#52ancestors
Mary Simmes must have been one tough lady. She married Henry Russell Jones in Mackay, Queensland in 1866. Mary was about 23 years old, from Ireland. Over the next twenty or so years, she followed her husband to some of the most desolate places in Queensland, giving birth to four children along the way (and burying one).
With her husband, Mary ran Jones’ Public House (later to be called the Telegraph Hotel) and butchers shop near their property, Boralga. This was on the dray road from Cooktown to the Palmer River goldfields, near Laura on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula.
Boralga area showing Jones Public House and Boralga Police Camp
Mary moved to Cairns some time after her husband’s death on Koolburra Station. She first appears in records there in 1895 when the liquor licence for the Club House Hotel in Cairns was transferred to her son-in-law, James Watters.
Mary Jones nee Simmes Funeral Notice 1913
Shell's Family 52 Ancestors 