Eddie Braggett's notes Chapter 1862-1866

 

Maintaining law and order was always a difficult task in outposts such as Cassilis despite the presence of police and the escorts that accompanied the coaches conveying gold to Maitland and Sydney. Cassilis was the local headquarters of the police and the Court House was also the scene of many criminal trials that resulted in convictions and the removal of offenders to major jails.

As a fourteen year old, Mary Braggett watched Benjamin Moore perform his duties as Chief Constable at Cassilis particularly when he had to deal with absconding convicts and troublesome bushrangers in the district. The same difficulties were met by William John Weston who succeeded him as Chief Constable from 1859 to 1862. Then Mary heard of Constable Knight, who escorted a Chinaman to Muswellbrook for robbing Mr Piper's store, and was fatally injured when his horse fell and threw him heavily to the ground.

With a need to enhance police provisions in the area, the police establishment at Cassilis was reorganised and a Senior Sergeant was appointed at the end of 1862 – Lucas Armstrong. Mary Braggett heard of his exploits as he rode into the scrub, hunted criminals, apprehended the wanted, and brought them to justice. The 25-year old Senior Sergeant captured the noted bushranger, Thomas Dillon, and escorted him under a strong guard to Mudgee; was involved in the apprehension of ‘Mudgee Jimmy’ in April 1862 for horse stealing; and pursued Lloyd Valentine, the boy who escaped from the Muswellbrook lock-up, and found him hiding in a chest in his family's home at Sandy Creek, 80 miles from Cassilis. On one occasion when Armstrong arrived in Mudgee with a prisoner named O'Connor, he heard of another wanted person and, together with an Aboriginal trooper, went in pursuit of the man and apprehended him after three days between Merriwa and Scone. Both the Western Post and the Maitland Mercury reported Armstrong’s meritorious work and praised him for his efforts.

 

Mr Armstrong, during the short period he has been stationed here [at Cassilis] has put everything to rights … [That] we have now got 'the right man in the right place' is admitted by all classes.

 

As Mary learned more about Lucas, she was attracted to the ‘horseback’ policeman. She also loved horses and was a very competent horsewoman, helping her father to care for the family horses and groom them well. Lucas had been born in Ireland in 1837, preferred to be known as Luke, had heard of Australia as a young man, and had eventually migrated for a better life. He told Mary that his father, William Armstrong, was a man of ‘independent means’ and that his mother was Lucy Ellis. Having crossed from Dublin to England, he had eventually sailed from Liverpool on 27 March 1857 in the ship Algiers and had arrived in Melbourne after a voyage of less than three months. The passengers were a varied group of 307 immigrants, 175 of whom came from England, 47 from Scotland, and 85 from Ireland. Significantly, 192 of them were single men who were setting out to start a new life in Victoria, New South Wales or Queensland.

The romance between 20-year old Mary and 27-year old Luke blossomed over time and, when he eventually proposed, Mary was happy to accept. They were married on 6 January 1865 at the Church of St John the Baptist in Mudgee. It must have been a happy occasion as the whole family took the 70 kilometre journey to Mudgee in drays or on horseback. ‘William Braggett of Cassilis, father of the bride’ gave consent to the marriage, Mary ‘being under 21’ and Maggie Mack signed as a witness to the marriage. The other witness was Mary's younger brother, Thomas.

 

Chapter 1867-1870

 

 

Mary and Luke Armstrong still lived in Cassilis where Luke was the Senior Sergeant of Police. Despite the acclaim that Luke had won for himself and the positive comments he received in the press, he was not satisfied with his work. Perhaps he was worried by the close calls he had with criminals and was increasingly concerned with the mounting tide of hold-ups by bushrangers, who displayed open arrogance of the law. It was only after three years (1862-1865) of ‘powerlessness of the police to capture or shoot’ the Hall Gang that Ben Hall was finally cornered at Forbes and shot fifteen times by a posse of police, bringing some respite to western communities. Frederick Ward [Thunderbolt] was still at large, however, causing outrage and fear in isolated towns, dread to stage coach drivers and their passengers, and continuing frustration and alarm to the constabulary. The task of the police who travelled on horseback in isolated areas was enough to cause even a Senior Sergeant to reflect on his future, particularly if he had a wife and young son to support.

Because of the inherent dangers in his work and the possibility of a forced move from Cassilis when required by the Police Department, Luke Armstrong discussed his job prospects with William Braggett and canvassed the possibility of buying a hotel of his own. Whatever the reason, Luke finally decided to leave the police force and applied for a licence as the innkeeper of the Green Hills Hotel at Curry Curryal Creek, a very small village twelve kilometres from Cassilis on the road to Mudgee. This was an area in which gold had been discovered in 1860 and, when a new rush occurred to the Cooyal Mountains in 1865, Luke was swayed by the prospects of operating an inn in the area. His application for a licence was successful and by mid-1867, Luke and Mary Armstrong (with baby William) moved their belongings to the inn and commenced a new phase of their life. Less than a year later, their second son was born on 15 April 1868. He was named Thomas Lucas Armstrong, Thomas after his mother's brother and Lucas after his father. The Armstrongs retained close contact with the relatives in Cassilis, eventually sending their children to the Cassilis school.

 

Chapter 1870-1876

 

The third family group, the Armstrongs, were well ensconced in their hotel at Green Hills (or Cooyal) in 1870 and profiting from the increased business that accompanied new gold strikes in the area. When gold was discovered near Stoney Creek, ten miles north-east of Mudgee, 2000 people descended on the site within a few days and were quickly ‘engaged in pegging out’ their claims. Such discoveries in the immediate vicinity of Cooyal and those further down the road at Gulgong increased Luke’s sales and allowed him and his family a comfortable living. The establishment of the flour mill ’close to Armstrong's Inn on the main road to the Gulgong Diggings’ further assisted business and increased the importance of the village.

In most small towns, the publican did not rely entirely on the passing trade but took active steps to create additional income. And so, it was not long before Luke had cleared an area for a racetrack and was advertising Race Meetings ‘at Armstrong's Inn on the Gulgong Road’. When he donated a number of saddles and bridles as prizes for a meeting on Boxing Day 1873, ‘a great many visitors put in an appearance’ and ‘many local cracks’ contested for the prizes. In the evening, Luke and Mary hosted a supper and ball at which the ‘dancing was kept up until day light,’ and when the visitors eventually ‘made tracks to go home, one and all seemed to [have] enjoyed themselves’.

Like Thomas, his brother-in-law, Luke was also attracted to the turf and found his way to the Busbys' stud at Dalkeith where he looked out for suitable horses for racing. One of his purchases was Friendless, a ‘splendid looking mare’ which was well-known in the district and which was trained together with Thomas' horse, Olive.

There was no local school in Green Hills and Mary and Luke's oldest son, William, enrolled at the Cassilis School when he was ten years of age and entered First Class in November 1875. As his brother, Thomas Lucas Armstrong, did not attend school until he also was eight, it may have been too far for young boys to ride each day – a 24 kilometre ride each way. When young William was eleven years of age (one at which most children completed their education), his parents allowed him to leave school and commence work. The teacher recorded that he left school in October 1876 in order to ‘mind sheep’. The Cassilis area had developed into a major pastoralist area by the mid-1870s with over 300,000 head of sheep being grazed, and the Armstrong family probably acquired a flock of sheep in addition to operating the hotel. Hence, young William may have been required to tend his family’s flocks or may have found employment on one of the numerous sheep farms nearby. Pastoral interests eventually led to Luke's decision to become a full-time grazier after 1881. Luke, Mary and their two boys kept in close touch with the Braggetts and the Macks despite living a two-hour's ride away and an extended family atmosphere continued.

By the start of 1876, therefore, the original settlers in the Cassilis area were ageing and the next generation was assuming active roles in the area. These were the children of the pioneers, their friends and their relations, those who would see the village into the twentieth century.

 

William Braggett’s Will (1876)

 

I nominate and appoint Thomas Braggett of Dalkeith Cassilis and Lucas Armstrong of Green Hills Cassilis as trustees and request them to faithfully administer this my last will and testament and should a division become necessary to prudently provide for and carry in trust such moneys and property as shall fall to any child aforesaid under twenty one years until such child shall attain that age.

 

Thomas Braggett and Luke Armstrong were to be the executors and trustees for at least the next nineteen years until the last of William and Annie's children turned 21 in 1895, or even longer if Annie lived beyond 1895.