East Family as related by Nell Charlwood nee East –
Nell’s father, Cornelius ‘Neal’ East, came to Lennonville near Mount Magnet from Bolton, Ontario, Canada. He came to work and invest in the mine owned and established by James East, his brother. James East had worked on various mines in South Dakota, New Mexico and Colorado. In 1893, James shipped on a cattle boat from New York City to journey around the world. In London, he signed on before the mast in a schooner bound for New Zealand. In that country he herded the gold rush to WA, and in 1894 he came to Mount Magnet.
James and Neal East – Photo N Charlwood
He pegged a claim in Lennonville and on the 12th of May 1896 had a survey done of 6 acres to be known as the ‘Wheel of Fortune South 151M’. After having it assayed, it was deemed rich enough for James to send for his five brothers, his sister and her husband, all from Ontario. They were
Cornelius ‘Neil’ East
Elisha East
David East
Amon East
Edward East
Jessie (nee East) and Jim Waun.
James had a five bedroom house built for the family at Lennonville. The office was a small separate building with the ‘wheel of Fortune South’ on the door. James had a lot of fine furniture brought up from Perth, including a player piano. This piano and its paper rolls were a great novelty in the district and many people gathered on a Sunday night to listen.
James, of course, was the boss, but Neal was the underground boss. He would always be the last one up the ladder at night. He hung his miner’s candle in a certain place each night so that he could reach out in the dark and get it easily. One morning when he reached for it, it wasn’t quite in the right place, and he said ha ha someone has been down there. He said nothing to anyone but James. The next night, as Neal came up, he carefully put the candle grease on the rungs of the ladder. Sure enough, when he went down the next morning, the candle wax had been disturbed. He and James said nothing, though they had their suspicions as to who was high-grading them. They went quietly out around the area that night and down by the creek they could hear someone tapping away with a Dolly pot. The next day they confronted the man and told him he had better turn over the golden quarts or the police would be called. The next day the gold specimens, which were very rich, were returned, and the man was gone.
The East family home and office of the Wheel of Fortune – Photo N Chalwood
The East brothers worked very well as a team, sister Jessie cooked and cared for them. All the brothers were teetotallers so no money was wasted at the hotels. After a clean-up, as they called it, several of the brothers would take bricks of gold in a bag on the train down to the Mint in Perth. One day on the train, a friend, a mine manager, got on and said here Neil put this in the rack for me. He knew by the weight what was in it. Neil recalls that there would never be any robberies from the gold train. The train carrying the gold went down year after year each month. It was never interfered with as if they managed to get it off the train they would never get away with it because the native trackers would have pinned them up before night.
The East brothers with gold bars from the Wheel of Fortune South – Photo N Charlwood
The gold was made into gold coins with which to pay the men. My father had some of his gold made into jewellery in Perth. I have a gold chain which he said was pure gold. He also wore a double gold watch chain across his vest and the gold fob hanging from it was an engraved medal which he won at the Black Range Rifle Club. A brooch, just a gold bar with a nugget on it for my was made for my mother.
The Wheel of Fortune mine yielded. 6991 ounces of gold from 2586 tonnes of ore between 1898 and 1905. My father used to laugh wholeheartedly when he told about working the whim with the ‘Spanker.’ Now a spanker was an outlaw horse we got from a station. He was thin and gangly, so we fed him up and on the first day in the whim, he kicked everything to pieces. They apparently tamed him as they were all expert horsemen. Then Father used to say how that horse could work all day.
The Wheel of Fortune South – photo N Charlwood
One of my father’s favourite stories was about a specimen, a chunk of quartz with a rich vein of gold used as a doorstop on the verandah to hold the door open at the Lennonville house. They didn’t worry much about it disappearing because there was nowhere for anyone to go. But one day it was gone and they never located it. Years and years later, I think on his trip to the West in 1931, his friend Bill Eva overheard in a pub somewhere how the local minister’s son had driven by a house in Lennonville and had seen and taken the door stop.
The East brothers sold all their shares in the Wheel of Fortune South on the 10th of March 1905 to John Males. It was reported in the newspaper in 1921:
“After the last bar of gold, which weighed 831oz was sold sold, Mr. J Hedley Taylor received a Canadian dollar smoothed on one side with the inscription; to J H Taylor in memory of happy days spent at Lennonville, Jim East. James and Neal East then set out on a camel expedition, travelling as far north as the Warburton Ranges in search of gold. This Government-funded expedition was to take 6 months.
What became of the six brothers, one sister and her husband?
James East returned to Canada in 1905 after the Camel Expedition, brought property and built a block of 18 flats and lived the rest of his life in comfort from the Lennonville proceeds. Though he did go to the Yukon Trail at some time.
Edward East returned to Canada and farmed all his life at the Vermillion Alberta.
Elisha East returned to Canada and invested in property at Edmonton, Alberta.
David East married an Australian girl and lived all his life in Perth and raised a family there.
Cornelius ‘Neal’ East maintained a love of prospecting his whole life. He married a nurse, Dora Ellis in Perth WA and returned to Canada to farm on a remote property 40 miles north of Alberta. He then travelled all over the globe prospecting, eventually returning to Lennonville. He died in Melbourne aged 96 years.
Jessie and Jim Waun. Went wheat farming in Geraldton, where they also raised a family.
Ref: Drawn to Mt Magnet – Wannars, Dolly pots and Shears – by Lorna Day and Karen Morrissey.
Moya Sharp
Latest posts by Moya Sharp (see all)
- The East Brother and the Wheel of Fortune – - 18/01/2025
- Wild West Deeds at Bullfinch – - 18/01/2025
- Lost in the Bush by Rodney Creek - 18/01/2025
Leave a Reply