Below is a transcription of a newspaper article which appeared
in Victoria in December 1860.Ten years before his death.
The founder of Moama, James MAIDEN more familiarly known
as 'Jemmy Maiden' was one of 270 convicts transported to
New South Wales on the Bengal Merchant, 27 September 1834.
He had been convicted at the Lancaster Assizes for stealing
silver ware and candles (burglary) and sentenced to transportation
for 7 years. Arriving on the 30 January 1835.
He married Jane Davies (Registered as DAVIES),at
St John’s Anglican Church, Camden, in 1840.
They produced 7 children, the first three George, Mary and
Richard born in New South Wales. James Maiden received his
Certificate of Freedom in November 1841.
'Jemmy Maiden' died of Bronchial Pneumonia, on the 28 December 1869
at the public hospital in Bendigo. He was broke.
His wife Jane Davis Maiden died on the 2 October 1891 at
her home "Kootanie" Punt-road South Yarra, Melbourne at age 76,
leaving real estate to the value of £900 and a personal wealth
including the furniture and jewelry of £55/3/- Her
son George Maiden was executor....janilye

Mr. James Maiden, whose name must be familiar to a
large portion of the inhabitants of New South Wales
and the adjoining colonies, first became a border man
about sixteen years ago : it was in the year 1840 when
he first crossed the Murray, in the employ of Mr. Purcelwhaite,
in order to settle on that part of the Cowpasture now
known as Jeffries' Station (about twenty-five miles from
the junction of the latter river with the Murray). This
was antecedent to the great rush of the settlers from Maneroo
and the adjacent country to the borders of the Edward and the
Murray, and the outskirts of Port Phillip, which was then
termed the new country.
Mr. Maiden having done the work assigned to him by his employer,
went back to Seymour for a time, from which locality he had
migrated.
In a short period fortune again directed him in the direction
of the Murray and the Edward, and he settled down on
Morogo (Heelyman), on the Edward.
Maiden was at this but little, in position, above a laboring
man; but parties who were acquainted with him for some time
previous to this, state that he was always recognised as a
very superior man for his Station: possessed of great shrewdness,
or what is denominated 'natural talent,' with more than an
average shine of mental and physical energy.
Maiden about this time became connected with a settler of the
name of Clarke, to whom he was related by marriage, and for whom,
on Maiden leaving the station on the Edward, he brought a
large number of cattle down to this favorite portion of the Murray.
The locality in which he was then for many years to act a
prominent part, seemed to have an uncommon attraction for him:
perhaps it was that he saw a wide opening for an active minded
man — it was untrodden ground, whereon any one who sowed might
safely expect to reap.
Travelling with cattle then was a different affair to what it now is.
The country was then, as we have said, uninhabited, — a trackless
waste. There were no yards wherein to stow safely your herds;
no comfortable hotel as now. Wherein speculators could put up
nightly, eat and drink well, and calculate their gains from the
prices current of the daily journals of the colonies.
Camping out day and night, crossing lagoons and rivers, and all
the unpleasant etceteras, which, if it were possible that a
new chum in his mind could realise, would certainly convey to
him no very pleasing ideas of colonisation.
There was also another and a very different affair to contend
with; the natives of this part of the country were by no means
desirous of fraternizing with the whites; on the contrary, were
very troublesome, in driving away and spearing the cattle, and
it required a vigilant eye to protect men and cattle from the
onslaught of the blacks. In all those disagreeables Maiden had
more than his share: and, on one occasion, so hostile had the
aboriginals become, that he and his wife (the latter in
order to deceive the blacks, wore male attire) had to stand a
siege for many weeks, their hut being surrounded, attacked, and
watched day and night, terror having driven away Maiden's mates.
After a year or so 'roughing it,' as the colonial phrase goes,
exerting his energies in the services of others, Maiden began
to turn his attention to setting up for himself.
The start in life is the thing - how to set the machine in
motion, and then to keep it going; these are the two phases
of Australian life.
Maiden's means were small - very small. The Murray here, as
in its whole length, was without a punt, the white man being
up to this time under the necessity of imitating the black fellow
by crossing this fine stream in the frail bark canoe; but
Maiden slightly improved this by building a small punt, which he,
for a time, worked himself; thus it carried 'Caesar and his fortunes.'
This was in the year 1843, hence we date the foundation of his
prosperity. By diligently plying this little punt for two years, Maiden
was enabled to build the large one so well known throughout these
colonies as Maiden's Punt. He now removed the small punt to the Edward
River, at Deniliquin, and thus he had the command of the two crossing
places. Following up his good fortune, he, in July, 1846, opened his
licensed house the 'Junction Inn,' and Maiden's worldly prosperity
improved rapidly. Postal communication now began to occupy his attention,
and he established a private mail from Seymour and Deniliquin, to run
every other week; the year following, he also ran a mail from
Kilmore to Deniliquin. The money for those contracts was raised by
private subscriptions among the few settlers on the route. For the
Seymour and Deniliquin mail, Maiden received the munificent sum of £50
per annum; and for the Murray and Moulamein one he also realised
£50 per year, the sum being made up by subscrptions of 50s. each
settler who received his letters by this medium; the Kilmore and
Deniliquin post(about 150 miles in length) obtained the sum of
£70 - if carried out according to the present rate of payment
for the same work, it would amount to something like £700.
For several years Maiden held these contracts or sub-contracts,
and in the meantime he built a large punt for the Edward, to
correspond with that on the Murray.
Persevering in these matters for a few years, sometimes as
barman at his own inn, at another as his own mailman, and then
again making his own punts - he seemed to be ubiquitous. Always
a hard worker himself, those under him were compelled to
follow his example.
When the gold discovery changed the face of things in Australia,
it found Maiden a man of substance for those days; and ultimately
when the famous Bendigo astonished the people of these colonies,
Maiden (distant about 55 miles from this goliath of all the gold-fields)
received an additional impetus on the road to fortune. He immediately
began buying gold and fitting out parties for the diggings, until he
drew down upon him the wrath of the neighboring settlers, because
as they alleged, he encouraged their men to desert their hired service;
they imagined, 'ruin stared them in the face' their flocks and herds
were deserted. Maiden was therefore made the scapegoat for the sins
of a great many runaways, with whose absence from their legitimate
employers he had, as he said, "neither act or part."
The settlers determined on a victim, and positively met in Maiden's
own inn to consider the best means of depriving him of his license.
He called for proof of his complicity in the guilt of the missing
shepherds and stockmen: none being forth coming, the wrathful settlers
were checkmated in the movement - Maiden soothingly assuring them
that the tide would soon turn in their favor.
The tens of thousands flocking to the Bendigo would require lots
of animal food; "the settlers would thus have a market for their
cattle and sheep in the room of boiling them down"
This foresight of Maiden's was rapidly realised; in less than
three short years, some of the settlers who wished
to take away Maiden's license having gone home to England with
ample fortunes.
This unpleasant affair having thus passed over, Maiden felt that
he wanted 'elbowroom.' Punt, post, and public house were now
subordinate matters, he looked for a wider sphere for the exercise
of his undeniable talents. To supply the Bendigo with cattle and
sheep was his aim; no light matter to provide chops and steaks for
a hundred thousand diggers.
With limited capital, however, he commenced the enterprise, by
gradually creeping onward, boldly but cautiously making his purchases,
he soon accomplished this, and he soon had also a very fair share
in the supply of Melbourne. Beginning with purchases of hundreds of
pounds, he advanced to thousands, from thousands to tens of thousands.
Stock alone have not occupied his attention; but in stations
and land in fee-simple he has invested largely ; he has purchased
seventeen runs, for one of which alone he paid forty thousand guineas!
he owns 18,000 head of horned cattle, many thousands of sheep,
about 500 horses, and has in his employ about 100 men, nearly all
of whom are occupied in driving stock; he owns lands in various parts
of New South Wales and Victoria, which in itself would make him a
wealthy man all the township of 'Moama' or Maiden's Punt, save a few
allotments, is his he is still a publican and post master; in fact,
it is difficult to say what he is not, excepting that he is not an idler.
The men of the rank from which he sprung look upon Maiden as a god.
With them the wonder has been, -
"That one small head should carry all he knew."
Those who are far above him in education and station
(Maiden makes it no secret that he can neither read nor write)
seek and receive his counsel, he certainly is a colonial phenomenon.
His public house, like himself, has crept on apace from its original
size to a large inn, wherein more business is transacted in cattle
and sheep than perhaps in any ten houses in these colonies.
Those who have had an opportunity of judging, estimate that in
Maiden's big parlor, bargains to the amount of a quarter of a million
are annually made — Maiden's purchases reach to £100,000 in the year.
SOURCE:
The Age
(Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)
Wednesday 26 December 1860
p 7 Article
transcription, janilye