James Rutherford

James Rutherford (24 October 1827 – 13 September 1911) was a transport pioneer in Australia, notably Cobb & Co. His business skills with Cobb & Co. were such it was said the company should have been called Rutherford & Co.

Early life

Rutherford was born in Amherst, Erie County, New York, United States, second son of James Rutherford and his wife Hetty, née Milligan.

First a school-teacher, then he decided to try his luck in the California Gold Rush, where his brother was. Unable to find a ship to take him there, Rutherford instead decided to travel to Australia for the Victorian gold rush. He encouraged the planting of trees in the town, and exercised an open-handed philanthropy. Rutherford also was a strong supporter of the Bathurst Hospital as patron, the School of Arts, and warden and trustee of the town's Anglican Church.

During his long period as governing director of Cobb and Co., he kept in touch with his large station-properties, riding large distances as a young man, and later often travelling in a kind of Cape cart.

Even in his eighties he continued the supervision of his stations, and he died of bronchitis and heart failure

At the time of his death, he was the sole remaining original partner of the Cobb & Co. venture; the estate valued at £128,344 (equivalent to A$12.4M in 2020).

Legacy

Cobb and Co. was a household word in the out-country in the second half of the nineteenth century. Scottish-Australian poet and balladeer Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) and Australian poet Henry Lawson among Australian writers both paid their tribute to "The Lights of Cobb and Co.", and certainly at this time Australia owed much to the untiring energy and management skills of James Rutherford.