In
1896, John and Salome travelled to Freestone Creek, Warwick, Queensland,
to attend the wedding of their son Henry Thomas to Emily Smith, daughter
of Henry Smith and his wife Elizabeth, of Freestone. The Smith family
had also emigrated from Somerset in 1858 and had settled immediately in
Queensland. Emily was their ninth child and had been born at Freestone.
This photo was taken at that wedding and is taken from a larger group photo,
showing many members of the Eastment and Smith families.
In about 1908, John and Salome decided to retire.
They purchased land at 16 Elliott Road, South Lismore, close to the Wilson
River, and transported a cottage from their farm at Wyrallah to the land
in Lismore, by bullock dray. The house still stands at 16 Elliott
Road, and has not been altered very much, except to raise it above the
level of most floods.
In 1912, John and Salome Eastment paid a visit to their son Henry Thomas and his family, where they lived at Sladevale, just outside Warwick in Queensland. Their granddaughter, Elsie Taylor (nee Eastment, daughter of Henry Thomas), who was four at that time, remembered Salome as a "little old lady in a black bonnet". Her older brother Eric, who was eleven, remembered her as a "cranky old bugger" who "gave me the rounds of the kitchen", but admitted that he probably deserved it.
In 1915, at the age of 77, John Eastment was one of 166 registered owners of motor vehicles in the Northern Rivers district.His granddaughter, Elsie lived in Lismore at this time, and remembered him learning to drive. She loved to tell the story of how he drove his new car into the garage, shouting "Whoa! Whoa!" to it. Of course, the car went straight through the back of the garage and into the back yard. Undaunted, John built doors for the back of the garage as well as the front and continued to drive, becoming a competent driver despite his age. Of course, with only 166 cars on the road in the district, traffic wasn't a problem, and licence testing also wasn't an issue at that time!
On 25th January, 1921, Salome died, at the age of 77. She was buried in the Methodist portion of the East Lismore Cemetery. On 27th March, 1921, a memorial service was held at the Methodist Church at Wyrallah in her honour. The church was draped in black and purple and many beautiful wreaths were placed in the Church.
After Salome's death, John's daughter, Florence Emily, ran the house at 16 Elliott Road as a boarding house and took care of John and also took on the raising of her niece Elsie. Elsie described the John she knew during this time as a "gentle old man", who would say, "Sizzle-a-bob (sic) here you are girl, here's two bob, don't tell your Auntie Flo I gave you two bob". and give her two bob (two shillings, or twenty cents) to spend. "He was a dear old man, I loved grandfather". At this time, he was well over eighty years old.
John died 2 August, 1926, at Warrawee Hospital, Lismore, of senile decay. He was buried with his wife, Salome, at East Lismore Cemetery. Their daughter Florence and sons Charles Richard and Henry Thomas are also buried at the East Lismore Cemetery and their oldest daughter Ann, is buried at the North Lismore Cemetery.
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