Through thick and thin

The early Salvationists in Taree were definitely made of good mettle! Despite weeks of rain during the winter of 1891, they continued to trudge on. A War Cry report in 1891 states that despite the rain and the mud we are still marching on, and have had some good meetings, both at Taree and the outposts. We have also had some lively experiences while out visits, bareback riding especially gave us cause to remember it, and on another occasion while we were crossing a creek on a log, the captain had the misfortune to make a slip and fall in, and then had to do the meeting at night in his wet clothes!

In fact, travelling by horse and buggy in those days was sometimes downright dangerous. In the six-year period between 1892 and 1898 more than three accidents were reported by Taree Salvation Army officers – a collision with another sulky, an accident in 1895 in 1898 Captain Barnes was thrown from his sulky while travelling to Wingham and had a tooth knocked out! In 1914, Sergeant-Major William Hopper was thrown from his horse while at the Hannam Vale outpost and suffered serious injuries. But these incidents didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the early Salvos, with Taree Salvation Army experiencing steady growth in the late 1800s and early 1900s.