By Peggy Darst Townsdin
On March 15, 1836, 20-year-old Grace Mullen of County Cork, Ireland, stepped aboard a “women’s free ship” leaving her home and seeking a better life in New South Wales, Australia. The free ships were British sponsored and provided free passage for qualifying young women. The British had already sent out many young Irish men on the convict ships to colonize their land in Australia and realized they’d need women there if families were going to settle down.
Grace met Francis McCrohan upon her arrival and the two married and had nine children. McCrohan had been transported to Sydney from County Kerry, Ireland when he was 16 in 1831.
Oak Harbor pioneer and captain Edward Barrington, of Irish and English blood, delivered lumber to the port of Sydney in 1858. He brought the McCrohan family to Whidbey Island with him on his return trip convincing them that Oak Harbor’s countryside was similar to that seen in Ireland.
Grace carried her Catholic prayer book with her on her overseas voyages and wrote this poem within its pages:
“Grace McCrohan is my name and Ireland is my nation. New South Wales is my dwelling place and Heaven is my expectation. When I am dead and in my= grave and all my bones is rotten, this little book will tell my name when I am forgotten. Grace McCrohan otherwise Mullen.”
On Feb. 19, 1864, Grace, her son David and her son-in-law Maurice O’Leary along with their Indian paddler capsized in a large canoe which was caught up in a sudden squall off Blower’s Bluff. All of them died that day in Penn Cove and the furniture items and household goods they had just purchased at an auction in Coveland were lost. Their friend and neighbor, Ulrich Freund, thinking that the canoe was overloaded decided to walk home carrying the small mirror he had picked up.
The family’s story came to the attention of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra due to the Whidbey Island history books written by Peggy Darst Townsdin. Darst Townsdin is Grace’s great, great, great-granddaughter. She is the caretaker of the prayer book, which has been passed down through Grace’s daughter Christina, her daughter Sibella and her daughter Madeline and now is on temporary display in Australia. Grace’s prayer book is the only known personal item belonging to any of the women who went to Australia on the free ships.
Her prayer book and photo will be part of an exhibition, “The Irish in Australia” which opens tomorrow, this St. Patrick’s Day. The exhibition will also travel to Dublin. It’s said that in a way Grace is returning to her beloved home and that her name will never be forgotten.
Grace’s daughter married Captian Barrington and the McCrohan clan is now in its eighth generation on Whidbey.
Grace, David and Maurice were laid to rest under the oak tree that Grace had remarked four days prior to her death that she would like to be buried under someday. The Irish cemetery is now named Pioneer Park. McCrohan descendants meet there twice a year and honor those who came before.
