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Maud Harvey nee Adams
Maud Harvey was born to George and Emily Adams in 8/8/1880, her birth place was Croydon Victoria Melbourne. There were 4 sisters and 3 brothers. Maud went to school until she was about 10 years old and had learnt her 3 R's. She then went into service as a kitchen maid. Her employer was a friendly woman and taught her to cook very well.
She met and married Daniel Harvey when she was about 16 or 17 years old. Their first two sons died one being stillborn, the other Ernest dying at 6 months from pnuemonia. For the next few years Maud devoted much of her time to helping Daniel with his business, acting as his Secretary & Book keeper, when raw materials were required she would harness the horse and dray and drive into Melbourne to collect it. A distance of about 12 miles, coming home often meant she walked much of the way as the load of steel and iron was heavy and there were quite a few hills to negotiate. Their surviving son Hugh Gordon was born in 1911.
Apart from relinguishing her work in the factory Maud was kept very busy with Church and Charity work, she loved playing both Whist and Euchre and regularly attended these in the parish hall, these were fundraising ventures to pay for the Church and Parish school buildings.
Being a renowned cook her cakes , jams and pickles etc were always in great demand for School Fetes, street stalls for Red Cross and other Charities. much of the produce she used came from her own garden or her brothers and sisters Orchards and Farms. Added to her kitchen expertise she was also busy sewing and knitting for her family.
As a child she taught me to knit and crochet but I never mastered her art of cooking, this was partly due to WW2 when my efforts often led to disaster and because of rationing that wasn't acceptable in her eyes and it was a great relief to me to be the simple passer of this or that on baking day.
Any info on George Adams and his wife Emily who migrated to Australia and lived at Croydon Vict
My birth mother was either Grace or Gladys French, one name on birth Certificate the other on adoption certificate. I was born in Melbourne Au, 16 th October 1935. But can find no other information about her. I was adopted in 1937
This is my Grandfather a brief history is available about him on this site
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/3157/daniel-harvey-collection
His father, Malachi, was an Irish immigrant to Australia in the 1800's, landing at Geelong, Victoria and walking to Ballarat, part of our Gold History in Australia. He met and married Elizabeth McNally, also an Irish immigrant or possibly a "Currency Lass", the name given to first generation Australian girls.
They moved to Boort Victoria where they raised their 11 sons on a farm they carved out of the virgin bush. Each son had an indoor and outdoor job to assist in the running of the home and farm. Daniel's ended up repairing family clothes and linen and delivering the bread and post by horseback on his way back from school. Later he assisted in the clearing of the Bush and was then apprenticed to a Blacksmith. Dan's brothers were Jack, Frank, Mick, Dick, Ted, Peter, Gus, Hugh, Arthur and Matt, this is not in order of their age.
Shortly after Dan finished his apprenticeship, he arrived at work one day, to find that his boss had taken off for a Gold Rush at Wedderburn Victoria, this formed part of the Gold Triangle in Victoria, Dan had not been paid his last wage and decided to follow his boss, which he did on his bicycle. Years later Dan described this monstrosity to me, no brakes with solid iron tires, an unsprung metal seat covered in leather and he rode this over dirt tracks approximately 200 miles. He found his boss, got his pay and left for Melbourne another considerable distance.
His early working life is written up in the Melbourne Museum site (see above).
To a small child Grandpa was a giant with beautiful hands, I was utterly fascinated with his long fingers. He passed this trait onto his son Hugh. I used to love watching him sketch an idea that had suddenly come to him, he would take up a piece of paper and his fountain pen and without pause draw what he had in mind. He encouraged me greatly in my own artistic endevours so I am reasonably competent at painting. When I went for a drive with him, he would suddenly say "What do you see?" and I would have to describe something to him. If I had missed something such as tree in bloom, or an eagle soaring on the currents, a yacht under full sail. He would stop the car and just sit there until I gave him the right answer. Looking back I think that this training in observation helped me a lot in my profession of Nursing. After one particular drive when we had had a bit of an argument about 'seeing the wind', he came around to my home and gave me a beautiful book of Van Gogh's paintings with the comment "He could see the wind".
Something that is rarely mentioned in regards to Daniel was the fact that he had many strings to his bow. He was a qualified Carriage maker and Wheelwright and photos of some of the wagons he made are depicted on the Melbourne Museum Website. His hobbies included Photography and many of the photos shown there are his work. I have in my home two articles of Furniture he made, the pride of place is Dresser he made for his wife,Maud, on the occasion of their marriage in 1901, it was made without nails, the other is an auto-tray made about the 1930's. Another of his hobbies was the restoring and upholstering of old furniture, which he would buy at Sales. Not that everything he turned his hands to was perfect, I'll not forget the day when Grandma was busy baking, mentioned to him that the kitchen tap was leaking. Unconcerned Grandpa got out a spanner and new washer, and proceeded to undo the tap without turning the water off at the mains connection. The resultant mess of the fountaining water on the carefully cooling cakes and bread was a sight to behold, Grandma was purple with anger, all I could do was laugh.
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