Reverend McKee

Reverend William McKee packed a lot into his short life. He was Campbelltown's second Presbyterian minister, succeeding Reverend Hugh Gilchrist at St David's in 1852. Like his Ulsterman predecessor, Rev. McKee worked tirelessly in undertaking his pastoral duties for the town and surrounding areas. It was unforeseen circumstances however that lead to his premature demise.

The Rev. William McKee was born in 1821 and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute. In 1848, with his wife Frances, he sailed for Australia, arriving at Port Phillip on 6 October 1848. He arrived in Sydney the following year after an offer of a vacancy at St Andrew's at Port Macquarie. Reverend McKee was then called to Campbelltown and inducted into St. David's on 18 May 1853.

Rev. McKee's pastoral duties were arduous. He travelled extensively throughout the district from Liverpool, Appin, Camden, Picton, Bargo and beyond. He appears to have carried out his duties to the satisfaction of his congregations which, after 1858, included railway workers and station staff. The railway to Campbelltown brought many benefits. One such benefit was the introduction of tea meetings, with St. David's holding its first in December 1864. Many noted Sydney ministers attended as Guest Speakers. Large amounts of attendees would enjoy tea before crowding the church to hear the speakers talk.

Rev. McKee proved to be a forward looking style of minister. He introduced church music and mixed choirs to services. The singing of hymns had been a contentious issue up until this time and St. David's was viewed as displaying an extremely progressive attitude. Adding further to the reverend's and St. David's reputation was the holding of a four hour session in which over 300 people attended speeches made by prominent members of the church, including an Indian minister and a pioneer missionary to the Aborigines.

William's family was growing and so were his financial problems. A number of mortgages were negotiated by the Reverend during the late 1850s. With these financial debts the strain began to affect McKee. In 1866 a special meeting was called by the Presbytery Moderator. The reason behind this was that William was seen on Liverpool Junction Railway Station under the influence of alcohol. He gave the church his solemn promise to abstain. However the following year the Presbytery called a further meeting and in June that year the church and ministerial charge of Campbelltown was declared vacant. Rev. McKee had a serious alcohol problem. He was suspended from all ministerial functions and he made no appeal against this. He spent the next twelve months under the Rev. Geike in Bathurst. He was then recommended to be reinstated to his duties at Campbelltown.

Two months later Rev. William McKee died on 18 December 1868, aged only 47. He is buried in Campbelltown's Presbyterian Cemetery with his infant sons, Emmerson, William Livingstone and Alexander Rae.

 

Reverend McKee's grave in the Presbyterian Cemetery

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

HOLMES, Marie
The Presbyterian Cemetery Campbelltown

Luckett, Robina 1992
Take up the Torch- The History of St. David's Presbyterian Church Campbelltown
Fast Books: Glebe

"Switching On" Campbelltown

It’s hard to believe that Campbelltown has had electricity for less than 100 years, imagining a life without electricity today seems almost unthinkable but it wasn’t until the citizens of Campbelltown complained that their town was dark and its streets neglected that Campbelltown Council starting looking into providing electricity. Council held a referendum among ratepayers in January 1921 to gauge support for electric lighting, with 80 votes in favour and 65 against, the decision to go ahead was not a unanimous one.

The Mayor of Campbelltown, Charles Hannaford, strongly promoted electricity as the key to Campbelltown’s future development and prosperity and investigated purchasing electricity from the railways or from Port Kembla, but it was decided that Council would build its own generating plant borrowing £10,000 from the State Superannuation Board in 1923.

The plant was manufactured by the Fairbanks-Morse Company, one of the then largest manufacturing firms in the USA. It was reported in the Campbelltown News in January 1924 as being “the first of its particular type in New South Wales to produce energy on the alternating current system and fed by crude oil.”

Power Station, Cordeaux Street, Campbelltown
(Photo courtesy Campbelltown & Airds Historical Society)  

Opened by the Mayoress, Mrs C.N. Hannaford on the evening of 23 January 1924, a crowd of 1000 people congregated outside the power house with the Campbelltown Boy Scouts forming a Guard of Honour as Mrs Hannaford “amidst deafening cheers took the contacting lever with a firm hand, and instantly Campbelltown was officially electrically lighted.”
Locals gathered to look at the illumination of hotels and shops in Queen Street and the Mayors home, whilst others like mentioned in the Rita Brunero blog post, ”left the switches turned on and when they returned home found their house lit up like a Christmas Tree”

Campbelltown News 18 January 1924

Electricity was initially supplied for lighting purposes between the hours of 6pm and midnight daily, extended to an all-night supply by 1 March then, to meet the growing demand for current in the day time the 24 hour service was commenced on 1 May 1924 and has been continued since.

The two diesel-powered generators had less than one hour’s blackout in four years but were soon obsolete and in 1929 Campbelltown was connected to the railway electricity system and a substation was erected in Cordeaux Street. The old powerhouse was demolished in 1931.

Embarking on a marketing campaign, Campbelltown Council encouraged residents to "make electricity you servant" with the electrical engineer, Norman Tuck, advising on the use of electric stoves, bath heaters, clothes washers and vacuum cleaners. By the early 1950s Campbelltown was still a rural town and although electricity had been available before the war, economic depression and a reticence to replace trusted old with modern had slowed the introduction of electrical appliances. After the war Council revived its campaign to sell electrical appliances. In 1958 Campbelltown Council relinquished control of the electricity supply to the Nepean River County Council which had formed in 1954.

Written by Samantha Stevenson
Sources:
Pamphlet File Campbelltown Library
Campbelltown : the bicentennial history / by Carol Liston.



Leppington House

Leppington House (Photo from National Trust NSW collection)

Perched at the summit of a high ridgeline looking west towards the Blue Mountains, Leppington House stood conspicuously here in its surroundings for close to 130 years. It was a grand two storey mansion that had a long and interesting history. To give you an idea of where the house once stood, its access was from today's Denham Court Road.

The house was built on a land grant to William Cordeaux, who assigned a party of convict labourers to clear the ground at his property, after which construction of the house began. The house is likely to have been constructed between 1823 and 1828. It was described in the 1930s in the Camden News: "The situation for such an old homestead is ideal, and commands a panoramic view on either side, such places as the Sanatorium at Wentworth Falls, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Blue Mountains round to The Gib at Bowral are easily picked out."

The original owner William Cordeaux arrived in Australia on the ship Friendship in January 1818. He came to the Colony to join the Commissariat Department as Deputy Commissariat-General. By 1828 William was the largest sheep and cattle owner in the district. He also employed a large number of convicts as well as shepherds. Though his Leppington property was the main base of the estate, most of the Shepherds worked at Cordeaux's other property at Sutton Forest.

James Payten rented the property in 1873 until he bought his own farm. William Cordeaux died and his wife Anne sold the property in 1875. By 1911 the property was owned by a man named Charles Perry. He and his wife Fanny established a country tea garden at the homestead as well as a riding school where visitors would hire horses to ride over the property. Perry also had aviaries with around 600 birds of all varieties. In addition there were kangaroos, wallabies, paddy-melons and monkeys in his collection of animals.

The building was still standing in 1956. The house site now forms part of the East Leppington Development Precinct and continues to be used for grazing cattle in undeveloped areas, but has been re-zoned for development. The site of Leppington house, now referred to as the Leppington House archaeological site, will hopefully be listed on the State Heritage Register. The present major landowner, Campbelltown Council, the Heritage Office and the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure all support conservation of the Leppington House archaeological site as a local park. The original carriageway of Leppington House Estate is today defined by a mature double-tree row of native species and identified as being of exceptional cultural heritage significance.

Participants in a hunt at Leppington House in July 1935. They were thought to be members of the Ingleburn Horse and Pony Club.

Written by Andrew Allen

Sources:

Karyn McLeod
Principal Heritage Consultant/Heritage Lead

Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd

East Leppington (Willowdale) Precinct 8
Historical Archaeological Monitoring and Investigation Report
November 2016

Camden News, Thursday 25 June 1936

HOLMES, Marie 2012
A Scrapbook of History: Stories of the Macarthur District
Campbelltown: Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society

Rose Hannah Payten - Sportswoman Extraordinaire

I wonder how many people drive along Rose Payten Drive, unaware that it is named after one of the great sporting personalities of Campbelltown? Rose Hannah Payten was the youngest in a family of 6 children, with 5 older brothers. Consequently she was known as "Babe" to her friends and family. She was born in 1879 at "Woodbine" at Campbelltown Road, Leumeah, to parents James Payten and Sarah Elizabeth Rose. A natural sportswoman, Rose participated in cricket, golf, horse riding, shooting and tennis. At school Rose "led in every escapade, but from the Headmistress to the smallest tot of the kindergarten they loved her".  It was as a tennis player that Rose really shone. In 1898 she competed in the New South Wales Open Tennis Tournament, and was defeated in the semi-finals. Her  appearance there was described as "a merry freckled face, boyishly eager, whose owner could run like a deer".  In 1899 she was runner up, and in 1900 was at last the winner. The following year she won the singles final again, and amazingly, with partner Mr Rice won the mixed doubles, and with Miss Dransfield won the women's doubles! It was an unprecedented feat to win all three titles, a feat which Rose would repeat for the next 3 years running. At the Victorian Championships in 1903 she won all three titles, and again in Queensland in 1904. In 1905, the Open was not played in New South Wales, and in 1906 Rose was unwell and did not defend her title. She did however play the Strathfield Open, and the Western Australian Open winning the triple crown at both. In 1907 she again won the treble at the New South Wales Open, and then announced her retirement from tennis. For seven years she had been unbeaten at singles tennis. In many games she was given a handicap, on one occasions minus 40, with her opponent starting on 40, meaning she had to win 7 consecutive strokes to win the game.

Rose in her early tennis playing years. (Macarthur Advertiser)

Her tennis game was described as "most versatile. She played the game as a man would, coming in to rally on her service. She drove, she chopped, she lobbed, she volleyed, equally adept in any part of the court. Her opponents never got used to her game, never knew what she would do next. She loved to worry and puzzle them, keep them guessing. Rose loved every minute of a match, reveled in it, the cheeriest personality one could imagine, yet despite her carefree style she could be desperately serious too, and concentrate with the best". 
Following her retirement Rose took up breeding and training harness ponies, showing at Camden, Campbelltown and Sydney Royal Agricultural Shows, winning major prizes at all three for many years. She was considered as "one of the best known identities in New South Wales show-rings." Her last year of showing at Sydney Royal was 1927. At the same time she developed a keen interest in golf,  and in 1930, 31, 34, 36, 38 and 39 won the Ladies Golf Championship of the Campbelltown Club. At golf she was described thus; "her old style hat perched on her head, and a cigarette eternally between her lips, Miss Rose Payten has beome as much a personality on the golf courses as she was in the early days of this century on the tennis courts."
Rose died at the age of 71 on the 9th May 1951, at "Woodbine". She was buried in St Peter's Anglican Cemetery. Her remarkable sports career is unparalleled, and she is remembered for both her prowess and good sportsmanship.



Written by Claire Lynch
Sources:
Pamphlet File Campbelltown Library
Miss Rose Hannah Payten by J.F.Morris

Fisher's Ghost Manuscript Comes to Light.

Recently the library was fortunate in acquiring an unpublished manuscript entitled "Call Not Tomorrow Thine: the story of Fred Fisher." The hefty typewritten tome must surely be one of the most in depth studies of our most celebrated resident at over 300 pages in length.

Written by James.W. Downing in the fifties and early sixties the manuscript is obviously a labour of love, perseverance, diligence, and a doggedness for detail. James researched many sources held at the Mitchell library, NSW State Archives, the Attorney General's Office and London Public Records going as far as to contact connected individuals such as Fisher’s Great Grand Niece.

His intention was to bring to light the most accurate and truthful story of Frederick George James Fisher, for those who had been "misinformed down the years by a stream of imaginative screeds." In many ways his search for snippets of truth are as entertaining as the ghost story itself with James hunting down a lost map showing the whereabouts of Fred's body in the uncatalogued papers of a former cabinet minister.


Impression of Fisher.

The interconnected stories of Fisher, John Farley and George Worrall are covered but also a host of other characters connected with them, including the tale of Fred's bother, William and his lengthy efforts to secure his intestate brother's farm and other items. On March 24th, 1827 an auction of Fred's personal effects took place. In a letter to his mother William wrote "His personal property was sold for little or nothing and I was obliged to stand an idle spectator." Bidders included John Patrick, the Rev. Thomas Reddall and Chief Constable Burke.

Sadly, J.W. Downing died before he could see his work published. His wish was that everyone could have access to his manuscript and so on our website we have published Call Not Tomorrow Thine in PDF format.

The library would especially like to thank D. Tyssen and P. Stewart whose efforts have saved this manuscript so that it can be shared with others.

James Downing's manuscript.