St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 T-Z

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

Surname                        Christian Names                        Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 O-S

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

     Surname                        Christian Names                  Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 J-N

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

Surname                        Christian Names                        Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

  St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 
Burial Records: Old and Early Section:
 D-H

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support. 

     Surname                      Christian Names                      Age            Date of Death       Row/ Location

St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: Burial Records: Old and Early Section: A-C

 St John’s Catholic Cemetery – Kapunda: 

Burial Records: Old and Early Section:

 A-C

Researched and compiled by Peter Swann

I would like to acknowledge the support of local historian and former caretaker of St John’s Cemetery, Peter Swann for supplying the cemetery records, and his ongoing support.

 St Johns - A Ghost Story

This is a similar story, but not the same as, the one published in Valerie Laughton’s book, "True Barossa Ghosts"

 

"In 1980 fourteen students from Kapunda went to Saint John’s Cemetery and reformatory at night. They heard a rumbling, bumping sound; they saw a marble slab move back from one the graves. they could not see any ropes or wires attached and saw nothing emerge. The vases began to move, and the flowers were flung into the air. The students saw a semi-transparent girl with a long white gown, with long dark hair carrying a hurricane lantern that had a yellowish glow moving through the cemetery. Gravestones could be seen through her. the figure glided through a fence and headed towards the old reformatory ruins. She entered the ruins moving through the rooms and passageway and could be seen by the students through the broken windows. After a period of time, the figure headed back down the hill and back to the cemetery. She rose from the ground and her feet could be seen, she thinned into a yellowish-white light and spun herself and drove speedily into the earth. The students worked up the courage and slowly moved into the area where the ghostly figure disappeared. They found a circular spot with strange markings imprinted into the soil."

 

Would you believe the validity of a group of school children who are out thrill-seeking and drinking, who then come home from a "spooky" cemetery and tell this story?

 The Myths of St Johns

 

St John's Cemetery and the reformatory ruins have attracted a great deal of attention over the years, from ghost stories in True Barossa Ghosts (gathered with good spirit) by Valerie Laughton to documentaries by Warwick Moss, plus websites, Facebook pages, you-tube videos and newspaper stories.

Research is being conducted by many paranormal teams, genealogists, independent researchers, paranormal enthusiasts and a myriad of journalists, reporters, and authors. Many of the stories currently found, particularly on the internet, are grossly distorted, personal points of view or lies. It isn't hard to dig for the truth about the place or its people, one only needs to venture into the Kapunda Public library or the museum archives to find the facts.

 

 Sorting fact from fiction. 

It is my goal to educate the masses of people interested in this location with facts not rumours, innuendo, or fiction.

Here are some of the rumours and fiction I have come across on the internet and through hearing stories from the public at the Cemetery.

 

·       Father Martin Murdered Ruby Bland - Myth

·       Father Martin Got Ruby Bland Pregnant - Myth

·       Babies were thrown in the reformatory furnace - Myth

·       Ruby hung herself - Myth

·       Vera was in the reformatory - Myth

·       A girl hung herself from the palm tree - Myth

·       A girl hung herself on the large tree in the field - Myth

·       The Girls were placed in the reformatory for being pregnant - Myth

·       Father Martin and nuns conducted abortions - Myth

·       Father Martin became crazed and killed everyone on-site, then himself - Myth

·       Nuns were killed - Myth

 

Obviously, some of these rumours are farfetched, some plain ridiculous, but all fuel the urban legend being perpetuated by misinformed individuals. I believe it is part of our job as Paranormal Investigators to educate people about the truth of this, and other locations, and to instate a feeling of respect for the cemetery and the people buried within, who all once lived, and now only have a tombstone to mark their life story.

The Truth:

• FACT - Father Martin did not kill Ruby Bland - Ruby died in the Kapunda Hospital from complications of what equates today to "gall bladder stones".
• 
  
• FACT   - No Girls died whilst in the reformatory.
• 
  
• FACT   - Ruby DID NOT die from hanging.
• 
  
• FACT - Vera was born after the reformatory had closed and was a local celebrity of sorts whose life can easily be traced in the Museum.
• 
  
• FACT - No one was hung from the palm tree - it would be mighty difficult to do so.... think about it.
• 
  
•  FACT - The large tree in the middle of the field has been estimated to not be old enough to have been there at the time of the reformatory, this rules out that tree being a "hanging tree".
• 
  
• FACT - There are no records of girls being placed in the reformatory for being pregnant, girls in such a state would have been placed in the Women's Asylum ( now the Migration Museum), instead girls in the Reformatory were usually in for breaking curfew and petty crimes.
• 
  
• FACT - Father Martin died of Senile Inertia, meaning, he became so senile he could no longer fend for himself, letters held by Peter Swann show that the Father lived on in the Presbytery of the Reformatory for another ten years after it closed, Former interns (girls) often came to check on him and help feed him, he died alone in his bed. He killed no one, although his state of mind is questioned in newspaper reports, it is because of his senility, not because he was a crazed schizophrenic madman, he was a man slowly losing who he was.
• 
  
• FACT - Nuns were never killed at the reformatory, however at least one Nun is buried in the Cemetery who had worked at St John's, but she died of natural causes and also worked at St Rose of Lima and the local Nunnery.
• 
  
• FACT - Ruby Bland was not one of the 87 Reformatory Girls who resided in the Reformatory over a span of 20 odd years.
• 
  
• FACT - Ruby Bland was a NURSE in Kapunda hospital. (documented in her sister's diary).
• 
  
• FACT - The Reformatory had been earmarked to close on the date of its closure 6 months previously, as stated publicly in South Australian Parliament records!

 

If you hear of any other crazy rumours or stories, please let me know by emailing eidolon@live.com.au and I will get to the bottom of it!

 GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.

A very successful retreat for the inmates of St. John's Home has just been concluded by the Rev. Father Mclnerney, S J. (says the " Southern Cross").

The holy and zealous priest did not spare himself in teaching these poor children to love and serve God, and in helping them to raise themselves to better things. The girls attended well during the whole time, and the good spirit which now prevails proves the advantage gained by this much-needed retreat—the first that has been given since the home has been established.

Father Mclnerney has sown the good seed, and there is every hope of a fruitful harvest in the future. In concluding, the good priest advised the girls to keep a spiritual flag flying bearing the following mottoes: -

"All to the greater glory of God," and beneath, in respect to sin and evil, "No surrender!" These two watchwords have been readily taken up by the children of the home, and their prayers will often ascend to heaven for the kind father, who was the means of bringing to their young hearts grace and peace and consolation.

Citation:

'GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.', Kapunda Herald, (27 February 1903), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110275217.

(This article is from the Kapunda Herald, and recreated here for research purposes.)

 A Timeline of events at St. Johns

1849:

• ·       Government grants land 5kms southeast of Kapunda to Catholic Church.
• ·       Father Fallon ordained
• ·       July 1849 Father Fallon appointed to St. Johns
• ·       Father George Michael Williams was born in Mauritius

1850:

• ·       2nd April The foundation stone of St John the Evangelist Church was laid by  Bishop Francis Murphy
• ·       presbytery built

1854:

·       30 April 1854 that the church was finished and officially opened

1857

·       Father James Martin was born in County Galway Ireland

1859:

• ·       School opened

1860:

• ·       25th March Death of Father Fallon, died suddenly aged 40
• ·       Father Michael Ryan appointed parish priest
• ·       All church services moved to a small barn on site of future St. Roses Church Kapunda

1861:

• ·       Lower cemetery opened
• ·       "St. Johns church" graveyard close

1862:

• ·       13th July The Saint Rose of Lima foundation stone was laid in Kapunda
• ·       8th Feb First church service held at St. Roses's newly completed church

1864:

• ·       3rd April Father Ryan performs the wedding ceremony for Horace McKinley and Martha Craig
• ·       10th Oct. Father Carew performs the wedding ceremony for Joseph J. Walsh and M.A. Carley

1865:

• ·       24 August Death of Father Michael Ryan who died from apoplexy
• ·       Father Jeremiah Moynahan appointed parish priest

1867:

·       St Johns post office opened

·       21st December death of Father Jeremiah Moynahan

1868:

• ·       Sisters of St.Joseph start teaching at school
• ·       13 April death of Father Thomas Hyland

1869:

·       presbytery converted to a convent and school

1878:

·  Eugene McMahon Glynne was born in County Galway Ireland

1879:

·       post office closed

 1881:

·       New school built in Kapunda - children from St. Johns school transferred to a new school

1890:

·       James Martin becomes ordained priest and arrives in South Australia

1891:

·       Father Fallon's remains removed from the graveyard and re-interred in Cemetery

·       Ruby Olive Murray Bland was born near " Lake Victoria"

1895:

·       Act proclaimed by State Children's Council to place Catholic State Children in private institutions if they were away from Adelaide.

1897:

·       Mary MacKillop arrives at St. Johns to oversee renovations - stays 3 months

·       Church site opens as Girls Reformatory under the supervision of Sisters of St. Joseph

·       4th June Mary MacKillop installs Miss Mary O'Brien (Sister Helena) as first head matron of Reformatory

1899:

• ·       reformatory extended to include cells

1901:

• ·       Annual Council report states that the reformatory is kept in splendid order, girls well cared for, receiving good religious, moral and practical training.

 1903:

News Story: 'GIRLS' HOME (ST. JOHN'S), KAPUNDA.', Kapunda Herald, (27 February 1903), p. 3., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110275217.

1908:

• ·       June Sister Helena transferred to Victoria
• ·       Miss Mary Coxs (Sister Berchams) appointed Head Matron

1909:

• ·       Aug: Father O’Reilly approves the closure of reformatory
• ·       15th Nov. Ruby Bland admitted to the Kapunda Hospital with a suspected stone in the bile duct from the liver

• ·       Ruby Bland was operated on by Dr Eugene McMahon Glynn, head of surgery at Kapunda Hospital
• ·       16th Nov Mr Gray, the Secretary of the Children's Department arrives at the Reformatory. announces in the "Kapunda Herald" that St. John's reformatory will be closing.
• ·       28th Nov Death of Ruby Bland from Cholithiasis Operative Shock in Kapunda hospital
• ·       29th Nov. Reformatory closed by Archbishop O'Reilly
• ·       29th Nov. Ruby Bland buried at St. Johns cemetery
• ·       Girls transferred to Redruth girl’s reformatory in Burra

1914:

·       death of Dr Eugene McMahon Glynn aged 48 years

1920:

·       13th Feb: Death of Monsignor George Michael Williams (aged 71)

1921

·       Jan: Death of Father James Martin

1936:

·       Headstone erected on Father Fallon's grave

·       4th Oct Headstone revealed by Father Killian

1938:

·       Window removed and placed in St. Rose's church Kapunda

 2001:

·       Sept. Warwick Moss releases documentary "Kapunda: most haunted town in Australia"

2002:

·       Catholic church demolishes Reformatory after constant vandalism

·       Peter Swann, St. Johns Curator, finds a grave monument to Ruby Bland buried under a pile of dirt and begins restoration of her grave

·       Vandals break Father Fallon’s gravestone

2010

·       Curator, Peter Swann erects a memorial to children buried at St. Johns

·       Blessed Mary MacKillop is Canonised to be Australia's first Saint

2011

·       Trees along the fence line, near the entrance are felled

·       Broadband lines are laid along the reformatory road from Moppa to Kapunda

2012

·       New trees planted along the front fence line

·       Graves in rear section restored

2013

·       University of Adelaide Students begin study into the site, including mapping of the former graveyard, Church, and presbytery. They find several interesting artifacts and raise a few new puzzles about the usage of the site.

·       New rear entry gate is installed by the Church, plus fence repairs

2014

·       Father James Martins Headstone Stolen for 3rd Time

·       Ghost Crime Tours at the request of Allen and Karen Tiller begin raising money to help Cemetery rejuvenation.

·       Allen Tiller assists with documenting a Flinders University dig of the St Johns Church ruins.

2015

·       restoration begins on headstones situated in the northwest corner

 

​

 

 

 Many thanks to local historian Peter Swann for all the information he has passed on to me over the years.

Allen Tiller

(please note, this is an edited version of the time line first published in 2010, then updated periodically on the Eidolon Paranormal website - corrections and omissions have been made since that time.)