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_SOPHIE DAVENPORT WILSON_
Eric, her son, married Kathleen Gibson, and had two children,
Judith, who Married Graham Butcher in 1979, and Phillip.
Thomas, her son, married Annabell Elford, and had three children, Neville, killed in accident 1972, Christine and Lindsay.
Eunice her daughter, married Ernest Langthorne, of Yorkshire England, and live in Peakhurst. N.S.W., they have five children, Francis Rex, who married Wendy Wade, and had a son Martin Francis. Jim Ernest, who married Sue Paponic, and have four children, Jason. Rene, Simone and Macbeth. Noel, who married Kathryn Wainwright, and have two children, Winston and Dawnie. David and Erin Gai Gwenda, are twins.
David, married Dinice O'Carmon.
Rita, her daughter, married Eric Ward, and have four sons, Donald who married Pam Brown, and have three children, Jeffery, Wendy, and Alison. Robert, married Fay ? , and have three children, Scott, Peter and Katrina. Gerald, married Cheryl ?, and have two children, Diane and Gumma. Trevor, married Janny ? , and have three children, Karissa, Ben and Rinae.
Eric, her husband, died in September, 1979.
Elizabeth, her daughter, is deceased.
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Recollections: by HARVEY THOMAS OAKES
My great-grandfather JOHNSTON came to Australia from Scotland after the Crimean War, about 1856. He brought his wife, and as far as I know, his ten children.
They pitched their tent right in the heart of Sydney. There were only about 30 huts there at that time. From Sydney, they went to Bathurst, then later to Manning River. When the children were grown up, they settled around the Manning and Macleay districts.
One of the sons, James Johnston, was my grandfather and he married Elizabeth Anne Waugh. Her mother died in England and her father brought Anne, the only child, to Australia when she was eight years old, and settled in Port Macquarie, where James was a private school teacher, conducting his school in his own home.
They came out from England by sailing ship and the trip took six months, as they were becalmed for six weeks in the Bay of Biscay.
James Johnston became a pupil of grandpa Waugh, who took pupils after they left school, to further their education.
James and Anne's family was as follows:--
Alice married James Lyon of Ellenborough, Hastings River. James Lyons parents came from Stratheden, Scotland, and were members of the Bowes-Lyon family .
The second child was Margaret Emily , known as Emy, and she was born at Dingo Creek. Manning River in 1861. The third child a son Alex then Mary and Leila.
Margaret Emily, married Thomas Henry Oakes, son of Henry Richard Oakes. My father Thomas Henry, was born 12th July, 1854. at East Kempsey, somewhere on the hill above Chadwick's Store.
Henry Richard Oakes, my grandfather, married Susan Johnston, sister of James Johnston. Their children were Isabel, Thomas Henry, Helen, and Toppy. Isabel married Robert Waugh who was a son of Capt. Waugh who named Wauchope. He was very wealthy. Helen married William Snodgrass from the Macleay and Toppy married Neil Snodgrass from Macksville.
Mother and Father had five children, Mary Susette, Clifton Harry James, Charles Alexander, Hubert Vivian and Harvey Thomas , born at Seven Oakes on 13th August, 1902.
"Seven Oakes" consisted of 350 acres which was my fathers share of the original grant which had been divided between the four children.
I remember father telling me that in the 1864 flood, the only dry ground was Saunder's Hill at Smithtown. Everyone around, including the aboriginals, were there for one week camping on the hill. The snakes were there in hundreds trying to get out of the flood waters. One night an aboriginal woman was bitten on the calf of the leg. Uncle Peter Johnston scarified the wound and sucked it, then he kept her walking around the campfire all night to keep her awake and each time she became drowsy he would switch her on the legs with a little switch. She was OK the next morning.
Father said, out along the Clybucca Road there was an old dead tree with the skeleton of the head and horns of a bullock, high up in the tree, it had been caught there during the flood.
In another big flood in 1893, a Berkshire pig came all the way down from James Ducat's place at Mooneba on a log, and they dragged him out of the flood waters at Seven Oakes. The pig was returned to the owner.
Grandfather Oakes ran about 300 blood horses on "Seven Oakes". They had no cattle as they were all lost in the 1864 flood. Father had a beautiful lot of blood horses there later. He left school at 14 years, and all he did was break in horses and train them. One time he broke in 25, then he and his hand, drove them to Maitland and sold them by auction for an average of 25 pound per head, which was a good price in those days. He used to win a terrific lot in the Kempsey Show with hacks. His wedding present to mother was a beautiful brown hack named Coronet, and a new side saddle and bridle. They rode to Port Macquarie, where they spent their honeymoon.
Father was considered the best buckjump rider on the river in those days. The last race meeting he attended at Gladstone before moving to the Bellinger River, he took his three racehorses he had in training. They were named Stella, Seven Oakes, and Glencoe. I think there were five races and the three horses won the whole program between them. A high Jumper he owned was called Satan. He was a beautiful black horse, and father sold him to someone in Sydney for 50 pound, and shipped him by boat from Smithtown.
When mother's father married Granny, he built a home on land he selected and cleared, at Dingo Creek. He split all the timber and cut the slabs and approximately 12000 shingles, with a pit saw.
Mother said she remembered seeing when a little girl, the aboriginals come down from the hills, walking along in single file, all painted up with their spears and boomerangs, talking away to themselves. They came from the Bellinger, and were on their way to a corroboree down the Hunter River. They would go straight past the house, and never interfered.
An old aboriginal called Old Cooligat, lived up on the mountain at Dingo Creek, he was wild and simple. He was a very big man.
Grandfather used to go away after cattle, sometimes for a few days to the head of the Hastings River, and one day Granny saw old Cooligat coming, so she took in the axe and all the tools and locked the door. Uncle Alex was only a baby then and he started to cry, and old Cooligat, who was eating peach leaves by the house, heard him cry and the' could hear him saying 'my piccaninny, my piccaninny' . He found an old axe on the woodheap and began hammering at the door and Grandma was terrified, being all alone with the children. However, he didn't get in. He was always bothering them, spearing the cattle and so on, so Grandfather, Uncle Robert and Uncle Peter Johnston, took a dray up on the mountain before daybreak one morning. They found Old Cooligat asleep, so they rushed him, then tied his hands and legs with vines, and put him in the dray and drove him 9 miles to Wingham. The Police locked him up for a couple of days then let him out, and he went straight back to the mountain, but never bothered them again.
Major Oakes had no daughters, his sons were Henry Richard, Monty, Gussie, Alex and Douglas. Uncle Monty lived in Melbourne and had no family. The Oakes in Queensland are descendants of Uncle Gussie. Uncle Alex's family went up north in the early days and we never heard from them again. Uncle Douglas had three sons and two of them never married.
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1889 - 1968 (79 years)
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