People Australia

Frederick Pearce (Fred) Upham, or Frederic Pierce Upham (1855-1910) engineer, pattern maker and anarchist

Birth: 19 May 1855 at Pawtucket, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America, son of Lucian Upham (1820-1909), carpenter, and Amy Mason, née Kelton (1826-1917).  Marriages: (1) 26 November 1877 at Pawucket, to Mary Elizabeth Nelson (1859-1920). They had one son. (2) From the 1880s he lived with his de facto wife Florence (Flora), née Lyons (1860-1911). She gave birth at Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, to his two daughters, in 1891 and 1892 respectively; the elder daughter died in infancy. Death: His death was registered as Frederick Percy Upham, 56, pattern maker, who died on 4 July 1910 in hospital at East Melbourne, usual residence Charles Street, Footscray, Melbourne. Religion: buried with Baptist rites. 

• His father, involved in cabinet manufacturing and employing some one hundred persons, served a term in the Rhode Island legislature and was a one-year senator from Pawtucket.
• Fred arrived in Victoria about 1883. Was employed as a draftsman with the Hudson Machine Company, Melbourne. Applied for several patents for inventions in Victoria between March 1887 and September 1899.
• Having reputedly had experience among Chicago anarchists, he was a prominent member and one of the six founders of the Melbourne Anarchist Club, 1886-1891; attended the Melbourne club at least forty-three times, and lectured to Melbourne anarchists at least ten times.
• Was the publisher of Honesty and associated with other anarchist/free thought journals. Linked to the co-operative movement at Albert Park.
• An engineer, living at Braybrook Junction, he was declared insolvent in February 1894. Appears in 1903-1906 electoral rolls living with Flora at Gamon Street, Yarraville/Footscray. Not in the 1909 electoral, Florence Upham was living at Charles Street, Footscray.
• Advertised regularly in the Advertiser (Footscray), as an engineer and pattern maker until July 1910.
• Cause of death: chronic nephritis and heart failure. The death certificate indicated that his parents and place of birth were unknown, and that he had married in New South Wales, but the particulars were otherwise unknown.
• His de facto wife Flora Upham, 50, died in hospital in Melbourne on 8 June 1911.

Sources
Merrifield papers, State Library of Victoria; S. Merrifield, The Melbourne Anarchist Club 1886-1891, in Bulletin of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, No. 3 (Canberra, November 1962), pp 32-33; Bob James, Anarchism and State Violence in Sydney and Melbourne, (Newcastle, 1986); his death certificate and birth certificate for daughter; additional research by Chris Cunneen February 2025.