36 Facts About Ebenezer Ward

Ebenezer Ward was an Australian politician and journalist.

Ebenezer Ward was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1870 to 1880, and from 1881 to 1890, representing Gumeracha, Burra and Frome.

Ebenezer Ward was Minister for Agriculture and Education under James Boucaut from 1875 to 1876, and under John Colton from 1876 to 1877.

Ebenezer Ward subsequently established a series of regional newspapers: Southern Argus in Port Elliot, the City and Country, the Northern Argus in Clare, a newspaper at Gumeracha, and The Farmers' Messenger.

Ebenezer Ward was born the eldest son of the Rev Joseph Ward, a member of an old English family, at Russalls, Mersey Island, Essex.

Ebenezer Ward was educated at Dumpton Hall, a school established for the sons of Baptist ministers, near Ramsgate, Kent.

Ebenezer Ward found work as a copy boy at a large printing office in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Ebenezer Ward was promoted to reader, then reviser, and eventually a member of their reporting staff in the gallery of the House of Commons and became proficient in shorthand.

Ebenezer Ward won the confidence of his employers, and at age eighteen he was working with the proprietor's son, Algernon Borthwick, with whom he maintained a long correspondence.

Ebenezer Ward left the Morning Post in 1856, after inheriting some money, and returned to Essex for three years, living the life of a country squire.

In 1859, Ebenezer Ward migrated to Australia in the clipper The British Trident,.

Ebenezer Ward then worked on a Government contract collecting agricultural statistics in the Victorian interior.

Ebenezer Ward's articles were reprinted in pamphlet form, and 2000 copies were purchased by the Government for free distribution at the Great Exhibition in London in 1862.

Ebenezer Ward returned to Victoria the next year to write a series of articles for The Age.

Two years later, Ebenezer Ward joined Frederick Sinnett's Telegraph as associate editor.

Finniss's party sailed in April 1864, but broke up in a flurry of jealousies, vindictiveness and personal recriminations and Ebenezer Ward was one of those who returned to Adelaide in January 1865 after being dismissed by Finniss for insubordination.

Ebenezer Ward rejoined the Telegraph as editor, but was given the ultimatum of either discontinuing his Hansard work or leaving the Telegraph.

Ebenezer Ward chose the latter, and continued with Hansard until 1868.

Ebenezer Ward founded several more newspapers during the next ten years, some of them being: the City and Country, the Northern Argus in Clare and he once had a paper at Gumeracha.

Ebenezer Ward owned The Farmers' Messenger, which according to reports either failed to attract a readership or was very popular with farmers.

Ebenezer Ward quickly made his mark as an eloquent speaker and succeeded in pushing a number of important matters, including the opening up of railway communication with Victoria.

Ebenezer Ward was the first Minister of Agriculture in South Australia, if not in Australia, and Minister of Education under two Premiers.

Ebenezer Ward lost this seat in 1900, after the Labor vote was bolstered by workers in the newly established smelter at Port Pirie.

Ebenezer Ward established experimental farms at Mannahill and Mount Muirhead near Millicent.

Ebenezer Ward helped delay adoption the Federal Adopting Bill; he was not opposed to Federation, merely the weak model which was finally arrived at.

Ebenezer Ward was an enthusiastic advocate of railways, and was one of the prime movers in establishing railway communication with Melbourne.

Ebenezer Ward helped get the railway to Mount Gambier built, and the only one he ever opposed was that to Port Broughton.

Ebenezer Ward was a proponent of a transcontinental railway line to Perth, and was noted for a four-hour speech advocating this and other major national works as well as free trade between the states of Australia.

Ebenezer Ward was active in amateur theatricals in his younger days.

Ebenezer Ward was persuaded to take, under the pseudonym Edward Ewart, the part of Rosencrantz.

Ebenezer Ward was a strong advocate for the Jubilee Exhibition of 1887.

Ebenezer Ward owned a farm at Parawurlie, Yorke Peninsula, which was characterised by Edwin Derrington's Port Adelaide News as both a speculation with Mr Fuller and a mansion, a den of luxury and licentiousness.

Ebenezer Ward had a series of disputes with the Commissioner of Taxes, in which despite his belligerent rhetoric, he invariably came out the loser.

In 1889 Mr Ebenezer Ward was permitted "by the gracious permission of her Majesty the Queen" to retain the title of "The Honourable" for life.

In 1911 Ebenezer Ward moved to Perth, becoming as well known a personality there as in Adelaide.

Ebenezer Ward wrote articles for the Western Australian press and one of his treasured possessions was a railway pass given to him so that he might travel for the purpose of writing about the country, particularly its pastoral and agricultural industries.