Sacred to the memory of Joseph Edwin Hadley
Who departed this life 24thJuly 1879
Aged 14 years
“I am the Resurrection and the Life”
This wooden grave marker was found behind a shed at the Great Lakes Museum in 2014. Volunteers rescued the marker and it now stands in the museum.1 Wood was used for early grave markers and it is rare to find one in a legible condition.2 While it is not known how this marker came to be at the museum, there are clues as to why it was made of wood and why it no longer marks the gravesite.
Joseph Edwin Hadley was born at Maitland in 1865, the third child of 19 children born to dairy farmer James Hadley (1841-1934) and Christiana Claydon (1843-1936).3 As a 14 year old, Joseph was employed at the Breckenridges’ sawmills, Forster to wheel away sawdust from under the mill.4
On 24 July 1879 a terrible accident occurred and Joseph was found dead by his fellow workers. As no one witnessed the accident it could only be surmised how it occurred. It is believed that at 1 pm on the day of the accident, Joseph took a short-cut over the machinery in order to get home for lunch (which was the custom each day). He must have tripped and become entangled in the moving machinery where he was killed instantly.5
His grieving family, along with a large crowd of friends and residents, escorted his remains to the then new cemetery at Forster where he was buried in the Church of England section.6 It is unlikely the Hadley family had the resources to mark their son’s grave – perhaps the sawmill and co-workers donated the wooden marker. Two of Joseph’s siblings were later buried in the same grave explaining why the marker was removed. The headstone now recognises all three family members buried there.7
Author: Janine Roberts
Further information: Visit the Great Lakes Museum, 1 Capel Street, Tuncurry to view this rare wooden grave marker.
1 Information from Great Lakes Museum, 2018.
2 H. Mytum. Recording and analyzing graveyards. (York: Council for British Archaeology in association with English Heritage, 2000).
3 Gloucester Advocate, 10 May 1916, 2; NSW BDM various indexes consulted. Joseph is commonly referred to as just ‘Edwin’.
4 Australian Town and Country Journal, 16 August 1879, 38.
7 Forster Cemetery, Plot: Ang, M17.