Ezekiel Johns

When the ship Success berthed at Port Adelaide on January 27^th, 1848 among the passengers disembarking was a lad of 13 years from Redruth, Cornwall, England.

Ezekiel Johns came to Australia with courage and determination to begin a new life for himself. His schooling was sadly neglected and he had been working in the Cornish mines.

His decision to migrate came from a suggestion of the magor family who came to South Australia two years earlier.  They were neighbours of the Johns family in Cornwall and upon arrival at Port Adelaide, young Ezekiel carrying a bunch of his belongings walked through scrub to the Magor house on the Gawler River.  Here he obtained farm work at 3/6d per week.

When gold was discovered in Victoria, he joined the throng of men going to the diggings.  Ezekiel remained in Victoria almost two years – life was hard and little success came his way in the effort to find gold.  He returned to South Australia and worked for farmers in the Smithfield and Gawler River areas, finally securing two sections of land between Lewiston and the river.  He married Julia Hannah Row and here they set up their home – the walls of the house were built of pise, a compound of clay straw and grass.

Four children were born in this home, Elizabeth, Ezekiel junior, Evangeline and Thomas.  The children were very young when their mother died on January 20^th 1868, aged 34 years.  Julia Hannah was laid to rest in the Carclew cemetery.

Within the year Ezekiel remarried.  This time to Mary Jane Carter.  Children of the second marriage are;

1. Francis Henry (Frank)
2. Samuel James
3. Walter Hurtle
4. Loveday Rosina
5. Grace

Elizabeth the eldest child died at 16 years of age and she rests beside her mother at Carclew. (no headstone)

Ezekiel senior, had acquired several hundred acres of land on both northern and southern sides of the Gawler River.  The government grant of 80 acres of land proved impracticable for farming and some of these small holdings eventually became part of the Johns property.

By the end of 1880, a well constructed stone dwelling was completed on the southern side of the river and Ezekiel, Mary Jane and the eight children moved in.  The house with a verandah on the front contained nine rooms, a spacious cellar, passageway, and a porch and brick oven.  No provision was made for wither bathroom or laundry.  The family took heir Saturday night ablutions in relays in front of the kitchen fire, using a sitz bath.  Later a wash tub served the purpose.

While washing equipment was kept in the storeroom and moved to the back porch for washing days.  Water for all household purposes was carried by bucket from n outside underground tank.

The mulberry tree that flourished until battered in a storm 15 years ago, and he Norfolk Pine standing in a direct line with the front garden was laid out.  With gum trees on the front and northern sides almond trees to the south, pepper trees at the back and a well kept flower garden, the new house took on an air of prosperity and ranked among the finest homes in the neighbourhood.  Outbuilding s consisted of a stable and an implement shed build of pise with open roofs, two sheds of pine logs and straw hatched roof, stone buggy shed and two small stone sheds at either end of the stables.

The property was named “Woodvale”.

Samuel was eight years of age when the family came to live in the new home.  He began his schooling at Lewiston, but now walked the three miles to Virginia, accompanied by brother Frank and the Rowland boys. 

Again tragedy came to the family. After two years in her new home, Mary Jane died at the age of 38 years, and was laid to rest in the family allotment at Carclew.  Evangeline (Eva) although still in her teens undertook the management of the house and the care of her five young half brothers and sisters with assistance from hired help.

Some years later, when it seemed inevitable that Eva would be lot to her family by marriage to Will Heaslip, her father advertised for a housekeeper and Miss Elizabeth Smith from an Adelaide suburb applied for the position.  She accepted and severed the family well, eventually becoming Mrs. Ezekiel Johns the third.  She treated her step children with love and understanding, while coping with a husband many years her senior, and a strong disciplinarian where his family was concerned.  To the sons and daughters she was Lizzie, and other e grandchildren she was Auntie Lizzie.

Ezekiel, with his Cornish background had firm religious convictions and the worship of God was part of his daily living.  He gathered his household together each day for scripture reading and family prayers.

The Carclew Primitive Methodist Church was his spiritual home and the Johns family regularly attended two services on Sunday and a mid week class meeting frequently walking from their home to the church.

Sam remained at the Virginia State school until just before his 13^th birthday, and the commencement of his fifth and final year.  A framed certificate of merit which hung on the dining room wall proved he did well in the fourth class.

Virginia could boast of three schools at that time. The Sisters conducted school in a building at the rear of the Roman catholic Church.  A private school, whose pupils were mainly girls with a few young boys, was under the jurisdiction of Mrs. Puplett.  (Loveday and Grace were pupils).

The State school was situated to the north of the township where Port Wakefield Road and Gawler Road converge.  Great was the rivalry between the teachers of the State and Private schools regarding their educational standards.

Sam enjoyed relating stories of this hostility, particularly when the Selby’s were in residence at the State school.

A farm had been purchased at Koolunga, and the eldest son, Ezekiel junior was placed in charge with Alf Mayes as workman.  However young Ezekiel was no farmer, and he would be in the house reading or concocting an herbal mixture for his current complaint when he should be tilling the soil.  So Sam’s schooling finished abruptly and he was dispatched with horse and dray to drive to koolunga and help to push the business on there.  The journey took two days.

The Koolunga farm did not prosper and was too far away for parental oversight, so the land was sold.  Ezekiel was sent to a job elsewhere, and Sam returned to the home property.

When a young man in his late teens, Sam desired to learn dancing, but his father being a Cornishman and a devout Methodist regarded dancing as the crowning work of the Devil.  On certain night he would retired to his bedroom and when the ‘coast was clear’ climb through the window, saddle his horse and ride to Two Wells.  Father never found out what his son was up to because he was always in bed when called next morning.  Throughout his life he loved dancing, although never acclaimed a good dancer.  His brothers and sisters never attempted to acquire the art.

Frank disliked farming and was apprenticed to the South Australian Railways.  He was regarded as the dandy of the family and when his marriage to Florence Thomas was to take place, Sam was invited to be best man.  However, the day before the wedding while fencing, Sam cut his hand, during the time father was wrapping the bleeding hand in a handkerchief Sam became faint and fell face foremost on the barbed wire.  It was an irate bridegroom who met his face scratched best man he next day an hour before the wedding at the Semaphore Anglican Church.

In his early twenties, Sam developed a love of platform work, and his recitations were popular at Church socials, tea meetings, and Band of Hope gatherings.  He travelled on horseback and was often accompanied by Edwin Roberts, a good tenor singer.  The recitations of these days were long dramatic discourse, with tender tearful passengers and he knew the poems in Farm Ballads from cover to cover. He also recited some of Banjo Petersons writings, his favourite being “In the droving days’. Which he put over extremely well.

During the 1914-1918 World War 1, Mrs. Alfred Baker (a local identity) wrote a poem about the boys leaving their homes and jobs and enlisting for Military Service.  Mrs. Baker requested Sam to recite the poem at a Patriotic Concert held in the Virginia institute.  The recitation was an outstanding success and not only was it repeated at Virginia but requests came from neighbouring towns, for the item at their concerts.

Ezekiel and the three sons worked long tiring house and with diligence and thrift the farm prospered and more land was added, making approximately 2000 acres on both northern and southern sides of the river.

Tom married Annie Hayman and was living on the property west of Woodvale.  Sam and Walter were bachelors.

By 1899, Father Ezekiel decided to retire from farming in favour of his sons. The land was divided – Tom taking the portion where he was already living, to the west – Walter the property to the east and Sam the homestead and most of the original land.

Tom expressed disappointment that he, as the eldest of the farming sons was not allotted the homestead.  His father replied, “To this home I expect to come and go whenever I wish and stay as long as I choose”.  Sam regarded these remarks as a compliment and his father did just as he said he would.

The names of Edwin Roberts and Sam Johns frequently appeared on concert programmes at Golden Grove, and in particular at Greenwith Church.  Both men had relatives living in the district, and invitations were forth coming.  Edwin fell in love with the organist at Greenwith – Edith Smith, and brought her as his wife to live on his farm on the Gawler River near Angle vale.  Sam was on “coming to supper” terms with the Tilley family, invariably yarning to Father John Tilley about land and crops.  The elder daughter, Alice was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but attended socials at the Methodist Church because of the excellence of programmes.  When Sam could foresee being left with a house and no housekeeper, he proposed marriage to Alice Tilley, but he was not readily accepted.  Alice was 21 years old and her suitor seven years older, and she wished to wait for another year or two before thinking of marriage.  However, Father and Mother Tilley joined forced with Sam pointing out to their daughter the advantages of marrying a man several years her senior with a farm and house ready to live in.