1872-1947
Father
Mother
Siblings
Matilda, Mary, Rebecca, Fredrick, Isabelle, Joseph, Eliza, Thomas, Samuel, Mary Eliza and Helen Maud
Married
Children
Gertrude, Mary Rebecca, Elva Myrtle, Ethel Bedelia Samuel John, Arthur Joseph, Edward Milton, Gwenneth Rita and Dorothy Isabel
John’s Life
John’s father Joseph arrived from Arundel, Sussex into Adelaide on the Eliza in 1840, his mother Rebecca arrived from Plymouth in 1852 on the Bombay.
He married Bedelia Mary Jane Jenkins in 1898 in Kingower, Victoria.
John was a miner for a time. He also cut Eucalypts, cut them to size and sold them to miners for scaffolding.
In 1925 John was successful in land ballot in Tullamore. Bercham Station was to be carved up into farming blocks with eligible farmers (those who had the capital and expertise) purchasing on good terms. The property became known as Kingower on the Alagala Road.
John sent his boys ahead, they arrived in February 1927 to total devastation. In November 1926 a bushfire, started by a steam train, burning hundreds of acres, there was not a fence standing, causing great hardship for these early pioneers in Tullamore. Picture attached – 1938
John built a beautiful life for his family in Tullamore, he was a very successful farmer in the district winning crop competitions. Accompanying photo SMH Nov 1938.
My father, Norman John, remembers sitting with his grandfather on the verandah at Kingower as the country opened up more and more to farming, John was concerned with the advances in machinery during this period and prophesied the degradation of soil profiles which became evident later and farming practices changed.
In his waning years John would harness his horse to a sulky and go to the paddocks to cut burrs. He would get out of the sulky to chip away at the burrs and climb back in to move on. The horse would determine when John had achieved enough for the day and once he climbed into the sulky the horse would head for home at a brisk pace and not stop until he was back at the homestead.
John was greatly missed by his family, his lasting legacy was that he had the courage take up land in a different state and bring prosperity to the family.
Authored by Leah Burnheim