Jonathan Hirst was the founding editor of the 'Oldham Evening Chronicle' in Lancashire, England. He was the father of Alfred, Florence and Roland. In 1872 he visited the US and Canada, & wrote the 2 letters to his daughter Florence, of which transcripts are contained in this folder. His son Alfred emigrated to Australia in the late 1870s, living firstly in Sydney then Brisbane. In Brisbane he was employed as 'Assistant Architect' for the Queensland state government from 1909 to 1919, and as a quantity surveyor for the state government from 1921 until not long before his death in 1923. He married Lucy Alfred's brother Roland also came to Australia and described some of his experiences in a diary of 1893, catalogued separately at F355. Florence, the recipient of the letters, married George Beaumont. Their son Hugh was a keen rifle shooter and also friend of Mansergh Shaw, who became founding professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Queensland in 1949.