A Few More Characters

I thought I would share stories from a presentation I made of a few more colourful characters from Campbelltown over the years:

The first character is Cordelia Weils Love Larken. She was born on 21 June 1859 in Campbelltown. Cordelia never married.

According to one local who I interviewed around 15 years ago, Cordelia "was certainly mentally affected." She explained that she would walk around the streets dressed in black, wearing big hat and always carried an umbrella. My interviewee continued recalling her: We were children then and we would say “Good morning Princess Cordelia” that was wonderful but if anyone said “Hi Cordy” she would go for them with her umbrella. Everyone would know her.”

Further research revealed that sadly children would regularly throw rocks on her roof.

Cordelia died on 17 March 1929 aged 69 at Balmain. She is buried in St Peter’s Churchyard, Campbelltown.

One of the town’s great characters from the past was Arthur William (Bill or Billy) North. He was born in Campbelltown and lived in a now demolished weatherboard house at 15 Lithgow Street. He was a baker and then a railway fettler. He was assistant bellringer at St Peter’s Church for 18 years.

Billy was Campbelltown’s man to go to if you needed help around the house. He had the motto “while you’re looking for it, I’ve got it”.

He was short, of nuggety build, about 173cms and had great physical strength. He was pleasant and had rapid speech.

He married Alice Richardson and they had one child Enid. Bill died on 27 March 1958, aged 79.

There are a couple of stories I gathered about Billy. From one local “We used to have wood stoves. When we got a new load of wood, we would hear this person walking in our yard at night. We would look out and it would be Bill. He would get an armload of wood that had just been delivered to us. He would then go up the road and sell it to someone for five bob. Then, when they got a load of wood, he would do the same to them. He would get an armload from them and come down and sell it to my mum. They all knew that he was doing it.

One day he got arrested for riding his pushbike backwards down Queen Street. When he went to court a couple of days later on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, the magistrate looked at him and said, "if you can ride a pushbike backwards down the main street you’re not drunk!" So, they let it go!

Father and son Gus and Hal O’Donnell originated from Minto. They were remembered as quite well- built fellows. Hal, the son, was born on 18 March 1932 to Augustine James (Gus) O'Donnell and Mary Gladys Morgan. A local described them like this: “The father would have been in his late 50s with a white moustache, and the son would probably have been in his late 20s. They had these two beautiful big horses, and they used to ride up Campbelltown’s main street usually on a Saturday morning. They would ride up side by side. I used to think who are you and what are you doing. They had a property at Minto and used to ride their horses from Campbelltown to Minto. Where they started from, I don’t know. I never saw them coming, only going. Their name was O’Donnell. That’s all I know. I was fascinated by them. They never galloped, they just walked the horses up the main street as much as to say here I am, look at me.”

Both Gus and Hal spent a lot of time sitting in a sulky outside Lacks hotel and would always raise their hats when a lady walked past.

Hal had a stock float and played polocrosse.

They lived at “Nirvana” in Minto. Gus was dairy farming off Badgally Road in 1944. Hall had a dairy at Minto on Campbelltown road just north of Raby road, right opposite Redfern road.

Hal rode at local shows and gymkhanas. James Henry "Hal" O'Donnell passed away on 21 November 1966 in Bowral. His father Gus died at Campbelltown in 1960.

Written by Andrew Allen