www.nickhodge.com

After pub­lish­ing details on my fam­ily his­tory two years ago: the con­nec­tions con­tinue to increase.

Firstly, a con­nec­tion to my Great-Great-Great Grand­mother, Mary Milne was made in Octo­ber 2007. Mary Milne is David Melville Hodge’s mother.

Now, a rel­at­ive in South Aus­tralia for­war­ded me this pic­ture of my Great– Great– Grand­father: Mr David Melville Hodge.

More inter­est­ingly, a series of bio­graph­ical stor­ies appeared. He seems quite the pion­eer­ing character.

I think if here were around today, he would prob­ably be a blog­ger. And mer­cur­ial, too.

Short Bio­graphy from the Encyc­lo­pe­dia of South Australia

Mr David Melville Hodge, Chaff and grain mer­chant, Alex­an­der Port Pirie, is a nat­ive of South Aus­tralia, hav­ing been born at Angaston in I860. He is a son of the late Mr. Melville Hodge, who settled in the Angaston dis­trict in the early days of the Province.

At the con­clu­sion of his edu­ca­tion, which was received at Sad­dle­worth, while still quite a boy he came to Laura at the open­ing up of the North­ern areas for set­tle­ment, and engaged in farm­ing pur­suits and out­door life gen­er­ally, rough­ing it in the man­ner well known to many of the young Aus­trali­ans of that peÂriod.

He vis­ited the Kim­ber­ley “rush” in the north of West­ern Aus­tralia, Mount Brown, in Queens­land, and has made him­self acquain­ted with all the gold-mining centres in the North­ern Ter­rit­ory and through­out the Commonwealth.

At a later period Mr. Hodge engaged in farm­ing and team­s­ter­ing in the north­ern parts of South Aus­tralia, and in 1901 estab­lished him­self in his pre­sent busi­ness, that of a chaff and grain mer­chant, in Port Pirie. He has since worked up a sat­is­fact­ory con­nec­tion, and enjoys his full share of the trade of the district.

Mr. Hodge is a mem­ber of the Cale­do­nian Soci­ety. In 1885 he mar­ried Julia Florence, daugh­ter of Mr. John Pil­grim of Gawler, lat­terly of Laura, and has a fam­ily of six sons and two daughters.

Golden Wed­ding Anniversary (1936) News­pa­per Clipping

Mr Hodge, Senr, of Lock, recenly cel­eb­rated the anniversary of his Golden Wed­ding. Mr Hodge was a suc­cess­ful farmer in the Gul­nare dis­trict some years ago, and at one time was shear­ing for Mr Niel McGilp, who was widely known in pas­toral areas. At Lock, Mr Hodge is one of the most inter­ested work­ers in the Meth­od­ist Church, and to attend the ser­vices he drives his car 12 miles pracically(sic) every Sunday. Mr Hodge still drives a team of bul­locks when clear­ing scrub on his farm, and this proves that he is a true son of the soil. A few years ago Mr Hodge gave up retired life, and returned to farm­ing. On his Golden Wed­ding day, Mr Hodge com­posed the fol­low­ing poem.

Aus­tralia: A Poem by Mr. D. M. Hodge

AUSTRALIA

Aus­tralia, I love thee,
The land that gave me birth,
And reared me up to man­hood,
From the products of the earth.

Thou has let me roam in free­dom,
From moun­tain top to plain,
And always gave suf­fi­cient,
To relieve my hun­ger pain.

I have seen thy sil­ver mines,
And gold and cop­per, too,
Deep down into your bowels,
All shin­ing bright and new.

Your wheat and wool I’ve car­ted,
From far inland to the sea,
To feed and clothe the hungry
In Eng­land or where’r it may be:

I’ve seen your men and women
Leave here to go and fight
And join up with dear old Eng­land
For justice, honor, and right.

I’ve seen your towns and cit­ies
Grow up about your land,
And helped the pion­eers to clear
Mal­lee and stones on every land.

And now I’m grow­ing old and grey,
On this, my Golden Wed­ding Day;
Great Mas­ter wilt Thou hear me say,
’Tis here in Aus­tralia I wish to stay.

Obit­u­ary

Mr. David Melville Hodge, 76, died at the home of his son-in-law (Inspec­tor M. M. Bishop), of Fourth street, Port Pirie West, on Septem­ber 5. His earli­est juven­ile exper­i­ences included the sight of mobs of wild nat­ives at North Rhine sur­round­ing the home of his father. The lat­ter died there when David Hodge was a small boy and he moved with his mother to Coghill’s Creek. At 11 years of age he became a farmer’s boy with a wage of 2/6 a week, but he soon after­wards obtained employ­ment with Mr. Hugh Aitken, a fam­ous colt­breaker of his day, and from him learned the art of hand­ling horses.

After a brief spell at home he left, on a horse he had pur­chased for £4 10/, find­ing his way to Kapunda and thence to Adelaide, where he obtained employ­ment with a farmer at Bal­ak­lava. At Port Wake­field later he obtained a pas­sage by ketch to Port Adelaide, but soon trekked north again.

His next job was that of woolpicker on Par­a­too Run. then jointly held by Sir Thomas Elder and Mr. Peter Waite. Later, purchas­ing a team of bul­locks, he engaged in cart­ing sleep­ers from Wir­ra­bara and took loads to the Sil­ver­ton sil­ver fields. He claimed to have car­ted the first con­sign­ment of silver-lead ore from Thack­ar­inga to Terowie to be sent from there by train to Port Adelaide.

In 1886 he and two mates, W. Duck and F. Lind­say, set off for what was repor­ted to be a rich gold find in the Kim­ber­leys. Mr. Hodge returned to South Aus­tralia and star­ted a chaff store, saw­mill, and wood­y­ard at Port Pine.

Seven years later he moved to Pirie Springs, near Laura, and from there to Gul­nare. Five years’ retire­ment in Adelaide fol­lowed, but 10 years ago he took up land at Lock, on the West Coast, return­ing from there to Port Pirie. At Laura he mar­ried Miss Florence Julia Pil­grim, who sur­vives. Mr. and Mrs. Hodge cel­eb­rated their gol­den wed­ding in 1935. Four sons and two daugh­ters are left Messrs. Frank. Hec­tor, Ken­neth (West Coast), and Wil­liam Hodge (Iron Knob). Mrs. J. N. O’Brien (West Aus­tralia), and Mrs. M. M. Bishop (Port Pirie).