Martin WILLSON (1855-1917)

MARTIN WILLSON, agriculturist, "Rock Farm," Hog Bay, Kangaroo Island, is the second surviving son of the late Mr. Thomas Willson, formerly a property-holder and storekeeper at Yankalilla, South Australia, where the subject of this memoir was born in 1855. He was educated at the local public school, and at the conclusion of his studies took charge of the grazing department of his father's industry. At the age of ten years he came to Hog Bay with his parents, and assisted in the development of property taken up by the latter, subsequently leasing the estate in conjunction with his brother Thomas. In this connection he pursued a successful career until 1900, when the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Martin Willson came to "Rock Farm," which he has worked on his own account for some thirty years. He devotes the greater part of his time and attention to the sheep-raising and wool-growing industry, and considers the merino class of sheep the most profitable. The land, however, is well suited to purposes of agriculture, and has yielded as high an average as fifty bushels of barley to the acre. The estate, indeed, is an ideal island farm, with a very nice fruit-garden and comfortable homestead, all household requirements in the way of vegetables, etc., being raised on the land.

Mr. Willson is a member of the Dudley District Council, and keenly interests himself in all matters pertaining to the district in which he resides. In 1883 he married Kate, eldest daughter of Mr. Samuel Neave, of England, who died in 1886, leaving him with two children. Mr. Willson married for the second time in 1890, his present wife being Ada, fourth daughter of the late Mr. C. T. Mole, of Yankalilla, by whom he has one son and three daughters.

- Cyclopedia of South Australia 1909, p.1024.