Selina Dunstan's papers 1885-1921: an introduction. Family life and work in the Kapunda district of South Australia.
by
Margaret S. Bettison
Thesis submitted as partial requirement for the degree of Master of Arts (Interdisciplinary Studies) at Honours level, by combined research and course work.
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES February, 1988
(c) Margaret S. Bettison I 2 1rtAR 79g.? j Lm~--- L,BHARV j ABSTRACT
This thesis is based on the papers of Selina Dunstan who with her husband raised their family on a farm four miles from Kapunda, SA. The principal papers are: 1) a collection of 75 letters written by Selina or members of her family between November 1885 and August 1887; 2) a journal kept by Selina from 1 January 1891 until 12 July 1921; 3) a collection of 40 letters, 33 written by Selina, between July 1910 and August 1921. The object of the thesis was to ascertain what information the letters and journal contained about women, particularly the women of Selina's family. The letters and journal were typed. The letters 1885- 1887 and the journal were annotated, the latter in detail. As the first collection of letters extended over only 21 months, it was treated thematically rather than chrono logically. The letters were scrutinized for information regarding women. The journal was subdivided into three sections: 1891-1900; 1901-1909; 1910-1921. The life of each member of the family, male and female, was pieced together from the journal, supplemented in the last section by the second collection of letters. For some members it was possible to draw on additional material - wills, diaries, official documents - to provide a fuller account. Finally the letters written by Selina herself in the second collection were examined for her views on the life and work of women. The three main themes to emerge from the first collection of letters were women's work, courtship and marriage and religious activities. The journal with supplementary material provided sufficient information to reconstruct the lives of Selina and Thomas, their seven daughters and three sons (and to a lesser degree the lives of some of the children's marriage partners). Members of the family emerged as individuals with a distinctive role in family relationships. The letters written by Selina (1910- 1921) revealed the importance to her of home and the family. iii.
The conclusion reached was that the techniques used to research these papers were successful in retrieving information on the lives of women. I hereby declare that this submission is my own work that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains nt> material previously published or written by another p<>r •.Ol! nor material which to a substantial extent has been acc<;p eq for the award of any other degree or diploma of a unive^s t > or other institute of higher learning, except where ' U6 acknowledgement is made in the text. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank the many people who have contributed material from which this thesis has been written. Some have supplied answers to specific questions, others have lent or given me photographs and newspaper clippings, others again have shared their memories of people and happenings mentioned in Selina Dunstan's letters and journal. I thank in particular those grandchildren of Selina Dunstan who have given me unrestricted access to Selina's papers and to additional family diaries. I thank my supervisor, Beverley Kingston, for her help, encouragement and time. CONTENTS
Maps vi-viii Family trees ix-xii Abbreviations xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
LETTERS - 1885-1887 3 Work 4 Courtship and marriage 10 Religion 14
JOURNAL - 1891-1900 16 Emily 16 Eva 16 Ed 19 Tom 20 Grace 22 Lily 24 Selina Jane 25 Will 27 Susie 28 Elsie 30 Thomas and Selina 31
JOURNAL - 1901-1909 35 Thomas 35 Selina 36 Mabel 37 Tom 38 Emily 38 Eva 39 Elsie 40 Grace 41 Lily 42 Selina Jane 43 Susie 45 Ed 46 Will 47
JOURNAL - 1910-1921 49 Selina 49 Tom 57 Grace 61 Emily 64 Eva 66 Lily 68 Selina Jane 70 Els ie 72 Ed 75 Will 76 Susie 78
LETTERS - 1910-1921 81
CONCLUSION 86
BIBLIOGRAPHY 87
APPENDIX I 89 Selina Dunstan's papers : a descriptive note
APPENDIX II 92 Selina Dunstan's papers examples vi.
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Five years later the colony was in financial crisis. A major factor in its recovery was the movement of the unemployed from Adelaide to country areas and the resulting development in agriculture. A lesser factor was the discovery of copper at Kapunda in 1842 - and the more profitable find at Burra in 1845. In England mining companies advertised for miners to emigrate to SA. Among those responding was John Dunstan, a copper miner of Cornwall (Dunstan John and Ann 1847-1978, 1). His second son John had already emigrated with his wife Eliza. John and Ann Dunstan with eight children arrived on the Rajah in 1847. On the same ship was William Williams, apparently also a miner, with his wife Susanna and six children. Both families settled in the Kapunda district. In the ensuing years three Dunstan sons married three Williams daughters. Another family which migrated from Cornwall to the Kapunda copper mine was that of Henry Bastian and his wife Ann (nee Northey) with eight children. A Bastian daughter and son married a Dunstan son and daughter. In addition to the family groups single men and women also emigrated. Among the former were three miners, Moses and Elias Bettison (arrived 1855) and Robert Jeffrey (arrived 1856). The latter married a Dunstan daughter. Susan and Selina Northey, nieces of Ann Bastian, also emigrated from Cornwall, presumably as domestic servants, in 1848 and 1854 respectively. Susan married William Andrew (from Cornwall) in 1851 and they settled at Gawler River as part of a farming community. Among the Dunstan males who gave up copper mining to try their luck on the Victorian goldfields was Thomas. On his return to Kapunda he married Jane Bastian. Their first child, Grace, was born in 1853 . He seems to have made the transition from miner to farmer in October 1854 when he, together with his father and brother William, purchased the whole of Section 8, Hundred of Light, dividing the 351 2 acres between them. The brothers each built a home on their land, William who had married Julia Williams had two daughters by the end of 1854. Thomas and Jane may have been living in their house on Section 8 when Jane was confined for the second time in May 1855. Jane and her baby both died. Six months later Thomas married Jane's cousin, Selina Northey. She was 21 years of age, four years younger than Thomas. They spent the rest of their lives on the farm which was extended at intervals until its total area was 475 acres. In 1858 Moses Bettison (aged 21 years) married Louisa Harvey (18 years) and later that year their son Thomas was born. It is believed that at about the time of his marriage Moses left the mine to work on his father-in-law's farm and lived in a house on the property. Louisa and Moses thus raised their large family - Moses' death certificate gives the number as thirteen - on a section which adjoined that of Selina and Thomas Dunstan. In 22 years and 3 months Selina gave birth to twelve children of whom nine grew to adult hood. Her sister Susan Andrew had the same number of children, including one pair of twins, in 19 years and 7 months. Three of her children also died before the age of six. Marriage certificates show that many of the young emigrants were unable to write. Moses Bettison, Julia Williams and her younger sister Susan, and William and Thomas Dunstan all signed with their 'mark'. In contrast Selina Northey enjoyed reading and wrote letters to her mother (until she died in 1876 ) and to her sisters in Cornwall. Her children in turn grew up to regard reading and letter writing as part of their lives. Fortunately some of the letters written by Selina and her children have survived. Together with a journal kept by Selina for 30 years, they extend over the period 1885-1921 and form the basis for this thesis. The first collection of 75 letters was written between November 1885 and August 1887 and addressed or passed on to Selina's third daughter, Selina Jane. The journal, containing brief entries made daily or several times a week on farm and household matters, 3 religious activities and social life, extended from 1891 to 1921. The second collection of 40 letters was written between 1910 and 1921. 37 of these letters, including 32 written by Selina herself, were addressed to Selina's fifth daughter, Susie who was living at York, WA. Fuller details of these documents are given in Appendix I. By November 1885, the date of the first letter, this group of families and individuals from Cornwall had undergone a number of changes. They had brought with them to SA a common religious background in Methodism and common work experiences in mining for men and domestic work for the women with the addition of motherhood for the married women. Most of the parents who had emigrated with families were now dead while the marriage of their children had resulted in the formation of new families. The majority of these new families in turn were completed - however two of John and Ann Dunstan's children, Edward and Jane, did not complete their separate families until 1889. All of John and Ann's eight children married (an adult daughter died soon after arriving in SA) and had a total of 86 children, of whom 22 died in infancy or early childhood. Marriages contracted first by the eight children and in time by their children had established new relationships between and within families. Some marriages had ended because of the death of the wife - usually as a result of childbirth - or the husband. The physical proximity of the Dunstan siblings was first broken when Richard, the eldest, died in 1861. In the 1870s William and his wife Julia, Ann and her husband Robert Jeffery, Edward and his wife Mary Jane, Priscilla and her husband Alfred Bastian and Jane and her husband William Symons moved to localities near Jamestown, Hornesdale and Booleroo Centre in the northern wheatgrowing areas of SA. LETTERS 1885-1887 Thus in November 1885 only John and Thomas of their generation remained in the Kapunda district. Thomas was aged 55, Selina 51. Their own family had begun to disperse some years earlier. 4 Grace, Selina's step-daughter (aged 32) was in domestic service at Petersburg (now known as Peterborough). Emily (29) was in domestic service at Gawler River, about 20 miles from the family home. Tom (25) was working on his own land in the Hundred of Schomburgk (now known as Hundred of Maude) but still frequently returned to and worked on the family farm. Louisa (24) known as Lill or Lily was the only one in the family to have married. She was living at Alma Plains about 20 miles west of Kapunda. Selina Jane (23), the recipient of the letters, was in domestic service in the Adelaide suburb of Kensington. Frances Evelyn (18) known as Eva worked at domestic duties on the family farm or on Tom's farm at Schomburgk. Susan (16), usually referred to as Susie, also worked on the family farm and apparently taught her younger sister. Edward (14), known as Ed or Ted, worked on the family farm with an occasional trip to Schomburgk. William Albert (12), known as Will or Willie, was attending the 'Model School' at Kapunda. Elsie Marian (7) seems not to have been attending school - perhaps because of the distance (four miles) from the farm - but was taught at home by Susie. Work A recurrent topic in the letters is that of work. In the period of the letters the men of the family found work on either the home farm or that acquired by Tom. Will seems to have left school some time in 1886 after his 13th birth day in March. There is no indication as to whether he or Ed received cash payment for their work on either farm. The home farm could not support, nor could it provide employment for, the five daughters aged between 16 and 32. However their training and experience had been restricted to domestic work. For most country girls and women it was a way of life: from helping their mothers at home, with perhaps an interval away in paid domestic service, they married and worked in their own homes for the remainder of their lives. 5 Grace was handicapped by poor sight and hearing. It is not known whether this was the result of a childhood illness; the poor sentence construction, grammar and spelling of her few letters in this collection seem to indicate that her disabilities must have been an early impediment to learning. Nothing is known about Grace's working life until June 1882 when, at the age of 28, she went north to Booleroo where Priscilla Bastian (nee Dunstan) had died on the birth of her ninth child. Grace took charge of her uncle's household assisted by her eldest cousin who had turned twelve a few weeks earlier (Dunstan John and Ann 1847-1978, 113). Emily had taught some of her younger siblings - and possibly other neighbouring children - in the house vacated by her uncle William Dunstan in 1876. However, most of her time must have been spent working at home or in paid domes tic service. She had worked for Mrs Dart at Marrabel before returning there in 1886 (letter 19 dated 25 May 1886). It is not known if Selina Jane had been employed away from home before her present situation. It is clear that domestic service included a wide range of activities and that, while all of it involved physical labour, some situations were more strenuous than others. In country situations domestic service usually included some outside work as well as the actual household tasks. In the period of these letters Emily milked cows at three and possibly at all four of the places where she worked. Other aspects of dairying - fetching and feeding the cows, pouring the milk into shallow pans for the cream to rise, churning and other tasks involved in butter making, disposal of skim milk - usually to pigs - may have fallen to Emily in whole or in part. Soon after she went to the Dart farm Emily wrote (letter 19 dated 25 May 1886 ) 'We are milking 4 cows and feed one calf. Making about 7 lbs of butter a week.' By letter 43 dated 4 October 1886 the work had increased dramatically: 'We are milking 13 cows at present and expect another in soon and feeding 11 calves so that means a lot of work of course I have not all of it to do'. 6 The Dart household consisted of four adults (including Emily) and the five children of the family ranging in age from 19 to seven years. The only daughter Mary Jane, aged 14, was 'a very good help' to Emily (letter 19 dated 25 May 1886 ). The family was completed by the birth of a girl a few weeks after Emily's arrival. Apart from dairying Emily's letters do not mention daily household activities such as sweeping floors, making beds, carrying buckets of water inside for household use, setting, lighting and tending the wood stove and the preparation, serving and clearing away of meals. The latter must have taken enormous amounts of time and energy in an era when heavy physical labour by women and men made for large appetites, when cooked breakfasts - and hot meals generally - were the norm and when tinned food and foods processed outside the home were little used. Nor does Emily mention the weekly washday, the ironing, baking or house-cleaning - apart from the fact that she was 'in luck's way ... for cement floors', there being no board floors to scrub (letter 6 dated 5 February 1886). A seasonal task in which Emily assisted was that of making 'blood puddings and sausages' after the men had killed two pigs (letter 15 dated 14 May 1886). In her year at the Darts Emily had occasion to draw on her experience as a nurse, midwife and dressmaker. Mrs Dart was confined in her own home and the baby was born before the nurse and the doctor arrived. (Emily had assisted at a cousin's confinement shortly before going to Mrs Dart (letter 11 dated 19 March 1886 ).) Her stay with the Dart family was extended when Mr Dart senior suffered a 'stroke'. Emily helped nurse him at home for two or three weeks until his death in March 1887. The task which the sisters disliked most was the weekly wash. Grace gave up her position at Petersburg because 'the washing was too much for her' (letter 4 dated 2 February 1886). Eva writing to Selina Jane (letter 16 dated 20 May 1886 ) sympathised with her for having 'such a dose of washing to do' when she returned to Kensington after a holiday. In a later letter (letter 62 dated 7 April 1887) 7 Eva asked her sister if she could find a place for her '...I could manage a pretty tough place if there is not much washing. But the words a lot of washing strikes Terror into my backbone'. In summing up her time at Darts (letter 65 dated 28 April 1886) Emily wrote 'I am sorry that I had to leave not because that I think it a superior place for a girl but because I felt so much at home there. I had harder work than ever the last time I was there ...'. As noted above Grace left her job because of the work involved in washing. Selina Jane, although younger and in a city situation, seems to have been overworked. In letter 70 dated 19 June 1887 Emily wrote 'Mother thinks you ought to get a few weeks holiday to recruit your strength ... ' . Emily did not mention having a regular day or afternoon off. It seems that she had only two completely free days during her time at Darts (letter 37 dated 28 August 1886). Selina Jane, away from the irregular hours imposed by farm life, had more free time. But her cousin Susan Andrew who worked near her was unable to complete her duties in time to arrive punctually for the Sunday evening church service (letter 30 dated 15 July 1886). Emily shared a room at the Darts with Mary Jane (letter 15 dated 14 May 1886) but her sleeping quarters were probably less crowded than at home. Their bedroom had formerly been used by the Dart boys who moved out into 'the hut' . Emily received 9/- weekly while at Gawler River and probably more at Mrs Dart's. Grace's wages at Petersburg are not known. Selina Jane received 12/- per week. Her mother pointed out ' . . . there are some men only getting a shilling or two more than you do a week and no food ...' (letter 73 dated 13 August 1887). In their receipt of wages and in their living away from home these three daughters achieved some degree of independence. Emily, perhaps because of her position as the firstborn and her strong personality, was able to go against her mother's wishes to help her cousin Amelia (nee Andrew) in her confinement. 'I did not wish Emily to undertake the 8 job1, her mother wrote in letter 11 dated 19 March 1886 , 'but she made up her mind to it and so it was no good saying anything more about it'. However it was Selina Jane who had most opportunities to make her own decisions on a number of matters. This was partly because she worked in the city and partly because of her earnings. The latter enabled her to exercise her generosity in sending presents to members of her family and to friends at Christmas, on their birthdays and at other times. Her mother urged her (letter 11 dated 19 March 1886) not to 'spend any of your money in presents ... you must save for a future day. Now is your harvest time while you have youth and health and strength to labour ...'. Selina Jane's bank account was at Kapunda and at intervals she sent home money to be banked. Later (letter 73 dated 13 August 1887) her mother takes up the matter again '... you could send a pound every fortnight if you would make up your mind to do it ... you have sent only three pounds ten shillings yet for the year ...'. Some of Selina Jane's earnings had been spent on dental work, an expense of which it seems her mother did not fully approve. In letter 55 dated 11 March 1887 Susie wrote, 'Mother did wonder where your money was going, but as for me I think you are doing a very wise thing in getting your teeth stopped, also to get the new teeth'. Selina appears to have enjoyed a wider range of social activities than her sisters. In letter 60 dated 25 March 1887 Eva wrote 'You are quite a Terror for knocking about. Why you gad about more in a week than I do in a month'. In spite of her heavy work load Emily found time to participate in a number of social activities, most of them connected with the Methodist church. The Blue Ribbon temperance movement held meetings in Marrabel and a picnic (letter 38 dated 3 or 4 September 1886). For a time there was practice two nights a week for 'a service of song' (letter 37 dated 28 August 1886). This was followed by practice for the Sunday School Anniversary - and by two weeks of cooking in preparation for it (letter 43 dated 4 October 1886). The Anniversary celebrations extended over two days. Eva had not yet been in paid domestic service. Early 9 in February 1886 she went to Schomburgk to housekeep on Tom's property. In the period of these letters she was at Schomburgk for two periods of just over two months in February-March and May-July 1886, for the month of January and for a five-week period in March-April 1887. Her move to Schomburgk was in part for independence. In letter 5 dated only February 1886 she wrote 'I suppose you will wonder how I came out here after what I told you on my other letter [which is not included in this collection] but the fact is Mother and I was not rubbing along very nicely so I thought I would come out here to be out of the road'. No description of the dwelling place at Schomburgk survives so little can be deduced about Eva's working conditions. In letter 49 dated 14 January 1887 she wrote that during the heatwave of the previous week 'I used to sweat so baking day that again I done my collar would be wringing wet'. The writing of letter 49 alternated with more baking - on this occasion Eva baked six loaves of bread and 'about 100 buns ... to last [from Friday evening] till Tuesday and I am rather doubtful if it is enough now'. There is no mention of payment to Eva for her work at Schomburgk. Grace spent two weeks there after her return from Petersburg; apart from that fortnight Eva had to do the household work unaided for herself and from one to four adult males. This included dairy work for one or two cows. Tom had much more freedom of movement than Eva, although the latter's retiring disposition was a major factor in her not meeting people. In May 1887 Eva went to Adelaide in domestic service but a mixture of shyness, homesickness and ill-health resulted in her returning home in early August. Through the period of these letters Susie remained at home, also occupied in domestic work. As with the Dart household the women had a heavy workload out of doors. When Eva first went to Schomburgk Emily wrote to Selina Jane (letter 6 dated 5 February 1886) 'I scarcely know how Mother will get on with only one of them at home to help her with so many cows to milk and other outdoor things to be looked after' . 10 Lily had married her cousin William (Bill) Andrew in September 1882 at the Wesleyan Parsonage, Kapunda. Bill was 29 and Lily 21 years of age. His 'trade or calling' is given as labourer on the marriage certificate; that of Lily and her sister Emily, a witness, is marked by a dash. There is no way of knowing if Lily had worked away from home before her marriage; there is a family story that she learnt sewing and dressmaking. Lily's only child Olive was born in July 1883. By 1885 Bill was working for Thomas Kelly, an agriculturist and grazier of Alma Plains and it was there that Lily's parents visited her and stayed overnight in March 1886. In letter 11 dated 19 March 1886 her mother gives the most detailed references to Lily in the 35 year period under review. She comments approvingly that 'her house is a credit to her'. She has 'a nice clean comfortable home ... everything is put to the best advantage and her furniture and crockery looks almost like new'. Although married, Lily had time - with only one child - and the opportunity - because Mr Kelly was a large landowner who apparently employed a number of workmen - to earn money by working for people outside the family. This work was of a 'domestic' nature and was carried out in her own home. 'She does a good bit of sewing for Mrs Kelly. She was making a dress for the little girl while I was there. She earns a good bit of money by sewing and washing for the men . . . she would rather be employed than not.' Later in the year (letter 32 dated 29 July 1886) when the Kelly family was away, Lily milked their cow and boarded the workboy. Courtship and Marriage A second theme in these letters is that of courtship and marriage. This more personal topic is discussed by the sisters and brothers with animation, hope and sometimes - by Emily - with resignation; and much more seriously by their mother. Courtship altered relationships within the immediate family and with the wider network of cousins and their parents. Some of the rituals of courtship are revealed in 11 the letters. Sunday School, chapel, church picnics, tea meetings, Salvation Army open air meetings all offered opportunities for young people to meet. On the other hand the Methodist church actively discouraged dancing and attendance at the theatre (Hunt, 167). In this particular family the daughters apparently neither played sport (although most of them were good horsewomen) nor were spectators. An exception were the foot races at the Sunday School picnic. A young woman might accept a photograph, 'a likeness' of himself, from a young man as Selina Jane did from 'Mr Con' (letter 41 dated 25 September 1886) without committing herself. But Eva and Tom were quick to warn their sister against initiating a correspondence with their cousin Joseph Andrew. Each wrote to her on 13 March 1887. In letter 56 Eva warned her 'you are very foolish if you write to him on the intimation you got from him'. Tom wrote more colourfully (letter 57) '... if you make the first advance that way I think the whole creation of Andrewses [sic] tongues will be eternally wagging very likely hinting that you are a trying to cotch [sic] our dear old Joseph ...' Family involvement seems to have been a feature of courtship. It was not uncommon at that time for two or three members of a family to marry two or three members of another family. Marriages between cousins occurred fairly frequently. Brothers, sisters and parents might play a positive or negative role in courtship. In his letters Tom made Selina Jane a confidante of his feelings for his cousin Susan Andrew. Siblings were sometimes drawn into the role of go- between. Her mother wrote disapprovingly to Selina Jane that 'Frank [Andrew, Susan's youngest brother] sent Tom a letter asking him to write to him and Susan keeps very friendly with you' (undated letter, probably sent with letter 20 or 21). By 1886 Tom's courtship of Susan was coming to an end. He blamed Susan's mother for her interference, not knowing that his own mother was opposed to the romance. In a terse note (undated letter, probably sent with letter 20 or 21) 12 she made it clear that she 'wish[ed] that affair done away with . . . ' . Selina Jane was instructed not to give Susan any particulars about the family, especially Tom, nor to mention her ' . . . or as little as possible ... ' when writing to Tom. 'She has a curious temper', Selina concluded, 'and is not to be trusted.' Her approach was just the opposite if she approved of the match. Selina Jane had apparently confided to her mother that she had received a proposal of marriage from Tom Bettison - TB - the eldest child of Moses and Louisa (nee Harvey). Selina had met her former neighbour, Mrs Bettison, down from Moonta on a visit, in the street in Kapunda. Mrs Bettison had commented ' . . . as if we some of us had some thing to do with it . . . ' that her eldest son was not yet married '... nor she can't get him to marry'. The hint was taken by Selina who invited her to stay for a few days at the farm. When she came, Selina wrote to her daughter, 'I shall try to feel her over a bit on this subject ...'. She promised to be discreet and to write Selina Jane a full report. Meanwhile Selina Jane could ask her brother Tom to write to TB and invite him to the farm. The courtship of Selina Jane and TB resulted in their marriage; that of Susan and Tom did not. It is not possible to know to what extent one courtship was helped and the other hindered by family intervention. The letters however do offer hints as to what young women and their mothers expected from marriage, and the extent to which their expectations were shaped by economic considerations. Tom's sister Lily thought it was 'the prospect of plenty of work at Schom[burgk] that made the match objectionable' to Susan (letter 39 dated 6 September 1886). Had she settled at Schomburgk Susan would have found the good rainfall of the early years succeeded by drought. In time the planting of crops was abandoned. Not only would she have had 'plenty of work' with little financial reward. She would have led a relatively isolated life. Most of the settlers were of German origin or descent so there were cultural, religious and sometimes language differences. There was no Methodist church. There was no daily mail 13 delivery. The railway was about twelve miles distant. From a purely economic and practical viewpoint Susan may have decided she would be better off remaining single. Tom himself considered the consequences of marrying before he was financially secure: '... poverty is in the way with me now or there is no saying but what I might make her an offer ...' (letter 30 dated 15 July 1886). There is also a hint that Susan found Tom too dominating. He himself wrote (letter 39 dated 6 September 1886) that 'what she would call bossy other people that are not so thin skinned would not think bossy or offensive'. Emily, writing to her sister about her (Selina Jane's) suitor (letter 70 dated 19 June 1887) gave her opinion that in 'old T you will have a good easy tempered sort of husband not one that will bully over you ...'. Perhaps this was what her mother had in mind when she wrote her letter of advice to Selina Jane (letter 21 dated 4 June 1886) '... I should like you to accept of Tom as husband if you think you could make yourself happy with him for he is the sort of sons that make good husbands'. Marriage was a career, and the only one available, for most women. It conferred on them the status of wife and the rights, responsibilities and work of motherhood. It was regarded as a permanent institution - although many marriages were of brief duration because of the premature death of husband or wife. Heavy domestic work occupied the lives of most women, but marriage made women mistresses of their own homes and in time might result in daughters to share the work load. Farmers' wives, in addition to their unpaid labour, regularly contributed to the family economy through their weekly sale of butter and eggs. However farm finances were such that women were dependent upon the farm and their husbands. It was perhaps the realisation of a wife's dependency on her husband's goodwill, generosity or sense of justice that prompted Emily's and Selina's remarks. Selina herself had been free from parental supervision - or interference - in her own courtship. Her reasons for intervening in her children's affairs may have been 14 connected with her belief in the permanence of marriage, the centrality of the home and the importance of the family, to women in particular. These beliefs were formed and shaped by the society in which she had grown up and of which she was now an adult member. Religion The most immediate and powerful influence on Selina personally was her religion. Selina and Thomas were both members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church (which became the Methodist Church in 1900) and they passed their beliefs on to their children. Ed was nearly fifteen years old when he replied (letter 12 dated 26 March 1886) to his sister's enquiry 'about making a preacher of me well they are trying to but they have a great pudding head in hand'. He was presumably referring to the Methodist system whereby a layman after some basic training could become accredited as a local preacher (Hunt, xi). Apart from Sunday attendance at church, the family's social life centred on activities connected with the Wesleyan or other non-conformist churches. Their friend ships were formed predominantly with other young people who attended the same church. While working for the Darts Emily was actively involved with the Bible Christian church and Sunday School. She also attended Salvation Army and Blue Ribbon meetings. Susie (letter 72 dated 12 August 1887) wrote that she was unable to attend the weekly class meeting on that particular Friday because 'it is too far to walk [four miles each way] and Emily has her saddle. It is a nice class, all young girls, about 22 or 23 when they are all there ... I hope you attend class. I believe now that they are good as I have felt blessed by going'. Methodism 'had its own calendar of religious celebration. The rhythm of Methodist life was punctuated with what were commonly termed "specials" ... The most important of a church's "specials", in terms of the number of people who attended, was the Sunday-school Anniversary.' 15 (Hunt, 159-60) The Kapunda Wesleyans celebrated their Sunday School Anniversary on Easter Sunday. There was a picnic on Easter Monday and entertainment - a lecture or recitals and singing - in the evening. The Dunstans appear to have attached more importance to a family reunion at Easter than at Christmas. In 1886 and 1887 all of Selina Jane’s correspondents expressed hope that she would be home for Easter and then disappointment when she could not obtain leave. 16 JOURNAL 1891-1900 The last letter was written on 30 August 1887 . The period from September 1887 to December 1890 is undocumented by letters or diaries. Selina's journal covers the period from January 1891 until July 1921, a few weeks before her death. Through this journal and supplementary records it is possible to trace the lives of members of the family for the next thirty years. Emily In August 1887 Emily had been working on a property about six miles southeast of Kapunda. By 1891 she was in service to a Mrs Hall in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood. She left there in November, a month after Mrs Hall was confined. That was Emily's last period in paid employment. By March 1892 she was in Renmark setting up her own boarding house which she, and later Eva, conducted until 1909. Her reasons for undertaking this venture and for locating it at Renmark (founded only five years earlier) are unknown. As she was then in her 36th year it may be assumed that she no longer expected to have a home of her own through marriage. Her letters show her independent character; domestic service in other women's homes may have been proving increasingly irksome. As proprietor of the boarding house she was her own mistress. Eva Eva accompanied Emily. Financial arrangements between the sisters are unknown. While there are no details of Eva's life from August 1887 to December 1890 the journal indicates that she spent 1891 working at the home farm with about a month at Schomburgk to relieve Grace and a similar period in Kapunda to help Selina Jane after her second child was born. On 8 July 1891 the journal recorded 'Eva gone to live at Richardsons' but on 12 September, just after her 24th birthday, 'Eva home left Richardsons'. Perhaps this was another attempt on Eva's part to lead an independent life away from home. Had she 'gone to live' there as a domestic help? She had had no training for any 17 other occupation and she is not remembered, as Lily is, for her sewing skills. Her early letters show her to have been intelligent, reserved, sharp-tongued at times, not altogether happy at home but becoming critical of Tom who was seven years her senior and for whom she had been keeping house. Of Selina's daughters she seems to have been least suited by temperament to the generally accepted roles for women and least able to find an alternative. (Three of her Andrew cousins, two of whom - Susan and Lily - remained single, became stewardesses on the Adelaide Steamship Company boats. While this occupation was doubtless regarded as suitable for women and an answer to the needs of female passengers, it may also have fulfilled the longing of young women for independence and adventure in the form of travel.) Nothing is known of the costs involved in establishing the boarding house. According to letter 73 dated 13 August 1887 Emily then had df 30/9/- in the bank. She may have had more money out on loan. Documents in the Lands Titles Office, Adelaide show that she purchased a town allotment on Fifteenth Street, Renmark on 14 August 1894 forjf 25. On 3 December 1900 she purchased another two allotments in the same street for <5^45. Although these two were side by side, they were separated from the original purchase by two allotments. In the absence of additional records, official or personal, and of all but the most fragmentary recollections, it is possible to reconstruct only the barest outline of Emily's - and Eva's - life in Renmark. It is not known if the boarding house premises occupied one, two or all three of the houses which presumably stood on the three allotments. Emily took only single male boarders, young men who worked in the post office, the banks or as teachers. Their working lives still consisted of long hours of domestic work, but there was a difference. Instead of it being carried out for their own family circle - at Kapunda or Schomburgk - or for wages in the home of another family, or as part of a married woman's work of caring for a husband 18 and children, it was performed for strangers who paid for the service. Emily could refuse a prospective boarder; those she accepted lived there on her terms. There is evidence in the journal to suggest that despite the distance between Kapunda and Renmark - about 130 miles - the boarding house was run in many respects as a family affair, with the women much more actively involved than the men. Particularly in the early years produce from the farm was sent to Renmark. For example, journal entry 6 July 1892 reads in part 'sent box to Renmark with bacon butter lard nuts jam clothes etc'. For some years Selina sent quantities of pickled butter in October or November. On 29 October 1894 she sent '12 lbs pickled butter 12 fresh' to Renmark. While there is no record of money changing hands this may have been an example of a female economy at work. Emily still had cattle at the farm. In her absence her sisters and mother would have cared for them and had milk and butter to use or sell. The items sent to Renmark may have represented a portion of the value of this produce. Emily also had a pig which was killed in August 1895; on 14 October Selina 'sent box of bacon hams lard and butter to Emily'. Their sisters and mother also bought and made up dress materials for Eva and Emily. Renmark probably had a limited range of materials and Emily and Eva limited spare time. The journal entry for 27 July 1892 reads 'bought black i figured dress stuff for Eva at 3/- per yd 8 1 yds £l/2/~' and for 28 March 1893 'sent black figured dress Lily made to Eva to Renmark'. It is not known if Emily hired any help or if she and Eva ran the boarding house unaided. Susie or Elsie usually helped when Emily and Eva took holidays. Both had long breaks, Eva from eight to fourteen weeks and Emily from five to seven, but each had only three holidays in the nine year period April 1892-December 1900. Running the boarding house would have entailed work seven days a week all the year round. There must have been little leisure in their holidays. Both women spent most of their time at the family 19 farm with perhaps a few days in Adelaide, a few days visiting relatives and a break of journey at the beginning or end of the holiday for a short stay at Schomburgk. The holidays were, in fact, largely an interchange of jobs since the absence of Susie (or Elsie) from the farm meant that the visiting daughter had to attend to her duties. The only indications as to the profitability of the boarding house are Eva's sending home, between December 1896 and January 1899 , a total of j: 20 to be banked and Emily's second purchase of town allotments in December 1900 for J45. Ed Ed was the next member of the family to leave home. In 1891 he was still working on the family farm (known as Ivy Cliff Farm after he had planted ivy on a cliff overlooking the River Light which ran through the property) with an occasional trip to Schomburgk. On 10 January 1892 he 'preached his first sermon at Kapunda' as a local preacher. Having turned 21 in May, on 18 July he 'left home on way to Adelaide to go to W.Australia' where he soon found work in the railways. By May 1894 his mother noted that he was earning 9/6 a day. According to Ed's own diary in July 1894 he bought an allotment at North Fremantle for (. 20. He was then aged 24; Emily was 38 when she bought her first allotment in Renmark a month later. By July 1895 Ed had a house built on his land - he rented it out at 8/- per week. In 1896 he could afford to come home for his annual four weeks' holiday. After spending Easter with his family - he attended the Sunday School anniversary and the picnic - he went by train to Melbourne and Sydney, returned to Kapunda and then sailed for Fremantle on the Barcoo as a saloon passenger (Adelaide Observer 25 April 1896, 21a). His holiday was obviously very different to that of his sister Eva who was home from Renmark during his visit. On 14 October 1896 in the Presbyterian church, Perth Ed married Mary Ross, a Victorian who had come to WA earlier that year and who was working as a milliner in Perth. Mary, 20 who turned 27 just two weeks after her marriage, was eighteen months older than Ed. Nine and a half months later their first child Ella was born. Mary took her to Melbourne on a three month visit to her parents in 1897-1898. In November 1898 Ed was elected treasurer of the newly formed Locomotive Engine-drivers, Firemen and Cleaners' Union. He was himself an engine-driver. According to his diary in December 1898 there was 'a scarcity of work on the main line' and he received 'only ... 10/- per diem for work on the shunter'. When his application for a transfer to Perth was unsuccessful he accepted the offer of a move to Northam, 60 miles inland. In January 1899 he and Mary moved from their own home at North Fremantle to a rented four-room brick cottage in Northam. While the pay increased (from 10/- to 11/- per day) Mary for one must have found many disadvantages. The summers at Northam were hot and exhausting with no alleviating sea breeze as at Fremantle. Ed's diary mentions driving trains to Southern Cross, 190 miles from Northam. Ed presumably would have earned extra money on such long trips but Mary, by then in her second pregnancy, was left on her own all day, sometimes overnight, in a strange town. Mary went to Perth for the birth of their second child, Ross in July 1899. In November she was back in the city as the baby was seriously ill with dysentery. Ed recorded staying at home on 15 December when 'the Doctor [had] little hope of recovery'. But for Mary the staying at home lasted much longer, as it was not until May 1900 that Ed noted 'The boy Ross starts to get well'. Meanwhile in January 1900 Ed went to Perth as a union delegate when railway employees went out on a short-lived strike. In March they moved to another rented cottage in Northam. In May Ed's wages were increased (as from the previous November) to 13/6 per day. Tom In letter 53 dated only January 1887, Susie had written of Tom that 'Love & Matrimony is his theme & hobby'. Yet he 21 did not marry until over eight years later. To what extent he delayed marrying until he felt financially secure and to what extent marriage eluded him - was he too 'bossy'? - can now only be a matter of conjecture. In September 1881 the Hundred of Schomburgk had been allotted to selectors. Tom, then aged 21, took up a section of 102 acres while his father took up two adjoining sections totalling 898 acres. In April 1885 the three sections were allotted to Tom (Information in letter from SA Dept of Lands dated 26 May 1983). Although the Hundred was outside Goyder's Line of Rainfall, settlers were encouraged in the early years by good harvests. No details are known regarding Tom's financial position when he acquired this land, although his father's support seems obvious. In later years his sisters' opinion was that a disproportionate part of their father's (i.e., the farm's) income went to help Tom over the years. In March 1888 and June 1890 two more sections were allotted to him, thereby consolidating his holdings and increasing them to a total of 1,948 acres (Letter from SA Dept of Lands dated 26 May 1983). The journal, commencing January 1891, indicates that Tom lived permanently at Schomburgk with Grace as his house keeper. He returned to Ivy Cliff Farm at intervals through out the year on social occasions such as Easter, Christmas and the Kapunda Show, to attend stock and clearing sales and to help at busy times of the year. On 9 October 1891 'Tom down from Schom to buy furniture in town'. In February 1894 he had a month's holiday - a long break for him - and went to Victoria where he may have stayed with his cousin Harry Andrew. On 11 June 1895 Tom married Mabel Day at her parents' home at Robertstown. Mabel does not appear in the letters of 1885-1887, and there are no journal references to her visiting the farm or meeting Tom's parents before the wedding. She is not even mentioned by name until she and Tom came to the farm 'from town after wedding trip' on 19 June. Her position in the family and her relations with other members of the family is never made clear; indeed it is rarely even hinted at. 22 Aged 24 she was eleven years younger than Tom and the eldest of a family of five daughters and two sons. Her father was a blacksmith and wheelwright at Robertstown, a settlement some twenty miles from Schomburgk, and Tom may well have known Mr Day (his senior by only fourteen years) before he met Mabel. Like the Dunstans, the Days were Methodists. As Mabel was the first in her family to marry, and as Schomburgk was closer to Robertstown than to the farm, it seems likely that she would have continued to rely on her own family and friends for society and support. However she went to Kapunda for her confinements perhaps because it had resident doctors and a hospital. Her first daughter was born at Selina Jane's home at the end of 1896. She may also have gone to Selina Jane's for her second and third confinements in April 1898 and April 1900 when two more daughters were born to her. From at least December 1897 Tom was looking for another farm. He almost certainly wanted to obtain land in an area with a higher, more reliable rainfall. It may be assumed that Mabel also hoped to leave Schomburgk - the climate was harsh, lack of water would have ruled out the possibility of a garden and she was isolated in several aspects: from family, acquaintances, medical help and church. The need to find another farm became more pressing in 1900 when Will went to WA and Thomas (senior) no longer took an active part in farming. Grace Tom's marriage had a profound effect on Grace. Some time between August 1887 and January 1891 she had become Tom's full-time housekeeper. As Tom needed a housekeeper and Grace needed a 30b the arrangement was probably satisfactory to both of them. It seems likely that it also suited Selina as her relationship with her step-daughter was sometimes strained. In letter 7 dated 18 February 1886 Eva had written from Schomburgk, 'I have not heard how things are going on home since Grace has been home, smoothly I hope'. Grace herself had been looking for 'a place' after 23 having recovered from the exertions of the 30b at Petersburg (letters 26 and 48 dated 24 June 1886 and 28 December 1886 respectively). But the position at Petersburg was the last Grace held with anyone other than her family, perhaps because of her poor sight and hearing. While at Schomburgk she came to the farm less frequently than Tom perhaps because she had to attend to the cows, perhaps because she would not have been able to ride down (as Tom sometimes did) but would have to be taken about twelve miles to the nearest railway siding. She left Schomburgk only for a holiday or for reasons of health. The journal entry for 10 February 1891 records 'Grace and Susy gone to town to have Grace's teeth out'. It was not until 4 June that she returned to Adelaide 'to get her teeth in'. Dental work represented a heavy expense, especially in proportion to women's wages. No cost is given for Grace's dentures but on 5 March 1891 Eva's 'full set of teeth' had cost M15. In 1894 Grace was ill for some weeks. The journal does not state her complaint. From 25 August when she came 'down ill from Schom' until 28 September when she 'came home after her illness' she was at Selina Jane's house in Kapunda. Selina Jane was in the seventh month of her third pregnancy and Grace was not able 'to leave the bed' until 22 September. Perhaps, after the trip from Schomburgk, she was too ill to continue to the farm until she was convalescing. When she went to Selina Jane's Elsie, aged sixteen, and Selina were the only two women at the farm. On 4 May 1895, a month before Tom was married, the journal entry reads 'had letter from Grace concerning land and marriage'. Perhaps Grace had lent Tom money to extend his holdings in 1888 or 1890. (She lent him^E20 on 30 July 1896.) Certainly at the age of 41 Grace must have been concerned about her future. On 11 July 1895 Grace came home having 'left Schom altogether'. How she fitted in to the life of the farm is not known - she rarely appears in the journal. She did however return to Schomburgk to housekeep for Tom whenever Mabel was away for the birth of her daughters. On the first 24 occasion her stay extended over nearly five months. Lily Some time after August 1887 Lily and Bill Andrew had moved from Alma Plains. By 1891 they were living in a rented house in Kapunda. Olive, aged seven, remained their only child. Bill's occupation is not known. The fact that he carted hay on the Dunstan farm for a week in November 1891 indicates that he was perhaps a casual labourer. It may have been the desire for more permanent work that led to his going to work at the Allendale Brewery. The journal for 8 September 1892 records 'Lily left for Allen Dale Brewery'. She would then have been living about six miles from her parents' farm. On 18 August 1894 'Lily bought harmonium?? 4'. Situated somewhere between the piano and the fiddle in the social scale of musical instruments, the harmonium was found in many Cornish homes. 'No [Cornish] miner's wife regarded her home as complete until the "best room" had a carpet on the floor, with a harmonium - a book of Wesley's hymns lying on its cover - ...' (Pryor, 66). It was not a mere show piece. When Ed visited Lily on his holiday in 1896 he observed that 'Olive plays the organ [i.e., harmonium] nicely'. Two months later on 16 May 1896 Olive, aged nearly thirteen, was 'taken to hospital with typhoid'. Not until 10 June did Selina write 'Olive getting better her head shaved'. On 12 July 'Olive brought home from hospital quite well'. Typhoid was the only disease for which the journal records members of the family being nursed in hospital. Bill worked at the brewery until 1 February 1897 when he left to live on his own farm. 'Watermet' consisted of 140 acres of well-watered land near the Dunstan farm - the two homesteads were only about two miles apart. The purchase price of the farm was J? 507/10/-, but no details are known concerning payment. Nor is it known if Lily was able to earn money while Bill was working at the brewery. Their success in saving money was partly due to their one-child 25 family and to Lily's 'careful' housekeeping. A journal entry 2 March 1895 'Dad [i.e., Thomas Dunstan] had^jf 50 more of Bill J?150 in all at 5 per cent' indicates that Bill was in a position to lend money but is not helpful as to Lily's contribution. Lily settled to the life of a farmer's wife. On 17 February 1897 she 'bought 2 cows 12 chickens ...', on 3 July she bought Emily's heifer and on 2 September she 'sold 2 pigs at 12/6 each'. Selina Jane Selina Jane was the second in her family to marry. She married Thomas Bettison (TB) at her parents' home, Ivy Cliff Farm, on 25 September 1889. TB' s 'trade or calling' is given as 'farm labourer' while Selina Jane's and Emily's, a witness, is marked by a dash. Selina Jane was within a few weeks of her 27th birthday and TB was 31 years of age. Like Lily and Bill Andrew, Selina Jane and TB lived in a rented house in Kapunda. Their first child, a son, was born in August 1890 , a few weeks before the death of TB' s mother. Selina Jane's second and third sons were born at home on 5 November 1891 and 26 November 1894. While the Dunstan family as a unit seems to have been only slightly affected by the depression and droughts of the 1890s TB, as a labourer working for wages, was in and out of employment until January 1895. The journal gives some insight into his movements in search of work and into family support in offering work. For example, at the beginning of 1891 he was working for his uncle, W.Harvey. On 1 October 1891 he was 'down from Schom no work again'. On 29 December he left for Broken Hill but on 6 January 1892 'TB back from Broken Hill cannot get work'. He helped with the harvest at Ivy Cliff Farm from 2 November 1892 to 24 January 1893. What effect did TB' s wandering life have on Selina Jane? She herself shifted house twice, in February 1891 and in September 1892 when she moved into Lily's house the day after Lily went to live near the brewery. In the eighth month of her second pregnancy when TB was working at 26 Schoraburgk she spent three weeks at her parents' farm. When TB went to Schomburgk in January 1892 'to work for Tom' Selina Jane followed with her two young children and stayed for three weeks. In February 1894 TB and Selina Jane were both at Schomburgk while Tom and Grace took holidays. Selina and the children returned after a seven-week stay but, according to the journal, TB apart from a week in May stayed on until 30 June when he came 'down from Schom out of work'. Reciprocal family support went beyond offering TB work. There was a continuing exchange of visits between the farm and Selina Jane. Selina helped her daughter with dress making.Eva helped Selina Jane after the birth of her second child and Susie after the birth of the third. Grace stayed at Selina Jane's when she was ill. Mabel stayed with her for seven weeks in 1896/7 and her first child was born there. (The second and third daughters may also have been born there.) On 19 January 1895 TB and Selina Jane with the three children - the youngest child was eight weeks old - moved onto a holding he had bought in the Hundred adjoining Schomburgk. At first they lived in a wattle-and-daub dwelling on a neighbour's land. It is remembered as consisting of at least two rooms with a thatched roof and no floor. Perhaps not surprisingly on 27 February 'Selina and children down from Schom ill'. When they returned on 12 March it was still 'very hot'. Meanwhile TB was building a two-roomed house on his own land. Situated four miles north of the railway siding and small settlement of Mount Mary, it was the first house that TB and Selina Jane owned. A shanty adjacent to the house was used for cooking and washing. TB' s land was uncleared so there would have been no crop sown that first year. In November the family came back to Kapunda. On 27 November, the day after the youngest child's first birthday, TB left for WA where he worked in and around the gold mines of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Selina Jane thus became one of the many women who, since white settlement began, have been separated from their 27 husbands by necessity. For five years while TB was away - he returned for ten weeks in November 1897 - Selina Jane again lived in a rented house in Kapunda. While she had the sole responsibility of bringing up her three sons she had the advantage of the amenities of a large country town. By 1900 all three boys were old enough to attend the local 'Model School' which had an attendance of over 400 pupils (Charlton, 88). There were resident doctors and a hospital. As noted earlier, at Kapunda she was near her parents and some of her sisters. Some of TB's relatives also lived in or near Kapunda. As Selina had grown up in the district she had friends and acquaintances whom she often met in the street or at church. Will For Will the decade spanned the years from 18 to 27. With Ed's departure for WA in July 1892 he and his father were the only men living permanently at Ivy Cliff farm. The journal shows Will's life proceeding uneventfully as he worked at the farm with occasional trips to Schomburgk. By 1898 he may have been share farming some of Tom's land - or he may have been paid in wheat instead of wages. The journal entry for 18 January 1899 reads 'Willie sold his share of wheat from Schom at Eudunda ...'. He seems to have had more leisure time than his older siblings, although some of it was spent in visiting the dentist (e.g., '5 Apr. 1893 Willie had a tooth drawn suffering from toothache') and a doctor in Adelaide 'with polypus in nose' (4 October 1895 ). But he also went to Adelaide to see '8 hours demonstrations' (31 August 1897) and to attend the Show, visited friends at Gumeracha, went shooting and to local church activities. His younger sister recalled years later having been asked on occasion to cover for Will who, instead of accompanying her to church, rode off to an evening of dancing in another farmhouse. The journal entry of 12 February 1900 that 'dad and Willie quarrelled' intrudes abruptly into the daily record. Selina rarely documented differences of opinion or 28 personality clashes. There was a family story that Will and Thomas disagreed over farming methods - certainly Thomas was opposed to the use of superphosphate. Whatever the immediate reason for this particular quarrel - perhaps Thomas' sale of six acres of land, entered in the journal on the same date - it can be seen as the culmination of a period of unrest and frustration for Will. He was almost 27 years of age. Tom had acquired his own land at the age of 21 while Ed had gained independence at the same age by going to WA. As the journal shows, many other young men had left the district to go to the West. Two of Will's friends were about to leave: a shooting companion and a fellow Methodist. So it was perhaps inevitable that when the steamer Wollowra 'cleared out' on 17 February for Fremantle, Will had joined his friends and 53 others in the second cabin (Adelaide Observer 24 February 1900 , 27e). Selina in a rare outburst wrote 'oh how it wrings my heart to part' (13 February 1900). Will arrived in WA with out jTlOO in savings (this was his own recollection in 1952) and went to Kalgoorlie. He cut wood for the condensers but according to Ed's diary 'only made a bare living'. Will himself recalled having suffered from Barcoo rot (a type of scurvy) at that time, an indication of his primitive living conditions and the absence of his mother's and sisters' cooking and care. Ed recorded that Will 'came down from the fields' in May and it is believed he worked at roadmaking until he joined the police force in Perth on 1 November 1900. Susie Susie was 21 years of age in July 1890 but she did not achieve her independence until much later than Ed. For the first half of the decade under review Susie worked at home. In February 1891 she accompanied Grace to Adelaide when she (Grace) had her teeth extracted. Through out October 1892 she was housekeeper at Schomburgk while Grace had a holiday. On 13 August 1894 'Susy left for ... Renmark' (her first visit) where she worked at the boarding house while Emily spent her holiday at Ivy Cliff Farm. On 6 29 November 1894 Selina wrote 'Susie returned from Renmark well and very glad I am to have her'. Early in December she spent two weeks at Kapunda helping Selina Jane whose third child had been born on 26 November. For much of this time Susie was the only daughter helping her mother and their relationship seems to have been close. There is no record of Susie (or the other daughters) receiving payment for their work on the farm. Susie in common with her sisters had livestock on the farm. Among the tasks carried out by Susie and mentioned in the journal were jam making, taking swarms of bees, dressmaking and papering the dining room. Journal entries indicate that Selina bought clothes for Susie; perhaps such entries as that of 4 February 1891 'bought pinkish dress stuff for Susie 8 yds at 1/4' indicate that Selina paid for the material which Susie chose. On 19 October 1895 Susie went to Adelaide 'to take situation' presumably in domestic service. She was able to come home for Easter 1896 when Ed returned on his first visit from WA. Susie applied to the Adelaide Hospital to train as a nurse, but as Ed wrote in his diary (about 16 April) 'Suse didn't get Hospital job'. On 15 July 1896 Susie returned to Kapunda, having accepted her uncle John Dunstan's offer as housekeeper. But when 'uncle John left earth for heaven 7 oclock A.M.' on 16 September 1896 Susie returned to the farm. Then on 2 November she left for Renmark and was away for over 18 months, returning home on 16 June 1898 . This stay extended well beyond Emily's holiday from May to July 1897 . It is not known if Susie worked only at the boarding house or if she found employment elsewhere. There are fragmentary memories of a romance, which may have been the reason for her staying on at Renmark. She returned there on 23 October 1898 thus enabling Eva to have a holiday from March to May 1899. Susie herself left Renmark in August, her engagement was apparently broken off in November - the journal is silent altogether on this episode in Susie's life - and on 7 March 1900 'my dear Susie left here for W.A. by Ophir'. A diary kept by Susie shows that she had^f16/8/- 'money 30 in hand when at Kapunda', and over one quarter of this amount was spent in fares and other expenses, leaving her with about <^12 when she reached Northam. She was then in her 31st year, four years older than Will who had arrived with about^100. Susie doubtless went to Northam because Ed was living there. On 2 April she began work as a saleswoman with the firm of Throssel Son & Stewart at <^1 per week (she was paying 10/- for board), increased to J^l/5/- in July. Elsie Elsie was still at school when the journal began. On 9 May 1892, when she was aged 14 years three months she commenced an apprenticeship with Miss Quinlan, a dressmaker in Kapunda. On 23 May 1894 she 'left off going to dress making'. Her daughters recalled Elsie telling them of her ambition to train as a teacher but, despite the headmaster's recommendation, her father would not agree to her wish. She is remembered today for her culinary skills but not at all as a dressmaker - although journal entries show that she helped make her sisters' dresses. Her apprenticeship was interrupted on occasion. For example, on 19 November 1892 she went to Schomburgk for two weeks to stay with Grace while Tom helped with the hay at Ivy Cliff Farm. Unlike her sisters Elsie did not go into domestic service. As her older sisters left the farm she was needed to help with the housework and the outdoor work with cows, pigs and hens. She also raised ducks; this seems to have been a personal interest, whatever money she made going into her own pocket. Her sisters claimed that she was spoilt but work on the farm still involved much heavy physical labour whether it was, for example, washing clothes, baking bread or milking cows. She was more fortunate than her sisters in having her own pony. Journal entries show that she went - often on horseback - to many of the smaller settlements around Kapunda either on farm errands or on social outings, often connected with the church. Two events in Elsie's life, unrecorded for the other 31 members of the family, are entered in the journal. The first is her conversion. The journal for Sunday 21 October 1894 reads 'heard Miss Green the evangelist in W[esleyan] Church Thank God for his great goodness to my dear Elsie She I trust has experienced the new birth may the good Lord keep [her] ever a faithful child of his'. Annie Green and Ruth Nesbitt were 'employed during 1894 by the Wesleyan home mission committee, and they reported a gratifying harvest for the year of 409 conversions' (Hunt, 130) . The second was her romance with Jim Hosking. Jim, four years older than Elsie, lived at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills. Members of the large family and the parents, who were born in Cornwall, visited Ivy Cliff Farm over the years and Elsie and Will returned the visits. Jim is recorded as first visiting the farm in October 1894 . In March 1896 he went to the WA goldfields, returning in December 1899. It appears that he and Elsie had a month's holiday in Moonta. On 16 January 1900, the day after their return from Moonta, 'Jim left here' apparently returning to WA. In July 1900 Elsie made her first trip to Renmark where she stayed for three months, enabling Emily to take a hoiiday. The journal does not mention a wage nor any payment being made to Elsie. Very occasionally there are references to her receiving money from the sale of poultry, a calf and a hide. However an entry on 7 March 1896 noting 'Elsie's first account with savings bank' indicates that she must have had some money. Her mother bought dress materials and other clothes for her. Thomas and Selina In January 1891 Selina and Thomas Dunstan were aged 56 and 60 years respectively. Thomas' first child had been born when he was aged 23 and Selina's in her 21st year but, because of the combined factors of Thomas marrying twice and of Selina's extended period of childbearing, they had a child still attending primary school in 1891. Further, as most of their children married relatively late - and three 32 not at all - Ivy Cliff Farm remained the family home for most of their children through the decade 1891-1900. Thomas In July 1891 Thomas extended the farm, apparently for the last time, by buying about 64 acres of Harvey's adjoining land. As mentioned above, he continued to grow crops with Will presumably taking over the more arduous work. At busy times, e.g., haycutting and harvesting, he had help from Tom, his two sons-in-law and casual labourers. On 24 February 1900 , a week after Will sailed for WA, Thomas made (or altered) his will and on 14 March he leased part of the farm (what proportion of the total 475 acres is not known) to Sidney Kidman. A fortnight later he sold all his farming plant including nine farm horses. Tom then undertook most of the work connected with cropping while his father turned his interests more particularly to raising and selling pigs and to working in the fruit and vegetable garden. Selina Two journal entries illustrate Selina's sense of loss as her daughters and sons left home. On 25 December 1891 she wrote ' . . . Xmas all my children at home a nice pleasant day Thank God for it' . On 23 July 1900 she wrote ' . . . am lonely none of my children are with me now, all gone away'. She regularly recorded her Saturday trip to Kapunda with its sale of farm produce to the storekeepers and often the purchase of materials to be made up for the men or women of the household. The entry for 25 April 1896 began in the usual way with the sale of butter and eggs and ended with the purchase of '2 pairs moles' and flannel. But between these prosaic details Selina entered an event of historic importance: '... voting day very fine weather vote for Coles [and] Moody first time of women voting a crowd of ladies there...' As noted earlier women's dairy and poultry work on most farms was an important part of the farm economy. The 33 - journal entry for 4 October 1895 gives the number of cattle for the year: 'have had 9 cows come in [i.e. calve] 1895 2 calves dead 7 living 5 heifers and 2 bulls with bull from Plush 8 in all*. On 7 November 1895 'sold at sale 5 head cattle Peggy Dinah Beauty cockhorn and brindle steer j^l4/12/3'. An important seasonal event, involving addition al labour, was the pickling of butter. This was done in October-November - 26 November 1892 'finished pickling butter have 94 lbs pickled'. Comparably large quantities of jam were made each summer, for many years using fruit picked from the farm's own trees. On 19 January 1893 'boiled 24 lbs dark plum jam 8 of yellow plum' and on 8 March 'boiled 60 lbs damson jam'. During the winter months three or four pigs were killed and bacon and hams smoked. Women's work on the farm was carried out with very few labour-saving devices. A reference in Selina's letter of 16 October 1910 dates the purchase of her sewing machine as 1875. As late as 12 August 1899 she 'finished making trousers, vest for dad'. Butter was made in a churn. On 4 September 1891 Selina 'bought wringer1/2/6'. From the first year of the journal to the end of her life Selina suffered attacks of bronchitis. Her reference as early as 23 April 1892 to herself being 'ill with old complaint' indicates its chronic nature. Although she was often 'poorly' and at times 'had to keep [her] bed', she seems to have relied on home nursing and patent medicines as much as medical advice. On occasion the doctor from Kapunda was called in and twice in the decade she went to Adelaide to consult a doctor. It is evident from journal entries that she did not regard herself as an invalid. As she grew older the strain of hard work and hot weather resulted in such entries as that of 24 December 1898 'Xmas eve too tired to go to market'. She turned to Lily in particular - though also to Selina Jane - for support when she was under stress. At the end of October 1892 with Susie back from Schomburgk Selina 'went to Lily stayed 4 days rested nicely' (2 November 1892). Lily, a married daughter with an unobtrusive husband and only one child, was able to provide 34 a quiet home and, no doubt, a sympathetic ear. Selina's stress was not always the result of physical factors. One would expect some differences of opinion between members of a large family. Reference has been made to the sometimes strained relationship between Selina and Grace, and the quarrel between Thomas and Will. The most serious documented cause of tension between Thomas and Selina was money. The journal records that in 1898 Selina and her sister Susan Andrew received a sum of money as a bequest from the will of their late brother Stephen Northey. It is not clear whether the amount was jflO or^lOO. Grand children recalled in later years that there was a disagree ment over the bequest. Selina regarded it as hers but Thomas, believing that a wife's property belonged to the husband, wanted the money - it is thought to assist Tom. The outcome is not known. As the money was received by Selina perhaps she managed to keep control of it. At a later date, 12 October 1900, Selina recorded that Thomas would not give her^4 which was her share of dflO received from the sale of cattle. On 30 May 1899 Selina accompanied Eva when she returned to Renmark after a holiday. Emily, Eva and Susie were all at Renmark at that time. The journal resumes on 21 July 1899: 'came back by boat Gem very fine weather had a very pleasant trip quite enjoyed myself'. 35 JOURNAL 1901-1909 By the end of 1900 all of Selina's and Thomas' children except Elsie had established their independence. Despite the disagreement between Thomas and Will family ties remained strong and were maintained by regular and fairly frequent correspondence, by photographs sent and received and sometimes passed from one person to another, by holidays spent wholly or in part at the family home, by financial arrangements - mainly loans - and by continuing common interests, especially in religious belief and practice. A number of significant events occurred in the period 1901-1909. Some were of particular importance only, or mainly, to the family members directly involved. But two events had far wider consequences. The first was the death of Thomas; the second was the death of Tom's wife Mabel. Thomas Thomas died in August 1905, two months short of his 75th birthday. As he left no letters - he is said to have been illiterate - and as there are relatively few references to him in the letters of 1885-1887 , his most personal statement is found in his will. He left all his 'personal and real estate for [his wife's] use, benefit and enjoyment, as long as she may live and remain [his] widow. For I desire', the will continued, 'that my wife shall have the management of my estate during her life and widowhood'. He gave to his daughter Grace 'the sum of twenty pounds for her sole use benefit and disposal'. He directed that upon the death or remarriage of his wife his real and personal estate should be sold and the proceeds should be equally divided between his children who were named, beginning with Grace but omitting Will. Even though Thomas may have believed that in life he had a legitimate claim to his wife's money, his will clearly expresses his confidence in her ability to run the farm. One could speculate on the reason for the bequest to his eldest daughter. It may have been done for a variety of reasons, including a tie of affection going back to the death of her mother. Grace had not earned an income through 36 domestic service for years. She was unable to establish a home of her own, and Thomas must have been aware of the tension between his wife and her step-daughter. He may have feared that the relationship would worsen after his death. The omission of Will shows the initial depth of feeling over the dispute between the two men or, perhaps even more, over Will's departure for WA. Nor did Thomas relent despite Will's serious illness in 1905 and his subsequent holiday at home. Selina For Selina Thomas' death meant a change in status from wife to widow. She had been married for nearly 50 years and was now in her 71st year. The journal is silent on her feelings; her body, in its customary response to stress, gave way and she was 'too ill to attend Father's funeral sermon'. As to the management of the farm, she had been observing and recording it for years. The journal entries show her familiarity with the work of the men on the farm: such details as the variety of wheat sown, the weight of a pig killed, the wage paid for a day's or a week's work are all entered. The physical work performed by Thomas had been considerably reduced after Will's departure. Kidman's lease on part of the farm had been renewed in 1904. Selina would have been able, had she wished, to consult the two executors of Thomas' will, her son Tom and her son-in-law Bill Andrew. Both were farmers and their farms were not more than two or three miles away. Certainly she received physical assist ance from them in various tasks. Nevertheless Selina had to assume additional responsi bilities and make decisions which in the past would have been taken ultimately by her husband. When Thomas died part of the farm was under crop on a share farming arrangement, and she continued this practice in 1906 and 1907. In June 1907 she departed from Thomas' traditional methods by introducing phosphate to the farm. In the summer of 1906/07 she recorded being 'much grieved at the delay and uncertainty' over the reaping of the wheat. 37 An event which caused her more distress and personal grief, as well as financial loss, was the death of her cows. A few months after Thomas died, over an eight-week period in the summer of 1905/06, Selina noted the deaths of her entire herd of seven cows from a 'dreadful disease' - probably impaction of the omasum, also known as 'dry bible'. (The 'bibles' were the omasum or third stomach of cud-chewing animals.) Gradually cows were bought to replace the previous herd but it was nearly the end of May before Selina again had butter for sale. Mabel Apart from Thomas' death the composition of the family was changed or threatened by other events: marriage, the birth - and death - of grandchildren, the death of Will's wife, the serious illness of first Elsie and later Will. But the most devastating was the death of Tom's wife, Mabel. As already mentioned, after Will left for WA Tom spent a considerable portion of 1900 at Ivy Cliff Farm. In 1901 Mabel was at Schomburgk without her husband for periods which added up to over three months. TB, Selina and their children went back to their holding at Mount Mary in January 1901 but this was offset by the death of Mabel's father later that year and the subsequent move of her mother and unmarried sisters to Adelaide. Finally Tom bought a farm near his parents and in June 1902 he, Mabel and their daughters moved into its 'stone dwelling house'. It was not until October that Selina visited this farm where she received a 'cool reception'. Perhaps Selina and Mabel were never on intimate terms; yet relations appear to have been cordial, with a record in the journal of an interchange of visits. In May 1903 Mabel was ill but apparently the remainder of her fourth pregnancy was uneventful. She seems to have gone to Adelaide for the birth (of another daughter) in December. There is a suggestion that she suffered a mis carriage in February 1907, Selina recording that Mabel was 'laid up'. In 1908 she was again pregnant. She was 37 years of 38 age and in the first half of the pregnancy was ill and had to 'keep her bed' on several occasions. On 6 June 1909 Selina thankfully recorded the birth of a fifth daughter; eleven days later Mabel died suddenly. Tom Tom was 49 when his wife died. In 1908 , having sold his holding at Schomburgk for 700 and bought a farm adjoining his property near Kapunda forj^470 (16 February and 21 May 1908), he must have felt he had consolidated his position. Now, less than twelve months later, he had neither wife nor heir. The baby, named Mabel, was taken to Adelaide where her grandmother Day and her unmarried aunts took care of her. Emily assumed the task of housekeeper for Tom and the four oldest girls. Emily Emily's life changed direction twice in this period, once as a result of her father's death and again following the death of Mabel. In 1903 Emily had eight weeks' holiday - her first in two and a half years - which she spent at the farm except for a week in Adelaide with her mother. She was home for three weeks after her father's death in August 1905. In November 1906 she came home again and stayed, apparently helping her mother to run the farm. On 16 January 1909 she returned to Renmark where, according to documents in the Lands Titles Office, Adelaide she sold her three town allotments on 11 February. The journal for 9 March 1909 records 'Emily returned from Renmark to live sold her home'. She was then aged 52. While she and her mother seem to have enjoyed a close relationship, Emily would now have lost some of her independence. She no longer owned her own home and she no longer ran her own business. Her mother paid her about 7/6 per week (^20 per year) while she lived on the farm. It is not known how this compared with her income at Renmark. One can assume that Emily, a sociable woman to judge 39 from her letters of 20 years earlier, would have missed the change from boarding house life and the social events, however simple, of a country town. Only her mother and Grace were now living on the family farm. She had been living away for over 14 years (not including her years in domestic service) and must have felt something of a stranger when she drove in to Kapunda to go shopping, to attend church or, on rare occasions, an evening entertainment. By the end of 1909 Emily was making more adjustments to her life. She was living at Tom's farm, housekeeping for him and his daughters, and looking forward to a day home at Ivy Cliff Farm every second Sunday. Eva Eva was 33 in 1901. At the end of that year she came home on a holiday which lasted until the beginning of March 1902 and included a six weeks' visit to Gippsland. In February 1903 Susie's presence in Renmark enabled Eva to have a short break at the farm for two weeks. The never-ending round of housework and the long hot summers of Renmark may have been affecting her health. Her mother noted that 'she is thin' and two weeks after her return to work that she was 'very unwell stomach complaint' (28 February 1903). She then disappears from the journal until the end of June 1906 when she came down for a holiday of three months. Shortly after Eva's return to Renmark Emily went to live with her mother on the farm, leaving her - Eva - to manage the boarding house with Elsie's help. How did Eva feel about this new responsibility? Many of the letters of 1885-1887 give the impression that she was unsociable, and in letters dated 1910 her mother wrote that Eva disliked doing the weekly shopping and that she seldom left the farm (where she was then living). Again, while her mother referred to Emily as 'my dear old business woman' there is no indication of Eva's business skills. Eva's next holiday of four weeks in October 1908 coincided with Susie's first visit from WA since her marriage. When Eva returned to Renmark Susie accompanied 40 her to visit old friends. Early in 1909, as Elsie was about to leave the boarding house to marry, Emily sold her houses and land in Renmark. Eva moved to the farm to live with her mother, Grace and Emily. On the evidence available it appears that in this period important changes in the lives of both Eva and Emily were determined by what happened to others, and were not the result of decisions made by and for themselves alone. The course of their lives was shaped by their response to such events as the death of a father and of a sister-in-law, the bereavement of a mother, a brother and young nieces, and the marriage of a sister. Eva may have become accustomed to the comparative solitude of the farm more easily than Emily. But references in letters written in the years after 1909 indicate that she left behind a number of friends at Renmark. Her relation ship with her mother was not as close as was Emily's nor, it seems, did she always behave towards Grace with Emily's kindness. Elsie With Will's and Susie's departure for WA early in 1900, Elsie's position at the age of 22 was in some respects that of an only child. The household now consisted only of her parents, Elsie herself and Grace, who was 24 years her senior. This made for a lighter workload. There were no longer any children. Nor were there brothers - apart from Tom when he came to work on the farm - who required care and attention: sewing, mending, washing, ironing, cooking, baking ... A cream separator, purchased in August 1905, significantly reduced the time spent on dairy work. It ranked with the sewing machine, acquired thirty years earlier, as the most important piece of machinery used by the women on the farm. It eliminated the twice-daily task of pouring the milk into shallow pans and then of skimming the cream from the surface. Instead of churning the 'separator' cream could be sold to butter factories. Elsie had first gone to Renmark in 1900 when she stayed for three months, enabling Emily to take a holiday. Her 41 romance with Jim Hosking apparently ended early in the 1900s and she may have welcomed the opportunity to go to Renmark for a second period of three months - March-June 1903 - again relieving Emily. It was probably at this time that she met Joseph Buchan whose father had a fruit block at Renmark. She might have returned to Renmark earlier on the third occasion but for two events. In April 1904 she fell ill, perhaps with typhoid fever - she was in bed at home for nearly five weeks. The next year her father died and she remained on the farm until November 1906 when Emily came home to live with her mother. The journal is silent with regard to any correspondence between Elsie and Joe, as it is on visits to the farm by Joe. Elsie was Joe's senior by more than five and a half years and this may have been a contributing factor to their long courtship. At the time of their (presumed) first meeting Joe would have been less than 20 years of age. He may not have regarded himself as being in a financially satisfactory position to marry until 1909. Elsie did not leave Renmark - there is no record of her taking holidays - until January 1909 when Emily went back to arrange the sale of the boarding house. In March 1909 her mother gave her20, a large sum of money, as a wedding gift. Elsie and Joe were married at Stowe Congregational Church in Adelaide on 19 May. On 29 May, having spent three days at the farm, they left for Renmark where Joe had his own fruit block. Selina's first letter to them contained the news of Mabel's death. Grace Journal entries for Grace in the period 1901-1909 are few and tell the reader little. Thomas' bequest to her has already been mentioned. In 1900 she had spent three months at Schomburgk when Mabel's third daughter was born. In 1902 she was at Mount Mary for a comparable time when Selina Jane's last child was born. She stayed for a few days at Mount Mary in 1905 when Selina Jane's baby was dying, kept house for Tom while Mabel had a holiday in 1907 and again in 42 1908 , and returned later that year when Mabel was ill. There is no indication of what work she undertook when at home on the farm. A letter written by Selina to Ed, dated 14 October 1914, tells more about Grace's position and about relations between the two women. After Thomas' death Tom and his mother had discussed Grace's future. Selina had said that Grace could stay on at the farm 'under the same conditions as she did in her father's lifetime ...'. She received no wages but was given 'presents from time to time ... of money, shoes and clothing' as well as a share in the cattle raised on the farm. Selina obviously believed that Grace had done well from this arrangement. 'Her services', she wrote, 'are of a very inferior order, partly because of her sight and hearing'. Lily William and Susan Andrew, Lily's parents-in-law, died in this period, two and four years after her father died. Apart from these bereavements Lily seems to have led an uneventful life. Journal entries show that on a practical level her participation in the family group was concerned mainly with dressmaking. She went to Schomburgk for a week when Mabel's father died, and took care of Selina Jane when her fourth child was born in 1902. Lily's only child Olive was 21 in 1904. Olive lived at home and helped her mother with the farm work of pigs, poultry and cows. Some of Lily's energies in this period must have been directed towards frustrating Olive's romance. Family memories are that she disapproved of her daughter's suitor because he attended dances. (She was probably unaware that her own brothers had gone to dances as young men, Ed only when he was safely away in WA, but Will as already mentioned from the family home.) No doubt Lily believed she was following Methodist principles as the three 'Methodist churches in the 1880s forbade their members to attend dances ... and it was not until 1954 that [dancing was] permitted on Methodist property' (Hunt, 167). Whether she was justified in determining her daughter's future for 43 her, especially on such grounds, is another matter. The journal records only that on Christmas Day 1903 Lily, Olive and WH came to tea; and that on the next Christmas Day 'Olive and boy [came] down'. There are no further references to him. Selina Jane The homecoming of TB in December 1900 and the move to Mount Mary at the end of January 1901 meant important changes to Selina Jane's family. Apart from the re-forma tion of the family unit with the resulting internal shifts and accommodations, there were external changes which called for adjustments by each individual member. TB was exchanging life as a wage-earner in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie for that of a would-be wheat farmer on his own land with no assured income. While he may have missed the life and activities of the gold mining towns and the company of other men, one may assume that he regarded his time there as a period of exile. He was now back in his own home where his wife, besides providing companionship, also cooked his meals, washed and mended his clothes and kept the house in order. For Selina Jane the change was for the worse in many respects. The family home consisted of the two rooms which had been built before TB left for WA. TB' s and Selina Jane's bedroom served as a dining and living room by day. Selina Jane prepared and cooked food and washed clothes in an adjacent structure known as the 'shanty' which had a dirt floor, slab walls and a straw roof. Her living conditions at this period were inferior to, and her isolation greater than, any her mother had experienced in her 50 years in SA. The boys' schooling suffered in the transition from the Kapunda school to the small one-teacher school to which they had to walk four miles. Steve who had gained good results at Kapunda left school, it is believed, in 1901 at the age of eleven. It was a bad time to return to the low rainfall, mallee country; 1901 and 1902 were years of severe dought and living seems to have been at little more than subsistence 44 level. In any case TB did not have enough land cleared to put in a crop. Steve helped cut and cart wood to the railway siding four miles distant, and helped cart water from the siding to their home. One result of TB' s five-year absence was a break from childbearing for Selina Jane. In March 1902 at the age of 41 she gave birth to her fourth and last child, another son. Denzil was born at home, Selina Jane being attended by a local widow, a German woman who acted as a midwife for the scattered families in the district. At the age of 19 months Denzil was hurt in a fall from a dray. Over the next 15 months much of Selina Jane's time was spent in nursing him and making long trips from Mount Mary to take him to various doctors. Denzil died at his grandparents' farm in January 1905. Selina Jane's work was lessened during Denzil's illness by Irvine's absence from home. He boarded with his grand parents in 1904 and attended the Model School at Kapunda again, completing his schooling just after his thirteenth birthday. He then returned to Mount Mary to work on the farm, with a break of about 18 months in 1907-08 when he worked for a blacksmith at Eudunda. Lindsay left the small school at Mount Mary (which provided instruction only to the fifth class) in 1906 or 1907 - he turned twelve at the end of 1906. By 1908 some land had been cleared and satisfactory harvests reaped. With their three sons growing up TB and Selina Jane wished to acquire more land. Initial attempts to obtain it in areas of higher rainfall were unsuccessful, but in 1908 TB borrowed<§^20 from his mother-in-law to place a deposit on about 900 acres which were adjacent to his own farm. The need for a larger house became even more pressing when TB' s father joined the family for extended periods. But Selina Jane's experience, in common with that of many other country women, was that additions and improvements to the house, her workplace, came only after the farm - land, stock and implements - had been built up to give the male members of the household a higher return for their labour. 45 Susie Arriving in WA in March 1900, Susie boarded with Ed and Mary at Northam for eleven months. She and Mary formed a close friendship: they regarded themselves as sisters for the rest of their lives. Mary taught Susie her own trade of millinery. In February 1901 when Susie moved to York she obtained work at a local store as a milliner and saleswoman at ^2 per week. The increase of 15/ per week in her wage would have been largely offset by the board (jfl per week) she paid, first at the Railway Hotel, then at the home of Mrs Gallop, a local storekeeper. This was reduced to 18/ a week in June 1901 when she shared 'the room and bed' with a friend from SA, Mattie Kuhlmann who was employed as a 'salaried dressmaker' at<£ 3 per week. In December 1902 Susie returned to Kapunda after an absence of ' 2 years 9 month' as her mother noted in her journal. After Christmas she visited her sisters and friends at Renmark. This visit could hardly have been a holiday. Renmark in summer is hot and dry. Susie spent four of her eight weeks there working for a local store keeper and another two weeks at the boarding house to enable Eva to go home for a break. When Susie returned to the farm Elsie went to Renmark to relieve Emily. Susie took over Elsie's work with cows and poultry and was also in charge of the household for a time when her mother fell ill with bronchitis. Emily had eight weeks' holiday which included one week away from the farm. Susie paid a 'short visit' (she was away for three nights) to the Kuhlmann family at Freeling, her only time away from the farm until she left on 11 June to return to WA. It is not known why Susie did not go back to York; instead she worked at Northam. Her pay at Bon Marche store which she paid 15/ in board. In September she moved to the West End Store where she received §fl/15/- per week. Later that month she wrote to tell her parents of her engagement to Harold Mercer, a baker at York, whom she had met through their mutual attendance at the Methodist church 46 and participation in the church choir. Presumably in order to build up her savings before she married, Susie then went to the remote mining town of Day Dawn to work at the drapery, grocery and all-purpose store of A.T.Threadgold. Her pay as milliner, saleswoman, manageress and bookkeeper wasjf3/10/- per week, her board being <^1/10/0. Leaving Day Dawn in mid-November 1904 after a stay of eleven months, Susie went back to Northam to Ed and Mary's home. She was married from there to Harold Mercer on 18 January 1905 . She was 351 years of age and Harold was 27. At York Susie assisted Harold with the running of the bakery and both continued to participate in church activities. In April 1907 her daughter Miriam was born. Miriam was the first of Selina's grandchildren to be born in a hospital and not a private home. In October 1908 Susie brought her daughter to Ivy Cliff Farm and from there visited her family and friends at Renmark, Mount Mary and Freeling. Ed Selina's journal for 1901-1909 records a regular correspondence with Ed but provides little information on his activities. Ed's own diary dates from 1892 to 1907 . While entries after 1901 are brief and usually written up after the events, the diary rounds out the account of his life for this period. Early in 1902 the family moved into their own home in Northam. In July 1905 his wages were increased to 15/ per day. Apparently he was then classified as a locomotive engine driver, first class. During this period Ed was active in union affairs, being president of the local branch. He represented the branch at the annual conference in Perth in February 1902 and he joined the labour federa tion when a branch was formed in Northam in January 1904 . In this nine-year period Mary gave birth to five more children only two of whom survived. Jessie Peace and Edna Edith died of 'summer diarrhoea' in 1902 and 1907 respectively, each aged four months. A baby girl was still born in June 1905. - 47 Both Ed and Mary retained family ties through corres pondence, photographs and occasional visits. Ed went to SA for five weeks after the death of his father in 1905. Mary's second visit to her home state of Victoria was made in February 1907, shortly after the death of the baby Edna. She travelled to Melbourne by boat with her three children. She broke the return journey at Adelaide and spent two weeks at Ivy Cliff Farm. This was her first meeting with her mother-in-law and most of her husband's family. Ed's job as an engine driver necessitated his working irregular shifts which would often have kept him away from home overnight. He would also have earned overtime pay. As early as 1898 he had bought three blocks of land at the town of Midland Junction. According to his diary his income in 1908 wasJ?250; in addition he owned five lots of land, including that on which he lived at Northam, totalling an area of 1* acres. Ed's permanent job, his income and his and Mary's thrifty habits were important factors in raising the family's living standard above that achieved by most of the other members of his family. The interstate visits have already been mentioned. In January 1904 the family rented a furnished house at Albany. Ed spent two weeks' holiday there and then returned to work, leaving Mary and the children to spend another two weeks away from the heat of Northam. A 'ventilator and water service' was installed at the house in February 1904 and electric light in July 1906. Ed appears to have been the first in his generation to own a piano, in contrast to Lily's harmonium. In July 1900 he noted in his diary that the piano had been tuned and that parts had been damaged by mice and insects. His daughter Ella began music lessons in 1905 at the age of eight. Will No personal account of Will's life has survived. The entries in Selina's journal show that he wrote home about once a month in this period. He corresponded more frequently than Ed who, in addition to shift work, had a 48 wife and family and union activities to claim his time. Will had joined the police force in Perth on 1 November 1900 . After six months in Fremantle he was stationed at Kalgoorlie in August 1901 and remained there until 1914. In August 1905 Selina noted that his wages were ^13/11/8 per month; this was increased in February 1908 by 1/6 per day. On 17 July 1904 Selina 'heard of Willie's engagement'. That is the full extent of the journal entry. A farmer's daughter from Victoria, his fiancee was a teacher at Kalgoorlie. Her name was Annie Bernardette Minogue and she was a Roman Catholic. This latter fact may explain the brevity of the journal entry although, as observed earlier, Selina gave the barest details - or none at all - of her children's courtships and weddings. She felt freer to express her feelings when Will was admitted to Kalgoorlie Hospital in March 1905 with typhoid fever. He was a patient there for over eight weeks and then came back to SA for a month's convalescence, spending some time at the farm, at Mount Mary and at Renmark. This was a few weeks before his father's death. In September he married Annie in the Methodist church at Kalgoorlie. Will was 32, six years older than Annie. Two years later Annie died suddenly - of heart disease, according to the death certificate. It is believed she was pregnant. An item in the local paper reported that 'the Roman Catholic service for the burial of the dead was recited at the graveside'. (Western Argus 10 September 1907, 16d.) - 49 JOURNAL 1910-1921 Aged 75 in January 1910 Selina died on 16 August 1921, a few weeks short of her 87th birthday. There are many references in this final part of the journal to her failing health. On occasion gaps of days, sometimes of weeks occur when she was too ill to make her usual entries. From 1918 onwards the overall length for each year decreases markedly. A collection of letters written between 1910 and 1921 provides additional information on some of the persons and incidents mentioned in the journal. These letters have been designated SI to S40. As in earlier years the main purpose of the journal was the daily recording of farm and domestic happenings. From 1912 this uneventful life was disrupted by Tom's changing relationship with his mother and sisters; and from 1914 to 1919 by the Great War. Selina In May 1910 Selina made her second visit to Renmark where Elsie was awaiting the birth of her first child. Doubtless Mabel's death following childbirth the previous year had made Selina anxious and apprehensive about her youngest daughter's confinement. The birth was apparently uneventful but Selina fell ill with one of her recurring attacks of bronchitis which this time developed into pneumonia. Somehow she survived the journey back to Ivy Cliff Farm where, nursed by her daughters over a period of six weeks, she slowly recovered. This illness marked a turning point for Selina. Although she did not regard herself as an invalid, she seems never to have regained her former health. The attacks of bronchitis returned at least once a year and the journal refers to other ailments which appear to have been largely of nervous origin. She felt well enough to visit Selina Jane and TB at Mount Mary in 1912 where she admired the additions to the house and slept in one of the new rooms. But on her return from a second visit in May-June 1914 she was 'confined to bed and [bed]room with bronchitis' for some weeks. 50 After that she left the farm only to visit Lily or Tom or to go to Kapunda. The latter trip was no longer a regular occurrence. Her daughters usually undertook the weekly shopping expedition. Ill health, bad weather or a combination of the two often prevented her from attending church, sometimes for a period of weeks together. Although she was no longer robust Selina still found work to do. Letters to Susie indicate that she had a long- established and cherished flower garden. From 1913 onwards there are journal references to her sowing vegetable seeds and plants. During the war years every spare minute must have been taken up with knitting socks. Indeed a grandson recalled her as wearing a belt around her waist to which was attached a pad into which the needles were thrust so that the incompleted socks accompanied her as she moved about the house. Following the appointment of Rev. W.H.Cann in 1911 the Central Methodist Mission had become 'one of the major centres of relief in the city of Adelaide' (Hunt, 252). Selina found another outlet for her skills and energy - and a practical demonstration of her beliefs - in making clothes and quilts for the Mission. Letter writing had been an integral part of family life from the time the first children left home. At times Selina may have found it somewhat onerous when news was scarce but on balance she seems to have enjoyed writing letters. Certainly she looked forward to receiving mail from her sons and daughters and from other correspondents in the wider circle of relationships. It was at this stage of Selina's life, when she found herself confined to the farm sometimes for weeks at a time and when her interests were turning even more than previously to family happenings, that the rift with Tom developed. The underlying motives and emotions can now be only a matter of speculation but the actual sequence of events can be reconstructed from the journal and letters. After Mabel's death Emily went to housekeep at the Almonds, Tom's farm. The baby was cared for in Adelaide by Mrs Day (Mabel's mother) and her unmarried daughters. In 51 addition the older girls boarded with their Day relatives daring their final year at school. At the end of 1910 Elsie (known as Essie) came home to help her aunt Emily, and Millie went to Adelaide. In December 1911 Emily returned to Ivy Cliff Farm and Grace took her place. Some time in 1912 when only Emily and Eva were living at home with her, their mother apparently proposed that they take over the management of the farm and receive any income from it. This must have seemed logical and fair to Selina: her own health was indifferent; Emily and Eva had both acquired some business knowledge from managing the boarding house at Renmark; and they were already attending to the livestock and other tasks (apart from what was carried out on a casual basis by neighbouring farmers). As Selina was not well enough to live alone at the farm - or elsewhere - she doubtless regarded the income from the farm as payment to which her daughters were entitled. Tom who was a trustee of his father's will would not agree to his mother's proposal. He claimed that his mother did not have 'the power of disposal' and that if she wished to give up 'the responsibility' of the estate then the trustees and no one else must assume it. Part of the farm was still leased to Sidney Kidman at an annual rental of<^55 (reduced to <5^52 in 1914). The quarterly cheques were sent to Tom and from December 1912 he began to withhold them, paying items such as rates and taxes before handing the balance to his mother. It was not until March 1914 that Selina noted in her journal that Tom had given her Kidman's cheque, having withheld earlier cheques over a period of 18 months 'to repair fence'. At the end of 1914 Selina believed that future cheques would be posted directly to her or to Emily, but it is clear from journal entries that even after Tom moved to Murray Bridge in 1920 they were still sent to him. In 1914 family unity was further strained by another difference between Selina and Tom. This time Grace was at the centre of the dispute. Tom wrote to his mother that, in his opinion, '^62.8.0 of the Surplus Trust funds that have accumulated off the estate or 4/ per week for the first 6 52 years after Father's death' should be paid to Grace as wages. According to Selina she and Tom had discussed the matter of wages for Grace after Thomas senior's death. At that time she had told Tom that Grace could continue to live at Ivy Cliff Farm 'under the same conditions as she did in her father's lifetime'. She had also told Tom that she did not intend to pay Grace any stated wage (which implies that she had not paid her a wage previously) but that she would give her 'presents from time to time'. The financial aspect was resolved when Grace received the old age pension, but surviving letters reveal the depth of emotions stirred up by this 'demand' of Tom's. Selina must have felt that the family, the main source of her emotional support and strength, was in danger of being torn apart. Not that anyone appeared likely to take Tom's side in either dispute. Selina dreaded a quarrel within the family - perhaps recalling the circumstances under which Will had left home - and at first told only Susie of Tom's withholding the rent from her. (On the other hand, Tom's demand on Grace's behalf was soon known to everyone except, possibly, Will.) There seems little doubt that many of Selina's complaints which made her feel so 'poorly' - the heat spots, the pain in the side, the 'bad appetite' - were caused or made worse by worry and anxiety. Tom's withholding the rent cheques and then suggesting that his mother owed Grace money came at a time when the farm finances were strained because of drought. From the beginning of 1912 until June there are many journal entries referring to the lack of rain, the bare paddocks and calves having to be killed because of the scarcity of feed. The situation was even worse through the winter of 1913 and Selina regularly recorded prayers for rain as she noted the barrenness of the land and the plight of her cattle. By 1914 the drought was Australia-wide. Then in August came news of the outbreak of war between Engand and Germany. On an emotional level Selina could deal with this situation more adequately than with the problems within her own family. For her the issue seems to have been clearcut. Although she had left England sixty years earlier she 53 identified immediately with the country of her birth. Her first prayer entered in the journal on the day war was declared - August 4 - 'May God save England from all her bitter enemies, and defend the right' showed her certainty that God was on England's side because England was in the right. She never lost that certainty. To be able to deal with a situation in such a definite way must have been a great relief to her after the problem of trying to reconcile Tom's behaviour to her with what she believed was owed to, as Susie wrote, 'an aged and honourable mother'. There were also practical things to be done, ways in which women could help in the war effort. It must have been important to Selina that these opportunities - duties as she doubtless saw them - presented themselves at a time when Tom was taking away from her the handling of some of the business affairs of the farm, and when her poor health prevented her from taking part in many former activities. The journal entries show that Selina herself made donations amounting to^?26 to various organizations and fund raising activities, including the Red Cross, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, the Belgian Relief Fund, the Cheer-Up Society and the annual Australia Day appeal (held in July). She subscribed to a.J=50 War Loan Certificate and she donated goods, on one occasion a large ham, to a number of fund-raising functions in Kapunda. But her largest contribution came from her knitting. She began modestly with a knitted belt, then moved on to mittens and from there to socks. Over the years she recorded completing three knitted belts, seven pairs of mittens and 131 pairs of socks. The war took on a more personal meaning when her grand son Irvine enlisted in March 1916 and her son-in-law Joe Buchan later that year. Ed's oldest son enlisted in WA a few days after his 18th birthday. Their names were added to her list of correspondents; letter writing to them, to her absent sons and daughters, to her sole surviving brother-in- law 'uncle Ned', to a niece overseas and to other relatives and friends occupied a good deal of time in her later years. Meanwhile the estrangement between certain members of the family continued. Although Grace again lived at Ivy 54 Cliff Farm from May 1914, Selina seldom mentioned her in (surviving) letters or in the journal once she began to receive the pension. The tension between Selina and her step-daughter - perhaps it was mostly on Selina's side - may have been no worse than it was in earlier years. As for Tom, Selina wrote to Susie (letter S31 dated 1 February 1915) that she forgave him 'from the bottom of [her] heart'. At that time she was expecting that hence forth she would receive the rent cheques directly from Kidman. A year later she made her will. While her forgiveness may have endured, her hurt at Tom's continuing coldness and high-handed attitude is expressed in this document. Not that she excluded him as her husband had done to Will. She expressed her feelings about Tom and to Tom more subtly. She directed that the cattle and poultry, the convey ances - the buggy, trap and dray - and 'anything [else] that would realize money be sold and added to the money in the Savings Bank' in her name. After deducting a certain sum for Grace, the balance was to be equally divided between her ten children, i.e. including Grace. The major part of the will is concerned with the allocation of her personal possessions - 'broaches', rings, pictures, books, furniture, household items - which were used, enjoyed or worn by her. In handing them on to her daughters and sons she was giving them not only the articles named, but the associations that linked her - Selina - to the bequest. Most of the brooches and rings had been gifts from the individuals to whom she was now returning them as keepsakes. There was a symbolism in Selina's returning the gifts that her children had offered her. Selina did not make Grace the recipient of a personal bequest. But she carried out the intention she had expressed in a letter - S26 dated 14 October 1914 - of leaving her the sum of<^40. The rebuke to Tom lay in the wording of the will. She began, 'I give unto my daughter Emily ...' and continued naming her children in order of their birth except for Tom. After the youngest, Elsie, she went on to her step-daughter 55 Grace, to her granddaughter Olive and lastly to her son, Thomas. Further, she specified the items left to everyone except Tom. To him she left 'the books he gave me also the books that he left in my care'. After 1915 Selina did not mention in her letters to Susie and Ed that Tom was still receiving and withholding rent cheques - or perhaps the references were contained in those letters that have not survived. That the matter still rankled is evident from a journal entry in April 1917 when she noted amounts taken from the rent before she received it - 'and all this done without my sanction'. As Selina had feared, the disagreement with Tom affected personal and social relationships within the family. According to journal entries 1913 was the last year that Tom and his daughters spent Christmas at Ivy Cliff Farm. In contrast to Lily who visited her mother every week, Tom and his family came less and less often. Even allowing for the somewhat fragmentary nature of the journal in its final years, it is apparent that visits, whether of a family nature or on farm work, had almost ceased. (Essie and Lucy, who became a nurse and a teacher respectively, would have been away from home for most of the year.) Meanwhile the war ended. Irvine, whose injuries resulted in the loss of his left arm, returned to Australia in December 1918; Joe and Ross in 1919. In February 1920 Tom moved to Murray Bridge. There is no record of him returning to Kapunda to visit his mother and one gains the impression from the journal that he wrote only when there was a cheque to be forwarded. Apart from Grace and Tom, Selina seems to have enjoyed a close relationship with her children. When Elsie came to live in Kapunda during the war Selina had all her daughters, except Selina Jane and Susie, living with her or nearby. Her letters to Susie reveal an intimate relationship, and her references in those letters to Selina Jane show affection and love. There was a regular exchange of letters with Ed and Will. Visits from her three children in WA were major events in her later life. In 1910, some months after her first 56 long illness, Will was home for just over a week. In February 1911 Susie came with Miriam (then nearly four years old) for a stay of six weeks. Will returned in May 1911; he had married again and Pearl and he spent a week of their honeymoon at Ivy Cliff Farm. And finally Selina's 'dear Ed' came home for a week in August. In 1913 Will and Pearl made the farm their headquarters for five weeks while they visited members of the wider Dunstan family. That was their last visit to SA in Selina's lifetime. Susie came for over six weeks in March and April 1918. Selina met Susie's husband Harold for the first time when he paid a brief visit in August. Ed saw his mother for the last time when he travelled to SA by train in 1919, and Susie returned with Miriam towards the end of 1920. Selina took a great interest in her grandchildren. When the youngest, Eileen was born in 1916 the oldest, Olive was 33 years old. Her knowledge of the WA grandchildren was limited in the main to reports from parents, photographs, a few letters written by the children themselves and a record on which Ed captured the sounds of a violin and the voices of his three oldest children. Her oldest grandson, Steve was married in 1918; Ella wrote from WA announcing her engagement in 1920. This last section of the journal and the letters which Selina wrote in this period show how important her religious beliefs were to her. It was a source of genuine regret when ill-health, bad weather, distance from the town or a combination of these factors kept her from attending church. She looked forward to the sermon and prayers, she enjoyed the music and hymns and being part of a congregation in which were many of her friends and acquaintances. But her connections with the Kapunda church and with Methodism went beyond church attendance. Quarterly journal entries recording a payment of 10/ church collection appear in the later years, perhaps for Sundays when she was unable to attend services. She paid seat (pew) rent annually and made annual donations to the home mission fund. As she grew older she was not always able to attend the special services and social gatherings held for events such as harvest 57 thanksgiving, Easter, the church anniversary and Christmas, but she made donations of money and produce. She enjoyed reading and for many years paid a subscription to the Sunday School library. Her faith seems to have been uncomplicated and untroubled by doubts. Religion was very much a part of her life and prayer played a large part in her religion. While her journal shows that her prayers often took the form of requests, especially for rain, there were many occasions for thanksgiving, for example in the continuing health of her family, on the occasion of her birthday and at Christmas. Her personal relationship with her God seems to have been based on love and trust. Methodism enjoined certain moral and civic obligations on its adherents. Selina supported six o'clock closing and presumably prohibition. It is likely that her Methodist background was a contributing factor in her decision to vote for conscription in the 1914-1918 War (Hunt, 287-9). Methodist women as well as men were expected to exercise their civic duty by voting (Hunt, 184) and Selina took this obligation - and right - seriously. At a time when voting was not compulsory she seldom failed to attend the polling booth. In April 1918, aged 83, she went to Kapunda to cast her vote in a State election. The local correspondent reported to the Register that it was the smallest poll on record for the town. Selina responded to appeals from Adelaide's Methodist Central Mission for assistance to the poor by making clothes and quilts and giving donations of money. Selina's last journal entry was dated 12 July 1921. Then follows a gap in the documentation until Eva's letter, S40 of 19 August, with an account of her mother's death and burial. The 'old complaint' had returned for the last time. Tom The first part of the period under review - 1910-1921 - was a time of adjustment for Tom. His wife had died in June 1909. His mother's letters of 1910-1911 indicate that they were years of great unhappiness for him, of personal lone- 58 liness and of anxiety over the health of his daughters. As a child and young man Tom had occupied a special position in the family. Born after Grace and Emily and followed by Lily and Selina Jane and later by Eva and Susie, he had been the only surviving son until the age of eleven when Ed was born. There were stories that he had dominated, or tried to dominate, his sisters. It was also said that the reason why Thomas senior had wanted money left to his wife was to enable Tom to acquire more land. Although Tom married late he seems never to have had to batch when he was living at Schomburgk. First Eva, then Grace with occasional help from Elsie acted as his housekeeper. After his marriage Grace was always available to keep house when Mabel was away because of childbirth or on a holiday. Selina's choice of words was appropriate when she noted on 15 April 1908 'Grace gone to mind Tom, while Mab on holiday'. If Mabel herself needed extra help in the home she presumably turned to her own unmarried sisters. Tom undoubtedly worked long strenuous hours on his own farm and on his father's. But there is never a suggestion that he ever lacked physical comfort and attention in his home. Until Mabel's death Tom had never had to face the prospect - as TB, for example, had when he left for WA in 1895 - of looking after himself, let alone anyone else. Tom was 50 in 1910. He seems never really to have recovered from Mabel's death. In 1911 after an attack of influenza he had what might have been described at the time as 'a nervous breakdown'. On his return from an enforced holiday Selina observed that he seemed better 'but looks unlike he used to look'. His anxiety over his daughters amounted almost to panic when they fell ill with the usual childhood ailments. His fears may well have been a legacy of Mabel's death, but they may also have been due to his previous inexperience with sickness. His mother who was justifiably apprehensive about the dangers to women of childbirth, retained her calm commonsense approach, based on years of experience, to her granddaughters' coughs and colds, measles and mumps. Because Tom himself had never done 'women's work' he 59 had little appreciation of the time, physical effort and emotional involvement required to keep his household running smoothly. His statement in his letter to Susie - S19 dated 24 September 1912 - regarding Emily's housekeeping that he had 'paid her in full for all she [has] done for me and mine, and [I] am not under any obligation to her' shows his insensitivity in this matter. Selina saw the matter differently when she wrote - S2 dated 27 July 1910 - that 'no stranger would take the care and interest in him and the children and the house that Emily does'. Other women helped as well. Grace later replaced Emily as housekeeper. Tom's mother- and sisters-in-law undertook the major role of bringing up the baby. They bought dresses and hats for the older children. Each girl stayed at their home in Adelaide for at least one final year of schooling. Lucy presumably boarded there while she attended the Teachers' Training College. Lily helped out on at least one occasion, nursing the girls when they had measles. Selina assisted with sewing and mending. Even Tom's holiday was made possible largely through additional work undertaken by his female cousins. As was customary at that time he spent his holiday with relatives so the women in the families visited prepared meals, made up a bed and washed bed linen and towels on his departure while Tom enjoyed 'male society and farm talk'. The work flowed on to Tom's daughters at too early an age. When Essie was not yet 17 Tom wrote that she often complained of feeling tired. A year later - S25 dated 1 September 1914 - Selina wrote of Essie and Millie (aged 16) having six cows to milk in addition to household tasks. As mentioned earlier Tom strongly opposed the suggestion that Emily and Eva should assume the management of Ivy Cliff Farm. The reason he gave was that such an arrangement would go against the conditions of his father's will. (Legal advice, mentioned in Eva's letter - S29 dated 6 December 1914 did not support Tom's view.) Selina probably touched on a more basic reason, one of which Tom himself may not have been aware. In letter S21 dated 31 March 1913 she wrote, 'Tom never held back the rent till 60 after the girls spoke of taking the place, and it seems to me he is afraid that they will get too much' . The boy who had held a favoured position in the family was not, as an adult, going to hand over power to his sisters. Tom’s demand to his mother concerning wages for Grace caused another rift between him and the rest of the family. From 1917 there are few journal references to Tom apart from those concerning the rent cheques. It appears that he no longer went to the farm to do odd jobs. Indeed much of the business involving him as a trustee was carried on by letter. He apparently stopped making social calls and is rarely mentioned in Selina's surviving letters from 1916 onwards. Eva's letter S34 dated 22 December 1918 describing Irvine's homecoming does not mention Tom. In February 1920 Tom moved to near Murray Bridge. He was then nearly sixty but like most farmers of that time he had no intention of retiring. It is not known why he left Kapunda - it is believed that at Murray Bridge he had a dairy farm. By 1920 Essie was aged 23 and Lucy was 19. They realised the ambitions which had been denied their aunts Susie and Elsie of becoming a nurse and a teacher. One may speculate as to why these two young women were able to pursue a career. Their father was not an advocate of independence for women. It seems likely that the reasons were negative rather than positive. Tom had too many daughters to keep them or need them all at home. He had no sons who needed housekeepers until they married. The presence of maternal aunts willing to provide a home in the city and possibly financial assistance while Essie and Lucy received their training doubtless helped them to escape from the farm. However they themselves must have shown initiative and determination. Millie (aged 21 in 1920) who had incurred Selina's criticism when she left school letter S20 dated 1 October 1912 - because she did 'not like work of any kind' and wanted 'to be a lady' became her father's housekeeper until she married in the early 1940s. 61 Grace In this last section as in earlier periods of the journal Grace is seldom mentioned. However she is the subject of comment in letters written by Selina, Tom and Eva. Her name appears because she was at the centre of a family dispute, and the remarks made about her need to be read in that context. In December 1911 Grace replaced Emily as housekeeper for Tom and his family. Essie had returned from her final year's schooling in Adelaide in December 1910 and had worked at home with Emily while Millie in turn went to Adelaide. Essie was still not quite fifteen when Grace took Emily's place. Millie came home in April 1912 soon after her fourteenth birthday. Grace stayed at Tom's place until the end of April 1914 when she returned to live at Ivy Cliff Farm. The dispute which involved Grace was of Tom's making. In August 1914 he wrote to his mother - letter S24 dated 30 August 1914 - 'about the injustice [she had] done Grace in not paying her a fair and just allowance for what she [had] done on the place since Father's death'. He suggested that Selina should now pay Gracej?62 as wages for the six years 1906-1911. Tom admitted that Grace had not complained about not receiving payment, but that he had questioned her on the matter (apparently after finding out how much his mother was paying Emily and Eva). Selina, upset over the tone as well as the content of the letter, wrote to Ed asking for his and Susie's opinion and advice - and sympathy. The content of Selina's letter has already been discussed. Why did Tom make such unsolicited demands on behalf of Grace? And why did Selina react as she did? Tom's reference to his mother's payments to Emily and Eva bear out Selina's earlier observation that he was afraid 'they would get too much'. It is possible that Tom's and Grace's relationship within the family had always been good. In the years before his marriage Tom presumably found Grace's housekeeping quite satisfactory; and Grace may have been glad to be away from her stepmother's critical eye. 62 She may not have objected to Tom's overbearing manner - in the years at Schomburgk she was in charge of a household and came closest to being her own mistress. There are indications, too, of financial arrangements between Tom and Grace. Shortly before Tom married Selina noted - on 4 May 1895 - the receipt of a letter from Grace 're land and marriage'. The contents of this letter are not known. As late as 1935 Emily noted in her journal that Tom had sent Grace jf 8.0.6 interest - at 3i % interest the capital would have been about<^230 . Selina's comments on her stepdaughter in her letter to Ed - letter S26 dated 14 October 1914 - are harsh and seem out of character. Her reasons ostensibly related to Grace's 'services' being of 'a very inferior order' . One reason for Selina's dismay at the prospect of paying over60 to Grace was that the farm income was almost non-existent because of the continuing drought. Unfortunately Susie, who with Ed was attempting to find a solution to the dispute, misunder stood her mother's letter and wrote to Grace that Selina could no longer afford to keep her at the farm. Grace asked Selina Jane and then Elsie if she could board with them but neither was willing to take her. The matter was resolved, at least to outward appear ances, when Grace began to receive the old age pension towards the end of 1914. When Susie visited her mother for the last time in 1920 she took Grace to Adelaide to consult a specialist about her failing sight. In November an operation was performed on one eye - probably to remove a cataract. Three months later Selina wrote to Susie that the operation had been a failure and that Grace had no sight at all in the eye which had been treated. Her eyes had been neglected for too long. Grace was never destitute in the sense of being penni less but on the evidence available her position in the family was at times precarious. Several factors made it so. 'The family' was of vital importance as a social, economic and welfare unit. It acted or was expected to act as a safety net for its members who fell ill, were out of work, suffered misfortune, were widowed or orphaned or lived 63 long enough to be finally unable to look after themselves. If 'the family' was to keep its vitality it needed to renew itself - that is, the members of each family, or most of the members, must marry and in turn produce their own families. Marriage was seen as the chief aim and purpose of a woman's life - but Grace had remained single. Except for daughters of wealthy families single women had to earn a living, either by helping at home and finally caring for aged parents or by working for wages or salary. As has been shown Grace's opportunities to earn a wage had decreased as the years passed: she lacked education and training, Tom's marriage had ended her position as housekeeper, while her physical disabilities and finally her age removed the possibility of her working outside the family. As for working within the family unit, Selina had pointed out that the drought had rendered the farm unprod uctive for all its residents. Grace was not needed to fill the role of the single daughter caring for one or two aged parents. Strictly speaking Grace had no aged parent while Selina in her old age had two unmarried daughters of her own. It was therefore fortunate for Grace who had turned sixty in October 1913 that she was able to benefit from an early piece of Commonwealth social security legislation: the Invalid and Old-Age Pensions Act which from December 1910 granted certain women the pension at the age of sixty. The old-age pension was set at September 1914 Selina expressed the hope that 'the govern ment will do something to help [the poor settlers] to keep on the land for theirs are deserving cases'. Her terse remarks about Grace indicate that she did not regard her as in that category. Selina carried out her intention, mentioned to Ed in letter S26 dated 14 October 1914, of leaving^>40 to Grace in i her will. The interest on that amount at 3*% from November 1914 was also included, bringing the total to ?3?49.9.0. Along with Selina's daughters and sons Grace received the sum of #37.11.5, being a tenth of the residue of Selina's estate. The bulk of the furniture was left in three equal parts to Grace, Emily and Eva. Emily By January 1910 Emily had been housekeeping for Tom for six months. She continued for another two years until in December 1911 she returned to live at Ivy Cliff Farm. This was a difficult time for Emily. Selina remarked in letters to Susie that Emily was finding the work heavy, that she was tired, that she needed a holiday. At 54 (in August 1910) Emily was no longer a young woman. She had not looked after children since 1891, before she opened her boarding house. At the boarding house she and Eva had worked out a division of daily duties with Emily doing the cooking and Eva the housework. For the first eighteen months at the Almonds Emily had to do most of the work alone. The only adult company was Tom who was in a state of despondency and depression. Surviving letters enable a comparison to be drawn between Tom's holiday (already referred to) and Emily's. In August 1910 Selina wrote that Emily needed a holiday but could not find anyone to take her place at Tom's. In September she wrote that Emily would take her holiday when Essie came home from school in December. Emily was disappointed again as Essie fell ill and apparently did not return from Adelaide until February 1911. By June Selina was writing that Tom 'wants a change badly' so Emily's holiday was postponed while Tom took his. Then Essie who 65 'had not been well for some time' was away for a month. It was not until early September that Eva relieved Emily who, after spending three weeks at home, went to Renmark for seven weeks. Emily and Eva could not be away from Ivy Cliff Farm at the same time because one or the other was needed to attend to the cows. So Emily was still rising early during the three weeks at home. When Eva returned from the Almonds Emily went to Renmark. Like Tom Emily spent her holiday with relatives and perhaps friends. But while Tom was driven about and enter tained Emily presumably had more of a working holiday. Her sister Elsie had only one child but, according to Selina's letters, she was always busy. On her return from Renmark Emily broke the journey to stay with Selina Jane at Mount Mary. Here too, with five men to cook for and cows to milk, she would not have been idle. Emily went back to Tom's but in the following month - December 1911 - she returned to live at Ivy Cliff Farm. A lack of sources makes it difficult to piece together the details of her life from 1912 to 1921. Doubtless after her years at the boarding house she did most of the cooking for the household of four at the farm. Selina referred to her in letter S30 dated 31 December 1914 as her 'dear old business woman' indicating that, despite Tom's edict, Emily did in fact attend to much of the farm management. Selina required more waiting on and at times nursing as she became frailer and her health declined. The drought years meant extra work for both Emily and Eva. Fodder had to be sought out, paid for, transported home and then fed to the horse and cattle. At times water had to be carted for all purposes except drinking and cooking. Eva's description of how she and Emily carted 'a few loads' of water from the horse tank - letter S34 dated 22 December 1918 - indicates how time-consuming the task was, partly because of the inadequacy of their equipment. 'We put the big green barrel and two 5-gallon cream cans in the buggy and brought in a good supply ...'. There are few references to Emily attending church social functions which she had formerly enjoyed. In 1913 66 she stayed overnight in Kapunda with a family friend to hear Rev. Henry Howard, President of Conference, preach. Entries in the last three or four years of the journal show that Emily was rarely away from the farm on holiday for more than a week at a time. The work fell increasingly to her and Eva. A sentence from Eva's letter - S34 dated 22 December 1918 - that Emily hoped to spend a weekend at Kapunda if their mother kept well, indicates how difficult it was for either to leave the farm. But it should not be assumed that Emily's life was nothing but a monotonous round of work. She enjoyed reading and a subscription was paid for many years to the Sunday School library. Some newspapers were bought, although they were probably not available at the farm every day. In April 1912, soon after returning home to live, she bought a gramophone and throughout that year bought a number of records. Scattered references over the years in the journal and in letters show Selina's affection for her 'dear Emily', her eldest child. She made her an executrix of her will and left her, in addition to a third share of the furniture and a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'my Cameo Broach and the picture "In Sight at Last"'. Eva Eva was at Ivy Cliff Farm when her mother returned from Renmark in May 1910 'in an apparently dying condition'. She continued living at the farm for the next eleven years. The surviving sources give only a few glimpses of her life during that time. Housework must have been her chief occupation and housework as such - sweeping and washing floors, dusting and polishing furniture, making beds - is not mentioned in the journal or letters. There are references to Eva washing the clothes. A house of only three, later four, women did not produce piles of dirty laundry such as had struck terror into her backbone in 1887. But washing clothes was still a heavy tiring task. The journal had recorded the purchase of a new wringer in August 1908 but never of a washing machine. The washhouse 67 was a place of potential danger with a wood fire under the copper, boiling water and a floor made slippery if a bar of wet soap was dropped on it. It may have been for these reasons that the washing fell to Eva as the youngest in the household. Aged 42 at the beginning of 1910 she was eleven years younger than Emily and Grace's junior by fourteen years. In summer she found a second use for the copper by boiling jam in it, thus converting the product of the family's work in their orchard into a major item of their dessert throughout the year. In a house which lacked electricity much time had to be spent every day on tasks like setting the fire in the wood stove, keeping a supply of wood in a box beside the stove and regulating the heat according to whether one wished to iron clothes, boil a kettle, cook vegetables, bake a cake, roast a joint or just keep the fire alive. Oil lamps had to be filled, wicks trimmed and the chimneys cleaned. In summer perishable food had to be carried down to the cellar when not in use and brought up again for meals. Because water was not laid on to the house and because the house contained no bathroom, water was drawn by the bucket from an outside tank and carried into the kitchen. Such water was used carefully, and sparingly in times of drought. Dishes were washed in a pan, baths were taken in a tub. It is not known which of these household routines were undertaken by Eva but she and Emily must have attended to most of them. There are more glimpses of Eva working outside the house: milking a cow, gathering mushrooms, whitewashing the back wall of the house, mending the fence with her brother- in-law, carting water home with Emily, keeping a check on the windmill to ensure that the cattle trough always contained water. The most frequently recurring image is of her with the mare Nellie, occasionally riding for pleasure but more often driving her: taking bags to Murphy's farm to be filled with wheat chaff, delivering cans of cream to the railway station or bringing home the same cans filled with 68 water for household use, meeting Elsie and Eileen at Fords railway station, and that triumphant occasion when Eva drove Nellie, grand in patriotic ribbons, to Kapunda to meet Irvine returning from the war. In 1914 Eva received a letter containing a proposal of marriage. She was then aged 47 and her suitor was about the same age. Eva knew him from the boarding house days - like her brother-in-law Joe Buchan he had a fruit block at Renmark. It can be assumed that she would have been better off financially by marrying. She would presumably have had no more work - perhaps less - than she had on the farm. She had lived at Renmark from the time she was 24 years of age until she was 42 so she had made enduring friendships there. Her youngest sister Elsie was also living in Renmark. She refused the offer. In a letter to Susie she wrote that she had been her 'own Boss' for too long to give up her independence. Like other members of the family Eva spent her holidays with relatives and friends. She went to Renmark three times in this period but after 1918, like Emily, she left the farm for no more than a few days at a time. Selina left Eva, in addition to a third share of the furniture and a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'my green Broach and my Mare Nellie to do with her as she thinks best she has always been kind and good to her' . Lily Selina's journal entry for 9 July 1910 reads 'Lilly has nursed me for 6 weeks'. On 28 October 1911 she wrote 'Essy and Ethel in bed with measles. Lucy is better, Lilly caring for them'. Like her mother and sisters - and in company with other women of her time and position - Lily had acquired skills in home management, cookery, laundry, dressmaking and nursing. For married women this knowledge was applied almost exclusively in their own homes or in the homes of relatives. As Lily had only one child many of her skills must have been consistently underutilized. She was regarded by her family 69 as an excellent nurse and an accomplished dressmaker. In her first two letters to Susie Selina wrote that she believed her recovery was due to Lily's nursing. Lily seems to have responded wholeheartedly to the call to women to support the war effort. A reading of the letters and journal gives the impression that she was more involved than her sisters, but this is probably because Selina saw and heard more of her activities than of her married sisters. It was almost certainly not the result of a more committed ideological stand. As Selina had observed in letter S9 dated 23 January 1911 Lily had 'no hard work or worries of any kind ... and their farm is ... productive - all their wants fully supplied, and a margin over'. Lily was aged 53 when war broke out and, despite Selina's claim that she had no hard work, she must have led at least an active life. (She kept cows and poultry.) But one gains the impression that she had energies, both physical and administrative, to spare and found an outlet for them in the Red Cross. A better idea of Lily's personality emerges from Selina's letters than from the journal entries, although her relationship with her daughter never becomes clear. Selina referred to Olive as 'a dear loving daughter and companion for [Lily] ' . It seems odd indeed that Lily should have arranged a picnic and invited 'some of the young folk' apparently from Olive's Sunday School class - to return hospitality shown to Olive, who was at that time 29 years of age (letter S20 dated 1 October 1912). There is no evidence that Selina ever controlled any of her daughters' lives to the extent that this incident shows Lily dominating Olive's. Yet Selina never appeared critical of this state of affairs - indeed, she showed no awareness of it at all. Her own relationship with Lily appears to have been close, and doubtless dated from the times before her widowhood when she found Lily's house a retreat from overwork and perhaps from a difference of opinion with her husband. Lily visited her mother regularly on Monday evenings but there were often additional meetings. Selina looked forward to her coming as she was 'cheery' and brought 70 neighbourhood news. Selina appointed Lily the second executrix of her will. She left her, in addition to a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'the gold ring that was Aunt Lizzies and one of the pictures'. Selina Jane In 1910 Selina Jane, aged 47, was keeping house for a total of five males - her husband, her three sons and her father-in-law. By 1921 the household was reduced to herself and TB. By 1911 the long-awaited extensions to the house had been completed. Four rooms were added to the original two. After more than 20 years of marriage Selina Jane and TB had an adequate house of their own. The house had no amenities - there was no bathroom or washhouse (though the 'shanty' was still standing), no cellar or pantry. There was no water laid on to the house and indeed no water reticulated to the property. There was of course no electricity. But the new rooms were spacious and high-ceilinged and Selina Jane must have been pleased with the completed house. Soon after the house was built the men of the household began to dig a well. Shortage of water was a constantly recurring problem and much time and labour was spent in carting it four miles from the nearest railway siding. In July 1913, after about 18 months of intermittent work, water was struck at a depth of 285 feet. The digging of the well became something of a saga in the family, the story being handed down to later genera tions. It was done manually, drawing on the mining experience of TB and his father. The work was exhausting, hot and dangerous. The men would come to the surface drenched with sweat from working in such a confined space, and muddy from the earth sticking to their damp clothes. Images of endurance and perseverance attached to the three generations of men, But Selina Jane has been overlooked. She too played a role, one of self-denial, extra work and anxiety over the safety and health of the men. Expenses connected with 71 sinking the well amounted to^500 (letter S25 of 1 September 1914). So it seems highly unlikely that there would have been money during this period to buy furniture for the new rooms. Drought conditions prevailed while the well was being dug and Selina Jane's work was increased as she tried to wash the men's mud-caked sweat-stained clothes with a scrubbing board and an inadequate supply of water. When the water was struck it was found to be excellent for stock but too brackish to grow plants so Selina Jane's hopes of a garden were not realised. During the period 1910-1921 the composition of the family unit changed. Steve left home first in 1912. After a year's sharefarming he contracted to sink a dam. He then successfully tendered to deliver mail to a number of sheep stations, commencing on 1 January 1914 and continuing until 30 June 1917 with a break of ten weeks early in 1915 when he was ill with typhoid fever. In March 1918 he married and went to live on land only a few miles from his parents' farm. Irvine was also away from home intermittently working on projects such as cleaning dams and fencing until he enlisted in March 1916. He returned from overseas in December 1918 and on his discharge from the army was granted a repatriation block at Farrell's Flat. Lindsay spent a few weeks in 1913 attending the Teachers' Training College in Adelaide, but was not taken on as a teacher. Apart from that short period he worked on the family farm until after the war when he went to help Irvine (who had had his left arm amputated in France) on his repatriation block. TB's father, Moses, died at the age of 86 in August 1920 at the home of a daughter. Widowed in 1890 he had spent the next 30 years living and working with one or other of his seven sons and two daughters. Some of that time was spent at Mount Mary. As the family declined in numbers, Selina Jane's work should have decreased. She missed the company of her sons but rarely left the farm. Her mother observed in letter S33 dated 26 September 1918 that she 'seems more tied at home 72 now than when her children were small, and she is mostly on the go all day long and up into the night’. A check of the journal shows that when she came to stay at her parents' farm in the earlier years it was in connection with the children rather than simply to have a holiday. She came for a christening, a vaccination or because of illness. Some times she herself visited the dentist. With her sons adults, lack of money, home duties and the cows all helped keep her at home. Perhaps it was also force of habit and her own idea of what was women's work. Her menfolk were capable of looking after themselves as TB had demonstrated when he was in WA. Irvine and Lindsay did their own housekeeping at Farrell's Flat. Her mother's letters often refer to Selina Jane as being tired and at times 'not well', a result it would appear of overwork, isolation, extreme summer heat, deficient diet in the drought years and anxiety over such matters as poor seasons - with a resultant drop in income - Steve's illness and Irvine's absence at the war. One might speculate that if she had had a daughter to take charge of the house and do the milking, she would have taken longer holidays, such as Emily and Eva had been accustomed to take. According to her mother's journal Selina Jane had no holiday longer than two weeks in the whole of this period, and several of her annual breaks lasted for only a few days. She always went to Ivy Cliff Farm. On three occasions she also went to Adelaide, the main object of one visit being to have her photo taken - presumably to send to Irvine at the front - and of another to obtain new dentures. Despite Selina Jane's hard life her mother's letters give the impression of an energetic woman, generous and even-tempered. In her will Selina left her, in addition to a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'the gold Broach with SND engraved on it, and which she gave me, also my Sewing Machine and a picture as well'. Elsie Elsie was aged 32 when her first child, Phyllis was 73 born in May 1910 at Renmark. Although Selina wrote in letter S21 dated 31 March 1913 that Elsie hoped to have another child, her second and last baby was not born until December 1916. By the time her husband returned from the war she was in her 42nd year. Elsie spent the first part of this period at Renmark. It is not known whether Joe's decision to enlist prompted the sale of their fruit block, but Elsie left Renmark soon after Joe went into camp. When she and Phyllis moved to Adelaide in August 1916 she had been at Renmark for nearly ten years, at first working in her sisters' boarding house and then living with her husband on his fruit block. Little is known of the early years of her married life. In July 1911 Selina wrote that Elsie had no cow. She kept fowls, apparently on a small commercial scale, a continua tion of her earlier interest in poultry. It is not known to what extent, if any, she helped Joe in his work. Selina regularly referred to her as being 'busy' (and usually as 'cheerful'). In 1911, 1913 and 1915 she had long holidays. In 1911 she was away from her home for six and a half weeks, and was at Ivy Cliff Farm while Susie was home from WA. Joe joined her for half of the holiday and they spent some time in Adelaide. In 1913 Elsie's holiday extended over five and a half weeks and she was home for the Sunday School picnic on Easter Monday. She visited Selina Jane at Mount Mary and spent two weeks in Adelaide before returning home. In 1915 she had a month's holiday arriving at Ivy Cliff Farm with Selina Jane the day before their mother's 81st birthday. Again she spent two weeks in Adelaide. Although Elsie and Joe did not have their first good harvest until 1912/1913 they were obviously better off financially than Selina Jane and TB. Joe and his brother worked together on their blocks and in quiet times earned extra income from carting wood. When Joe enlisted Elsie was pregnant. She and Phyllis moved to Adelaide when Joe went into camp. Her second daughter was born in a private hospital in December 1916, six and a half years after Phyllis. At that time Elsie had 74 no home of her own. She was living with a family whom she knew from her Kapunda days. The Gills had four children so the house must have been crowded. Four weeks after Eileen's birth Joe left for Melbourne where he embarked for overseas service. For the next 15 months Elsie lived a roving life, taking the children with her from city to country and from relative to friend, with constant interruptions to Phyllis' schooling. From Ivy Cliff Farm they travelled to Mount Mary and then to Renmark. They returned to Mount Mary and were back at Kapunda for Easter. They then went to Adelaide where they again lived with the Gills. Eileen was a restless sleeper - hardly surprising, after all the travelling - and disturbed Mr Gill who was a shiftworker. The journal records short but frequent visits to the farm, perhaps indicating times when Elsie judged that the Gills' patience was reaching breaking point. Finally in January 1918 Elsie moved with the children to another suburb where she lived with TB' s brother Alf who had married a schoolfriend of Elsie's. Annie and Alf had a family of three young boys, so this accommodation may have been offered only as a temporary measure. In any case by early April Elsie had moved into a house in the town of Kapunda. Perhaps the uncertainty of her future contributed to a feeling of restlessness, for she continued to move about. In June she went to Mount Mary for a week. Early in September she was in Adelaide where she bought a piano, and later in that month she was at Ivy Cliff Farm with Eileen, while Phyllis stayed with her aunt Lily to be nearer school. The stay at the farm on this occasion was presumably to enable Eva to take her holiday. In August 1919 Joe arrived home from the war but Elsie stayed at Kapunda until April 1920. Meanwhile Joe established a poultry farm at Seaton Park, a suburb of Adelaide and built a concrete structure in which the family lived for three or four years until a war service home was built. Elsie worked alongside Joe with the poultry but she did the housework without his help. Her mother left Elsie, besides one tenth of the money 75 from the residue of her estate, 'the Harmonium and the Basket chair and cushions'. Ed After living for about twelve years in Northam Ed, Mary and their family moved to Perth at the end of April 1911. Presumably Ed applied for a transfer; he wrote to his mother that he left Northam because he had so much night work and was often away from home (letter S13 dated 12 June 1911). He sold the family home at Northam and bought a house at North Perth for On one count Mary - and Ed - would have welcomed the move to York: it was the home town of Susie and Harold. As mentioned earlier Mary and Susie were close friends. Further, Susie's membership of and active involvement in the Methodist church and her acquaintance with local people would have made it easier for Mary to fit in to the community. That family ties continued is also evidenced by the Mercers' letting of the former hotel to Ed and Mary at what seems to have been a very reasonable charge. But there were negative aspects to the semi-nomadic life which the family led from 1911, and which would have affected Mary more than Ed. There were the practical problems involved in moving house at intervals - accommo dating furniture to rooms of different shapes in houses of different sizes; fitting floor coverings; altering curtains. There were problems associated with the children as they were separated from old friends and made new; as they settled in to new schools. At a time when a family doctor was a part of a stable life, there was the progression from one practitioner to another. It is not known to what extent Ed involved himself in union activities during this period but it seems likely that he continued in his earlier commitment. During the war he left the Labor Party over the conscription issue. Ed and Mary's eldest son, Ross, enlisted in 1917 and left for overseas service in May 1918. He returned in August 1919. Their daughter Ella took a commercial course at high school. She was engaged to be married in 1920. Ed saw his mother for the last time in April 1919 when he spent ten days in SA. In her will Selina left him, in addition to a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate 'the picture [of Ivy Cliff farmhouse] painted by his wife and any other presents he might have given me'. Will Will continued to live at Kalgoorlie after the death of his first wife. Very little is known of his life at this time. He wrote to his mother frequently but none of his letters has survived. While Susie and Ed maintained close 77 ties with one another, Will seems to have been somewhat apart, in interests and beliefs as well as in physical distance. There is no evidence that he shared Ed's interest in unionism. Indeed, he was probably opposed to the idea of trade unions. One has the impression that he had probably ceased attending church - if so, he would have been the only one of Selina's children to do so. He maintained an interest which dated back to his Kapunda days in rifle shooting. He enjoyed gardening - Selina refers in an early letter - S5 dated 16 October 1910 - to his roses and in a later one - S31 dated 1 February 1915 - to his vegetable growing. In April 1911 he wrote to Selina that he was about to remarry. The only information he gave concerning his bride, that she was 'a Protestant' shows that he realised the importance of this fact to his mother. He and his wife came to Ivy Cliff Farm for a week of their honeymoon. Pearl Davis was living in Kalgoorlie with her widowed mother and twin sister when Will met her. Aged 27 at the time of her marriage, she was eleven years younger than Will. Selina learnt, doubtless to her dismay, that Pearl's occupation had been selling bottles of liquor in a Kalgoorlie hotel. However she gave this up when she married. It is not known whether she did so of her own choice, at Will's wish or at the request of the hotel. On the whole Pearl seems to have made a favourable impression on Will's family. She was in SA for only five days and with her general appearance, fine singing voice and dress sense she must have brought a touch of the exotic to Selina, Lily and Olive. Will and Pearl returned for a longer holiday in 1913, going on to Sydney before returning to WA. In 1914 Will was transferred to Manjimup and in 1917 to Broome Hill. Will continued to write to his mother until her death but Pearl also corresponded with Selina in the later years. They had no children. A pregnancy ended in miscarriage and although Pearl underwent an operation for 'womb trouble' she apparently did not become pregnant again. 78 From late 1920 Pearl's mother lived with them. She was then without an income and was an invalid, having to be lifted from her bed to a chair and back again at night. As Pearl's sister was working - she had taken Pearl's job when she married - Pearl and Will looked after Mrs Davis. The money to supply her needs would have come from Will's income, but the care required by an invalid and the response to her emotional demands would have been supplied by Pearl. In her will Selina left to Will, in addition to a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'the gold ring of his late wife and my Family Bible also the feather Boa he gave me if he so desires'. Susie A selection of the letters written by Selina to Susie from 1910 to 1921 has survived. Unfortunately Susie's letters were not kept, so knowledge of her life in this period has been obtained largely from comments in Selina's letters. Susie's daughter has also kindly contributed information. Susie had only one child. Her mother's letters indicate that she had two miscarriages in her early forties; her age was doubtless the reason for her not having a larger family. Susie regretted her inability to have more children but her one-child family enabled her to continue participating actively in the family business. On her marriage she had become a partner with her husband and brother-in-law in the bakery which traded as Mercer Bros. For some years after her marriage Susie worked in the bakery shop and it is believed she kept the books for the business for an even longer period. As a partner she received^2 per week. Susie had a maid to help with the housework and a washerwoman. She was the only one in her generation to have paid domestic help provided by strangers. In 1911 she had a large brick room built near the house and shop in which the family lived. This room, connected to their house by a walkway, eventually - in 1919 - became the lounge room of a stone cottage which was built onto it. But 79 its original purpose was as a music room. Harold was choir master of the York Methodist Church choir for 40 years and the choir met in this room for practice. Social functions were also held there. Selina often referred to Susie's busy life andher engagements outside the home. These appear to have been connected with the church, the Red Cross during the war years and other welfare and civic activities. Harold was active in local government, being a councillor for many years commencing before 1911. Susie would have been called on to fulfil social engagements connected with Harold's position. Susie visited her mother three times in the last decade of Selina's life. In 1911 and again in 1918 she spent six weeks in SA. In October or November 1920 she returned. Perhaps, after an absence of two and a half years, she realised to what extent Grace's sight had deteriorated. Perhaps, as a younger member of the family (she was then aged 51) and one who kept in touch with the outside world she knew that medical help might be available to Grace. She took Grace to Adelaide and did not leave for WA until her eye had been operated on. Susie's life differed from her sisters' in several ways. She was the only one to live and work in another State. Although she was unsuccessful in her application to become a nurse, she managed to break away from the occupation of domestic servant. By working as a dressmaker, milliner and store manager she achieved independence in so far as she worked for set hours and did not live in her employer's house. i She married at a later age - 37£ years - than her sisters. She continued to work outside the home, and was paid for it, after her marriage. She had no aged parent physically dependent on her - her letters provided strong emotional support to her mother - and only one child. With some domestic help she had time, especially after she had given up working in the bakery shop, for activities outside the home. York was a large country town, long-settled and prosperous enough to support 80 religious, welfare and civic activities of the kind which claimed the interest and support of many women in Susie's position. Such voluntary work was seen as worthwhile and suitable for women. In view of the close relationship between Selina and Susie as evidenced in the former's letters, it is appropriate that Selina's last journal entry is 'answered Susie's letter'. In her will Selina left Susie, in addition to a tenth share of the money from the residue of her estate, 'my two gold rings, the small gold Broach with Jewels and the gold locket all of which she gave me or the money to buy them. I also give to her my metal teapot and a picture if she wishes to have one'. 81 LETTERS 1910-1921 While the letters 1910-1921 have been used to complement journal entries for the same period, the 32 letters written by Selina to Susie merit further attention. In these letters, written in the final decade of her life, Selina gives her personal opinions and reflections on a number of aspects of women’s life and of women’s role in the society of the time. Her comments were based on the practicalities and experiences of her own life, on her observations of the women who were her neighbours on farms or acquaintances in Kapunda, and on her religious beliefs. Her views may be summarised as follows: The home is central to women. As girls, their training - both moral and practical - is carried out in the home. As young women their greatest happiness and satisfaction will come when, through marriage, they establish a home of their own. Some husbands are worthless - but wives should assert themselves when necessary, or part of the responsibility for an unhappy marriage may be theirs. It is not marriage but the children born in a marriage that represent the highest achievement for women. Some women are not successful in their attempts to have children. Since this is a problem beyond human solution women (and men) should submit to God's wisdom. For some times childbirth ends in tragedy with the death of the mother or child, or both. Sometimes a husband dies young, leaving a widow and children. For those women who do not marry there may be occupations outside the home. But for most their time will be occupied in housekeeping for single brothers, looking after aged parents or caring for the children of those women who have died in childbirth. Selina made many references to the home. In the first letter of this collection (SI) she wrote that when she fell ill at Renmark, 'My one great desire and longing was to reach home for there I knew I should be cared for . . . ' . In letter S2 again referring to her illness she wrote , 'Oh thank God for a good home and for loving willing hearts ... to minister to my wants' . Her fullest statement was in 82 letter S14: 'For what place in the wide world is there to be compared to the dear Home, and to be with the dear ones in that home. Thank God for our homes. I think they must be our little heavens upon earth'. The first letter in this collection was written a year after Mabel's death, and Selina often referred to Tom and his daughters. She believed that the problems of a motherless household were compounded when the children were girls. One of a mother's duties was 'to guide or instruct' her daughters (S9). 'It is a big task to know what to do for the best when there is no mother in the home' (S20). In the absence of a mother the task of instructing and training young girls may be carried out by aunts or grandmothers (S18) . Selina believed in the importance of moral and religious as well as vocational instruction. She was glad that Susie had 'that precious treasure [her seven-year-old daughter] to love and to train for heaven' (S30). She worried that Tom's daughter Millie 'does not like work of any kind' and that she 'says she means to be a lady'. If a place could be found for her as a shop assistant - at 14*. years she 'was quite old enough' - 'she might be ashamed to be so lazy with strangers'. Selina concluded by hoping that her granddaughter would 'do better ... a little further on when Granny comes to her' i.e., when she began to menstruate (S20 ) . Selina considered that Ed's wife Mary was overworked, that 'she does too much for her children, is too unselfish' (S7). The oldest child and only daughter Ella, aged 13 years, 'ought to be a nice help to her if she manages her right. It does not do to let the child have all the pleasures while the mother becomes a household drudge ...'. Selina believed that women should be concerned with the welfare of girls and young women in their household, even if they were not part of the family. Susie had apparently written about her domestic help and Selina in reply commented that she was young and 'might feel lonely' (S15). She advised Susie not to expect too much of her and asked her to 'be kind to her, poor child'. 83 She had few comments to make on the work of women outside the home. She hoped that Millie's sister Lucy, 'a bright intelligent girl' of 12 i years, would achieve her ambition to become a teacher (S20). Nor does she express many views on courtship and choosing a husband - she knew few young women who were about to marry. She believed that marriages were made happy for both partners if there were children. There are references in her letters to pregnancy and childbirth. In letter S32 she expressed anxiety over Elsie who was in the early stages of her second pregnancy when her husband enlisted. She was also concerned over Mary's health. In 1911 Mary, aged 41, was pregnant for the eighth time - she had four surviving children - when the family moved from Northam to Perth. It was not Mary's age that caused Selina anxiety but the 'extra work entailed on her' in moving house (S13). 'I always think it such a sad thing for a woman to die at childbirth', Selina wrote in letter S2, which contained news of two such deaths. That women had to adopt a very practical attitude to the possibility of death in childbirth is shown in Selina's references to Susie's friend Lizzy (S16). Her plan of adopting a baby was deferred until she knew that her sister-in-law who was experiencing a difficult pregnancy had survived her confinement. At a time when the falling birthrate throughout Australia was causing alarm at an official level Selina's letters mentioned several women who wished to have children but were unsuccessful. In November 1910 Selina wrote a reassuring letter to Susie. She did not think that Susie, then aged 41, was going through 'the change of life ... yet' (S6). She hoped that Susie would 'not be too anxious about having more family' and pointed out that she herself was in her 44th year when her last child was born 'so there are [sic] plenty of time yet for you to bear children'. Two years later Selina wrote (S20) that she was sorry to hear of Susie's 'disappointment'. She asked if Susie's husband greatly desired a son and hoped that he would 'try to be content if more children are denied him'. Elsie's first child Phyllis was born a year after her 84 f marriage (SI) but there was a 62. year interval before the birth of her second and last child. Selina wrote, when Phyllis was nearly three years old (S21), that 'Elsie would much like to have a little companion for Phyllis ... She thinks she might succeed after her six weeks' holiday'. Pearl had no children at all despite her desire to become a mother (S35). In the second year of her marriage when she was 30 she had a miscarriage, 'the Dr said from an influenza cold' (S20). A few months later Pearl was in hospital following an operation for 'some womb trouble'. In spite of the doctor's assurances that she would then fall pregnant Pearl remained childless. For those wives who did not succeed in becoming pregnant there was the possibility of adoption, although such a step was not made legal nor were the procedures formalised until the SA Adoption of Children Act 1925 . Susie's friend Lizzy had married at the age of 36. Her only child, a daughter born when Lizzy was 38, died a few months later in December 1906. Lizzy apparently had offered to take Tom and Mabel's baby when Mabel died in June 1909 . Despite the friendship between two generations of the Dunstans and Lizzy's and her husband's families, and their common religious background, Selina writing in August 1911 (S16) was glad that the baby had gone to Mabel's relatives - '... somehow I could not bear the thought of it being out of the family'. Although Lizzy had arranged to adopt a baby girl, born in March 1911, she waited until the child was five months old before bringing her home. As noted earlier she delayed until her sister-in-law had survived her second confinement. Selina found it 'queer ... that she should take quite a stranger's child to rear and provide for' and explained Lizzy's action as due to 'her poor little mother heart ... being so empty, she could not be satisfied till she had a baby to love and cuddle' (S16). Selina's comments seem to indicate that 'the home' was for 'the family' and that 'the family' did not extend beyond blood relationships. Her attitude towards adoption seems to be concerned with the baby being a stranger's child rather 85 than with its being born out of wedlock. Her criticism is directed against the father of the child ('... a married man wife deceiver') rather than the mother. Women who were widowed young were affected financially and socially. In letter S2 Selina referred to the three oldest daughters of 'Uncle Ned' (her brother-in-law). Alice's husband had died in 1894 leaving her with four children under six years of age, the youngest a baby of five weeks. Annie, the eldest, who had taken charge of her father's household on the death of her mother and again, 21 years later when her stepmother died, had married in 1906 at the age of 41. Her husband died nine months later. Selina's reference in this letter was occasioned by the illness of the husband of the third sister Mary. He died a month later leaving Mary, aged 42, with seven children. Widows with young children found themselves in a precarious situation. It is not known how Alice survived - neither she nor her sisters remarried. Mary practised as a midwife in the town of Petersburg and the surrounding district (Dunstan John and Ann, 96). For Annie, 42 and childless, her husband's death virtually returned her to spinsterhood. Selina's letters include many references to single women particularly her stepdaughter, daughters and nieces. Her comments are factual and practical and usually concerned with work; there is no direct indication of what she thought of the state of spinsterhood. One may infer that she thought it fell far short of a satisfactory marriage. (Her references to Charlie and his wife (S2) and to 'poor little Amelia ... a meek little mouse of a woman, much too good for the man she married' (S35) show that she held clear-headed, unsentimental views on marriage and did not believe that all marriages turned out well.) It is evident, too, that she believed that married couples who had no children were unfortunate. In these letters written by Selina home and family are two dominant themes. Her frequent references are an indication of how central they were to her life. 86 CONCLUSION This thesis is an introduction to Selina Dunstan's papers. As such it has been developed within a restricted framework. While detailed annotations to many of its entries (see Appendices I and II) place Selina's journal in a wider economic, historical and social context, no attempt has been made to incorporate that information into this thesis. Although she maintained family ties by correspondence with brothers, sisters, sons and a daughter in the USA, Cornwall and WA, Selina's personal world was a small one. Its physical centre was the farm, its boundaries those of the Kapunda district. Its emotional core was her home and family. This thesis does not extend beyond Selina's world. Thus there is, for example, no comparison of this family with historical, social or statistical material relating to the State of SA. Comparisons, where made, have been confined to Selina's world: her own experiences with those of her daughters; her daughters' with those of her sons; her daughters' one with another. The nature of this thesis - 'an introduction' precludes the drawing of conclusions from the contents of the papers under review. However if one considers the papers themselves - as distinct from their content - and the techniques applied to retrieve, evaluate, place in context and arrange the minute, individually trivial details of the content, the conclusion may be drawn that this material and this approach does yield useful information on the everyday lives of 'ordinary' women. 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY Manuscripts Dunstan, Selina and others. Letters 1885-1887. Dunstan, Selina. Journal 1891-1921. Handwritten copy. Dunstan, Selina and others. Letters 1910-1921. For a detailed description of the above items, see Appendix I. Dunstan, Ed. Diary, 18 July 1892 - 10 April 1907. Photocopy. Dunstan, Susie. Diary, 8 March 1900 - 18 January 1905. Photocopy. Documents Marriage Certificates : Thomas Dunstan and Selina Northey, (copies) 20 November 1855 (SA). Moses Bettison and Louisa Harvey, 27 February 1858 (SA). George Bargwanna and Susan Williams, 25 December 1863 (SA). William Andrew and Louisa Dunstan, 28 September 1882 (SA). Thomas Henry Bettison and Selina Jane Dunstan, 25 September 1889 (SA) . William Albert Dunstan and Annie Bernardette Minogue, 7 September 1905 (WA). Death Certificates : Annie Bernardette Dunstan, 5 (copies) September 1907 (WA). Moses Bettison, 1 August 1920 (SA). Wills : Thomas Dunstan, 24 February 1900. Handwritten copy. Selina Dunstan, 26 February 1916. Photocopy of handwritten copy. Documents relating Memorandum of transfer, no.284482: to land : Emily Dunstan, purchaser, 14 August 1894 . 88 Memorandum of transfer, no.361528: Emily Dunstan, purchaser, 3 December 1900. Memorandum of transfer, no.483287: Emily Dunstan, vendor, 11 February 1909 . Letter from SA Department of Lands dated 26 May 1983 containing information on land in the Hundred of Schomburgk allotted to Thomas Dunstan, jnr. Letter from WA Police dated 3 March 1987 containing details of Will Dunstan's career in the police force. Books CHARLTON, R. The History of Kapunda. Melbourne, Hawthorn Press, 1971. Dunstan John and Ann 1847-1978. Compiled by John and Ann Dunstan reunion committee. Printed by Coudrey Offset Press, Forestville, SA. HUNT, A.D. This Side of Heaven : a History of Methodism in South Australia. Adelaide, Lutheran Publishing House, 1985. PRYOR, 0. Australia's Little Cornwall. (Seal Books) Adelaide, Rigby, 1969. Newspapers SA Adelaide Observer South Australian Register WA Western Argus 89 APPENDIX I Selina Dunstan's papers As this thesis is based on papers which are still held privately it seems appropriate to describe them in some detail. The originals or copies are held by me and are available for inspection. Letters November 1885 - August 1887 The original letters are in my possession. There are 75 in all, of which 70 were addressed to Selina Jane, who was in domestic service in the suburb of Kensington. The remaining five, originally sent to other members of her family, were passed on to Selina Jane. Of the 70 letters to Selina Jane, four were written by her mother and four by Grace. Emily and Susie each wrote twelve. Eva and Tom wrote twenty-one and thirteen respectively - many of them from Schomburgk. Ed wrote one, as did a friend, Mary Jane Dart. Elsie, still at school, wrote two. The five letters which were sent on to Selina Jane included two written by Emily to her parents, two written by Eva to Susie and one to Tom from his cousin Frank Andrew. The letters have been typed, chronologically arranged, numbered and annotated. Two examples are included in Appendix II. Journal 1 January 1891 - 12 July 1921 The original journal, handwritten by Selina Dunstan in one volume, is in the possession of her youngest grand-daughter. Some years ago I copied it by hand. The typescript has been made from that copy. Because of the format of the journal - brief entries made daily or several times a week - detailed annotations have been made to identify individuals mentioned and to establish such facts as their occupation, place of residence and relationship to Selina or to others mentioned in the journal. Annotations have also been made to verify or elucidate such diverse matters as reports of births, marriages and 90 deaths, clearing sales, dress materials bought, public holidays, books read, religious observances, journeys by family members to Adelaide or to WA. In the course of preparing the annotations one or more of the following newspapers were consulted from 1891 to 1921: the Adelaide Advertiser, South Australian Register, the weekly Adelaide Observer. Some issues of the Western Argus (Kalgoorlie) contained information relating to Ed and Will. A variety of other sources was also checked including additional newspapers, books, maps, periodicals, government gazettes, SA parliamentary papers and directories - in particular, issues of Sands Directory of South Australia and of the SA (Wise's) Post Office Directory. Letters were written to private individuals and to government departments. An essential source of information for the Dunstan family was the book Dunstan John and Ann_1847-1978. This contains birth and death dates for not only Thomas' branch of the family but also his brothers and sisters and their descendants. Brief histories of Thomas' children and of their Dunstan cousins were invaluable in understanding and explaining some of the journal entries. The first three months of the journal January-March 1891 are included in Appendix II. Letters July 1910 - August 1921 The original letters are in my possession. There are 40, of which 33 were written by Selina; of these 33 all, except one to Ed, were addressed to Susie. Two additional letters to Susie were written by Tom and three by Eva. There are copies of a letter written by Tom and a letter written by Susie to their mother. Most of the letters Selina wrote to Susie from July 1910 to December 1911 are included in this collection (Selina noted the writing - and receipt - of letters in her journal). They total eighteen; the remaining fourteen letters from Selina to Susie were written over a decade. The frequency varies from one to three per year except for 1917, a year for which no letters have survived. A check of 91 the journal confirms that many of Selina's letters are included here. These letters have been typed and numbered SI to S40 in chronological order. As they cover the same period as the last third of the journal they have not been annotated. An example from the collection is included in Appendix II. 92 APPENDIX II Letter 1 Emily to Selina Jane Gawler River Sat'day evening Nov 14th 1885 My dear Sister I got your letter this morn I expect you will be surprised to get an answer so soon but I know a person who lives only about 10 minutes walk from here who is very anxious to get a girl she will give 9 shillings per week Emily herself was being I will not persuade you one way or paid 9/- per week (see another but I will tell you a few part letter 5). iculars. they milk 7 cows but you will only have 3 to milk yourself they are 9 I think in family the daughter is 14 so she helps about the work and so does the Mrs. she told me that she had one girl 8 years they seem very homely nice sort of people she expects to be confined shortly she said that she would much like you to come if it was only for a few weeks for she does not know where to get a girl their name is Pederick there is one advantage we Sands SA Dir ectory 1885 could see each other often but I will lists John leave you to please yourself so far as I Pederick, farmer Mudla Wirra. ' can judge she is a very kindly woman Mrs The town of Dawkins said you could come here for a few Gawler is in the Hundred of days and see for yourself I am going to Mudla Wirra. ask Mr. Casely to post this for me so as you can get it on Monday and please to send a few lines to Mrs. John Pederick Gawler to say whether you will come or not and if you can come what day and Mr P will come to meet you Send reply so as it wont be too late for the midday train on 93 Tuesday if you can and if there should be Sands 1885 lists Pearce, Wincey any mistake if you do come to G[awler] and & Co., timber there is no one to meet you go up to merchants, Murray St, Gawler to Wincey & Cos and ask to see Mr. Gawler; and Wm William Dawkins and explain how it is and Dawkins, clerk, Cowan St, Gawler very likely he would drive you out here I am very sorry to think you have got to leave such a good place I was rather surprised to hear you say about taking my place if I left certainly it is not a place of heavy work but sometimes the old Dame is very tantalizing she is enough to try Jobs turkey Les Murray has recalled the use of the phrase 'as poor as Job's turkey' among his Scottish forebears who settled in northern NSW (N. Keesing, Lily on the Dustbin. Ringwood, Penguin, 1982, 162). I have not found any reference to the patience of Job's turkey. I wonder if you have heard of a In May 1886 situation down there I shall be on the Emily went to work for Mrs sharp lookout for an answer I have not had Dart at Marrabel word from Darts since but if I dont alter (see letter 15). my mind I shall leave here when the summer is o'er but I have not said anything to anyone about it did you have a holiday on the 9th 9 November, birthday of With fondest affection I remain the Prince of your loving Sister Emily Wales, was a public holiday. 94 Letter 21 Selina to Selina Jane Kapunda June 4th 1886 Dear Daughter Your letter came to hand last Saturday as also the money and we were glad to know that you were well as we are at present thank God for his goodness towards us. we had a few lines from Tom to say they got up safe they have had no rain there yet he has to carry water for the cattle the weather keeps very dry indeed the crops are coming all they want is rain and I hope we shall soon get it. Mrs Betison is on a visit to Kapunda I saw her on Saturday week she is very stout she is comming down to stay with us alittle while before she goes back she says Tom is not married yet nor she cant get him to marry I thought she spoke it at me, as if we some of us had something to do with it perhaps he is wating you know for your answer as you did not give This Ted was it him Ted said Tom's girl was down this Tom Bettison's brother (see way when he came down and Ted was letter 3). enquiring rather particularry of you of our Tom I do not know wether there is any thing in it or not but one thing I know That I should like you to accept of Tom as husband if you think you could make yourself happy with him for he is the sort of son's that make good husbands When I see Mrs B. I shall try to feel her over abit on this subject but you need not be afraid that I shall say or do anything to compromise you or myself and I will let you know all particulars next time I write 95 if you thought anything about him you could get Tom to write to him as he never answered Tom B's letter he could invite him down on avisit you need not say any thing to anyone about this letter and when you answer it send a few lines to itself for Susie marked private I hope you will not feel offended at this for my Dear girl you may rest assured that your intrest lies very near my heart as does the well being of all my children and for this cause I send these few lines to know if it would be agreeable to you to becomes Mrs Tom B. that is if you had the offer I will say no more on this subject but will close this with giving you all our loves and best wishes and commending you to the care of our heavenly father that he may guide you all through lifes journey and receive you at last at his right hand, from your loving Mother Selina Dunstan J ournal 1891 January 1 fine weather Lilly came down 3 finished reaping sold 14 lbs butter ’ bought ... at 5i"d bought blue sateen dress for dress1: the self 10 yds at 10d Willy bought purchase was black coat £1.3*9 Eva bought cos actually dress tume cloth at 2/9 7i yds material. 4 rain with high wind 5 digged all the potatoes in garden 6 boiled 24 lbs apricot jam W.Harvey was TB have been working for W-Harvey a TB’s uncle. week 7 reaped 60 bags of wheat back of house reaped 20 bags from hay paddock Steinwedel have 10 bags of steinwedel wheat whe at was nam e d after A.Stein wedel, a German settler in 3A who developed it in 1884. ’For the next twenty-five years the Steinwedel variety became very popular throughout Australia, and it is claimed that this variety contributed to the extension of the wheat belt into drier areas.* (Dunsdorfs,33. The Australian Wheat-growing Industry .1788-1948, 190) 10 sold 9 lbs butter at 7d 10 doz eggs at 9d Harry Plush, 12 bought 3 black pigs from Plush at 12/ a local far each finished winnowing have 194 mer, had mar bags of wheat ried a niece ,0 boiled 20 lbs apricot jam of Selina. 17 sold 7 lbs butter at 7d 10 doz eggs Dunstan rela at 5d Ed went to Jamestown tives had taken up land in the Jamestown area in the 1870s. 22 Mr and Mrs Pascoe paid us a visit fine weather 23 boiled 24 lbs plum jam 24 sold 7 lbs butter at 8d 8 doz eggs at 5d paid 4/9 for quarter year for The Chronicle, Tom for chronicle a weekly news paper ’with a large country readership, was published in Adelaide from 1398 to 1979* Sands SA Dir- 26 cold to Heinrich of Freeling 90 bags ectory 1891 of wheat 211 lbs 21 lbs at 3/93 lists F.IIein- delivered at Fords 38 10 10 97 J anuary rich, wheat- buyer, Freeling. Fords was a railway siding between Kap- unda and Freeling. The wheat seems to have been sold at 3/5‘i' per bushel for a total of £36.10.10. 3-1 Willie gone to Schom for cattle very hot sold 11 lbs butter at 8d 3 doz eggs at 7d bought 20 yds print at 6-J-d for Susy and Elsie February 2 Tom gone back to Schom Ed back from the North bought 3 yds stuff at l/4 for Susy stuff was a woollen fabric. Willie back with the cattle from Schom bought pinkish stuff dress for Susy 8 yds at l/4 made 17 lbs plum jam Grace down from Schom very hot drab:1A thick weather made Elsie drab dress strong cloth, trimmed with vel usua1ly twilied, of a dull brown or grey colour'(Cunnington,C.W. and others. A Dictionary of English Costume. London, Black, 1960,2537** The dress was presumably trimmed with velvet. 'town’ was Grace and Susy gone to town to have Grace teeth out sold 1 ton hay chaff Adelaide. to Hitchens at £3*10 sold 8 lbs Sands 1391 butter at l/ 11 doz eggs at lid lists J.II.Hitch ens, storekeeper, Kannada. Noleskin was 14 two pairs c mole for boys 14/6 the cloth used bought pair kid boots for self 3/6 for men's work trousers; hence moles or moleskins referred to the trous ers. *c mole1 may mean coloured moleskin. Adelaide Obs erver (A.0.) has advertisements for 'men's coloured mole trousers' . bands 1891 17 sold -y ton chaff to Nation / ton lists Nation, to Sir John Franklin butcher, Kap- uu da. 3ir John '' anklin was a hotel. finished bringing posts from Hamilton had 360 in all at £2.15 per 100 £9.18 21 sold 6 lbs butter at l/ 6 doz eggs at l/ bought 6/ oilcloth at 2/ per yd boys room 98 February Eliza Ann 24 EA Bastian came on a visit Bastian, Sel day boots for Susy .10/6 ina’s niece, lived at Booleroo. 26 Eva went to town to get her teeth in 27 bought swarm of bees and box 7/ A.O. 21 Peb. bought horse Lion at Reeds sale TUgi, 22d, £10.5 has a notice of the sale of Mr F.Read’s farming stock -’7 miles north of Kapunda on the Waterloo Plains Road1. 28 sold 7 lbs butter at 9 doz eggs at lOd Selina ^/Jane/ gone in Harris’ house to live March 1 Susy very unwell 4 sold 7 bullocks to Nation at £14.10 each 5 Eva came back with full set of teeth £15 Eliza Ann was 6 EA Bastian left for Rosses Creek born at Ross’s Creek near Kapunda - her cousin Grace Plush lived there in 1891. 7 Susy went to consult the doctor Sun. 8 Mr W. Trevena buried went to fun- Wm Trevena, eral chairman of the sold -1 ton chaff to Nation 4 ton District Council, to TB and %■ ton to Fitzgerald aged 72. He built the first house in. Kapunda. A Cornishman and a Methodist (A.O. 14 Mar. 1891, 16a). 10 had doctor down to Susy he did not think it a serious case 14 3 butter at l/ 7 doz eggs at 9fid 18 went to help Selina / Jane__7 make cashmere dress 21 sold 3 butter 1/ 5 doz eggs at l/ 22 took 20 bags chaff to TB at £3-5 Sands 1391 23 sent 24 lbs butter to Sandford lists A.V/. Sandford o: Co., produce salesmen h auctioneers, Adelaide, Ft Adelaide and Mt Gambier. See note to 4 July 1396. Rev. Mark Guy 24 heard M Guy Pearse preach from text, Pearse, ’the the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not siIver-t ongued want Cornishman’ , was in Australia on. a preaching and lectur- 99 March ing tour. On Tuesday, 24 March, he ’preached in the Wesleyan church /""*Kapunda_7« • • to over 500 people. The larger employers of labour closed their yards between 12 and 2 to enable their employees to attend.’ (A.O. 28 Mar. 1891, 15e) /no date/ sold 1 ton chaff to Hitchens £3.10 27 Good Friday very warm weather Emma was Sel Emma Dunstan and Nellie Kerr are ina’s niece and down, on visit Nellie her Eva gone on visit to scrub folk great-niece. Eva was visiting the Andrew family. 28 sold 2 lbs butter at l/ 3 dos eggs at 1/ Tom down to spend Easter showery in afternoon bought new black bonnet 13/8 Sands .1891 29 fine weather Easter Sunday lists Rev. J.N. Mr Mills preached twice grand Mills (Wesley- sermons an), Mintaro. He would have been a guest preacher for Easter. The annual 30 wet for picnic dry in afternoon Sunday School held in exhibition ground went to picnic was an entertainment grand singing important Tom gone back to Schom social event. 100 Letter S5 Selina to Susie Kapunda October 16th 1910 My Dear Susie, I am not sure that it is my turn to write but it seems a long time since I wrote to you. Your post card safe to hand, and I am glad to know that it left you all well. Olive sent us your letter to read so it is not so long since we heard from you. I have nothing in particular to write about but I know you like to hear often from home. I am glad to say that I am fairly well now and can climb into the buggy without so much trouble, much better than I ever expected to do. I thought of getting something low to ride in but I think I might just as well do with what I have as the more traps there are the more repairs needed. And summer weather shrinks the wood in the wheels so, and now the cost of everything is much higher. Besides I have not a nice place to put a trap in if I had one. I have been trying to get someone to put up a line of fence opposite Watty's fence at the back of the house. Some of the posts are there, and the people here are so keen after firewood that I am afraid they might take them away. Tom has been on the lookout for someone to do the work. It is months since it was first thought of. It makes me impatient with myself to think I cannot get things to go better. It is quite like summer today and yesterday a dry and almost hot wind. I am afraid the heat has set in too hastily. It will soon dry up the green feed and injure the wheat crops. It clouds over at times but the rain does not come. On Sunday the 9th of this month was the coldest day on record for Oct. It was my 76th birthday and the coldest that I can remember ever having in this country. Emily, dear old girl, braved the weather and came home. It was blowing a gale at times and heavy 101 showers of rain with hail thrown in. The wind would almost take one’s breath away being so rough and cold, and now not a week after it is so warm. I went to church yesterday for the first time since my illness. It was quite a pleasure to go after being so long absent. It seemed like old times. Bless the Dear Lord for His goodness to me. The warm weather seems to take the go out of one at first, but it will be better later on I hope. We are washing today and I hope to be able to go to Kap tomorrow instead of Eva. She has had to do all the shopping of late, and you know it is what she does not like doing but she does not mind it as much as she used to do. But I want to do a little on my own and I hope that I shall feel well enough and the weather will be right, as I want to mail this and one 1 have written to Willie. He is still at Kalgoorlie, much to his satisfaction. He is well and expects quantities of roses soon. You have not mentioned dear little Miriam's name for 2 or more letters past. How is the darling going on, and is she so fond of flowers as she used to be? I saw Tom for a little while after church yesterday. Did I tell you that he has all his teeth out? He is fairly well. He has two mares that have foaled filly foals within a week, and as raising horses is the order of the day, he is fortunate in having fillies as he has only two mares now he has sold the young ones to Selina’s boys. I have a good many horses here paddocking just now while the feed is green and plentiful, but the hot weather will soon put a stop to that. I had the misfortune to break my machine needle before I went to Ren and since then I have not been able to fix in another. The nut that keeps the needle fast would not act. There is a Singer agent at Kap. I sent it to him but he pretended he could not put it right. I saw an advertisement in the paper in town, so when Tom went down I sent the needle bar with him 102 and he got it fixed and a screw driver as well, and now the dear old thing does all right. I am much pleased to be able to use it once more, as I quite understand it while I do not those newer ones. Besides there are many precious memories connected with it and the work I have done on it for the last 35 years. I suppose if all the time was gathered together it would mount up to weeks. Well I hope now that it will serve my purpose as long as I live. Eva was quite willing that I should have the use of hers, but I like my own best. Emily had a letter from Selina last week. She was getting better from her cold. Her mouth had broken out badly. All the others were well. She wrote in a very cheerful manner, quite a long letter for her. Their mares too has been well in foaling and things generally are prosperous. It does your old Mother good to hear of the good things coming into the lives of her children. They have had a long struggle, but seem now to have left that behind. We hear in rather a round about way of the death of Mr G but are not quite sure. It will be lonely for little Mary Anna if he is dead. I think I told you of the death of young Charley Sparks' wife. She died of blood poisoning after her confinement. The little boy lived a month after its mother. It is a blessing the dear little thing is dead. Charley is gone to Queensland. Mrs Lyons sent me a few lines, but as she cannot write herself it is not very satisfactory. Have not heard anything of Lill or Susan Andrew for some time. I am afraid my letters are rather dull as I know so little local news. You must get Olive to send you a budget. Lizzy and Amy are expected down to Lill's place one day of the week so I may not expect Lill down here, though she is good in coming in to have a bit of a chat. I hope tomorrow to call out to see Emily and Tom if I can get through in time at Kap. 103 Well now, my dear one, you will be getting tired of this dry as dust epistle. I trust that this will find yourself and your dear ones well. I am so sorry to hear of the accident to dear little Keith. It seems very hard on him, and on his parents too. Am wondering if the supports on the leg were removed too early. I trust the dear child's leg will grow straight and strong, for it would be such a pity that such a fine child should be crippled. May God bless them all, and you too, my dear ones, that you all may be ever in his loving keeping is the daily prayer of your loving mother S.N.D.