A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part IV - Station Hand Suicide.

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel 

– Part IV - 

Station Hand Suicide.

 

On 12 November 1908, Martin Jacobson was doing his rounds as an ostler at about 6am for Moran’s Hotel, Melrose, when he came across August Fix. Fix was an elderly local resident who worked for the Willowie Pastoral Company. Fix was in an outside room of the hotel that Jacobson had neglected to lock. Fix was very drunk, but not disturbing anyone, so Jacobson let him be and got on with his job.
Later that evening, at 8am, Jacobson returned to check on Fix. He found the man dead. Fix had shot himself through the right temple with a small-bore rifle.

Mounted Constable Siggins deposed during the inquest that he had been summoned to the hotel at 9:20am. Siggins examined the crime scene and waited for Coroner Lewis George to arrive.[1]

Dr Hann gave medical evidence that there was,

a small bullet wound in the right temple. Edges of the wound were scorched. The course of the bullet seemed to travel through the base of the brain. There was no wound of exit, but bleeding from the left cut and from the nose and mouth. In his opinion, a cartridge of the size produced would be sufficient to make the wound and to cause death. It was quite possible for the deceased to have fired the rifle according to the direction of the wound.[2]

Mr H. M Mair, manager of the Mount Remarkable Station deposed that Fix had not worked since October 31st. He had taken to drinking heavily and had a wife living in Nuriootpa, to whom Fix had sent a telegram the morning of his suicide. In another report, it is stated Fix’s wife lived in Angaston.[3]

After a short retirement the jury found:

We are unanimously of opinion that the deceased met his death by a bullet wound in the head, fired, from a rifle by his own hand while in a fit of temporary insanity.[4]

Next week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part V – Like Father, Like Son.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

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[1] 'SUICIDE AT MELROSE.', The Advertiser, (16 November 1908), p. 6.
[2] 'THE COUNTRY.', The Register, (16 November 1908), p. 6.
[3] 'SUPPOSED SUICIDE.', The Express and Telegraph, (13 November 1908), p. 4.
[4] Ibid.

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part III - Death by Strychnine.

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel 

– Part III - 

Death by Strychnine.

In 1886 Margaret ‘Maggie’ Salmon was in the employ of publican Edwin Worden of the Mount Remarkable Hotel.[1]Maggie had worked at the hotel for about 14 weeks but had recently given notice to Worden that she intended to leave. On Saturday the 4^th of September, Worden had discussed with Salmon the neglect of her duties but did not sense any feelings of ill will towards himself from Salmon. Nor did he sense any melancholy from the young woman.

Monday 6 September 1886 Mr Worden saw Maggie in the morning, and she seemed not her usual self. He was told later that evening, that Maggie had admitted to taking strychnine and was laying sick in bed. Maggie died just a few hours later.

An inquest was held the following day where Mrs Worden stated she did not see the girl at dinner and enquired where she might be. She found Salmon lying on her bed, not willing to work. Salmon stated nothing was wrong.
Mary Croft, another employee of the hotel stated during the inquest that she had seen Salmon by the kitchen mantle. As she passed Salmon, the girl ran to the table, then weeping, ran to her room. She questioned Salmon in her room, where Salmon admitted to taking the strychnine. Salmon then asked to see her brother and priest.[2]

Another witness, Jane Leewee stated that on the Saturday prior to Salmon's death, she had remarked that she would like to be buried in Leewee’s backyard.[3]

The jury concluded that ‘the deceased died from strychnine administered by her own hands, and there is no evidence to show that she had any reason for so administering it.'[4]

 

A year before, Margaret Salmon, an employee at the Huntsman Hotel in North Adelaide was charged with stealing from the premises of her employer. She was found guilty and sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour, despite protesting her innocence. Perhaps this is the same Maggie Salmon, and perhaps this is, in part, why she moved as far north as Melrose. Perhaps, her past was threatening to catch up with her, but before it could, she ended her life.[5]

Next week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part IV - Station Hand Suicide.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

[1] J.L. (Bob) Hoad, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia, (1986), p. 389.
[2] 'CORONERS' INQUESTS.', Adelaide Observer, (11 September 1886), p. 34.
[3] 'CORONER'S INQUEST.', South Australian Register, (9 September 1886), p. 7.
[4] 'STRANGE DEATH AT MELROSE.', South Australian Weekly Chronicle, (11 September 1886), p. 10.
[5] 'LAW AND CRIMINAL COURTS.', South Australian Register, (24 October 1885), p. 3.

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part II - The Death of a Watchmaker.

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel –

 Part II  

- The Death of a Watchmaker.

In 1877, Dugald Wilson, a local watchmaker was walking along Stuart Street when he went under the veranda of the hotel. It was a dark night, and the hotel's lamp was lit, but Wilson did not see the trap door to the cellar was open, and fell through the hole, smashing his head on the ground below. Mr Peck had gone down to the cellar at about 6pm and heard the man fall. He rushed to help him, just as witnesses to the event, James Hart and Peter Toner came down the ladder to help lift Wilson out.
They carried the senseless man into the hotel. Wilson was very drunk and belligerent, telling the men to leave him be. He died that evening. The following day during the inquest into his death, it was reported to Mr F.J. Whitby J.P. and a jury of 13, that Wilson had been in town for a fortnight, and that entire time had been drunk.

The jury concluded that Dugald Wilson came to his death on 15 August 1877, ‘through a shock to his nervous system, caused by a fall down the cellar of Moran’s Hotel, Melrose.’[1]

Dugald Wilson was 65 years old at the time of his death.[2]

Next week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part III - Death by Strychnine.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

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[1] 'CORONER'S INQUEST.', The Express and Telegraph, (31 August 1877), p. 2.

[2] ‘Dugald Wilson’, South Australia-Deaths 1842-1915, Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985, Vol. 82, (1877), p. 298.

Photo: G'day Pubs - https://www.gdaypubs.com.au/SA/melrose.html

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel - Part 1.

 

The Mount Remarkable Hotel can be found on Stuart Street in Melrose, South Australia. According to historian Bob Hoad; the original hotel was constructed in 1857 and was known as the Mount Remarkable Hotel until 1872. It was then known as Moran’s Hotel between 1873 and 1920 when it reverted to the Mount Remarkable Hotel.[1]

Melrose promotes itself as the oldest town in Flinders Ranges. Prior to European settlement, the area was home to the Doora people. By 1880, the Doora had been all but wiped out by Europeans. The first European to the area was explorer Edward John Eyre who named Mount Remarkable in 1840.

Copper was discovered in the area with mining operations commencing in 1846 and closing in 1851. The mines produced no lodes worthy of continued mining. Despite this, the mines were opened again in 1916 -1917.

 The Mount Remarkable Hotel was completed in 1857, making it the second oldest in the town after the North Star Hotel (completed in 1854.) The hotel was opened by Thomas Moran after he retired from the Mounted Police.[2]

Thomas William Moran was born in Dorrington Westmeath England in 1816. He joined the 11^th Devonshire Regiment in Athlone Barracks. He served in Kent before his detachment was sent to Tasmania, then Adelaide, then Sydney. He quit the military in New South Wales, where he stayed for a short while before relocating to Adelaide to work as a reporter. He became friends with Captain Bagot of the Kapunda Mines, who had him admitted to the Mounted Police Force. He served at Port Lincoln, Port Augusta, on the Yorke Peninsula in the capacity of Corporal under Inspector Tolmer. Both Tolmer and Moran were involved in quelling ‘black uprisings’ in country districts.
 Moran retired from the Mounted Police at Mount Remarkable building a hotel. He also took up farmland in the area erecting one of the district's first woolsheds. After retiring from hotel life, he purchased a farm in Wongyarra, where he lived until his death in 1904.[3]

Ghosts

It is alleged that the Mount Remarkable hotel is haunted by numerous ghosts, and possibly a poltergeist. There are several recorded deaths at the hotel that could be utilised as possible evidence for the alleged hauntings. In the same instance, some of the alleged hauntings, have no correlating historical evidence, which could perhaps be used to reclassify the haunting as an urban legend. I will be presenting some of the historical documentation over the coming weeks. Then the ghost stories at the end of the series.

Next Week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part II - The Death of a Watchmaker.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

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[1] J.L. (Bob) Hoad, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia, (1986), p. 389.

[2] Melrose, Sydney Morning Herald, (2004), https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/melrose-20040208-gdkqk3.html.; 'A NORTHERN IDENTITY.', The Laura Standard, (21 May 1915), p. 3.

[3] 'A CHEQUERED CAREER.', The Laura Standard, (19 August 1904), p. 3.

Photo: The Wenmouth Collection: Melrose [B 64310/290], State Library of South Australia, (1969), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+64310/290.