01.11 Hugh Fraser Ayson 1851 - 1884

After leaving Warepa School he helped on his father's farm and later, with his brothers, engaged in seasonal work on adjoining farms.   For several seasons he and his brothers, Lake and Duncan,  worked  on a  threshing  mill owned by Bill and Dave Sheddon that travelled through the district.

 

Until the advent of this mill all the farmers crops had to be threshed by flails.   The crops would be cut either by reaping hooks or scythes, bound into sheaves by hand and when hardened out would be placed on a large canvas sheet and beaten with flails operated by two or three men.  After the grain had been separated from the husks in this manner it would be winnowed on a windy day and then bagged.

 

The threshing mill was in three units, a portable engine, the mill and the elevator and each of these had to be shifted from farm to farm by the farmer's draught horses.   In difficult places as many as twelve horses would be used to shift each unit.  The water for the engine had to be carted by the farmer from the nearest creek and pumped into the engine.   One day the engine driver noticed that the pump would be turned off before the boiler was full, so Hugh was detailed to watch for the person who was interfering with the water.   This person was a Chinese rouseabout on the mill.   Hugh caught him in the act of turning off the water and picking up a spanner hit him on the wrist.   From then on there was no more trouble with the water.

 

Hugh married Kate Dabinett, the second daughter of Job Dabinett, who owned the adjoining farm to Corydon.   It is interesting to note that Hugh and his brother Lake married two sisters, and his youngest brother, Duncan, married a cousin of the Dabinett girls.

 

Hugh had a cheerful disposition and was always ready for a bit of fun.   That might mean a romp with his children or playing a practical joke on his elders - without of course giving offence.

 

He was well-known for his shearing skills. "Looking Back " compiler, William Ayson , recalled meeting Hugh in the shearing shed at Corydon when he, William, was a lad of four.   Uncle Hugh told him to go home and get his mother's scissors so he could help with the shearing.   Later that season, at a shearing shed at Otama, near  Gore, Hugh  became  ill with peritonitis and died before a doctor could be brought from Gore.

 

Hugh died at the age of 33, leaving his wife and a young family of three, a daughter and two sons.

 

 

Alice Jane Douglas Ayson

Hugh Duncan Ayson

George Francis (Frank) Ayson