McCormack & Kennedy


Michael McCormack	Margaret Kennedy
Married:1834 in Loughmore, Tipperary, Ireland
Born:1806 in Tipperary, Ireland	Born:1815 in Ireland
Died:14 Jan 1891, Happy Valley, Victoria	Died:1852 in Ireland
Father: Andrew McCormack	Father: Mr. Kennedy
Mother: Mary Doyle	Mother:
The Happy Valley Hotel had its origins documented as long ago as 1854, by a Scotsman names Duncan McLean, superintendent of the Myrtle Creek Run for the Niel Black Company, who wrote to the manager expressing concern that a party was planning a public houses within the boundaries of the run, at the Happy Valley Creek crossing. The Buckland Goldfield had been discovered during the previous year and thousands of miners were making their way to the Buckland from Beechworth. The Myrtle Creek Village, officially named Myrtleford in 1858, had already developed into an infant settlement, comprising of tents, huts and make shift dwellings. From the village the track to the diggings followed along the Happy Valley Creek until it had to be crossed at the Ovens. Despite opposition from the Niel Black Company, the Public House was built at the crossing and today the Happy Valley Hotel is on that same site. In far off Ireland, 1854 had been a decisive year for Michael McCormack of Loughmore, Tipperary. The country was in the grip of a devastating famine, his wife had died and the future of his young family looked bleak. At the age of 50 he made the decision to emigrated to Australia and commence a new life with his five surviving children. On the 20th of July 1855, after a three month journey the family docked in Melbourne. They had traveled on the 1399 ton "British Trident". Michael first made his appearance in the Ovens district as a bullock driver. With his young family he settled in the district, building a house on the main road at Happy Valley. His oldest daughter Johanna, cared for the her younger siblings, being John, William, Thomas and Margaret. When Michael died in 1891, Johanna continued the mother roll in the family, she never married and was buried with her father at Myrtleford when she passed away in 1914 at the age of 73. By the marriages of Michaels three sons, he had 36 grandchildren born in the district between 1872 and 1915 and 65 great chrand children born prior to 1955, 101 years after he arrived in the country. The McOrmacks and the Happy Valley Hotel link together a historical part of the Ovens and certinally not just by coincodence. For more than a hundred years, very few days went by in which a McCormack didn't stop by for a drink in the same hotel. In fact six generations of McCormacks have been amoungst its most regular customers, and decendents still drink there today. Is it any wonder then that the McCormack's have been heard to jest - "WE PAID FOR THE HAPPY VALLEY HOTEL, WE JUST NEVER GOT THE BLOODY TITLE FOR IT" !!!!
Children
Name: M Andrew McCormack Born: 1835 Tipparary, Ireland Died 1835 Tipparary, Ireland	Name:Andrew McCormack Born:1844 Tipparary, Ireland Died 1844 Tipparary, Ireland
Name: Mary McCormack Born:1836 Tipparary, Ireland Died1836 Tipparary, Ireland Married:	Name: Michael McCormack Born: 1846 Tipparary, Ireland Died 1846Tipparary, Ireland
Name: Johanna McCormack Born:1839 Died 25 Feb 1914 Married:	Name: John McCormack Born: 1849 Tipparary, Ireland Died 12 Aug 1916 Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia Married:1895 to Ellen Power
Name: William McCormack Born:1842 Died 22 Apr 1932 Married: 1872 Beechworth, to Bridget Moran	Name:Margaret McCormack Born:1852 Died Married:
Name: Thomas McCormack Born: 1842 Tipperary, Ireland Died 28 Dec 1918 Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia Married: 1878 Ellen McGrath	Name: Born: Died Married:

SUBMITTED BY: Dianne Carroll