Charles Gribble m. Kate Hutton, Lawlers Western Australia 2 Aug 1900
Charles, blacksmith, mining smith, draper/outfitter b. Portland (Australia) 9 Jul 1877, bapt: ?, d. Spanish Flu, Kellerberrin Western Australia, 30 Sep 1921.
I'm guessing Charles commenced work in the blacksmith's shop of his father and elder brother William at Northcote. On the death of his mother Sophia in 1891 it is written Charles spent some years living with his elder brother's family in various Melbourne suburbs prior to, as his father had done before him, heading off to the gold fields.
He went to Western Australia and from Perth North East to the goldfields at Sandstone some 300 miles north of Kalgoorlie. A staunch Methodist and enthusiastic singer Charles met his future wife in the Wesley church choir. This was the school teacher Kate Hutton, formerly of Ballarat Victoria. In 1900 his bride to be travelled with her mother Emma Hutton (eldest daughter of the late Lowen Hutton, of Colchester, England) to the gold fields by Cobb & Co coach for her wedding at Lawlers by special licence. She carried the wedding frock she had made in Perth. When the coach was nearing Lawlers it stopped and was decorated with wild flowers (the countryside was a mass of everlastings) to bring the bride into Lawlers with I guess a bit of raz-ma-taz! More than ninety years later a photo of Kate in her wedding gown (taken in Perth prior to the wedding for despatch to the rellies unable to attend the goldfields wedding!) was unearthed on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Family lore says Charles (who was working a mine or claim with the Blair brothers) sold out of his partnership just before a major find was announced. Ted Blair and Rita (Charles' sister) left for Melbourne and the good life in a large mansion on St Kilda Road which is where Alfred lived from approximately 1908 to 1910. Tough but that's life many would say. Charles and Kate opened a draper cum outfitters store in Lawlers and later Sandstone where Nellie was born. It is noted in the history of Sandstone that he filled the role of acting Methodist Minister on at least one occasion.
Some two and a half years later around 1916 they left Sandstone for the more congenial wheatbelt town of Kellerberin where they set up a grocery cum outfitter's store next to the Post Office. In 1921 Charles died (it is said by Spanish Flu) in the midst of a world wide influenza outbreak. According to his obituary he was an active member of the community and it's many and various clubs.
Not long after Charles death Kate (b 2 Dec 1876, Tottenham London, d 19 Jul 1972) moved her family to a farm at Wickepin Western Australia. Apparently her second son Reg had no desire to pursue a retail career. Her eldest son Alfred was about this time thought to be learning to be an accountant and storekeeper. The farm was eventually divided between the two sons Reg and Stan. Kate moved to the seaside at South Beach Fremantle where she lived with her sister the nurse Miss Hutton (who commenced nursing in Geraldton and finished in Kalgoorlie) for almost thirty years. The only time of significant absence being during the second world war when Kate and her sister moved back up to the farm in the face of a feared 'Jap' invasion.
Seventh Generation