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Jerrems Journal – June 2016 Edition 135
JABEZ WILLIAM SMALL, SECOND ARTICLE
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Introduction by Ray Jerrems,
This article continues the story of Jabez William Small (1840-1891), the youngest child of William Small and Elizabeth Small (nee Jerrems, a daughter of Big Bill).
In a previous article I described his early career, culminating in his service in the First Waikato Militia Regiment in New Zealand in 1862/3).
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After the high drama of serving in New Zealand Jabez returned to the day-to-day reality that he had to earn a living in Melbourne. At some stage (possibly soon after he returned from New Zealand) Jabez started up a photography supply business known as JW Small &Co. Perhaps he had adopted the idea of his brother William and brother-in-law George Priston who had married their sister Elizabeth in August 1863. William and George (a pharmacist) had gone into partnership for a period in the 1860s to sell photographic supplies. After they split up they had separate stores in Melbourne They must have been successful because they entered exhibits in the 1866 Melbourne Inter Colonial Exhibition (held in the 1852 Exhibition Centre shown in the above photograph, taken soon after the building was constructed). Meanwhile, Jabez had opened a shop known as “JW Small & Co.” in Melbourne and it appears that in due course he may have opened branches in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. The reports are not clear about the branches because they seem to confuse Jabez with his brother Thomas. |
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Growing popularity of photography
The 1860s saw a significant upsurge in interest in photography. In the United States Matthew Brady was famous for his American Civil War photographs, and in Australia Beaufoy Merlin was famous for his photography.
Merlin photographed the buildings in Melbourne and in country towns and he then travelled to Sydney, photographing towns on the way.
In 1872 he set up a photographic studio in the goldmining town of Hill End with the assistance of the wealthy miner Bernhard Otto Holtermann (of “Holtermann Nugget” fame). Holtermann appointed Merlin to be official photographer for his planned ‘International Travelling Exposition’. This project was to become one of the greatest projects in Australian 19th photography.
In his later rural photography Merlin forsook the typical family portraits which were the mainstay of commercial photographers to show scenes in rural towns, including members of the public in the photos where possible. In the above photo (one of my favourites) we see a bogged dray in the main street of a town, watched by a band of likely lads wearing typical clothing, including a shop worker wearing an apron.
But what was involved in photographic supplies, jumping ahead to Jabez’s total of twenty years in this trade? Cameras and other equipment Ambrotype
Strangely, the collodion mixture (known by the military as “guncotton”) was not only inflammable but highly explosive. Mishaps were not uncommon. Also, silver nitrate was toxic.
I would expect that Jabez would have had to have been very careful in storing and dispensing the collodion and silver nitrate.
Albumen prints
The albumen print was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It used the albumen found in egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper and became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the century
Once again, more business for Jabez. Tintype More business for Jabez! Gelatin emulsion dry plates More business for Jabez! Roll films |
Dark Rooms
Where photographers were using the “wet plate” technology the glass plates had to be exposed in a dark room within minutes. This was of course no problem in a photographic studio which had a dedicated dark room, but it did present problems for photographers in the field.
The above photograph shows a cart with a dark room, in this case the cart being provided by the famous United States photographer Matthew Brady for his employees photographing scenes in the American Civil War. Merlin also had a dark room on a cart during his extensive travels in Victoria and NSW.
We now go back to the 1860s, where we had left Jabez in Melbourne.
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Jabez moves to Sydney, but why?
From a commercial viewpoint Sydney and Melbourne were very similar at the time.
Sydney had been established in 1788 as a penal colony and had gradually expanded, whereas Melbourne had not been settled until the mid 1830s, when it relied on the pastoral industry.
The big game-changer was the discovery of gold in NSW and Victoria at much the same time in the very early 1850s. There was a huge influx of gold prospectors from overseas to Melbourne and Sydney. After they had chased the elusive gold for several years, where only one quarter of the prospectors made any worthwhile discoveries, most of them returned to Melbourne and Sydney and settled there.
Melbourne had been proclaimed to be a city in 1847 and Victoria was designated to be a separate colony with its own Parliament in 1851. By 1861 its population of 140, 000 had overtaken Sydney’s population, and it had (like Sydney) commenced building railways and a number of public buildings.
Although there was no obvious reason why people settled in Melbourne would move to Sydney, the fact remains that Jabez was not alone, some of his Jerrems cousins (Thomas Jnr and my great grandfather Charles) who also lived in Richmond, moved to Sydney.
Moving from Melbourne to Sydney would not have been undertaken lightly because the only practical way to travel between Melbourne and Sydney was by ship, the railway link was not fully completed until 1883.
Jabez marries
Jabez married Emma Augusta Newsham (1849-1927) in Sydney in 1870. She was the second daughter of Captain John Newsham of the NSW Rifles.
Initially the couple lived in Marrickville, near Emma’s parents. In those days Marrickville was a semi-rural area five miles south of Sydney’s CBD. It had dairies on the Cooks River flats.
Emma’s father (1827-1893) migrated to Sydney in 1855 with his family. He described himself variously as a clerk and an accountant. He was also a Captain in the New South Wales Rifles, a similar militia organisation to the Richmond Volunteer Rifles to which Jabez and his brother Thomas belonged in Victoria.
My initial theory was that perhaps Jabez, a Sergeant when he was in New Zealand, had originally met his future father-in-law in New Zealand, serving in the Waikoto Regiment, which contained a lot of NSW volunteers as well as Victorian volunteers. However at that stage John had at least seven children, making it unlikely that he could have afforded to go to New Zealand.
It seems more likely that Jabez went to NSW for business reasons and met Emma there, the only connection with the militia possibly being that Jabez joined the NSW militia and met Emma through her father, who would probably have been Jabez’s Commanding Officer.
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Jabez the business man
Jabez described himself and his company in the Sydney Sands Business Directories in 1873 to 1876 as photographic chemists and importers, of Barrack Street and then 173 Clarence Street (in the inner city). A later entry in 1886 for the company referred to it more briefly as “photographers’ materials importers”.
The next reference to the company is a reference to “Herbert Small incorporating J.W. Small & Co.”. Presumably Jabez had sold his company but the name had been partially kept. Later the company was known as “Herbert Small & Co.”
The new company had its main office in Sydney and branch offices in Melbourne and Adelaide. It became an icon for photography supplies, including cameras, issuing annual catalogues up to 40 pages long. In 1960 it celebrated what was stated to be its 100th birthday (a photo of the front of the 1960 catalogue is shown above), which indicates that (contrary to my earlier conjecture) Jabez may have commenced the business prior to going to New Zealand. Children I have researched all these people, and will tell you about Arthur Jabez Small in a future article. |
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To be continued
In a future article I will tell you about Jabez’s foray into gold mining exploration and land speculation. |