Richard Reid
| First name | Richard |
|---|---|
| Last name | Reid |
| Country of Origin | Ireland |
| Date of Birth | 1849 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1880 |
| Submitted by | John Schooneveldt |
Story
THE REID FAMILY STORY
Three Reid brothers, Richard (b1849), James (b1854) and Edmund (b1858) came to Australia in the early 1880s from Ovens, Co. Cork, Ireland, attracted in part, by the success of three cousins already in Australia. The cousins, whose family name was Green, and the Reids were Protestant families who had come to Ireland in Cromwell\’s time. They had survived the famines of the 19th century but were nevertheless caught up in the great exodus from Ireland. All six came individually.
First to come was William Green (b1836), the oldest of the three Green brothers who arrived in Melbourne in 1861 and spent time in the Victorian Goldfields and New Zealand. In 1871 he selected a farm of 300 acres in Bowan Park, NSW that he called ‘The Grange’ after the Reid family property near Ovens that was owned by his uncle, John Reid. In 1879 he visited Ireland and married his cousin, Anne Bradfield. William and Anne had four daughters in Australia: Elizabeth (b1881); Anne and Winifred (twins, b1883) and Ellen (b1885). William died of pleurisy and heart failure in 1900 at the age of 64 and was buried in Cudal.
Henry Green (b1842) arrived in Melbourne two years after his older brother, in 1863. He was a bootmaker by training and settled in Collingwood. Melbourne was booming as a result of the gold rushes at the time and presumably he did very well. In 1865 he married Julia Ford, the daughter of a Melbourne publican Timothy Ford. Julia had been also been born in Co. Cork Ireland, but was Catholic and the couple were married in Melbourne\’s St Patrick\’s Cathedral. Their eldest daughter, Winifred (b1868) was later to marry her father\’s cousin, James Reid.
In 1876 Henry and his family sold up in Melbourne and moved to Bowan Park where they purchased 900 acres and began farming. He was also able to look after his brother William\’s property while William was visiting Ireland.
The third Green brother, John (b1844) came to Australia in 1866. He also bought land in Bowan Park. John never married and was accidentally killed in 1885 when he went to sleep and fell off his cart driving home from Cudal. A wheel ran over and crushed his right leg. He also suffered a compound fracture of the left elbow. He died at the Orange hospital 3 days later at the age of 41.
We have not been able to find the immigration records of the three Reid brothers, but suspect that the glowing reports they heard from William on his 1879 visit inspired them to emigrate. All three came to Bowan Park that was by then a thriving little community of several hundred people. The Bowan Park School opened in 1876 and had some 50-60 pupils.
Following his arrival, Richard Reid took over the management of the Bowan Park butter factory and the local football club. On 1 June 1898, he married Jane McDonald in Orange. Their first child, John Raymond , was born at Bowan Park in 1899. In 1900 Richard won a selection ballot for farming land south of Narromine. They named the property ‘Oaklands’. Two additional children were born there: Allison Jesse (b1901) and Richard McDonald (b1904). Richard died in 1928 at the age of 79.
James Reid also settled in Bowan Park where, as already mentioned, he married his cousin\’s eldest daughter, Winifred Green in 1887. Their first daughter, Winifred (b1888) died in infancy. Other children were Katherine (b1890); Henry (b1893); Alice (b1894); John (b1897); James (b1899); and Winifred (b1905). Their mother died following the birth of the last child, and the baby Winifred went to live with Richard and Jane Reid who raised her along with their other children.
World War I was to have a huge impact on James Reid\’s family. Three members enlisted. In 1915, John (then aged 18) joined the 18th Australian Infantry Battalion. He was listed as ‘killed in action\’ on the ‘South Wales Borders Gully’ at Gallipoli on 22 August 1915. Henry (Harry) served overseas both at Gallipoli and Egypt with the 7th and 8th Light Horse Regiments and the 4th and 17th Australian Camel Regiments. After the war he returned to Australia and re-enlisted to escort returning prisoners of war. He came back to Australia in 1920. Katherine (Kate) trained as a nurse and enlisted in the AANS. She moved to Honolulu after World War 1. Their father, James (Jim) Reid went to England and worked in a munitions factory during the war and remained there.
Edmund did not stay in Bowan Park. He joined the NSW Police Force on 23 February 1883 and married Mary Jane Ellis in Tenterfield in 1887. They had four sons, the first three born while Edmund was stationed at Walcha: John Lombard (b1887), Edmund H. (b1890) and Clarence (b1892). The fourth son, Summers, was born Ballina in 1895. Edmund retired in 1917 and died at Nelson Bay in 1929 at the age of 71. Summers and his cousin, Alice Reid, fell in love, but did not marry. Alice moved to New Zealand where she married a man named Ring and had a large family.