Demise of Mr Robert Kennedy Broughton, from Typhoid

The Gundagai Times and Tumut, Adelong and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser

25 August 1876

It is our painful duty to record the sudden demise of Mr Robert Kennedy Broughton, from typhoid fever. The sad event took place at Gadara, the residence of the deceased, on Monday morning last. Early last week a friend met Mr Broughton, and observing that   he appeared ill enquired as to what ailed him, he replied that he had caught cold and was suffering from ear-ache and face-ache.

On Tuesday Mr Broughton rode into town on business, the two following days he was busily engaged at home, and not until Friday evening did he appear to be seriously ill. Becoming rapidly worse Dr. Lynch and Dr. McKillop were summoned; when the medical gentlemen left him on Sunday evening, no hope was entertained of his recovery. Mr Broughton had been a constant attendant upon his son Archer, who is now convalescent.

The deceased gentleman was one of the early settlers of the Tumut district, and the head of a large family circle; he was pre-eminently a kind husband, an indulgent father, and a faithful friend. In his manner he was mild and unassuming, he loved 'quiet joys ' and was partial to home pleasures, nevertheless he was not wanting in energy and fire, and when injustly assailed could well defend himself. He occasionally devoted his leisure to literary pursuits: an ardent admirer of nature in all her changing aspects, in him the poetic temperament was strongly developed, he was no stranger to those calm moments when the soul

"Walks thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore"

"Of that vast ocean site must sail so soon."

We may add that the great thoughts and fine sayings of the poets of the past generation were intimately present to his recollection, and came out dazzling and delightful in his workings; but his pen has been laid aside. The subject of our notice has now passed "that frontier where the material and ideal worlds join and combine their elements."

On Wednesday afternoon last a long funeral cortege of sorrowing relatives and friends followed the mortal remains of Robert Kennedy Broughton to their last resting place in the Tumut cemetery.