What Would We do Withouth These Words?

Historians often come across words that are no longer used or colloquialisms - here are some of our favourites.

Fank - A Scottish sheep pen of dry-wall construction
Fornication - Out of wedlock

More on World War Two - Alfred John Aldridge

Alfred John Aldridge: Service Number N347675. Alfred was born in Parkes in 1906 and his next of kin was his wife Lillian May.  He owned Springwood Garage at one time but later, with Ted Honeysett, operated Henry's Garage.  The Aldridge family were residents of Springwood for many years.

Ref:
National Archives of Australia
Springwood Historians, The Making Of A Mountain Community: A Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District, Springwood Historians, 2002, p. 3.

More on World War Two - Reginald James Adamson

Biographical information regarding the men & women who served in World War Two will be added as it comes to hand.

Reginald James Adamson: Service Number NX111254.  Reginald was born in Springwood and was the son of James Moyes & Ivy Adamson.  His siblings were Ron, Marjorie (Mrs. W. Moxham, Rhodes) and Jean (Mrs. W. Davenport Faulconbridge).  His father was the local barber while his mother Ivy was the daughter of William Werner who owned the local ham and beef shop in Springwood.  

The Nepean Times newspaper reported in January 1943 the marriage of Corporal Reg Adamson to Gwendoline, daughter of Mr & Mrs Grace of South Hurstville at St George's Church of England Hurstville.

Ref:
Springwood Historians, The Making Of A Mountain Community; A Biographical Dictionary of 
 the Springwood District, Springwood Historians, 2002, p. 2.
Ann Gugler, 'Charles Price,' Hidden Canberra, updated Feb. 2010,
 http://www.hiddencanberra.webs.com/, accessed 12.2.2011.
Nepean Times, 21.1.1943.

World War Two

War Memorial  Macquarie Road, Springwood

Fortunately, the names of local men who enlisted for World War One are listed on the Honor Board located in Springwood Civic Centre & their service and history perpetuated in Remembrance Springwood District Honor Roll 1914-1919. Local volunteers for World War Two were not so lucky; their names remain largely unrecorded except in service records and military papers.

The National Archives of Australia took over the work of digitalising service records from the Australian War Memorial Canberra and are making progress on the latter records to make them available to the wider public.  Although all records are not yet digitalised the following is a list of men and women who were born, or enlisted, in Springwood. 

Adamson, Reginald James

Aldridge, Alfred John

Allen, Patrick Lancelot

Anderson, Harold James

Banfield, Norman Hewitt

Bennett, Edwin Harold

Bennett, Percy Steven

Bennett, Ronald Alan

Bishop, Ernest Henry

Blackwood, Lindsay Burns

Cantwell, Michael Joseph

Carey, John Cameron

Cheadle, Walter Gerald

Clay, Herbert

Colless, Charles Gordon

Colless, Roy Lucas

Colless, Rupert George

Cook, John Eric Eugene

Crosland, Jack Frederick

Crosland, Stanley Cecil

Croucher, Keith Mark

Cullen, Leonard John

Davis, John Francis

Dawson, Noel

Dodd, Frank Julian

Dodd, Norman Leslie

Donaldson, Arthur Walter

Dwyer, Douglas Haig

Dyson, Kevin Vincent

Fairfax-Ross, Basil

Ferguson, Archibald Cook

Fitch, Ronald Warwick

Fox, Harry Kenneth

Frost, Leo Lorraine

Grant, John Milton

Gray, George Joseph

Hall, Ernest

Hall, Robert Desmond

Harber, Richard Fearnside

Harris, Maurice Walter

Hartigan, Ronald Keith

Herr, Matthew Judge

Hughes, William Wynne

Hurley, Francis Dudley

Ipkendanz, Edward

Jack, Herbert Ernest

Jay, Arnold John

Jones, William Charles

Judge, Stanley Craddock

Kelly, Harold Nelson

Kemp, Thomas Harold

Leape, Eric

Lees, Robert Australia

Lofting, Hilary David

McDonald, Eric William

McDonald, John Alexander

McMain, Ronald Horace

McPhee, William Arthur

Mann, Norman Kenneth

Mansfield, Charles Vivian

Martin-Yates, Ronald

Masters, Roy Edward

Moody, Ronald Rawson

Morrison, William

Munro, Donald Sutherland

Neville, Raymond Aubrey

Nichols,Charles Henry

Nichols, Leslie John

Powell, Douglas Charles

Pratt, William Norman

Prince, Charles Oswald

Proctor, William Jack

Rafferty, Norman Joseph

Randall, Alma Montrose

Robertson, James

Robison, Rupert Cowper

Rowling, Edward Charles

Ryan, Gabriel Francis

Salter-Gibbs, Henry Leslie

Simons, Donald George

Smith, William Alfred

Speer, John Edward Thomas

Stace, Rupert Octavius

Stratton, Clarence Charles

Stratton, Ernest Clifford

Stratton, Raymond Keith

Sully, Alfred Ernest

Thomas, Owen Furley

Thruchley, Trevor Reginald

Thurgood, Cecil Arthur

Towns, Clarence George

Urquhart, Colin Ernest

Wall, Donald Douglas

Wall, Douglas Lawrence

Wallace, Donald Kendall

Way, Harold James

Webb, Lewis Harry

West, Reginald Joseph

Wheatley, James Eric

Wheatley, Leslie William

Whiteman, Randall Harland

Wiggins, Elizabeth May

Wiggins, Frederick George

Wiggins, Stanley Norman

Wilson, John Nathan

Wimhurst, Albert Edward

Winchester, Selwyn

Young, Eric Charles

This does not claim to be a definitive nor correct list and omissions or corrections are welcomed.   

 Pamela Smith

  

More on the Fels Family

Trove newspaper indexes, hosted by the National Library of Australia, are a boon for historians.  For example we now know that Frederick Fels real name was Faivel Shoelevitch Fels and reveal that the lawsuit - fought out between Balia (his first wife) and the Public Trustee on behalf of Dora over his deceased estate went right to the Privy Council on appeal.  The novelty of the case seemed to capture the interest of the media because articles appeared in most of the major newspapers in Australia.  For example, the by line of an article in the Cairns Post  25th November 1916 read  "Peculiar Law Suit Over Ante-nuptial Settlement."  

According to newspaper reports, Frederick or Faivel deserted his first wife and children and came to Australia in 1889 where he and Dora lived as man and wife.  Mr Justice Harvey suggested that even though Dora claimed Frederick divorced Balia 28 years prior he was unconvinced that the requisites of a Jewish divorce had taken place. However, His Honour suggested that Balia had failed to prove she had any claim to a property at Springwood left to Dora by the deceased.  Consequently, he awarded Balia costs and the equivalent of 2500 roubles (her dowry on marriage).  Unsatisfied with the result, Balia appealed to the Privy Council however the Sydney Morning Herald reported on 18th July 1918 that her appeal had been dismissed.  
Pamela Smith
References:
A civil divorce is not legal under Jewish law.
Sydney Morning Herald, various articles 1916.
Sydney Morning Herald, 18th July, 1918, p. 7.
Cairns Post, 25th November,1916, p. 5.
The West Australian, 18th July, 1918, p. 4.
The Advertiser, Adelaide, 15th November, 1916, p. 6.

Marriage - Changing Ones name

The following article is interesting especially since women are now being written back into history and now that family history is recognised as an important component of Public History.

Have you ever considered why you gave up your maiden name and happily adopted your husband's family name, forever more being known as Mrs "husband's name?"  

As family historians we relentlessly and enthusiastically research our own family name (and sometimes our husband's, especially if he has noble connections) so why don't we keep our own name at the time of marriage?  

The following column from the Nepean Times newspaper of 23rd December 1899, might provide some food for thought.

       

The practice of women changing their names at marriage is very ancient.  Ladies of ancient Rome were known by their husband's names, thus the consorts of Pompey and Cicero were spoken of as Julia of Pompey and Octavia of Cicero; and women in most countries signed their names in the same way, but after a time omitted the 'of.'  This fashion came into use in Britain after the Roman occcupation, but at the beginning of the seventeenth century the custom seems doubtful, for  Catherine Parr so signed her name even after her second marriage, and we always read of Lady Jane Grey (not Dudley), and Arabella Stuart (not Seymour).  Some people consider the custom of women taking her husband's  name as originating  in the teaching of the Bible that 'they twain shall be one flesh.'  

Shirley Evans

Journeys

The Local Studies Collection of the Blue Mountains City Library (housed in Braemar House) has a wide variety of books relating to all things Blue Mountains, including the literature of Blue Mountains writers.  But it also has an extensive pamphlet collection (called the Vertical File), not indexed with the main library holdings , but  on a card system within Braemar.

A recent acquisition is about to be added to the file titled “Journeys”.  The material in this file is fascinating.  In the early days of the Colony, after a way across the Mountains had been discovered by the new settlers and Cox’s Road had been built, our intrepid colonials set out to explore for themselves and often to make a new life in Bathurst and beyond.   “Journeys” has copies of journals including that of Governor Macquarie kept on his inaugural trip over the Mountains and of Captain Henry Antill, one of the officials who accompanied him.

There are also journals and reports of naturalists and scientists, letters and memoirs of an artist, an early  photographer and some missionaries.  The ladies have their place in the collection too, mostly in the form of letters.  Mrs Sophia Stanger was travelling to Bathurst with her husband, Joseph, in search of work.  They had five children including an infant, about three months old.*  Her letter was addressed to “My Own Beloved Mother”.  The indefatigable Mrs Elizabeth Hawkins whose husband was to work in Bathurst, was accompanied by eight children and her mother and she was writing to her sister.  Another of the ladies, Louisa Anne Meredith, writer and botanist, was pregnant and going with her husband to visit his sheep property near Bathurst.

One of my favourites is the journal of Barron Field - his was a wonderful name for a colourful character.  He was a Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1817 to 1824 and he included what he called “an Excursion Across the Blue Mountains” during his stay in the Colony.  He spoke of “the eternal eucalyptus, with its white bark and its scanty tin-like foliage” and “the dark casuarina tall, and exocarpus funeral” although he did deign to admire the beautiful flowers and shrubs – “the exquisite epacris, the curious grevillea, xanthorrhoea, the sceptre of Flora, Telopea the magnificent, and thysanotis** the lovely.”

And there are many more – a real treasure house of reading.  Fascinating are some early examples of travel writing published in 1890s journals such as “The Illustrated Sydney News” and “The Town and Country Journal” .  They not only promote the scenic beauty spots of the Mountains, but give useful advice for accommodation on your journey.  They also provided a vehicle for the advertising of inns, guest houses and boarding schools.  Accommodation by this time, of course, was infinitely more comfortable than the sleazy inns available to the early travellers.

The new addition is a story of more recent origin and concerns five adventurous country girls, Alma and Joyce Eurell, Molly Dunn, Beryl Burns and Daisy Transton, aged from about 21 to 23, who cycled from Leeton, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, to Sydney in 1935.  The previous year they had spent two months planning to cycle to Melbourne for the Centenary Celebrations and remarkably they accomplished this in four days, despite a headwind for part of the way.



Leeton is a pretty town designed by Walter Burley Griffin with a circular design of avenues and streets which were later mostly given the names of trees.  It is 585 kms from Sydney and in 1933 had a district population of 7,803 and a town population of 5,351.  In 1934/5 the Letona Cannery was the largest industrial undertaking in the Leeton district and the greatest single employer.  It became a Fruitgrowers’ Cooperative in 1935.  The Cannery building covered 17½ acres which included a building for canning and jam making, refrigeration chambers, a box making section and a storage warehouse for finished products.  There was also a plant for can making, a machine shop, steam generating boilers and railway sidings.  There were also facilities including dormitories for seasonal workers who were mainly women.  In 1932 over 500 women came for the season.  They were employed as piece workers, mainly cutting open and pitting the fruit.  Letona canned tomatoes, deciduous fruits, jam and some vegetables such as peas.

Our adventurous girls all worked at the Cannery.  They loved cycling, all had Speedwell bicycles and spent their holidays on these excursions.  In 1935 they set out on Tuesday, 17^th September.  Their departure was not described in the local newspaper, “The Murrumbidgee Irrigator” but in 1934 it was reported that co-workers lined the railway siding to cheer them on the way to Melbourne, and there were also people along the Leeton streets to farewell them.  I would think this happened again in 1935.

They made good time to Temora, arriving at tea time, despite Daisy feeling unwell all the way.  On Wednesday she had completely recovered but they found the next leg, aiming for Cowra, difficult, plagued by bad roads and Mollie’s bicycle suffering five punctures along the way.  The last one occurred at night and they were unable to mend it.  They did not have a torch and vowed to bring one on their next journey.  They walked in darkness for three miles to Koorawatha, ten miles from Cowra.  Here they spent the night.  The next day they really pushed on over one hill after another, sometimes having to walk and reached Bathurst at midnight.  Daisy and Alma went straight to bed, but Mollie, Joyce and Beryl tucked into steak and eggs.

Left to Right: Joyce Eurell, Elma Eurell, Daisy Transton
Beryl Byrnes & Molly Dunne

The next day they found the Great Western Highway “like a speedway with a billiard-table surface” and were able to spend the night at Lithgow, reaching Katoomba on Saturday at 11.30 a.m.  The Katoomba Speedwell Agent, Mr “Bill” Coventry, met them at the office of the “Katoomba Daily” and their photograph was taken.  It was said that a Speedwell Agent met them at nearly every town on the route although present day family members believe their trip was not sponsored.

We know the five girls had packed their swimming costume and planned to spend a month in Sydney, looking forward to a happy time on the surfing beaches.  They told the Katoomba journalists that the roads to Melbourne were better but “the scenery could not be compared with what they had just witnessed”. We have no further information about their journey but we may yet acquire some and it can be easily be added to the Vertical File.

*George Mackaness in “Fourteen Journeys Over the Blue Mountains of New South Wales” wrote that Sophia was travelling with triplets.  It seems likely that he was misinterpreting something Sophia included in her letter to her mother where she referred to all the advice she received from interested onlookers.  Some, she said, “were utterly astonished the young girl should have so many children, and especially three at a birth!”  John Low and I feel she was writing humorously to her mother.  Sophia, at the time of the journey, would have been 27 years old, she married Joseph in 1836 and they had a baby each year until 1841.  The three youngest were very young for such a journey in the winter and would have been very warmly swaddled against the cold making the casual observer believe they were all tiny babies.

**Thysanotis – fringed violet (Family Liliaceae)

Shirley Evans 

REFERENCES

“The Descendants of Thomas Stanger, circa 1610”   http//www.airgale.com.au/stanger-t/d7.htm

Bowmaker, A.E.  “A Brief History of Leeton”, 1968

Eurell family members

“Journeys”, Vertical File, Local Studies Collection, Blue Mountains City Library

Katoomba Daily, 1935

Mackaness, George, “Fourteen Journeys Over the Blue Mountains of New South Wales”, 1950

Murrumbidgee Irrigator, 1934, 1935

Tiffen, Robin, “Letona, the Whole Story”, 1996

Vries-Evans, Susannah, “Pioneer Women, Pioneer Land: Yesterdays’ Tall Poppies”, 1987