Dawson (Mayor) James
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1826 |
| Place of birth | Knowefauld, Scotland |
| Date of arrival | 1863 |
| Principal occupation | Flour Miller |
| Date of death | 1882 |
Mayor 1877
Born at Knowefauld, two miles from Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, on April 26, 1826 to John and Margaret (nee Allan) Dawson, James Dawson was an asthmatic and came to South Australia in 1863 for relief of the symptoms. His father was a farmer, and as a young man James was an apprentice to an ironmonger and seed merchant in the town of Alloa, eventually starting a business in that town.
When first arriving in the colonies, he came to Gawler and stayed with Robert Fotheringham, a former classmate in Scotland, then shifted to Kapunda with Thomas Fotheringham. Mr. Dawson then toured through Victoria, NSW and New Zealand before settling in Gawler, where he built a wheat store at Gawler South in 1868, and began building the Albion Flour Mill, which burnt down in 1877 and had to be re-built. The mill was the first in the Commonwealth to have the roller-system installed; to ensure efficient operation a specialist worker was recruited from Scotland, along with the machine. James Dawson won the gold medal for flour at the Paris International Exhibition in 1878.
He married Helen Murray in February 1868 and they had two children.
Mr. Dawson was heavily involved in the town’s community groups - a member of the Gawler Institute Committee and a pillar of the Presbyterian Church, a Justice of the Peace, and a councillor for three years, including a stint as mayor in 1877- although as a result of the Albion Mill burning down on January 14, 1877, he resigned the position – the shortest term of a mayor in the town.
James was a director of the Commercial Marine Insurance Company, and had mill business dealings in Stockwell, Bassett Town and Greenock, as well as a new venture at Hamley Bridge, where a mill had recently been completed just before his death.
Five years to the day of the Albion Mill fire, James passed away, and over 50 vehicles followed his funeral procession to the gravesite at Mount Crawford. The Gawler townsmen erected a memorial at the Willaston Cemetery. In his obituary in the Bunyip, it said of him: “As a gentleman his upright actions, sterling character and honesty of purpose yet unassuming manner, won him the respect of all who knew him.”
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References
- Footprints "Gawler Significant Identities" 2007 ISBN 978-0-646-48588-1
- Gawler "Colonel Light's Country Town" Derek Whitelock 1989 ISBN 0 7316 7822 2
- The Bunyip.
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