Sepia Saturday: Euphemia

You know the saying. 'Behind every successful man there is a good woman.' Well there was a 'good woman' in our family. Her name was Euphemia and she was my husband's great-grandmother.

Euphemia Sims (nee Yeaman) 1866-1941

Euphemia was a daughter and a wife, a mother and a grandmother. She lived in Victoria, Australia for 75 years and was never an 'independent' woman or a 'career' woman. She was the daughter of a farmer and the wife of a farmer/butter manufacturer/storekeeper.

Charles Yeaman was born in Scotland and his mother's name was Euphemia Craig so naturally he would want to name his daughter after her. His English-born wife probably yielded willingly because almost all of Euphemia's siblings were given family names.

Euphemia in Greek means 'speak well' (euphemism comes from the same roots) and has never been especially popular as a name for girls, but it was used fairly frequently in Scotland up to the 1800s. Nicknames were common too so some of the Euphemias were called Effie of Phemie or even Mia, and our Euphemia was called Pheme. And she wasn't the only descendant of Euphemia Craig to carry her name. She named her daughter Euphemia Evelyn Sims (known as Elvie) and a grandaughter was called Euphemia Joy Phelan (known as Joy), and there was also a Euphemia Paynter (known as Fame), Louise Euphemia Yeaman and Euphemia Elizabeth Rigby (known as Effy).

Until she was about nine years old Grandma Euphemia lived on a farm at Cobaw east of Kyneton and then her parents selected land at Tennyson about half way between Echuca and Bendigo. They were very good farmers, innovative and industrious. And so was the man she married about twenty years later, Charles Sims. He lived nearby, at Pine Grove, and as well as farming he established a store and a butter factory on his farm. (Descendants still own the farm.)

Riverine Herald (Echuca), 23 June 1892

Charles and Euphemia Sims

Charles and Euphemia Sims with their family in 1916.

Charles and Pheme had six children while they lived at Pine Grove and then they left the oldest son on the farm and moved to Mitiamo, a nearby town that had grown up around the railway station. Charles was a very busy man because he ran a successful country store and had numerous other interests and investments as well as maintaining an interest in farming. Church was a very important part of their lives too. He and Euphemia were leaders in their community and for Euphemia life was busy too - as well as the normal cooking and cleaning and preparing for family and community events there was the unexpected.  During the Great War women knitted and baked and sewed for their soldiers, frequent letter writing was crucial. The family had a holiday house at Hepburn Springs too so like all holiday houses that too had to be cleaned, especially after it had been rented to other people.

Later in Euphemia's life another war took family members overseas to serve and once again the women in the community rallied.

Pheme was much loved by her family. I asked my father-in-law what his grandmother was like as a person and he said one word. Kind. She was a kind lady. And then he added that she was also an excellent cook. I could have guessed the latter because her daughters were great cooks. When I first met her daughter Annie (my husband's grandmother) she made an apple pie for dinner. From scratch. She made the puff pastry by breaking butter pieces over the rolled out pastry before folding and rolling and buttering again repeatedly. It was an amazing thing to see and I was properly impressed. I didn't guess that Euphemia was kind because in photos she looks quite stern, but there are hints. See in the photo below how her daughter is snuggling close and has one leg behind her mum? And notice in the family photo, above, that four of her children are touching their mother.

Euphemia with her daughter Euphemia Evelyn (Elv) and grandchild.

In 1936 Euphemia turned 70 and the family got together at Annie's house in Mitiamo to celebrate. You can imagine the preparation that was involved and the cooking that was done. It was a sit-down meal and the photo show a table laden with cakes and slices on stands, flowers, nibbles and who knows what else. The birthday cake has two layers and 70 candles.

Family at Euphemia Sims' 70th birthday party, Mitiamo, 1936.

When Euphemia died five years later each of the children and her husband inserted a moving notice in the paper with phrases like "God's richest gift, our mother." and "A life made beautiful by kindly deeds."

The Argus, 3 September 1941

This blog is in response to the theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday. I suggest you make a glutton of yourself and wander over there to feast on other blogs.

Trove Tuesday: In which the Sims holiday in Hepburn Springs

In the 1930s Charles and Euphemia Sims were living at Mitiamo and had operated a busy general store there as well as a farm and store at Pine Grove. They dabbled in other business enterprises as well - an ice store, a butter factory, providing electricity, running a cafe and selling icecream at the Mitiamo railway station.

They and their family were very busy in work and community activities in the farming community on the hot plains north of Bendigo. So it is natural that they would look to the cooler climate of Hepburn Springs in central Victoria when they purchased a holiday house and there was the added attraction of the mineral springs that abound in the Hepburn Springs/Daylesford area. It was a popular health resort. Maybe they had holidayed there a number of times before they decided to purchase - we'll never know - but at some stage they bought a house in Church Avenue and called it 'Mitiamo House'.

'Mitiamo House', Church Avenue, Hepburn Springs

I didn't know what street the house was in until I found several advertisements using the resources at Trove. 'Mitiamo House' was advertised as a holiday rental during the 1930s and early 1940s. I found out that it accommodated four to eight people, was furnished, had all conveniences including electric light, sewerage, had a garage and was situated in a favourite position in Church Avenue near the springs. It was also next to the Grand.

From a tourist folder: 'The Grande' guest house, Hepburn Springs

The Argus, 5 August 1933

The Argus, 22 January 1938

The Argus, 27 April 1940

The female Sims were meticulous and proud housekeepers so there are stories of the daughters having to travel down to Hepburn Springs to clean the house after the holidaying tenants had departed. There are also stories of fun times when the family holidayed there themselves.

Family members at one of the springs, 1937

From a tourist folder: Locarno Springs, Hepburn Springs

From a tourist folder: Wyuna Spring, Hepburn Springs

From a tourist folder: The suspension bridge, Hepburn Springs

Joy Phelan on the suspension bridge, Hepburn Springs

The Blowhole, Hepburn Springs

Ina, Neil and Doug Phelan at The Blowhole, Hepburn Springs

Some time in the 1940s the house was sold. Reluctantly and resentfully. Apparently there was a government regulation about holiday houses that had to be complied with but I have yet to identify what that regulation was.

The house still exists, and so does 'The Grande' next door. Both have been altered but not so that they are unrecognisable.

The former 'Mitiamo House', 5 Church Avenue, Hepburn Springs. [Google Maps, Street View, 2014]

Sepia Saturday: Family and friends

Sepia Saturday's theme this week had me searching through the albums looking for trios. It's been an interesting exercise working out the relationships and who the photographer might have been.

All of the photos below are from the Sims family album, and were taken in the 1920s probably. Chas, Edie, Annie and Elv Sims (and their other siblings) lived in a little town called Mitiamo in north-central Victoria. Their father owned a very busy general store in the town and it was probably an agency for film and developing.

Maybe this photo was taken by Annie Sims. It's of her two sisters and her future husband. Did she ask the women to hold their hands like that? And again, in the second photo probably taken on the same day - same handclasp. I wonder which of the siblings most often remembered to get the camera out of the cupboard, posed the friends and family members, sent the film away to be developed? Did dad pay for the developing?

Two sisters, Elv and Edie Sims, and their brother-in-law, Roy Phelan

Elv and Edie Sims with a friend

Edie Sims with her brother Chas Sims (right) and her future brother-in-law Les Twigg (left)

Sisters, Elv and Annie Sims, with Olive Phelan. I can't place the venue. Maybe it's Bendigo or Melbourne.

Annie Sims (centre) with friends

Elv Sims with fiends.

Elv and Edie Sims with unknown friend (centre)

Sepia Saturday: Outside the country store

The theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday is a shopfront and I found a photo to match the theme in our family's album.

A small country town in the early part of the 20th century needed a good general store because the nearest big town was Bendigo and getting there and back took all day. Not exactly convenient, especially in the days when horse-drawn vehicles were more common than cars. In Mitiamo the store was run by Charles W Sims and then his son-in-law Roy Phelan. As well as food and haberdashery they provided everything from petrol to insurance and delivered around the local farms every fortnight. There was a train station in Mitiamo so they were able to bring their goods to town on the rail system. It was a very busy place.

During WW2 the shop and the adjoining residence burnt down but I'll save that story for another day.

Outside Sims store, Mitiamo

Charles William SIMS, son of Samuel SIMS and Elizabeth CARTER was born on 21 May 1869 (Coliban, Victoria, Australia). He died on 20 Apr 1942 in Mitiamo, Victoria, Australia. He married Euphemia YEAMAN, daughter of Charles YEAMAN and Sarah PAYNTER on 16 Jun 1892 in Pine Grove, Victoria, Australia. She was born on 12 Aug 1866 in Cobaw, Victoria, Australia. She died on 01 Sep 1941 in Mitiamo, Victoria, Australia. 

Sepia Saturday: The swimmers

The topic for Sepia Saturday this week is very apt given that here in Australia we're breaking records left (west), right (east) and centre. We've just had our hottest day ever (average of all temperature reports nation wide) and there are fires all over the place creating havoc.

These photos of three sisters are from a family album, taken in the 1920s in central Victoria. There is another one from the same album that I blogged about here.

I think their bathing costumes are wool, and aren't those hats great? (We used to call swimsuits 'togs' when I was young but that word seems to have gone out of use, replaced by 'bathers'.)

Elv

Annie and Edith

Trove Tuesday: A brief business venture

The late Mr Sims was a pushing, energetic man, and one of the luckiest pioneers of the district. He owned a lot of land at Pine Grove, also at Kerang, where he resided for some years until recently. His was a well-known name amongst auctioneers and business men all over Victoria and he always did his utmost to push the interests of his district ahead. He also took a keen interest in the Mallee, and by his energetic advocacy did much towards the development of a considerable part of that country.  [Rochester Express, Friday 6 April 1906]

The obituary above describes Samuel Sims as an energetic business man. Today's blog for Trove Tuesday details just one of his business ventures, one I didn't know about before 'reading all about it' at Trove.

In 1889 he was farming near Kerang and at Pine Grove in northern Victoria and, as well, had established a store, butter factory and butchery at Pine Grove. The eldest son, Sidney (aged 23), was also at Kerang and was a player with his father in their brief venture into the butchering business there.

The first evidence I found was this newspaper notice from May 1889.

Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette, Friday 24 May 1889, page 3

In the same newspaper there is an article (too long to reproduce here) about a court case involving the prior owner, Mr Moorhead. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about who actually owned the debts associated with the business when Moorhead was the butcher. It appears to me that Samuel Sims, the canny businessman, had all his bases legally covered. The article provided me with interesting details about how much he paid and how he organised his business affairs.

Then there is a newspaper advertisement I found, dated 27 September 1889.

The Kerang Times, Friday 27 September 1889, page 4

Then, a month later, this notice appeared. They've closed the business.

The Kerang Times, Tuesday 22 October 1889, page 3

Samuel Sims and his son Sidney continued to farm in the district. There's more to their stories, there always is, but that will have to wait for another day.

Samuel SIMS, son of William SIMS and Mary LEATHERLAND was born on 14 Apr 1831 in Uppingham, Rutland, England. He died on 31 Mar 1906 in Pine Grove, Victoria, Australia. He married Elizabeth CARTER, daughter of Joseph CARTER and Ann TURNER on 29 May 1865 in Lauriston, Victoria, Australia (In the home of Elizabeth's mother, Ann CARTER.). She was born in 1842 in Billingshurst, Sussex, England. She died on 03 Sep 1891 in Pine Grove, Victoria, Australia. Issue: Sidney, Ann (married Edwin Chappel), Charles and Albert.

Flirting with Flickr

Another hobby of mine is photography and I love to upload to the online photograph community at Flickr. It's a very big community, with millions of members worldwide,  but I love it because I can join groups on Flickr that are specific in nature. So my macro photos of insects go into the Insects of Australia group, my close-ups of native plants go into the plant groups and so on. And the thing I really enjoy is that the other Flickrites are so friendly - we comment on each others photos, we help to identify species, we make suggestions.

As well as my own photos I've been uploading scanned copies of photos from my family's old albums and attaching them to to Flickr groups specific to old photos. I make sure they have tags identifying people and place when I can. And from a family history point of view I've been rewarded by distant relatives making contact with me, or historians interested in local history or researchers after particular images.

Chas Sims (centre) and unknown friends, Mitiamo

Last week I was contacted by a local history group currently putting together a calendar for next year. They want to use one of my old photos (above) for their 'then and now' theme. Don't they look great in their woollen bathers? I imagine the bathing costumes sagged in the water though!!