[RB]  -  Universally nicknamed Jack, he was the second youngest of eight sons of Richard Ackland and Esther, nee Fischer (RA d 12/11/1918, Esther d 4/7/1891).  At first, Jack joined his brother Bert, also his next-door neighbour on Old Mt Barker Road, as a market gardener.  They watered their crops from cold springs.  Moisture gravitated through pipes with wooden plugs set at intervals.  These plugs used to pop out on occasion and had to be hammered back using a wooden mallet.  In preparation for market, the produce was washed clean with a cloth in half a tank of chill water.  Once loaded onto one-horse trolleys, the fuit and vegetables made their way to the Adelaide Market.  Jack Ackland also became a successful builder, which then absorbed his working time.  He married Maude Pepper from the Bridgewater Hotel.  Her mother used to supply suppers for local dances in the hotel’s assembly rooms.

ADAMS - Several Families of

[JKS]  -  There were several families with the name Adams who came to live in the Mt Barker district over the years.  In the very early days, most families lived on the outskirts of what is now the town.  The following are the Adams families who made the district their home from the early days.

John ADAMS and his wife Elizabeth nee Williams, farmed in an area known as Spring Gully - today it is known as Mt Barker Springs.  They had several children born there.  Mrs Adams died at Mt Barker Springs in 1872 at the age of 59.

Henry ADAMS and his wife Jane nee Maddern lived at Bugle Ranges where they farmed for a few years.

William ADAMS and his wife Jane nee Smith, arrived aboard the ship William Mitchell in 1840 from Chichester in England, with their five children - William James, Ann, Frederick, Emma, and Caroline.  Of their children, William James married Margaret Harmer and moved to Langhorne Creek; Ann married Joseph Stokes and lived at Mt Barker until her husband disappeared during the Victorian Goldrush, after which she married William Chilton and moved to Langhorne Creek; Frederick went to the gold fields with his brother in law Joseph Stokes in 1852 - Fred came back but Joseph didn't; I don't know what happened to Emma; and Caroline married William James Hazel and went to live at Kapunda.

Israel ADAMS, the son of Edmund Adams, lived at Littlehampton.  He married Wilhelmina Augusta Henrietta Spangler at St James' Church, Blakiston in 1859 and lived in the Mt Barker District for quite a few years.  His daughter, Elizabeth Ann, married John Langcake in 1872 at Mt Barker, but by this time, the family had moved to Kanmantoo.

[RB]  -  Born Homerton, Middlesex, England.  To SA 1839 Caroline.  James first spent time as a pastoralist near Pt Lincoln.  With some of his profits, he purchased the Dean family’s Cox Creek hotel in June 1850.  A year later, Addison married Maria, nee Bailey.  She was the eldest daughter of nurseryman John Bailey, proprietor of the famous Hackney Gardens, portion of which is now absorbed by St Peter’s College.  During 1854, the Addisons shifted the inn to the new Mt Barker Rd, renaming their business the Bridgewater Hotel.

From April 1858, James took out the licence for the Southern Cross Hotel, King William St, Adelaide (existed 1846-1974 there - then demolished, and licence shifted to Gawler Place).  Here, Addison died 26/4/1870 in bed at his home attached to the hotel.  Well connected, J Addison was a nephew of General Addison of Essex, England, and a relative of Dr Addison of the Reedbeds, near Adelaide.  Widowed Maria Addison remarried to another hotelkeeper, widower Edward Gandy, who had emigrated with Colonel Light in the Rapid in 1836.  Maria Gandy d 12/2/1884.  Gandy died 29/7/1902.

ADEY, Charles Milton (?-19/11/1927)

[RB]  -  Eddie Ahrens worked as a plasterer for John Mullin.

Les Ahrens was mortar boy to plasterers John Mullin and later Gordon Faehrmann.  (Max's Hahndorf)

ALDRIDGE, Frederick Clement

[RB]  -  Publican Mt Barker Hotel 1895-1896.  12/5/1853-?.   Son of George Aldridge publican Kensington & Sarah Jane Brown.  G Aldridge d 12/12/1879.  FC Aldridge married Maria Morcombe

[RB]  -  of Lot 48, on the Hutchinson St corner.  Bernhard Amsberg merchant Adelaide the buyer for £362.  Michael Amsberg merchant of Gilles Arcade, Adelaide, was a first cousin and co-partner in the Amsberg business. 

15/5/1860 RPA Bernhard Amsberg merchant Adelaide.  Value not stated.

[RB]  -  Solicitor Mt Barker 1850s.  He was the 1st Clerk of the Mt Barker DC.

[JKS]  -  Mr. Justice - born Richard Bullock Andrews in England in 1823, he came to SA in around 1853.  He lived in Littlehampton before it was called that - earlier known as Andrewville after this man.  He practised law in Mt Barker and was admitted to the Bar in 1855 and moved to Adelaide.  Two years later, he was elected to the house of Assembly and became the Attorney General during the Torrens administration.  He attained this same position in several subsequent administrations including those of Dutton and Ayres in 1863, 1865, 1867 and 1868.  He became a QC in 1870 and resigned from Parliamentary duties to become a crown solicitor and public prosecutor.  In 1881 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court.  His health failed him towards the end of 1883, and he passed away in June of 1884, leaving a widow and daughter.

[RB]  -  Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England, GF Angas worked in the family coachmaking industry there until his father’s death, then moving to London, where he took a great interest in banking and insurance.  Later, Angas became one of the prime movers in the formation of the South Australian Company set up to promote the colonisation of the new province of South Australia.  A Baptist by conviction, Angas sympathised with a group of persecuted Prussian Lutherans and lent them money to travel to South Australia in 1838.  GF Angas and his wife moved to South Australia permanently in 1851, where he spent much time enlarging his business interests, belonging to the South Australian parliament and fostering various religious and charitable movements.

[RB]  - Publican Oakfield Hotel 1870-1872.  Wife of Hermann Appelkamp.  Nee Wundenberg.

ARBUCKLE, Margaret

[RB]  - Storekeeper widow 1850s

Register 15/7/1852 - The widow and family of the late Mr John Arbuckle, of the Mt Barker district, have been reduced to a state of great distress by a lamentable and fatal accident.  On Friday, the 21st May, Mr Arbuckle, on his way overland to the Victorian gold fields, had reached a point within about 100 miles of the gold fields, when a loaded gun, which he was in the act of removing from a dray, exploded, and injured his right arm so severely that it was found necessary to amputate the limb.  The sufferer died two days after the accident, leaving a widow and five children to lament their most afflicting bereavement.  Several gents who knew and respected the deceased, and deeply sympathise with the bereaved, are willing to contribute and desirous to procure contributions, in order to enable the widow to maintain herself and the orphans.

[RB]  -  Second son of John Ashhurst (c1834- d 7/11/1909) & Harriet Hall (1838-16/6/1935.), and grandson of Abraham Ashhurst, who first settled as gardeners at Cox Creek during 1851.  Before emigrating, Abraham had been a saddler.  Charles was born only months before his widowed grandfather Ashhurst died, and John inherited Section 1132, Hundred of Onkaparinga, on which to continue his gardening, and also go out as a day labourer.  The Ashhursts originated from Delph, Yorks, in the Pennine Range between Huddersfield and Manchester.  To SA 1850 Lady McNaughton. John & Harriet Ashhurst, nee Hall, married at St James’ Blakiston in 1857. John and Harriet Ashhurst brought up Charlie and other family members very strictly; none of the sons was allowed to smoke or drink until his 21st birthday.  Education being a prized asset, the Ashhursts took great pride in the fact that John’s grandson, Thomas Junr, won an Oxford Rhodes Scholarship in 1924.  Sir Alick Downer bought Charles Ashhurst’s Deanery Road home to make it part of Arbury Park and serve as a residence for his mother, Mrs Darcy Addison, the former Lady Downer.

[RB]  -  Gordon Aughey worked as a day labourer and eventually left the district.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[VV#28]  -  Refer Johannes FT Auricht.

[RB]  -  People did not make appointments but waited their turn.  Made his own medicines before treating the next patient.  He was the Oak of Hahndorf Lodge doctor and was paid £200 a year to treat members.  Sick patients sent to Nurse Schmidtke at the College.  She nursed very roughly and so Dr Auricht started his own hospital in Mrs Selma Nitschke’s house on the hill in 1935.  Finally the hospital became too expensive to run by himself.  Audrey Abraham and Ivy Haebich were the first nurses.  After the hospital closed, Ivy and her sister Hilda went to work for Gus Nitschkes, and eventually married his son Vic.

Dr Auricht’s son, Reg, also became a doctor, but would not follow his father because he did not want to treat people he had gone to school with – established a practice at Loxton.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Scottish-born Alexander brought his first wife and family to SA 1849 Ramillies.  A cabinetmaker by trade, he took up land in the Onkaparinga district for a time, but then moved to Carey Gully, a Cox Creek tributary.  Here, descendants have gardened ever since.  Alexander Badenoch became a member of the first Crafers District Council in 1857.  His son, William (by his second wife (Elizabeth, nee McVittie), became a baker for Rudd’s at Bridgewater during the late 1880s.  Alexander Senr’s grandson, Alexander III, developed a market garden along Foxhill Rd, Bridgewater.

[RB]  -  Cecil Alfred Balleine was a barber in what later became Howard Hill’s shoe repair shop – two smaller rooms along the main street – one with the door opening onto the steet, where Mr Balleine sold shaving cream, combs, hair oil and the other where he cut hair more privately.  A large room behind which contained two billiard tables.  Mr Balleine bought the business from Bob Smith/perhaps James Smart??.

Mrs Balleine was Queenie Gladys nee Kemp.  A very kind woman – tall; her sons took after her in stature and were also good-looking.  A short man, Cecil Balleine wore a bowler hat and always stood to attention when God Save the King was played.  He became a sergeant at the Loveday Army Camp when the Balleines left Hahndorf.

Frederick Walter Cecil Balleine b 19/9/1917 Mile End attended Hahndorf Public School.  He used to help greengrocer Laurie Kramm with his office work and joined the RAN as an Able Seaman in WW 11; he lost his life when his ship HMAS Paramatta was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea off Tobruk on 27/11/1941.  Fred must have been below deck and drowned, because apparently those crew on deck managed to survive.

His brother Bernard George Payne Lovelock Balleine b 16/5/1915 Sandwell [Birkenhead] joined the RAAF and died when his spitfire plane was shot down during a raid on Germany; body never found.  Fred Balleine was a side drummer in the Hahndorf Town Band.  Article Courier 24/6/09 p10 for Fred Balleine commemoration with fellow side drum Band member James Joseph Alexander McFayden/McFadyen who died when his spitfire plane was shot down over Belgium when he was returning from a bombing raid over Germany on 8/12/1944.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Fred Balleine was the younger of only two surviving sons who arrived in Hahndorf (then still called Ambleside) from Port Adelaide c1931, with their parents, Cecil Balleine and his wife, Queenie nee Kemp.  For over ten years, Cec Balleine conducted a hairdressing shop and billiard saloon on part of the site of the present Manna Motel at 21-25 Main Street, Hahndorf.  Fred Balleine was one of the crew aboard HMAS Parramatta, when it was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off Tobruk on 27/11/1941.

Horrifically, the Balleines also lost their only other surviving child, Bernard, who died on active service as a RAAF spitfire pilot over Europe, at about the same time.  Perhaps understandably, the grieving Balleine parents decided to leave Hahndorf shortly after these two family catastrophes occurred.

[RB]  -  A retired Colonel in the British India Army.  The Barbers became one of the earliest families to build on Dunn’s Bridgewater Estate.  An Indian bungalow rose above Cox Creek (c1859-1860), overlooking what later became the township’s recreation ground, to a design of a home the Colonel had lived in during his India service.  When the Bridgewater Mill began constant operations during 1861, its waterwheel, old Rumbler, shook the surrounding countryside so much that the nearby Barber residence developed severe cracking.  Barber’s daughter, Mrs LN Marriott, and then her son, Leonard, lived there after him.  Colonel Barber became a JP and held often held local courts in his home, particularly while the Nairne Railway was under construction during the early 1880s.  Name of wife. Date of deaths.

BARKER, Bruce Beaumont Bell (?-2/4/1947)

BARKER, William

[RB]  - Boot and shoemaker Mt Barker (?-12/6/1873).  In later contracts, W Barker described as a merchant.  He bought the right of way and the same part of Lot 47 behind that road.

William Barker died.  He had shifted to Adelaide.  His wife, Henrietta, got all his estate.  DJ O’Brien solicitor Adelaide, was the solicitor for the estate.

21/1/1874 Henrietta Barker, formerly of Adelaide, but now of Sydney, appointed James Barker miller Goolwa, as her attorney to sell the land.

[RB]  - Draper Mt Barker (18/9/1816-29/7/1890) St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England.  Foundation trustee, Mt Barker Institute.  A leading official of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Executors Barker widow Mt Barker and George Wilcox merchant Adelaide.  Wife, Sophia, nee Whitbread.  Left the Wesleyan Methodists to help form the Baptist Church.  One of the 3 foundation deacons.

[JKS]  - Refer to Robert BARR-SMITH

[JKS]  -  Robert, arrived in SA 1855 from Melbourne (arrived there in 1854).  Bought what was the "Oakfield Hotel" from Lachlan McFarlane and renamed it "Auchenderroch" after his family home in Scotland.

[RB]  -  A Waymouth Street carrier in 1840, the year that the Royal Victoria Theatre opened.  Samuel Bartlett established the Balhannah Inn in March of 1840 and also cultivated an acre of potatoes nearby.

[RB]  -  Educated London University and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated 1837 MA, as 12th wrangler.  Professor of Mathematics at Sandhurst Military College for ten years, and then at Reading, where he prepared pupils for the army.  To SA 1861 Harwich.  Removed almost immediately to Cox Creek, where he remained for the rest of his life.  Rather a large family - included spinster daughters.  An MA. Lived at Fernhill.  Bought the Easther family’s two cottages.  Lived as a recluse for the last years of his life.  He grew grape vines at Cox’s Creek.  The hillside returned to scrub.  Could still find traces of the vines by digging around in the undergrowth.  The sturdy stone wine cellars still exist.  Wife Amelia moved to Melbourne, where she died almost exactly a year later, aged 81.  Mr & Mrs Evan Kyffin Thomas bought the property c 1912 and renamed it Foxhill, after Mrs Thomas’s family property in Warwickshire.  Town residence 55 Pennington Tce, North Adelaide.  She was Mary (Maisie), nee Smith d 6/3/1942. EKT d 27/7/1935.

Mr Barton was essentially a man of great refinement and artistic tastes … his home … the abode of refinement, culture and that grand old English courtesy which is often sadly lacking in these colonies.

[RB]  -  Born Croydon, Surrey, c1815.  To SA 1837 John Renwick.  Joined fellow passenger, William Finlayson, on the 1837 exploration trip to the Murray River, when the party found Cox Creek.  Carrier and labourer.  Lived in Adelaide, Mt Pleasant where he died 1875.  Wife, Mary, nee White. M arried 19/12/1839 Adelaide.  She died 14/12/1894 Adelaide.

[RB]  -  To SA c1840.  During the 1840s, Zebulon and his wife, Thurza d 23/4/1882, lived in Hindmarsh and went out to work as a labourer. By 1854, when he bought his first land at Cox Creek, Z Batt was already a sawyer in the vicinity.  Against Old Mt Barker Road, he purchased six acres of Section 1134, Hundred of Onkaparinga, from storekeepers Davies and Bruce, and settled to become a gardener, replete with District Council timber licence to take wood from nearby Crown land.  Five years later, the great 1859 bushfire burnt out the Batts, who also had to contend with severe frosts which ruined their market crops too often.  Understandably, Zebulon eventually decided to buy a farm in relatively frost-free Pt Gawler during 1871.  He sold his Cox Creek property to Dunn & Co, who used the land to build a huge dam for the Mill waterwheel to work more efficiently.

At Cox Creek, Zebulon served for a long period as a District Council auditor.  Long afterwards, his pioneer slab home became a gardener’s outhouse on AR Downer’s Arbury Park estate.  Z Batt’s other parcels of land in the Deanery neighbourhood also became part of the Downer property.  The Batts’ son Caleb became a flour miller at Pt Adelaide; perhaps he had served a Bridgewater Mill apprenticeship?

[RB]  -  Laid out the village of Beaumont on Section 296, Hundred of Adelaide, in 1848.  The origin of the name is uncertain, but perhaps to do with Davenport’s mother, who had Christian names of French origin.  Before the formation of the Great Eastern Road in 1841, a majority of travellers between Adelaide and Cox Creek used the Beaumont Spur during their journey.  Cox Creek gardener Joseph Steer had land at Beaumont before setting up in the Adelaide Hills.

[JKS]  - Allan Bell arrived in the colony aboard the "Lady Bute" on 20 June 1839.  Mr Bell owned a property known as Dalmeney Park.  It was on this property that he grew wheat which would go on to win numerous prizes.  In 1892, some of his prizes for wheat cultivation were on display in the Metropolitan Art Gallery, Adelaide.  He won the following prizes for his wheat:- London - 1862 - bronze; Paris - 1867- gold; Melbourne - 1866 & 1867 - bronze; London - 1873 - bronze; Paris - 1878 - silver.  In the 1990's there was a large cup in a glass case on display in the National Bank in Mt Barker, I believe that this is the silver award won in Paris in 1878.

[JKS]  -  Allan, squire of Dalmaney Park, earlier of Nairne has a weekly carrying service from Nairne to Adelaide via Mt Barker in 1841 using a bullock dray

[RB]  - Draper.  Trustee, Mt Barker Institute

[JKS]  - Love & Bezor:  These two families have a long association with one another.  James Love was born at Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire in 1823.  He married Caroline Bezor in 1845 and migrated to South Australia aboard the ship "Joseph Somes" in 1850.  He was a brick maker by trade, and lived in the Mt Barker area after arrival.  He died there in 1890 and his wife lived on until 1911.  Both are buried at Mt Barker.  Their son Jonah, who was born in Mt Barker in 1855, married his cousin Sarah Bezor in 1885.  Jonah lived in the town until his death in 1941, when he was also buried at Mt Barker with his wife Sarah, who had pre-deceased him in 1906.

Sarah Bezor, who married Jonah Love, was the daughter of Samuel Bezor and Sarah Love.  Samuel and his wife were also from Bradford-on-Avon.  Samuel Bezor married his wife in 1850, shortly before their departure to South Australia, also aboard the "Joseph Somes".  Upon arrival, he spent 2 years brick making at Bowden.  When the goldrush began in Victoria, Samuel left for Forest Creek to try his luck at gold mining.  He returned after a few months, but gold fever had him in its grips, and he returned to Forest Creek to try his luck a second time.  He returned to the Mt Barker area after an absence of about 18 months, and went to work at his trade making bricks for Mr Gray at Littlehampton.  Six or seven years later, he took up work as an overseer with the Central Road Board, a position he retained for over 26 years.  During his tenure with the Road Board, he lived at Crafers, Doctor's Creek and Macclesfield.  In the late 1880's he moved to Mt Barker in retirement, where he passed away in 1901.  Samuel Bezor and Sarah Love had 8 children - all girls.  Some of their children were Mrs G. Ellis of Wistow, Mrs EH Smith of Macclesfield, Mrs J Love of Lorquon, Vic., Mrs (Jane) Andrew Wylie of Mt Barker, Mrs GJ Headland of Netherby, Vic., Mrs (Lydia) William Smith of Mt Barker, Mrs (Martha) Robert Wylie of Mt Barker.  When Sarah Bezor died, she left 34 grand children and 47 great-grandchildren^*.

* Information supplied by Mark Schipp, Seoul, South Korea

[RB]  - Doctor Mt Barker 1890s.  Trustee, Institute.

[RB]  -  C Birdseye emigrated to SA on the Lady Mary Pelham, arriving Nepean Bay 30 July 1836.  In 1837 he bought Town Acre 55 in Hindley St (north-western corner of Hindley and Morphett Sts).  Here, he farmed until the late 1840s, when he prospered greatly and began buying large tracts of land elsewhere in the colony.  By the 1850s, the Birdseyes had shifted to South Road, where official documents record Cornelius as a gentleman.  A decade later, Cornelius had made enough money to retire in England.

His first wife, Charlotte, a daughter of William Wright, of Wymondly Bury, Herts, died in 1864.  At this time, the Birdseyes were living in Burton Rd, Brixton.  C Birdseye re-married, and when he died in 1880, he left all of his property, including the SA land, to his second wife, Emma.  Apart from the small portion of Section 1142 (for the Lion Mill 1854) and the whole of Section he sold to William Wailes to build the Lion Flour Mill during 1854, Cornelius retained the rest of his substantial strip of land along the New Mt Barker Rd between Bridgewater and Aldgate.  These assets included the Birdseye Quarry, managed by John Widgery of Grünthal for the Birdseye Quarry Company.  Emma Birdseye sold a strip through the centre of her late husband’s land to the SA Government for the Aldgate-Nairne railway line during 1881. In 1883, she disposed of the remaining portions in a series of sales.

[RB]  - Widow c1846-5/12/1925.  Probably Mary, nee Chambers, widow of Frederick James Blades brewer South Tce, Adelaide.  Her parents were John Chambers and Mary, nee Redin.

[RB]  - Chemist Mt Barker 1911-1914.  Perhaps a nephew or son (unlikely) of Mary Blades widow, who bought his Gawler St chemist shop in 1914.

[RB]  -  Birmingham-born Arthur arrived in SA with his parents aboard the Ariadne in 1839.  His father, William, gained influence as a JP and a member of the first Adelaide City Council in 1840.  Arthur Blyth worked industriously as a Hindley St ironmonger and took on extensive pastoral interests.  In time, he became President of the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce, a Director of the SA Company and the National Bank of Australasia.  In 1857, as a very conservative member for Gumeracha, Blyth was elected to the first responsible SA Parliament.  He rose to become a Cabinet minister, and also Premier several times during the early 1870s.  From 1877 until his death, A Blyth was SA's Agent-General in London.

[RB]  - Solicitor, teacher Mt Barker 1840s, 1850s.  Secretary of the Mt Barker Ag Association. Secretary of the Mt Barker Steam Flour Mill Company 1852, to erect a mill on the main road to Wellington.   ‘Many circumstances warrant the conclusion that brighter times are in store for the farmers of the Mt Barker districts, the advantages of that market in the interior which the navigation of the Murray will throw open will no doubt be such that Wellington, instead of Adelaide, will be the great grain depot for grain and flour.  An eligible site for the Works in Mt Barker Town is in the course of being secured on the Great Eastern Road leading direct to Wellington, on which operations will be commenced without delay.

[JKS]  -  school teacher -1847

[RB]  - Solicitor Mt Barker 1850s.  In partnership with Richard Bullock Andrews

1840 William Dutton Senr esquire Adelaide * Land grant.

1840 Trustees Richard Newland and Edward Gwynne Adelaide

1849 Charles Low licensed victualler Mt Barker

12/2/1851 Mortgaged Lot to George MacLean and then others all the time Low had the property.  This must have been the hotel.

16/12/1862  Will of Charles Low.  All estate to Helen Stewart Low.

29/7/1863  HS Low to Alfred Bonnin, the mortgagee.  Together with lots 78, 79, 80, 81.

Bonnin sub-divided the land.

[RB]  -  Dick Boord milked the cow and did the gardening for Alfred von Doussa until the Boords went farming at Denial Bay.  Fred Kuchel took over – when he married, he bought Alfred von Doussa’s uncle’s home in the Main Street for his own home, after the widow died.  Mrs von Doussa lent Fred Kuchel the money.  When Fred Kuchel retired from von Doussa’s, Jack Grivell took over as handyman.

(Max's Hahndorf)

BORROW, Mr

[JKS]  -  wattle extractor

BOUCAUT, James Penn

[JKS]  - Refer to James Penn BOUCAUT

[JKS]  -  James Penn - later Sir James, arrived SA 1846, lived on a property called "Quambi Springs" near Mt Barker Springs - grew grape vines and kept an Arabian horse stud on the property.

[JKS]  -  squatting in Mt Barker area 1839.  Probably related to Paltridge.

[JKS]  - "Mr J.R.G. Fowler, the father of Charles W. Fowler (Woodside), married Elizabeth Brackenridge.  After his death the son Charles went with his mother to live in Mount Barker which they did for about four years.  Mrs Fowler married Andrew Lorimer in 1856.  Andrew Brackenridge had a brother Thomas, who had a farm near Littlehampton.  The mother and sister of Bella lived with him.  One Andrew Brackenridge, farmer, was married to Margaret McIntyre, in Rundle Street, by the Rev. Robert Haining, on August 8 1848.  His age was 31 and hers 26.  J.R.G. Fowler was one of the witnesses."
-Early Mount Barker - Who Was Who? - Rev. W. Gray, Mt Barker Courier July 11 1930

[RB]  -  Died Peachey Belt SA (of Mt Lofty). Father; John.  Market gardener; Upper Sturt, Scott Creek. m 24/1/1861 St Peter Robe, Mary Ann nee HINES (//c1841-11/10/1927) Died Bridgewater SA.  Father; John.  The widow Bradley m (2) 15/2/1873 Registry Office Adelaide, John SLATER (//c1831-14/9/1914) Died Belair SA.   Father; Rinsa. Farmer; Crafers.  Her daughter Amelia Hines Bradley by her first marriage with Samuel Bradley m Rinsa Slater his son by his first marriage with Eliza nee RICHMOND.  Mrs McFadyen was the third daughter of the Slater-Bradley marriage.

(Max's Hahndorf)

BRAKENRIDGE, Mary

[RB]  -  Alfred Bremer buried in his wedding suit.  He had a stroke when the street trees were lopped in 1913, and always had a stutter in his speech from then on.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Pastor Braun had a little Austin 7 tourer to go to Lobethal to care for his people there.  The congregation paid his wages in kind and some money.  After World War 1, he still held monthly services in German.  His whole ministry held at Hahndorf.  When his daughter Viola started making up stories about church members, Pastor Braun decided to retire to Nuriootpa to live with his son Vic.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Possibly to be identified with W Bruce, an importer of Currie St, during the early 1850s.  In partnership with George Davies, W Bruce bought a section of land at Cox Creek, where the two men established a general store/bakery as part of Bruce’s humble cottage, in conjunction with a plant nursery.  The shop took over the void which shopkeeper Caleb Crompton’s bankruptcy left during 1850, and kept going until the 1860s, when the new Bridgewater sub-division businesses proved overwhelming rivals.  Also taking initiative, Mrs William Bruce (nee Matilda Turner) operated a school at home, probably the oldest school in the Tiers and the only one ever at Cox Creek  Until retirement with his son, Joseph, a grocer in Hanson St, Adelaide, William continued to earn his living from his plants.   (Date of death of Matilda Bruce.)

BULL, John

[JKS]  -  Farmer/gentleman invented a mechanical reaper in 1841 which was later to become "Ridley's stripper" patented by John Ridley in 1843.  His son John is credited with having discovered copper in the northern Flinders Ranges after his return from the goldfields. 

Joseph, brother of John, farmed land near Littlehampton - the area became known as "Bull's Gully"

Extract from Tomorrow's World : The Australian Initiative:-

English flour miller John Ridley arrived in Adelaide in 1839 with a James Watt steam engine and milling machinery, and set up South Australia's first steam-driven flour mill.  In 1843, the shortage of labour and a bumper wheat harvest led him, and a local farmer named John Bull, to develop the grain stripper that cut the crop, removed and placed the grain into bins.  Ridley followed Bull's unsuccessful first attempt at a working model two months later with a similar design that worked.  The stripper was a major advance on the laborious harvesting of wheat by hand.  It meant that four men could strip as much wheat grain from straw in one day as they used to in a whole harvest season.  Ridley returned to England in 1853 to adapt the stripper to local conditions.

[RB]  -  JW Bull brought his wife, Mary, nee Brant, and two sons, John jun. and Robert, ashore with him from England.  JW Bull’s brother, Joseph, and sister, Lucy (later Mrs TH Beare) also accompanied the family.

[RB]  - Carpenter Mt Barker 1900s.  Daughters ran the nick-nack shop for years.  Used to sell china ornaments.  Displayed most exquisite things.  Had a beard and wore glasses.  Rather aloof or shy.  A very large shop, but very few customers at a time, and musty and dark.  A shop before its time - rather expensive for working people.  Later became Mt Barker’s first supermarket.

[RB]  -  The widow of Walter George Busby?  He was a wood machinist on the main road.  These people lived in Bridgewater in the 1950s.  A bustling person with several children from her first marriage.  Pleasant person, neat, down the street to do shopping and go home again.  Well-known Bridgewater identity.  A Mrs Thornhill.  Some children by her first husband.  She went to Welfare Club late 1930s-early 1940s.

[JKS]  -  farmer - growing wheat

Perhaps b 6/9/1913 Adelaide Son of Mary May McGillvray nee Cameron State boy with Clara Webb.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  In his detailed description of the Tiers, written in 1893, EH Hallack mentions that Patrick Carey was a timber splitter who became the first European to settle (early 1850s) in the gully which bears his name today.  Carey Gully residents used to point out with some pride the site of Paddy’s saw pit, which was next to his hut, a primitive affair constructed of bark propped against a convenient bent sapling.  Perhaps to be identified with Patrick Carey, who later operated a shoemaking business at Wallaroo and then in Grenfell St, Adelaide.  Died 6/1/1887.  Where?

CARR, Lawrence Wright (?-30/5/1932)

[RB]  - Carpenter Mt Barker 1920s.  Executors Emma Carr widow

[JKS]  -  bullock team owner/driver

[RB]  -  Charles Henry Chapman & Pauline Louise Hedwig nee THIELE

Charles Bernhard Roy Chapman b 6/9/1912 Hahndorf

Harrold Leslie Chapman b 3/3/1918 Hahndorf

(Max's Hahndorf)

CHAPMAN, Henry Bruce

[RB]  - Licensed land broker Mt Barker.  Great friend of Bruce Barker.  Barker and Chapman families intermarried and mixed much in business and socially.  Very prominent citizen.  Known universally as HB.  Lived at Oakfield.  Owned a lot of property.  A trustee and executor for many estates.  Moneylender.  Had many agencies.

{RB]  -  Surrey-born William Chapman arrived in SA 1849 Ascendant, with his parents.  After a short time on the new family farm at Echunga, William left for the Victorian gold fields.  Upon his return, he continued panning for gold around Echunga.  In August 1852, William found paying gold and the Government declared a field amidst great excitement.  684 miners had taken out a 30s licence within the next couple of months.  W Chapman made a trip to the New Zealand gold fields in 1855, but upon his return to SA, he established a grain and seed store in Mt Barker.  He belonged to the Mt Barker Agricultural & Horticultural Society and was the first librarian of the Mt Barker Institute.

[RB]  -  Of French origin.  Came to live at Verdun.  Market gardeners.  The father hanged himself from the top of a large pine tree near Freddie McCormick’s home at Verdun in the middle of winter.  The body not found until Len Filsell bought the tree and chopped it down some months later.  The corpse swung out as the tree came down.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Lived along Carey Gully Road, Bridgewater, in the 1950s.  Dairyman.  Returned serviceman.  Emptied the clinker pit out after the trains had emptied clinkers into it.  Worked for the SAR.  Had a large herd of cows.  Sold the property just before the Freeway came through, as their property would be altered.  Had a young family when they arrrived.  Portion of his property along Fox Hill and Radbone Rd subdivided.  Owned part section 1136.  (Date of deaths.)

CLEGGETT, Friend & descendants

[JKS]  - Friend Cleggett was born in Kent and came to South Australia as a young man.  He married Julia Harvey at the St James' Church, Blakiston in 1863.  The family moved about quite a bit, with some of their children being born in Mt Barker, and the others in the South East.  They had 11 children altogether.  Of these, Adeline Sarah, Friend, John George, and Frederick William were born at Mt Barker, with the rest being born in the south east region of the State.  Those born elsewhere were Julia, Jessie Elizabeth, Rosa May, Hannah, Gordon Harvey, Leonard Lionel, and Mabel  Isabel.  Later, Friend and Julia owned a property known as Cleggett Park at Bordertown.

John Cleggett was born in Mt Barker in 1869 he married Louisa Capner, a school teacher and had 6 children including Ella, who became a teacher, as did two more of John's daughters.

Ella Cleggett, daughter of John and Louisa, and grand daughter of Friend, was born at Mt Barker in 1884.  She was educated at Mt Barker Public School, and went on to be trained as a teacher.  She spent 18 years with the SA Education Department, teaching at Flinders Street Model School, Adelaide, Moonta, Burra and at Mt Barker.  After contracting scarlet fever and losing her hearing, she transferred to the Correspondence School.  During World War I, she was active in the School's Patriotic Fund and also with the Tubercular Soldiers' Aid Society.  From 1924 until her death at Rua Rua Private Hospital in 1950, she worked tirelessly raising money for the sufferers of tuberculosis.

[JKS]  -  Friend and his brother Joseph lived in the township in 1843, and were employed as fencing contractors for which they were paid in land rather than cash.

[RB]  -  John Arthur Charles Cock & Ethel May nee WATERS came from Exeter near Pt Adelaide and moved away to Clarendon.

Marjorie Cock

Jean Cock

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  A native of Fifeshire, Scotland, Robert emigrated to SA with his wife and six children aboard the Buffalo in 1836.  He was soon hard at work at his professions of carpenter and millwright.  R Cock built a permanent home, which he turned into a store and land saleroom, and continued to live with his family in the temporary structure.  Besides acting as Government auctioneer, Cock conducted his own agency and did much exploration in the Adelaide Hills to find suitable stock and agricultural land - this information he sold.  R Cock and companions discovered Cox Creek (site of modern Bridgewater), which in corrupted form commemorates him, and the Hindmarsh River (modern Strathalbyn); in late December 1837, the men became the second group of Europeans to climb Mt Barker.  Also during 1837, Cock explored Yorke Peninsula and country around Pt Lincoln.  For some years, Cock farmed on Onkaparinga River-side property (Mt Annan) between Balhannah and Oakbank, before finally shifting to Mt Gambier, where he died.

[JKS]  - Refer to John Alexander COCKBURN

[JKS]  -  Dr. John - later Sir John - owned property in Mt Barker that had formerly belonged to the May family.  He was the first doctor to become Premier of SA in 1889.

[RB]  -  All Collins boys got up to a lot of mischief.  They used to throw rubbish down Clara Webb’s well and she paid them to clear it out.

Lou Collins worked for Jim Hicks.

Bill Collins was a labourer for Senator Ted Mattner.  Married Winnie Norton and went to live in a new house which he rented from Charlie Pain who had built it on his farm across the road from his own house.  Bill used to ride a small motor bike to Mattner’s Junction Road farm each day – eventually died from injuries from a road accident while travelling to work.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -   m Charlotte Wilhelmine nee EBEL.  At Tanunda in the early 1920s, Gawler in the mid – 1920s then Willunga in the late 1920s.  Worked at Ambleside Station by the early 1940s.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[JKS]  -  Samuel, uncle of TH Stephenson, built the "White house" in Walker street

COOLING, CM

[RB]  - Tailor Mt Barker 1891

He bought Louisa Starling’s shop on the corner of Gawler and McLaren St. Sold the property in 1928. Leased the property from 1923.

[RB]  - Publican Gray’s Inn 1855-1858

Register 20/3/1855 - Richard Cornelius, late landlord of the Great Eastern Hotel, applied for a publican’s general licence for a house now in course of erection opposite the Court House, Mt Barker, to be called Gray’s Inn.  The application was supported by a memorial signed by nearly 100 of the neighbouring settlers.  A counter memorial was put in by Messrs C Low, and George Uphill, opposing the application on the ground of the unfinished state of the house, and that the two existing houses supplied ample accommodation for the requirements of the neighbourhood.  Corporal Searcy also opposed on the ground of the unfinished state of the house and because there was no stabling.  Mr Cornelius said he had secured temporary stabling until his own stables were completed.  The Council thought a licence could not be granted to the house in its present unfinished state; and on the application of Mr Cornelius, agreed to adjourn the further consideration of the matter to Monday 2 April.

House struck by lightning in June 1867.

[RB]  -  Jim Cowells lived in a very large house called Kapara between Hahndorf and Balhannah, surrounded by plantations of pine trees.  Spacious entrance hall finished off with highly polished jarrah floors.  Big library of books.  Whiskey, gin and tonic kept on the sideboard in the dining room.

Relatives came to stay from time to time.  Deep sea fishing trips to Kangaroo Island 3-4 times a year for important people – relatives came at other times.  Alice worked at Cowells between 1936-1939 – she had to look after the children and do the cooking.  Slept in a small room at the back of the house.  Half a day off every fortnight.

Cowells and Mattners were the only local large property owners who did not milk cows.  Bill Stephens came from Hahndorf by bike each day to look after the extensive fowl sheds.  Glad Johncock (Humphries) used to collect the eggs from the Cowell fowl sheds

Family did not really consider servants – asked them to work longer hours at practically no notice.  Lots of dinner parties for large groups of people.  Tennis parties on the tennis courts most Sunday afternoons, with cucumber sandwiches and meringues for afternoon tea.  Alice had to cook a wedding lunch for Jean Butler, daughter of the Premier Sir Richard Butler, when she got married.  The event held at Cowells.  Charles and Gay von Doussa used to ride their ponies at Cowells, in the company of the Cowell children’s Douglas Robertson cousins – several girls; one called Nancy.

Other friends of the Cowells included Sir Kenneth and Lady Wills of G&R Wills.  Lady Wills used to present 1^st aid certificates for Red Cross.  Bill von Doussas of Mt Barker and Don Taylors of Nairne used to go to Sunday afternoon tennis parties.

Jimmy Cowell spoke beautifully.  A very thin man.  He had a cold shower every morning.  Drove a Lancia car.  GR Cowell died 18/8/1958 North Adelaide (of Balhannah).  After his death at the Mt Barker Rest Home, the pines cut down to pay probate.

Young Jamie Cowell had a pastoral property at D’Estree Bay on KI.  He loved big game fishing like his father.  Joan Cowell m St Thomas Balhannah, John Wilkinson of Tungali of Mt Crawford.  His father was Keith Wilkinson of Medindie.

Mrs Cowell, nee Mary Hope Carr, was a daughter of Hampden Carr, a surgeon.  The marriage took place on 12/11/1924 at Carrs’ residence at American River on Kangaroo Island.  Her brother Anthony Tony Carr was an officer in the RAAF.  Mrs Cowell went to live in Church St, Walkerville after her husband died.

(Max's Hahndorf per Alice Paech)

[RB]  -  Ron Crafter’s father lived at Warrakilla at Mylor all his working life – he was on the stock exchange and ran a farm on the property.  Well-known family in the district.

(Max's Hahndorf)

[RB]  -  Born at Buxton, nr Norwich, Norfolk, England.  Shortly before emigrating to SA aboard the Lord Goderich in 1838, Crafer married Mary Ann Leggatt at East Dereham, Norfolk.  During March 1839, he opened the Sawyers Arms at what is now Crafers in the Adelaide Hills to serve the scattered numbers of farmers and woodcutters living in the neighbourhood.  Only days afterwards, the Germans passed by to establish Hahndorf, the first township in the ranges.  From late 1840, David called his business the Norfolk Arms Hotel, in honour of his native county.  Crafer gave up his inn in April 1841 and took on the licence of the South Australian Hotel in Hindley St, Adelaide, for some months.  David died at Brighton, after a lingering illness.  He left no sons and therefore the Crafer surname no longer kept going in the colony.  Crafer’s wife, Mary Ann, remarried, to Brighton gardener, William Coleman, and then to farmer John Robinson.  After her death, 20/5/1878, he became a pioneer of Balaklava.

David Crafer opened his hotel, the Sawyer’s Arms, beside the bush track later known as the Mt Barker Road in March 1839.  The public house soon became known familiarly as Crafer’s place.  For some decades, Crafers remained little more than a district, with scattered labourers’ cottages in the thick valley scrub, crowned by summer mansions for Adelaide’s wealthy classes on the heights.  Two sub-divisions, Crafers Park and Crafers Summit, were laid out in 1880 by Richard Searle and Edward Ashwin, and RA Patterson respectively.

[RB]  -  Probably lived at Hindmarsh before setting up as a storekeeper along the Great Eastern Road at Cox Creek during 1849, when land came up for public sale following the Government survey.  Something went wrong!  By 2 February 1850, Caleb had become a bankrupt.  John Hance, the Government assignee, shook a sad head over Crompton’s assets - a cow, calf and foal, together with household furniture, altogether worth £10.  On a grey winter day in July 1850, Sampson, Wicksteed & Co auctioned Crompton’s Cox Creek land for £26.  Caleb left the colony soon afterwards, never to return. (Name of wife. Date of deaths.)

CROMPTON, Caleb. Arrived in VDL in 1842 to Trafalgar Farm, Evandale, as a freeman. He left Cox's Creek for the goldfields of Victoria and established the Newmarket Hotel in Miners Rest.  At the time of his death, on 29 December 1854, he was due to attend the Geelong courts for debt related matters. - See www.rgcrompton.info/crompton/1821info1b5.html and more - Richard Crompton, UK

[RB]  - Tailor Mt Barker 1850s.  Trustee and chairman of the 1st Institute Committee formed in Mt Barker 1855.  Local correspondent for the Chronicle and the Advertiser.

[RB]  -  Commercial Hotel, Grenfell St 1845-1849. Sturt Hotel, Grenfell St 1850-1851.  Plough & Harrow, Rundle St 1851-1859.  Rob Roy, Halifax St 1862.  Leased the Bridgewater Hotel 1859-1861.  Again 1869, until his death in April of that year.  Mrs Curnow in 1869-1870.  Wife Susanne, d /4/1884.  Daughter Emmeline married Walter Hackett the seed merchant.

[RB]  -  A NSW ticket-of-leave convict, who escaped to SA by early 1840.  With two mates, he determined to become a bushranger.  The trio held up three groups of colonists in the vicinity of Gawler and Mt Crawford, before reaching Crafers in the Tiers.  Police captured Curran and Hughes, following a tip-off that the bushrangers were involved in riotous behaviour in the Sawyers’ Arms taproom; the capture of Fox occurred later.  Curran appeared to be the ringleader of the group.  He and his cohorts were kept in the Police Barracks (where Curran played the violin to keep the prisoners’ spirits up) on North Terrace during the subsequent trial in March 1840.  Before a large crowd, Curran and Hughes were hanged from a tree near the Torrens River in the North Parklands.  Comforted by a Roman Catholic priest in the moments before his death, Curran remained composed enough to quieten Hughes, who became extremely violent.