ITEMS found in old sheds can sometimes give clues as to prior ownership. In 1972, Bernie O’Mara purchased a house in Reed Street, Glass House Mountains but soon sold it on. The house had several owners before Bernie’s son, Paul, bought the house. Paul discovered an old shoe last (a shoemaker’s anvil) in the shed.
Several local identities can recall a Mr Clydesdale in Reed Street repairing their shoes when they were younger; with some research it was discovered that David Kennedy Clydesdale was listed in the Electoral Roll of 1949 as living in the Glass House Mountains.
David Kennedy Clydesdale was born in Ayrshire, Scotland around 1878, the son of a shoemaker. In the Scotland Census of 1891, 13-year-old David is recorded living with the family in Ayrshire as an apprentice shoemaker. By 1912 David had married Elizabeth and with two children they sailed for Australia.
He enlisted in the AIF in 1916 and is recorded in Australian Army records as a ‘Sergeant Shoemaker’. He survived World War I and following discharge he appears in the 1919 Electoral Roll as a Beerburrum farmer – assumed a Soldier Settler.
Markings on the shoe last indicate it was made at the iron foundry of Archibald Kenrick in West Bromwich, England, and likely acquired by Clydesdale as an apprentice shoemaker.
To date, no evidence has been found of when he may have moved to Reed Street but if only the shoe last could talk!