Biography

The deceased left what was known as 'the Patch' (situated approximately 4.8 kms west of the old Duketon townsite and probably the largest dryblowing patch in the area) on the Saturday to proceed to the Mulga Queen, about 16 miles distant, for the purpose of removing a portion of a camp to the locality in which he was living. Under ordinary circumstances, he should have returned on the Sunday but the anxiety of his friends did not become aroused until the Tuesday, when it was decided to try and discover what had happened to him. A female native got on the tracks of the horse and cart he had left in, which had not followed the beaten road but had followed a haphazard course for some miles and was eventually found stationed between two mulga trees with the dead body of the old prospector lying in the cart with the reins still in his hand. Apparently the horse had wandered off the road and jammed one of the wheels of the cart in a there and remained there until discovered on 1 May. He had probably died of heart disease as he had been complaining of heart trouble. John William was born in Clunes, Victoria, the second child of a family of seven. His siblings were: James Wilson (Birth Registration 3183/1859, Clunes, Death Registration 11628/1860); Dinah Ann (Birth Registration 18484/1862, Amherst); Joseph (Birth Registration 101/1865 Amherst); Catherine (Birth Registration 18966/1866, Amherst); Emma (Birth Registration 15100/1868, Clunes); Charles Dixon (Birth Registration 1447/1871, Clunes). Charles also lived at Duketon. He and John William found the mine they called "Golden Spinifex". The whole of the population of the district (seventeen people) paid their last respects to the deceased at the funeral in Duketon, which was named after his brother Charles on 4 January 1900.