McKid Family history
History Notes
A busy time at the moment for historical society members with Market Week this week and a re-organization of the Dean Room, which includes the market stall books and various articles which should be on the Society stall each month. We will soon have a storage space for the market tables which should help with the cleanup.
This week we may have some museum visitors, but the day is uncertain. The only research request this week concerned the McKid family, and has proved difficult with both the McKid file and the original society publication missing.
John McKid, as most people would know, was one of our earliest settlers in the Barraba area, setting up a store on the eastern side of Queen Street opposite the museum. His wife died within the first ten years of residency in Barraba leaving him with four children to rear. A year or so later he remarried, and they had a fifth child before he also died.
The young wife was left with nine children including her orphaned nephews and niece and the five McKid children. There was a store and public house to run, and she seems to have succeeded with this big job. We suspect that she soon built and moved the public house across Alice Street to a site to the north of the present Victoria Hotel. The Salter family took over this business in the late 1860’s.
When young John McKid grew up, he managed “Currangandi” in the Horton Valley, for 20 years. He married a Bingara girl, Catherine Urquhart, in 1877, and nine of their eleven children were born before they moved to “The Oaks” near Barraba in 1891. The Historical Society’s 1st publication in 1968 describes their life in the Horton Valley but unfortunately, I no longer have a copy of this book.
The person enquiring about the McKid family also thought that the McKid family had something to do with The Stockman’s Arms which was in the Maude Street area. This public house was probably set up by the Hoskisson family of Barraba Creek Station who were related to the Cameron family. John Cameron and his family migrated from Scotland, and they ran the business for many years even after John Cameron died.
Recently Barraba had a visit from the Social Go Co Gunnedah /Tamworth with 14 visitors arriving at the Nandewar Museum for a morning tea arranged by the Museum members. The morning tea and visit to the
Museum was enjoyed by all.
From the Museum the visitors visited several of the businesses in the Main Street including the Claypan. They then moved along the Main Street to have lunch at the Playhouse. Reportedly the visitors enjoyed their visit to Barraba.