BLADE and PEDERSEN FAMILIES

Denmark to Bladeville

Louisa Blade nee Pedersen was born on 11 June 1880 in Newtown, the eighth of nine children of Johann Christian Pedersen and Catherine Hansine Henriette nee Lassen.¹ Johann Pedersen, from Assens in Denmark, emigrated with his wife and three children from Hamburg on board the ship Gutenberg arriving in Rockhampton Queensland on 1 April 1871.² Their fifth child Mette Catrine Marie (Catrina) was born in Rockhampton in 1873 and by 1875 when their sixth child Waldemar was born, the family had relocated to Sydney.

By 1893 the Pederson family had settled on land on the southern side of Illawarra Road Sutherland (now Princes Highway, Kirrawee, between Oak Road and the Kingsway). A small dairy was established on their farm of three acres on leasehold land of the Holt-Sutherland Estate. In 1907 when Johann applied for a Certificate of Naturalisation, he gave his occupation as tobacco twister and probably did not rely solely on any income from the dairy.

In 1902 Louisa Pedersen married George Robert Blade. George was born in Penrith in 1882, fourth child of William and Margaret Blade nee Bryan. Louisa and George built their weatherboard cottage on the land the Pedersens occupied and gave their home the name of ‘Bladeville’. The couple had three children, Elsa who died when only 9 days old on 14 December 1902,³ William Christian (Bill) born 1905 and James Phillip (Jim) born 1907. The couple also adopted a daughter named Margery.

The 1908 Sands Directory, Commercial Country Section lists Mrs G Blade, Cash Store Sutherland which was a mixed business that operated from the Blade home. In November of that year, J W Macfarlane, Shire Clerk of the Shire of Sutherland sent a letter to the Deputy Postmaster General under Council’s directions, requesting the establishment of a (letter) receiving office at Mrs Blade’s shop. A petition with 36 signatories of local residents accompanied the letter. The family names on the petition included Thornton, Luber, Munro, Valentine, Wiggins, Smith, Neville, Everingham, Cadden, Thomas, Heslewood, Dube, Avery, Bunnicliff, Brooks, Comb, Young, Blade, Avery, Gough, Nicholas, Craven.⁴

At this time, letters and packages were not delivered to residents’ homes and had to be collected from the Post Master at Sutherland. Louisa undertook the duties of Receiving Office Keeper for £5 a year plus £5 for transporting the mail from Sutherland to her receiving office. Six months later after an inspection by the postal department, Louisa was instructed to ‘exhibit a sign in a conspicuous position outside the building and to place a notice indicating ‘Letter Box’ on the posting receptacle.’ Louisa continued running the store and the Receiving Office for five years before writing to the Deputy Post Master General to request an increase in salary as her duties were increasing with the growing population. A count of mail items was undertaken and in a two week period 110 letters were despatched from the receiving office and 178 were received along with 25 packets and 35 newspapers. Louisa’s letter of application for the salary increase was 20 December 1913 and the count would have included Christmas mail. Her application was approved to receive an annual salary of £10. However this situation was short lived as the receiving office closed on 8 March 1915 after the introduction of a letter delivery service to homes within a one-mile radius of Sutherland Post Office.⁵

Louisa’s mother died on 12 February 1911 while staying at Milsons Point Hotel North Sydney. Catherine was known for her midwifery skills and it is supposed she was at the hotel to help the owner’s wife give birth when Catherine aged 72, died.⁶ Catherine is buried in Woronora Congregational section U grave 8-9. Her husband Johann died at home in Sutherland on 5 August 1920 and was buried with her. Their unmarried daughter Catrina Pedersen was buried with her parents when she died on 24 February 1941 at age 68.

After the Receiving Office closed, Louisa continued to operate her store. Her husband George began working for the NSW Government Railways in February of 1916 and became a permanent employee six months later. He worked at Waterfall as a fuel man and also at Eveleigh where in 1917, after the General Strike, his pay rate increased by sixpence to 9/6 per day. By 1922 he was working in the foundry at Eveleigh and continued with the railways until his retirement in 1942.⁷

Earlier that year their sons, William (Bill) and James (Jim) avoided a near tragedy when their eldest son William fell 76 metres from a cliff at Marley near Wattamolla in the National Park. He had been fishing with his friend Charlie Adlide and was returning along a narrow path to the cliff edge when he fell into the sea grazing a rock ledge on his descent. Somehow he managed to get himself onto a ledge just above the water line. Jim Blade was a Park Ranger and had a shack at Little Marley Beach about half a mile from the cliffs and this was where Charlie went for help. Jim’s response was heroic. He raced along the beach to the Marley headland but was prevented from entering the water by the swirling waters of a blowhole. He waited for his chance then dived through the blowhole which sucked him back under the cliff from where he could swim the 455 meters to his brother. Jim stayed with his brother through the night until rescued in the early hours of the following morning by the Hurstville N.E.S. Squad.⁸ Ironically Jim drowned in 1967

Louisa died aged 76, on 25 May 1957 in Bellingen hospital. It is thought that George and Louisa were living with Jim Blade at that time. George Blade died in Sydney on 10 May 1971 aged 88.

SUE HEWITT

First published in  Sutherland Shire, Some Early Residents, 2006, by Botany Bay Family History Society. Compiled by Maree McKinley and Sue Hewitt.    

Click on the name BLADE and PEDERSEN FAMILIES in the heading of this story .You will be taken to the database entry for Louisa Pedersen and her family.

Endnotes:

1. ‘Christina’ on death certificate

2.Peder Christian, Frederick Ferdinand Georg Oscar and Fredericka Laurina (Laura). Their second child, Catrine Marie died in Denmark; NAA: A1, 1907/4233

3. Elsa is buried in Woronora Congregational K grave 1

4. NAA:SP32/1, Bladeville Post Office

5. ibid.

6. Oral history Beryl Killey

7. SRNSW Railways employee service cards

8. Daily Telegraph 13 Apr 1942