More like a forest than a tree! » Edith HALL (1848-1936)

Données personnelles Edith HALL 

• Elle est née le 4 décembre 1848 dans Westbury, Tasmania, Australia.
• Elle est décédée le 18 février 1936 dans New Ground, Tasmania, Australia, elle avait 87 ans.
• Elle est enterrée le 19 février 1936 dans Hagley, Tasmania, Australia.
• Un enfant de John HALL et Edith MURFETT
• Cette information a été mise à jour pour la dernière fois le 11 mai 2015.

Famille de Edith HALL

Elle est mariée avec John PEARN.

Ils se sont mariés le 24 avril 1871 à Longford, Tasmania, Australia, elle avait 22 ans.

Enfant(s):

1. Rosabel Alma PEARN  1872-1957 
2. Albert Charles John PEARN  1874-1884
3. Edith Emily PEARN  1875-1949 
4. Maud Mary Alice PEARN  1878-1884
5. Annie Linda PEARN  1880-1918 
6. John George PEARN  1881-1885
7. Edward Victor (Ted) PEARN  1884-1944 
8. Henry Edwin (John Harry) PEARN  1884-1956 
9. Robert Asa PEARN  1885-1931 
10. Orwood Arthur (Chummy) Thomas PEARN  1887-1953 
11. Muriel Mildred Dulcie PEARN  1892-1973 

Notes par Edith HALL

Edith Pearn
Posted by AWHF
Edith PearnEdith Pearn (1849-1936)
Farmer and agricultural contractor

Edith Pearn was a true farming pioneer who made an unusual contribution to Australia's harvest history. For over 30 years she was a highly successful agricultural contractor at a time when such activity was dominated by men.

Born at Bishopsbourne, in Northern Tasmania, Edith (nee Hall) grew up nearby on a farm known as 'Vron'. When Edith was in her late teens, John Pearn came looking for work on her father's farm and two years later they married. Over time John and Emily were to have eleven children, although three succumbed to diptheria. Eventually the Pearns were able to buy their own property, known as 'Alvira', but John always looked to augment the family income by contracting out to neighbouring farmers during the grain harvest season.

Edith Pearn
Edith Pearn – farmer and agricultural contractor (Image courtesy of the Pearn family).

Harvesting in the mid-1800s was a highly labour-intensive enterprise, with steam engines playing an essential role. Farmers relied heavily on the help of harvesting contractors who arrived with steam engines and large gangs of men to operate the threshing drums. In 1885, John and Edith invested in two important pieces of harvesting machinery, a large Robertson threshing drum and a portable Marshall steam engine. With this equipment John was able to take on more contract harvesting work in the surrounding farming districts of Whitemore, Hagley and Cluan.

Business went well but tragedy struck unexpectedly in 1900 when John died as the result of a farming accident. Edith, left to support her large family alone, took a courageous decision. She resolved to maintain and enlarge the Pearn contracting business by using John's insurance money to upgrade the family's existing harvesting machinery. It was an enormous gamble for a woman on her own.

Edith's first purchase was a Marshall single cylinder, eight horse power traction engine for which she paid £600 – a very expensive purchase for the time. Further investments included a new threshing drum, chaff cutter and press for hay and straw baling. Edith's two eldest surviving children, twin boys called Henry and Edward, were only sixteen but with their help Edith set about expanding the business. In time the Pearns were threshing close to 70,000 bushels annually.

Recorded in many farm ledgers of the area simply as 'Mrs Pearn, Contractor', Edith was respected as an astute business woman with a sound knowledge of local farming practices. As a woman operating a agricultural machinery business in an industry dominated by men, Edith knew that she was vulnerable to local farmers who might take advantage of her. She became renowned, nevertheless for for her ability to run the business well and to get outstanding accounts settled. When Edith died aged 87 she left behind a thriving enterprise. Today, four generations later, Edith's descendants are well known as agricultural contractors, operating livestock transport, cleaning seed and supplying large earth moving and grain harvesting equipment all over Tasmania.

Although the days of steam engines and threshing drums in the grain harvest are long gone, some of these mighty machines have survived. In the 1950s the Pearns family began collecting and restoring a representative selection of steam traction engines from around Tasmania. In the 1980s the Pearns Steam World was opened in Westbury as a private museum and it now houses a collection of over 200 major items. Among them is the original Robertson drum bought by Edith and John 125 years ago.

Further reading

Information supplied by Ruth Paterson (nee Pearn) great grandaughter of Edith Pearn.

See also www.pearnssteamworld.org.au

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