Talk:Penfield, South Australia

Smidt's Hotel
"Smidt's Hotel" is annotated in a parenthetical comment as "(possibly the Engine and Driver in what is now Gawler South, licensed by J.F. Schmidt around that time[7])" based on a reference in a wiki (cited there to a book) that J.F.Schmidt was licence holder of that hotel for part of 1860. Schmidt may have been licensee for a number of hotels over time as there was a reference in 1850 to Schmidt's Hotel in Gawlertown too.

Given that the Gawler railway line and station opened in 1957, Gawler South seems to be rather far north to be described in the article as "near Salisbury". Another newspaper story from 1855 refers to "... at Schmidt's Hotel, Salisbury..." There also appear to have been "Schmidt's hotel"s in Port Adelaide and Rundle or Hindley Street around that time.

Further checks: In 1850, James Ferdinand Schmidt took up the licene of the Old Spot Hotel in Gawler, but that seems even less likely to be "near Salisbury". He took up the license for the Exchange Hotel in Hindley Street in 1853. A gap I haven't considered, but then Schmidt gave up the license of the Golden Fleece in Currie Street in September 1859 (a couple of months before the mystery meeting). March 1859 contains a long list of license renewals. Two are in Peachey Belt: Thomas Gilbertson, Waterloo Inn, Peachey Belt and Charles Henderson, New Wheatsheaf Inn, Peachey Belt. I have not connected Schmidt to either of these hotels either. --Scott Davis Talk 05:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks for doing all of that research (and what a shame still not any certainty!). Please go ahead and remove my comment - I only arrived on this page via multiple diversions and thought I'd try to cover that little detail, but wasn't really happy with it myself and should probably have left it out. Hopefully your discoveries may be useful elsewhere. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:22, 25 July 2019 (UTC)