Sophia Corrie (1832-1913), farmer, orchardist and writer, was born on 26 November 1832 at Hunter Street, Sydney, daughter of John Wheeler, dealer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Brumby. Sophie's parents had been orchardists at Curl Curl Lagoon where the Wheeler pear was evolved by the budding process.
She attended a dame's school in Phillip Street.
In Sydney on 20 October 1855, Sophia married William Christian McDona, a Dublin-born surgeon. He died of heart and lung disease in 1857, aged 29.
On 25 January 1862 at Surry Hills, Sophia married Charles Pitman Corrie, an ironmonger from the Isle of Wight, and they bore seven children.
Following the death of husband Charles in 1875, Sophia settled at Bargo Brush (Colo Vale), near Mittagong, to give her children healthy fruit, milk, vegetables and fresh air, where a 'slab and bark hut in an uncleared paddock was her first home'. Sophia purchased 40 acres (16 ha) and free selecting some 600 acres (240 ha), she cleared the selected land, helped with the burning off and fencing, and planted and attended to every fruit tree until her children were old enough to help.
For some sixteen years Mrs Corrie was a constant exhibitor and sometimes judge at local country shows, and for ten years at the Sydney Royal Show, where she was a frequent prize-winner. All up she claimed to have won over 700 prizes with 500 firsts—including the local Royal Agricultural Society's 1893 national prize of ten guineas for the best method of utilising surplus fruit and vegetables. She also collected two silver medals for candied dried fruits, pickles and condiments.
Sophia encouraged self-sufficiency in her book The Art of Canning, Bottling and Preserving Fruits, published in Sydney in 1892 and reprinted six times by 1913. Aimed at housewives making their own preserves, it was notable for an emphasis on technique. For preserving fruits she preferred cans to the more popular bottles and claimed that it was the exclusion of air, rather than the presence of sugar, that prevented fermentation. Her book was full of common-sense advice.
In April 1906 Sophia travelled in the Ventura (Miles Franklin was a fellow passenger) to the United States of America, then on to Europe and Britain, visiting friends and relations and attending the opening of parliament in London. On her return to Sydney in 1908, she was the first woman to be appointed to a seat on the council of the New South Wales Chamber of Agriculture.
While attending her sons’ wedding in Brisbane, Sophia caught a chill, and died at Bowen Hills on 27 September 1913. She was buried in the family vault in the Methodist section of Rookwood cemetery, Sydney.
A,B,C = What year was Sophia born? A = First number multiplied by 4. B = Third number. C = Fourth number.
D = About 1875 where did Sophia settle? Number of letters. Deduct 1.
E,F = What day did Sophia die? E = first number add 3. F = second number.
G = F minus 1.
SBA BA.CDE E150 CF.CAG
