The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931) Tuesday 28 January 189691887

THE LATE MR. ISAAC FRENCH

On Monday, December 30, the very day on
which the foundation of the province was
being celebrated at Glenelg, a pioneer, of
settlement died at Kensington in the person of
Mr Isaac French. With his wife he left
Uley, Gloucestershire, in July, 1837, and,
voyaging in the ship lady Emma He arrived
in Holdfast Bay on December 6 of the
same year. A relative gives these par-
ticulars of Mr. French's 'colonial career: —
His first camp was in a tent on the "banks''of
the Torrens, where the Torrens lake now is.
Thence he went to live on the Fourth Creek,
and started farming and carting timber. Mr.
French, put the first crop in here the same  
year that Governor Hindmarsh left this
colony. He paid £1 per bushel for the seed  
wheat, but did not reap any crop, as he only  
had a brush fence around it, and the South
Australian Company's cattle broke down the
fence and destroyed it all. Mr. French's
house and its contents were burnt, and twice  
his crop was destroyed by bush fires. Mr.  
French claimed to be the first man to
make a plough and chaff cutter in the
colony. From Fourth Creek he went
to Sheaoak Log, and took up one of the first
six sections that were surveyed there, and
started farming. He emigrated to the Vic-
torian diggings in 1552, going up the Murray
with two teams of bullocks, taking flour
cheese, and bacon. He had a very rough trip
in a very wet winter and the Murray was very  
high. The party had to make a road part of
the way, and it took them three months to get
to the diggings. Mr. French did not do any
digging but sold the stores he took over and.
then went to Melbourne to buy more. He
purchased gold with the money and returned
to Adelaide in 1853 by way of the
Coorong and, through the desert. He
and his party met a hand of bush-
rangers, but they were not interfered with.
Mr. French returned to Sheaoak Log and
began farming on a larger scale. When he
and his wife arrived the colony they had
three children —two daughters and one son—
and three were born in the colony, two
sons and one daughter. They retired from
farming about 15 years ago, and four years ago
went to live at Kensington. Here Mrs.
French died last October at the age of 93, her
husband having reached his 95th year at the
time of his decease. The sons are Mr. David
French, of Eudunda -Messrs Henry and
John French, of Willochra; and the daughters
Mrs. E. Probyn and Mrs C. C. Ford, Ken-
sington; and Mrs Lamb, California. There
are 37 grandchildren and 16 great-grand
children.