Biographical Notes |
Source: Thelma Chapman Skitch
Note: On Roy's birth certificate it states that the "Rank or Profession of Father" was "Blacksmith Nairne." John W. W. King, the assistant registrar may have mistaken George for one of his brothers because George, as far as we know, was not a blacksmith, although on his marriage certificate, he is a "mechanic." Roy was admitted to Nairne Primary School on 17 August 1891. He passed the competency standard in 1896.
On 27 October 1899 Roy signed the Temperance Pledge Book at the Nairne Primary School.
December 1906 "On Saturday, as Mr R Chapman, bacon curer of this town, was bringing from Mount Barker some 70-odd pigs, the property of himself and Mr W Jacobs, several of the animals were overcome with the heat and died." Mt Barker Courier, 12 December 1906.
Thelma Chapman Skitch: "When Dad [George Chapman] died, Fred Haines, an employee at the factory and George's brother-in-law, became a partner in the business with Roy. Fred knew nothing about buying. Roy did all the clerical work and the secret of pumping the bacon. Before the bacon had been smoked, it had been pickled in a big cement vat, covered with water and the secret pickle. The pickle was made in a huge copper vat. The recipe of all the stuff they put in it was very secret because that was the secret of good bacon. Roy used to attend to all that. Fred and Roy worked together and got along very well. When they went to town, Fred went to the abbatoirs to buy the cows and pigs, and Roy took care of the business for the small goods. In 1935 they sold the factory." [According to Bronte Chapman Gould, the business was sold in 1926 to the Harrison family.]
"The house and the factory were all in one block. The house had six rooms: two rooms were built on the front and two on the back. There was a verandah all around and a kitchen outside. Nearly every house built in my father's era in Nairne was the same."
"A few days after Dad died, we went to Arno Bay to visit Hilda Hallett. They had the shop there."
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