Mary Wilhelmina (Bond) Richardson (1874 - 1957)

Born 13 Oct 1874 in Burlundy Station, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of James Dear — married about 27 Jun 1895 (to about 1935) in Johnsburg, South Australia, Australia

Wife of William Joseph Richardson — married about 8 Sep 1937 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Died 21 Feb 1957 at age 82 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Biography

Mary was born at Burlundy (or Burtundy) Station on the River Darling near Wentworth in the north-west of New South Wales. She was given the name “Bond” although her parents did not marry until Mary was nine years of age. About this time the family moved to live in Orroroo in the mid-north of South Australia.

It was here that Mary met James Dear, a dairy farmer, who had been born in Pekina near Orroroo in the Southern Flinders Ranges in 1872. Mary, aged almost twenty one and James twenty three, were married in 1895 at Johnsburg, near Port Adelaide.

After the wedding they returned to Orroroo, and this is where their eight children were born. Some time after their last child, Mary Adelaide, was born in 1908, Mary and James took their family back to the Port Adelaide area where they bought a property near Wingfield situated just north of Port Adelaide.

Mary’s grand-daughter, Eva Mary Donnelly, recalls in 2002: My grandmother was a fine horsewoman. She was a midwife in the Bush Nursing Society and, as Nurse Dear, she would often ride out on her horse in the middle of the night to deliver a baby.
She was more proud of her Bush Nursing badge than any brooch which she owned. She was also very accurate with a gun. With a .22 rifle, she would shoot over the head of anyone she saw picking mushrooms in her paddocks. Men were scared of her!

James Dear died at Wingfield in 1935, aged about 63.He was buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.

Two years later, Mary married William Joseph Richardson who, at the age of forty four was nineteen years younger than Mary. He usually addressed her as “Ma’am”. They were married in the Registrar’s Office in Adelaide.

Mary’s children and grandchildren lived in or near Port Adelaide where, at nearby Blakney, Mary and William chose to live after their marriage. In the summer time, Mary would often go to the nearby beach at Semaphore. Here she would pitch her tent and enjoy a holiday by the sea.

Mary outlived her two husbands and four of her eight children. She died aged around 83 on 22 February 1957 at Port Adelaide and was buried at the Cheltenham Cemetery.

William predeceased Mary by three years and was buried at Cheltenham on 24 February 1954.
A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 - 2004. Written by Wyn Allen (née Weidenhofer) 2004 ©.
Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.

Sources

• Information taken from the Weidenhofer Database compiled from family input and research for the book “A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 – 2004© ”.
  
• Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.
  

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