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Information concerning Early May Family Ancestors and  May and Juncken - Tanunda Land Purchase both by Reg Butler are also available.

The May Family

The following first transcription is of a document held in the State Library of South Australia, written by Lucy Coleman, one of the children of this early Mt Barker family, in her later life, recalling her arrival and life in the new colony of South Australia, but with particular reference to her time at Mt Barker.  There are a few errors in her recollection, however, and corrections and mysteries are in [brackets] thus.

The second transcription comes from a book written in the 1980's by my former High School science teacher, Mr Bob Schmidt, entitled "Mountain Upon the Plain".  It is part of a letter written by Maria May, sister of Lucy, to an aunt in England.

Recollections of Lucy Coleman

My parents, with their family of eleven children, and my father's brother, left England in the sailing ship "Anna Robertson", 448. tons burden, on the 27th May 1839, and reached Port Adelaide on the 25th September following, after a voyage of four months all but two days.

As I was not much over 7 years old at that time, I shall have to take notes about our landing, and the condition of the Port, and the colony, from a letter written by one of my brothers.  On the 21st of September my father and some of my brothers landed at Glenelg.  The landing was awkward on account of the surf and the sailors had to carry them as much as 30 or 40 yards through the water, but the sand was firm and dry when they reached the margin.  They then walked up to Adelaide, Glenelg was merely a signal station.  The road to Adelaide was across a perfectly level country, sprinkled over thickly with small trees beautifully in blossom.  Emigration Square was the first part of the town seen from the Glenelg road.  It consisted of about 40 cottages, in which the free immigrants were accommodated for a time, and was about five minutes walk from Adelaide.  They called at Flaxman and Rowland's office, and found that Mr Rowland in obedience to instructions had hired us a house in Halifax-Street, near Hurtle Square.  It was a good, five-roomed, brick house, well papered and painted.  In the afternoon they walked back to Glenelg with several of our fellow passengers who had also landed in the morning.  They did not reach the beach till six o'clock, when it was too dark to see a signal at the ship, and the man at the signal-station had no blue lights.  They found a crew of a whale boat who offered to take us at 10/- a head, but as all would not pay that, and they refused to take part, we were obliged to camp by a bush fire, as there were no beds to be got in the place.  My father, being afraid of the night air, sat all night on a bench in the one room of the public house, the rest lay on the grass round the fire; and as none had great coats they found it very cold.  On Sunday 22nd [September 1839], the ship was moved round to the mouth of the creek ready for unloading at the Port, but as she drew too much water to allow of her going over the bar until she was lightened, the captain sent nearly all the passengers on shore the following Wednesday [25th September].  One of my brothers was left to look after our luggage, which was not got off the ship till Friday [27th September], when it was taken up the creek in a lighter.  It was 12 miles from where the ship lay to the Port, and the lighter did not reach there until the tide had fallen so low as to prevent landing before next morning [28th].  So my brother had to pass another cold night with the goods on board the lighter.  But he landed early in the morning [29th], and walked up to the town for breakfast.  He thought the creek beautiful but the Port a wretched place.  A new Port was being made a mile or so higher up, which he had no doubt would be more worthy of the colony.

At that time provisions were enormously dear, so that my father was anxious to get his family into the country as soon as possible.  After consulting then with Mr John Barton Hack, who advised them to try the Mount Barker district, my two eldest brothers, by invitation from Mr Stephen Hack and, under his guidance, went up to see a farm rented by a young man named Oscar Lines, who was wishing to give it up.  They were pleased with the land, and as there were several buildings upon it they agreed to take the farm.  It was about two miles from where the township of Mount Barker afterwards arose, but where, at this time, there was only a flour mill owned and worked by John Dunn, his wife kept a small draper's shop in one room of their house.  [This paragraph must refer to a much later part of the history of Mt Barker, or her family didn't move to the town area until after 1841. John Dunn, mentioned here, with his wife and family didn't arrive in the colony until roughly a year after the Coleman family.  Dunn arrived on Lysander on 6th September 1840.  He didn't arrive in the Mt Barker area until later that year when he walked to Nairne to visit his brother.   If there was already a mill in the general area of the town when the Coleman family arrived there in 1839, it was not owned by John Dunn, he didn't build his mill in the town until 1845.]

There was one public-house [Gloag's Inn existed as a building from 1842, but there are earlier records that put its beginnings in around 1839], but no post-office for many years after we went there [the Post Office in Mt Barker didn't open until around 1850].   Letters had to be brought from Adelaide by any means that could be found: the means were very uncertain, so that when letters arrived from England, it might be a month or more before they reached us.  Duncan Mac Farlane also lived near the site of the township.  He had land there and kept sheep. and my father was afterwards able to buy land he wanted from him.  He also supplied the settlers for many miles round with meat as there was no butcher in the neighbourhood; so we used to get a sheep from him and either share it with a neighbour or salt part of it for further use.

Our home was in a fine part of the country; there was quite a broad flat extending from the township to the farm my brothers had rented, covered I well remember, with high, waving kangaroo-grass, looking most beautiful, a creek ran up the centre with large water holes at short distances apart.  My father had brought out with him a number of fir and pine cones, and also acorns; picked, I believe from a fine oak growing at Panshanger Park, in Hertfordshire.  He planted the seeds in his garden, and they came up well, and when they were old enough, he took great interest in planting the young trees along the Mt. Barker creek [some of those oak trees still exist today], and other spots.  They did well, and added greatly to the beauty of the place.  There is at the present time a large and beautiful English oak growing about a mile and half from the township of Mount Barker which was planted by my father reared from one of the acorns; and there is another beautiful oak grown from the same supply of seed in the garden of "Auchendarroch", formerly the property of Mr Robert Barr Smith, and now a convalescent Rest Home at Mount Barker.

But I must go back and tell of the formidable business of getting our family and belongings over the hills between Adelaide and Mount Barker, for in those days there was no road of any kind, and in many places not even a defined track.  My father, three of my brothers and two sisters started with the first load, the goods were loaded on their own cart drawn by four bullocks [Mr May must have had plenty of money, or brought bullocks with him, as there were very few, if any, bullocks of the size needed to pull carts or drays in the colony in those very early days - Hawdon & Bonney had made their overland treck from New South Wales but this time, but the cattle that they brought with them were more likely to have been of the eating and milking variety].

At the big hill, now known as Green Hill, they had to unload and carry half the load themselves to the top, and some of the cases were very heavy, just as they had come off the ship.  They were two hours getting up that hill, the cart turned over more than once.  It took them 13 hours to get about 12 miles to the roadside inn, probably "Crafers”.  Nine times during the second day they had to cut down small trees to fasten behind the cart going down hill to keep it from running over the bullocks.  The route being up and down hill all the way was quite unsafe for anyone to ride on the cart, so my sisters were obliged to walk all the way.  My brothers saw it would be quite impossible to convey all our goods to Mount Barker in that way, so decided to accept Mr Hack's offer of the use of their teams and drays.  So all being ready on the 25th of October [whilst no year is given, this cannot have been 1839, although from other existing records, the May family did, indeed arrive in the town area at that time], we and all our goods left Adelaide looking quite a formidable cavalcade, first went a wagon drawn by ten bullocks, in which were my mother, uncle, and the rest of our family, my father having remained at our new home, after the first trip, to make some improvements to the houses which were neither wind nor water-proof.  Next came two drays drawn by eight bullocks each, and lastly another dray with six bullocks, we all walked up the first hill, which was really the "Hill Difficulty" of the journey, it seemed almost impossible that a loaded dray should ever be got up it.  On reaching the top we had a beautiful view of the surrounding country, which was very interesting.   The distant hills as well as those we were on were covered with trees, yellow with blossom.  But in many places there was no road, while dead trees and logs lying about, and quite deep water-courses to pass over, made the track very tough, our driver was obliged to keep calling out to us hold tight. when we came to such places.  I well remember still, how we, who were of the youngest part of the company, were frightened into crying when the wagon would pitch down into the bottom of one of the steep gullies, from which it seemed we should never be able to get up again.  The poor bullocks indeed often found it very difficult to pull us up. However, after much jolting we reached the Cattle Company's [this is the area in which Hawdon & Bonney pastured their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle before taking them down into Adelaide for sale] station; here a good-natured Scotch-woman, who managed the dairy, brought us out plenty of new milk, and we enjoyed a good drink for the first time since leaving England, we could not get much milk in Adelaide.  We had now only a short distance to go to Stephen Hack's house, so were soon there, he and his brother John Barton Hack came out to meet us, and welcome us for the night, and very glad we were to leave our seat in the wagon.  Stephen Hack had told us he had a most splendid house, so that we were hardly prepared for such a one as we found it to be; for, while sitting on his sofa we could see all that went on in the yard through the cracks in the walls, but he seemed to think that was rather an advantage than otherwise.

Father walked over to breakfast with us next morning, and as soon as that meal was finished, we were all glad to start for our new home.  We could not call it a house, as it consisted of several detached rooms, looking like as small village as our neighbours used to tell us.  One of the rooms was built of young saplings set up on end, they had shrunk considerably, leaving large cracks between.  These were filled up with mud outside [this form of building was known as "wattle & daub"], and on the inner side my mother pasted strips of calico, or some material of that kind, which made the rooms quite comfortable.  My sisters room was built of square turfs cut from the ground, and we used to think ours was the warmest and most comfortable room of all, the floors of the rooms were of earth, and the roofs either palings or shingles, and let the first rains in rather badly, but they soon swelled and then were quite water-tight.  As soon as they could obtain the necessary timber my father and brothers built a nice large sitting-room with a boarded floor.  It was a great comfort and convenience to us.

Provisions were extremely dear.  A 2001b. sack of flour cost £10, we used a good deal of rice, which was much cheaper, we bought six sacks full at ld. per lb. A hand mill we had brought out with us, served to grind it nicely, so we mixed it with flour to make bread.  Our nearest neighbours were Captain and Mrs Field, who lived about a mile from us.  The latter was a frequent and sociable visitor, she had found their life a very dull one before we came, her husband was in poor health and could do but little work.  My father was always very fond of gardening and having brought out many seeds both of vegetables and flowers, he very soon started a small garden, and every seed he planted on that new soil grew most luxuriantly.  I have never seen vegetables, asparagus, Cape Gooseberries, or melons grow as they did then, the melons especially.  There must be some element in virgin soil, particularly suitable for melons, that becomes exhausted after a few years, the dray-loads of fruit those plants produced with little or no attention was wonderful.

A company of natives [The local tribe in the Mt Barker area were the Peramangk people who lived for part of the year along the creek and around the base of the Mount itself.  They were a nomadic trading people who wandered down along the creeks and rivers to the Noarlunga area where they traded with the Kaurna people] used to visit us every summer for many years after our arrival.  They generally came about the time the young parrots and cockatoos were in their nests, and moved away into some other part of the country when food was getting scarce round about us.  They were always spoken of as the Mount Barker tribe, and a very quiet well behaved company.  I never heard a complaint of them made by any of the settlers.  They made a wurley a short distance from us, and within sight of our home, but it was only made by the heads of trees piled one on top of another in a half circle, with their fire in front, there was never any roof to it, but they were only with us during the summer, I think they must have gone away to the Murray Scrub [probably wandering down to trade with the Kaurna], or some other sheltered part for the winter.  We were pleased to see them, and always gave them a welcome.  The women and children and two old men, always stayed close about the wurley, but the young men were generally away all day hunting, and would return at night with their spoil when they all had a good meal, I expect.  They would ask for bread and sugar and tea, and always seemed satisfied with what was given them.   We liked to give them what we could spare; and, so far as I know they were all perfectly honest.  We found they were very fond of potatoes; and so, after our first crop, which was a very good one, had been dug, the natives were told that they might go over the ground and have all they could find.  The women searched the ground with pointed sticks for several days, and it was surprising to see the number they got, I should think there was not one left in the ground after their search.  The young women used to dig for roots of various kinds of plants, and also get crayfish [fresh water yabbies] out of the water-holes.  I have watched them put their arms down holes under the water and bring up large crayfish, I used to wonder why they did not get badly nipped by the great claws of the crayfish, but they did not.

At that time the women used to wear beautiful possum-skin cloaks, the skins of which were neatly sewn together.  The young men were tall, and quite fine looking.  They wore no clothing except a loin-belt, made, I think, of platted grass, or narrow strips of rushes.  Their hair, so far as I remember, was not at all curly; but at times they would plaster it all down with red ochre, and over the forehead they wore several twisted locks, with a kangaroo tooth at the end of each.  They did look rather war like, the ochre was such a bright red.  We asked one of the women what they did their hair like that for.  She laughed and replied; "Him want lubra"; but if it was really to make themselves attractive to the black ladies, or not, we could not tell.  There were two of the older women who kept about our buildings most of the day; one was known to all the settlers round as "Mount Barker Mary".  She was very nice, quiet woman, we were all quite fond of her.  She had a good kind husband too.  The other woman, also named Mary, had a dear little baby boy, I should think bout two years old, with a skin as black and shiny as ebony.  His name was "Billy Charlie”; but although his parents told us that was his name when we first saw him, we did not know how he got his name.  We used to want very much to nurse him, but he was much too shy to allow us to do that.  He was very fond of cake and biscuits, though it required considerable persuasion from his mother to get him to take it from our hands, and when he had done so he turned and run back to his mother, much to her amusement.  He never wore clothes of any sort, but was perfectly healthy and happy.  He had a sister, who I should think, was about 16 years of age.  Their father was quite blind, but we could not find out whether he had been so all his life.  He was most clever at climbing trees after opossums and young parrots.  With one stroke of his pointed stick, he would cut a deep step in the bark of a tree, and into it he would put the great toe of his right foot, then another step was cut higher up into which the toe of his left foot was put, a pointed stick in his left hand, driven into the bark, held him up whilst this was done.  In that way be would quickly mount up to the branches of a tall gum tree.  This may seem to many people quite impossible.  But it was not so, for I have myself seen that man go up a smooth-barked gum tree, whose lowest branch was at least 30 feet from the ground.  His wife or daughter would stand under the tree, and tell him which way to go to a branch that was hollow at the end.  He would then carefully creep along it till he was near enough to put in his arm and pull out the opossums or young parrots that were inside, and throw them down to those below.  But he met his death, poor man, when thus seeking food.  I shall never forget that afternoon when his daughter came to us in great grief, and asked for something, but for a time we could not find out what she wanted, for her sobs and crying made what she said quite unintelligible.  When she became calmer we understood that she wanted my brother to take a bullock dray and fetch her father to their camp.  So two bullocks were yoked to the dray, as quickly as possible, and with the daughter as guide, they went to the spot, and were grieved to find the man was quite dead.  He had fallen from the high branch of a tree, where he had evidently leaned over to get out some young cockatoos from a hollow branch.  They had bound him round carefully with strips of wattle bark cut from trees near by.  On reaching the camp the wife pointed out the spot where she wished a grave to be dug; and although in great grief, poor woman, she directed, with surprising clearness, how she wished all arrangements to be carried out.  She helped to dig the grave as the ground was very hard and stony, and told my brother when she considered it was deep enough, she then helped to lift the body in, and got into the grave herself so as to place it, as she wished, in a sitting posture.  She put a bunch of grass at the back of the head, and some about the body.  They then filled the earth in, and on the top of all a small heap of sticks, these were renewed every year as the blacks returned to the spot.  All the rest of the natives were away that day, so the poor woman had to arrange all matters herself, but perhaps she would in any case have done that, we cannot tell.  On the return of the others in the evening there was, for a little time, great lamentation.  But they did not keep it up long, so that we were not at all disturbed by them, indeed we were never disturbed or saw anything of them at any time after dark.

There was another tribe, known as the Encounter Bay Natives [possibly Narindjeri people, although no real record of the actual name of this tribe has been found], that used to visit us occasionally; but they never camped with us, nor did we at all wish them to do so.  They were different in every respect from the Mount Barker tribe, whom we looked upon as our friends.  They were very ill mannered and sadly dishonest, nothing was safe that they had a wish for, when they were about.  The first time they visited us all my brothers were away on the land and father busy in the garden.  They came into the kitchen, and caught up and eat anything eatable that they could find, we soon became quite frightened of them, we had to send for our brothers to come and persuade them to go away.  Which they succeeded in doing after a time, but not before the blacks got very angry, they did not like being sent off.  Another time when they came our man's wife was helping with washing, and again it was very difficult to get them to leave, and when they did so, they went down to our man's [I believe this to refer to a white farm worker, rather than to the friendly natives of the Mt Barker tribe referred to earlier in Lucy's writings] cottage, which was just out of sight of our home, they got in at the window, as the door was locked, and took away everything eatable they could find, and two blankets.  Our friendly tribe was very much afraid of these natives, and fled at once when they heard they were coming.  We used to wonder how they found out but they always knew, some of them would come and tell us they were all going away.  When we asked why, the answer was - "Other blackfellow here directly.  You see.  Him no good."  We quite agreed with them that the others were "no good"; but then we wondered whether those poor Encounter Bay blacks had become contaminated, through more association with the white people, or whether they were naturally of a different disposition.

Some friends of ours who lived at Echunga Creek, about eight miles from us, were very friendly with the Mount Barker natives, and always spoke well of them in every way.  These friends, Mr and Mrs George Sanders, used to yoke two bullocks in their cart, and drive over in style, to spend a day with us.   [The Sanders family were also Quakers and worshipped in the Society of Friends Hall which Mr May built on his land.]

My father was more than once summoned as jury‑man, to attend at the Supreme Court in Adelaide, when Sir Charles Cooper was judge in that court.  The distance was 24 miles, father always walked both to Adelaide and back again when it was over; sometimes he was kept in Town on that business for a week.

We also had a visit once from Governor Grey, (later Sir George Grey) and his wife, they were very pleasant, and much interested in our little "village", and with all that had been and was being done, about the farm.  They were amused with the account of our first journey to Mount Barker; they took some refreshment, and made themselves pleasantly at home.

A young farmer from Essex, who also came out with us in the "Anna Robertson", started farming at once, and was very successful.  His first crop of wheat was a very good one, and he sold it all at 19/- a bushel. [This is probably Joseph Barritt, a fellow Quaker who arrived on the same ship as the May's and who married one of the May girls]

On February 16, 1840 we posted letters for England to go by the "Katherine Stewart Forbes" [this was the return voyage of this vessel's second trip to Adelaide. The Katherine Stewart Forbes made 2 trips - in 1837 and 1839].  This vessel was to sail from Port Adelaide direct to England laden with oil and wool; before this there was not sufficient freight for vessels to return direct, so they all went on to Sydney or China, consequently mails sent by them were a long time in reaching England.

Whilst writing the above the thought has come to my mind more than ever before of the great courage and enterprise shown by my parents in undertaking to emigrate with such a family to a quite new country and the preparations they made for doing so I now consider as something wonderful.  My father had a chemists shop in the centre of the town of Hertford, just opposite the Town Hall, and there most of his children were born.  He knew nothing of farm or country life, but was very fond of his garden.  He had a small one just outside the town, to which he used to walk every morning, getting up regularly at five o'clock, to do a little work there before breakfast.  My eldest brothers had also had nothing to do with country life.  The eldest served in a drapers shop in London, and the second one was in Allen and Hanbury's chemists emporium in London.  When it was decided that we should go to South Australia these two brothers were sent to help on a farm belonging to some relations that they might obtain some knowledge of farm work and methods.  For similar reasons my third brother was sent to a carpenter to learn something of that business, and the next in age learnt something of the trade of a shoemaker.  This was certainly a very wise arrangement because, a month after our arrival we were all settled in a country district where no tradespeople were to be had for many years, so that we should otherwise have found ourselves in considerable difficulties.  As it was my brother was quite able to keep our boots and shoes in useful repair, so that we were never without a good supply.  In these days it is quite customary for children to go without shoes, but it was not so at that time.  My parents would never have allowed us to go without them, if we had wished to do so, which we never did.  Then my carpenter brother proved quite clever in his line.  I believe his first job was to make gates, a large one for the entrance to our home enclosure, and several small ones.  There was one for the garden, another for the calves pen, and another for the pig-yard, and they were all painted white so that they gave quite an improved appearance to the home.  I remember one of our neighbours making the remark "You always look so nice, with your little white gates and all."  He then made a fine large table to stand in the room with a boarded floor that he and father had built.  I do not remember its measurements, but I know there was comfortable room for five to sit at each side, with two at each end.  It was made of planks of blackwood cut from the blackwood trees that grew finely in that district.  I think there was a sawyer who had a sawpit [a sawpit is a long rectangular hole in the ground over which a set of supports are placed at either end.  Logs are placed along these supports, and a sawyer - or operator - gets down into the hole, whilst his partner is atop the log, and using a long cross cut saw, they move the blade in an un and down motion to saw the log from end to end] at Mr Barton Hack's, where he obtained these boards, but I cannot be sure on this point, although I know he used to go there for material that he wanted.  These boards were planed very smooth, so that it was really a handsome table when finished, and I well remember how one of my sisters and I used to rub it every week with bees wax and turpentine and pride ourselves in seeing how beautifully we could make it shine.  He also made two nice armchairs for my father and mother, which they used till the end of their lives.  My parents brought out with them a good supply of all kinds of tools both for carpentering and making and mending shoes, and as my mother was also well supplied with a large quantity of materials and haberdashery, we really had no need for shops.  My dear mother was also clever in administering in cases of sickness and ailments amongst our neighbours, and especially so with children.  Consequently, for years after a duly qualified doctor had settled in the neighborhood they would continue to bring their children to her saying there was no doctor as good as Mrs May for the little ones.  A good supply of simple medicines has also been part of our equipment.

(signed) LUCY COLEMAN

[Lucy Coleman was the daughter of Joseph May and Hannah nee Morris, a Quaker family from Hertfordshire. The May family consisted of children Elizabeth, Hannah Sophia, Lucy, Margaret, Maria, Rachel Ann, Edward, Frederick, Henry, Joseph, Thomas, and William. Lucy May married in 1858 to Arthur Coleman, Mary May married in 1855 to William Sanders, William May married in 1856 to Rachel Cotton, Rachel Ann May married in 1856 to Frederick Mackie, Charlotte Emma May  - a grandchild of the original family, married in 1885 to Alfred Williams, Francis Coleman May - another grandchild married in 1889 to Isabella Christina Hubbe.]

Extract from pages 24-25 Mountain on the Plain - Bob Schmidt

Maria May wrote to her aunt in England describing the journey she made with her family as they moved to 'Fairfield Farm' at Blakiston  [Sorry Bob, you are wrong - Fairfield Farm was never at Blakiston - it was and to a certain degree still is - on Bolen Road at Mt Barker]:-

The party got on very well until they reached the bottom of the first hill, which was about four miles, although it had begun to rain and seemed likely to come on much faster.  Margaret and R. got out of the cart to walk up, and having made everything secure, they tried to make the team mount the hill.  But they soon found it was no use, the poor bullocks being quite unable to draw the cart up so steep a place; and thinking it would never do to give up, they determined to unload the cart and carry its contents up themselves, which they succeeded in doing.  Some of the luggage consisted of heavy packages that had not been opened since we left England.  The rain, too, was descending very fast.  This difficulty over, they got on pretty well, tho' very slowly, to a rude sort of inn which was about halfway up.

They started again early in the morning, but this day's journey proved more disastrous than the last.  The poor cart was upset three times and then they had to stay and reload, and they cut down a tree in two or three places to tie behind the cart as a drag in going down some of the hills, so that it was quite dark before they reached Stephen Hack's, which was still three miles from our own place.  They got nicely rested there, and were quite ready to finish their journey the next morning, which they did in safety, and were glad enough to get a house they could call their own, after being without a home for so many months.

Everything ready, we all quitted Adelaide on Third Day [Wednesday], 25th of tenth month, looking quite a formidable cavalcade.  First, went a waggon [sic.] drawn by ten bullocks, in which were Mother, Uncle, Frederick, Edward, the three children and myself, with our beds to sit on.  Then came two drays drawn by eight bullocks each, and lastly, another dray with six bullocks.  Having heard such a description of the road, thou mayst [Quaker speech meaning you may] think we did not not like the thought of the journey, but we soon found we had not much to fear, as we had an excellent drive.

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Additional Information

Additional details extracted from Lucy Coleman information received from Quakers SA by Dick Mills and the Mount Barker Branch of the National Trust SA.

Minute 56 of Adelaide Meeting 11 April 1926

A burial note has been received for Lucy Coleman of Wittunga Blackwood, widow of Arthur Coleman, who died the 23rd day of 2nd month, 1926, aged 93 years and nine months whose death was registered at the Public Registry Office for the district of Adelaide on the 1st of 3rd month, 1926, and was buried in the Friends' burial Ground, West Terrace, Adelaide, on the 25th of 2nd month, 1926.

Minute 16 of Adelaide Meeting 11 April 1926

LUCY COLEMAN  b. 9 May 1832, d. 23 Feb 1926.

The oldest member of the Society of Friends in South Australia has been taken from us.  On Tuesday, February 23rd, 1926, after hour's illness, died our beloved and revered Friend Lucy Coleman.

It was a beautiful end to a beautiful life, such a parting as she herself had wished for.  Although nearly 94 years old she was not merely in perfect possession of all her faculties but her mind was bright and alert, characterized, as those who knew her best have said, by a mixture of wholesome humour and sound commonsense, and her loving spirit was ever ready to make the joys and sorrows of others her own in tender Christian sympathy.

Lucy Coleman was the ideal type of Quaker lady of the olden time.  Born before the Reform Bill became law, five years before Queen Victoria came to the throne, coming with her family to South Australia at 7 years of age, she, and they, have left behind them a record which will not be forgotten.

Lucy May married at 26, Arthur Colemen - nine years later she was a widow, her husband dying after only a week's illness.  A few years later she took her 5 children to England that they might be educated at Friends' Schools.  Then, 46 years ago, in 1880, she returned to South Australia and settled at Fairfield, Mt. Barker, her father's old pioneer home. ......