Obituaries Australia

The death is announced of an old and esteemed colonist in Mrs. E. M. [Elizabeth Maria] Denney. widow of the late Mr. John Denney. Mrs. Denney was a daughter of the late Mr. John Thompson, who resided in Launceston for many years, and a sister of the late Mr. John Burns Thompson, of this city. She was born at New Town, Hobart, on March 24, 1827, and was married in Launceston on June 4, 1846, where she and her husband resided until 1853. The late Mr. John Denney, with the late Messrs. W. B. Dean, Robert Stewart, and Geo. Muggeridge, were the pioneer settlers at Barrington, in the Mersey district. At that time the passage from Launceston was made by sailing craft. Mr. and Mrs. Denney, with their family of five children, left Launceston on a Thursday night and arrived at Devonport on Sunday night, thence taking punt to Cocker's Creek. The deceased celebrated her 80th birthday in March, 1907 at the residence of her son, Mr. H. H. Denney, Spreyton, when there was a large gathering of relatives, numbering 101. Of a large family of 13 children 12 are living, most of them being on the North-West Coast. The late Mrs. Denney was a member of the Methodist Church for 70 years, and was always looked up to as a consistent Christian, and was greatly esteemed for many kindly acts. Her husband, who died in 1883, took a prominent part in bringing about the cessation of transportation to Tasmania. He was one of the pioneers of Methodism on the North West Coast, and was for many years an advocate on the temperance platform. He established the first Sunday school in the Sheffield district, and as a preacher was a man of great earnestness and impressiveness. Neither rain or storm, nor the hot sun, nor bad roads, which were actually bush tracks, prevented him from going forth and gathering the twos and threes together. He was not only the preacher, but in many instances the doctor. In the dark and stormy nights he would travel miles to visit the sick, and in many instances alleviate their sufferings by his practical skill. The labours and self-denying efforts of many of our early pioneers of the state deserve to be recorded.