by Lyn Collingwood, from Bulletin 7/2025, September
The elevator was still something of a novelty when Joseph Leeds met his death in the Camden Buildings adjacent to the Strand Arcade in the city. An auctioneer and stock and station agent, Leeds had an office near the top of the five-storey building. The caretaker, who doubled as the lift driver, had knocked off work on 14 January 1897 when Leeds arrived from the Homebush sale yards.
His last movements are unclear but Leeds was in the habit of operating the lift himself after pushing back the spring of the door with a knife. Although he had been warned about the practice, he presumably did so on the night in question. People who heard his cry surmised that he had alighted on his floor but stepped back after the lift had continued its ascent. Leeds fell into the void, a distance of more than 19 metres.
The body was taken to the morgue and then to Kerribree, his Glebe house on Hereford Street, where a coroner’s inquest brought a finding of accidental death. A large crowd of mourners including leading captains of industry attended his burial in the Church of England section of Rookwood Cemetery. Leeds left a widow and six young children.
Joseph Leeds was born on 2 December 1850 at Bathurst, the youngest of four sons and three daughters of John Leeds and Rachael Aarons who married at Scotch Kirk, Sydney, on 22 August 1833. John Leeds (who worked as a wheelwright and publican) was from Black Creek in the Hunter Valley where he was assigned government servants. He was declared insolvent in 1842; his assets were a horse, 16 cattle, household furniture, tools and stockpiles of iron and timber. Rachael Leeds was the daughter of Joseph Aarons, an impoverished Sydney dealer in household goods.
For widowed mothers, hotel-keeping provided a living and somewhere to live. After the death of John Leeds at age 51 at Bathurst on 9 May 1854, his widow took over the licence of the town’s Victoria Hotel, and later the Great Western where she offered a billiard room and ‘good stabling’ in addition to accommodation. Rachael died aged 48 on 1 June 1863 at Nanima Wellington, the home of her younger brother. It is likely that Joseph Aarons jnr had a strong influence on his nephews and nieces. A publican and grazier, he was the largest landholder in the district.
Joseph Leeds was still in his teens when he took charge of driving sheep and cattle to markets in Sydney and Melbourne. With William Nathaniel Moulder he set up Moulder & Leeds carriers at Bathurst; established Leeds, Wilkinson & Co. at Dubbo; was in partnership with Horace Melbourne Suttor as Leeds & Suttor, fat stock salesmen; and was principal of Joseph Leeds & Co., stock and station agents. After moving to Sydney, Joseph Leeds maintained his interest in sport. He cycled, played billiards, shot pigeons, followed horse racing and was on the committee of Tattersalls Club. He donated a boat to the Glebe Rowing Club, was its captain from 1889-1891 and was posthumously made a life member.
At Orange in 1877, Joseph Leeds married Phoebe Nelson. Her father Benjamin was twice the town’s mayor and traded with his brother Morris as Nelson Brothers importers, a partnership formed in Tasmania in 1839.
Phoebe and Joseph had three daughters and three sons: Millicent Rachael ‘Millie’ (1878-1951, birth registered at Orange), Minnie Louisa ‘Cissie’ (1879-1951, birth registered at Brewarrina), Harry Joseph (1881-1947, birth registered at Dubbo), Ruby Florence (1885-1961, born at Forest Lodge), Percy Milton (1887-1950, born at Hamilton Lodge Bridge Road Glebe) and Robert Harvey ‘Bob’ (1891-1969, born at Kerribree). The youngest sons served in the First World War. On enlistment, Percy was a station manager in the Western District. After discharge, he became a stock and station agent at Narromine. Robert, educated at Sydney Grammar and the University of Sydney, was a Captain with the Field Ambulance. After discharge, he worked as a medical doctor in Rockhampton.
Following Joseph Leeds’ untimely death, Phoebe remained at Kerribree with her children and a domestic staff including a parlourmaid, cook and laundress. In 1906 the property was put up for auction. The slate-roofed house comprised a wide hall, six bedrooms, library, double drawing room, dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, laundry and man’s room. In the grounds were a conservatory and bush house and the Kerribree Tennis Club fronting Hereford Lane. Phoebe moved to Strathfield. She died aged 79 at Mosman on 29 May 1930 and was buried with her husband at Rookwood.
Sources: Find a Grave website; National Archives of Australia; National Library of Australia Trove website; NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; Solling, Max The Boatshed on Blackwattle Bay; NSW State Archives.
Further Glebe connections: Phoebe Leeds’ father Benjamin Nelson moved to Sydney in 1884, dying at Glenlea in Mary Street ten years later (Bulletin 3/2015). Phoebe’s sister Hannah married Prussian-born Harris Cohen. A high-ranking Mason and President of the Newtown Hebrew Congregation, he died at Noel, 3 Avenue Road in 1913.
Note for family historians: The author has material on Joseph Leeds’ siblings.
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