Jerrems Journal – July 2016 Edition 136
JABEZ WILLIAM SMALL, THIRD ARTICLE
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Introduction by Ray Jerrems
The above photo shows the Manly Peninsula.** The beach is on the left and the Harbour is on the top right. This article draws to a close the career of Jabez William Small, a grandson of Big Bill Jerrems. Previous articles describe his early career, including his military service in New Zealand and later business of importing photographic supplies. We now turn to the interesting aspects of his ventures into gold mining companies and land speculation. ** Editor’s Note: Long time readers may remember Manly Beach mentioned in our 2006 editions, as follows:
Sydney-girl Nicole Kidman married Keith Urban at Manly Point in June. (Manly Point was mentioned in our July issue; it is where Great Uncle Charles lived out his last days in the early 1900’s.)
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| Jabez the gold miner
Within three years of marrying Emma in Sydney in 1870 Jabez must have had a rush of blood to the head, deciding he would like to be a goldminer. Since the 1860s gold mining had changed from individuals panning for gold in streams to sophisticated methods like dredging or (as described in earlier articles relating to Ballarat and Bendigo) quartz mining using deep shafts. New South Wales did not have major gold mining centres like Ballarat and Bendigo, instead the gold mines were spread out over much of the centre of the State. Unlike the Heyes family who had lost a number of men as the result of mining, Jabez must have decided to be an armchair miner safely esconced in Sydney. He did this by investing in a series of mining companies. These were “limited liability” companies, which were formed under special legislation, the Mining Partnerships Limited Liability Act, 1861. This legislation provided for companies to be floated by public subscription, the amounts raised (in Jabez’s case 5000 pounds down to 4000 pounds) being used to provide the capital for the operations of the companies. Details of the subscriptions were then advertised in the newspapers. Jabez bought shares in the following three companies: (a) Union Jack Gold Mining Company (Limited), Chambers Creek Union Jack Gold Mining Company (Limited) This was situated on Chambers Creek, a tributary of the Macquarie River, which rises in the Great Dividing Range, west of the Blue Mountains. It was in the same general area as the prominent town of Hill End, where the famous Holterman Nugget was discovered. Jabez must have thought that the company had divine blessing. Four of the investors were religious ministers, and another investor was none other than John Baptist Jnr. Jabez’s investment was a fairly modest 20 pounds (probably about $1000 in current day terms). A 1939 article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported that there was virtually nothing left of the original town of Chambers Creek, which at its peak had a population of 20,000 people (I must say that this is a very unlikely figure). The author of the article found only the remains of a crushing battery installed by an English syndicate, some furnaces and a number of mine shafts where the ore had been mined. The method of extraction by digging mine shafts was similar to the method used in Ballarat and Bendigo, although on a much smaller scale. Like many such mining areas the returns were (according to Mines Department records) disappointing and the town and almost all the workings vanished, together with Jabez’s 20 pounds. |
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Frederick’s Valley Hydraulic Sluicing Company (Limited) Located on Summerhill Creek near Ophir, not far west of Chambers Creek, Jabez let his hair down by investing 50 pounds. In this he was overshadowed by his father-in-law John Newsham, who invested 100 pounds, which might suggest that John was the prime mover. The investors came from far and wide, including people from verdant Kiama on the south coast and dusty Brewarrina in the distant far west. Interestingly, the method of extraction was different. The gold was in alluvium and was extracted by washing the alluvium with pressure hoses. The technique here was to build a dam on a nearby side creek at a sufficient elevation to enable pressure hoses to convey water to the worksite. As you can see from the above photo, this method of extraction caused considerable damage to the environment. Golden Gully Gold Mining Company (Limited), Despite its name (there was a Golden Gully near Hill End) this was situated at Ironbarks Creek, further west of the other mines. Like the other mines in which Jabez invested, this mine eventually closed, probably for the most common reason that the alluvial gold had run out. Jabez bought 20 shares at what seems to have been the standard rate of one pound sterling per share. However Ironbarks Creek, now called Stuart Town, has a different claim to fame completely unrelated to gold mining. It provided the inspiration for Banjo Paterson’s famous poem “The Man From Ironbark” |
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The Man From Ironbark
Andrew Barton (“Banjo”) Paterson (1864-1941) was a poet, solicitor, journalist, war correspondent and soldier.
The first verse is:
It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town,
He wandered over street and park, he wandered up and down. He loitered here, he loitered there, till he was like to drop, Until at last in sheer despair he sought a barber’s shop. “‘Ere! shave my beard and whiskers off, I’ll be a man of mark, I’ll go and do the Sydney toff up home in Ironbark.” When he found a barber’s shop, in due course the barber drew the back of a hot cut-throat razor across our hero’s throat, making him think his throat had been cut, whereupon he went berserk, as follows: He set to work with nail and tooth, he made the place a wreck; A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show; |
Modern-day Ironbark
Here is a photo of the very picturesque Ironbark Inn. The name of the original “Ironbarks” was changed to Stuart Town in 1889 when the railway arrived. It is now a hamlet which comes alive annually for its “Man from Ironbark Festival”. It is rumoured that at its peak the town had a population of 6,000. Between 1875 and 1914 (by which time most of the mining had ceased) it is estimated that 140,000 ounces of gold had been mined there. There are still the remains of over 50 mine shafts and a Chinese oven which is evidence of the strong role Chinese miners played in the development of the Central NSW goldfields. As with many other gold mining towns in Central NSW, Ben Hall the bushranger left his mark when he and his gang robbed a wine shanty in a nearby village. Dividends Returning to Jabez’s gold mining investments, although the gold mines in which he invested have long since disappeared from memory because the gold would predictably have run out, he would still have received dividends if the companies ran at a profit. In the case of the Golden Gully Gold Mining Company it went into liquidation in 1894, 21 years after it was floated and three years after Jabez died. One could conclude that it must have made a profit during that period in order for it to have remained in operation for so long. On the other hand these are the only gold mining investments I can find for Jabez, so he must have changed his mind about their profitability. Jabez the real estate dabbler Shortly after his foray into gold mining Manly Council records show that on 27th February 1874 Jabez bought 20 acres of land at Forty Baskets Beach from John Whaley for 140 pounds. I have set out the details because on face value such a large area of land seems unlikely. The explanation probably lies in the fact that Forty Baskets, which is a beach on Sydney Harbour not far from Manly, was in a fairly inaccessible area at the time, being only accessible by small boat. |
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Forty Baskets Beach
This is a photo of modern-day Forty Baskets Beach, showing the Sydney Harbour side of Manly in the background. The Manly Ferry Wharf and Harbour beach (lined with Norfolk Pine trees) can be discerned above the right hand end of the foreground wharf.
There is a quaint story about how this beach gained its name.
When a New South Wales Military Contingent returned from fighting in the Sudan War in Africa in 1885 it was held for a time in the nearby Quarantine Station. During those trying days one bright spot was the gift of forty baskets of fish from some local fishermen. That welcome gift is commemorated today in maps of Sydney Harbour by the name “Forty Baskets Beach”.
Jabez moves to Manly
Although we do not know specifically when Jabez moved to Manly, we know that he was elected as an alderman of Manly Council in 1882, the year his daughter Stella was born in Manly. At the time he owned a house in East Esplanade, Manly, literally across the road from the Harbour beach and very close to the Ferry Wharf. It would be reasonable to assume that when he stood for the election he had been a resident there for some time.
Jabez would have been able to travel to his office in the city by paddle steamer from Manly. Ferries had been running on that route since the 1850s, culminating in the formation of the Port Jackson Steamship Company in 1877.
The expanding town of Manly
Manly is about seven miles (eleven kilometres) from the city and is one of the top Sydney tourist destinations. It is famous for its surf beach and scenic ferry trip to the wharf on the Harbour side. It experienced a surge in its population beginning in the 1870s.
I remember that the ferries in the 1950s had a catchy advertisement titled “Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care”‘
Jabez agitates for a Rifle Company
In 1883 Jabez distinguished himself by agitating for the formation of a Volunteer Rifle Company at Manly. Described in the local press as a “fervent supporter” of the formation, he obtained 74 signatures of local residents in a petition, resulting in a large public meeting. Jabez had of course considerable experience in Volunteer Rifles dating back to the 1860s, and his father-in-law was a Captain in the NSW Rifles.
The proposal was not successful, possibly because the prime mover (Jabez) had moved.
Jabez moves to Stanmore
Despite the fact that he had become a prominent citizen in Manly, not long afterwards he moved to the well-to-do suburb (as it was at that time) of Stanmore, on Sydney’s Western railway line, where a son was born in 1886. Notwithstanding Manly’s very pleasant beachside surroundings and idyllic setting for his young family he may have moved because Stanmore was much closer to his office (he would have had well over an hour’s travel time each way whilst at Manly).
Jabez returns to Melbourne
It is apparent from the birthplaces of his later children that Jabez returned to Melbourne in 1887, when his son Reginald was born in Pascoevale, near Essendon. The family then moved to Balwyn, near Hawthorn, where he died in 1891 at the comparatively early age (for those days) of fifty one.
It is a matter of conjecture as to why they moved to Melbourne, after having lived in Sydney for sixteen years (ten years at Marrickville, where Emma’s parents lived).Further, Emma’s parents were still alive, so their demise was not the reason for the change of address.
My initial reaction when I saw that Jabez had moved to Melbourne was that he may have been in financial trouble in Sydney and had decided to move to Melbourne to make a fresh start. However the probate of his will shows that when he died his NSW estate was a very healthy 11,734 pounds, and his Victorian estate was also a healthy 5,131 pounds. Financial matters were not therefore an issue, he left his family was well off.
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Conclusion
This article has completed my accounts of the careers of the children of Elizabeth Small (nee Jerrems), a daughter of Big Bill.
Jabez’s business acumen must have rubbed off on his eldest son Arthur Jabez Small, but that is another story. |