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[Page 14]
First recollections
of
Coonabarabran
was as follows
One Hotel a very rough building owned by
James Westen he was a married man
with two children a boy & girl. As well as
being an Hotel keeper he owned a good
lot of stock mostly cattle & horses.
HIs head stockman was his nephew
Isaac Highland. Mr J Westen retired for two
years & went to Maitland his son then
being blind & his daughter then married
a man by the name of (Swanson) who was
a stock keeper at Yarragan a place 9 or 10 miles
from C.Bran. During Mr Westen's absents
a Mr Sam Highland had charge of the hotel.
Westen then returned & sold the Hotel to a
Mr Alfred Croxon Westen then returned to
Maitland & .settled there. Mr Croxon kept this
business for some time this was some time
in the sixtys (60) Croxon then sold his
business to two brothers John and Wiliam
Kerr (Scoth people they were) Mr Croxon lived
privately quite near on the river & had a good
lot of stock sheep cattle & horses. He Mr Croxon
lived here until his death his wife then died
about two years following they had a very large
family 9 sons & one daughter one child a boy
died & all the other members of the family
are still living as far as I know there are
a good many of the sons in this & the adjoin-
ing districts at present. During Kerr's time
which was about 62 or 63 as near as I can
recollect. The land was then taken up in
blocks. The Kerrs were both single men one
was a carrier or in other words a teamster
William Kerr & his cousin John Mc Cubbin were the
carriers