Sepia Saturday 694

 

Family Portraits

Thomas Sloan and Sarah Jane Walters 

Thomas was born in Geelong, Victoria in 1854 to John Sloan and Marion Jackson. Sarah was the daughter of Mary Bunston and Jacob Walters (aka William Walters aka William Johnston aka Henry Freeman). Tom married Sarah in 1878 - she was 18 and he was 24.  The couple had 12 children and they farmed land near Pyramid Hill.  

Tom was well known in the area for his wheat threshing machine which was pulled by a bullock team.  He employed some other members of the Sloan family as well as Abe and William Johnston, Sarah's brothers.  Tom used to write poems about the people of Pyramid Hill.  He would annomously hang them around town.  When the locals started suspecting him, he wrote one about himself to throw them off track.  Sarah burnt these poems after Tom’s death in 1924.

After her husband died, Sarah moved to Hilston, New South Wales, where several of her children, a sister and brother in law  lived.  She later moved to Culforn, Victoria with her daughter Linda and her family.  They all travelled from Hilston in a Model T Ford with the help of Les Purton, Sarah’s son in law.  They lived with Les and his wife, Mary (Sarah’s daughter) for a while, before finally moving to Koondrook with Linda’s family.  Sarah died in 1935.

James Bunston and Elizabeth Brooks

James was born in Skipton, Victoria in 1864, the eldest child of George Bunston and Elizabeth Lyle Thompson. He was the first cousin of Sarah, mentioned above.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Lawrence Brooks and Hannah Abbott and she was born in Raglan, Victoria in 1865.  They were married in Skipton in 1886.  The couple had around 11 children, several of whom died as infants.  They would make their home at Tolmie, near Mansfield.

Jim and Lizzie farmed land on Bunston Road.  They suffered many hardships as early pioneers in the Victorian high country - bushfires and droughts in summer and snow falls in winter.  Jim turned the rugged landscape into a viable farm that his sons took over after his passing.  They lived with no running water or electricity and only went to town occassionally for supplies or when illness struck.   Jim's brother George and sister Fannie would also settle in the area.   

Jim died in 1931 and Lizzie in 1943.  They are buried together in nearby Mansfield.