Alfred Smith and Harriet Hutchings Langbridge
Harriet Hutchings Langbridge was born on 31/1/1828 in Moretonhampstead, Devon, daughter of John Langbridge and Harriet Hutchings. Alfred Smith is believed to have born in 1827 in Wantage, Berkshire; his parents being Robert Smith and Eliza Doe. Alfred and Harriet were married on 9/3/1852 in the parish church of Saint Lukes, Chelsea, and they emigrated to Australia in 1854 on board the Ostrich, arriving at Port Adelaide on July 21st.
The passenger list of the Ostrich gives Alfred's age as 27 and Harriet's as 25, their previous residence as Middlesex, and Alfred's occupation as carpenter.
Alfred and Harriet had nine children:
- John Allen, b. 24/11/1854 at Logan's Flat;
- Alfred James, b. 19/6/1856 at Nairne;
- Selina, b. 2/1/1858 at Nairne;
- Mary Louisa, b. 24/2/1860 at Nairne;
- Frederick William, b. 12/7/1862 at Nairne;
- Agnes Anne, b. 4/1/1865 at Bungaree Run;
- Walter, b. 18/3/1867 at Bungaree Run;
- Robert Carlton, b. 19/9/1869;
- Elsie Maud Smith, b. 23/7/1873 at Bungaree Run.
Logan's Flat is near Willunga, some 30km south of Adelaide. Alfred and Harriet must have gone there very shortly after their arrival in South Australia. From the birthplaces of the other children it would seem that the family lived at Nairne between 1856 and 1862, and at Bungaree Station (near Clare) from 1864 to 1873. Since Alfred owned a house in Laura from 1873, the family presumably moved from Bungaree to Laura in that year. However, I am told that Alfred did not reside continuously at his Laura home. Working as a carpenter and builder, he apparently went wherever work was available.
South Australian Advertiser, 1/4/1859
In December 1877 the Northern District Licensing Bench approved the transfer of the licence of the Laura Hotel from H. Simpson to A. Smith. (I do not know for certain that this was Alfred.) Perhaps the idea was to acquire the hotel, make repairs, and dispose of it at a profit, for in March 1878 one Wm Peck applied for and was granted the licence of the Laura Hotel. Shortly thereafter Alfred submitted plans to build and operate a hotel at the new township of Pinda.
The Register, 7/12/1877
The Register, 7/3/1878
|
The Register, 3/5/1878
|
Alfred's notice dated May 1st 1878 says that the hotel is to be at "Pinda, North", but the place he was referring to was usually just called Pinda. The licence that Alfred was duly granted (on 4/12/1878) was for the Pinda Hotel, Pinda. The fact that the licence was granted at this time indicates that the building was by then completed and met the standards required by the licensing bench.
The Register, 6/9/1878
|
The Register, 7/12/1878
|
Pinda is on the road from Wilmington to Orroroo, at the point where it crosses the Willochra. It is not in the hundred of Pinda, but the very north-east corner of the hundred of Gregory. (See the map of the hundreds of South Australia.) The township came into existence in 1878. Planned optimistically, it never prospered as hoped. The State Library of S.A.'s Place Names of South Australia A to Z site has a little information about the place, for example that there was a Pinda School from 1880 to 1939, and that the post office at Amyton (in the hundred of Pinda) was called the Pinda Post Office, before it was sensibly renamed in 1880. A newspaper article from 1881 reports the opening of the bridge over the Willochra (on which occasion the distinguished gentlemen present dined at the Pinda Hotel). Another article reports on a public meeting held on 4/4/1881 at the Pinda Hotel, at which the residents resolved to petition the Minister for Education for the erection forthwith of a school house and teacher's residence.
The Register, 30/5/1878
|
The Register, 8/3/1879
The Register, 29/3/1879
The Register, 30/3/1887
|
I suspect that Alfred Smith never intended to keep the Pinda hotel; he probably built it with the intention of immediately selling it at a profit. In March 1879 one B. Cohen became the licensee, and on 2/4/1879 the hotel was auctioned by W. Wadham & Co. at their Waymouth Street saleroom.
Wadham's auction notice says that the Pinda Hotel was let to Filgate & Sabine; they were the brewers of Laura beer.
On 9/3/1886 the annual meeting of the Northern District Licensing Bench was told that the Pinda Hotel had closed for want of business. Although it reopened later that year, with C. T. Thorn as the licensee, there are no newspaper references to it after 1887, until a 1939 reference to "the old Pinda Hotel", presumably long derelict by then.
Alfred's wife Harriet died at Laura on 15/5/1878 after an illnesss of only a few hours. There is an entry in the burial register of the Church of St Michael at Bungaree recording that Harriet was buried there on 16/5/1978. I suppose that I must accept this to be true, but I find it surprising. It is the best part of 100km from Laura to Bungaree, and I would have thought it difficult to arrange for Harriet to be buried in Bungaree the day after her sudden death in Laura.
In fact four of Harriet's children predeceased her: Agnes Anne died on 20/1/1865, Walter died on 7/2/1870, Elsie Maud died on 6/2/1875 and Alfred James died on 17/2/1875. I am told that all were buried at Bungaree, Agnes on 30/1/1865, Walter on 8/2/1870, Elsie on 8/2/1875 and Alfred on 19/2/1875.
Burials were usually done swiftly in those days; so I wonder if Agnes' burial actually took place on 20/1/1865, the day of her death, rather than 30/1/1865. Alfred and Elsie both died in Laura, and for them to be buried in Bungaree two days after their respective deaths looks very plausible. The Smith descendant who provided me with the above death and burial dates believed that all the deaths took place in Laura, but it seems to me more likely that Agnes and Walter died at Bungaree.
All the gravestones at St Michael's were clearly legible when I went there in 2008, but unfortunately I could not find one for Harriet or any of the children. There appeared to be at least three unmarked graves (in the foreground of the photograph above) and so I suppose that one of those could be Harriet's.
My mother's cousin, Paul Campbell, has provided the following information about Alfred's final years. In May 1892, suffering from melancholia, he was admitted to Parkside Lunatic Asylum. He died there on 31/7/1896, the cause of death being influenza and melancholia. He was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.
The children of Alfred and Harriet
As noted above, three of the children died in infancy and one as a teenager. The information I have pertaining to the others is presented herewith.
Selina Smith married William Horne Campbell at Laura on 30/8/1876. For more information see their page.
The Advertiser, 6/9/1876
|
Mary Louisa Smith married James Campbell, brother of William Horne Campbell, at Laura on 23/6/1880. They had no children.
The Advertiser 24/7/1880
|
Louisa died in Rhodes, Sydney, on 5/1/1930. See the William and Annie Campbell page for a little more information about James and Louisa.
John Allen Smith married Alice Harriet Wilson (b. 24 /5/1865) at Gladstone on 19/10/1890. The Ipplepen Adams Family website has a page dealing with John Allen; it says that Alice and he had four children, all born at Laura: Sabina Alice Smith (b. 2/7/1892), who married James Nelcabee Robertson and had five children; Harriet Matilda Smith (29 /11/1894–28/3/1895); John Hurtle Smith (11/7/1896–3/7/1965), who married Ena Pearl Tucker and had three children; Isobel May Smith (23/10/1899–8/10/1925), who married Ernest Frank Hoare (b. 4/2/1900, buried June 1978). John Allen died in Adelaide on 10/9/1918; Alice Harriet died at Laura on 14/12/1937.
Frederick William Smith married Elizabeth Anderson (b. 12/12/1863) at Nairne on 14/4/1884. The Ipplepen Adams Family website says that they had six children: Elsie Langbridge Smith (b. Laura 2/11/1884, d. March 1972), who married Albert Ernest Moseley (b. 9/6/1884, d. 28/9/1955) and had nine children; Joseph Walter Smith (b. Tarcowie 16/11/1888); Fred Anderson Smith (b. Orroroo 15/2/1891), who married Nanny May Sampson; Eric Wilkin Smith (b. Johnsburg 4/7/1893); Marjorie Adelaide Smith (b. Johnsburg 16/7/1895), who married Neil Alexander Lawson; Maud Doreen Smith (b. 25/7/1899), who married Harry Cliff and had five children. I do not know the date of Frederick William's death. Elizabeth died at Johnsburg on 18/10/1900.
Robert Carlton Smith married Eveline Maud Isobel Tuck (b. 10/1/1877, daughter of Edward John Taylor Tuck) in Perth on 19/4/1898. They had eight children, all born in Perth: Frederick Carlton Smith (22/1/1899–26/3/1985), who married Florence Gertrude Hackford and had one child; Harold Edward Smith (3/11/1901–3/2/1964), who married Elsie May Redfurn and had three children; Evelyn Maud Smith (6/2/1906–19/8/1998), who married Donovan Reid Thyer and had two children; Gwendoline May Smith (11/1/1910–23/1/2004), who did not marry; Myrtle Amy Smith (4/5/1912–5/12/2002), who did not marry; Robert Ernest Smith (18/7/1914–17/4/1981), who married Olga Mary Frances Birch and had three children; Ethel Mary Smith (18/11/1916–9/2/1998), who married George Clarkson and had three children; Horace Raymond Smith (b. 15/7/1919), who married Winifred May Smith (daughter of Owen Smith and Olive Williams), two children.
The photograph above shows in the back row (left to right) Frederick Carlton, Harold Edward and Evelyn Maud, and in the front row (left to right) Gwendoline May, Robert Carlton, Ethel Mary, Eveline Maud Isobel (nee Tuck) Horace Raymond (on lap), Robert Ernest, Edward John Taylor Tuck (Eveline's father) and Myrtle Amy.
Two more photos of Robert Carlton and Eveline Maud Isobel are shown below.
Robert Carlton Smith died on 26/4/1948 and Eveline Maud Isobel Smith died on 10/7/1947.