Catherine MACDONALD (1844-1890) Catherine Macdonald, elder child of John Macdonald and Flora MacPhail, was born in Tiree, on 7th March 1844 and was christened a few weeks later on 31st March. Her father was a blacksmith and crofter of 15 acres at Balinoe. Her mother died some time between 5th January 1846, when Catherine's sister Mary was born, and 29th November 1848 when her father re-married. Mary died in infancy. At the age of nine, Catherine emigrated to Australia with her father, step-mother (Flora Campbell) and two infant half-brothers, Hugh and Hector. They came as assisted immigrants on the ship "Utopia" that arrived at Portland, Victoria, on 25th January 1854. The family settled in the goldfields town of Ararat. On 19th January 1866 in Hamilton, Victoria, a town about 100 km south-west of Ararat, Catherine married Edward Dash, a clerk in the Victorian Treasury Department (and a Baptist lay preacher). Catherine and Edward had 11 children: Hugh Benjamin, b. 1866, Hamilton, Victoria; d. 1875 Mary Catherine, b. 1868, Hamilton, Victoria; d. 1877 Ebenezer, b. 1870, Hamilton, Victoria Charlotte, b. 1872, Hamilton, Victoria Flora, b. 1874, Hamilton, Victoria Catherine Macdonald, b.1876, Kerang, Victoria; d. 1878 May Macdonald, b.1878, Kerang, Victoria Rose Lillian, b. 1881, Ararat, Victoria Hugh Campbell, b. 1883, Ararat, Victoria George Macdonald, b. 1886, Ararat, Victoria Alfred Campbell, b. 1888, Sydney, NSW Catherine was a gentle, serene woman, greatly loved by her children. It was said she had the power of "healing hands". To encourage her children to be equally proud of their Macdonald and Campbell ancestry, and to resist being caught up in old clan enmities, she gave the middle name Macdonald to some of her children and Campbell to others. Today, four generations later, they still appear as middle names among some of her descendants. Edward Dash retired from the Victorian Treasury Department at the end of 1880. He was appointed Baptist pastor at Ararat and ministered there for five years. In 1886 the family moved to Sydney. Early in 1888, Catherine's father, John Macdonald, came from Victoria to live with her and her family in Sydney. He had been ill for some time and died 6 months later. A few months after her father's death, Catherine was diagnosed as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. She died on 24th June 1890, aged 46. She is buried next to her father in the Old Presbyterian Section, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. _________________ Keith Dash Sydney, Australia