Axed appendage: Next to the hall is the old school where stories abound that in the early 1900s, a boy was flogged for being late after falling from a horse. But that pales into insignificance when compared to the ordeal of poor Tom Daniel who accidentally chopped off his big toe with an axe. The Queanbeyan Age of April 18, 1878 splashed the story over its front page with all the gory detail: “…the implement struck an over-hanging branch which broke the force of the blow intended for a particular limb, and diverted the blade, so that it fell with full force upon the unfortunate young man’s left foot, cutting through the boot and completely severing the great toe. He bore the accident with fortitude and, failing to obtain a buggy, rode the whole distance (over 20 miles) into Queanbeyan the same evening, faint with loss of blood and much exhausted. Dr Richardson dressed the wound, and we are glad to say the young man is now doing well”. A 2015 edition of the local newsletter, The Hoskinstown Ewes, asserts: “These days someone would pick up the toe, put it on ice and run him into emergency in a 4WD. A clever surgeon might even reconnect it. They made ’em tough in 1872.” They certainly did.
