In the early days of the historical society, as he was establishing the archives for the Research Centre at the Land of the Beardies Museum, my father Bill Cameron received a letter from Scotland seeking information about our local Scottish pioneers.
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As a consequence, he later wrote 'Scottish Pioneers of the Glen Innes district'.
Of course, the depicted Boyd, Cameron, Fletcher, Forbes, Gill, Gordon, Innes, Kelso, Macdonald, Mackenzie, McIntyre, McMaster, Robertson, Rogerson, Ross, Vivers and Wetherspoon families were but a fraction of the Scottish families to come here.
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Dundee, Glencoe, Ben Lomond and Glen Elgin are only some of the names which reflect the wish to keep fresh the names from their country of origin.
Our town was named after Major Archibald Clunes Innes who arrived in Australia in 1822 from Thrumster, Caithness-shire Scotland, as Captain of the Third Regiment (Buffs) in charge of the guard on the 'Eliza' which carried 120 convicts.
He served first in Tasmania where he built up a reputation for capturing escaped convicts and was appointed ADC to the Governor of NSW.
Then followed fast promotions - Major of Brigade in 1827, Police Magistrate and Superintendent of Police at Parramatta in 1828 and Police Magistrate at Port Macquarie in 1830.
In 1825 he had married Margaret the daughter of the Colonial secretary, Alexander Macleay.
It is said that the was responsible for the building of the road between Port Macquarie and New England.
He bought Furracabad Station from Robert Ramsey Mackenzie in 1844, re-named it Glen Innes, and also owned other large tracts of land in the New England district including 'Waterloo' at Walcha and 'Kentucky' near Uralla.
He also owned an Inn at Armidale and land at Mole River as well as property on the Darling Downs
However, Innes became bankrupt in the depression of the 1840s.
The Bank of Australasia took over his holdings including this local property and it was subsequently purchased by Archibald Mosman after whom the Sydney suburb is named.
When our town was established in 1854 Mosman suggested the town be named after Major Archibald Clunes Innes and he reverted to Furracabad as the name of his property.
Although there is a reference in the 'Deepwater Diaries' to Innes passing through Deepwater Station in the 1840s it appears he never actually lived here.
