29/08/2026
DEATH OF MR. J. T. MACGOWAN. Reported in the Corowa Free Press 1 March 1895.
Shortly before noon on Saturday last
the public of Corowa learned with regret of the sudden death of Mr. John
Thorburn Macgowan, chemist. Some twelve months ago a severe attack of
pneumonia prostrated him and his recovery was slow and incomplete, but, though it was known that his health was
not robust, his decease was unexpected.
Recently he has been under the care of Drs. Shortt and Harris, who diagnosed
his ailment as heart disease.
Mr. J. T. Macgowan was born at Seacombe, near Liverpool, England, in the year 1836, and was a son of the Rev. James Macgowan, Presbyterian
minister, who, leaving the ministry, was tutor to the Earl of Errol (Lord Hey, who was killed at the battle of Waterloo), and then became principal of the classical
and commercial Academy in Hope Street, Liverpool. His parents left the old country in the year 1839, for Sydney,
but on the vessel touching at Adelaide they elected to remain there, where his
father opened the first school. His acquaintance with pharmacy commenced
in South Australia, after leaving school, when he was apprenticed to Mr. Carlton,
of Hindley Street, Adelaide, for a term of seven years, Having relatives in Tasmania, one a medical man in Hobart,
who kept a surgery, and wanted an assistant — he crossed over from Adelaide
to Hobart (in those days called Hobart Town, capital of Van Diemen's Land), calling at Melbourne en route. After
remaining in his relative's surgery for two years he entered into business as a
chemist. He went up for his examination before the Court of Medical Examiners, passed, and opened the business in Murray-street, Hobart, out of
whose ashes grew the splendid establishment
of Mr. A. P. Miller. He left
Hobart in 1857, and after a short sojourn in Melbourne, went to India, and was
there at the close of the mutiny. He was first with Smith and Stanistreet, of
Calcutta, and afterwards for some time with Bathgate and Co., Tank-square, Calcutta. He returned to Victoria in I860, but did not enter into the drug
business again till 1864. He then went to Ballarat and opened a business, first
in Armstrong-Street, and afterwards bought the business in Sturt-street which
had been started by Mr. W. H. Sheppard, of the firm of Poynton and Sheppard,
of Geelong. He remained in Ballarat till 1884. During part of that period he was secretary to the Ballarat and
District Chemists Association, and had the honour of being elected as representative of the association at the table
of the Pharmaceutical Council.
In 1884 he left the mining metropolis and set up in business at South
Melbourne, having two shops, in different parts of that populous suburb. He
afterwards conducted dispensaries at Carlton and North Carlton, and came to
Corowa about two and a half years ago.
He was also a councillor of South Melbourne, and when intelligence of his
death was received in Melbourne on Monday, the flags in the city of South
Melbourne were half-mast high in deferance to his memory. Mr. Macgowan was a prominent member
of the Church of Christ, and moved in a circle of friends who held him in
warm regard and esteem, and to whom his loss is little less than a calamity. He leaves a widow and a family of nine.
His second daughter is the wife of Mr. A, Illiingworth, son of the Hon. F.
Illingworth, M.L.C. (Victoria), now a member of the Legislative Assembly of
Western Australia.
The interment took place last Monday at the Corowa Cemetery, when the body
was followed to its last resting place by a large number of friends. During the burial service, which was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Huntsman, the church choir, under the leadership of Mrs, A. G.
Morley, sung Sankey's beautiful hymn
"Good Night," Mr. J. H. Martin
carried out the funeral arrangements.
