Baxter and Mc Kell

Trading Name	Baxter and McKell
Years of Operation	1910 to 1918
Company Number
Address	Stamford Road Oakleigh
Council Lot No.	21,22 and 23
Coordinates	-37.893254, 145.100083
Current Use	Public open space (Brickmakers Park) & Commercial warehousing

 Baxter and Mc Kell acquired the brick works in Stamford Road from Henry Ethell.  John McKell had previously been the Manager of the South Yarra Brickworks, formerly the Excelsior brickworks  in Chapel Street.

In 1908, Abraham Felix Baxter and John McKell bought the brickworks in Stamford road then owned by Henry Ethell.  It appears that there had been an earlier family involvement, from Abraham (Snr) from around 1903.  At the time, three rectangular downdraught kilns operated there with capacities to accommodate from 40,000 to 60,000 bricks each.  Henry did not enjoy a long retirement because he died at his home in Clyde Street Oakleigh the following year.

Abraham Felix Baxter was born in Prahran, Melbourne on the 22^nd of July 1880 to Abraham and Harriett (nee Booth).  went to Wesley College in Melbourne and began his career with his father in the family firm of Baxter and Saddler.  Between 1901 and 1906, Abraham worked as a Railway Contractor with his brother George in Western Australia before returning to Victoria to join his brother Charles breeding horses near Ballarat.  Abraham Snr bought out Henry Ethell outright in 1908 and Abraham Jnr joined him there in 1910.  His father later made him their Manager.  (George supplied one and a half million railway sleepers to South Africa in 1901.)

On the 17^th of March, 1918, Abraham married Margaret Mary Chapman (1883 to 1968).  They had two sons, James Abraham b 1909, Robert Walker b 1914 and one daughter Thelma Jean b 1919.

The year 1918, continued to be a busy one for Abraham; the Oakleigh Brick Company was sold to the Co-operative Brick Company and Abraham (Jnr) stayed on as Manager.  John McKell continued to manage the South Yarra Brick Company.    See the post for the Oakleigh Brick Company for more information on his later work.  Abraham died at his home in Clyde Street Oakleigh on the 22^nd of October 1945.