseas as a Spanish citizen. Close friends of the San Miguels, the Parer family, also from Alella, had arrived in Australia in 1858 and had a number of prosperous restaurants, hotels, and catering establishments. So this optimistic and confident young man was determined to succeed.

Antonio arrived in Paris en route to England shortly after the commencement of the Franco-Prussian War.² He heard that the Prussian troops were about to cut off each railway line out of the city and realising the danger he was in, made a desperate dash to the Gare du Nord train station where he caught the last train out before the siege of Paris on 19 September. It was a story he often related over the years. He arrived in Calais and boarded a ship bound for Australia, arriving in Sydney late November 1870. He took lodgings at an inner city hotel. With the money he had saved working for his father and the money his family had given him, he would be comfortable for a suitable amount of time. Antonio eventually moved in with a Catalan family, whose son was a good friend of his. He had plans to import his father’s wine products, plus other ideas that came to him as he toured around Sydney. An economic boom was just beginning in Australia and young Antonio was extremely optimistic. He soon had interests in a number of billiard parlours, and began importing and selling Alella wine.

Around 1876 Antonio had become very close friends with two brothers, Andres and Joaquin Mauri who had come from the southern province of Andalusia, Spain, a year before. The brothers had experience in the cork industry and by early 1877 had begun a partnership in Sydney called Mauri Brothers. They traded as cork merchants and importers with their headquarters in Seville. On 12 September 1877, Antonio acquired a Publican’s license for the Australian Hotel in Druitt Street Sydney, taking over from Antonio Plannis. He continued importing wines and later spirits; soon, his hotel (which also had lodgings available for rent) became a very successful establishment. Antonio also took some risks, however, and on a number of occasions was fined for trading on Sundays and other offences against the Publicans Act. In 1882 he transferred his license to Joseph Gilnot and left Australia to visit his family in early 1883. Although Antonio had plenty of pretty girls seeking his attention, he still hadn’t met a potential bride, and wondered whether the girl of his dreams was back home in Alella. He remained in Spain for a number of months before returning to Australia to settle down.

On 20 June 1884, Antonio acquired a large interest and the proprietorship of The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel Company at 393 George Street, Sydney. His good friend, Martin Arenas became a partner. Martin was a cousin-in-law of the Parers and also a relative of the San Miguels through marriage, and had lent him money back in 1877 to take over the Australian Hotel.³ The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel had originally opened on the 2 October 1879 as a temperance hotel. The idea was not to serve alcohol and create a sober environment for their uppercrust clients. This movement failed and when Antonio took over, he applied for a Publican’s licence to continue his importation and selling of wines and spirits.

It was a grand building of eight floors, each 18 by 70 feet with a large ground floor frontage on George Street. There was an entrance for carriages to discharge under and the façade had high Victorian architecture. Antonio made plans to do extensive alterations and improvements and obtained a license to sell postage stamps. The building comprised of a basement that housed a very modern kitchen, with a lift to the numerous dining saloons. The ground floor housed an elaborate bar made of oak wood and marble-topped. Bronze statues and decorative busts were in abundance, and immediately in front of the bar, tables and morocco lounges were provided for the patrons’ comfort. On the ground floor was a dining room to accommodate one hundred persons. Each table was marble-topped with ornamental iron stands, and had room for six diners. Large gilt mirrors with one above every table complimented the white and gold surroundings and linoleum floors.

On the first floor were a gentlemen’s dining hall and a ladies dining saloon, the latter admitting gentlemen if accompanied by a lady. The men’s reading room contained large comfy armchairs and the lavatories all over the establishment were marble-topped. Close to the ladies dining area was a reading room where ladies arranged their toilet, read, wrote or gossiped in large, light and airy conditions.

The second floor contained a billiard room with oak ornamentation and Australian landscape scenery. Vienna billiard seats surrounded the tables. Adjoining the billiards room was a charming and comfortable smoking room where men could relax with a brandy, pipe or cigar. Gas lights and electric service bells were on every floor, and the fifty bedrooms on the remaining floors provided accommodation for both single guests and married couples. The Coffee Palace soon became a booming, busy and profitable establishment, attracting the aristocracy of Sydney.

Antonio regularly dined in the ground floor saloon and one evening in 1885 he noticed a large family enjoying the cuisine. His gaze fell on one of the daughters, 20-year-old Rebecca (Birdie) Albon. Glistening fair hair, azure blue eyes and an English rose complexion, Antonio was mesmerized by her beauty. He made his way over to their table to make his acquaintance and inquire if everything was to their satisfaction. 20-year-old Birdie, as she was affectionately called, blushed when her eyes met the striking Spaniard. At the table that night, Antonio met her parents, James and Rebecca Albon (née Poulter), and her siblings: 22-year-old Grace, teenagers Jesse, Annie, and Maud, and little 9-year-old Geseyne.

Originally from Bedfordshire, England, and having lived at Lambeth and Surrey, the family and their 18-year-old servant girl, Harriet, had arrived from Plymouth, England on the ship the Pericles, on 5 December 1877. Birdie’s father James Albon was a successful builder, plumber and home decorator, skills he had learned from his own father. Birdie’s other brother James Jr, had returned to England after a short stay in Australia.4 John, the first born son, had died at around nine years of age. The remaining children, Jane (known as Jenny) and Thomas, had both recently married and remained in England.5 The youngest, Geseyne, was not blood related, and had been adopted as an infant when her birth parents, friends of the Albons, tragically died. They now lived at Glebe Point, Sydney, where James Albon carried on his profitable business.

Birdie’s older sister, Jenny, often wrote to the family of her life in England.

29 May 1878

Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire

Beloved Mother and Father,

For these last two months I have anxiously been looking out for letters from you. The last I received was 20 March, and the last I sent out to you was on 12 April. I hope, dear Mother, that you have received all my letters. I feel I want another letter from my precious mother. I find it is very trying to my health when I am expecting news and hear of the mails coming in and then to be bitterly disappointed. But I am trying to learn the lesson of patience, and I bless God I have again experienced the faithfulness of His precious promises to His tried ones has thy day thy strength shall be. I hope, darling Mother, that this will find you with dear Father quite well, also James Jr, Birdie, Jesse, Annie, Big Babe [Maud] and the dear precious Little Baby [Geseyne]. Give my fondest love to them all, kiss each dear one for their sister Jenny [Jane], not forgetting you and my dear Father. How I long to see you all once again, will it ever be? Do you know, loved Mother, now that I am absent from you I often find myself thinking of the many ways in which I could have contributed to your comfort and happiness while I had you with me? I often feel that it is but few returns I have made you for the unearned love and kindness you have ever shown me.

I have very little news to give you this time. Of course, you may have heard about dear Grandfather who is still alive. I think you may be prepared for what I am about to tell you since I wrote this letter a telegram from Shillington on Monday that dear Grandfather has gone home to God. He passed away ten minutes to six that evening. I can’t give particulars at present. Do not fret of his great happiness, for some of us will see him again. God bless you and comfort you with His abiding love. I do not forget to pray, so does my dear husband.

I must tell you, we had Daisy Browning here for a week at Easter and she is coming again a week next Friday 7 June and will stay with us another week. She likes to be here at Bushey and she is very fond of my dear husband. Daisy sends much love to you all. We often talk together about you. Poor girl, she is not very strong; she tells me one of her lungs is gone and the other she feels is going but she is under a good doctor and does not want for anything. I try to persuade her to give up school life but she does not seem as though she would. On Easter Tuesday I had Martha and her mother to see me, and also Mrs. Thorogood — she has sold her business and says she would like to live in the country. She wishes she could get a shop near us. She wants to have a week in Bushey and thinks it would do her good, but Uncle Tom hardly knows how to spare her.6 They have got a very nice shop and I think will do well. A week last Friday I had Sarah Ann for a few days. She returned the following Tuesday.

I have had Miss Hills here — poor girl, she has been very ill and has had to go under a most painful operation. The doctors spent two hours taking a cancer out of her right side. What they took from her weighed 3 lbs! They had to strap her down as they would not give her ether or anything to make her insensible to the pain, poor thing. Her sufferings have been something fearful and she is only twenty years old. She sends love to you, Mother.

And now I must say goodbye. I don’t have anything more to say. I hope you get this letter safe with fondest love and kisses.

Ever your loving daughter,

Jenny

PS I forgot to tell you: Jenny Moss sends love to you all. She and Mr Moss send much love to you with kisses to all the dear children and both temporal and spiritual love. 7

A year later after the birth of her son, Jenny wrote again to her parents in Australia.

22 April 1879

Beloved Mother and Father,

Ere this reaches you, I hope you have received my dear husband’s letter telling of the arrival of our little son. I am very thankful to tell you I am getting on very nicely; in fact, I feel there is nothing the matter with me which is all God’s goodness and loving kindness towards me. We never thought we should have a living child for it went hard with me — 24-and-a-half hours of hard labour — but my Heavenly Father brought me safely through nature’s trial and my beloved Husband did not cease praying for me. My doctor was with me all the time and he was very patient with me and helped me all he could. I have a good nurse who looks after me so I am sure I ought to do well, don’t you think so? And best of all I have a lovely baby. Nurse says she believes he weighs from 12 to 14 pounds so you may know he is a fine boy and he is so healthy. How I should love you to see our jewel. He has got such a lot of hair on his pretty little head, I will enclose you a piece and I know you will prize it.

Oh, Mother, my very heart seems to swell out in love and gratitude to God for giving me such a precious, precious gift. To feel myself a mother seems almost too much and sometimes too good to be really true, Mother, you must still pray for me for I feel I need great wisdom to help train our child for Heaven. Sweet Mother, you know how to pray and the value of prayer, so then unite your prayers with ours that my precious Boy may be one of the Lord’s fold.

I feel more than ever the desire to come out to you but we must be patient and it will all come right. I am not going to write much this time but I know you would like me to tell you in my own hand-writing how I am getting on. Yesterday I received a letter from Miss Mascall with kind congratulations and the promise of a pair of shoes for the baby. Last Friday I received a beautiful white robe for him from Polly which she made herself. Sarah Ann is making him a hood like the one little Babe had and I am to be kept supplied with shoes from one and another of them. I had a letter from Thomas last Sunday and he tells me that Mary-Ann was confined with a boy on Easter Monday.

I am so anxious to know how you all are. I hope you are keeping well.

33-year-old Antonio was so taken with young Birdie upon first meeting her, that he asked her family to be his guests for dinner on the following Saturday night. When her father accepted the invitation, Antonio ordered a complimentary bottle of Alella sweet wine to accompany their dessert. It didn’t take long for Birdie and Antonio to begin courting and soon she was a regular dinner or luncheon guest at the Coffee Palace Hotel.

A year later, on Birdie’s twenty-first birthday, her mother wrote her a heartwarming letter.

12 June 1886

My own precious Birdie,

Today is your Twenty-first Birthday. To me, a memorable day. Well, do I remember the hour you first saw daylight! Well, dear, it’s little I have to give you on this your Natal Day. I present you with a small token of love — the books of all books. And I trust for my sake, as well as your precious soul’s sake, you will read it and learn to love its truths, and in reading it, I sincerely hope and pray you may find Redemption in the Atonement of Christ. My dear, I cannot say just how, but the few words I have said comes from a loving mother who is always thinking of her children and I trust, dear Birdie, it may keep in your heart. With much love, hoping you may live to see many, many Natal Days. Believe me, your affectionate and loving mother.

Rebecca Albon

By 1887, Antonio had become involved in some areas of the Mauri Brothers importing company, and had also become interested in the cork importing side of their business. When he and Birdie married on 20 March 1888 at St Patricks Church, Church Hill, Sydney by the Reverend Father Piquet, Andres Mauri was best man. Birdie had embraced Antonio’s religion and became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church prior to the wedding. It was a big day for the Albons, as Birdie’s younger sister, 19-year-old Maud, married Edwin A. Purches on the same day at the Mariners Church of England. Fortunately, both churches were close by in The Rocks.

On 2 February, two months before his wedding, Antonio dissolved his partnership with Martin Arenas by mutual consent, and Arenas took over the business of the Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel. Shortly after their wedding, Antonio and Birdie set off on a honeymoon, travelling on the steam ship , Zealandia to the US, Europe and England. Life on board the ship was extremely pleasant for the happy couple. They were in first class accommodation, and dined with the ship commander each evening. While in San Francisco mid-April, Antonio contributed along with others to a fine gift for the captain. During their time in London, they heard the news of the serial murders of prostitutes in the Whitechapel area, by a killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. The murders were so horrific it was the talk of the town.

They travelled to Portugal where Antonio met with cork growers; he also visited the headquarters of the Mauri Brothers⁸ in Seville and made contacts in San Feliu de Guixols on the Costa Brava in Catalonia, Spain, another rich cork area. He introduced his beautiful new bride to his delighted parents, relatives and friends and they celebrated with many a lavish party. They were away for nineteen months and during this time Birdie fell pregnant. After a sojourn in Paris, they went to Marseilles where they caught the French ship, Yarra, heading back to Australia. In Australian waters, Birdie gave birth to their first born, a son, Antonio (Tony) Stanley Joaquin (after good friend Joaquin Mauri) who was also on board; they landed in Sydney on 12 November 1889.

Over the next two years, Antonio made several trips to Melbourne and in 1892, the family moved to Melbourne, Victoria. He then set up the company, A. San Miguel and Company Cork Merchants and Importers in McKillop Street, Melbourne, and they took up residence at 1 Victoria Street, Mont Albert.⁹ In 1893, Birdie gave birth to their first daughter, Francisca Margarita Leonore.

A. San Miguel and Co. went from strength to strength. By 1894 they had moved to larger premises at 304 Flinders Street, specialising in the importation of corks, brewers’ requisites, and vignerons’ supplies.

On 28 February 1895, Antonio appeared in the County Court. He was being sued for damages by Alfred Condor of Abbotsford. In October of 1894, Antonio’s horse and cart was being cared for by his servant when it bolted away in Little Collins Street, running into Condor’s hansom cab to which it did serious damage. The case was not proved and it was dismissed by the judge.

In 1895, Andres and Joaquin Mauri disposed of their business to Ninian Miller Thomson and Edwin Charles Guttridge, changing the business name to Mauri Bros. & Thomson. By 1899 Antonio was taken into partnership with Messrs Thomson and Guttridge and they in turn became partners in A. San Miguel and Co. By this stage, each company had an office in Melbourne and Sydney.

On 20 April 1895, a second daughter, Ines Alma Irene was born at home in Mont Albert. Seventeen months later, on 13 September 1896, another son, Lionel Dudley Alfonso came into the world. Throughout 1895–98 Antonio made many trips overseas, setting up an office and headquarters in San Feliu de Guixols, Spain. In 1895, his older brother’s son, Antonet, arrived in Australia to attend school at Xavier College. He remained at school for four years, taking up residence with the San Miguel family in Mont Albert. During Antonio’s absence, Birdie had the help of nursery housemaids, servants and cooks. With four young children and her husband’s nephew to take care of, plus attending social and charity functions, her days were extremely busy.¹⁰ She was now fluent in Spanish, and all the children spoke it as well.

Early in April 1896, Tony San Miguel aged six years old had a nasty fall and badly broke his arm. The Melbourne doctors wrongly diagnosed that his arm would need to be amputated. X-Rays had been discovered a year before in 1895 by the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Antonio made the decision to take his son to Barcelona to seek medical attention using the new technique. The result was a success and his arm was rectified, however, Tony’s handwriting remained shaky throughout his life. Father and son returned to Spain five months later for the doctors to re-examine it, returning to Australia on the French steamer, Armand Behic on 8 October.

1898 was an important year for Antonio and the San Miguel family. He obtained his naturalisation certificate on 19 April under the provisions of the parliament of Victoria, making him a British subject and an Australian resident, able to buy property and land with the ability to vote. Then on 23 July 1898, a third son, Jaime Cipriano San Miguel, was born at their home.

The Argus

Situations Vacant

Friday 31 December 1897

Superior girls, general, nursery housemaid, sisters, friends, references, fare paid.

Mrs San Miguel, Mont Albert.

In late 1898, the whole family, plus a servant maid and nursery maid left for Europe. They mainly travelled between Alella, San Feliu Guixols and Seville where Antonio continued with his business dealings. On 23 May 1899 they arrived back in Australia on board the SS Australian but returned to Spain later that year. Their youngest child, Patricia Mercedes, was born in Seville on 17 June 1900. The family remained in Spain for three years, returning to Australia on the RMS Victoria, 8th December 1903.

Throughout the three-year hiatus, Antonio made trips back to Australia. In early May of 1903, he bought a large amount of land at Milson’s Point in Sydney.¹¹ He set up house at Hartland in Elmie Street, Auburn, Melbourne.¹² A grand, two-story Victorian mansion, Antonio rented the property from Francis Catford, who lived in a home directly at the back of Hartland . He was a successful publisher who ran the Southern Cross newspaper and had arrived from England all by himself, aged just thirteen years old. He eventually brought his whole family to Australia to settle.

The Argus

Situations Vacant

Tuesday 2 February 1904

General good cook and laundress, personal references; housemaid kept.

Mrs San Miguel, Elmie Street, Auburn.

1903 was also the year Antonio took in another major partner, Mr. T.S. Harrison of T.S. Harrison & Company, Melbourne, and changed the business name to Harrison, San Miguel & Co. He had met Harrison through his partnership with Mauri Bros. & Thomson as both were agents for Hayward-Tyler & Co. who specialised in machinery for aerated waters, winning gold medals in London, Paris, Calcutta, Melbourne and Adelaide. Antonio’s big picture was to expand his business into many different areas, and Harrison, an astute businessman, seemed to be the answer.

Soon Harrison, San Miguel had added ‘Specialties and Requirements for Aerated Water Manufacturers, Bottlers, Confectioners, Machinery and General Merchants and Importers and Bakers’ Supplies’ to their profile, and moved to Little Collins Street. Business was booming and they now had branches throughout the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, a Spanish house and cork factories in Seville, plus agencies in London, Hamburg and New York and their Sydney House of Mauri Bros. & Thomson, at 36 York Street. At the beginning of February 1905, Harrison, San Miguel became a public company. Listed as partners in the firm dated 3 February 1905 were Antonio San Miguel, Ninian Miller Thomson, Edwin Charles Guttridge and Harold Furley Harvey with no mention of Harrison.¹³

FOOTNOTES

1 Cipriano and Francisca San Miguel’s firstborn daughter, Carmen, was stillborn in 1841. They also christened their second daughter Carmel, who was born two years later. Salvadora Casilda Teresa, born in 1854, and Jose Jaime Benito, born in 1856, both died in infancy.

2 The Franco-Prussion war (19/07/1870-10/05/1871), was a conflict between France and Prussia that signalled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismark (the Prussian chancellor) as part of his plan to create a unified German Empire.

3 Martin Arenas was declared bankrupt in Sydney in 1894. He was married with three children, although the youngest, Arthur, died aged two in 1892. In September of 1902 the family moved to Melbourne and in 1908 Arenas became the licensee of the Kennedy’s Family Hotel in Elizabeth Street, remembered as a ‘gloomy hotel’. It is highly likely Antonio would have financially helped Martin out. On April 4 1892, a John Powell was arrested for larceny of some dress clothes belonging to James Gray and W. Nicholson, taken from The Sydney Coffee Palace in 1891. The accused stated the clothing had been given to him by Charles Marlett and Martin Arenas at the Coffee Palace. The clothing answered the description given by the Sydney police and John Powell was remanded in Sydney. The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel at 393 George Street, Sydney has gone; however, next to the current building is Temperance Lane. Number 395 is still the original building and is now a clothing store.

4 James Albon Jr. returned to England around 1878, and in 1880 married Sarah Ann Mead. They had four children — James, Jessie, Stanley and Olive — and immigrated to Australia, arriving on board the Orotavia on 19 July 1890.

5 Jane (Jenny) Albon married John Moss, a widower, in 1878. She was twenty-three years old and he was sixty. Her baby son, John Albon Moss was born in 1879. In 1880, she died aged twenty-five, cause of death unknown; however, it’s possible she may have died during childbirth and lost the baby. Her son was only a year old when she passed away, and her husband married for the third time not long after her death. His new wife, Charlotte, raised the baby boy. John Albon Moss died in 1918 at thirty-nine — it is possible he died in World War I.

6 Uncle Tom was Rebecca Albon’s brother, and he owned a boot shop. Martha was Tom’s wife.

7 Jenny refers to her sister-in-law Jenny Moss and her father-in-law, Mr Moss.

8 On 24 February 1982, Burns Philp and Company Limited bought Mauri Brothers and Thomson. Burns Philp was delisted in 2006 with its business assets acquired by a number of companies. It remains in the private ownership of a New Zealander.

9 1 Victoria Street, Mont Albert, became 3 Beatty Street in 1917. The original house still stands.

10 Antonio and Birdie were both generous in their donations to charity. Harrison, San Miguel Pty Ltd also made regular monetary gifts. Birdie worked for a number of charitable organizations.

11 Milson’s Point, the land that Antonio San Miguel owned was sold to the NSW Government when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was being constructed in the 1920s. Birdie received a large amount of money from the sale.

12 In early July of 2012, I went searching for Hartland, as Elmie Street is within walking distance from my home. I had no idea of the number or house. After walking up and down the street hoping to find the name, I noticed a woman weeding in her front garden. I told her my story and she said that although her home was the right period it was not the one. She took me to another house and that too was another name. Just as I’d given up hope she suggested we try a house across the road. She knew the owner, Ann Simpson and her husband, and when Ann opened the door she introduced me. I briefly told her my story, and said, ‘I am looking for Hartland.’ Ann grabbed my hand, and replied, ‘Welcome to Hartland, come inside!’ It was an overwhelming experience walking through the magnificent home my family had dwelled in all those years ago. I also learnt the Simpsons were selling the property, and on the 25 August 2012, Hartland was sold for $3.2 million.

13 After much research, I have found no record of T.S. Harrison leaving Harrison, San Miguel, apart from him not being listed in the 1905 partnership. Although he is mentioned in the 1908 sale advertisement for the selling of the Harrison, San Miguel Co. in Perth. It is also possible T.S Harrison was related to James Harrison (1816-1893), the Scottish born Australian printer, journalist, politian and pioneer in the field of mechanical refrigeration. In 1913, the Harrison, San Miguel Adelaide branch installed machinery which consisted of a powerful refrigeration plant, capable of treating 200 hogheads of beer per week. Interestingly, the company continued under the name, Harrison, San Miguel up until the 1950s.