Sepia Saturday: Constable Ephraim Smith

I've written about Ephraim Smith several times in this blog. He was my grandfather's grandfather.

Ephraim Smith

Ephraim and his wife, Elizabeth, migrated from England to Australia in 1852. I've written about him selecting land at Dunmunkle (here), about his broken leg (here) and about his arrest in 1851 for being involved in a drunken brawl after a cricket match in his village (here). The last episode amuses me because he led a sober Christian life, raised a large family and worked hard as a farmer and gained the respect of all in his district. And it amuses me because three years after the brawl, in another country, he was employed as a policeman for a few months.

I was reminded of this when I saw the theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday.

Victoria Police was formed in January 1853 nearly 20 years after the colony was first settled by Europeans. During those 20 years there had been seven independent police forces and the uniform of Victoria Police was influenced by previous uniform styles. The single-breasted tunic was navy blue with a row of white metal buttons and they wore navy trousers in winter and white in summer. They wore a black leather tschako-style cap. So the uniform was probably similar to that worn by the 'men in blue' in the theme photo. Ephraim signed on as a constable in July 1854 and would have had to purchase his own uniform.

Ephraim was 28 years old and had three small sons. The family was living in the Warrnambool area and that's where he served. He left the force after six months, for reasons unknown, and after that time always worked as a farm labourer and farmer.

Old Dalby cricket match

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Several decades ago a cousin of my mother published a history of Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith who migrated to Victoria in 1852 and lived at Warrnambool and then Dunmunkle near Minyip. In that publication she wrote: Ephraim was a very keen follower of cricket. In those early days, with few means of communication, while the test matches were being played, he would sand out on the main road until someone came along who could tell him the score.
Ephraim and Elizabeth were successful farmers and brought up their family with strong Christian beliefs. They were respected in their community.

Ephraim Smith

Today I was exploring The British Newspapers Archive which is a wonderful (and growing) online resource. You can do a search for free and filter the search results by decade and locality, and usually there is enough detail in the search results to see whether it is worth seeing the original online (each view costs 5 credits). I don't have a subscription but when I saw the combination 'Old Dalby' and 'Ephraim Smith' come up in an 1851 paper I registered and claimed my free 15 credits so I could have a look. Here's the result.

Leicestershire Chronicle, 8 Nov 1851. Accessed via British Newspaper Archive

It appears that Ephraim and his older brother Ornan were involved in a drunken fight after winning a cricket match. The Crown Inn, mentioned in the article, still exists.

The Crown Inn, Old Dalby

Ephraim was a married man at the time, 26 years old with two young sons. I wonder what his wife, Elizabeth, said to him when she heard what he'd been up to. Maybe the Judge's caution worked because I think Ephraim led a sober life in Australia.

Trove Tuesday: Dunmunkle Parish

I remember years ago spending days at the Public Record Office (PRO) in Victoria trying to track down the properties that various ancestors selected in the 1800s.

We first had to locate the parish maps and that led to the wonderful selection files that are held at the PRO. It wasn't easy to find the appropriate maps - some editions of the maps didn't include the famous fraction and without the fraction it was very difficult to access the selection files. The fraction? If you look at allotment 48 on the map below you can see in the bottom left a number 5735 over 19. That was the magic number that led to the selection papers of my great-great-grandfather, William George Smith. W G Smith and his wife Sarah Alice (nee Hillgrove) lived all their married lives on this property. Their home there was called 'Eulong'.

Part of Dunmunkle Parish, County of Borung, Victoria, Feb. 1880
Online at State Library of Victoria. Accessed from a link at Trove.

The same area today, entirely cultivated for crops. Google Maps.

So if William George (known as George) owned the land why does the map show Mary Smith as the owner?

Mary was George's sister and so was Alice Rebecca Smith whose name is on the allotment next door. Both girls and several brothers selected land in the parish at the same time as their father Ephraim when the family moved to the Wimmera district from Warrnambool in the 1870s. Anyone over the age of 18 years was able to select a maximum of 320 acres so that meant the girls could apply. George wasn't old enough. The family members would have all worked as a team on all of the land parcels. There were strict government regulations to comply with including improvements, enclosing, clearing and cultivation, as well as a requirement that they live on the land.  In 1892 Mary transferred the lease on allotment 48 to her brother George.

The dry bed of Dunmunkle Creek. Copyright David Craker

See that wriggly line on the left side of the map? That's Dunmunkle Creek. When the Smiths first moved to the area Ephraim's wife Elizabeth went looking for the creek, in vain. It looks like this most of the time - not exactly a reliable water supply.

Today the parish maps are easy to find. I found the Dunmunkle Parish map on a link via Trove to the State Library of Victoria's website. If you know where to look they are also on the PRO's website. Not so easy is accessing the selection files. You have to go to the PRO in person for those but it's worth it. They are little goldmines. It's amazing to be able to hold in your hand, as I did, a letter written by an ancestor 120 years ago explaining to 'the government' that he wouldn't be able to pay his lease because the crop failed.

Trove Tuesday: In which Ephraim breaks a leg

"Well, I never knew that!" I'd be rich if I had a dollar for each time I've said that in the course of my family history research. And here's another instance.

Horsham Times, 28 Nov 1913

Ephraim is my direct ancestor. He and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Victoria from Old Dalby, Leicestershire, England in 1852. They lived in the Warrnambool area for several decades and gradually got a little more established with property. Ephraim worked a variety of jobs - in a lime kiln, as a policeman, as an agricultural labourer - and all the time their family was growing in numbers and getting to the age when they needed work themselves. So the family took advantage of the fact that the government was opening up some more land for selection in the Wimmera, in the 1870s. Ephraim and each of the oldest children selected land at Dunmunkle, east of Minyip, and set about establishing homes, clearing the land for cereal crops, getting schools, churches and sporting clubs started, organising water supplies. It was hard work but on the whole they were successful. I've left a lot out of this story but that's the gist of it.

Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith

Ephraim and Elizabeth celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 1908 (and there's an article about that in Trove) and they still lived on the farm at Dunmunkle. Several of their children lived nearby. Elizabeth died in December 1912, and Ephraim July 1914. What I didn't know was that seven months before his death Ephraim fell and fractured his leg. Trove came up trumps again.

Ephraim SMITH, son of Joseph SMITH and Mary DACARE was born on 29 Aug 1825 in Old Dalby, LEI, England. He died on 25 Jul 1914 in Minyip, Victoria, Australia. He married Elizabeth DARKER, daughter of John DARKER and Alice PEGG on 17 Dec 1848 in Plumtree, NOTT, England. She was born on 20 Apr 1826 in Clipstone, Nottinghamshire, England. She died on 13 Dec 1912 in Minyip, Victoria, Australia. They had 12 children.