however, Tony’s handwriting remained shaky throughout his life. Father and son returned to Spain five months later for the doctors to re-examine it, returning to Australia on the French steamer, Armand Behic on 8 October.
1898 was an important year for Antonio and the San Miguel family. He obtained his naturalisation certificate on 19 April under the provisions of the parliament of Victoria, making him a British subject and an Australian resident, able to buy property and land with the ability to vote. Then on 23 July 1898, a third son, Jaime Cipriano San Miguel, was born at their home.
The Argus
Situations Vacant
Friday 31 December 1897
Superior girls, general, nursery housemaid, sisters, friends, references, fare paid.
Mrs San Miguel, Mont Albert.
In late 1898, the whole family, plus a servant maid and nursery maid left for Europe. They mainly travelled between Alella, San Feliu Guixols and Seville where Antonio continued with his business dealings. On 23 May 1899 they arrived back in Australia on board the SS Australian but returned to Spain later that year. Their youngest child, Patricia Mercedes, was born in Seville on 17 June 1900. The family remained in Spain for three years, returning to Australia on the RMS Victoria, 8th December 1903.
Throughout the three-year hiatus, Antonio made trips back to Australia. In early May of 1903, he bought a large amount of land at Milson’s Point in Sydney.11 He set up house at Hartland in Elmie Street, Auburn, Melbourne.12 A grand, two-story Victorian mansion, Antonio rented the property from Francis Catford, who lived in a home directly at the back of Hartland . He was a successful publisher who ran the Southern Cross newspaper and had arrived from England all by himself, aged just thirteen years old. He eventually brought his whole family to Australia to settle.
The Argus
Situations Vacant
Tuesday 2 February 1904
General good cook and laundress, personal references; housemaid kept.
Mrs San Miguel, Elmie Street, Auburn.
1903 was also the year Antonio took in another major partner, Mr. T.S. Harrison of T.S. Harrison & Company, Melbourne, and changed the business name to Harrison, San Miguel & Co. He had met Harrison through his partnership with Mauri Bros. & Thomson as both were agents for Hayward-Tyler & Co. who specialised in machinery for aerated waters, winning gold medals in London, Paris, Calcutta, Melbourne and Adelaide. Antonio’s big picture was to expand his business into many different areas, and Harrison, an astute businessman, seemed to be the answer.
Soon Harrison, San Miguel had added ‘Specialties and Requirements for Aerated Water Manufacturers, Bottlers, Confectioners, Machinery and General Merchants and Importers and Bakers’ Supplies’ to their profile, and moved to Little Collins Street. Business was booming and they now had branches throughout the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, a Spanish house and cork factories in Seville, plus agencies in London, Hamburg and New York and their Sydney House of Mauri Bros. & Thomson, at 36 York Street. At the beginning of February 1905, Harrison, San Miguel became a public company. Listed as partners in the firm dated 3 February 1905 were Antonio San Miguel, Ninian Miller Thomson, Edwin Charles Guttridge and Harold Furley Harvey with no mention of Harrison.13
FOOTNOTES
1 Cipriano and Francisca San Miguel’s firstborn daughter, Carmen, was stillborn in 1841. They also christened their second daughter Carmel, who was born two years later. Salvadora Casilda Teresa, born in 1854, and Jose Jaime Benito, born in 1856, both died in infancy.
2 The Franco-Prussion war (19/07/1870-10/05/1871), was a conflict between France and Prussia that signalled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismark (the Prussian chancellor) as part of his plan to create a unified German Empire.
3 Martin Arenas was declared bankrupt in Sydney in 1894. He was married with three children, although the youngest, Arthur, died aged two in 1892. In September of 1902 the family moved to Melbourne and in 1908 Arenas became the licensee of the Kennedy’s Family Hotel in Elizabeth Street, remembered as a ‘gloomy hotel’. It is highly likely Antonio would have financially helped Martin out. On April 4 1892, a John Powell was arrested for larceny of some dress clothes belonging to James Gray and W. Nicholson, taken from The Sydney Coffee Palace in 1891. The accused stated the clothing had been given to him by Charles Marlett and Martin Arenas at the Coffee Palace. The clothing answered the description given by the Sydney police and John Powell was remanded in Sydney. The Sydney Coffee Palace Hotel at 393 George Street, Sydney has gone; however, next to the current building is Temperance Lane. Number 395 is still the original building and is now a clothing store.
4 James Albon Jr. returned to England around 1878, and in 1880 married Sarah Ann Mead. They had four children — James, Jessie, Stanley and Olive — and immigrated to Australia, arriving on board the Orotavia on 19 July 1890.
5 Jane (Jenny) Albon married John Moss, a widower, in 1878. She was twenty-three years old and he was sixty. Her baby son, John Albon Moss was born in 1879. In 1880, she died aged twenty-five, cause of death unknown; however, it’s possible she may have died during childbirth and lost the baby. Her son was only a year old when she passed away, and her husband married for the third time not long after her death. His new wife, Charlotte, raised the baby boy. John Albon Moss died in 1918 at thirty-nine — it is possible he died in World War I.
6 Uncle Tom was Rebecca Albon’s brother, and he owned a boot shop. Martha was Tom’s wife.
7 Jenny refers to her sister-in-law Jenny Moss and her father-in-law, Mr Moss.
8 On 24 February 1982, Burns Philp and Company Limited bought Mauri Brothers and Thomson. Burns Philp was delisted in 2006 with its business assets acquired by a number of companies. It remains in the private ownership of a New Zealander.
9 1 Victoria Street, Mont Albert, became 3 Beatty Street in 1917. The original house still stands.
10 Antonio and Birdie were both generous in their donations to charity. Harrison, San Miguel Pty Ltd also made regular monetary gifts. Birdie worked for a number of charitable organizations.
11 Milson’s Point, the land that Antonio San Miguel owned was sold to the NSW Government when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was being constructed in the 1920s. Birdie received a large amount of money from the sale.
12 In early July of 2012, I went searching for Hartland, as Elmie Street is within walking distance from my home. I had no idea of the number or house. After walking up and down the street hoping to find the name, I noticed a woman weeding in her front garden. I told her my story and she said that although her home was the right period it was not the one. She took me to another house and that too was another name. Just as I’d given up hope she suggested we try a house across the road. She knew the owner, Ann Simpson and her husband, and when Ann opened the door she introduced me. I briefly told her my story, and said, ‘I am looking for Hartland.’ Ann grabbed my hand, and replied, ‘Welcome to Hartland, come inside!’ It was an overwhelming experience walking through the magnificent home my family had dwelled in all those years ago. I also learnt the
