Uren Golden Wedding

A Golden Wedding

Mr and Mrs Uren and their children and Grandchildren in Kelmscott WA.

On Saturday, September 18, Mr and Mrs Uren, of Kelmscott, celebrated their golden wedding in the presence of all their, children and grandchildren, numbering 25. Mr and Mrs Uren arrived in South Australia from Cornwall in December 1865, and went first to Kapunda, a copper mining centre, where they resided for a number of years, Mr Uren finding employment in the mines. From here they went to the farming district of Port Gawler, but upon the discovery of gold in Teetulpa in 1887, Mr Uren went to the rush. Not meeting with any success in alluvial mining, he went to Waukaringa and being a carpenter, was engaged to erect an extensive concentrating plant on the Alma and Victoria gold mine.

He then went to Broken Hill in 1888 but spent only a short time there. He then proceeded to the Euriowie tin fields, which were just opening up. There he worked his trade in several mines. In October 1889, in company with the late Capt. William Oats, M.L.C., Mr Uren left South Australia for the Yilgarn goldfields of this State, arriving at Southern Cross a month later under an engagement by the Fraser’s South Gold Mining Co as foreman/carpenter to erect the mining plant. He is, therefore one of the pioneers of the Eastern Goldfields. Shortly after their arrival in Southern Cross, they were faced with the water difficulty, and they set to work and made the first condenser on the goldfields, using a 200-gallon tank for a boiler and making the piping out of a sheet of corrugated iron, no boiler material being available.

Mr Uren returned to Adelaide a year later for the purpose of bringing to this State the family of the late Capt Oats and his own family, when he again arrived in Southern Cross the number of women on the goldfields was under 20. Five years later Mr Uren went to Kalgoorlie as a foreman/carpenter under Capt Oats. He erected several treatment plants and in connection with the concentrating plant on the Brookman’s Boulder gold mine, he made the first ore classifiers used on the fields. From this idea evolved the present Spitzkasten now in common use in the mines.

Nicholas and Grace Uren in 1915 – Photo Ancestry.com

Family History: Nicholas Uren was born on 3rd June 1843 in Sennen, Cornwall, England. He was the son of Nicholas Uren and Grace Ann nee Searle. He married Grace Warren in St Just, Cornwall on the 18th of September 1865. The couple had seven children, the first, was Edith Maud Mary born 1867 in South Australia, the other children were, Nicholas born & died 1868 – Alfred Nicholas born 1868 – Frederick William born 1862 – Albert Charles born & died 1875 – Edgar Augustus born 1877 – Dorcus Amelia born 1879. All the children were born in South Australia.
Nicholas died aged 87yrs in 1927, he survived his wife by two years, she passed away in 1925 aged 86yrs. They are buried together in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth.