Page 142 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 142
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
AMY’S STORY (4.9.1908 - 30.11.2005)
According to my birth certificate, I was born at 208 Aberdeen Street, West Perth in Western Australia.
At that time this was the address of my maternal grandparents. I was not sure when Grandma and
Grandpa Mercer moved from Northam to West Perth, but since my parents, Robert Weir and Mabel
Mary Mercer, were married from their home in Northam on 2 January 1908 and I was born on 4
September 1908, the move must have been made sometime between
those dates.moved
My father (Picture on right) bought land at Coolup south of Perth in 1907,
and he and mother went to live there after their wedding. It was to Coolup
they took me after my birth in September 1908, but not for long because
by the time I was six months old, the farm had been sold and we were
moving up to Brown Hill, one of the small gold mining towns on the
‘Golden Mile’ near Kalgoorlie. That must have been a hard time for my
father with his high hopes of supporting his young bride and their first
child. Curious to know why they had left so soon, in later years I found
from old newspapers that that had been a particularly bad year in the
Coolup area, and I think he must have lost all he had put into the land
there. It was during that time too, that something happened to his
beautiful horse Black Beauty, which he was so proud of, and it had to be
put down. Black Beauty had been admired by James Mitchell (later Sir James), but father had refused
to sell. I never heard the whole story as mother would not let us talk about it in front of father, but all
our lives there was preserved in a prominent place in the home, a hoof and shoe of a horse which I
understood to be that of Black Beauty.
BROWN HILL
66 Brisbane Street, Brown Hill is the first address I remember, and the first home which lingers in my
memory, as I lived there from the time I was six months old until I was nine. Father bought a small
house on Brisbane Street with a smallgoods shop attached. When we moved in it must have seemed
adequate for the family, but by the time we moved away from the goldfields, there were five children
and my father had made quite a few changes in that time.
We saw many aborigines on the goldfields, but especially at the season of the year when they went
‘walkabout’ and headed off into the bush beyond Brown Hill. One year Mother was out at the wash
tubs when a young aborigine couple came round the side of the house, each of them carrying one of
their twin boys. They had seen the shop and wanted to buy some condensed milk for the youngest
twin who looked ill and much thinner than his brother. They were a nice couple and told Mother they
had a small farm in York but were taking the twins for their first walkabout. Mother gave them the milk
and then, as it was a very hot day, suggested they might like to use her wash water to bath the twins.
They were delighted and their mother not only bathed them but washed her own hair as well. They
went off full of smiles and gratitude. Next year at the same time they came back again, but this time
there was only one baby. The little one had died during the year, but they brought Mother a photo of
the whole family taken in York while the younger twin was still alive. Mother treasured that photo for
many years.
Jim (James Henry) was born just two years after I was, on 5 September 1910, and he is the one I
have most memories of playing with at that time. When Jim was nearly two and I was nearly four, on
142
Amy Moore
AMY’S STORY (4.9.1908 - 30.11.2005)
According to my birth certificate, I was born at 208 Aberdeen Street, West Perth in Western Australia.
At that time this was the address of my maternal grandparents. I was not sure when Grandma and
Grandpa Mercer moved from Northam to West Perth, but since my parents, Robert Weir and Mabel
Mary Mercer, were married from their home in Northam on 2 January 1908 and I was born on 4
September 1908, the move must have been made sometime between
those dates.moved
My father (Picture on right) bought land at Coolup south of Perth in 1907,
and he and mother went to live there after their wedding. It was to Coolup
they took me after my birth in September 1908, but not for long because
by the time I was six months old, the farm had been sold and we were
moving up to Brown Hill, one of the small gold mining towns on the
‘Golden Mile’ near Kalgoorlie. That must have been a hard time for my
father with his high hopes of supporting his young bride and their first
child. Curious to know why they had left so soon, in later years I found
from old newspapers that that had been a particularly bad year in the
Coolup area, and I think he must have lost all he had put into the land
there. It was during that time too, that something happened to his
beautiful horse Black Beauty, which he was so proud of, and it had to be
put down. Black Beauty had been admired by James Mitchell (later Sir James), but father had refused
to sell. I never heard the whole story as mother would not let us talk about it in front of father, but all
our lives there was preserved in a prominent place in the home, a hoof and shoe of a horse which I
understood to be that of Black Beauty.
BROWN HILL
66 Brisbane Street, Brown Hill is the first address I remember, and the first home which lingers in my
memory, as I lived there from the time I was six months old until I was nine. Father bought a small
house on Brisbane Street with a smallgoods shop attached. When we moved in it must have seemed
adequate for the family, but by the time we moved away from the goldfields, there were five children
and my father had made quite a few changes in that time.
We saw many aborigines on the goldfields, but especially at the season of the year when they went
‘walkabout’ and headed off into the bush beyond Brown Hill. One year Mother was out at the wash
tubs when a young aborigine couple came round the side of the house, each of them carrying one of
their twin boys. They had seen the shop and wanted to buy some condensed milk for the youngest
twin who looked ill and much thinner than his brother. They were a nice couple and told Mother they
had a small farm in York but were taking the twins for their first walkabout. Mother gave them the milk
and then, as it was a very hot day, suggested they might like to use her wash water to bath the twins.
They were delighted and their mother not only bathed them but washed her own hair as well. They
went off full of smiles and gratitude. Next year at the same time they came back again, but this time
there was only one baby. The little one had died during the year, but they brought Mother a photo of
the whole family taken in York while the younger twin was still alive. Mother treasured that photo for
many years.
Jim (James Henry) was born just two years after I was, on 5 September 1910, and he is the one I
have most memories of playing with at that time. When Jim was nearly two and I was nearly four, on
142
