JOSEPH HENEKER
It really must run in the Heneker family. Being there at a time of drama!! As reported in [The Register on Monday 8 May 1916], a dramatic heading reads “Exciting Pair-Horse Bolt”.- Hawker May 5.
I will this story as it was recorded in the newspaper of the time: “Hawker May 5 – Considerable excitement was caused at the Hawker Railway Station yesterday morning just as the south train for Oodnadatta arrived. here appeared a runaway pair of horses attached to a buggy approaching on the roadway inside the railway fence with a woman seated in the vehicle. some of the by-standers made an attempt to stop the runaway horses as they were passing the railway goods shed, but were unsuccessful, because the reins were dragging on the ground. The horses kept on until they came to the fence at the back of the railway cottages, when they were secured and brought back to the township by Mr. Joseph Heneker. It was explained that Mr. C. Cook was driving the horses and buggy to Hawker and he had with him Mrs. Cook and Mrs. H.W Pumpa. On the steep hill near the racecourse, there being no skid on the buggy, the horses bolted. As they crossed a drain Mr. Cook was thrown from the vehicle. He took the reins with him, but escaped injury. Mrs. Pumpa managed to get out of the buggy without injury, but Mrs. Cook kept to her seat. The runaway horses continued on to Hawker, passed up Eighth street, turned a sharp corner, and went along Railway Terrace. Then they negotiated another sharp corner into the railway roadway”.
Joseph was my great grandfather, born in 1857 and my grandfather Lawrence Douglas Heneker was born in Hawker, South Australia in 1903. My grandfather would have been around at the time. How I wish we had Trove back when my grandpa was alive and I could have talked to him about these adventures! Pa Heneker did talk a lot to us kids, on our many trips up north with dad, (Neville Lawrence Heneker). Memories of us camped out near Arkaroola, on a hot December night, with just an old tarp for a tent, and Pa using a rock for his pillow, Pa would often tell us stories. So many of them I can’t remember now. Of course back then, I didn’t know about these incidents, and I am sure Pa would have been happy to talk about the adventures of his father and his grandfather. James Heneker (my great great grandfather) died in February 1917, so at that time Pa would have been 13 years old. Oh so sad that these memories are gone. And with my own dad passing away quite young in 1987, there is no one left now with those memories. I recently went to Hawker which is about an 7 hour drive from Adelaide, and took a good (outside) look at the place my dad grew up in. I wonder if Pa also grew up in that house as well. Being only built of corrugated iron, and basically one long building partially divided by walls, it would have been a very hot uncomfortable place to live especially. The Hawker Railway Station mentioned in the story is only a short walking distance and within view of the house.
Heneker - a Pioneering family from Kent to South Australia 
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