Jethro Agnes Coate
Jethro Coate was a new arrival to Woodanilling in 1902. He had emigrated to Queensland from Somerset, England in 1888, and was followed later in 1902 by his fiancée Agnes, and her widowed mother Janet Grover whom had been living at Charters Towers. On her arrival at Albany, Agnes Grover married Coate at the Presbyterian Manse. They boarded the train the same day and at Woodanilling set up house by the bridge on the Robinson Road. The house already prepared by Coate for his bride was a “magnificent structure of bush timber, hessian walls, iron roof and mud floor, with an outside bakery oven”.
During his early years at Woodanilling, Jethro Coate worked in a variety of positions. Some time was spent working for the Cornwalls at the Beaufort and with the local shopkeepers Alfred Keirle and much later P.N. Rogers. Keirle had been his schoolmaster at Taunton in Somerset, years before.
Coate worked for Rogers as the country delivery man, operating mainly in the Cartmeticup and West Woodanilling areas. Having delivered his goods, he would often bring back the settlers’ produce of eggs, butter and skins etc for credit or sale.
Jethro and Agnes Coate and their young family, now numbering three, spent some time developing a block four miles west of Woodanilling. However, by October 1909 they had run out of finance and were forced to sell. The homestead lease of 160 acres was to have been freeholded the following year. Coate had constructed a tin dwelling with a hipped roof. They also had another block of 196 acres adjoining. Following this, the Coate family had a number of shifts from the old hotel to William Gilmour’s house south east of the town, before moving to Boyerine during the Great War to work for Doug Wilson. It was here just one week before Christmas 1916 that their farm house was gutted by fire. All the contents were destroyed except a sewing machine and a mirror. At the time of the fire, Coate was secretary of the Woodanilling Rifle Club and had custody of the rifles and ammunition.
These together with a set of priceless Scottish saddlery loaned for a concert that week by the local school master, Wallace, were all lost in the fire. While arrangements were made for the Coate’s and their three youngest children to be accommodated at Woodanilling, in C Meharry’s mud brick house.
Woodanilling Brickworks
At some stage during their time in Woodanilling, Jethro and Agnes Coate also operated a brick-works business in the 1920’s. It is recorded that they produced the bricks for the construction of the Marracoonda Baptist Church on the Great Southern Highway.
Marracoonda Baptist Church