Charles Kenworthy
Contents
Background
Charles Kenworthy born on 6 January 1825 in Philadelphia, United States of America. He graduated from Pennsylvania Medical College in 1846. Emigrating on the Panama he arrived in Victoria on 8 June 1853. Kenworthy married Annie, daughter of John Hepburn in 1869. Charles, a member of the Athenaeum Club in Melbourne, died on 25 March 1891 at St Kilda, and was buried later the same day at St Kilda Cemetery (Presbyterian A 143), although his death does not appear to have been registered until 1897. His mother had been buried in the same cemetery plot after her death in 1884.[1]
His pen name was al fresco.
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
He attended the Thanksgiving Dinner in honour of the American Consul, J. Tarleton which was held at the Victoria Hotel, Red Hill on the 20 November 1854, and gave a toast to the Diggers of Victoria. [2]
He was an intermediary for the Americans taken at the storming of the Eureka Stockade. He helped organise the release of American miner Charles Ferguson. [3]
On 23 December 1854 Dr Kenworthy gave evidence to the Commission on the Chinese in Victoria describing the Chinese as ‘the greatest nuisance on the diggings’ adding that ‘I think they are sober and industrious and quiet, but I am satisfied from personal observation, that they are a set of thieves’. On 16 July 1856 he was elected Honorary Surgeon at the Ballarat Hospital – at that time he had rooms on Sebastopol Hill. Kenworthy was also a popular lecturer at the Mechanics’ Institute, the first President of the Ballarat Horticultural Society in 1859, and the inventor of some mining equipment.[4]
Post 1854 Experiences
The Sebastopol Mechanics' institute was opened on Thursday 28 April 1864 at 7.00 o'clock in the evening. Dr Charles Kenworthy occupied the chair. The land on which the building stands was applied for on behalf of the committee by Dr Kenworthy, to whose strenuous exertions the success of the movement is mainly to be attributed; while the Mexican Gold Mining Co, on whose claim the ground is situated has kindly consented to its alienation. [5]
See also
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
References
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.
- ↑ http://www.ballaratgenealogy.org.au/sebastopol/mechinst.htm, viewed 21 May 2013.
External links
