James Martin was an industrialist and politician in the early days of the Colony of South Australia.
History
James Martin was born in the hamlet of Foundry, in the parish of Stithians, Cornwall, in straitened circumstances, the seventh child of a woman whose husband had died a few months previously. He had little schooling, and after starting to earn his own money, he enrolled in night classes. He worked at the local factory making steel shovels, as a millwright in Truro's flour mills, and as a fitter in the Tresavean copper mine, where he was involved in the installation of a large mine pump and a prototype of Michael Loam's "man engine", all the time gaining practical engineering knowledge. He served as a maintenance worker at a woollens factory at Ponsanooth, where an older brother was manager. He suffered from asthma, which was exacerbated by Cornwall's climate and the atmosphere of these workplaces, and decided for his health's sake to try his luck in South Australia, and emigrated on La Belle Alliance, arriving in July 1847. He found work at Hindmarsh with John Ridley, erecting a flour mill. Determined to work for himself, he moved to Gawler on 15 June 1848, a fact that was celebrated there exactly 50 years later. Although then a tiny village, Gawler seemed a likely spot for development as a waypoint between Adelaide and the mines of Burra, the farms of the Barossa Valley, the River Murray and the incipient wheatfields of the Lower North. He rented a blacksmith's shop from John Calton and began building bullock drays. He built a lathe, press and workbenches from local timber. With hard work, attention to detail, and by accepting any job, business grew. He started working on a farm of his own, "Trevue", where he developed implements that were manufactured by his "Phoenix Foundry". Martin & Co. became a major employer in the town. He took on Thomas Flett Loutit as a partner. It has been claimed that the first stump-jump plough was made by Martin & Co. Their machinery was successfully exhibited at the various Agricultural Shows. They tried smelting iron from local ore, but the experiment was not a resounding success. The copper mines at Burra presented the next opportunity, and soon the Phoenix Foundry was manufacturing all kinds of engines, pumps, crushing and winding gear. A premium was placed on prompt supply, and the company profited. The next step in the company's evolution was the manufacture of railway engines and rolling stock to meet the colony's burgeoning railway system. Altogether, some 150 locomotives were built; some being sent interstate. By 1898 they had 700 employees. See main article.
Politics
James Martin was a member of the Gawler Council, and its mayor for eight years. He was elected for the seat of Barossa in the House of Assembly in February 1865 with Walter Duffield as a colleague, and retired in 1868. He was elected to the Legislative Council for the North-Eastern district in May 1885 and reelected in April 1894, dying in office. He was a member of the National Defence League.
He married three times: to Christiana Fox on 28 March 1848, to Ann Lock on 6 March 1853, and to Mrs. Charlotte Vickerstaff on 2 August 1858. They lived at "Trevue", Gawler East. Among his children were:
John "Cap'n Jack" Martin married Adelaide Isabel Annie Parr on 27 December 1882, and inherited his father's farming properties. He was later Mayor of Brighton.
