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Note: Judith Green: Samuel and Edith Painter: Their Antecedents and Descendants Samuel remained at school until he was nearly 14, and in 1873 he commenced a saddlery apprenticeship in Main Street, Stawell. He was employed by Anthony Bone. After this he worked for a few months at Avoca and then returned to Mr Bone for a further nine months. He then moved to Melbourne and worked for W. Petch, saddler of Collingwood, and for some time for Greig and Lords, Carews and C.C. Saunders. He then set up his own saddlery business in Barkly Street, Footscray, and in 1884 moved to Hopkins Street, Footscray. He remained in business at Footscray until at least 1888. The directories also list a Samuel Painter, saddler, operating in Anderson Street, Yarraville, in 1887-88. It is possible this was the same Samuel running a second business.
In the directories of the 1890-92 period -- depression years -- Samuel is not listed. It was during this time that the Croydon Eight Hours settlement was established on a square-mile reserve at East Warrandyte adjoining the Wonga Park Station. The area is now known as Wonga Park. This crown land reserve was one of several thrown open by the government for selection as a village settlement. It is though the land was bought for about one pound an acre, with some years to pay. A ballot was drawn and Samuel was one of the 18 successful applicants. The road where he pioneered his orchard is now called Paynter's Road (spelled incorrectly). It runs from Dudley Road to Reserve Road, and Sam's orchard was on the river side, near the Dudley Road end. It comprised an area of 21 acres, 1 rood, 41 perches. Some time later Samuel opened a saddlery in Croydon. There were no shops in Main Street, Croydon, until 1885. So although it is not known quite when Samuel started his business, it was obviously very early in the history of the town. The site of the saddlery later became Hattam's Store.
Life for the Painter family in Wonga Park was very primitive -- firstly in a wattle and daub hut, which was later improved. Edith used to do her washing in the Yarra River, some distance away. Sometimes she took it there in a horse-drawn cart, but often had to push it along in a pram. The children often walked to Lilydale or Croydon -- quite a few miles.
Les Reid, an elderly resident of Wonga Park recalled around 1980 how as a child he had seen Samuel driving his cart around the district. He was renowned for often having wobbly wheels, and he remembers on one occasion a wheel came off as Samuel came down a steep hill in Dudley Road. The roads, for many years, were just tracks. They were named after the original families in the area, hence Paynter's Road. Mr Reid said his mother, Blanch Fulford used to tell of a time when she, aged 12, was sent by her parents to cook for the Painters because of an illness in the family. She recalled one time when Samuel was in great pain but refused to take the brandy he was offered because of his strict temperance beliefs.
Samuel called his orchard property Gracedale. The children of the area had no school initially, then the Education Department bought land and moved a building there. It was called East Warrandyte, and later changed to Wonga Park.
Several of Samuel's children attended school in Wonga Park, but it seems most of their schooling was obtained in the Carlton area. Samuel and Edith lived on and off over the years in Carlton and Wonga Park, but it has been difficult to ascertain just how much of their time was spent at each place. It seems that in the later years of his life Samuel worked mostly on the orchard and in the saddlery at Croydon, while the children and their mother spent most of their time at Carlton. The honour roll in the present Wonga Park Hall, recording the names of those who went to World War I, includes those of H.D. Painter, W.E. Painter and L.G.W. Painter.
In 1892 Samuel was running a saddlery business in Bacchus Marsh, where he also sold fancy goods, and from an adjoining shop Edith sold fruit and vegetables. In 1894 their eldest daughter, Ada, was granted a certificate of exemption from compulsory attendance at school because she was needed at home to help look after the family of small children, as another was expected. She was 10 years old at the time.
By 1896 the family had returned to the Melbourne area and was living in Ringwood. The seventh child, Leslie, was born there. By 1898 Samuel had put aside his saddlery business and was working at the Rosella food factory in North Melbourne. He remained there until at least 1903, and held the positions of foreman and then assistant manager during this time. His eldest child, Ada, also worked there on a seasonal basis. By 1905 he had left this employment and ran his own grocery shop at 95 Elgin Street, Carlton. He remained there until about 1907-08. In a letter sent to his customers, Samuel emphasised the purity and cleanliness of his home-made jams, and in particular the lack of additives such as "glucose or other admixture" or "salicylic acids or other preservatives". The shop also sold fresh fruit and vegetables.
During his time in Carlton, Samuel was very interested in community affairs, and belonged to a number of organisations. He was particularly active in the temperance movement and was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church. On two occasions he stood for parliament -- in the 1903 and 1906 federal elections (for the second and third Commonwealth parliaments). On the first occasion, the election of December 16, 1903, he stood as an independent for the seat of North Melbourne against the sitting member, Mr Higgins. He polled 4889 votes to Higgins' 11,544. The result was regarded as a foregone conclusion. Not quite 50 per cent of the eligible voters actually voted. Samuel's campaign seemed to be quite a fiery affair, as did many of the campaigns of the time. He was the recipient of much interjection and jeering, and the target of rotten fruit, eggs, etc. In an attempt to retaliate, he armed his children with rotten fruit, etc, and they would stand on the lorry at his open-air meetings and let fire as soon as someone in the audience started throwing. One son, Harold, remembered those times as "great fun".
In 1906 Samuel stood again, this time for the seat of Batman, which included much of the territory of the earlier seat of North Melbourne. His opponents were J. Coon, the sitting member and a boot dealer from Collingwood, R. Vernon, also an independent and R. Solly, a socialist. The election was held on December 12, 1906 and Coon was elected, as follows: Coon (7059 votes), Painter (326), Solly (6375) and Vernon (147).
In Samuel's election brochure of 1906 he refers to himself as a ''Liberal Protectionist and Workers' Friend" and a supporter of the Deakin government. At one meeting of electors, with some 800 present, an interjector, whom Sam said had "been following me at my meetings and telling all the despicable lies about me that is possible" asked if Sam had been called before the court to contribute towards the old age pension fund of his parents. Sam replied that he had paid all that was required of him. It was "against his wish that they sought the pension. He had offered to sustain them on an orchard." An aged pension scheme had only recently been introduced and people were not eligible if their family could support them.
On another occasion the main troublemakers in the audience were "some lads he had employed under his supervision at North Melbourne" and he "had been compelled to discharge them for pilfering and neglecting their work". One lad boasted that he "had a good chance to get even with Mr Painter and had made the most of it". Sam subsequently claimed to have ascertained that these boys had been "sent to report the meeting". His treatment by these people seemed to evoke sympathy with a number of the "lady electors" who were in attendance.
Sam's son Les remembered stones being thrown through his father's shop window during this period. He had understood that the throwers were employed by John Wren, who was politically active in the area at the time. When 40 or 50 people attended the Fitzroy Town Hall to hear the results of this election, Sam thanked his supporters, but his remarks were "inaudible because of the continued jeering and howling of the audience".
Apparently Sam was quite an orator, and wished his children to be likewise. His son Harold remembered the days when they would have to stand on the kitchen table and make speeches. Sam would decide who was best. Roy was billed as "the Australian boy orator" on at least one occasion when the family put on a concert for the temperance cause. This was on June 30, 1903. They were billed as "The Celebrated Painter Family of Temperance Entertainers". It is thought that these concerts were held on more than one occasion, and the 1907 report of the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society recorded the proceeds of a concert donated by Samuel, the sum of eight pounds, eight shillings and sixpence. Samuel was on the committee.
Samuel also wrote poetry, and one poem, Patriots, was published by a newspaper in March 1910. It expressed his loyalty, his love of his country, and his strongly held religious beliefs. A poem, The Birds, signed "Wattle Blossom, Wonga Park" was published on December 5, 1913. Thought to be Sam's work, it shows his delight in the native birds of his country. When Sam returned to Stawell, the town of his adolescence, just prior to his father's death in 1907, he wrote to the Stawell News decrying the lack of facilities for the poorer people of the town and the neglect of the miners on the dole. He had not been to Stawell for about 30 years.
Samuel met his death tragically on May 21, 1914. He had bought a horse from the sales at Box Hill and had planned to ride it home to Croydon. Following a cup of tea with a friend in Station Street, he set off about 6pm. After leading the horse for some distance, he mounted and was almost immediately thrown off when it reared, and it fell on him. He was attended by a local doctor and then moved by ambulance to the Melbourne Hospital, where he died early next day from a fractured skull. An inquest was held in Melbourne on June 2 and a verdict of accidental death was pronounced. The horse galloped away after the incident, and was later captured. Witnesses told the coroner that there was nothing to have frightened the horse and a police report describes it as a "wild and fractious animal". Samuel had been heard to say at the sales that he "had bought a horse, that he did not know what it was, but he was going to ride it home".
After Samuel died, Edith remained in the Lang Street house and the Wonga Park orchard was sold. Wilfred, Harold and Leslie joined the AIF and were sent overseas. Having contributed three sons to the war, the family decided that Roy should stay at home with his sisters and recently widowed mother. Edith's mother came to live with her, and stayed at Lang Street until she died in 1919. At this time, Edith still had two daughters at home: Edie (who she described as her "right hand") and Grace (Rene), who was working. Edith later moved to Garden Avenue, Caulfield, and then to Station Street, Box Hill, where she lived for nearly 20 years. She finally settled with her eldest daughter, Ada, in Taunton Avenue, Oakleigh. Ada looked after her there until she died on November 2, 1947.
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