Matthias Badman (1848 - 1925)

Born 23 Apr 1848 in Walton, Somerset, England

Ancestors

Husband of Honorah (Pilkington) Badman — married 18 Aug 1868 in PM Chapel, Unley Park South Australia

Descendants

Died 1 Jan 1925 at age 76 in Kingswood, South Australia

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Biography

Matthias was born in Walton, Somerset, England 1848. He was the son of Archibald Badman and Hannah Cox. He passed away in Kingswood in Adelaide, South Australia in 1925.

Archibald Badman and his family immigrated to Australia on the "Price Regent" arriving at Port Adelaide on July 20th, 1849. His wife Hannah (nee Cox), 3 year old son Joseph Badman and an infant accompanied him. The South Australian Register recorded the infant as Martha but this is not consistent with the family information which has a Matthias born in 1847 and he would have been an infant when the family arrived in South Australia.

Matthias married Honorah Pilkington in 1868 in the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Unley Park and they had 10 children. Matthias was a farmer and they lived most of their life near Riverton in the Gilbert District of South Australia. They moved to Kingswood in Adelaide around the end of 1913 and tragedy struck the family soon afterwards. Matthias lost his wife Honorah. daughter Eva Olive and granddaughter Gwendaline Olive Andrews (aged 4) to typhoid over a period of a few weeks in February / March 1914. Other members of the family were also affected but recovered.

Matthias passed away in Kingswood in 1925 and he along with Honorah and four others of their family are buried in the Riverton cemetery.

The following newspaper article and notice provide details about the typhoid epidemic:

RELIGIOUS NOTES. (1914, March 28). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), p. 6. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58501909

Mr. Matthias Badman, of the Unley Park Methodist Church, has lost his wife, daughter, and grandchild through typhoid fever, within a few weeks of each other. Other members of the family were attacked, but are on the way to recovery.

Family Notices. (1914, April 1). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), p. 14. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5422509

RETURN-THANKS. MR. MATTHIAS BADMAN and FAMILY, of Kyre Avenue, Kingswood, desire to THANK most sincerely the Doctors and Nurses at the Unley Private Hospital, Dr. Dawes' Hospital at Gawler, and the Children's Hospital, for their unremitting care and attention and many personal kindnesses to the several members of their family who have recently been under their care and to all those who have contributed to their comfort by kind personal enquiries and by letters and telegrams from all parts of the State; for all floral tributes, and to those who by their prayers have helped to sustain them in their recent sad bereavements. Will friends please accept the intimation that Mrs. Andrews, who is now staying at Kingswood, is progressing favorably towards recovery.

The following article about Mathhias' reminiscences, talks about the family property established in Unley in 1855.

FIFTY YEARS AGO. (1913, May 30). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), p. 10. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56992361

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

THE PRIMITIVE SITE OF A CITY. Time changes the face of Nature more rapidly than it does of man. None would recognise in the Unley of today the description of it half a century ago furnished by Mr. Matthias Badman, but the lapse of years has not eradicated the features which distinguish that early pioneer among his boy friends of long ago. Perhaps even localities retain some marks that recall the days that are gone. Unley Park, with its hundreds of beautiful villas, mansions, and gardens, bears little resemblance to the land that Mr. Badman once tilled, but magnificent gumtrees still stand as souvenirs of birdnesting exploits 50 years ago. Of one in particular he cherishes a vivid recollection. It is an Australian gum near the creek, and is overgrown by the clinging tendrils of English ivy. An Englishman himself. Mr. Badman regards it as a wonderful emblem of Britain holding fast to her dependency. It was under the spreading branches of that tree that in 1862 a committee meeting was held in connection with the erection of a little chapel in the locality. Imagine Unley as a tract of land, thickly grown with timber, sparsely populated, the number of houses well under double figures. Such it was in 1855, when Mr. Badman's father leased 131 acres, planted a vineyard and fruit trees, and tilled the soil for wheat, and later for hay. One of the buildings was the post office, which, though improved, still stands. The house of Mr. Badman, sen., was erected by Mr. Rodgers, whose late nephew, for many years a Government contractor, built the Exhibition Building. The stone was obtained from the Glen Osmond quarry in slabs 5 ft. in length. 'Such stone you won't find now,' said Mr. Badman reminiscently. The timber that was put into the house was obtained, from a redgum tree that had fallen on the property. The remains of that tree still lie there in a heap, a dumb witness to the value of Australian timber. Boy though he was, Mr. Badman assisted in the digging of the cellar and the formation of the steps, and though the house itself was pulled down a few weeks ago, he rejoices that there still remains the testimony of his youthful industry. The first year's wheat crop was garnered by hand with a sickle, but in the following season an improved reaper, made by the late Mr. J. Mellor, was employed. Where the Malvern Methodist Church and the surrounding buildings now stand Mr. Badman, sen., once reaped with that machine 40 acres of barley in four days. "It was beautiful agricultural land." said Mr. Badman. For many years, there was little apparent change in the locality, but it was after Mr. Badman left for the country in about 1860 that he observed on his visit to the city the wonderful advance of civilization. On the occasion of each return he was impressed by the numbers of houses going up, and now "Only for knowing the place so well I would scarcely recognise it," he remarked sententiously. It has long been Mr. Badman's desire to again live near the scenes of his boyhood days, and although he at present resides at Unley, such has been the rapid growth of that city that he is still far removed from achieving his object.

Matthias was born in 1848. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection of events witnessed by Phillip Andrews as remembered 18 Feb 2019.

• - Shipping List: Price Regent 1849 (http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/princeregent1849.shtml)

• - Digger – South Australian Marriage Registrations 1842 -1916 © SAGHS (1869 80/382)

• - Digger – South Australian Death Registrations 1916 -1972 © SAGHS (1925 475/396)

• Riverton Cemetery Records: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~deadsearch/riverton.htm

• Biographical index of South Australians 1836-1885 / editor: Jill Statton. Marden, S. Aust. : South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, 1986. Vol 1 (page 53 – Matthias Badman)

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Geoff Davis for starting this profile.

Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Geoff and others.