The Field Family Newsletter, 1st Edition

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The FIELD Family Newsletter

1st Edition, December 1999, Edited by Dorothy Cefarin
Reprinted here with permission

Welcome to the first edition of our paper we hope with your contributions it will be a success.

In this maiden edition you will read an interesting article about Thomas Higgins who married Sophia Field, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth. There is so much to tell it will be continued in the next paper. There is also a personal interview with Rita Allison. It is stories like this that makes life more interesting, so please tell yours.

Below, marked Image 1 there is a list of names, dates, spouses and cemeteries of who and where people are buried. This page was given to me by someone that picked it up off a table at our last reunion. They and myself would be very interested in getting a copy of this interesting article, if you are the person with all this information please contact me. WE want more please.

If you know of anyone that may be interested in joining our newsletter, it's only $5 per year, please forward on the enclosed application. It will still be published three times next year, this one is to let you know I am working on it and I hope YOU are too. All stories are important, we all come from different parts of this country and have been raised differently.

For those who don't know me I have includes a little story about myself. I was asked to give a talk to some primary school children on "What Life Was Like Growing Up In the Early Years". This was the general theme of it.

In October this year there were some people killed in a plane crash near Oberon NSW. Police named them as June Ann Clark, (nee Field) 74, of Lithgow, Thomas Harry Field, 72, of Bathurst, and Norman Gordon Field, 61, of Leura. Our condolences to their families.

The Rope-Pulley Family have a very interesting newsletter and there were three articles written under "Personal Notices" that are of great importance to the Field Family:

Deaths

Frank Henry Honeysett of Pitt Town, NSW died 11th July 1999, aged 78 years. Daughter Wendy and her husband Bill survive him. Frank was the son of George Honeysett and descended from John Rope and Maria Field.

Nancy Kendall Goodman (nee Randall) of Harbord, NSW died 8th September 1999, aged 88 years. Nancy was the wife of Charles Goodman and descended from John Rope and Maria Field.

Matilda Ruth Walsham (nee Randall) of Warriewood, NSW died 13th August 1999, aged 90 years. Matilda was the widow of Carl Walsham and also descended from John Rope and Maria Field. Nancy and Matilda were sisters.

Personal Notices are most welcome in this paper. It allows those keeping records to update them.

Image 1

*Quote taken from The Field Family Tree Australia and Beyond by David Rawsthorne "Sophia Field was the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Field (nee Mitchell). Thomas Steven Higgins was born 21st December 1792 in Ballingarry, Limerick, Ireland. His parents were Michael Higgins and Bridgett Crattie."

Thomas Higgins was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1791. He was convicted (offence unknown to me) in December 1815 and transported to Sydney. He arrived on the second voyage of the Surry in November 1816.

He had been sentenced to 7 years servitude, and upon his arrival he was assigned to Sir John Jamison of Regentville. It seems he was a good servant for in 1827, some years after he was freed by servitude, he made application for land. In his application he wrote that since completing his sentence, I have rented a farm of 30 acres from him (Jamison). I have since purchased 50 acres.

On 7th June, 1824, Thomas Higgins married Sophia Field, a daughter of one of the original landholders in Castlereagh. The marriage appears in the Castlereagh Register, and Joan Sullivan and Elizabeth Morriset signed as witnesses. The 1828 Census shows Thomas and Sophia as having 2 children, aged 3 years and 15 months, and as being farmers on 70 acres at Evan.

At that time of his 1827 land application, Thomas listed property held as:

I can find no direct reference of any result to this application but he did eventually receive land in the Kurrajong district. It was mentioned in his will, and also in a notice to Thomas Higgins, dated 10th May, 1836, 100 acres in lieu of like quantity authorised by Sir Thomas Brisbane, in an unnamed parish in the county on Northumberland at Curryjong on the Cunmary Road, in lieu of primary grant of 2nd December, 1828. Original grant 14th April, 1825; bounded by Davidson's farm.

Similarly, I found a notice dated 14th April, 1837:

Thomas Higgins of George St. Sydney. purchased that lot containing nine hundred and ninety acres situated in the county of Bathurst at Milburn Creek. This land, Portion 4, Parish of Milburn, is shown on Lands Department maps, with Thomas Higgins as the original owner. Milburn Creek enters the Lachlan River upstream from Cowra and is a parish boundary. Portion 4 is at the junction of these waterways.

Thomas seemed to have prospered as his address in 1837 is given as George Street in Sydney. His grand-daughter recalled many years later that he had purchased property here from Harris, and in his will he bequeathed the Dog and Duck to his wife. In her article, Gai Rimmer mentions that Joseph Collits held the licence of the Dog and Duck in 1834. Years later Geoffrey Scott in his book Sydney's Highways of History, when describing George Street in the Haymarket, says: the Haymarket became a favoured locality for inns. The Wheatsheaf, Dog and Duck, Black Swan, Steam Engine, Woolpack and Square and Compass all stood within a few yards of each other. Some of them were dens, all were uproarious, and they suffered heavily when the law wiped out a multitude of pub licences in the 'eighties'.

It appears that Thomas Higgins had been married in Ireland as, at the end of 1838, his son Michael, accompanied by his wife, arrived as free settlers on the Adelaide. In later years, his daughter wrote that she understood Michael lived for a while in George Street, Sydney, and then moved to Chippendale as a school teacher. Reference is made in contemporary papers of a law suit between Michael and his step-mother, but details are sketchy. However, it seems that Sophia won the case, as in the 1844-45 Directory of Sydney, a Michael Higgins is shown as living at 103 George Street, while the Dog and Duck is shown as 93 George Street. At about the same time, Thomas Higgins' sister Mary McMahon also came to Sydney.

In the mid 1830's there was a general movement from the Hartley district to Canowindra. Pierce Collits received land to replace his by-passed Mt.York Inn: John Grant of Moyne Farm opened up Belabula Station. Apparently, Thomas Higgins accompanied Collits and, may have worked as a stockman while waiting to obtain and develop his Milburn Creek property.

In 1839, Thomas was killed in a riding accident at a place later known as Higgins Waterholes (now called Gilgais) between Canowindra and Eugowra. He was buried on Belabula Station, and though his headstone has disappeared, the inscription read:

Thomas Higgins
Died 26 July, 1839
Husband and Father

In a cutting from the Sydney Morning Herald (undated but written shortly after the death of Mary, relict of the late Pierce Collits) I read that Herbert J.Ramsey, F.S.G., reported as follows:- Only a couple of weeks ago, I discovered in a small station cemetery in the Belabula, near Canowindra, the grave of one of Collits' stockmen, Thomas Higgins, a former George Street hotelkeeper, who had gone west with the Collits, and had been killed by accident in 1839.

Thomas Higgins left a will, dated 25th July, 1839, which would be the day prior to his death. The will is interesting for two reasons: it shows the property which Thomas had acquired in his short free life; and the details of his instructions.
(To be continued in the next issue)

An interview with Rita Allison (nee Broom) about her childhood and that of her grand-mother Lydia Broom (nee Field, grand-daughter of Edward) Rita died in 1992, 80 yrs.

"Lydia Field married John Broom in 1859 and they were the first white people on the Lachlan River near Forbes. The place was called "Manwonga" or something like that, it was on the Condobolin side of Bedgerebong, they built a mud house and lived there for quite a long time. They were surrounded by Aboriginal tribes who had lots of pigs.

What was Lydia like? "Oh she was a great woman, no doubt about that, she had to be seeing we are her descendants. She was blind for many years, cataracts. She was a wonderful woman, rather nuggetty, but a big woman, she use to sit near a big open fire place and we had to sit around this fire place while she sat on a little stool especially made for her and she would rock backwards and forwards and tell us all these stories of her life. It was very interesting only then we didn't realise how interesting it was for anyone later on. She loved telling stories."

How would they have survived in their early life? "I don't really know, they would have grown vegies and have a few chooks also they would have caught wild game including pigs. Later they shifted to Derriwong, 12 miles out of Condobolin towards Parkes, when their children started growing up. The boys became farmers and had properties around in that area. Ours was an old place where we lived, a wooden house near Lydia. Theirs was like a bag hut down by the creek. That's where Lydia got a lot of her rheumatism from, she was all crippled up Oh, so bad. Dad (Lydia's son Ernest) was a gentleman and hated wearing work clothes and farming so he left us and went to Sydney in about 1916, Laurie was only about 3 years old and I was about 5, the other 3 were a bit older. He got a job with CSR Sugar as a Security Guard and did pretty well, scab labour they called it. We later shifted to another house 3 miles out of Derriwong and we had to walk to and from school every day, going wasn't so bad but walking home after running round at school was terrible, we used to drag ourselves along. The school was one room and we had one teacher for all the classes. In the time of drought nothing much would grow, even the grass for the animals, we children had to go round the paddocks and gather all the dead bones and horse hair we could find so it could be sold in Condobolin, I was told it was sent to Sydney and they made hair combs out of the bones and stuffed mattresses with the horse hair, we had quite a few horses. Life was hard in those days."

Did you get up to any mischief? "Not us... But when mum had to go to town Phyllis was in charge of us, Laurie and I used to climb up to the top of the windmill that pumped water up to the tank so we had water at the house, it was a lovely view of the swirling flood waters below us, we didn't realise just how dangerous it was, one slip and... we wondered why Phyllis was so upset. Oh well some of it was fun."
by Dorothy Cefarin.

My Young Life by Dorothy Cefarin (nee Pirie)

I lived in a tiny place called Derriwong which is about 19km from Condobolin. Condobolin is nearly 6 1/2 km from the geographical centre of NSW (Mt.Tilga), in other words the outback.

I was the youngest of 4 girls and they said I was spoilt but I don't believe them. Not me. Being the youngest it meant I had to wear all their hand-me-down clothes, especially Socks that had to be doubled under my toes to make them fit. I HATED THEM, so as soon as I was out of mum's sight off came my shoes. My feet ended up with so many big cracks in them and so much dirt I had to get the scrubbing brush to clean them every night. They still didn't look nice but I had the toughest feet, I could walk through all the burrs and not feel them.

There was no electricity at Derriwong so we had to light kerosene lamps to see and my mother had to do her cooking on a stove that had to be lit using wood that we had to chop into little pieces the day before and put next to the stove ready for mum to light the fire the next morning, that was one of our chores to make sure there was mornings wood ready for the next day.

To wash our clothes mum had a big round tub filled with hot water and she had to rub and get the dirt out using her hands and a bar of soap, then she filled a copper with water and when it boiled she would put our clothes into it and let them boil for awhile before getting a long stick to get them out, she rinsed them in another tub of cold water before wringing them out by hand and hanging them on the clothes line to dry. Mum ironed our clothes by heating some heavy flat irons on the top of the hot stove.

Our toilet was a small building built over a large hole. There was a seat built over the hole but you could see deep into this pit and it was scary and SMELLY. You could also see through the cracks in the floor boards.

We lived near the Lachlan River (actually it was the Goobang Creek) and along the banks were lots of willow trees, I was great at climbing trees and swinging from the long trailing branches, especially when we went swimming, we would swing out over the water and let go. I think I was like Tarzan.

My father was a gardener and grew paddocks of corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, rock melons, water melons and lots more. When he had to plough the ground he would let us sit on the plough with him and throw clods of dirt at the horses pulling the plough. When it was time to harvest he would have a four wheeled cart pulled by a horse, I would sit on the horse and drive it taking the load from the paddock down to the shed for storage then back to the paddock for another load.

We had about 100 pigs as well but they were not very exciting, only the runts as they call the tiny babies, we had to feed them until they were big enough to look after themselves. We also had a few cows and calves and every evening we children had to lock up the calves for the night so they wouldn't drink all the milk so mum could milk the cows the next morning.

Our nearest neighbour was about 3/4 mile away and I loved to go over there as Mrs. Dawson had a gramophone and played some records on it. I had never seen one before. One day I was over there and Mrs. Dawson said she could hear someone faintly calling me. I didn't want to go home so I said there were too many burrs for me in the paddock. Mrs. Dawson gave me an old pair of shoes to wear, I wore them across the burrs, took them off, ran back and said I don't need your shoes any more and then ran home across the paddock.

One day we came home and found a snake curled up on the ceiling rafters over my parents bed, we didn't touch it and it left after 2 days. Early one morning we found half a dead snake and a dead cat on our back door step, I think the snake bit the cat then the cat ate some of the snake.

The only bought doll I had was one my cousin left behind when her family went home to Queensland. It ended up with patches all over it everywhere. We had to make our own dolls out of old stockings or rags and sew them up by hand. Mum used to buy her flour in big bags and on one side of the bag was the front of a teddy bear and on the other side was his back, we had to wait for mum to use the flour before we could cut out the 2 parts to make our bear, sew him up and stuff him with old rags. For Christmas from Santa we received a stocking filled with little toys, 1 game of snakes and ladders or ludo which had to be shared between us, some coloured pencils, a pencil case, a bag for school and a pretty new dress. We were so happy to get all those beautiful things.

The day I started school I was 6 years old and my sisters were in 6th, 4th and 3rd classes, all the children were in the same room, can you imagine from 1st to 6th class all in the same room and being taught by the same teacher? Must have been about 30 children there. Anyway the teacher let me sit with my big sister the first day, then he came and carried me to the front of the room and asked me to count to ten. I refused I wanted to count to 100.

Can you imagine walking over 3km (like from here to Blacktown) to school and then home after? Well that is what we had to do, across paddocks filled with grass and in the HOT weather we had to be careful not to tread on snakes as there were a lot about. When the river was in flood and there was water everywhere our dad took us to school in a horse and sulky and had to pick us up in the afternoon.

School was terrible, I was always in trouble. When anyone did wrong they got the cane. You had to hold out your hand and the teacher would hit it with a stick or cane as it was called. The teacher ran out of canes so my father gave him some special sticks off one of his trees. Guess who got the cane first with the new sticks? Yes me. I wouldn't learn my times tables, the teacher fixed that, every day I had a test and got the cane for every one I got wrong. YES I soon learnt my tables and have never forgotten them. Another time I got four strikes of the cane when I put red chalk all over my lips. I thought I looked good. We had homework to do too and I complained to mum that I couldn't see with the lamp and wanted a candle, it would be much better. With a lot of nagging mum let me buy a candle, I couldn't see a thing it was terrible, I didn't tell mum though.

By the time I was in 4th class I would help the teacher with the lower classes when he was busy. I always came 1st in my class then as there were only 2 of us in it. My sisters were in high school at this time and had to catch a train every day into Condobolin and home again.

Eventually we all shifted to Condobolin to live where my parents bought a shop.

I was in 5th class and got a big shock to have 30 pupils in my class, I didn't come 1st any more. Then high school, it wasn't too bad but I was happy to leave school when I was 15 instead of going on and getting my Intermediate Certificate.

2 years later the crunch came. I wanted to become a nurse. I needed my Intermediate Certificate. I had to sit for an exam to do it. I had to do lots and lots of studying. If only I had stayed at school longer to get my Intermediate... I did pass the exam and I did do my training as a nurse.

My advice is to learn as much as you can while you can, then you can do whatever you please.