The starting point from the records that I have is the marriage of William Martin THOMSON to Maria Matilda BLACKWELL. The wedding took place in Beechworth, Victoria, in 1865. William THOMSON, described on the wedding certificate as a bachelor, son of John and Christine THOMSON of Edinburgh, and then 30 years of age, married Maria Matilda BLACKWELL, a 16-year-old servant girl, daughter of Cornelius BLACKWELL, a miner, and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ann GREENLY.
My knowledge of William THOMSON is very scanty and is based mainly on snippets of conversation I picked up when I was very young. He was a cabinet maker from Edinburgh and had come from a line of cabinet makers and pattern makers. His father was a cabinet maker and operated from the basement of their house in Carnegie Street Edinburgh, and his father before him was a cabinet maker and pattern maker from Glasgow.
Apparently making coffins was an important part of the business, and there were always coffins in various stages of completion in the cellar. Apparently the business was a bare living, and it appears that William decided to try his luck in Australia and ended up in the gold mining township of Beechworth in Victoria.
At Beechworth, which was one of the Victorian gold rush towns, Cornelius BLACKWELL was employed or self-employed as a miner. Unfortunately I know nothing of the BLACKWELL family or where they came from, and there is something of an anomaly on the old certificates of birth and marriage. The marriage certificate states that Maria Matilda was born in Sydney, and a later certificate for the birth of Wallace Elliot THOMSON states that she was born in Brisbane. A clerical error perhaps, but if not, the situation is quite intriguing.
In any case, Matilda the 16-year-old servant girl married 30-year-old William, and at some time after the wedding they set out from Beechworth with a bullock wagon as their means of transport, and made their way slowly and laboriously to Lismore, where they stopped and settled. I understand that the journey took the best part of a year and was full of difficulties and privations. Why travel from Beechworth to Lismore, which must have been only a village in those days? It would seem more logical that they were heading for Brisbane and liked the look of Lismore, and decided to settle there.
While my aim is to provide as accurate a picture as possible, I can't guarantee that all the information included is correct. Most of it is based on clear recollections and documents, but some is based on vague childhood recollections and blurry images.
From these humble beginnings, the THOMSON family became a respected part of Lismore society. I am not sure what part my grandfather played, because he was dead before my earliest recollections, but I remember my grandmother very well, probably because she made such a fuss of me. She was a gentle refined woman who became very religious and was a pillar of the Church in her later years.
The family first lived in a very modest weatherboard house on the hill, which apparently stayed in the family, but most of my visits were to an upper class sort of house in Keen Street, very close to the shopping centre, and practically next door to the church. Grandma lived there with her widowed elder daughter Aunty Min [TOPFER née THOMSON], her (Grandma's) youngest son Andrew [THOMSON], and Aunty Min's son Ian and daughter Minnie junior [TOPFER].
Andrew had really made his mark in the town and had become manager of Robertson's, the big department store of Lismore in those days. Robertson's would be the counterpart of a large Myers store in a provincial city today, and Andy was a pillar of Lismore society and also a staunch Mason. Andrew was a confirmed bachelor and remained single for the whole of his life. I do not recollect ever having heard his name mentioned with any member of the opposite sex.
Ian TOPFER, the other male member of the Keen Street menage, was just the opposite of his uncle. He was a quiet simple man who worked for the railway department as an engine driver. He was a giant of a man, who looked like Burl Ives in his heyday, but like a lot of big men was a quiet and gentle person. He also was a bachelor and lived all his life with his mother. He died well before she did, and was gone when I visited Lismore again about the year 1951 or 2. At that stage, Aunty Min was in her eighties and Andy was in his sixties. They were living together in the old original house on the hill, and neither of them survived very long after my visit.
Page created Sunday 29 March 1999; last updated Sunday 30 May 1999