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.