Smith-Owen Smith

Story

Smith-Owen Smith and Mary Ann Smith Ð parents of the stump-jump plough inventors.

Owen Smith was born in Surrey, England in 1807. He became very skilled as a carpenter and builder while also displaying an interest in business endeavours. As there were many people named Owen Smith, he sometimes used the signature of Smith Owen Smith. In 1836 he married Mary Ann Lee the daughter of Levi Lee in Lambeth, Surrey. Despite her obvious intelligence, Mary Ann signed her name with an X on the marriage certificate, indicating that she had not had the opportunity of formal schooling. Their first child, Richard Bowyer Smith was born in England 1837 and in the same year the family left for South Australia on The Trusty which left Greenock on December 3rd when Richard was only 2 months old. Like many people of the time Owen believed that there would be greater prospects for business and landownership in Australia.

Being a builder, he brought out pre-fabricated houses of wood and iron in the hold of The Trusty and then erected a small row of homes on North Terrace in the new city of Adelaide. The houses were built under contract and were of a two story design with the specifications being all hand drawn. As North Terrace eventually became such an important feature of Adelaide, following generations of our family have often commented on how wealthy such landownership would be today. Owen also built a home for himself and the family in Gilbert Street and owned several other pieces of land in central area of Adelaide.

The sense of adventure prompted Owen to sell his Adelaide holdings and with his family, which had then enlarged, went to the Alma Goldfields of Victoria. The date of this move has not yet been found, nor the names and birth dates of all his children. However, it was in August 1855 that their 4th son Clarence was born in a tent while they were living at the goldfields. It is known that Owen and Mary Ann had 12 children, but only 6 survived as in those early pioneer years there were many early deaths from now curable illnesses such as scarlet fever.

After the goldfield venture Owen and the family moved back to South Australia to live at Mt. Barker in the Adelaide hills. It was here he apprenticed his eldest son Richard to J.G. Ramsey and Co. Machinist, in 1862. Later in 1872, Owen formed a company which featured his eldest son and himself calling it R.B. Smith and Co. At the same time he apprenticed his youngest son Clarence to his eldest son Richard, as a machinist-blacksmith from 1872 to 1876. After moving to Pt Wakefield in 1874 he now listed his professions as carpenter and machinist.

The next move was to Kalkabury near Arthurton on Yorke Peninsula where Owen purchased land in the company name and built two homesteads and a blacksmith shop. Although Richard was trained as machinist-blacksmith, he was a good persuasive communicator and spent most of his time as a travelling salesman for J.G. Ramsey and Co. while Clarence worked on the farm and in the blacksmith shop. Being interested in hotel ownership, Richard also persuaded Owen to build a hotel for him which is now known as the Arthurton Hotel. In 1876 Richard left South Australia to continue his interest in hotel management in Beverley, Western Australia.

During the period 1876 to 1880 Mary Ann and Owen lived in one of the farm houses at Kalkabury. Here Owen assisted where possible in farming and also encouraged Clarence\’s work on the stump-jump plough invention. Because Clarence was apprenticed to his brother Richard, the patent of the plough was taken out in Richard\’s name. Hence Richard is popularly credited as the inventor in historical records. Clarence moved with his family to Ardrossan in July 1880 where he eventually established a large factory to manufacture the plough.

In the latter part of their lives, Owen and Mary Ann lived near Clarence who built a flat attached to his own home for his mother after his father died. Owen suffered a stroke and died on June 8th 1890 aged 83 years and Mary Ann died of influenza on December 8th 1895. They are both buried in the Ardrossan cemetery.

Today family members still marvel at the energy, courage and tenacity of Owen and Mary and their industrious family who farmed the land and encouraged the invention of the stump-jump plough. Owen\’s skills for building and business gave our family a great foundation and motivation to carry on their hard-working pioneer spirit.

Contributor: Josephine Wundersitz (Great great grand-daughter)

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