Mr. Alfred Smith
Chronicled by Robert Farlow.
[For the Gazette.]
Mr John Rule owned a farm at Wheeney Creek. He did a little farming and had other means by which he made ends meet, He was a jolly old fellow, and Mrs Rule was a very quiet woman. He thought nothing of walking to Richmond
and back. Old Mr Lamrock built a store there and afterwards kept an hotel for years. He had a racecourse there where races were held for years. It was a great camping place for travellers, for John Lamrock was a very popular man, and he was deserving of it all.
On Wheeney Creek, near the 'Donnybrook,' James Walsh lived for some time. I remember he had a beautiful grey mare. His sons Paddy and John used to draw sawn timber and wattle bark to town with the bullock team. The last time I saw him was at Ben Bullen when I was droving. He was then keeping a pub there, where he died. Then at the ' Donnybrook,' on the creek, Mr John Town ? 'Grand father' Town? had one flour mill. I remember 'Bob the Miller,' who died there. Mrs Harriett Sylvester, I believe, had some interest in the mill. Mr Easter brook rented the mill from Mr William Town.
Up towards the main road from "Donnybrook " there was a blacksmith named Paddy Costello. Paddy afterwards kept a pub the other side of Hartley.
Near the 'Donnybrook' Samuel Hurst owned a farm and was a great potato grower. Among his family I knew John, Samuel, Joseph, Mrs Bonus and Mrs Thomas Dean.
Joseph Baxter rented some land from William Town at the 'Donnybrook.' He had two bullocks and a dray and used to draw bark and potatoes. Going along Comleroy Road there was a man named Squire Brooks who rented land from Mr Price. This land was purchased afterwards by William Scott. He was living up Yarramundi way on the farm at the time. 'Bill the puntman ' fenced it for Scott. Mr Brooks while living there did a little farming and dealing in draught horses.
Thomas John owned the next farm and grew a lot of maize, and I have paid him 10/- a bushel for 30 bushels. Mrs John was a great butter maker and took a lot to Richmond. Of the family I knew William (who died lately), James, Thomas, Mary (married to Ned Taylor, who died recently at Orange), Jane married William Taylor a brother to Ned. Sarah married David Gow, and Martha Still lives in Kurrajong, unmarried.
Then we had good old Robert Pitt next. He married a daughter of old William John, a brother of Thomas John who lived to be 107 years of age. Old Mr Robert Pitt was a man of means. He was a very cheerful, upright man, and I don't think you could meet a more jolly woman than Mrs Robert Pitt. Of the family I know Henry, George, Robert and William. Sarah (who married Billy Want) another (who married a son of John Timmins, the famous drover), Clara, and a single sister who still lives in Kurrajong.
The present John Shepherd's father rented some land from Mr Robert Pitt. He, too, grew a lot of corn, and I have paid him as much as 6/- a bushel. He also brought wattle bark occasionally to town with his horse and cart. He was a jolly old man and was always ready with a joke. They used to call him 'Fleming's Jack.' Shepherd's wife was a Miss Parker, and a very jolly woman she was.
The next place we came to belonged to Mr William Ezzy. I put him and Miss Roberts over in the punt the day they went to Richmond to be married by the Rev. Elder. Mr Ezzy was a jolly man. They lived there for a long time, but removed to Grose Vale.
Behind his property lived 'Scotch Jack' (John Turner) the sawyer. 'Scotch Jack' and William Ezzy were playing on the same cabbage bed, so Mr. Ezzy got Mr Crew, an iron monger in Windsor, to buy 'Scotch Jack ' out for him. When 'Scotch Jack' found out the true state of things he performed in good style.
Then we came to old Mr Charles Day, who adjoined Ezzy's property. He was a married man but had no family. Mrs Day was an Irish woman. I think Day was about the first man to start orange growing at Comleroy Road. He died in Windsor at Miss Isabella Bushell's when she was keeping hotel, and left his landed properly to Mick Butler, Going along we came to Mr William Butler's place. He owned the property and kept an accommodation house, and had two yards for sheep drovers. It was a busy time among the sheep drovers, and he was very obliging
to them. I have known him to help an odd drover as far as Fullagar's. He was a jolly old man and his wife was likewise. Those were great days for dancing, and Butler used to play hornpipes and jigs on the flute ? and he could play it too, believe me. His eldest son, Richard, was killed by a burning tree falling on him. Mick lives over Freeman's Reach way, Of the daughters I knew the late Mrs Richard Hennessy, and another married daughter, Mrs Woodbury, living at Colo. That was the last house on the left side going to Colo. On the opposite side, just above Butlers, James Lake had a selection. He was a married man and had some small children in those days, Coming in one, flood time I camped at his place for ten nights with sheep. He was a great fencer, and a very good rough carpenter. Lake's wife was a Miss Mangings.
The next place, in the direction of Kurrajong, was James Hennessy's, father of the present Richard and Edward. He was a carrier on the mountains and a very jolly man. His wife was a very tall woman, and jovial with it. Next we had William Freeman, and between Hennessy's and Freeman's, Archbishop Polding had some land which was purchased by one of the McMahons. Free mans lived there a good while, farmed, and afterwards kept a public house. Next was James Roberts, father of Mrs William Ezzy. He had a good scope of land there. He was a very quiet man, but Mrs Roberts was a very jolly woman. Old Mrs Roberts was a sister to William and Thomas John.
(To be continued.)
SOURCE:
Some Ups and Downs of an old Richmondite,
Mr. Alfred Smith
Chronicled by Robert Farlow
Windsor and Richmond Gazette
Saturday 27 August 1910
Page 14
Transcription, janilye 2012