The White Horse Hotel was established by Patrick Trainor (c.1822-1888) in 1853 in what was then known as Nunawading, and later called Box Hill. The Hotel gave its name to Whitehorse Road, and much later (1994) the City of Whitehorse. As I have an interest in place names, I thought we would have a look at the history of the hotel and the Trainor family. It's an eclectic look, I was inspired by the fact that I found the two photos of the hotel at the State Library - it was really the statue of the horse that caught my eye.
White Horse Hotel, Box Hill, c. 1933. Photographer: John Kinmont Moir
State Library of Victoria Image H4841b
Ivan Southall in his book A Tale of Box Hill (1) says that Patrick Trainor arrived in Melbourne in 1852 with his family (2) and in late 1853 Patrick acquired 90 acres of land at Nunawading and built a hotel on the south east corner of what is now Whitehorse Road and Elgar Road (3). The Hotel was originally going to be called the Corduroy but once, while out riding he caught a flash of silver through the trees, and it was a handsome stallion coming down the long hill from Melbourne way and Patrick remembered it in his heart thus called his hotel the White Horse Hotel (4).
The Hotel was a two storey building and Andrew Lemon in his history of Box Hill (5) says it was the only brick building in Nunawading until the 1880s (6). At the time the Parish of Nundawading had a population of 254 (7) but Patrick's hopes of success must have been bouyed by the fact that at the time Whitehorse Road was a contender for the main access route into Gippsland (8).
The area grew and the Nunadwading Road Board was established on August 7, 1857 and in common with other areas the first meetings of the Board were held in a hotel, in this case the White Horse Hotel. Patrick Trainor was an inaugural member of the Road Board and also the treasurer. On September 9, 1858 £600 belonging to the Road Board was stolen from the White Horse Hotel. In spite of advertisements in the newspapers offering a £100 reward for information, it was never recovered. There were of course suspicions that Patrick had taken the money himself. In 1859, Patrick faced the the Insolvent Court (9) and was declared bankrupt and thus ended up losing the White Horse Hotel.
Patrick Trainor offers a reward for information about the robbery of Road Board funds.
The Argus September 14, 1858 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7300972
The Hotel had a series of licensees after that and in 1888, Andrew Lemon says the hotel was extensively remodelled, the second storey was removed and the statute of the white horse added (10). Sadly for the licensee, Mr Graham, who had taken over the Hotel in July 1888 (11) and had undertaken the renovations the hotel burnt to the ground on March 25, 1895. The hotel was rebuilt, and is shown in the photo, below.
White Horse Hotel, Box Hill, c. 1933. Photographer: John Kinmont Moir
State Library of Victoria Image H4841a
State Library of Victoria Image H4841a
On New Years Day in 1921 (12) the hotel and all others in the area, closed its doors as the voters in the Shire of Nunawading had voted in the Local Option Poll for No-License (13). The closed hotels did get compensation, in the case of the White Horse Hotel £700 for the owner and £150 for the licensee (14). The Hotel was demolished in 1933, the Council acquired the horse and the porch from the hotel and they were erected in Whitehorse Road. In the 1980s the monument was removed and the statue of the horse is now located in the Box Hill Town Hall. There is a replica on Whitehorse Road, erected in 1986 (15).
The statue and the porch from the 1895 building
Image - A Tale of Box Hill: Day of the Forest by Ivan Southall ( Box Hill City Council, 1957)
The White Horse Hotel was immortalised in verse by C. J. Dennis - his poem was printed in The Herald in July 1933 (16) - Delicensed in 1921, the old White Horse Hotel, with its familiar carved sign, from 1853 the first changing place for Cobb & Co. coaches on the Lilydale run, is now to be torn down to make way for brick houses.
In olden days the Old White Horse
Stood brave against the sky;
And ne'er a teamster shaped his course
To pass the good Inn by.
Far shone its lights o' winter nights
To beckon weary men;
By the long road where calm life flowed
It loomed a landmark then.
And many a right good yarn was spun
Mid pewter-pots agleam;
And many a friendship here begun
Grew riper as the team
Drew down the road its precious load
Of merchandise or mail,
And faced the ills of long, steep hills
To far-off Lilydale.
The tap-room rang to many a song,
While patient teams stood there;
And talk and laughter loud and long
Held nothing of despair;
For spoke they then, these bearded
men,
Of fortunes shining near —
Spoke with a grand faith in their land,
A faith that laughed at fear.
Gone are the days and gone the ways
Of easy, calm content;
Yet few supposed an epoch closed
The day the old inn went.
Now, past brick houses trim and cold,
The swift cars, speeding by,
Shall see no beacon as of old,
Shall see no brave White Horse stand
Patrick Trainor and his family
We will now have a look at the Trainor family. Mr Southall says that the family arrived, as assisted immigrants, in Victoria in 1852 with three children, including Emma Eugena who was born on the way out, on the Indian Ocean. He says they went out to 'Henty country' where Patrick's sponsor was, worked there for a while, and then Patrick worked his way through the gold fields and then ended up at Nunawading (17). Dr Lemon says that after they left the Hotel the Trainors went to Colac and the Wimmera (18).
I found a funeral notice for Mrs Trainor, who died in December 1854. I cannot find her death in the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriage Indexes so cannot apply for her death certificate , which would have told us her first name.
The funeral notice of Mrs Trainor
The Argus December 18, 1854 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4801928
As Patrick was left with three children, I assumed he would have married again, and he did - on July 28, 1856 at Colac to Ellen Danaher. He was listed on the marriage certificate as a 36 year old hotel keeper of Nunawading and she was a 26 year old servant of Colac. The marriage certificate also says he had two living children and his parents were Hugh Trainor and Susannah Mullhearn and he was born in Monaghan in Ireland.
I was hoping to find the names of his children, so went to the shipping records at the Public Records Office of Victoria and it lists the following arriving on the ship, Emma Eugenia in July 1852 - Patrick, 34 years old and Judith, 35 years old. Also listed are - James 15 years; Mary 14 years; Matthew 7 years; Margaret 3 years; James no age listed; Mary no age listed and an unnamed infant. Apart from the unnamed infant, who I presume is the baby born on the way to Victoria (who may or may not have been called Emma Eugenia after the ship) I do not know the relationship of the others to each other.
I bought Patrick's death certificate hoping that would list the names of the children. He died December 4, 1888 in St Arnaud at the age of 66. His occupation was listed as gatekeeper. The particulars of the first marriage are listed disappointingly as 'first marriage particulars unknown' and his children are listed as Susan 41 years old from his first marriage and then from his second marriage to Ellen - James, 30 years old; John 28; Catherine 25; Ellen 22 and Hugh 19 years of age. I then looked for information on his daughter Susan who was born about 1847 and found what is possibly her death in 1904 - her father is listed as Patrick and her mother as Catherine McKenzie - which doesn't fit with the Judith in the shipping record.
This is what we can confirm - Patrick was born in Monaghan in Ireland to Hugh Trainor and Susannah Mullhearn. We know his first wife died in December 1854, but cannot confirm her name. His marriage certificate confirms they had at least two children and his death certificate confirms one was called Susan. We know that he married Ellen Danaher on July 28, 1856 and they had five children together. We know he died in St Arnaud on December 4, 1888. We also know that he established the White Horse Hotel in 1853 and even though Patrick is long gone and his hotel is also long gone we are reminded of his life and hotel by the naming of Whitehorse Road and the City of Whitehorse.
Trove list - I have created a list of articles connected to the White Horse Inn and Patrick Trainor, you can access it here.
Footnotes
(1) A Tale of Box Hill: Day of the Forest by Ivan Southall (Box Hill City Council, 1957)
(2) Southall, p. 20
(3) Southall, p. 21
(4) Southall, p. 21 & 23
(5) Box Hill by Andrew Lemon (Box Hill City Council & Lothian, 1978)
(6) Lemon, p. 16
(7) Lemon, p. 17
(8) Lemon, p.17
(9) Lemon, p. 26 and various reports in the newspapers, see my Trove list, here.
(10) Lemon, p. 108
(11) The Argus, July 26 1888, see here.
(12) Lemon, p. 148
(13) Lemon, p. 145-148
(14) The Argus, July 1, 1921, see here.
(16) The Herald, July 13, 1933, see here.
(17) Southall, p. 20 & 21
(18) Lemon, p. 26
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