Arthy's of Australia Family History

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Two hundred and fifty descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Arthy, together with many of William Arthy's descendants and several visitors joined in centenary celebrations held at the Hillview Hall on 2nd May 1982. Many travelled long distances from North Queensland, Hervey Bay, Dalby, Toowoomba, Sydney and Melbourne. 

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During lunch, slides of the area in Essex where the Arthy family originated and where many Arthys still live were shown. Barbara Arthy had sent out these slides from England to Raymond and Kirtsey Arthy of Laravale. The story was told step by step, showing old churches, gravestones, memorials and the old family home at least 600 years old. 

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The following Arthy history has been contributed by Mrs Kirtsey Arthy from condensed notes by Gladys Small (nee Arthy), Edna Grey (nee Arthy), Henry A Arthy, Esme Ferguson (nee Arthy) and information collected from interviews with many Arthy descendants. 

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In 1846, when Henry Thomas Arthy was born, his father had established a blacksmith's business in Wakes Colne in Essex. At least three of the Arthy boys became apprentices to their father during their teen years. William, the eldest of Henry's brothers, was also given extensive musical training, at one stage receiving lessons from the great maestro Robert Schumann. 

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William taught at several schools in England before coming to Australia in 1870 with his wife and family. He was a Professor of Music and the first head teacher of the Toowong school, now called Ironside and later became Inspector of Music at schools in East and West Moreton districts of Queensland. 

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William had a farm at Tygum (Waterford) and it was probably he who encouraged his brother Henry and wife Elizabeth and their five young children, Annie, William, Percy, Kate and Harry, to come to Australia in 1882. Alice, Frederick and Edward Walter were born here during the next few years. 

Besides his early blacksmith training Henry also became an engineer and brought from England a collection of engineering tools and a lathe. In England he had worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company but when he came to Queensland he turned his hand to farming, initially at Tygum and then around 1887 on various selections which he and his children obtained over the next few years in the Christmas Creek area. 

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During the 1893 flood the property on which the family were living was badly affected. Most of the cultivation was washed away. This coupled with the fact that the roads to Beaudesert were in so bad a condition that they were impassable for many months caused very severe financial difficulties. 

About 1899 Henry and Elizabeth moved to Laravale, then called Lara, with Kate, Alice, Fred and Walter. In the early years their home had been a hotel, which was closed when the Strettons opened their hotel at Laravale in the house, which later belonged to Fred and in 1982 Delonged to Alan and Elva Arthy (Fred's son and daughter-in-law). 

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Timber from Henry's home at Laravale was used years later to build the house where Nita Thomas (nee Arthy — Percy's daughter) lived in 1982. Besides dairying on this property Henry built a two-storied workshop out of large hand-cut slabs. In it he kept his lathe and did engineering work, made wagons, did repairs and made coffins for the Beaudesert District. A few years before his death in 1914 he suffered a bad fall from a horse resulting in broken ribs and a pierced lung. These injuries were supposed to have contributed to his death. 

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Henry's widow, Elizabeth, had been a London girl and it must have been very hard to adapt to the harsh, primitive conditions in the county around Christmas Creek one hundred years ago. Descriptions or the surveyors' maps at the time say 'dense vine scrub, precipitous cliffs and extremely rugged' to quote a few. 

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Even when they lived at Waterford where conditions would have been better Elizabeth had to learn to drive a horse and sulky twenty-six miles there and back along a rough bush track on monthly trips to Brisbane for provisions. She would go by herself with baby Alice at her feet in a basket, a daunting prospect for a city girl. To Elizabeth and Annie fell the task of taking home-cured bacon from Christmas Creek to Beaudesert. 

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Elizabeth had a twin brother and also a sister who became a lady's maid to Queen Victoria. Her father was a leather seller and passed on to Elizabeth the art of leather making. She made boots for all the family and sewed and made lace. Her nature was in complete contrast to her stern, severe husband. 

When they were living at Christmas Creek she often tried at night to teach the children but after a day of hard work they would be so tired and their father so fussy about them holding their pens just so that she often sent the children off to bed to avoid upsets. Henry called Elizabeth 'wife' but despite his severity his affection for her was strong. 

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Some of Elizabeth's jewellery which survived (in 1982) included a silver coin case, handmade with meticulous care by Henry and a locket with a photo of him inside. Over the years he gave her many rings and brooches. After Henry's death Elizabeth and Annie moved to the house they shared in Boundary Street. Annie cared for her mother when her health began to fail until she died in 1927 aged 81. 

Education for the children was very erratic, almost non-existent for the older ones and only Alice, Fred and Walter received regular schooling. They all worked alongside their parents from an early age, as did most children of selectors at that time. 

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Annie was a very capable person who was equa: to a man in her ability to fence, plough and use a stock whip and gun. She was a marvebous cook, made her own wines from almost anything — oranges, grapes, ginger or wild raspberries — and killed and cured her own bacon. When she lived in Boundary Street she sold butter, eggs and produce from her own land. 

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When Lord Lamington visited the district the Queensland Club. did the catering and Annie helped prepare the dinner. The head chef offered her the position of assistant chef. However her father objected to her working 'outside'. The same objections were raised when a Dr Connolly from Brisbane wanted her to be trained as a nurse after her nursing her sick mother had impressed him. In those days doctors trained their own nurses and Dr Connolly's were regarded as some of the best. 

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Annie worked for Charles Bundock of Kooralbyn Station as housekeeper and also for the Enright family in the same capacity. She remained a very close friend of the Enright family all her life. As she grew older she sold some of her land but stayed on in her Boundary Street home until her death in 1949. 

William, the second child, farmed in the Christmas Creek area until 1908 when he married Anne Harriet Lavers, a Brisbane girl who was bookkeeper and clerk for Ernest Hill's store at Hillview. They became proprietors of a store in William Street about where the Credit Union stood in 1982. When their shop was accidentally burnt down one year later they moved to Brisbane where they bought up a series of small run-clown general stores, built up a profitable trade and then sold them. The last one was on the corner of Warry Street and Leichardt Street, the Valley. The shop was only demolished in about 1972 and in its place was built a large Chinese restaurant. After a short time spent farming at Kuraby William became the manager of St John's Wood Estate, which became the suburb of St John's Wood in Brisbane. He later worked for D G Brims and Son Ply Works for several years. During this time his wife died and he later came back to the Beaudesert area working with his brother Walter at Woodhill and later owning a home in Anna Street. He died in 1945 aged 70. 

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Percy, the third child was an extremely good axe man, winning many events, the ultimate being the Queensland Championship. Fred often said that Percy didn't take the sport seriously and consequently didn't reach his full potential. He said that Percy would not train, would ride to Laravale, where he would talk until the small hours of the morning and then travel to Brisbane or Ipswich or wherever to compete. 

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One photo of Percy shows him standing beside a wood chopping block in Ipswich with spurs still on his boots, after arriving there with too little time left to take them off. When he was 52 a sports day at Hillview had a wood-chopping event. Some of the young fellows laughed at old Percy Arthy having a go. However he had the last laugh — the medal he won is now (in 1982) possessed by his son Henry. Percy and his brother Harry worked together falling timber and clearing scrub with a lot of ihe timber going to the Stephens family of Darlington who were involved in sawmills. 

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Percy also drove bullocks for the same family and was noted for his good temperament in handling a team. One property, which he purchased after his marriage to Mary Jane Slatter, daughter of Mr and Mrs Henry Slatter, is the one where Henry and Bob Arthy now (in 1982) live. Percy died in 1933. 

Kate was very frail when she was born and not expected to live. However she survived and was brought up in the same way as her brothers and sisters and was able to turn her hand to almost anything. In face she was supposed to have been 'better than the boys' with a soldering iron. She was also a very good cook. She re-selected one of the properties her father forfeited near the Lamington National Fitness Camp. On it there was a home, farm buildings and an orchard, the fruit of which was legendary in its size and quality. 

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Around the turn of the century Kate moved to Laravale and lived with her parents and Fred, Walter and Alice. After her father's death she farmed the property in partnership with her brothers. Later her brothers married and the partnership dissolved as both of them bought properties of their own. Fred had bought the property where Alan Arthy now (in 1982) lives and later bought the adjoining property from George Koplick. Kate purchased the house block and lived there until shortly before her death. 

Harry was a big strong man and a good axe man but an accident resulting in cut tendons and muscles in his hand prevented him from achieving the fame Percy did. In the early 1900's he was one of a number of Beaudesert district men who rode to Brisbane to become members of a special constable's squad to maintain law and order during a rail strike which lasted many months. He was a skilled bushman and worked with Jim Buchanan and others cutting the track, which was used by Lord Lamington to inspect the proposed Lamington National Park. The track was 19% miles long and 8 feet wide through some of the thickest jungle known to man. However nothing more was done and the track, which had taken so very long to cut, became overgrown. It was the same track, which was re-opened to rescue the Stinson crash survivors. 

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Harry married Emily Jennings, daughter of William and Eliza Jennings, where Eliza was a daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann Markwell. Early in their marriage they moved to the Pomona area where they started farming. Some of Harry's children, particularly Sid and Roy, the two eldest sons kept a lifelong association with the Beaudesert area. 

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Alice was an expert needlewoman and a very good violinist, often playing at dances. She married Charles Hankey, son of Fred and Sarah Hankey who had selected land at Bromelton in the 1880's. Alice and Charlie worked on dairies in the Beaudesert area until they moved to the Stanthorpe area after the First World War. They ran a boarding house and a farm until they built a store in 1928. Over the years they operated a Post Office as well as the store. It wasn't until 1972, when Alice was nearly 90 that she gave up the store and moved to Brisbane to live with her daughter Phyllis. Phyllis had suffered from lead poisoning as a child and consequently was confined to a wheelchair although she led an active life — even running her own shop. When Phyllis's health began to deteriorate, Alice in her 90's was able to look after her. She died in 1976. 

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Fred married Marion, daughter of Lucy and Robert Manderson and granddaughter of William and Eliza Everdell. He was a keen sportsman and cricketer and at one stage he and Michael Walsh Senior were secretaries of a camp draft that was very successful, clearing a large debt owing on the Laravale Catholic Church. The camp draft ground was situated in the northwest corner of what is now (in 1982) E R Urch's property at Laravale. 

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Fred was a keen amateur photographer and was actively involved in charity work. He was a foundation member of the Tamrookum Hall and treasurer of the Laravale State School for 19 years. He was made honorary patron of the hall committee in honour of the work he did for the hall. He was one of the first in the district to purchase a car — a Chevrolet 4 — from Pat Dever in 1925. He was also an early purchaser of a Fordson tractor with two-disc side plough in 1926. He was gifted with the art of carpentry, woodworking and making novelty items as were other members of the family. Sadly very few of these items are still in existence. 

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The Jersey stud conducted by Fred and Marion was called 'Wakes Colne' after the area in Essex that his father came from. Marion was a very good cook and the Christmas Creek Arthys remember trips to town, which took three days — one spent filling up on Aunt Marion's fresh bread and Uncle Fred's rich Jersey butter, one day to wherever they were going and a repeat performance of bread and butter on the way home. Both Fred and Marion died in December 1968 within eight days of each other. 

When Walter was born the lady who acted as midwife was Mrs Henry Brook, grandmother of the girl he met and married years later, Mabel Brook. Walter and Mabel owned `Kia Ora' at Woodhill until it was taken over by Colin, Dulcie and Glen in 1950 and then Darrel And Thora in 1957. He was a very good tennis player and keen cricketer. 

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Walter was also gifted with the ability to do woodwork and played the accordion and mouth organ often playing at BrameIton dances as well as providing voluntary music for dances at the Brooklands School when his children were there. He died in 1962 with his wife Mabei being the last surviving member of that generation. 

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A measure of the esteem that was felt for these early pioneers is the fact that a but at the Lamington National Fitness Camp was named Arthy in their honour.