Blanche Anderson Jeffries & Owen James Howard

1866–1937

The saddler’s youngest child. She married Owen James Howard — of the Parkes storekeeping family, and three times the town’s mayor — raised her children there among the counters of R. S. Howard and Sons, and came with him at last to Manly, where she died in 1937, the year he married again.

Born: George Street, Bathurst · 1866
Died: 1937 · death registered at Manly, New South Wales
Married: Owen James Howard (1868–1950) — married at Parkes, 9 April 1896
Lived: about 71 years

Blanche Anderson Jeffries was born at Bathurst in 1866, the eighth and last of Archibald Joseph Jeffries’ children and the youngest of his five daughters, registered there as Blanche A. Jeffries, daughter of Archibald J. and Mary J.¹ She kept the memory of the place: writing to Bathurst in 1933 to accept for the “Back to Bathurst” carnival, she recalled being born in George Street — the street of her father’s saddlery.² By the time Archibald made his blind man’s will in 1902 she was long married and living at Parkes, and his obituary the next year names her among the married daughters at that remove — “Mrs. Schoe (of Perth W.A.), Mrs. T. Robins (Sydney), and Mrs. Howard (Parkes).”³

She had married on 9 April 1896, at a house called “Windridge” in Church Street, Parkes. The bridegroom was Owen James Howard, “youngest son of Robert S. Howard, J.P.,” of the Parkes storekeeping family; the bride, the notice said, was “Blanche Anderson, daughter of A. J. Jeffries, Bathurst.”⁴ Owen had been born in Sydney in 1868, a son of Robert Stephen Howard and his wife Maria.⁵ His father had founded R. S. Howard and Sons — the firm that ran a general store and the XLCR Furnishing Depot on Clarinda Street — and Owen came into the business young: in February 1895, a year before the wedding, he swore the registration papers of the Dayspring Gold-mining Company (No Liability), a ten-acre lease at Currajong near Parkes, as its manager and largest shareholder, “Owen James Howard, storekeeper.”⁶

The Howards’ household is on the 1901 New South Wales census in Clarinda Street, Parkes — “Owen J. Howard,” seven people under the one roof.⁷ Three children lived: Edmund Frank, born 1898; Kathleen, born 1899; and Harold Esmond, born 1904.⁸ Owen prospered and took up the public life of the town — an alderman of the Parkes Municipal Council, three times its mayor, and, like his father, a pillar of the Methodist Church, holding “at different times every position open to a layman.”¹⁵ A studio portrait captioned simply “Mayor Owen James Howard” survives in a Parkes photographic history, alongside a view of Clarinda Street in the 1890s with the “R. S. Howard” shopfront in it.¹²

The family moved to the coast. By 1913 Blanche — entered as “Blanch Anderson Howard” — was on the electoral roll at 6 Gilbert Park, Manly, close by the Methodist church there; and by 1930 she and Owen were settled at “Parkhurst,” 3 Osborne Road, Manly, where the rolls hold them through the decade, he a “merchant.”¹⁰¹¹ Two of her Bathurst siblings had come to the same few streets — her brother William Archibald Jeffries, a land agent at Manly, and her sister Ada, who would move to Harbord nearby — and in February 1933 the three of them wrote in together for the “Back to Bathurst” carnival: “Mrs. Blanche A. Howard (nee Jeffries)” of Manly, “William Archibald Jeffries (Manly)” and “Miss Ada A. Jeffries (Katoomba).”² Blanche died in 1937, the death registered at Manly, her parents given as Archibald Joseph and Mary Jane; she was about seventy-one, and administration of her estate went to her husband.¹³¹⁴ Owen married again the same year — Amy Bishop, at Chatswood, on 21 October 1937 — and lived on at Parkhurst until his death on 10 June 1950, “beloved husband of Amy,” aged eighty-one; he was buried from the Methodist Church at Gilbert Park, the church beside which Blanche had first appeared on a Manly roll thirty-seven years before.¹⁵

HOWARD—JEFFRIES.—April 9, at Windridge, Church-street, Parkes. Owen J., youngest son of Robert S. Howard, J.P., to Blanche Anderson, daughter of A. J. Jeffries, Bathurst.

Marriage notice, “Howard–Jeffries,” 1896 (newspaper cutting, family collection)

Half-tone studio portrait of a middle-aged man with a heavy moustache, in a three-piece suit and tie, seated against a plain background. — Owen James Howard, Blanche’s husband — storekeeper and three times mayor of Parkes. The portrait is reproduced in Ian Chambers, “Parkes: A Photographic History” (1988), captioned “Mayor Owen James Howard.”

Parkes

The storekeeping family

Robert Stephen Howard came to Parkes in the gold decades and built a business that outlasted him. R. S. Howard and Sons Pty Ltd — drapers, furnishers and general storekeepers on Clarinda Street, trading in part as the XLCR Furnishing Depot — was, an obituary of Owen said, a firm “in the establishment of which deceased had played a big part.”¹⁵ Owen managed the associated Dayspring gold mine at Currajong from 1895, held its largest parcel of shares, and worked his way through the offices of the town: alderman, mayor three times over, and every lay position the Methodist Church had to give.⁶¹⁵

Blanche kept the house through those years and bore the three children there. When the family left Parkes for Manly the store stayed on under the Howard name, and Owen is “merchant,” then “company director,” on the records of his last decades by the sea.¹¹¹⁵

News was received with profound sorrow … of the death in Sydney … of Mr Owen James Howard. He was 82 years of age and had led a long and useful life both here and in Sydney. His father, Mr Robert Stephen Howard, founded the business of R. S. Howard and Sons Pty. Ltd., and deceased had played a big part in its establishment.

Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder, 19 June 1950

Full-length studio photograph of a bride in a long veil and embroidered train holding a large cascade bouquet, flanked by two attendants in calf-length frocks and close-fitting headdresses, each also holding a bouquet. — The wedding of Blanche’s daughter Kathleen Howard and Walter R. Hamilton, 1930 — the bride at left with two attendants. The Howards kept the photograph captioned “Walter Schliessman,” the surname his father had renounced by deed poll in 1915.

The younger daughter’s marriage

A name renounced

Kathleen Howard married Walter R. Hamilton at Manly in 1930.⁸ He had been born at Goulburn in 1900 as Walter Rudolph Schliessmann, a son of Franz Friedrich “Frederick” Schliessmann, a tobacconist born at Darmstadt in Hesse in 1861.⁹ On 18 May 1915 — eleven days after the sinking of the Lusitania, in the week anti-German feeling spilled into riots across Sydney — Frederick advertised in the Government Gazette that he had “absolutely renounced and abandoned” the name Schliessmann and adopted Hamilton “only.”⁹ Walter, a boy of fourteen, carried the new surname into adult life and married under it; the Howards, keeping their photograph of the wedding, still wrote the old one on it.

The Record

Sources & References

1
Birth registration, 1866

NSW BDM birth index — Blanche A. Jeffries, 1866, registration district Bathurst, reg. no. 5584; father Archibald J. Jeffries, mother Mary J. The eighth and last of the Bathurst children; the full sibling set is at the Jeffries entry, reference 7. The middle name “Anderson” is carried on her marriage (reference 4), her 1937 death registration (reference 13) and the probate index (reference 14).
2
“Back to Bathurst,” 1933

National Advocate (Bathurst), 7 February 1933, “Old Bathurstians from Abroad” — those accepting for the “Back to Bathurst” carnival, among them “Mrs. Blanche A. Howard (nee Jeffries)” of Manly, with her brother “William Archibald Jeffries (Manly)” and sister “Miss Ada A. Jeffries (Katoomba).” Blanche’s letter to the carnival secretary recalled that she had been born in George Street, Bathurst — the street of her father’s saddlery. Also cited at the William entry, reference 12, and the Ada entry, reference 7.
3
“Mrs. Howard (Parkes)” in her father’s obituary, 1903

Obituaries of Archibald Joseph Jeffries, Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal and National Advocate, both 20 May 1903 — the married daughters given as “Mrs. Schoe (of Perth W.A.), Mrs. T. Robins (Sydney), and Mrs. Howard (Parkes).” See the Jeffries entry, references 15–16. Blanche, away at Parkes, takes no named bequest in the 1902 will (Jeffries entry, reference 19).
4
Marriage, 1896

NSW BDM marriage index — Blanche A. Jeffries and Owen J. Howard, 1896, registration district Parkes, reg. no. 3666. Marriage notice (newspaper cutting, family collection), “Howard–Jeffries”: “April 9, at Windridge, Church-street, Parkes. Owen J., youngest son of Robert S. Howard, J.P., to Blanche Anderson, daughter of A. J. Jeffries, Bathurst.” The masthead and date of the cutting are not recorded; the marriage was 9 April 1896.
5
Owen James Howard — parentage and birth, 1868

NSW BDM birth index — Owen J. Howard, reg. no. 1753/1868, registration district Sydney; father Robert S. Howard, mother Maria. His father, Robert Stephen Howard, J.P., founded the Parkes storekeeping firm R. S. Howard and Sons (reference 6).
6
The Dayspring Gold-mining Company, 1895

NSW Government Gazette, 1895, p. 968 — application to register “The Dayspring Gold-mining Company (No Liability)” under the Mining Companies Act of 1881: operations at Currajong, near Parkes; registered office Clarinda Street, Parkes; a ten-acre lease held with Henry Harry Cooke, James Bothwell and Robert Stephen Howard. The manager and largest shareholder is “Owen James Howard … storekeeper … Parkes,” with 500 of the 4,600 shares; Robert Stephen Howard holds 400. Declaration sworn before S. E. Close, J.P., 6 February 1895.
7
1901 NSW census

Household of “Owen J. Howard,” 1901 NSW census — Census District 28, County of Ashburnham, Municipality of Parkes, Clarinda Street, schedule no. 616: three males and four females under the one roof.
8
The three children

NSW BDM birth index, Parkes district, father Owen J., mother Blanche A.: Edmund F. 14908/1898, Kathleen M. 23953/1899, Harold E. 25534/1904. Edmund Frank Howard enlisted in the AIF in January 1918 (service no. N85452; audit clerk, single, next of kin his father at “Parkhurst,” 3 Osborne Road, Manly) and married Radiance E. Basham (1923, Manly, reg. no. 17238). Kathleen married Walter R. Hamilton (1930, Manly, reg. no. 7098; see reference 9). Harold Esmond Howard (8 July 1904 – 6 January 1977, buried Manly cemetery) married Edith J. H. Longmuir (1931, Manly, reg. no. 3246) — the “Jean” of his headstone — their daughter Wendy 1936–1951. All three are in the 1950 funeral notice as “Frank, Kathleen (Mrs W. R. Hamilton), and Esmond” (reference 15).
9
The Schliessmann–Hamilton name change, 1915

NSW Government Gazette, change-of-name notice no. 3819 — “TAKE NOTICE that I, the undersigned Frederick Hamilton, of number ninety-five, Alt-street, Ashfield, near the city of Sydney … tobacconist, lately called Frederick Schliessmann, have now absolutely renounced and abandoned the use of my said surname of Schliessmann, and … have assumed and adopted the name of Hamilton … Dated at Sydney, this eighteenth day of May, A.D. 1915.” Witness, Thomas Rose, solicitor, 84 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Walter Rudolph Schliessmann was born at Goulburn in 1900 (NSW BDM birth index, reg. no. 3376; father Frederick, mother Agnes) and was a minor of fourteen at the deed poll; he married Kathleen Howard in 1930 as “Walter R. Hamilton.” Franz Friedrich “Frederick” Schliessmann was born at Darmstadt, Hesse, on 26 April 1861 and died at Goulburn on 31 October 1942 (compiled family record). The notice followed the sinking of the Lusitania, 7 May 1915, and the anti-German riots in Sydney that week, by eleven days.
10
Manly electoral roll, 1913

Commonwealth Electoral Roll, 1913, Middle Harbour — Manly polling place, p. 39, no. 2890 — “Howard, Blanch Anderson, 6 Gilbert-park, domestic duties.” Owen is not on the same page. Gilbert Park adjoins the Methodist church from which Owen would be buried in 1950 (reference 15).
11
Manly electoral rolls, 1933–1936

Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, Division of Warringah, Subdivision of Manly — “Howard, Blanche Anderson, 3 Osborne road, Manly, home duties” and “Howard, Owen James, 3 Osborne road, merchant,” on the rolls of 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936; the 1934 and 1935 rolls repeat the 1933 and 1936 entries without change. The house was called “Parkhurst” (reference 15).
12
Ian Chambers, “Parkes: A Photographic History” (1988)

Ian Chambers, Parkes: A Photographic History (1988), pp. 62–63 — a double-page view of Clarinda Street “from just south of the Square in the early 1890s,” with “Howard’s … original store on the right” before the rebuilding of 1896; and a studio portrait captioned “Mayor Owen James Howard.”
13
Death registration, 1937

NSW BDM death index — Blanche Anderson Howard, reg. no. 5099/1937, registration district Manly; father Archibald Joseph, mother Mary Jane. Born 1866, she was about seventy-one.
14
Probate, 1937

NSW probate index no. 110650 — “Howard, Blanche Anderson,” of Manly, married woman; administration granted to Owen James Howard, both death and grant in 1937.
15
Owen James Howard — civic life, second marriage and death

Obituaries: Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder, 19 June 1950, “Death of Mr. O. J. Howard: Prominent Business Man and Good Citizen” (from the Parkes “Champion-Post”), and a companion notice “Death of Mr. O. J. Howard … Parkes-Sydney Businessman” — his father’s founding of R. S. Howard and Sons Pty Ltd, his standing in the Methodist Church “having held at different times every position open to a layman,” his aldermanship of the Parkes Municipal Council and “three terms as Mayor,” and his later Sydney offices (chairman of the Country Traders’ Association, foundation member of the Manly Chamber of Commerce). Second marriage: Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 1937, “Howard–Bishop” — married 21 October 1937 at the residence of Mr Sydney Smith, Centennial Avenue, Chatswood, by the Rev. Victor Clark-Duff, “Owen James Howard, of Manly and Parkes, to Amy Bishop, elder daughter of the late Hon. Sydney Smith, Thornton Hall, Penrith.” Death and funeral: Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June 1950 — died 10 June 1950 at his residence “Parkhurst,” No. 3 Osborne Road, Manly, “beloved husband of Amy and loved father of Frank, Kathleen (Mrs. W. R. Hamilton), and Esmond,” aged 81; funeral leaving the Methodist Church, Gilbert Park, Manly, for the Northern Suburbs Crematorium. The Parkes obituary gives his age as 82.
16
Photographs

The “Mayor Owen James Howard” studio portrait reproduced in Chambers (1988) (reference 12); and a 1930 wedding-party photograph — Blanche’s daughter Kathleen Howard with Walter R. Hamilton and two attendants — kept in the family collection captioned “Walter Schliessman.” No likeness of Blanche Anderson Howard herself is in the family record.