Well known local identity

Advertisement from the Gosford Times in 1952.
(the highlighting is not relevant to this story.)

I continued researching the children and grandchildren of Manasseh and Madeline Ward this week. I came across several who like Manasseh, can be described as 'well known local identity' in Gosford. To put this into context, we must remember that up until 1960s, Gosford could best be described as a country town – the population for the district in 1960 was about 31,000!

At the end of WWII it was even smaller, with an estimated population of about 18,000. While the railway had arrived in 1890, the Brooklyn road bridge did not open until 1945, by which time the Ward family had been in the district for close to 100 years! It is little wonder that they were well known in town!

But just how well known was demonstrated in 1952. The above advertisement appeared in the Gosford Times on 12 September 1952. The unnamed person who placed the advertisement thought it more helpful to describe his house as next to Roy Ward's than to give the full street address!

Of course Roy was only one of the Wards who would have been equally well known in Gosford including his brothers William and Eric, his sister Amy, his nephews Roly, Jack, Frank, Harold, Eric jnr, Ron, Les, John, Allen, Wallace, and Stan. (His nieces may have been equally well known, but those details are available to me). From everything that I have read and been told, the Wards had a reputation as reliable, honest and hard working people.

While there are still many Wards in the Gosford district, and their character would probably stand up well alongside their ancestors, the area now has a population of a small city - over 160,000 at the last census. I doubt there is any single person in the district whose house could be named as a landmark like Roy Ward's house was in 1952!

The eleven Children of Manasseh and Madeline Ward

This week I completed the draft chapter on Manasseh and Madeline Ward, which is now available on my website, together with many of the resources that I have quoted in the footnotes. Researching and writing this chapter took three months. There is a lot more research that I could do, but it would require a lot of travel to access records that are not available from Internet sites. I guess I have to leave some discoveries for the next generation of family historians!

I am now moving on to a short profile on each of their children. Several drafts have been done along the way and these ate linked from the following list. There will be 12 profiles in all:

1. Josephine Keele, Madeline's daughter by her first marriage. [Draft available].
2. Madeline Hannah Ward.
3. William Ward.
4. Three babies who died (Thomas, John and Manasseh jnr). [Draft available].
5. Robert Ward.
6. Roy Archer Ward.
7. Ephraim McGregor Ward.
8. Amy Gertrude Ward.
9. Eric Stanley Ward.
10. Laurence Keith Stuart (Pat) Ward.
11. Doris May Ward.
12. Bruce Leon Clive Ward. [Draft available].

I am wary of taking things too far, particularly as the drafts are being made available on the Internet. I might be being paranoid, but in this age of cyber crime and identity theft, I don't want to provide detailed information about people who are still alive. This is a departure from earlier family histories that often list descendants down to the time of printing.

My next decision will be where to go from here. I originally planned to write the history of the Ward snd Parry families of Gosford, but over the last year, I have concentrated on the Ward side. So I will have to decide on whether to publish the Ward family as a stand-alone history, or stick with my first plan.

The Gallop of Christopher Sly

Watercolour painting by WA Carson showing the 
Blue Gum races about 1886.
Courtesy of Central Coast Council.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Manasseh Ward owned an interesting racehorse called Christopher Sly. This week I discovered a poem written about Christopher Sly's most notorious race - at the Blue Gum Flat Races. The painting right depicts the scene in 1886, which was within a few years of when the events in the poem occurred.

For interpretation, Blue Gum Flat later became known as Ourimbah. 'Prad' was slang for a horse.

The Gallop of Christopher Sly 

By Jack Robley

Manasseh at sport was a recognised daddy, 

Who owned a dashed prad that could jolly well fly ; 

And Jockey Bob Campbell, a braw Scottish laddie, 

Was the chap that was riding old Christopher Sly

In the race up at Blue Gum of which I am singing, 

When the old hands brought dozens of thoroughbreds up, 

And all at Ourimbah could hear the cheers ringing 

As the horses were saddled to race for the Cup. 

Two miles was the distance the champions were racing, 

No "dead 'uns" were entered, for all had a try ; 

The betting was heavy, and shrewdies were placing 

Much gold on the favourite — Christopher Sly. 

Old Darby was riding a mare called Allanah, 

George Taylor was mounted on Tuggerah's Pride ; 

Pat Humphries rode Clyde in a work-manlike manner,

While Joe Lee on Whisper showed how he could ride. 

Bill Henry was there with the Terrigal Trimmer, 

Alf Jaques came along with old Glistening Toy ; 

Ned Wamsley had entered his Doreen and Glimmer, 

Abe Davis relied on Australian Boy. 

But just as the "Go-To-The Post'' bell had sounded, 

And riders were ready to answer the call ; 

Old Chris got a scare and away the horse bounded, 

Scattering stewards, spectators and all. 

Five times round the course he went L for leather, 

In spite of Bob's efforts to pull the steed up ; 

His backers were very soon howling together, 

What possible hope had they now in the Cup ? 

But, friends, let me tell you, the horse was a wonder, 

And at length when they started the field in the race ; 

He very soon made his opponents go under, 

And he won by two lengths with his terrible pace.  

The races at Blue Gum Flat were seemingly run over two days and it was not unusual for a horse to compete on both days and even in several races on the same day. The papers published the results for the 1883 and 1883 races:

• In 1882, Christopher Sly was in third place in race 2 on the first day, Then ran first in the 4th race on day 2.
• In 1883, Christopher Sly beat Tarquin in race 2 on the first day, but was beaten into second by Tarquin in both the second and third races. Tarquin and his jockey were subsequently disqualified for six months for 'dishonest practices'.
• In 1885 he ran second races on both days.

Manasseh and Madeline - family statistics

Madeline Ward nee Henderson gave birth to 14 children in 20 years. Her first born was Josephine, the daughter of Joseph Keele, who died in a scarlet fever epidemic before his daughter was born. All indications are that when Madeline married Manasseh Ward in 1877, Josephine was accepted as a full member of the Ward family and was routinely called Josephine Ward.

When Joan Taylor did her landmark family history, she did not include Josephine as one of the children, but when my version finally gets printed, I plan to include her. (I think Manasseh would approve.)

Of Manasseh and Madeline's children:

• All but three of the children outlived their parents, and those three, all boys, died in infancy.
• Of the 11 children who survived to adulthood, nine married.
• Josephine had three children;
• Madeline jnr had five children;
• William had eight children;
• Robert had six children;
• Roy did not marry;
• Ephraim had three children;
• Amy did not marry;
• Eric had nine children;
• Pat had six children;
• Doris had four children;
• Bruce had two children.
• That makes 46 grandchildren.
• There were 10 marriages, because Ephraim remarried after his first wife died. 
• There was only one divorce and that was Josephine, who was divorced by her husband in England.
• 32 grandchildren and one great-grandchild were born in Manasseh's lifetime. The great-grandchild was Marjory Law
• The only grandchild to pre-decease Manasseh was William's son and Manasseh's namesake,  Manasseh William Ward who died aged six in 1916.
• 44 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren were born in Madeline's lifetime.
• Only two grandchildren were born after Madeline's death, and as I write this, they are both still alive. I am not aware of any other grandchildren that are still alive, but there are three other grandchildren that I don't have a death date for, so it is possible.

I have extended my website this week to make provision for adding a profile on each of the children. There are draft profiles for Josephine and Bruce there already, as well as a page for the three little boys who died as babies. There is also a blank document for each of the others, which I will flesh out when the time comes. You can access the profiles from Manasseh and Madeline's page.

Thanks to my cousin Christine for her extensive research into Josephine - she has uncovered an interesting, if sometimes sad story of the girl who grew up in Kincumber and Gosford and went on to appeared in silent films and grace the Broadway stage. Christine has a lot more detail than I have included in by little summary and she tells me that you can watch several of Josephine's silent movies on Youtube!