Hare, Charles Simeon

Biography

See biography at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hare-charles-simeon-3717 

Little is known of the early life and career of Charles Simeon Hare (1808 – 1882). He was born in America in 1808 and emigrated to England sometime before 1836. In London on 10 March 1836 he offered his services as personal secretary to John Morphett for a period of two years. Morphett accepted and both men sailed for South Australia in 1836 (Morphett in March on the Cygnet and Hare in April on the Emma). A series of correspondence with George Fife Angas throughout the voyage of the Emma suggests that Hare cared for the South Australian Company’s livestock on board. This, coupled with the fact that correspondence over Hare’s appointment to Morphett was found in the Angas papers in the archival holdings of the State Library of South Australia, suggests that perhaps a further arrangement had been made between Hare and the South Australian Company prior to the Emma’s sailing in April 1836. Indeed, Hare took up formal employment with the South Australian Company on Kangaroo Island in September 1836. Hare was 28 on arrival in South Australia and went on to become an important early colonist best known for an eccentric and rugged character which was said to have obscured his ‘warm and generous heart’. 

Real Life Stories Of South Australia

CHARLES SIMEON HARE 

Pioneer Who Played Many Parts

A pioneer who played many parts was Charles Simeon Hare. Though a quaint and (somewhat eccentric character, he was, nevertheless, a man who possessed many stirling qualities. He and his wife came to South Australia before it was proclaimed a colony. They arrived by the Emma, which dropped anchor at Kangaroo Island, October 5, 1836. For a time, Charles Simeon Hare served the South Australian Company. He then resigned and started a contracting business at Port Adelaide. In the new council of 1851 he was chosen to represent the district of West Torrens. He cast his vote against, and was greatly opposed to, State aid to religion, which, at that time, was a subject causing great controversy. 

He was a close friend of John Stephens, and was his staunch supporter when one trouble after another overtook him. When the first Parliament was formed, in 1857, Charles Simeon Hare had a seat in the House of Assembly: being elected as representative for the district of Yatala. He was appointed Manager of Railways, and, in this capacity, had an experience which might easily have ended much more tragically, and which brought an abrupt termination to his managership. Sir Dominick Daly (at that time Governor of South Australia) and several members of the Ministry, with a number of distinguished visitors, wished to travel by express train to Port Adelaide, to visit the H.M.S. Falcon. The railway system was then in its infancy. Charles Simeon Hare had charge of the train, and gave orders to the engine driver to "put on full steam". The engine driver obeyed, with the result that the rails were displaced and two carriages thrown off the line. Fortunately the coupling chain between the engine and carriages broke. Little damage was done and no injuries resulted. However, the viceregal party were upset by their experience, and an enquiry was held. This resulted in the services of Charles Simeon Hare being dispensed with. 

He went to Fiji for a time, after which he returned to South Australia, and was again elected to Parliament. The remainder of his life was chiefly taken up by Parliamentary duties. A number of humorous stories could be told of incidents in which this quaint politician figured. Few men knew how to sway a crowd better than he. On one occasion he was addressing a large gathering of miners in an effort to secure their suffrages. Noticing a scaffolding and ladder nearby, he ran up the ladder and, standing on the scaffolding exclaimed, "I always like to speak as working man to working men!" From his elevated position he then delivered his speech, which be punctuated by puffing away at a cigar. This pioneer passed out at the age of 74, on July 22, 1882. — A.H.B., Halton Gardens.

See an account of his journey on the Emma taken from a letter written to George Fife Angas in London, and dated 28 November 1836, at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island.

Mr. Charles Simeon Hare is favoring the electors of Wallaroo with his American experiences. An old colonist once thought he would calculate how long Mr. Hare must have been in the United States according to his own accounts of the periods he had spent at different places, adding up so many years in Boston, so many in New York, so many in Washing ton ?, and so long in each of a host of other places, and found that altogether the veracious Simeon was 120 years in America — we cannot say the United States, as that period would carry us back a generation or two before the skirmish of Lexington, and the more serious affair of Bunker's Hill. Mr. Hare has been here ever since 1836, or nearly 40 years, and, as he does not profess to be a native of America, we may suppose he did not go there before he was 20, so that altogether his present age cannot be less than 180 ; and a very halo, hearty man he is, considering the length of his pilgrimage in this world of toil and trouble. It is not, perhaps, an improbable assumption that he is in some way related to Washington's nurse, who was exhibited about the country when she had attained the mature age of eight score years.

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Reported to have attended the banquet given by Mr. E. Solomon at Adelaide Town Hall on December 28, 1871, for all colonists who arrived before 1841.

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Mr Charles Hare is, we hear, intrusted with the charge of these pioneers [at Mount Remarkable, prospecting for minerals]. From the position Mr Hare has sustained during his long sojourn here, being one of the first of the South Australian Company's officers in charge of the first settlers at Kangaroo Island, and from his active businesslike habits, we are satisfied the Company could not amend their choice of a Manager. This splendid mineral property and valuable adjunct to South Australian wealth is situate about twelve miles due east of "Port Pirie," lately discovered by Captain Elder and others. 

The Register. 8/7/37 ... The late Mr. John Anthony, of Port Adelaide, had his eyes badly hurt on Kangaroo Island by the explosion of a flask of gunpowder. There was then no doctor on the island, and so the late C. S. Hare sharpened a knife and successfully operated on Mr. Anthony's eyes, but his eyelids were always thereafter apparently inflamed, but did not seem to be sore or to impair his sight. 

Obituary

THE LATE MR. C. S. HARE.

He announcement in our obituary column of the death of Mr. Charles Simeon Hare will probably take few people by surprise, for the deceased gentleman had reached good old age, and had been ailing for the last two or three years. For weeks past— indeed, almost ever since his return from England in April last— he has been under medical treatment for disease of the kidneys. Last Thursday, whilst out walking, he, prompted by his exuberant spirits, which never seemed to fail him, took a smart run, which severely affected his heart. He got home with difficulty, and was confined to his bed from that time till Saturday, when he appeared to be much better, and got up. In the evening, however, while sitting with a friend in his own room, he was seized with a sudden faintness, from which he never rallied. He died half an hour after the seizure. 

Mr. Hare had reached the age of 74 years, though many people considered him much older, as his travels were so extensive, his experiences so far-reaching, the recitals of them with which he was wont to entertain his friends so amusing on account of his faulty memory in respect to dates, that many had got seriously to regard the worthy gentleman as exceedingly patriarchal, if not a near connection of the Wandering Jew. 

Till within the last two or three years Mr. Hare's figure was a familiar one in our streets ; and his strongly marked features and his well-known personal peculiarities gave him a prominent place in public attention wherever he went. Though he was eccentric, and though, in the many great questions which have been before the colony since its establishment, and most of which he associated himself with, he spared no antagonist in the conflict of opinion, yet on the other hand he never shrank from championing a cause with which he felt in sympathy because it was weak ; and beneath a certain ruggedness of exterior he had a warm and generous heart which seldom failed to respond to the petition of any unfortunate who needed substantial help. He was always foremost in charitable movements, and was the originator in this colony of the last Indian Relief Fund. The history of the deceased gentleman is so bound up with that of the colony that it is impossible to give here more than the slightest outlines of it. He came to our shores, indeed, when the colony had not yet been proclaimed as such. Of his early life little is known, except that he was born in America, where he remained constantly shifting about, and even then, it would seem, taking some part in public matters. For, as he was wont to say, he " was one of the most fluent public speakers in America save one." And in his prime he certainly had a happy knack of attracting and keeping the attention of his audiences. He arrived in South Australia about the month of September, 1830, being then twenty-eight years of age, acting as secretary to Sir John Morphett, who came with him. In a very short time after his arrival he left Sir John's employ, and entered that of the South Australian Company. 

The "old identities"— of whom, alas ! so few are left— will remember that when the preliminaries for the settlement of the colony were being arranged, it was imagined there would not be found on the mainland any harbour suitable for the discharge of vessels, and that all foods would have to be lightered from Kangaroo Island. Under this impression the South Australian Company established a settlement on the island, first forming a township, which they called Kingscote, after one of their Directors. It was in a responsible official capacity in connection with this settlement that Mr. Hare served the Company. 

When it was found by Colonel Light that there was good holding ground at Holdfast Bay (from whence it derived its name), and the Port Creek discovered, the Company abandoned the island and constructed the Maclaren Wharf. In consequence of this alteration in their plans Mr. Hare's services were dispensed with. 

Afterwards he settled in Port Adelaide, carrying on business as a contractor, amongst other work undertaking the driving of the piles for the Queen's Wharf. Amongst a score of other " smatterings" he had obtained some how a slight knowledge of medicine, and he turned it to account at the Port by good naturedly physicking whomsoever asked for the privilege of being treated, and his grateful patients rewarded him by prefixing 'Doctor' to his name, and the title stuck to him for years. From contracting he seems to have gone into farming, though it is not clear when his connection with the one occupation ceased, and that with the other began. At any rate he was a good deal about town, and took a prominent part in the discussion of the various " burning questions" which agitated the City's Fathers in those comparatively far - away times. 

He was one of the strongest opponents to State aid to religion ; and in August, 1849, he delivered a stirring address at a public meeting held to consider the question. Years later, also, in Parliament he opposed the Bill which was brought in having reference to the subject. He was a sturdy supporter of Mr. John Stephens; the then proprietor of the Register, in the strong opposition which that gentleman had to contend with on account of his taking the side of the men who struck work at the Burra Mine. When Mr. Stephens was beset with libel actions, and when public meetings were held to consider his position, Mr. Hare was one of his foremost helpers. 

In 1851 he was to the fore again in his opposition to the transportation proposals ; and in July of the same year, he was elected for West Torrens as a member of to Legislative Council under the old system of voting. His opponent was the late Mr. Abraham Hopkins Davis, and the voting place was Unley. Some peculiar circumstances in connection with that election will no doubt occur to old colonists. It was declared, they will remember, that, both candidates having tied, Mr. Hare gave in his own behalf a vote, which secured the election for him. The Register contained at the time the following reference to the election, in which one of the deceased gentleman's peculiarities is hit off :— 

"When the poll closed, the friends of Mr. Hare claimed the field as indubitably won, and insisted upon bearing that gentleman upon their shoulders to the hustings. Arrived there, he paused to assure himself of the reality of his success, and, being only partially convinced, each of his pithy and laconic sentences was begun with the conjunction described by a learned lexicographer as a " hypothetical particle," and the result showed that his caution was not uncalled for." 

In the official declaration of the poll Mr. Hare was credited with two votes ahead of his opponent. He resigned his seat in June, 1854, and was succeeded by the late Hon. T. Reynolds. In January, 1855, he was appointed with Mr. A. H. Fielding, R.E., and Mr. Charles Bonney, a Commissioner for "carrying into execution the wish of the Parliament as expressed in the Adelaide and Gawler Town Railway Bill. 

In March, 1857, he was elected for Yatala, He did not keep his seat long, however, for in May of the same year he accepted an appointment which the Government of the day— in whose flesh he was somewhat of a thorn— offered him as Superintendent of the Stockade, and of course had to resign his seat in the House. In about two years he gave up this new position also ; and in July of 1860 he obtained the position, in succession to Mr. Peake, of Manager of Railways. 

In connection with his duties in that capacity he performed a feat which he was wont to make merry over of late years, his joke being that though he never held office in a Ministry he upset a Ministry and a Governor on top of them ! It was on April 13, 1865. His Excellency Sir Dominick Daly, the Chief Secretary (Sir Henry Ayers), and several other Ministers forming part of a select party were being conveyed by an express train from Adelaide on a visit to H.M.S. sloop of war Falcon. Mr. Hare was in charge of the train, and he gave instructions to the engine-driver to put the engine at top-speed. The result was that two of the carriages were overturned, though the passengers escaped uninjured; on account of the chain connecting the engine with the train having broken at the instant of the overturning of the carriages. A Commission of Enquiry appointed to consider the cause of the accident found, after a seven days' sitting, that Mr. Hare was primarily to blame, and they recommended that his services should be dispensed with. The recommendation was adopted, and on May 8, 1805, he was removed from office with compensation. 

From that time he was lost to South Australia for some years. In the interval he was occupied mostly in the Fiji Islands. He started a plantation there, and those who attended the meeting he addressed in the Wallaroo electorate in 1875 will recall the humorous yet doleful description he gave of his reverses there; how loss followed loss; and how he returned to South Australia at last more like "a shirt hung on a hand spike" than an able-bodied man. On his return he entered energetically into mining speculation, and just prior to and after the great Moonta strike in April, 1874, he might have been found living in solitude as manager of a little mine some miles from Moonta Mines. 

Though he was now near to his seventieth year, his restless spirit impelled him to take a prominent part in the controversy which was waged between the miners and the Directors who controlled them. He wrote trenchantly time after time - to the local paper, generally opposing the stand the miners had taken. He was vigorously criticised by the Miners' Union representa tive in answering letters, and even denounced in the "ring" meetings. Notwithstanding this, with characteristic pluck and pertinacity he offered his services to those very miners in the following year as one of their representatives in the Assembly. The reception he met with those who took part in pelting pebbles at the old gentleman at his first meeting at Hall's Shaft are best able to speak about. It is not surprising under the circumstances that he was not successful. 

Nothing daunted, he tried again at the next general election three years later. By that time the good folks of Moonta Mines had forgotten their disputes, and there was no more pebble-throwing. Mr. Hare had a shrewd knowledge of the men he was dealing with, and when at the first of the election meetings he took off his coat, turned down his shirt sleeves, ran lightly up the ladder leading from the ground to the top of the scaffold by the Moonta Mines School — which was then being built— and when fairly at the top began with — " Fellow workmen, speaking as a workman to workmen, I always take my coat off"— he appealed in a way which was irresistible to the susceptibilities of his audience. And he kept up the flow of good spirits by all sorts of antics, not the least of which was a way of marking off his periods by puffing at the cigar stump which one would almost have thought was his inseparable companion. He was elected, and sat till the dissolution of the House in 1880. He did not seek re-election, but took a trip to England for the benefit of his health. He had not long returned when death called him away.