Chapter 6.2 – The Soap and Candle Factory

In 1863 Charles O’Connor 1, my great-grandfather (b. 1827), at the age of 36 years joined the exodus from Ireland. He left Dublin and sailed to Australia on the ship ‘Pestonjee Bomanjee’ to Melbourne and from thence to Kadina where with his wife Mary (Mone) O’Connor (Piggot), he began his Australian adventure, continuing.

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“What was it mainly that you liked about being a Blacksmith, Dad?”

“I loved the whole job, but there were three things associated with the trade of Blacksmithing in those far off days that I truly loved. They are firstly, the beautiful odors of a black coal fire, secondly, the odor of the burning of a horse’s hoof when the shoes are being fitted and thirdly and the sound of the ring of a good anvil.

I love the smell of the coal fire. I loved it first when it comes to you from a distance. There is something about it that I have always found fascinating. As a child when traveling on a steam train, I used to put my head out of the carriage window and smell the coal smoke. Then the horse’s burning hoof – when shoeing a horse after first trimming the hoof so that I was always sure of getting a level fit. It did not hurt the horse in the least and was therefore the normal process. In later years when I had the shop on Glen Osmond Road, people used to come into the shop and say how they loved to smell the odor of the burning horse’s hoof.

Then there’s the ring of a good anvil. There is no sound like it. It’s a joyous sound! I was always pleased if I worked on an anvil with a good ring to it. If I wanted to improve the ring, I would get pieces of leather and put them under the corners of the anvil on the block on which it was mounted. That way the ring could be considerably improved. There is no sound to my mind to compare with the ring of an anvil in a quiet country town. Such a thing cannot be appreciated in the city because there is always even at the quietest of times the background roar of traffic.

“I think I could add to that, that there are not many sights that move me more than a big steam locomotive as it climbs a steep incline belching forth black smoke and white steam. Later in the 1930s in Adelaide when my boys were little I had a push bike with a sidecar on it. Every Easter Monday for several years, while they were small, I used to push the three of them from Parkside to the Unley Park railway station. Seven or eight special trains used to be run up to the races at Oakbank. I used to take the boys over there to watch the trains as they climbed up to the hills. It was a sight that would thrill any child and most adults. Such things are almost gone and it is only through the efforts of the people who have worked to preserve some of the old locomotives that it is still possible occasionally to see such a sight.

“In those days there were no arc welding plants or Oxy-cutting torches. Everything had to be done the hard way by today’s standards. In Pinnaroo we used to also shoe horses. As well as the local trades people’s horses all the riding and buggy horses were shod. The highlight of this part of the work was when in the wheat carting season all the wagon teams would have to be shod. A farm horse was all right whilst it was working on the farm, but in fact sometimes their hooves would have to be trimmed because on the soft soil of the farm they would sometimes grow too long and make it difficult for them to walk. When it came to wheat carting time, however and they were out on the hard gravel roads their hooves would quickly wear away and so they had to be shod with iron shoes.

“Just a few years before this time bullock teams were used for the wheat carting, they would have to be shod as well. Their shoes were made in two halves and were nailed on in the same manner as are the horse’s shoes. I used to love this time of the year because there was always plenty of excitement when these horses were shod. Not being accustomed to being in the town or being shod the horses would play up no end. Some would have to be put in what was called the ‘Crush Pen.’ This was a timber structure in which the horse would be put if it could not be handled and shod in the normal manner. It had two wide straps which were passed under the horse so that it could not lie down. The front legs were strapped up off the ground, one at a time. When they were done, then the hind legs would be tied back to a post, also one at a time. Sometimes the whole job would take most of a day. There was certainly plenty of excitement at this time.

“The head blacksmith’s name was Jimmy Hanton. He was only a small man, not quite as tall as I am and slightly built, but he was a very skilled tradesman and a very conscientious workman. In later years he became a partner in the business when Mr Koch sold out his share in the partnership and Jimmy bought in and the business became ‘Hanton and Sharrad.’ Jimmy is still alive today and is in the home for the aged at the Pinnaroo Hospital. He is over 95 years of age and is completely blind. His eyesight failed about 15 years ago. When I saw him about 10 years ago he was still very alert and we were able to have a very good talk about things we both remembered. He was a remarkable man and how he handled those big and wild horses was always a source of wonder to me and it brought forth a great admiration for him on my part, both as a tradesman and his ability and patience when handling those horses.”

“Why did you leave your job as a Blacksmith if you liked it so much. Didn’t you say you were there only for 3 1/2 years?” I was puzzled.

“As a result of bad seasons and the commencement of the great depression, around about 1928, I decided to leave Hanton and Sharrad and took a job on a farm as a farm hand at 25 shillings a week and keep. This was no 48-hour a week job. The hours were five am to sundown, six days a week and every second Sunday. I had to stay on duty, milking cows etc. while the boss had his day off. My employer was one of three brothers and they were all lay preachers and owned adjoining farms. At the beginning of harvest I was given a set of tools for the harvester I was driving. If I lost any tools I had to pay for replacements. The country was very sandy in parts and it was very easy to lose tools if you were not very careful. That was probably why the onus was put on me to replace any that were lost. Naturally I tried to be very careful but somehow, every now and then, one of my tools would disappear. I found a good part of my wages would have to go to replace lost tools, no matter how careful I was. One day I had to go over to one of the brother’s farm to do some repair work on a machine in the blacksmith shop and I discovered some of my lost tools amongst the tools that were there. The harvesting machines were always left out in the paddock overnight until harvest was finished and so it turned out that one of the brother’s (the lay preacher!!) was helping himself to my tools and I was paying for replacements. Needless to say, I did not pay for any more ‘lost tools.’

“What a hypocrite he must have been?”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Dad.

“How long did you work there?”

“I stayed for about two years in all.”

“What did you do in your leisure times, was there any entertainment on offer?” I queried.

“Dancing and silent pictures provided the main recreation and entertainment at the time. Our entertainment was very simple in those days. In a book about the history of Parilla Well (about 7 miles north of Pinnaroo) there is a description that pretty well sums it all up: ‘After sports, tea was provided and Mr Leak presided over the concert that followed. Mr G Paul provided an interesting program on his gramophone. Proceeds went towards the School Library fund.’ That was about the best our entertainment got!

“If I wanted to go to a dance, I would have to ride a horse there and back. The farm was 11 miles out of Pinnaroo and we would dance until one am and I would have to ride home the 11 miles again in time to change and then go out and feed and groom the horses, have breakfast and then go straight to work. In the autumn when we used to have warm sunny days, it was very difficult to stay awake after having been up dancing all the previous night. In the winter time in July and August the nights and the mornings were very frosty and extremely cold. When grooming the horses first thing in the morning I used to hold the curry comb in one hand and the other hand I used to put under the horse’s mane to get it warm. Sometimes, on a cold frosty morning we would drive the team out to where we were plowing and the ground which the night before had just been ploughed would be frozen. It would sound as if the horses were walking on a metal road. When I picked up the chains to yoke the team the earth would be frozen on to the chains and a piece of earth about 3/4 of an inch thick and about a foot wide would come up with the chain.

“In the wheat carting season at the end of harvest I would get up at 4 am feed and groom the wagon team. I would have breakfast, harness the team to the wagon which the night before would have been loaded with 100 bags of wheat, then take the load into the town, a journey which would take about three hours. Horses always travel a bit faster when they know they are headed for home and the wagon of course would be empty. Of course the team always had to be fed and watered while in town. We would go to the town bore to water them and they would be fed from the nose bags which we carried on the wagon. When we got home we would have to load up again for the next day. When that was done it would be dark. About 9.30 pm in summer time. By the time we had had our tea, it was well and truly time for bed.

“There was a family living in Pinnaroo comprising the parents, three sons and a daughter. Two of the sons and the father were hard drinkers. One in particular, Bob by name, never appeared to work but spent most of his time oscillating between the two hotels of the town. Being of Irish descent he loved a fight. He used to always wear a bowler hat or ‘hard hitter’ as that type of hat was known. Sometimes on his journey between the two hotels he would throw his hat out into the middle of the main street and then dance out and shadow box all round it. Occasionally there would be a clearing sale on a farm. At one of these sales Bob climbed up on to a 36-gallon cask of molasses to get a better view of what was being sold. Unfortunately for Bob the cask was fairly old and the lid collapsed and poor Bob collapsed with it into the molasses. When he got out he went berserk and he belted the living daylights out of the cask with his bare hands.

“Another incident happened in the Catholic church that I used to attend. On one occasion a special priest came up from Adelaide for a week to conduct what was called ‘a mission.’ The object of the visit was to raise funds for something or other. He was a great orator and on one night his subject was the devil and hell. His talk was such that at the end of the night the congregation was almost too terrified to leave the church to go home so vivid was his description of the powers of the devil and the torments of hell!

“Another night in the week’s activities was a special appeal that was made for funds. Coming after his sermon about the devil and hell it was more of a demand than an appeal for funds. The collection was taken on a plate. There was no bag such as we have, which gives the donor a degree of anonymity. There was one man there who was an official of the town who, knowing that the special collection was coming up, had gone to the bank and got a brand new one pound note. When the collection was announced he took out his one pound note and while he was waiting for the plate to reach him, he kept on screwing up the note and of course being new, the crackle of the note could be heard all over the church. It was pretty clear that he wanted everyone to know how much he was contributing.

“Another method which was used to entice the congregation to give more than they may normally have done was by the envelope system. When a special appeal was announced each member was given an envelope with their name on it. As the envelopes were handed in, the amount subscribed was written beside their name on a list which was placed in the entrance to the Church. This meant that everyone knew how much each member of the congregation had given. The effect can well be imagined and of course bring to mind the saying ‘keeping up with the Jones.’ There is no doubt all the tricks of the trade are well known to the leaders of the Catholic Church.

“That has always been the way of it and probably always will, Dad.”

“I worked for 2 years with Mel Davis and also played football for Parilla Well and was instrumental in helping them win their first ever Premiership. I have a copy of a little book, ‘A History of Parilla Well’ and on page 21 it tells about my moment of glory. ‘In 1931 Parilla Well won its first Premiership in very exciting circumstances. ‘Wells’ were three points behind and needed a goal to win. M. O’Connor marked the ball a good way out, a second before the final bell rang. An excellent and accurate kick just cleared the goal mouth and gave ‘Wells’ the Premiership after the bell had gone.’ I was carried off the field shoulder high by my team mates.

“I would like to have watched that game Dad.”

“When I finished my two year stint with Mel Davis I went to Port Lincoln where my sister Florrie was living. Her husband, Henry Obst was a guard in the railways. He was later killed in a shunting accident at Tailem Bend. This was in the depth of the Great Depression and work was hard to find. I managed to get a few days work on the wharf helping to unload a timber ship which had brought Oregon from Canada. I had my 21st birthday in Port Lincoln. After a few weeks in Lincoln I got a job on a farm in Minnipa in central Eyre’s Peninsular. This was at the time of the commencement of the first air service to WA. The plane trip used to take two days to get to Perth. They would fly to Forrest and stay overnight and then fly the rest of the journey next day. The planes were three-engined Hercules.

“I stayed in this job about three months. My main occupation was picking limestone. It is very stony country and the stones were brought to the surface by cultivation. I then had to go out by horse and dray and pick up the stone which was then dumped in heaps. There was no way of getting rid of it so the crops had to be planted around the heaps of stone. After this job I came back to Port Lincoln again but there was still no work available so when my savings were used up I wrote to Mel Davis and he sent my fare to me and I went back to work for him again. I forget how long I stayed with him this time. When I finished working for Mel I bought a 1926 model Chevy 4 truck, S.H and did one season carting wheat. I carted 5000 bags at 25 bags a load. After that I took up buying pigs and sending them down to Foggit Jones Bacon Factory at Littlehampton in the Adelaide Hills.

“Dad, tell me how you became a Christadelphian.”

“Well, when I began keeping company with your Mum, Jean Williams, Jean’s mother was a Christadelphian and it was through her that Jean and I eventually became Christadelphian. We were both baptized on Jean’s 18th birthday by Charlie Briggs after being examined by Charlie Briggs, Archie Provis, James Mansfield and Malcolm Wauchope on Perce and Lil Terrell’s farm. That was on Nov 1 1932. When I first became convinced that what the Christadelphians believed was the truth, I stopped attending the Catholic Church. At that time they had just established a Convent School in Pinnaroo to serve the Catholics of the district. One day I was sent for by the sisters of the convent school. They wanted to know why I had not been attending Mass. Previously I had been the most consistent member in attending at Mass from my whole family and was held in such high regard that I had been asked by the priest if I had ever considered becoming a priest or a brother. I told the sisters about my new beliefs. I told them that I believed that the Bible taught different things to what the Catholics believed. The mother superior told me she did not believe in the Bible and I replied that I did, and that was the end of the interview. I have not at any time been in a Catholic church since that day. My mother and father were both buried as catholics and are in the Enfield Evergreen Cemetery in the catholic section. Even now, because of my obviously Irish name, I still occasionally get an appeal letter in the post from some catholic institution or other for funds.

“The strange part was that my father was the one born a Catholic but I had never known him to go to church in all my life at home except on the occasion of my brother Arthur’s death. My mother was born and brought up a Methodist and she only became a catholic on her marriage to Dad yet she was the one who saw that we all regularly went to church as well as going herself. When I told Dad that I was not going to attend the catholic church and why, he said it didn’t cut any ice with him and I could please myself what I did. My mother on the other hand blew her top and called me all sorts of names. However time healed our relationships, partly because about two years later Jean and I were married and came to live in Adelaide and so there was no close contact between us and my family. Jean’s mother had also died in the interim and it was therefore convenient for us to leave Pinnaroo.

“So Dad, tell me about your baptism?”

“Jean and I were baptized at the same time at a farm which was leased by Bro Perce Terrell. This farm was owned by a Sister Hecker who lived in Adelaide. In those days there was an ecclesia located at Walpeup in the Victorian Mallee about 75 miles from Pinnaroo. Details of this Ecclesia are contained in an article I wrote which was published in the September 1980 issue of the Logos Good Company Magazine. Jean had spoken to me about her beliefs as she had learned them from her mother. I had very little to do with Jean’s mother during our courting days, partly because she was terminally ill with tuberculosis. It was when she died that I first came in contact with other Christadelphians.

“A Brother Charles Briggs came up to Pinnaroo to conduct Jean’s mother’s burial service together with some of Jean’s mother’s Christadelphian relatives. They were mainly the Dangerfields who were Jean’s mother’s brothers. I was introduced to Uncle Charlie Dangerfield. He was a great Uncle of Roger, Bruce, Trevor and Kevin Gore and he was a very prominent Christadelphian speaker in Adelaide at that time. We had some long talks on the Truth and it was during this time that I learned of the existence of the Mallee Ecclesia. Subsequently I made contact with Brother James Mansfield (father of Bro HP Mansfield). He used to provide transport for the regular visits which were made by the Adelaide brethren to the Mallee Ecclesia. We were later put in contact with Bro & Sis Perce and Lill Terrell and from that time we used to regularly visit their farm and thus I learned ‘the good news of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ’ and so Jean and I were both baptized at the farm on Jean’s 18th birthday on November 1st 1932. Two years later, 11th April 1934 we were married at the home of Bro George Rankin who was the marrying brother for the Adelaide Ecclesia and lived at 11 Scott St, Dulwich. Jean was given away by her grandfather Bro Joseph Dangerfield. The Bridesmaid was Jean’s second sister Connie and the groomsman was the late Bro Gilbert Hollamby.

“It was Perce Terrell who was mainly responsible for teaching me the truth. He was a very good teacher and on the weekends that we were able to visit the farm we used to go for long walks around the farm with him holding forth on the Promises made to Abraham etc. I can still visualize us walking through the wheat fields discussing the fundamentals of Bible truth. Perce died 8 – 10 years ago.”

“Where did you live after you were married, Dad?”

“Jean and I went to live on a small farm at Mylor in the Adelaide Hills. The farm was owned by Bro Archie Provis. We stayed there for one year. This was in the depth of the great depression of the 1930’s. The farm was largely undeveloped and as a consequence our income came from odd jobs wherever I could find them. I found work for a little while on a farm nearby raking subterranean clover. At this stage we had a Buick 6 car which we bought from Jean’s Uncle before we left Pinnaroo. I had converted this car to a buck board. I had cut the rear half of the body and built on a tray at the back. In those days there were many wood fires in the city and mountain gum roots were used a lot as fuel. I used to dig the mountain gum roots out of the ground by hand and cut them up so that they would go through a 10″ ring and then load them onto the buckboard and transport them to a wood yard situated near the Tower Hotel at Magill a distance of 18 miles, for the princely sum of 18 shillings a ton.

“In the apple season I used to buy the windfall apples for 1/6 per case I would pick them up in the orchard and put them into 1 bushel cases and taken them to nearby country towns, even as far away as Wallaroo and sell them from house to house for 4/6 per case. That year on the farm was not a very great success and we came off it with an overdraft at the bank of 60 pounds. That overdraft was like a millstone around our neck for several years until we were relieved of it in rather wonderful circumstances which I will relate a little later.

“When did you move to Adelaide, Dad?”

“We left the farm at Mylor when we couldn’t make a living at that location and went to Adelaide and took over a small green grocery round from Bro Lionel Pudney who was moving to Melbourne. I kept this going for one year and it returned a net profit of one pound ten shillings per week. We were paying half of that (15/- ) in rent so that we were not able to maintain a very high standard of living during that time. We were also still paying interest on the 60 pounds overdraft. During those days we more than once found a parcel of groceries left on our doorstep by a very lovely brother who lived in the same street.

“I can remember Mum telling me about that. There were certainly some kind people in the Adelaide Ecclesia.”

“It was during the time that I had the green grocery round that I first met Bro Max Eakins. He had a green grocery round in the Sandwell area which is between Port Adelaide and Semaphore. He later bought into the HL Banana Agency. Bro George Rankine was also associated with HL which was originally started by a Chinese man named Hing Long; hence HL. It was during this year that something happened which will demonstrate how straitened our circumstances were. During the winter I contracted a very heavy cold and I was confined to my bed. I had come home and parked the buckboard in the street in front of the house. I felt so ill that I went straight to bed. Some days later a policeman called with a summons. I was to be charged with the offense of leaving a vehicle in the street without a light on it after midnight on such and such a date. In those days the street lights were switched off at midnight. When the case was heard I was fined one pound ten shillings or, if in default, three days in jail. Our circumstances were such that I could not pay the fine so I had to go to Jail!

After my round on Friday I had to report to the police station. The police were very kind. To save me from the humiliation of having to travel with the police officer to the police headquarters he allowed me to sit up the other end of the tram until we arrived at the Jail. That way no one would know that I was under arrest. The officer paid my tram fare. He told me to get out at the stop near Police Headquarters and he would follow me in. They had even worked it out so that I would only be in from Friday night until Saturday midday. The law did not allow them to release a prisoner on Sunday and they could not keep me in longer than three days, so that way I was able to serve my sentence in less than 24 hours. I was very grateful for their consideration because I felt very ashamed of having to go to prison.

“Honestly, Dad, you had nothing to be ashamed of. The shame was their’s as far as I am concerned. What harsh treatment they dealt out in those days.”

“They were very trying times as many of that generation could verify. At one time in order to keep going, Jean had to sell some jewelry she had inherited from her mother. There were many times that I sang the words of hymn 62 with tears in my eyes and it was hard to believe the words of the last two lines of hymn 57 when there were occasions when we did not know where our next meal was coming from. We somehow seemed to manage but it was not easy. In the two years after I gave up the green grocery round I had 22 different jobs. I did not lose any of them for any other reason than that the employer had no more work for me to do. If an employer had a few days work to be done, he would hire a man and as soon as the job was finished he would be put off again.”

“That must have been so hard Dad. I remember Mum telling me that you had your first year’s full employment the year after I was born.’

“Yes I did, so you were born into better times than we had experienced to that date. Up until that time I think I must have ridden my bike hundreds of miles around Adelaide looking for work. At one stage I got a job at J Lawton and Sons. They had a factory on North Terrace. They were building the bodies on the first lot of Electric Trolley buses which used to run from Port Adelaide to Burnside and return when I worked for them. It was in this job that I first came in contact with electric arc-welding. I was not employed as a welder but I used to go into the welding section in my lunch hour and with the aid of the welder I learned the rudiments of arc welding. My job with this company lasted six months. In 1936 I was employed at GMH as an arc-welder on No 1 line in the body shop. I was with GMH for 3 years and would have stayed with them permanently if I could, but when World War 2 started, within 6 months I was faced with working on war work or leaving my job, so I left my job.”

“How hard that must have been for you, to give up a safe secure well-paid job at GMH for insecurity and uncertain employment prospects. You must really have believed you should not be a part of the war effort.”

“Yes, I did. But then I managed to get work at Perry Engineering Co at Mile End. After a week with them I was sent out to the Abattoirs where they had a contract to build the steel work for a three-storey freezer. During the time I worked at GMH I had become a very fast welder. The production line there was set at a given speed so that a certain number of motor bodies were produced each day. You just had to learn to do your work at a very fast pace. If you couldn’t keep up with the line then you very quickly lost your job. If you had to visit the toilet during the production time you had to go like mad so that you could get two bodies in front and when you came back you had to go like mad again to catch up because you would most likely be two bodies behind. With this background of training I entered the employ of Perry Engineering Co. In that first week when I had only been there two days I was approached by the Shop Steward of the Boilermakers’ Union and was told to slow down because according to Union rules I was going too fast. It is to be noted here that the country was at War but it did not matter as far as the Union was concerned.

“How long did you work at the Abattoirs?”

“The job at the Abattoirs lasted three months. During that time all our four children had the Mumps. In the end I caught it too. In those days there was no such thing as sick leave so there was no pay coming in while I was off with the Mumps. I went back to work too soon and on the first day I was back at work the arc-welding machine kept playing up. I was working on the top of the third storey and all day I was kept running up and down three ladders trying to make the welder function. Consequently I suffered a very bad relapse of the Mumps and was off for another two weeks without pay. When this job was finished and I had to go back into the works at Mile End, the war was going badly for the Allies. France had long since fallen and Japan was over-running South East Asia and the Australian troops were fighting in New Guinea and consequently more and more companies were turning to munitions-making. A munitions factory was being built at Salisbury, north of Adelaide and Perry Engineering were involved in doing the steel work for the buildings.

“On going back into the works I was put into this work. After some time my conscience began to worry me as to whether I should be doing this type of work. Eventually I felt I could not carry on doing it so I approached my leading hand and told him about my dilemma. He said, ‘Well Mick, I reckon that if a man has got a conviction and is strong enough to stand up for it, then I think he is just as brave as the man who goes into the front line.’ A little later the foreman came along and I spoke to him about my stand. He took it very well and said he would see what could be done for me. Later on in the week I was called to the Managing Director’s office. The Managing Director was Sir Frank Perry. I told him how I felt about war work and he said:

“But the work you are doing, making roof trusses for the buildings, is only putting a roof over men’s heads, that won’t hurt anyone?” I replied,

“They are making things which are to be used to kill other people and I do not want to have anything to do with that work.”

That was the end of the interview and I was sent back to the workshop again. On the last day of my week’s notice the factory superintendent came to see me and he told me that they thought they could keep enough work in front of me which would not offend my conscience if I would stay on. They had found me a good worker and they did not want to lose my services. However within a couple of weeks they were not able to find enough work for me and so I finished work that day.

“After that, with the country at war and workers being pegged in their jobs, I felt pretty sure that it would not be easy for me to find another job if I was asked where I had been working and why I had left. I went straight into the city and after inquiring around a few places I obtained work at Yellow Cab Taxi’s, stoking gas producers which were then being used because petrol was not available for these kinds of vehicles. I worked at this job for three weeks starting at midnight and finishing at 8 a.m. During this time I kept watching the “situations vacant” column of the daily paper and after three weeks I obtained a job with J Ladd & Sons driving a two-horse trolley selling cool drinks to all the shops and hotels in Rundle and King William Streets. This job continued for 4 1/2 years until the end of World War 2. The loss in pay amounted to one pound six shillings per week compared to a welder’s wage but I didn’t mind. Jean and I believed that God had and would watch over us and provide for us during our difficult times.

“And he did, Dad.”

“We were still paying interest on the overdraft from the bank but had not been able to reduced the loan by very much during this time. We had four very small children to keep and that was costly. After I finished working at Perry’s I spoke to Bro Jim Mansfield who had guaranteed the overdraft and told him about my experiences at Perry’s in relation to my conscience. He said:

“Maynard, I am so pleased and proud of you for your action under the circumstances, that I will pay off the overdraft for you and you can forget all about it.”

I could scarcely believe my ears and was so relieved and grateful that Jim would do that for me.

“I remember him. He was a very kind man.”

“It was about this time that Compulsory Military Service (Conscription) was introduced in Australia. I registered at the Unley Depot on 22nd Dec 1941. Upon receiving my call-up notice to attend for medical examination and was passed as fit in that examination. I was then called upon to take the oath of allegiance. When I told the swearing-in officer that I could not take the oath and why, he was quite taken aback and told me very gruffly that I could not apply to be registered as a conscientious objector unless I was in the Army, therefore I would have to take the oath first. I refused, so he said in a very military fashion,

“Stand over there and I will deal with you later.”

I went and stood “over there,” wondering what was going to happen next. It was not long before I was joined “over there,” by the late Bro Bill Mansfield who was next in line. By the time the afternoon registrations and medical examinations were over, there were about 25 or 30 of us lined up “over there.” We were finally released and were told to get the necessary forms from the area officer and to make formal application to be registered as CO’s. This I did and in due course received a summons to appear in the Unley court for my application to be heard on the 8th September 1942. There were about 100 other brethren beside me who received a similar summons to appear at Unley on the same date. In due course we all received exemption from Military Service, whether combatant or non-combatant.

“During the war, the government established the Civil Construction Corps, CCC for short. We gained exemption on condition that we undertook “Work of National Importance” wherever we were directed. The CCC applied to anyone which meant that any person could be taken out of their normal employment and sent anywhere in the country. Also in the war years industry was allowed to function on what was known as the “Cost Plus System,” Under this system, industry was allowed to recover costs plus 4%. Some firms found that the more labor they employed the more they could make so that many employed labor they did not need. This system of course only applied to firms doing Government contracts. On one occasion under this system some brothers were called up and sent to a company at Port Adelaide. Their job the whole time they were there was to sweep up outside the building. They would sweep the dirt up to one end of the premises, have a talk, and then sweep it back again to the other end. This went on for several days and there was nothing they could do about it. They were eventually sent back to their original employment.

“I remember hearing the same sort of thing for some of the Sydney brothers. A couple of brothers were employed pulling out weeds from a lawn by hand. They would go in one direction and meet in the middle, have a chat and then go back the other way. One brother was sent to the Mile End railway goods yard. After he had been there for some time a request was sent to the CCC for more labor with the added request that “if they had any more Christadelphians to send them down!”

“I was allowed to continue in my employment as a cool drink salesman and continued to sell cool drinks until the end of the war in 1945. I was selling cool drinks to all the shops and hotels in Rundle and King William Streets. During the war a lot of US Servicemen would come to Adelaide on leave. Their rate of pay was much higher than that of the Australians. To ring from a public phone in those days cost twopence. A penny was about the same size as a two shilling piece. The Americans did not seem to worry if they did not have any pennies. If they wanted to use the phone they would put either twopence or a two shilling piece in the slot. In the Hotel Richmond in Rundle Street the Hotel management had installed a phone for the convenience of their customers. Each morning there was always a race by the barmen to see who could get to the phone first so that he could empty the box of the two shilling pieces and replace them with pennies. The silver coins they would put in their own pockets. There was also a lot of money made by unscrupulous tradespeople due to the ignorance of the Australian currency by the Yanks.

“So what did you do at the end of the war, what employment did you have then?”

“At the close of World War II due to the help of Bro George Brumby I got work in a small blacksmith’s shop at Glen Osmond. Bro George was a postman based at the Glen Osmond Post Office. The owner of the Blacksmith Shop was a man named Bert Russ. He used to do general work and also used to manufacture ship’s chandlery. That is, small anchors and various other gear which is used on small boats. I worked there for the next five years. There were a number of changes made in this business in that time. Mr Russ took in a partner named Lionel Morris and the firm became Russ and Morris. A year or so later Mr Russ who was a very hot-tempered man decided to get out and the hardware firm of Haselgroves bought out his share. The prime mover in this deal was Mr Harvie Haselgrove and so the firm became Harvie Morris Pty Ltd. and still trades under that name although Morris has long since dropped out of the business.

“After working in this blacksmith shop for two years I decided to take my first trip to Sydney. On that occasion I wrote to Brother Bruce Philp who lived with his mother and brother at Lakemba and arranged to stay with him. This was in the early days of the Elpis Israel Classes. Bruce was very active in this sphere of work. He had paid a visit some time earlier to Adelaide. Remembering his visit I had written to him to ask what would be the best time of year to visit Sydney. In due course I received a letter from him dated 18th Feb 1950. This is what he wrote in reply to my inquiry,

“I furrow my brow and think of the howling gales of July and the blistering heat of December, the showers that come in April and the tornados of Octvember (a special month only occurring in Sydney – it originated following a special decision of the CS Committee at the Adelaide Conference in 1948) I find that September is a beautiful month. It is spring time in Sydney and spring time in Sydney is not as nice as in Adelaide but still very nice for our colonial visitors from SA.”

“To top it all off, the envelope was addressed to “Mr Maynard O’Connor, Honorary Secretary, Royal Scottish Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Broken-down Bagpipe Players Parkside SA.” I still have that letter and envelope along with other of my “treasures.”

“So that’s how I got the need to have my “box of treasures,” I laughed.

“Yes, I’m probably responsible. Well, during the winter of 1950 with my eldest son Maynard, we drove to Sydney by road. Our transport was a 1926 model Chev 4 which I had bought from a brother at Glenlock near Waikerie. We had converted it into a buckboard and had covered in the tray top to make sleeping space. It was not quite long enough for us to sleep full length so we arranged it so that we could let down the tail board and had a flap made to cover it so that we slept with our feet outside but covered with the special flap. The tail board was also our meal table.

In preparation for the trip it was necessary to have the engine re-bored. Bro Archie Provis was a motor mechanic and was also an instructor in Motor Mechanics at the School of Mines which was the trade school in those days. By giving the car to him it could be done as practice by the students. All we had to pay for were the parts. The only problem was that it took a long time to get the job done that way. However, we gave it to him do but unfortunately for us all they had the time to do before we left for Sydney was just the re-bore and to fit new rings and pistons with the bearings remaining as they were. Consequently the engine still had the knocks in it that had been there before and this confined us to a maximum speed of 28 mph. Our trip required that we cover something over 2,000 miles so there were times when we became a little bored. To break the monotony I gave Maynard the task of working out the diameter of the wheels and then how far we travelled with each turn of the wheels and then how many times the wheels would turn to cover each mile. This and many other time-consuming exercises kept us awake on our journey.”

“Dad I have always wondered how you and Maynard were so good at maths and I have always been so hopeless? I must have been behind the door when the math skills were handed out.”

“I guess you must have been! Our route to Sydney was via Bordertown, Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury and the Hume Highway. We came home via the Coast Road to Melbourne and then on the Great Ocean Road to Mt Gambier and to the Dukes Highway to Adelaide. Many miles of the trip in those days were over pretty rough gravel roads. The road all the way from Geelong to Mt Gambier was gravel. When the re-bore was done, so much metal had been bored out that in one cylinder the wall was left very thin. We had just passed through Port Campbell on the South Coast of Victoria and were running down hill when the cylinder gave way. All the water from the water jacket ran into the engine and the sump and we were in real trouble. We managed to get to the local garage in Port Campbell where we told the proprietor our sad tale. He said he knew where there was an engine which had been taken out of a farmer’s car only a few days before. He took us out to the farm some seven miles away and we were able to buy it complete for 30 pounds. It cost us another eleven pound to have it installed and we were on our way again after a delay of two days.”

“It is amazing how something always seems to turn up for you, Dad,” I mused.

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it? When we left Port Campbell it was raining and blowing a gale. Driving along the cliffs above the Southern Ocean the wind was so strong and the road so slippery that sometimes as we drove along a gust of wind would catch us and the car would just slide sideways right across to the other side of the road. In those days windscreen wipers were hand operated. In order that I could see where we were heading Maynard had to operate the wiper for me because all of my attention was taken up with driving. We left Port Campbell at 6 pm and got to Mt Gambier at midnight just in time to get a pie each from the pie cart. We finally arrived at my sister’s place at Naracoorte at 1.30 am. When we got home to Adelaide we had the damaged cylinder in the engine re-sleeved which cost six pounds and we were able to sell the engine for what we had paid for the other one, 30 pounds. The whole trip was quite an experience and one I will never forget.

“Harvie and Morris were very good to me during the time I worked with them. They allowed me to shoe horses in my spare time using their company facilities. I used to shoe all of Opie Brothers’ bakery horses as well as milk cart and council horses and a lot of children’s ponies and hacks round the Glen Osmond and Beaumont area.

My clientele kept growing until I could not handle the work in my spare time. I rented a small shed at 217 Glen Osmond Road Frewville and resigned from Harvie Morris Ltd. I spent a week or so fixing up the shed and putting a brick floor in it and in May 1951 I opened up for business full time as a general blacksmith and ships’ chandler and welder. By about 1952 my new business had grown to such an extent that I could not handle all the work. I asked Maynard, my eldest son, if he would join me in the business. Maynard gave up his training as a school teacher, and came to work with me.

In 1953 with the help of a loan from Bro Arthur Cobbledick we purchased premises on Glen Osmond Road Parkside where we built a new 50’ x 30’ brick shop behind the house on Glen Osmond Road with an entrance to Macklin Lane at the rear. One year later we commenced trading as Maynard O’Connor and Son Pty Ltd. Our grand opening took the form of a variety evening followed by a barbecue supper to which we invited all the members of the Adelaide Ecclesia. We put a number of notices around the factory. We put one on the vice which read, ‘Our only vice,’ another on the forge fuel bin, ‘Get your coke here.’ Another on the wall we covered and Bro Keith Provis unveiled it with great ceremony. This one read: ‘No bad language please,’ and this notice remained on the wall all the time we were in business on those premises. The notice on the forge read: ‘O’Connor’s forgery, we will forge anything.’

The business continued to expand and we outgrew our premises. We sold our house and factory to Fire Fighting Equipment Pty Ltd . We had extended the buildings twice after the original building was put up. Fire Fighting Equipment owned a factory at Bowden and we were able to make a deal with them. We exchanged our two factories and they paid us a cash difference.”

“I remember you had quite a lot of work to do on the new factory before you could commence trading there, Dad. I can remember when you put the floor in.’

“Yes, we had to extend and enlarge the Bowden factory before we could move to our new address at 45 Gibson Street Bowden. Maynard and I worked together at Bowden until 1969 when we sold a section of our business to A Noble and Son Pty Ltd. Our agreement was that my services went with the sale and I worked for A Noble and Son for six years until I retired at the age of 66. Maynard and I had been associated with Nobles on a business footing for almost 20 years. During that time we had refused certain work on the basis of our conscience but with the sale of a the section of our business to them and with me going to work for them, the question of my conscience and the kinds of work I would not do was carefully discussed and agreed upon. Mr Grant Noble the Managing Director said that while he respected my stand, Noble’s interests would have to come first. I assured him that if a situation arose in which I had to refuse to do certain work and they could not find alternative work to keep me gainfully employed then I would have to resign. They were quite satisfied with this arrangement. During the six years that I worked for them there were only two occasions when I refused to do certain work, but on both occasions they found alternative work for me to do and so I stayed with them until I retired. They valued my services to the extent that they asked me to stay on an extra year beyond my 65th birthday. Just as a matter of interest, the folder I use to hold my notes for the Wedding Services I conduct is the outer cover of a writing case that Noble’s presented to me on my 65th birthday. Also the car I still drive was a company car I was supplied while working for them which they sold to me very cheaply when I finished working with them. Even now after seven years I still get a staff discount on anything I buy from them.”

“What were some of the notable events or things that happened in your life, Dad?’

“Let me see. A prized possession which I still have is a letter dated 30th April 1933 from Brother Jim Mansfield Snr. It was written on note paper of the SS Strathaird when he and his wife were on board and steaming across the Great Australian Bight en route to England and Europe. In his letter Bro Mansfield said that he had written to Bro Mark Harris, the Adelaide Ecclesia’s librarian asking him to forward two books to Jean and me when we were at Pinnaroo. Those books were Elpis Israel and Nazareth Revisited. We still have them. There’s a lot more that could be said, but at this rate Jeff will not be getting any dinner tonight if you don’t go home soon. I think I have covered enough to give you a pretty good overview of my life. I feel that I have had a full and rewarding life even though it has had its ups and downs. There have been times when I have wondered where I was heading and how it would all work out. I have been very fortunate in living in the times from 1914 to 1982. I don’t remember much more than I have already told you about the years before 1914, but since then I have seen vast changes, some for the better but sadly many for the worse. When the pace of life was so much slower, I believe we were much happier even though we were very poor.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, Dad. It would be sad if all you could remember were the bad times.”

“Today there are different pressures. Today there is so much materialism that it makes me long for the peace and tranquillity of the Kingdom. I am grateful to God for giving me a knowledge of His Truth. I’m afraid my faith has not always been strong enough to see beyond present trials and there were times when I doubted that God was really with me. But I did trust that the words of 1 Cor 10:13 were true and they sustained me: ‘God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tested above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.’ So many times in my life, this has been my experience. The job provided for me so soon after I was dismissed from Perry’s was one such instance. That job carried me safely right through the war years.

So now at 73 years of age I can agree with the words of Psalm 37:25: ‘I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.’’ I have been blessed with good health and have already lived my three score years and ten and I have been blessed with four children and nineteen grandchildren and two days ago I was informed that God willing I will see my first great grandchild in October 1982. On 1st November this year 1982 I will have been blessed with 50 years in God’s Truth. God has been good to me and my family.”

Dad took up his pen and turned to the last page of his story to which he had been referring as he recounted his life’s history, and signed at the bottom:

Signed Maynard O’Connor 11th Mar 1982.

Dad handed me the signed copy.

“Keep it safe, Fay and pass it on to your children and make sure you write your own history so that your children can read about their roots in God’s truth.”

“I will, Dad, I will,’ I promised.

“I must go now. Bye Mum, thanks for lunch and thanks, Dad, for telling me your story.”

Mum came out and kissed me goodbye as I walked out the front door to walk across the paddock between our two houses. On the way home I thought about how hard Mum and Dad’s life had been and I promised myself that I would not complain about any hardships in my own life because my hardships in no way compared to what my mum and dad have endured in their’s. What good parents they have been!

And that is why I am writing my own history, because my Dad wrote his and asked me to write mine, and I loved my Dad.