Daniel Sweeney

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Background

His great great grandson married the great grand daughter of William Michael Kinnane, also thought to be at the Eureka Stockade.

Goldfields Activities, 1854

Sweeney had a store at Eureka. He also had a horse pound near the site of the Ballarat Old Cemetery. It is thought that he sold horses to Americans during the Civil War.

During the days leading up to the Eureka Stockade battle he had some saddles in exchange for an IOU note.[1]

William Bramwell Withers in his History of Ballarat wrote that:

Hayes had a genius for exploration, and the airy flights of change were more seductive to him than the "demnition grind" of dull prosaic life in the whim-round of humdrum methodical duty. After the tragic comedy of the Stockade time, he declined upon the less romantic occupation of town inspector for Ballarat East, but private urgencies projected him upon the quest of fresh woods and new pastures, and he threw up his municipal prose for the poetry of life in the lands of Chili or Brazil. He took with him an honorable discharge from office, duly attested by the big seal of the municipality, and it seems that he bore with him also some mystic military charm as from the post Bakery Hill meeting days, when oratory had got translated into pikes and revolvers and muskets. For the town inspector of Ballarat East blossomed forth in Chili or Brazil as an authority upon military engineering, and he was employed by the bellicose people of those latitudes as an inspector of fortifications, on which he was to report forthwith, since trouble on the frontier was expected as a result of the war between the Southern and Northern States of America. How our hero came out of that exploit does not transpire, but he appeared after a while in San Francisco, where he sought to coalesce with Sweeney, once an auctioneer and municipal man in Ballarat East. Sweeney, it was said, had made a pile of dollars by buying horses and selling them to the Unionists or Confederates, or both; but instead of a coalition, there was a collision between the whilom Ballarat chums, and Tim, around whom his brother Freemasons had helpfully rallied within the Golden Gate, returned with larger experience to Victoria. He figured for a while as a railway hand in some capacity in Melbourne, his portly presence adorning the metropolitan halls and thoroughfares in his hours of leisure. And there he died, and so we will hope that he, too, sleeps well after his life's fitful fever.

Post Eureka Activities

Daniel Sweeney was an auctioneer in Main Road, Ballarat East. He was a member of the first Ballarat East Municipality. He was present at the first day of remembrance , 22 November 1855.

On 22 November 1855, a meeting was held on the site of the Eureka Stockade. Daniel Sweeney was in the Chair to consider the subject of compensation to the sufferers of loss incurred by the soldiers eleven months earlier.[2]

According to Withers, On the 22nd November, 1855, a meeting was held on the site of the Stockade, Daniel Sweeney in the chair, "to consider the subject of compensation to the sufferers for the losses sustained by those who had their tents burned down and their stores and dwellings wantonly and ruthlessly destroyed by the military and police on the memorable 3rd December." And on the first anniversary of that day the fiery, lachrymose, faithful Raffaello was again on the spot offering for sale the first pages of his work, "The Eureka Stockade", which he had just brought up from Melbourne.

A petition from certain persons claiming compensation for losses occasioned by the Riots at Ballarat. [3] William Adams, Thomas Allen, Thomas Bird, Edmund Burn, William Cooper, Lanty Costello, Cummins, Anne Diamond, John Donally, Patrick Donohue, Thomas Eames, John Emery, Timothy Hayes, Michael Noonan, Daniel O'Connor, Patrick Quinane, Thomas Quinn, Martin Ryan, Matthew Ryan, John Sheehan, Daniel Sweeney, David Wallace, and William Wallace [4]

Ballarat East was proclaimed a municipality on the 5th May, 1857, and on the 1st June, 1857, the first council was elected, consisting of Messrs. Daniel Sweeney, John Gibbs, William M'Crea, Richard Belford, William Bramwell Robinson, William Bickham Rodier, and Geo. Clendinning, M.D. Mr. Rodier was chosen chairman, and Mr. Jno. Campbell was appointed town clerk. The municipality became a borough in October, 1863, and in August, 1872, a town.[5]

Second Lieutenant of the Ballarat Rangers, a local militia in 1858.

The Eastern Oval is the oldest and most popular place of resort for cricket. The Ballarat Cricket Club was founded in 1856, when Daniel Sweeney (captain), Henry Davies, and some others were active promoters of the club. On the 29th of October, 1856, the club had its first practice on the then open flat near the present Oval. To secure the present reserve the club and the borough council have worked together generally, the club spending large sums in making the Oval what it now is—one of the finest cricket grounds in Australia.[6]


In 1875 the licence was renewed for Daniel Sweeney, North Grant Hotel, Bridge street.[7]

Obituary

DEATH OF MR DANIEL SWEENEY.
We regret having to record the death of Mr Daniel Sweeney, popularly known as “Dan.” which sad event happened at his residence, 66 Lyons street south, about 8 30 o'clock yesterday morning. The deceased bad met with many strokes of fortune during the period of his colonial life, and made many friends by his genial disposition. He was prominently connected with athletics in Ballarat, and in cricketing circles especially he distinguished himself. He was founder of the Ballarat Cricket Club, and for many years he captained the first eleven, during scores of victories. He played in all the principal matches, ending in acting as wicket-keeper against Grace’s team, and in that particular part of the game be was generally acknowledged to be an adept. Over 25 years ago the deceased and his brother had a station on the Lachlan River, now South Wales, but re verses of fortune necessitated his removal to Ballarat where for many years he was engaged in the slaughtering business. Sub sequently he was landlord of the North Grant hotel, Bridge street, when fortune again deserted him, but his brother died leaving him a large amount of money. Since then he has been living in private with his family, consisting of his wife and three children, one of whom is an adult son. The immediate cause of death was an affection of the heart and liver, for which Dr Radcliffe was treating him.[8]

Family History

Daniel Sweeney married Catherine, producing James Sweeney (born Sydney NSW). James married Mary Jane Wilson on 20 February 1889 (703) at St Alipius Ballarat East. A teacher, he died on 14 June 1910 aged 58 and was buried in the Ballarat New Cemetery.Their son Daniel James Sweeney was born 1889 in Ballarat. This boy married Sarah Olive Rickard on 13 March 1913 at home. He was KIA aged only 27 years in 1916. Their son Daniel James Sweeney was born in Ballarat. The Sweeney family married into the Kinnane family being Bartholomew (Bartly) Kinnane and Mary Gorman's line. Bartley's son Thomas Kinnane was born in 1825 in Ennis County Clare, Ireland, he married Maria Walter Russell at Creswick, Victoria, Australia on 2 February 1880. He died in Hamilton on 2 September 1919. They produced William Michael Kinnane born Hamilton 29 September 1881 who married and died. in Hamilton. [9]

Also See

William Kinnane

References

  1. Goldfields Commission, 1855.
  2. Ballarat Courier, 15 May 1954.
  3. PROV, Colonial Secretary's Correspondence, VPRS 1189 Unit 92 Item J14462
  4. PROV, VPRS 1189, Chief Secretary's Correspondence, Box 24a
  5. W. B. Withers, History of Ballarat, Nivens 1870
  6. W. B. Withers, History of Ballarat, Nivens 1870
  7. The Ballarat Star, 21 December 1875
  8. Ballarat Star, 14 September 1882.
  9. Family History Chart - Sweeney-Neeson