Shep's Place Family Tree

The land was beautiful and fertile "with deep black loam with a rich sward of grass and timber spaced as in an English park". The original sheep grazing, due to scab. was soon abandoned for the growing of wheat which was to give rich harvests for many years. Soon the pisé huts and small dwellings gave way to good buildings of the local freestone and limestone and later of the excellent bricks still made at Littlehampton nearby. The earliest inhabitants reached Mt. Barker via Glen Osmond, Crafers, Hahndorf and Littlehampton and took several days either by bullock waggon or carrying their belongings as horses were still scarce. ‎(A half hour by the south eastern freeway by car is now the norm.)‎ The wagons had to negotiate very steep inclines with timber drags as brakes to the vehicles.

By 1845 or 1847 when it is presumed the Wilsons made their way up through what was then called The Tiers there was a road of sorts to Mt. Barker and the toll gate at Mt. Osmond had abolished its system of fees. That building is still in place. Perhaps Ellen and the children escaped the rough wagon as a regular mail service had been inaugurated by Rounsvell who also carried passengers. Cobb & Co. followed, then Hill & Co. did the same, in sequence.

By 1851 Mt. Barker was the centre of a wheat boom and this could be the reason for Allen Wilson's recovery from bankruptcy and the ability to purchase the 4th section of 80 acres in January 1859. Many farms became almost self sufficient as did the Wilsons', eventually. Food prices were stable for a long time. Beef and mutton were one shilling per pound salt beef and pork 9 pence kangaroo the same and wild ducks were 1 shilling each. Quail were 6 pence. Fresh butter cost 2 shillings and 6 pence and salt butter 9 pence. Milk was 10 pence a quart, flour 55 shillings for a barrel of 196 pounds. Sugar was 6 pence a pound and tea 3 shillings and 6 pence.

The Church of England, St. James, built of stone, at Blakiston, and it the old Gothic style, was opened in 1847. Ellen was to be buried in its churchyard more than 50 years later and the two year old Maria who died in 1849 must have been one of the earliest interments. Until 1860 when an Anglican Church was built at Mt. Barker the people rode or walked out to St. James a mile and a half from the town, on Sundays to its small village setting. The Rev. Pollitt conducted a school there but there is no record of any of the Wilson children attending. The year 1852 saw the exit overland ‎(it took 3 weeks)‎ of a large proportion of the male population of South Australia, infected with gold fever and thousands passed through Mt. Barker to the ferry several miles ahead at Wellington, to cross the Murray River and all eager to reach the Victorian gold fields. But not Allen Wilson. There was also a gold rush at Echunga not far from Westbrook Farm.

The peaceful tribe of the Peramangk aborigines which never troubled the district, was dying out from diseases introduced by the white settlers and from the loss of hereditary land. In 1850 there had been 150 houses and 250 people; in 1860 the inhabitants numbered 1000 and had the comfort of a "proper" Post Office and Telegraph: Letters and parcels were handed out from a house window. There was a Police Station, a Public Pound, Court House, drapers, blacksmiths and grocery store. Originally supplies had to be purchased at inflated prices from Mrs. Gloag at her husband's inn, until John Dunn opened a shop next to his steam flour mill and charged reasonably.

The Adelaide "Register" pictured the townsfolk as: the women wearing long dresses with bustles, paniers or crinolines. The men in bowler hats, moleskin trousers with boyangs and swallowtail coats. The boyangs seem most unlikely for A. Wilson, gentleman, as the Directory recorded him. Old birthday books name some of the Wilson friends. The Walter Paterson family. They had a governess, Miss Congreve, and later a tutor, Henry Bonnar. As this family remained close friends into the next generation there is a strong possibility that the Wilsons shared these teachers. Ellen would never have had time to give lessons and Allen would have lacked the inclination.

Other names were the John Dunns of flour mill fame, the Greenfields, the Thomas family, Paltridge, Gower, Hedges of Wistow. and Krichauffs and Gemmells of Bugle Ranges. Duncan McFarlane was the earliest and the principle town resident at "Auchendarroch" and Lachlan McFarlane kept the "Oakfield" Hotel and had a farm of the same name. Other hotels were Gray's Inn and the "Crown". The "Oakfield" at the end of Gawler Street was the halting place of the Royal Mail ‎(which also took passengers)‎. The driver, William Moyse, in light fawn livery, top coat with large buttons and a light bell topper, drove 5 horses with great style. His guard in scarlet coat and braided cap occupied a special seat on the top left hand corner at the back and announced their approach with the "yard of tin", a bugle as long as his arm.

Victor Dumas who was a famed Latin teacher, opened a school in his two storey house in Walker Street in 1855 and Marion said that some of "the boys" attended there for varying periods. All of them, with the exception of Will did attend Hahndorf College even if just "to finish". This was the landscape wherein the Wilsons moved.

The Manning house at Westbrook Farm was large enough to have a guest room ‎(some of the sons slept in the two attic rooms)‎. In 1865 when Marion was aged 11 there was a momentous occasion when the Reeves grandparents from Kangaroo Island came to stay. Samuel had brought Charlotte to the mainland for medical attention ‎(she did not go back to Kingscote and died in March 1866)‎ and came for a last visit to Mt. Barker. Marion was sent out to the paddock where her older brothers were working to bid them to the house. So rare was this event she was not believed until one of them discovered that she was wearing her best shoes instead of the every day heavy boots. They were convinced. Charlotte wore a beaded gown of rich brown silk so stiff and boned over its crinoline that when she took it off it stood without support on the floor. This so intrigued the children that all but the babies crept in to view so memorable sight, ‎(Described in the Charlotte segment of the Reeves history)‎

It was during this visit that the grandparents discovered to their horror that Marion could neither read nor write. From an early age she had been needed as both nursery and house maid and the luxury of lessons was not for her. They extracted a promise from Allen and Ellen that Marion should be sent to school "forthwith" and so she was. to the Misses Dumas, at Mt. Barker, walking each way of course. These ladies, sisters of Victor Dumas' school for boys. Marion was there less than two years, as when sister Nell married in February 1867 she was urgently needed again at home.

As will be seen in the section for Nell. she was married, by the arrangement of Allen and Oscar Lines, to his son John Oscar, a farmer of Dublin, north of Adelaide. The ceremony was held at St. James Blakiston with the incumbent officiating. With Nell crone Marion was once more a household drudge. They did have maid servants when finances permitted, particularly after the influx of Irish girls whose depot for dispersal to households was Mt. Barker. At this time there were five older brothers at home, four younger and two baby girls. Marion found, that with her mother "every-thing was for the boys, a girl didn't matter". To the older sons Allen was "The Old Man" though he was still in his forties. In old age, if Marion was asked about her father all she would say, and that scornfully and with a sniff. was "HIM"! He could not have shown much affection, if any, to his numerous offspring, 13 of whom grew to adulthood.

On August 31st 1867 the eldest Wilson son, now 22 ‎(Allen Frederick)‎ rented the Old Westbrook land ‎(Section 3729)‎ and also 3002 nearer West-brook Farm, to start farming for himself. It was arranged that he would pay rental of 50 pounds per annum as "an annuity for Ellen McLeod Wilson" as recorded at Lands Titles. His brothers remained to farm at home which was beginning to prosper. It was in this same year, on November 11th that the countryside was electrified by the Royal Visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, a son of Queen Victoria. This prince drove the coach himself from Echunga and must have passed by Westbrook Farm on his way to Mt. Barker where Mr. Gray of the Savings Bank entertained him. On leaving for Strathalbyn many riders ‎(no doubt Allen Wilson included)‎ of whom a number were lady equestrians, accompanied the royal personage as escort. All were soon thickly covered with dust. Allen Frederick did not stay long at Old Westbrook. He took up land between Callington and Monarto and was joined there by brothers Edward and Ernest which left Horace & Will to farm on behalf of their parents. Marion was sent to housekeep from time to time until Allen F. married in 1872.

1867 to the 1880s.

The people of Mt. Barker were finding wheat less and less profitable and turned to dairying, though potatoes, maize, barley and hay crops continued. The soil no longer yielded rich wheat harvests. In 1869 came the waste lands act and, if 20 percent of the land value was paid, the balance could wait for four years, so many left for Yorke Peninsula and paid one pound per acre for untouched land. In 1870 V. Crase took a lease of Old Westbrook for four years.

Whereas the older sons had only finished their education at T.W. Boehm's Hahndorf Academy Allen and Ellen were able to send their younger sons Arthur, Oscar, Samuel and Osmond there for most of their education and the two youngest daughters to "finish" at Hardwicke College, St Peters. In spite of the many departures, the town of Mt. Barker, continued to improve. Cleggetts and Patersons stayed and bought up the old farms. In 1880 the town barber was said to be partial to onions, bad tobacco and worse whisky so that scented hair oil was quite unnecessary as the odour breathed on the customer lasted a full week. The opposition, named Ashley, was so shaky that he would hand the razor to his customer to shave himself - so wrote Bob Schmidt in his book. Allen Wilson survived these hazards.

THE LAST YEARS

About this time Ellen and Allen built a new house on Section 3002 already mentioned several times. This was nearer Mt. Barker than Westbrook Farm on the opposite side of the road. The one photograph E.M.S. has shows it to have been ‎(it still is occupied)‎ of stone, with a bull-nose front verandah similar to Old Westbrook. The actual date cannot be ascertained as Lands Titles deals only with land, and not the buildings erected on it. However, the Wilson daughters Maude and Ada in the picture were wearing dresses with bustles. These were fashionable in the late 1870's and mid 1880's. This they called "New Westbrook", and it was the house familiar to the Wilson grandchildren.

Ellen had, perforce, learned quickly how to cope with a house and many children, but up to this point of recording their story, all has been adverse concerning Allen. His one saving grace appears to have been his keen interest in gardening. Not just the necessary vegetables, but flowers and trees of many kinds that came to flourish at New Westbrook. A description of how this appeared in the 1890's will appear presently.

There is no doubt that both were generously hospitable. When their daughter Edith Maude was in hospital shortly before she died in 1947 she looked about the ward with about 20 other women and said, "We always have a lot of people to stay, but this is ridiculous". An amused nurse passed this comment on to the writer's mother.

The younger sons avoided farming. The Directory for 1872 shows Arthur age only 16, as Manager of Dunn's Mill at Wolseley in the south-east of the state and Oscar aged 15 as a Warehouseman boarding at Evandale, East Adelaide. Later as others of the family moved to the city, they rented house at Edward Street, Norwood, and Marion was their housekeeper, but by 1883 Oscar and Osmond had married, Samuel did not appear at this address after 1883, Maude and Ada who had used the house when not at their board-ing school had gone their way and Marion returned home until required as housekeeper for brother Ernest at Carrieton in the north of the state.

Only Will was farming Westbrook but Sam, who already had the tuberculosis from which he died in 1887 aged 28, apparently aided him after leaving the city position, so long as he could. In May 1889 the wife or Edward, the 3rd son, died, and he returned to "New Westbrook" with his young children so that in her latter years Ellen once more looked after small people. Some of these were already sick with the tuberculosis from which their mother died and Ellen probably was infected by them as she was to die of the same disease.

It was at this time that Allen made his final gaffe. He mortgaged the coming seasons crops for 200 pounds without informing his sons or Ellen and departed to Sydney for a holiday. Naturally enough those living at New Westbrook were incensed at his action and on his return he found that Ellen had turned him out. Allen Frederick, the eldest son, of Yorketown, Yorke Peninsula agreed to take him in. Allen F.'s two children Mabel and Lancelot, remembered him only as a kind and gentle grandfather whose main interest was flower growing, if someone would first dig the ground for him. He had brought with him papers and records of his English forebears. These he offered to Allen F. who refused in the late Victoria phrase equivalent with "he couldn't care less" so Allen tossed them on the fire. So, without such clues E.M.S. has been unable to trace the Wilson family in earlier generations, or progress much further than Osmond Wilson and even his first Christopher of the East India Company's Navy is doubtful.

Towards the end of 1889 Allen's health failed and he was taken to a nursing home at East Terrace, Adelaide. He left a few of his belongings behind. A tiger claw mounted in gold ‎(ex-Uncle William Allen)‎ and a pair of black onyx Italian intaglio cuff links ‎(or perhaps shirt studs, it is hard to tell)‎ with classical heads incised and a silver tortoise which opens to show minute ivory dice. Such were worn by gentlemen as fobs and were useful to while away the time when travelling. E.M.S. has them now. Other belongings included the miniature on ivory of Allen's father Christopher and his gold fob with the family crest as a seal. These were given to son Oscar who with his wife Louise most frequently visited him from their home at East Adelaide, The items now belong to Margaret Vasey of Kew, Victoria, Oscar's grand-daughter.

ALLEN DIED at this nursing home on January 6th 1890, in his 70th year and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery. The death notice stated "A Colonist of 51 years". His death certificate gives the cause as "paralysis, chronic rheumatism and valvular disease of the heart". Marion said that the paralysis ‎(a stroke)‎ was the final cause.

Ellen lived on for eleven years. She looked after the three surviving children of Edward ‎(the Pugh aunts cared for the three who died - in their last days)‎, she mended the rift that had arisen between her and Marion who had married Charles Percy Lakeman in 1887, and had their four daughters to stay quite often. She sent great hampers of farm produce down to town by train to the Lakemans. The railway had reached Mt. Barker in 1883 so that transport to the city was now both quicker and easier.

Between them, Marion, her children and her sister Maude, gave an account of New Westbrook as they remembered it in the 1890's. It was recalled with real affection as a place both lovely and happy where fruit and flowers and the good things that the farm provided were all so much superior to those seen any where else. Crops, sheep and pigs and a dairy herd provided income as well as bark from wattle trees to the Mt. Barker tannery, wool, dairy products, dripping, eggs, honey and honey comb and beeswax. Indian hawkers travelled the country-side bringing items of cloth and haberdashery. They had their own meat, butter, cream, cheese, vegetables and fruit, jams and preserves, poultry, hams and bacon. Their wheat was ground into flour at Dunn's Mill. "New Westbrook" was very nearly self sufficient.

Allen's gardening left a legacy, thus - a hedge of English hawthorn bordered the road boundary, and dividing the outer paddocks from the house garden was a long hedge of intertwined roses, a small variety of pink and crimson, richly perfumed. A willow fringed creek ran through the property and even in summer it did not lack a small flow of water, so that seepage pools could be made for garden watering. Deep wells provided water for the house and in later years underground tanks were installed.

The garden was as near an English one as he could contrive, and the Australian climate permitted. Allen had planted Firethorn ‎(crataegus)‎, cedars and other English trees to mingle with the native acacias. There was an orchard of apples of many varieties, pears, plums and medlars, apricots, peaches, figs and cherry trees both black and red. Strawberries, red and black currants, gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries along the creek and every type of vegetable. In the flower garden, his particular joy, there was a wealth of English flowers. Fox-gloves ‎(sold to chemists for their digitalis)‎, violets, campernels, daffodils, ixias, snowdrops, crocus, anemone, narcissus, and the old type roses everywhere. A honeysuckle archway curved over the beehives. Viburnum trees and English lilacs, larkspur, bluebell, lavender, wall-flowers, night scented stocks, clove pinks, sweet william, verbena, dahlia, chrysanthemums and dozens of others.

In 1896 when son Edward returned home to "New Westbrook" with his children, unfortunately, Will, who had run both Westbrook Farm and New Westbrook for so many years, did not agree so Will departed and Edward stayed on until 1902, a year after Ellen died and the property was sold.

ELLEN DIED at the age of 74, of tuberculosis ‎(her original death certificate is at Torrens Titles)‎ on 21 Apr 1901 and she was buried at the Blakiston Cemetery of St. James' Church. Son Will paid 80 pounds for a headstone, but typical of Will, he did not follow this up and the monumental mason having accepted the cash did not bother to erect the stone so no record remains there, just two bare earth mounds side by side, path VI in the St. James Register:

HER OBITUARY - from the Adelaide "Observer" of April 1901:-
"Mrs. Ellen Wilson, relict of the late Mr. Allen Wilson of Westbrook, Mt. Barker who died on Sunday at the age of 75 ‎(not until the Sept. of 1901)‎ was, says the Mt. Barker "Courier", a very early colonist having arrived in South Australia from Tasmania in the "Yatala" ‎(error- the "Minerva")‎ commanded by her brother-in-law Capt. Buckland in 1838 ‎(error she arrived on Nov. 3rd 1839, the Capt. was Robt. Pritchard)‎. The deceased lady was a daughter of Mr. Samuel Reeves, one of the first. Tasmanian settlers who occupied the position of Government explorer for many years and was also the representative of an English cattle company. After marriage with Mr. Wilson the couple first settled at Gawler River, afterwards removing to Westbrook. Mt. Barker. There was a family of 15 children, 11 of whom survive:- Mrs. J.O. Lines; Mr. A.F. Wilson, Mallala; Mr. E.M. Wilson of Jamestown; Mr. Edward P. Wilson of Westbrook; Mr. W.A. Wilson, Mt. Barker; Mrs. C.P. Lakeman, Grange; Mr. Arthur Wilson, Adelaide; Mr. O.S. Wilson of Messrs. Brice, Wilson & Co. Adelaide; Mr. O.H. Wilson of the National Bank, Melbourne; Miss E.M. Wilson and Mrs. H.P. Knight of Wolseley".

It was after Ellen's death and the settling of her estate ‎(she left it in equal shares to her surviving children)‎ that the question of her legal ownership arose. However, a statutory declaration, application No 24405, finally solved this problem.

Ellen gave each of her Lakeman grandchildren a little cup and saucer when each was about 6 years old. To Eunice a fluted, white, heavy china cup with a lot of gold and the words "Forget Me Not", and made in Germany on the base. Handle and saucer are missing; given in 1893. When Eunice and china got together there was often disaster. Edith's does not seem to have survived, but Olive's with an all-over pattern of blue on white of very thin china, and Violet's also thin and of white china, has delicate pattern in greys and blues and fluted edges. Both these are "as new" and E.M.S. has all three.

Edward continued at New Westbrook until the estate was sold in 1902. At Old Westbrook the original bread oven in the detached kitchen was only removed in 1980. Arthur Edward Braendler purchased first. The next owner was Johan Gottlieb Liebelt ‎(1853-1938)‎ of Friedrickstadt who passed at least Old Westbrook to his son Carl Louis Liebelt in 1926. ‎(The father purchased in 1909)‎. In 1982 Carl's son Louis E. Liebelt was at Old Westbrook but the family moved to Victoria in 1989. The present owner ‎(1991)‎ has not been traced. New Westbrook is also occupied by some of the Liebelt family, and Westbrook Farm held together for many years in spite of termites was eventually replaced by a brick house:

A final note on Ellen's belongings, E.M.S. has two of the plates of her tea set, white china patterned with sprays of lilac, all that is left of the set.