Tuesday, November 15, 2016 — 7Narrandera ArgusNarrandera ArgusNarrandera ArgusNarrandera ArgusNarrandera Argus www.narranderaargus.com.au

Step Back In TimeNARRANDERA FAMILIES: DROVERFormer Narrandera Argus

newspaper proprietor the

late Donald Drover was a

descendant of the convict

William Drover and worked

in the printing trade after

completing school at

Narrandera, first briefly at

the Narandera Ensign and

then at the Narandera

Argus.

Narrandera was then speltwith a single ‘r.

Donald became proprietorof the Argus in 1931, takingover on the retirement of theowner Edward Lapthorne.

He married Marjorie JeanMcCann at Castlemaine,Victoria, on April 8, 1926 andthe couple lived in CadellStreet, Narrandera. They hadtwo sons Donald Prosper andGeoffrey William.

Donald Drover senior tookoffice in many organisationsin Narrandera and also serveda term as president of the NSWCountry Press Association.

He died at Narrandera onMay 25, 1965, aged 75 and wasstill running the newspaper atthe time. He was buried in theNarrandera Cemetery.

The following year his wifesold the newspaper to alocally formed company theNarrandera Argus Pty Ltd,which still owns thenewspaper.

Marjorie Drover died atNarrandera on June 14, 1985,aged 86. Her death brought toan end the Drover family lifeat Narrandera, which startedalmost a century before withGeorge Drover recordedIiving in the town in 1888.

Early members of theDrover dynasty William andElizabeth Manon Drover weremarried at Corowa at St John’sChurch of England on August9, 1879, by the Rev Herbert EThomson and William’s sisterCharlotte was a witness at theceremony.

The groom was the son ofWilliam and Eliza Ann Droverand was born at Wangaratta,Victoria, on April 2, 1857. Hisearly years were spent atWangaratta, except while atAlbury when apprenticed toJohn McEachern to learn theblacksmithing trade.

William was the thirdgeneration of Drover black-smiths at Wangaratta. He toldhow lookouts were neededat the North Wangaratta shopwhen doing work for theKelly gang of bushrangers towatch out for the police.

One of the gang, SteveHart, was about the same ageas William Drover and grewup at Wangaratta. Steve Hartdied in the police siege at theGlenrowan Inn on April 28,1880 with Joe Byrne and DanKelly. The gang leader, NedKelly, was wounded andcaptured and later hanged atthe Old Melbourne Gaol onNovember 11 the same year.

Elizabeth was the eldestchild of George and ChristinaSoles and was born at Indigo,near Rutherglen, on July 29,

1859, 10 months after herparents arrived in the colonyof Victoria from the UK.

The Soles family was livingat Rutherglen when WilliamDrover senior arrived withWilliam and Charlotte, andsettled on Quongdong Farm

at Corowa after leavingWangaratta following thedeath of John Drover.

On December 17, 1881, sonProsper William John GeorgeDrover was born at Corowaand he was followed bydaughter Theodosia ElizaMaudline on November 28,1882, also born at Corowa.

The Drovers gave upfarming on Quondong Farm

and moved to the then newlydeveloping Junee Junction(now Junee) and went backto blacksmithing. The railwayline was going through thedistrict at the time.

Theodosia died on May 9,1885, aged 2 years and 6months from congestion ofthe lungs and was one of theearly ones buried in the JuneeCemetery.

The stay at Junee Junctionwas a brief one and land hadbecome available for selectionat Methul, north of Coolamon.The family moved to live onthe three blocks selectedthere after the death ofTheodosia.

Another son, ArthurRobert Gifford, was born atNarrandera on March 3, 1886,when William and Elizabethwere living at Methul. He diedat Methul on July 26, 1888,aged 2 years and 4 monthsand was buried in the UnionCemetery, North Berry Jerry.

Cause of death was “con-vulsions and water on thebrain, duration since birth”.

This latest stint on the landdid not last long. CharlotteDrover married AlfredBodinnar in 1887 and went toWhitton to live and Williamand Elizabeth, with sonProsper and father William,later settled in Coolamon andreturned to blacksmithing.

While at Coolamon, twosons were born DonaldPercival Llewellyn (atNarrandera) on April 30 1890and Alfred (at Coolamon) onNovember 18, 1893. WilliamDrover was a blacksmith atCoolamon by then. On March10, 1891, William Droversenior married CarolineArnold, a widow, at Cool-amon and this appears to havebeen another turning pointfor the family.

Later in the 1890’s, Williamand Caroline Drover, withWilliam and Elizabeth andfamily went to Canowindra tolive for a few years.

By the turn of last century,all, except for Caroline,returned to the Riverina andsettled on Commonwealth

Farm at Gillenbah, a fewkilometres south of Narran-dera over the MurrumbidgeeRiver.

With Charlotte and AlfredBodinnar then living at

Narrandera, the family wastogether again. William’sbachelor uncle, John Drover,also lived on the farm atGillenbah before going to achurch home at Temora.

Sons Donald and Alfredattended the NarranderaPublic School from Gillenbah,often taking a short cut acrossthe railway bridge over theriver.

William Drover must havegot into financial difficultieson the small farm in the earlydays and was declared abankrupt. He was dischargedin 1906.

Elizabeth’s health det-eriorated after their returnand she was later taken toSydney for medical treatment.She died at the Royal PrinceAlfred Hospital, Sydney, onMay 8, 1913. The cause ofdeath was shown as pyelitisand cystitis and generalperitonitis. She was aged 53.

Her body was taken backto Narrandera by the nighttrain the same day and shewas buried in the Old Churchof England section of theNarrandera Cemetery thenext afternoon. The funeralleft from the home of Alfredand Charlotte Bodinnar andthe Rev John Rawling, of StThomas’ Church officiated.

William and ElizabethDrover had their longest stayin one place at Gillenbah. SonsDonald and Alfred hadattended school and foundemployment in Narranderaand Prosper was living atCoolamon.

After Elizabeth’s death, thefarm was sold and in 1915William secured Farm 46 inthe emerging MurrumbidgeeIrrigation Area at FiveboughLeeton. He is listed on thePioneer Register of the MIA.

On May 12, 1915, hemarried Robina Russell atNarrandera. Robina was bornin New Zealand and came toAustralia as a child and wascalled “Heney”.

The farm was surrenderedin 1929 and William andRobina returned to Narr-andera and spent their lastyears living in GrosvenorStreet.

Robina Drover died onSeptember 20, 1931, and wasinterred in the NarranderaCemetery. She was alsosurvived by a sister Mrs WBarber of Crows Nest,Sydney.

William Drover died atNarrandera aged 76 on July20, 1932, and was buried nextto Robina in the Presbyteriansection of the NarranderaCemetery.

With the death of WilliamDrover, it was probably theend of a centuries-old unbro-ken line of Drover black-smiths, continuing on fromblacksmiths in Midlothian,Scotland. Surviving recordsshow the line can be tracedback to the 1600s in LasswadeParish and may have goneback well before then.

Prosper Drover wasworking at Coolamon fororchardist Fred Aylett whenhis parents settled onCommonwealth Farm atGillenbah.

In 1903 he married MayKing Pyke, a younger sister ofFred Aylett’s wife, and theysettled on Aylett’s orchard,Coolamon Grove, whichProsper leased.

While there he was estab-lishing his own orchard,Austral Eden, situated a fewkilometres north of the townand moved there to live in1916.

May’s father, WilliamTucker Pyke, owned the flourmill at Coolamon andpreviously had a flour mill atWodonga where May wasborn in 1879.

Her mother Matilda was agranddaughter of a convictThomas King, so the des-

cendants of Prosper and Mayhave a convict connectionfrom both sides.

Prosper and May had threesons, Audrey (Aud), Prosper(Finn) and Alwyn (Gol), andone daughter Naomi (Girlie).

Prosper died at Coolamonon March 12, 1918, aged 37,and was buried there. Maystayed on running the farmfor several years before takingthe family to Sydney.

She died there aged 85 onMarch 19, 1965.

After finishing school,Alfred Drover worked forUncle Bodinnar as awheelwright. He later workedat Sugden Bros’ woolscourand while there enlisted in theAIF in World War I in 1915.

He was sent overseas andserved in France in 1916 withthe 18th Battalion.

Alfred was wounded whena German shell exploded close

by and he was buried alivewith another soldier.

He was dug out and thensent to an English hospital torecover.

After recuperating inEngland, Pte Drover wasrepatriated to Australia,arriving in November, 1916.He was discharged from theArmy and worked in Sydneyat the Eveleigh RailwayWorkshops.

In 1919 he married MerleFlorence Gould at Burwood,Sydney, and they lived inLloyd George Avenue,Concord, They had threechildren, Alfred John (calledJack who died aged 9 years),Gwenyth Merle and John,

After retiring from therailway workshops, Alfredand Merle moved to Dee Whyto live. Alfred died in Sydneyaged 63 on March 22, 1958,and Merle died there in 1981.