Joseph Hulley ³

  General Notes:

Joseph Hulley (1823 - 1896)
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Joseph HULLEY, the 5th son of Richard William HULLEY, the 1820 Settler, was born at Clumber, Albany district, on 2nd June 1823, and later took over his father's farm "Caxton" in the Albany 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 moved 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. (also known as the Frontier Wars) Here he built a new house, sheds, fenced the lands and later the farm, as, being on the Kaffirland border, he used to suffer severely from stock thefts, very seldom, if ever, recovering the stolen stock.

He built a big dam and dug the water channels to load the water on to the lands. He grew his own wheat and had to travel many miles to have it ground, between stone rollers - steam still being unheard of in those days. Another main crop was oats, as the C.M.R. camp in 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 tramped 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 taken off by hand (as this was before the time of separators), and churned - the butter salted, put away in big barrels; also the shelves were lined 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 the 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 HULLEY and his wife Mary, and the youngest daughter Marie went to live in the town of Maclear. But though on in years, the pioneer spirit was still strong. As the erf was 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 produces, 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 relations 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 suddenly was 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. His headstone testifies that he was "One of His disciples." (Written by May Staude - nee HULLEY, one of Joseph HULLEY's granddaughters) ³

Joseph married Mary Jackson on 15 Jun 1847 in Somerset East.³ (Mary Jackson was born on 06 Jul 1824 ³ and died on 26 Jun 1907 ³.)