Joseph Hulley

Death notice for Joseph Hulley

Grave picture from eGGSA

Joseph Hulley, the fifth son of Richard William, was born at Clumber, Albany District, on June 2nd, 1823, and later took over his father’s farm ‘Caxton’ in that district. He married Mary Jackson at Somerset East in 1847. Later he was farming in the Queenstown district, and owned the farm ‘Queen’s Park’. He later mover to Dordrecht, where he had a butchery as well as a farm. From there the family trekked to ‘Hopedale’ a farm in the Maclear district, soon after the last Kaffir War. Here he built a new house, sheds, kraals, sheep dip, planted an orchard, gum and wattle trees. He fenced the lands and later the farm, as, being on the Kaffirland border, he used to suffer severely from stock thefts and very seldom, if ever, recovered the stolen stock. He built a big dam and dug the water channels to lead the water on to the lands. He grew his won wheat and had to travel many miles To heave it ground, between stone rollers – steam still being unheard-of in those days. Another main crop was oats, as the Cape Mounted Rifles camp at Maclear used to buy thousands of bundles to feed their horses. The forage as well as the wheat had to be cut by hand with sickles. As there were no threshing machines the crop had to be stamped out by horses of which he had a large number . Every year he would have fifteen young riding horses, and cart horses as well, trained and taken to Umtata where the old C.M.R. headquarters were at that time. The dairy table used to stand full of large dishes of milk, which, when the cream was set, would be skimmed by hand and churned, the butter salted and put away in big barrels; also the shelves were filled with home-made cheese. All of these dairy products would be taken to Umtata where there was a ready market. As there were no buses to do the carting they would load up the old Cape cart (double seater), inspan the horses (four in hand) and set off on their journey. Another product which was eagerly bought was home-cured bacon and ham. Joseph Hulley was helped with the farming by his two younger sons, Edward and Herbert, but later they took their sheep and cattle and went on to their own farms. Then Joseph and his wife Marie went to live in the town of Maclear. But though on in years, the pioneer spirit was still strong. As the erf was a large one, an orchard was planted, vegetables and flower gardens were laid out, a kraal and shed for ten cows, a stable for four horses made, and the dairying went on in a smaller way. The horses were hired out (mostly lent) to enterprising young school boys. Pig styes were built in a lower corner of the erf, a poultry run and pen of prize Dorkings, the pride of the old man’s heart. He also helped to start the first Maclear market going, with his dairy produce, fruit and vegetables. He was a great lover of sport, of which there was not very much in those days. He always encouraged the young folk with offers of extra prizes for gymnastic sports, and gave prizes to the natives who used to have horse racing in the streets on New Year’s Day. The young people and children of the town used to gather at his place for indoor games in the evening at Christmas time, as well as two wagon loads of relatives from the farms. It was at a similar gathering at some social event, when the children were enjoying themselves skipping, and he was swinging the rope at one end, when he was suddenly taken with a pain in the chest, sat down in a chair and passed away. A friend wrote of him – “He was a dear old gentleman. I have the happiest memories of him always.” He was a staunch member and supporter of the Methodist Church and passed to higher service in July 2nd, 1896, and his headstone testifies that he was ‘One of His Disciples’. (Written by May Staude (nee Hulley), (see D.2.f) one of Joseph’s grand-daughters). From 'The Hulleys of the 1820 Settlers' by F.E. Hulley 1964

http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php?g2_itemId=278688&g2_imageViewsIndex=1