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Each
year we feature a pioneer family, previously the Coxen,
Jefferies, Gode, Weedon, Stanton and Arnold families, and
this year the Longland family.
On
25th October we hold our annual Decoration Day and Pioneers’
Memorial Service at the Cemetery. Relatives come from all
over Australia to put flowers on family graves, meet
long-lost relatives, and honour the pioneer families who
founded our district.
Early
settlers Jonathon Longland and Mary Stone arrived in Moreton
Bay when it was still part of the colony of New South
Wales. Jonathon arrived in 1856 to join his brother David,
who had come in 1849, and for whom Longland Street East
Brisbane was named.
Mary
came with her parents and siblings in 1857, when the
Commissariat Stores were used as the immigration barracks.
There was no bridge across the river then, and the military
barracks stood on the Treasury Building site, the hospital
was on the site of the Supreme Court, and the gaol was where
the GPO stands. There was a banana plantation on the corner
of Queen and Edward Streets.
Jonathon
and Mary were married in 1863, and had thirteen children
between 1863 and 1889, all surviving to ripe old ages, with
many prominent descendants, including Sir David Longland.
In
1887 Jonathon was Morningside’s first Postmaster at
Longlands Post Office and General Store Sunnyside. Mary was
tragically killed in 1896 and is buried with some of her
children at Tingalpa. Jonathon was buried on St. Helena
Island. |
