DESCENDANTS of one of the city’s pioneers James Torpy gathered in Orange over the last few days to trace the history of the man who was a successful businessman and one of the city’s founding fathers.
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James Torpy and his wife Isabella had eight children - four girls and four boys, and the descendants were keen to visit the former residences of their forebear and glean as much as possible from Orange and District Historical Society.
Yesterday the group met with the historical society and were shown historical information relating to the city’s former mayor who later went on to represent in the Legislative Assembly.
“I am absolutely blown away by the level of interest and passion people have for the city’s past here in Orange,” said Peta Torpy-Gould .
“The historical society has been able to provide us with just so much - almost information overload, and we were all tremendously impressed by their help,” she said.
Historical society members Phil Stevenson, Elisabeth Edwards and Ross Maroney had historic information on Mr Torpy waiting for the group when they arrived at the society’s Heritage Centre in March Street.
Immediately Mrs Torpy-Gould spotted a photograph on the wall of her ancestor James Torpy.
“I could see him straight away - he is unmistakeable from the photos we already have,” she said.
After meeting with the historical society the descendants, who travelled from Canberra, Albury, Sydney, Dubbo and the United States visited the historic residence occupied by the Torpy family in Prince Street.
They also visited Knocklong owned by Sue and Frank Johnson in Hill Street, which was also owned by the Torpy family and originally built by James Dalton.
“We haven’t been able to find out which house was occupied first, although with eight children they would have needed quite a deal of space,” Mrs Torpy-Gould said.
“Perhaps they downsized when some of the children left home.”
During their visit the descendents visited the Orange cemetery to pay their respects at his graveside.
Descendent Dr Bob Oaks visiting from the United States remembers when his parents visited Orange in October 1979 after his mother had formed a pen pal association with the late Berna Hansen through the Orange Orange California/Orange Sister City program.
That visit to Orange he says afforded his parents the opportunity to inquire about more about Torpy and cement the pen pal friendship.
Who was James Torpy?
JAMES Torpy was first elected to Orange’s town council in 1878 and served as the mayor in 1879 and 1880.
He married Isabella Walwyn in 1862 in Goulburn, before moving from Forbes to Orange where, by 1867, he was the licensee of the Commercial Hotel and later the Wellington Inn (now the Royal Hotel).
In 1876 he retired from the hotel business and after returning from a visit to his native country of Ireland, he became a wine and spirits merchant in Orange.
After coming to Australia he was a successful miner at Turon and was a hotel-keeper at Lambing Flat (Young) in 1861 when the anti-Chinese riots broke out.
In 1862 Mr Torpy was supported by Sir Henry Parkes in a bid to be elected to the Legislative Assembly, but he was defeated by Thomas Dalton. He was successful in 1889 and served until 1894.
In 1884 he became a guarantor of the Western Daily Advocate, a forerunner to the Central Western Daily.
In 1890 he opposed federation as unnecessary, but by 1901 favoured Orange as the site for the federal capital.
He was active in the community with the Athenaeum Club, Orange Jockey Club, Central Western Rugby Football Union, Orange Permanent Building Society and Orange Mechanics’ School of Arts.
He wrote for his newspaper until a few days before his death from broncho-pneumonia in Sydney on June 22, 1903. and was survived by his wife and eight children.
janice.harris@fairfaxmedia.com.au