Family History, Poulton Chart 0315 James Poulton and Elizabeth Howes

1861 Swindon Village, Wombourn, Staffordshire 1871 Wombourn, Staffordshire. James was a Servant to a Henry PERRY aged 38 a Farmer of 240 Acres employing 5 men and 2 born born Stoutport, Worcestershire, and his wife. There were 4 visitors and 4 Servants on this Census, James was only 14. 1881 25 Warwick Street, Sandon, Staffordshire 1909 98 Barnett Street, Kensington, Newmarket, Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1881 25 Warwick Street, Sandon, Staffordshire 1909 98 Barnett Street, Kensington, Newmarket, Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1931 49 May Street, N7 Blyth, Bourke, Victoria, Australia Australia Electoral Roll) 1909 Bishop Street, Footscray North, Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1914 Bishop Street, Footscray North, Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) His life Story in brief By John Henry Poulton My eldest brother, William Edward, would have been about 6 when our parents, James and Elizabeth, left England with another brother, James, about 3 and accompanied by our Mothers Mother, Elizabeth Howes. The story of the beginnings of the Australian branch of the Poulton family has been told by one of our Granddaughters Bronwyn Hodges. This story is to be about their eldest Son (and my brother) Will, so I shall just touch briefly on the period 1888-1901. After release from the Quarantine station at Portsea, (the family had been held there for six weeks, together with all others on their ship), the Poulton group were taken to Melbourne by sea. I have no details but remember being told they rented a house in Commercial Road Prahran. Having decided not to submit to examination to determine his fitness to drive Victorian Locomotives, our Father got work as a ....., excavating a railway cutting on the Armadale/Malvern, ........route on the Prahran, Balaclava, Elsternwick, Sandringham route. (there are many deep cuttings on each of these routes). Excavation was by blasting, pick and shovel and horse drawn scoop. The spoil was carted away mainly on horse drawn drays. After some time at this job, the family moved to Tasmania (Launcestion, I think) as our Father had secured a job as locomotive engine driver on the Tasmanian Railways. The engines, ...stock and lines were in very poor condition and certainly must have caused our Father some serious thought. About 1895 he was appointed as engine driver at one of the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus company, cable engine houses? so the family came back to Melbourne. I think the job was at the power house at the corner of Brunswick and Victoria?/Gertrude and Nicholson ? StreetsFitzroy but it is clear that he was later transferred to the tramways Power house in Johnston St, Fitzroy, again as an engine driver. Whilst at both of these jobs the family rented a house in Colman Street Fitzroy. (I think it was No1 but it was (and still is) the last house on the south side, from Napier St. John Henry was born in this house 17.7.1897. About this time Will was apprenticed to fitting and turning with an engineering firm-Pullen & co. This firm has been closed for many years but it was situated in Queens Parade about opposite to the Fitzroy Baths, and very close to the family home in Coleman Street. About 1901 our father was again transferred, this time to the North Melbourne Power House of the M.M.T.O. at the corner of Abbotsford and Queensberry streets. The family moved to a rented house in Erskine street, North Melbourne. Our Grandmother Elizabeth Howes died there about 1902. I think this move of the family home from Fitzroy to North Melbourne may have been the cause of Will breaking his apprenticeship with Pullen & co, greatly to his parents distress. Jim had been apprenticed to the tramways workshop in Nicholson Street North Fitzroy, and he used to walk from north Melbourne to North Fitzroy and back home everyday. He later also broke his apprenticeship but not on account of the distance. He accepted a better job, but again our Parents were distressed). Horace was born in the Erskine Street home in September 1903. About the end of 1902 Will decided to go to Western Australia to work on the goldfields. I can recall clearly being at the ships side as he sailed. The ship was the S.S. KYARRA. (At that time there as a weekly serious from Cooktown to Fremantle, calling at the capital ports between. The ships were not large, being perhaps 3000 to 5000 tons.) Will went first to Coolgardie and then to Kalgoolie, working as a maintenance fitter and turner. Before he left Melbourne he had a girlfriend, May Wingad whom our Parents had meet. As near? as can be stated now, she followed Will a year after he had gone to the west and they were married in Kalgoolie. Will and Mays first child Charles Edward, was born in Kalgoolie in 1904. Living conditions there, at that time were very harsh. Also about 1904 our Parents decided to buy a house in Baxnell? Street Kennsington, the first house they had owned and I know it's purchase meant, for them a hard battle. But it ws their home. George Edgar, Eddie was born there in 1905. His name Edgar was after a widely known and well liked preacher at Wesley Church, Lonsdale St, Melbourne. I remember our Mother saying "if he turns out as good a man as the Reverend McEdgan is I shall fell contented". About 1906 May and Charles Edward returned to Melbourne. They stayed with our parents in Baxnell Street. There was an unusual situation in that , in the same house, Charles Edward was nephew, although older than George Edgar, his Uncle, both being toddlers. Will returned from Western Australia about 1907 and they rented a house in Chelmsford St, Kennsington. There May took in her sick and elderly Uncle Wingad and nursed him until his death perhaps 12 months later. About the end of 1908 Will and May bought a 1/4 acre home site on the Kingsville Estate, West Footscray. It was almost all open country then and if I recall right, no facilities. The location would have been around either Kingsville St or Edgar Street. Will built a timber home on this block. I think he may have had some help in the building of it. My Parents Horrie, Edie and myself used to visit them, going to Seddon station (at that time a new station named after the then Prime Minister of New Zealand) and walking the mile and a half to Will and May's home. On the return at night Will would accompany us with a lighted kerosene lamp across the paddocks until w got to where the streets were formed. We could and once or twice did, go to West Footscray station and then walk the rest but the train srevice on that line at that time was much less frequent to that of the Williamstown line so we mainly got out at Seddon. The house that Will built was sold about 1910 and Will went into partnership with another man to make a bottled essence of coffee and chikory. The factory, I think was at North Williamstown. Probably because the proceeds of the sale of the house & land at Kingsville estate had gone into the partnership Will and may decided to camp at Altona. At that time there was no one living there. There was an abandoned railway station. A tAltona, the railway shut line from Newport having been disused for many years. The pier was there and the beach front was a moving mass of ........ Perhaps 3 miles to the west across a swamp a small brown caol mine operated at Laverton (one of our Mothers cousins, Elijah Lavender worked there while Will and May camped at Altona). As far as I can remember ,there was no one living between the Williamstown rifle range and the coal mine at laverton, so Will and May were really on their own in their tent home. They had to cart their water requirements from a tap at the disused station. I went once and stayed with them, probably over the school holiday period. A Mr and Mrs Ems were staying with them at the same time. I think Will used to drive a horse and trap to the essence factory each day but I am not quite sure about this. Their camp would surely have been 10 miles from the centreof North Williamstown. I do not recall just where the factory was situated except that it was at north Wiliamstown. The coffee essence business did not prosper as Will was led to believe it would and about 1911, he pulled out of the partnership at a severe loss. He and May then rented a house in North Wiliamstown and Will went back to his trade. i thnk his first job was that of a turner at the Newport Railway workshop, but as he was ........out night and left hand screws for couplings all the time , he got fed up with the job and left. I cannot be exactly sure of his next job but at least , soon after leaving the railway workshop he got a job as a fitter at Small and Shathell, where I was serving my apprenticeship. He was there for some months. Towards the end of 1911 our parents sold the Barnett St house and bought another (and larger house, with much ground) at May St North Fitzroy. This was because our Father had been transferred again to the Tramways Power House in Johnston St Fitzroy. (Also I had started to serve a probationary period, prior to a 7 year apprenticeship with Small and Shathell, only a few hundred yards from the Power house). Just in passing, my indentures commenced on January 2nd 1912 and in one sence, I too broke them. I sought to enlist in the FIRST A.I.F and to do this, had to get the approval of my employer, ( I was 19 and 3 months) as well as of my Parents. As I was one of the fortunate ones who came home from the war, I had to finish my apprenticeship at half wages, the repat making up the difference. I did complete and this pleased my Father, although I was in the A.I.F for 3 1/3 years. But to return to Will and May. They used to visit our parents at the May Street home, usually on a Sunday. By this time Will had a four wheeled buggy (may have had the same horse I really don't know). I can recall clearly that they would leave May Street about 7.45 to 8 pM, Will and May with the baby (Jimmy?) and Maisie on the seat and Chalie, Harry and Bill huddled on the floor amougst their Parents legs. It must have been a very long ,cold journey home sometimes. During 1915 Will became subject to some illnesses (there was no sick pay in those days either). In the first half of 1916these illnesses became worse and in early June 1916 he was admitted to what was then the royal Melbourne Hospital, (now the Queen Victoria hospital). He was very , very ill. I went in twice with my brother Jim. Will died on June 21st 1916. May must have had severe hardship to bring up the five children, the more so because Dorothy was born a few months after Will died. In those days , very few people had any surplus of money or of material things. Our Parents contribution to May and her family had to be limited as our mother still had Horrie and Eddie at School and my apprentices wages were very low, also our Fathers pay was low as were all other wages. But our Mother and Father endeavoured to keep May's family in books and that was a considerable item. Wills death was tragic. He was a very hard worker, almost every minute of his day being taken up with something or other. he never grumbled and enjoyed his simple, family pleasures. He was a good husband and a god parent. Everyone liked him. This set out to be a story of our brother Will. But it's ending being what it was, everyone must respect and pay tribute to May for the way she brought up her family. 1931 49 May Street, N7 Blyth, Bourke, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1924 8 Ethel Street, Northcote, Batman, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1931 49 May Street, N7 Blyth, Bourke, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) 1937 15 Hatton Gr. Coburg, Bourke, Victoria, Australia (Australia Electoral Roll) I have not really spent a lot of time looking at the Electoral Rolls, just a couple to confirm I had the right people. Lots of entries that could be looked at.

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This is a Chart for James Poulton and Elizabeth Howes