Person:Mary Porter (110)

MARY was born at Smythesdale on June 19th, 1861 and grew up in that district. She had a happy and religious upbringing and appeared well educated for a person of that era. She enjoyed reading and could remember what she had read. Her family were very dear to her and she loved to tell us about them. Her sisters and brothers were like story book characters. Some time after leaving school she moved to Mooroopna where she worked for many years with Mr and Mrs Sadler. She was very fond of them and their children. Mrs. Sadler died in 1884, aged 33 years.

Mary’s sister, Elizabeth, had married George Atkins and they had settled on the Manning River, N.S.W. When Lizzie and George were expecting their second child Mary’s mother asked her to go over and help Lizzie which she did. The following is an excerpt from a farewell letter dated January 22nd, 1890 and written by Mr. R.O. Mahaffy on behalf of the Guardians and Congregation of St, Albans Anglican Church, Mooroopna, of the teachers and scholars of the Sunday School and the Minister and his wife. “I could not let you go from our church and Sunday School without expressing my own qualified appreciation of the conscientious and never tiring manner in which you have filled whatever office you have assumed, No member of our church has ever done more for its good than you have done, none has met with greater success than you in the discharge of your church duties”. Mary married Jabez Richards, a cousin of George Atkins, on March 16th, 1892 at St. Marks Anglican Church, Scotts Creek, Mitchells Island, Their first daughter, Bessie, was born in April 1893 on Mitchells Island. They then moved to Melbourne where Jabez became a seaman and worked on a trading ship called “Wodonga” for the next five years. The “Wodonga” traded between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cooktown in Queensland. Jabez progressed from greaser to donkeyman, to fireman and then engineer on the “Wodonga”. Their second daughter, Fanny, was born in Melbourne in 1895. In March 1897 they bought a two roomed weatherboard cottage at 4 Kalgoorlie Street, Leichhardt, Sydney, and Bessie commenced her schooling at Leichhardt Public School. Cost of house and land was 100 pound.

In 1899 Jabez left the “Wodonga” and they bought 100 acres of farm land on Mitchells Island, close to the Richards family properties for 375 pound. Clarice their third daughter, was born in September 1900 at Harrington, and Olive, their youngest daughter, in April 1903 at Mitchells Island, Mary and the four girls did most of the farm work while Jabez carried out maintenance and improvements on the farm. They grew every kind of fruit and vegetables and all worked very hard to make a living. Jabez,as well as farming, was employed as a crane driver, building the south wall at Harrington. (1904- 1908), In 1909 he was asked to drive the crane at Laurieton and he and Bessie lived in a tent at Laurieton, only coming home at weekends. A trip of about 40 miles in a sulky. They were one of the first to own a car on Mitchells Island, a T model Ford 1921, with gas lights, Jabez later drove a big green 1926 Dodge, almost to his last, with much help from Bessie who sat beside him ready to change gears or grab the wheel when necessary. His hands were crippled with rheumatism. Mary and Jabez moved to Wingham Road, Taree, about 1939.

Mary was a kind and loving person and everybody loved her, a really true Christian who never said unkind word about anybody. Unfortunately she had arthritis and had to spend her last 15 years in a wheel chair. She suffered much pain but never complained. She maintained a very alert brain right to her death. She loved her only three grandchildren, Gordon, Joan and Heather, and we loved her. She died in September 1950, aged 89 years. Jabez had died in November 1948, aged 88 years. The whole Richards family was musical, Jabez played violin and sang with tenor voice in the Taree Church choir, They bought a new piano from Nicholsons in Sydney in 1912 for £61. Bessie and Fanny learnt to play and they both spent many years as organists in the various churches where they lived. Bessie played at Gordons and my wedding, but died in September 1957, just before Heather married. Fanny left home to work at Dr. Stokes residence as cook. She married Edwin Saville, a widower, when she was 40 and they lived at Lansdowne on a farm. They later moved to Cundletown and had a house on a two acre block of land, They had a cow, fowls and a huge garden of vegetables, flowers and fruit trees, Edwin was an apiarist so there were many boxes of bees as well, Fanny had arthritis and knee trouble and had to use a frame on wheels to help her walk during the last it years of her life but preferred to live in her comfortable home. She had a stroke only three weeks after her 90th birthday and died peacefully in hospital. Clarice spent most of her life with her parents but married Frederick Saville, Edwin’s brother, in 1952, She lived on in the Wingham Road house after Bessie died. She and Fanny spent a lot of time together in later years. Clanice drove a car right up to her death in 1976. Mary’s youngest daughter, Olive, grew up on Mitchells Island and later worked as a receptionist and housemaid for Dr. Stokes in Taree. In 1923 she married Robert Lionel Meldrum, a marine engineer, who had been at sea for four years but left to work at the butter factory on Mitchells Island. They also lived a happy family life, having three children, Gordon, Joan and Heather. Olive has eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Bob and Olive lived in the Taree area and Bob was a great help to the Richards family. Bob died in 1978, aged 75, Olive lived alone in her home at 16 Dugdale Aye, Taree until 1987 when the family felt it necessary for her to enter a hostel at Cundletown where she still enjoys reasonably good health at the age of 84.

Joan Watson Mary’s eldest granddaughter.