History Notes - Reading/Finn family
History Notes
Well, all the work and excitement concerning the centenary of the clock is over. There were not a huge number of visitors but enough to keep us busy at the Museum and we learnt quite a bit from those who attended and found items for some visitors.
Readers will remember a story about an accident down near Barraba Creek Station in 1861- Suellen Reading arrived in the Museum with a book of her research about John Robert Finn who was generally known as Reading.
We know that John Robert Finn was born in Queensland in 1860. He married Harriett Anne Saunders on 15th December, 1887, at the Saunders home on The Forrest property, just north of Barraba. The puzzle is of course why has the name Reading appeared in the resulting children's names? The most likely reason maybe that when his mother died, his father left him with the nearby Reading family on Glen Riddle and as he was only two or three years old he probably thought that was his name.
As we know most of the Reading family went to live in Bingara after the old parents died and it seems that John stayed in the Woodsreef area. Later when he married his children seem to have used both Finn and Reading as a family name although it was really Finn. Thus, we have solved the problem although I am sure there will be more questions as time goes by.
Now I have checked when our bridge over the Manilla River was built only to find that it is 90 years old next year. It replaced the old wooden bridge which would have been some forty years old - if you look carefully the brick foundations of the old bridge can be seen just upstream of the western end of the present bridge. The present bridge is rather narrow for the large trucks on the road these days and there is still no pedestrian crossing on the bridge.
There are also more anniversaries coming up next year-Adam's Lookout was opened in January, 1975. Newton Gardens opened in August, 1975, - I wonder how many readers know where they are? The other known anniversary in 1975 is the big bush fire in the Mount Kaputar National Park which burnt for weeks keeping the western sky red every day and testing the landholders and staff trying to keep it under control.
The 2025 calendars have arrived. They are available at the museum on Friday mornings, at Saunders Fruit and Veg, and will be on the Society Stall on market day in a couple of weeks. We should have enough for all but if you get yours soon we will know if there are enough.