Source:
Maitland Daily Mercury
Details:
Death of Mrs. Risby. — The epidemic of influenza which has been prevailing throughout the town and district with more or less severity during the past few months is responsible for the death of very many of the older inhabitants. In fact we remember no year that has been so prolific of deaths as the present, and a great many of the old and familiar faces known to Maitland residents for a lengthened period of years have been of late gradually dropping off, one by one. Yesterday Mrs. Risby, the esteemed proprietress of the Falls Hotel in West Maitland died from the effects of an attack of influenza. The deceased lady who was 76 years of age was one of the best known and most respected of Maitland s residents, and was the oldest person established in Maitland in the hotel business. Away back in the forties the late Mr. Joseph Risby, her husband kept an hotel on the Morpeth Road, known as the Wool Team Inn, later he removed to West Maitland and kept the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle, afterwards the Falls Hotel, where he died many years ago, and the latter house has been kept in a most exemplary manner by his widow ever since. The family surviving consists of two sons Charles and William Risby, and one married daughter, Mrs. Gibson. There was an other son named Thomas, and a daughter married to Mr. William Mills, but both have been dead some years.
