Historical Society - a busy Easter weekend

History Notes

To begin this week, I must thank all those who helped run a successful market on Saturday. There was a good attendance and most were happy to take part in the offers on the stalls. The Easter egg basket was very popular with some people buying lots of tickets in an effort to win and others thinking just one or two would be enough. The children loved the bottle of Easter eggs but no one had a correct guess and the bottle went to the person with the closest guess. The lucky winners were Betsy Baker and Martin Unwin’s granddaughter – I hope you enjoyed your win.

We have found out that the marriage of George Henry Briggs and Mary Sheedy is listed in the Bingara Records but not the Anglican records which we have some access to. There has not been a reply to the Simpson query and as it looks as though it is not the Barraba family we probably will not hear any more.

This Easter weekend seems to have been busy and so I haven’t managed to get more than a couple of pages into the Dean & Smith minute book – hopefully more on that next week.

We are expecting a visit from some members of the Simshauser family in the near future – they are interested in Slatey Gulley as the property was in their family from the 1870’s until the late 1920’s and of course there are still members of the Simshauser family living in this part of the state.

Conrad Simshauser and his wife, Louisa, arrived in Australia on the “Alster” in 1862 together with the Garske family and John Groth, and they all ended up in this district although they travelled separately. Conrad and Louisa were in the Maitland area when their first child, Frederick Christian, was born. The family grew as they moved towards Maules Creek and then Mt Lindsay Station where Conrad found employment, possibly as a shepherd while his growing family lived in a nearby hut.

In 1874 Conrad applied for naturalization as he wished to purchase land and settle down with his family. Slatey Gully had been selected by Charles Mell and he sold it to Conrad as soon as Conrad received his naturalization. The Simshausers settled down building a slab hut near the Manilla River which the historical society considered moving to town at one stage. Sadly, the 1870’s hut is no longer there but the old brick residence beside it is visible from the road and there is a more modern home built up on the ridge.

Conrad and Louisa and their family lived and worked on Slatey Gully until Conrad died in 1911 at the age of 73 leaving everything to his wife. Louisa moved into town to “Dresden” in Edward Street and in 1927 Slatey Gully was sold to Ken Wilson. Louisa lived to be 93 years old, passing away in her home in 1932.

There is a whole book written by Winifred Simshauser thirty years ago covering all the family and the early history but I am sure we will learn some more when the descendants visit later this month.