James Rutherford

James Rutherford (24 October 1827 – 13 September 1911) was a transport pioneer in Australia. Early life Rutherford was born in Amherst, Erie County, New York, U.S.A., second son of James Rutherford and his wife Hetty, née Milligan. Rutherford became a school-teacher and around 1852 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. Career in Australia Rutherford arrived at Melbourne on the Akbar on 20 June 1853 and worked on the Bendigo goldfields for a short time before becoming a contractor timber-cutter near Ferntree Gully, Victoria. Rutherford then sailed to Brisbane and travelled overland back to Melbourne and on the way learnt a great deal about the country, and much about its horses, in which he traded for some years. The coaching business of Cobb and Co., which had been founded by some visitors from America a few years before, was in 1857 in the hands of Cyrus Hewitt and George Watson, who employed Rutherford to manage the Beechworth line. In 1861 Rutherford formed a syndicate (including Walter Russell Hall) and bought out Hewitt and Watson for the sum of £23,000.