Cordial 3 – European history of the Richmond River

A History of Aerated Water & Cordial Manufacturers of the Richmond – Part 3

Sidney Clarence BENTON

Sidney Clarence Benton was born in 1894 in the Tenterfield district of northern New South Wales a son of James and Eliza Benton (nee Burton). Sidney married Ethel Margaret Embrey in 1915. By 1917 Sidney was farming at Tenterfield.

In 1930 Sidney was working as a motor dealer in Lismore prior to purchasing the aerated water and cordial manufactory at Byron Bay from William Edward Bryant in 1934. A condition of the sale was that the trade name of Bryant’s cordials should be continued and as a result of this agreement there are no bottles bearing Benton’s name. Sidney lasted less than six months in Byron Bay before selling out to Faith Playford, the wife of Frederick Leonard Playford. He then returned to Bonalbo in northern New South Wales where electoral rolls show he remained as a commission agent until his death in 1961 at Mallanganee.

Samuel BLANCH

Samuel Blanch was born in 1885 in the Newcastle area of New South Wales the son of Walter Benjamin Blanch and Matilda Frances Blanch (nee Phipps). Walter and Matilda were married in 1882. Matilda was the sister of Alfred Ernest Phipps who operated the aerated water and cordial manufactory at Ballina with his son Arthur from 1914. At the turn of the century Walter and his wife were farming at Wardell with their large family of children.

By 1909 Samuel and his father Walter Benjamin were listed in electoral rolls as cordial manufacturers at Broadwater taking over the cordial manufactory from Thomas George Lovett who had been in charge of the business for a short period of time. Sands Country Commercial Directories list Samuel Blanch from 1910 until 1912 as the proprietor of the Broadwater cordial works while Lovett is listed in the same directory for 1909 as the proprietor. Samuel continued to manufacture aerated water and cordials at Broadwater until 1913 before embarking on a career as a grocer in Lismore. There are no embossed bottles from his Broadwater cordial manufactory.

Samuel’s death was recorded on 8 June 1914 at Lismore. He died of heart problems and fluid accumulation on the lungs and was buried in the Wardell cemetery.

David James BOAG

David James Boag was a son of David and Jane Boag (nee Coutts) born August 7 1859 at Ulladulla NSW. David’s parents were originally from Scotland and emigrated in 1855 departing from Perthshire on board the William Miles that arrived in Moreton Bay. They had nine children and settled in the Milton area on the South Coast of N.S.W.

David was married in the Congregational Rites Brides Home at Ulladulla on 17 July 1877 to Ann Baxter who was born at Kiama in 1855. They had seven children born between 1878 and 1893 in the Milton/Ulladulla area. David became a dairyman at Warragubra, near Bega, after his marriage and remained in the area until early 1900. David then relocated to the North Coast of N.S.W. around 1905 and worked at “Springvale” Nashua as a dairy farmer until 1919 before moving into the township of Bangalow in the same year.

David was a typical entrepreneur of the times turning his hand to a variety of employment opportunities. Electoral rolls list him at different times as a tobacconist, billiard room proprietor, hairdresser, actor, auctioneer, and cordial manufacturer between 1916 and the 1940’s. David is also reputed to have operated the first taxi service in Bangalow.

David ran the aerated water and cordial factory initially from the Thomson site in 1919 but then moved for a very short period of time to new premises. He was in business as a cordial manufacturer for less than a year. Phone records list his numbers as 14 (George Street site) and 102. William Edward Bryant from Byron Bay eventually bought the Bangalow cordial manufactory and closed the business down in 1920.

David James Boag died on 31 May 1947 and was interred in the Bangalow cemetery. There are no known embossed bottles from his period as the cordial manufacturer in Bangalow.

Alfred BOARDMAN

Alfred Boardman was born in Lancashire, England around 1856 a son of Charles Albert and Hanna Boardman (nee Page) and migrated with his parents to Australia when he was about ten years old. He married Christina Meyer at Nerang in Queensland in 1884 and the couple had four children.

Electoral rolls show Alfred living in the Tweed River district where he maintained a residence from 1882 until 1892. In 1891 he purchased the land on Byron Street at Byron Bay listing his occupation as a cordial manufacturer. His arrival in Byron Bay at this time indicates that it was he who established the first aerated water and cordial manufactory in the town. Electoral rolls show Alfred as a cordial maker at Byron Bay from 1892 through until 1899/1900. It is then probable that he sold the cordial factory to Charles Herbert Cockbain who is listed as a cordial maker at Byron Bay on the same 1899/1900 electoral rolls.

Alfred moved to Murwillumbah on the Tweed River where he was a creamery manager from 1900 until 1908 before establishing his own dairy farm in the Tyalgum/Murwillumbah area of N.S.W. from 1908 until the 1920’s. Alfred died at Murwillumbah on 2 July 1934 from heart related problems. There are no known embossed bottles from his cordial manufactory at Byron Bay.

John Maurice BROSNAN

John was the son of Jerimiah and Margaret Brosnan (nee Flynn) who was born in Farrenfore, County Kerry, Ireland circa 1864. He arrived in Australia as a 16 year old on board the Clyde that arrived in Sydney in 1880 and by 1892 had applied for an auriferous lease in the Cooma district of NSW. On the electoral roll of 1897 his occupation was listed as a miner at Fiery Creek. Whilst in the Cooma area he married Sarah Coffey in 1895.

By 1899 John had relocated to Wardell where he commenced work as a cordial manufacturer in the town. Moore’s Australian Almanac lists him as operating a cordial factory from 1900 until 1906 in Wardell while the Sands Country Commercial Directory shows him as not only a cordial manufacturer but also an auctioneer for the same time period. It was not unusual for cordial manufacturers to pursue a variety of income streams from various enterprises in the towns and villages where they operated from. Aerated waters and cordials were reserved for very special occasions and demand for the product was cyclical and this necessitated the cordial maker’s involvement in other sources of income. It is highly probable that this cordial factory was previously operated by Charles Henry Ashwood who had moved to Ballina.

By 1907 John and his family had moved to Gladstone, near Kempsey, on the Macleay River where he ran the Tattersals Hotel. He remained at Gladstone as a hotel keeper until 1910 before moving to Kempsey where he operated the Courthouse Hotel from 1911 until 1915 and as the publican of the Railway Hotel from 1916 until his death in 1940. John died of a coronary thrombosis at Crescent Head on 9 September 1940 and was survived by his wife and two of his five children. There are no embossed bottles known from his time in the Wardell cordial factory.

William David BRYANT

William David Bryant was born on 21 December 1869 at Tamworth, a son of James and Elizabeth Bryant (nee Westbrook). Electoral rolls show him residing in a freehold property at Tamworth working as a labourer from the late 1880s. He married Emma Segery Woodall in Tamworth in 1890 and they had five children. Emma died in 1901, so one of his young sons William Edward, who was ten at the time, was sent to Gunnedah to live with his aunt. William David’s sister Charlotte Anne Bryant had married Joseph Luke Cushan in Tamworth in 1875 and young William ended up working in the Cushan’s cordial factory in Gunnedah. The recipes for syrups and cordial making that were used at Gunnedah became the basis of the Bryant cordial enterprise when they commenced operations in Mullumbimby.

In 1903 William David moved his family to Lismore where he worked as a store assistant for A.G. Robertsons and an ironmonger at Mallams before operating the cordial business in Burringbar Street Mullumbimby for William Edward Balzer who had acquired the Mullumbimby lemonade factory from F.R. Gray in May 1906. Following his acquisition of the business, Balzer installed W.D. Bryant as the manager. William David Bryant then purchased the business outright from Balzer circa 1909 and successfully ran the business until 1930. The certificate of title indicates he bought the land that the factory was situated on in 1915. An article in the Mullumbimby Star on 6 February 1913 describes improvements to the factory including the water filtration process, bottle washing machinery, corking apparatus and gas manufacture. The soda water and mixing machine was capable of dealing with 80 dozen bottles per hour.

In 1921 William married his second wife Louisa Elizabeth Pepper. William served on the municipal council for 24 consecutive years as an alderman and at the time of his death on 25 August 1937 was deputy mayor, reflecting his willingness to serve the people of Mullumbimby and advance the town. He was an active member of the town band and gave great support to athletic events which were extremely popular at this time.

Another of his children, May, eventually married Ambrose Sawtell in Murwillumbah in 1914 before they became associated with the cordial business at Kingaroy.

William Edward BRYANT

William David’s son William Edward was born in the Peel Valley at Tamworth on 27 March 1891 and after living in Gunnedah he learnt the trade of cordial manufacturing from his uncle, Joseph Luke Cushan. When he returned to the North Coast he joined forces with his father and applied his knowledge in establishing the business at Mullumbimby. William Edward acquired the Byron Bay cordial factory, which was being operated by William Edward Balzer, in 1912 and establish himself in his own enterprise. In 1913 he married Adelaide Elizabeth Harris.

In 1919 he purchased the property on which the cordial manufactory was situated from William Edward Balzer and maintained ownership of it until 1934 when he sold it to Sidney Clarence Benton.

William E. Bryant built up his aerated water and cordial businesses by firstly buying the Bangalow cordial factory in 1920 and closing it down before turning his attention to the larger market in Lismore. He leased the site operated by William Ivey Lane in Keen Street Lismore on 24 September 1923 and began to manufacture cordials and aerated water from the site. He maintained production at both off his cordial factories in Lismore and Byron Bay until 1929 when he was involved in the formation of Lismore Cordials with William Martin Glynn and the Balzer brothers, Christy Wilkins and Percival Henry. William Edward Bryant ran the cordial works for Lismore Cordials as manager of the operations and at the same time continued manufacturing in Byron Bay.

1934 saw Bryant relinquish control of the Byron Bay factory when it was sold to Sidney Clarence Benton under the provision that the Bryant trade name be carried on the cordials made there. It was about this time that William Edward relocated to Murwillumbah, running the Murwillumbah Hotel as a publican. He died there on 1 April 1968 and was interred in the Murwillumbah cemetery.

Alfred BUGDEN

Alfred was a son of Robert and Leonora Bugden (nee Lulham) born on 22 August 1873 at Pelican Creek, the 5th of 12 children. Alfred married Ethel May Carroll at Coraki on 11 November 1898.

Alfred’s father, Robert, was a timber cutter prior to commencing a butcher’s shop in Coraki as well as owning shares as a major investor in the Coraki and Richmond Hill Coal Mining Company which was in operation by 1901. He purchased properties, ran dairy and cattle farms and built residential and commercial premises in the town. Robert Bugden bought the Coraki cordial factory in 1911 from Charles Stamford Jnr and Alfred inherited the business and ran the factory out of new premises in Bridge Street until 1921.

After the closure of the cordial manufactory Alf gained employment as a butcher and a baker in Coraki interspersed with a period in Lismore where he worked as a baker and was the hotel keeper at the Terminus Hotel in 1930/1932. He returned to Coraki as a butcher in the mid 1930’s before moving to Murwillumbah in the early 1940’s. His death was recorded at Murwillumbah on 14 August 1956.

Bernard BUSHBY

Bernhard Buschby was born on 20 November 1887 in the Berrima district of NSW, the son of Frederick and Susan Buschby. Bernard was married to Ada Lizzie Parmenter at Moss Vale on 19 November 1906 after which he relocated to the North Coast of NSW and anglicised their surname. By 1908 Bernard was farming at Dunoon and Nimbin before running a grocery shop at Nimbin. In 1916 he moved into Lismore where he operated a grocery shop in Lake Street. This was a typical general store of the times selling a great variety of goods including tobacco.

In 1920 he formed a partnership trading under the name of Bushby and Balzer and began manufacturing aerated waters and cordial with his partner in Dawson Street on the previous site occupied by William Alfred Rogers. Telephone records indicate the partnership lasted for only six months or so before Bernard became the sole proprietor of the aerated water and cordial manufactory.

Bernard remained in Lismore making aerated water, cordials and ginger beer until about mid 1924 when the business passed into the hands of William Martin Glynn. Bernard and his family then moved to Queensland and he established himself in the rural town of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. He became a picture show proprietor for a few years leasing the Strand Theatre and had a profound knowledge of the movie industry as well as operating a private taxi cab business. Bernard finally settled into running another general store which he operated for many years prior to his retirement. His death was recorded in Toowoomba on 16 June 1965.