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Born in Oakham Massachusetts in July 1832, Hiram boarded the “Texas” and set sail to Australia from New York in May 1853. Hiram was to play an important part in the formation and development of industry in the north east of Victoria and Melbourne.
Fortunately for his descendants Hiram left a huge paper trail behind him amongst which are two huge scrap books into which he pasted news articles from around the world, humorous sketches, and articles written about himself and his. Hiram and his family obviously had a great sense of humour, going by the cuttings in the scrapbook. One such article, Training a Donkey, is repeated on the right, showing that humour, and ingenuity, did extend throughout his family–
Included in this paper trail are
- the Diary recently unearthed
- photo albums
- medals
- letters
- portraits
- illuminated addresses
- invitations to various things such as Opening of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, and other celebrations during Federation
Manuscripts are at the State Library of Victoria, and exhibits from Brookfield at the Melbourne Museum. Given all the wonderful information to hand so far, there is so much still to be researched, confirmed and documented. Very little research has been done to date at the Victorian State Archives.
His descendants have gathered both here in Australia and in the United States in the year 2001 to say thanks to a man who invested his time, his money and his spirit into a new land and a man who left a legacy behind which makes us proud to declare we are his descendants.
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Training a Donkey
"We learn from the Ovens and Murray Advertiser a few particulars of the method of conveying a donkey by rail. Mr. Crawford, of Melbourne wished to forward to Mr. Crawford of Beechworth a donkey. The Railway Officials could find no mention of such goods in the tariff of charges, and classifying Jack as a horse, wished to charge £4.5s for his carriage. Mr. Crawford, however, put the ass in a large box, labeled it "this side up, perishable goods - not wanted on the voyage", and forwarded him for £1.5s. Now we maintain that, as the railway regulations are silent as to the carriage of donkeys, Jack should have gone freight free - there is no mention of fares for Members of Parliament and they go free, why not other donkeys every Man-Jack of them? We trust the Government will refund Mr. Crawford his £1.5s."
The Giant Omnibus
a scrapbook extract on one of the larger Crawford coaches. At the Court of Petty Sessions held at Wodonga on
Wednesday last, a stage coach licence was granted to Messrs. H.A. Crawford
and Co. for their magnificient omnibus the "Ballarat" - to convey 36
passengers, 18 inside and 18 outside. This is one of the most comfortable
omnibuses in The Australian Colonies, and was built expressly for the firm
by Mr. MacCarthay of Ballarat, to ply between the Wodonga Railway Station
and Albury.
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