Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

 

Edith-Peard   Edith-Peard-2

 

Edith Peard: the making of a New Woman

 

Part 3  

 

By Lenore Frost

 

“Shandon” on the corner of Robb and Levien Streets,  originally numbered 32.  The house was built with two front entrances.  The family entrance from Levien St opened into a hallway, and the other in Robb St, with Edith’s plate

on the gate, led from the verandah directly into Edith’s music room,  a layout which had been selected with

Edith’s new business in mind.  Photo courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

In 1906 the Peards purchased two blocks on the west side of Robb St and built a timber home on the corner of Robb and Levien, with the block on the south side used as an orchard and for fowl pens.  From the windows at the back of the house they would have had a view across the Aberfeldie Hills – a pleasant rural outlook, though with housing dotted about. The house was called “Shandon”, from the Irish  An Seandún, meaning "the old fort". It is a district in Cork city, noted for The Bells of Shandon, a song celebrating the bells of the Church of St Anne written by Francis Sylvester Mahony under the pen name of "Father Prout".  Edith put her brass plaque on the Robb Street gate.

 

The Robb Street gate with Edith's plaque attached.  The door on the verandah led directly into the music room. 

Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Years later Kate’s grandson Allan Williams could recall the south block with a large number of substantially built fowl pens, more, he thought,  than would be required for family use, indicating that Charlotte continued her poultry business.

 

Essendon Gazette, 19 February 1914.  Mrs Peard is on the ladies’

committee, maintaining her interest in exotic poultry.

 

A detail from the original subdivision of Locke’s Paddock in 1888, showing the original lot numbers.

Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection.

 

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works detail plan. 1636, Town of Essendon, 1905.

 

The association with Mrs Jose was continued in 1906 when Edith Peard and Miss Knox again performed at Mrs Jose’s new home, Corinella in Hawthorn in 1906:

 

Mrs. Jose gave a very pleasant musical "at home" at "Corinella," Mason-street, Hawthorn, last Saturday afternoon. The programme was given by her pupils, assisted by Misses Knox and Peard, who gave some pianoforte music. The pupils showed evidence of careful training, a notable feature being an even tone and clear articulation. They were— Miss Hastings, Miss Wright, Miss Meikle, Miss Mabel Cust, Miss Maud McGillivray, Mrs. Minchin, Miss Fannie Beale, Miss Annie McGillivray Misses May and Hannah Harston, Miss Slater, Mr. Robert Thomson, Mr. Charles Gemmell, Miss Ada McBeath. During the afternoon Mrs Jose was presented with a lovely basket of holly and scarlet carnations.[1]

 

Later that year Edith played the Wedding March at the marriage of Miss McKenzie in Sunbury, for which she and her parents were invited guests.[2] 

 

Edith reading in the garden, circa 1914.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Edith began taking pupils for private tuition in her music room at Shandon.  An advertisement in the Essendon Gazette shows she also took pupils at Allan’s Music Store in Collins Street, Melbourne. In 1915 Edith held an ‘At Home’ to interview prospective students.

 

Essendon Gazette, 28 January 1915.

 

On 22 September 1913, William Henry Peard passed away, aged 86 years.  The notice in The Age indicated that at this time Edith was the only child still living in the family home, which now would house only her mother and her self:

 

PEARD.— On the 22nd September, at his residence, "Shandon," Robb street, Essendon, William Henry Peard son of the late Henry Hawke Peard, of Coole Abbey, Co. Cork, Ireland: beloved husband of Charlotte Peard, and father of Mrs. Foster Dawson, Clunes: H.K. Peard, Ballarat; Edith F, Peard, Essendon, and N. (sic) H. Peard, Leura, New South Wales. A colonist of 66 years.[3]

 

The comment that W H Peard was a ‘colonist of 66 years’, indicating an arrival in 1847, suggests that he had returned to Ireland at some point but returned to Victoria in 1852.  No evidence has yet emerged to confirm that notion, and it may be a simple error.

 

Shandon, probably taken in the 1940s, showing the long hedge which Edith maintained herself.

Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Shandon showing the Levien Street frontage with very neatly clipped hedges.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Shandon from further down the hill in Levien Street.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

 

Edith mowing the lawn at Shandon, circa 1920. Her great-nephew

Allan Williams still has the mower.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Kate and Foster Dawson had a daughter in 1904 whom they called Charlotte Maranne after Kate’s mother and Foster's mother Marianne (the mispelling of Maranne courtesy of Foster). The marriage, however, had its problems, and Kate and Foster separated in about 1915. In October 1915 a notice in the Mildura Telegraph indicated that a Crown Grant was awaiting delivery to R F Dawson in Mildura.[4]  Or was an earlier reference to an R F Dawson who grew a large corn cob under irrigation at Koondrook some five years earlier the more accurate date?[5] Foster may have been included in Electoral Rolls though he was not permanently domiciled with Kate.  He was last listed on the rolls at Clunes in 1915.  Kate apparently refused to contemplate moving to a warmer region, and Foster left without her.

 

By the end of 1916 Charlotte Dawson, Kate’s daughter, was aged 12.   In keeping with her own education as a gentlewoman, Kate wanted more than the Clunes State School for her daughter, and she and Edith came to an agreement.  Kate and Charlotte would live in the family home in Essendon, and Edith would pay for Charlotte’s education in exchange for Kate taking on the household tasks and help with the care of their mother.  They moved to Essendon early in 1917 and Charlotte started at Blinkbonnie Ladies’ College. 

 

This arrangement freed Edith to pursue other teaching opportunities and in 1919 and 1921 her name appeared in The Argus associated with Fintona Presbyterian Girls Grammar School in Camberwell.[6]    It is thought that Edith may have been lived at Toorak for some time, and it may have been during the period she worked at Fintona. 

 

Edith on the verandah of Shandon, circa 1920.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Edith in the garden at Shandon, circa 1920.  Courtesy of Craig Williams. 

 

Edith in the garden with her dog, circa 1920.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Edith with fur-edged pockets and sleeves, circa 1920.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Edith continued appearing at social functions mentioned in the Melbourne social paper Table Talk.  In 1925 she was noted as being present at a musical evening hosted by Mr and Mrs P M Salmon in Flower Street, Essendon,  and later in the year an “at home” was held by the University Conservatorium Old Students' Association, of which Edith was a committee member.[7]  Edith was reported to be wearing a stylish “straight frock of black satin beaute”, which had perhaps been made for her by her sister Kate, the dressmaker. 

 

Edith was among the leading citizens of Essendon who attended a bon voyage party for Mrs Salmon when she departed on a trip to England in 1927.  The party was held in the foyer of the Southern Cross Picture Theatre in Buckley Street, Essendon,[8] which had opened in 1925. The Salmons went on to be Mayor and Mayoress of Essendon in 1928-29.

 

Blinkbonnie Ladies College was absorbed in 1920 by the new Lowther Hall Church of England Grammar School, where Charlotte Dawson completed her schooling.  This connection with Lowther Hall continued for many years, with Edith giving a music prize for violin every year from 1920 until 1930.

 

“Allan had a tiny memory about Edith Peard. As a music teacher of children she had plenty of time during each day for her own practice in violin and piano. She would have needed her garden and orchard to fill in the rest her day until her busy after-school-hours tuition. 

 

Dick Peard had his carpenters workshop under the rear of the house. Dick lived in a very small bedroom that Allan thought should have been the bathroom!” [9]

 

Some of Dick Peard’s 120-year-old carpenter’s tools, still in occasional use, 2016. 

Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

The electrical wiring was originally installed at Shandon by Dick Peard in the 1920s to replace the original gas

lighting. Allan replaced the electricity plugs from 28 Robb Street when he moved there in 1952.  Note that there

is no earth; just active and neutral. There was power switch on one side and a switch on the other; both were

solid brass and no earth. Allan replaced all with modern types with earthing.  Courtesy of Allan Williams.[9A]

 

One of the original gas fittings removed from Shandon by Dick Peard in the 1920s. 

Courtesy of Allan Williams.

 

 

Charlotte Peard, nee Kent, taken in Bendigo in 1923.  Courtesy of Craig Williams.

 

Family Notices (1928, December 22). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), , p. 13.

Retrieved July 10, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3977164

 

Edith continued to take an interest in the University Conservatorium Old Students' Association, and in 1929 was reported as being in attendance at a large gathering at the Conservatorium at a

 

“reception in honour of Madame Evelyn Scotney. There was a short musical programme, followed by an entertaining talk from the guest of honour' giving her experiences of the fields of music in England and the United States.  She was most emphatic in her warning as to the foolishness of sending young musicians to London to begin their careers. "It is impossible," she declared, "to get a hearing in England unless you have made a name first in another country." But with all the hard work and the continuous fight for success even when fame might seem assured, Madame Scotney confessed that it was a good life when she wished her audience "the best of good luck and as much fun out of it as I have had."[10]

 

It is worth noting that more than half of the reported audience for that reception consisted of single women.

 

It is probable that when money became tight and discretionary spending reduced, private music teachers felt the pinch first.  The exact reason Edith left Essendon for a time is not known, but in the 1930s she moved to Donald in the Wimmera and began taking private pupils there.  She may also have been teaching in a school.  In 1934 she was made a temporary Registrar for Births and Deaths at Donald, walking in the footsteps of both her father and uncle Charles.[11] 

 

In the 1935, 1936 and 1937 Electoral Rolls she was listed in Woods St, Donald, ‘music teacher’. Edith was also mentioned as a teacher in Donald in music examinations in 1938.[12] By 1942 Edith had returned to Shandon in Essendon. 

 

Allan Williams said when the Williams family arrived at Robb St for holidays one of his jobs was to set up the beds in the lounge room. He thought this room not used for much else as the Breakfast Room was the centre of activity.  His mother, Charlotte would immediately return to her childhood role of ‘feeder of the family’ taking over the kitchen with no objections from Kate, Edith or Richard. Allan speculates that as a teenager Charlotte's contribution to the household would have been preparing all the meals.  

 

 

A site plan for 28 Robb St, drawn from memory by Allan Mitchell Williams, 24 April 2016.

 

 

Allan remembers that the kitchen included a 'meal warmer tray' under the bench seat. He thinks that with Kate giving music lesson well into each evening meant her meals needed to be kept warm. Robb St provided a neat place of employment for Edith (music room), Richard (carpenter workshop below the kitchen) and Kate (sewing work room in the stable). The garden provided fruit, vegetables and the hens provided eggs.[13]

 

Allan Williams is pretty sure that all the Peard siblings took the view that they shouldn't have to draw on the public purse for their welfare.[14]   Allan came to live with his grandmother and great-aunt at Essendon in 1952 to pursue his studies.  Aged eighty-three, Edith was still teaching students.  Allan recalled young male violinist from further down Robb St whom Edith thought had a good future as a musician. 

 

Allan described Edith’s music room as he remembered it from that period:

 

There was a separate entrance to Shandon where Edith had her Music Teacher brass plaque. The dedicated music room was off a hall way.  In the music room was a piano, piano stool, bookcase with music books and sheet music, it had a fire place, a standard lamp. Over the fire place the mantle had two metronomes. The floor had a carpet square with polished boards around the edges. The room was about 12 ft by 12 ft. There was a stand for holding sheet music for the violinist. There were cheap curtains on the window.[15]

 

One day in May 1952 Allan found Edith on a chair in her music room, passed quietly away in the room where she had taught music for more than forty years.

                                                                                          ………

 

Edith Peard was born in a remote part of Victoria, the daughter of a gentleman.  Her education fitted her for a domestic role as a gentleman’s wife, but Edith’s own drive led her to further develop her musical education and employ the poise and grace she learned as a gentleman’s daughter to create a business model of teaching that allowed her to achieve a certain independence.  Whether there was some family wealth to support the life that the Peards developed in Essendon is not known, but the resilience and mutual co-operation in the family allowed them all to achieve individual expression within a conventional middleclass framework. The mutual support based on the the hardworking ethic passed on by the parents William and Charlotte, the fruitful garden and poultry operation begun by their mother, Edith’s music tuition, Kate’s dressmaking abilities and Dick’s carpentry allowed them a financial competence that only began to decline as they aged. 

 

Allan Williams says his grandmother, Kate, refused the pension, but doesn't know if Edith was the same. While the three siblings cohabited 28 Robb street they had a declining income. In 1952 Allan stayed rent free in exchange for maintaining the place. He did pay 6 pence per week for gas for the bath water![16] 

 

Edith did not accept the usual quiet home-based life of the Victorian-era unmarried woman, but took active steps to go out and earn her own living, not afraid to relocate when economic hardship threatened the family’s survival, and maintained a healthy social life with friends, as well as supporting her sister and niece when they needed help.

 

Kate’s great-grandson Craig Williams sums up their lives of the Peard siblings by saying:

 

“We have found a family who lived a full, free life as best they could; facing the harsh economic winds and events along with all the rest. Did they enjoy their lives? I guess they did. They were in control no more or less than anyone is in control then or today. They made some good decisions. They were honest and hard working. They fought for their country and made it the safe happy place it is today.”[17]

 

© Lenore Frost 2016

 

Acknowledgements

Craig Mitchell Williams and his father Allan Mitchell Williams, for generously sharing their fund of stories and photographs of the Peard family of north-east Victoria and Essendon.

Beverley Russell.

Jenny Coates, for background material relating to Wangaratta.

---

[1] SANDRINGHAM PRIVATE DANCES. (1906, July 5). Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925), p. 28. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article175376453

[2] ORANGE BLOSSOM. (1906, September 29). Sunbury News (Vic. : 1900 - 1910), p. 3. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66844415

[3] Family Notices. (1913, September 24). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197493765

[4] FORECAST. (1915, October 5). Mildura Telegraph and Darling and Lower Murray Advocate (Vic. : 1914 - 1918), , p. 2. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154428908

[5] RURAL TOPICS. (1910, March 26). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), , p. 5. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142923001.

[6] SCHOOL SPEECH DAYS. (1919, December 24). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), , p. 11. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4631160.  Fintona P.G.G.S. (1921, December 17). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 25. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4612877

[7] SOCIAL (1925, February 26). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939), , p. 37. Retrieved March 13, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146555427    "OLD STUDENTS' "AT HOME."" Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939) 18 June 1925: 5. Web. 13 Mar 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146557527.

[8] SIX HOSTESSES ENTERTAIN (1927, March 17). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939), , p. 51. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146470485

[9] Email from Craig Williams, date 6 January 2016.

[9A] Email from Craig Williams dated 19 May 2016. 

[10] MELBOURNE. (1929, April 13). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), p. 14 Edition: METROPOLITAN EDITION. Retrieved December 29, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140821057

[11] Victoria Government Gazette, No 51, 1935, 20 March 1935 page 964.  NEW ZEALAND. (1876, December 19). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 -1918), , p. 2. Retrieved April 15, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197056866

[12] MAY EXAMINATIONS IN MUSIC (1938, June 21). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), , p. 14. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11157783

[13] Email from Craig Williams, date 6 January 2016.

[14] Email from Craig Williams 1 May 2016.

[15] Email from Craig Williams, 27 December 2015.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Email from Craig Williams, 20 April 2016.