Rachel Shadlow

Rachel (Lees) Shadlow - Born 7th January 1855 - Died 14th September 1929

Rachel was the second of 14 children of John and Henrietta Lees.

Rachel met George at Castlereagh and she married at the age 29. George was 54 years old and had six children by his first wife, Elizabeth Marsden. George and Rachel had a further seven children. George was 66 when he fathered his last son and Rachel was 41. Rachel also took over the raising of George's children from his deceased wife Elizabeth.

Their children were:-

Henrietta - born 1885

Norman - born 1886

Victor - born 1888

Rachel - born 1889 (married Sidney Hope)

Bertie - born 1890

George - born 1894

Cecil - 1896

George continued his carrying business till the rainlway took over in 1875. After that, George and Rachel bought a house in St Marys in 1905. The boys ran the farm.

The distance from St Marys to Bathurst was 98 miles. Bullock wagons would average 17 miles per day and were not suitable for mountain roads as they sat down when the loads got too heavy. Camel teams travelled 70 miles per day but required large sweeping corners for the wagons. Horses travelled three miles per hour on steep climbs and six to eight miles on flats, averaging about 30 miles per day.

The third day between Sodwalls and Bathurst, a journey of 30 miles, was flatter country, being past the mountains. The horses averaged five miles her hour and the last day would take six hours. That gave George time to unload the wagons and load for the next morning. After the night break he woul duse the same horses for the trip to Sodwalls. When the railway was built to Bathurst the transport tapered off but did not stop, as a town like Hartley and his "wayward customers" (bushrangers) had to be serviced. This service was cut to one wagon.

After the Bathurst railway was completed, George expanded his interest in the farm and his shops at St Marys. George now owned retail shops at the corner of Railway Street and Great Western Hwy, St Marys. The most notable shop was a general store rented to William (Cluffy) Morris ond of the first shops erected in St Marys.

George retired about 1900 and with Rachel they expanded their social activities until George died on 15th June 1920.

Rachel continued her interest in the social activities and overseeing the shops and the farm until her death on 5th June 1929.

Rachel, the second child in a very large family of thirteen, went from caring for her brothers and sisters who arrrived at the rate of one baby per year, to caring for them after mother's death, to stepmother to Elizabeth's six children, who ranged in ages from 21 to 14 years of age. She then gave birth to seven children herself. She made a career of raising children. Marriage details: Rachel was a spinster till the age of 29. She married the widower, George Shadlow at her father's house at Forest Hill, Springwood, NSW, on 17/06/1884. Rev A Parsons was the minister of the Wesleyan Church who performed the ceremony. The witnesses to the marriage were Mary Lees and Cornelius Lees.

She married George in her father Cornelius's home at Forest Hill, Springwood NSW.

Siblings of Rahel Lees: Hannah m John Thomas Ellison. Cornelius II m Mary Ann Anderson, Samuel John Lees m Margaret Maud, Thomas Herbert m Elicia Parkes, Mary m Frederick William Fitch.