Agnes and August farmed at Kulgun in the Fassifern district.
Farming was no easy task in those days, with few implements for the cultivation of crops. Scrub had to be felled and burnt before planting corn with a hand held corn planter which was shaped like an iron stick with a funnel at the top. It was used to drop the corn through when it was pushed into the ground.
Eventurally they moved to Coleyville in the Moreton Shire. They earned their living from mixed farming which included the production of dairy cattle, with the milking being done by hand. They also produced pigs, poultry, ducks, geese and guinea fowl. They killed their own meat, made wurst and grew vegetables and orange trees. After working from daylight to dark, long evenings were spent hand shelling corn into a big wash tub by the light of a lantern.
Agnes was a good cook who baked her own bread, buns and cakes for her mostly male household. In hard times, their requiremnts were simple as long as they had supplies of tea and flour to feed the family.
When making slab walls and floors for any building, trees were chopped with an axe, logs were bark stripped and split with a maul and wedges before being trimmed off with an adze. Wood was also cut into shingles for the roofs.
August (jnr) and Henry both married and farmed the fertile land at Coleyville. When Alfred and Emma married, they built a slab hut which still stand today on their farm at Coleyville, alongside the orange, mandarin, peach, grape and passionfruit orchard. Emma, aged 89, still resides on the property. Earnest moved to nearby Warrillview, where he had a lucerne and dairy farm. When he semi-retired he sold the farm, keeping only a few acres on the hill where he and his wife, Alma, lived until his death.
William, the youngest son, joined the army and served in New Guinea in the Second World War.
After August and Agnes died, ownership of their farm passed to William. This farm was eventually sold to Herb, Alfred's oldest son. Herb also served in New Guinea as a stretcher bearer.Both Agnes and August are buried in the Coleyville cemetery. - Taken from the Topp Family History book 1884-1984.