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Monday, 06 February 2012
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The McCauley Family: Detailed History

The McCauley family has been traced back to Andrew McCauley, my great-great-great grandfather, who was born in Ireland in around 1801 and married Mary Neely in 1825; she was born in Ireland in 1806. John Snr. McCauley, my great-great grandfather, born in 1826 in Clogher, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland, was their elder child.

John Snr.’s brother, George McCauley, married Sarah Ne(i)ely, on 29 April 1867, at St. Macartan's Cathedral, Clogher, and they had two children, George Jnr. (born in 1860) and Annie (born on 19 October 1871). Sarah (now widowed) and George Jnr. were still living in Ireland at the time of the 1901 census, George Jnr. and his wife, Ellen, having had two children, Robert and William George. George Jnr. was the coachman for the Rector of Ballygawley and his two sons worked on Richmount farm.

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John Snr. McCauley and his Family

John Snr. married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Irwin, whom he married in 1849. Elizabeth was born in 1833 in Clogher and died on 11 November 1872 in Ireland. John Snr. married his second wife, Mary Ann Williamson, born in Belfast in 1847 on 28 January 1874 in St. Macartan's Cathedral, Clogher. John Snr. and Mary Ann apparently had one child, Sarah May, born in Northern Ireland on 10 February 1875, the year after their marriage, but there are doubts about her parentage.On her death certificate, Sarah May's mother's maiden name is given as More or Moore, not Williamson and it is rumoured in her family that she may have been born in Ireland but went as an actress to the U.S.A. One possibility is that Sarah May was "adopted" by John Snr. and Mary Ann, although formal adoption did not exist in those days.

John Snr. and Elizabeth had 14 children, all born in Northern Ireland, some of whom died in infancy. The second of John Snr.’s children was my great-grandfather, John Jnr. McCauley, born in Clogher in 1852. John Jnr. married Eliza Jane Donaldson, born in 1851, on 14 November 1873 in Newtownsaville Church, Tyrone; at the time John Jnr. and Eliza were residing in the Corboe and Lislea townlands respectively. At the time of her marriage, Eliza Jane was already the mother of her first daughter, Jane, born on 7 November 1870; the birth certificate records the father as John, aged 44, and it is interesting to speculate whether this could have been her future father-in-law, John Snr.!

John Snr. and Mary Ann McCauley and their family, including John Jnr. and Eliza Jane McCauley and their two oldest children, sailed for New Zealand from Liverpool on 15 September, 1876, arriving in Auckland on 19 December 1876. Their ship was the Jessie Osborne, a full-rigged vessel of 1058 tons, under the captaincy of Captain Falconer. The voyage was not without incident, with Isabella, the one year-old second child of John Jnr. and Eliza Jane, dying from Tabes mesenterica (tuberculosis of the lymph glands inside the abdomen, caused by drinking milk from cows infected with tuberculosis), and Martha, the unmarried daughter of John Snr., who was perhaps as young as thirteen, giving birth to a son (George John, Peg-Leg, McCauley) just over a week out from Auckland. The McCauleys, along with a number of other people from Northern Ireland, mainly Orangemen, had been persuaded to emigrate to New Zealand by a campaign of lectures, newspaper reports and circulars conducted by James Vesey Stewart, of Martray Manor, Balygawley, County Tyrone, who had negotiated with the New Zealand government for a large area of land to be made available in Katikati, in the Bay of Plenty, North Island. The first party had sailed on the ship Carisbrooke Castle, which arrived in Auckland on 8 September 1875. The McCauleys, from the Stewart estates in Tyrone, were regarded as being part of the second party, most of whom, possibly including one of John Snr.'s other sons, James, sailed from Belfast on the ship Lady Jocelyn, which arrived in Auckland on 17 August 1878. Land in Katikati was allocated to the new settlers by the drawing of lots, with John Snr. receiving 20 acres, John Jnr. 30 acres and James 69 acres in adjourning properties on the south side of Rea Road past Killen Road. From reports of visits by the Crown Lands Ranger in the following years, it appears that the McCauleys achieved mixed success in their efforts to farm the land they had been allocated and the Bay of Plenty Times reported that houses occupied by John Snr. and/or John Jnr. were destroyed by fire in 1879, 1881 and 1895. In the fire of 1879, a young girl of 8 (possibly Jane McCauley) heroically led her brothers and sisters and a large sow to safety.

The personal lives of John Snr. and Mary Ann McCauley, his second wife, also seem not to have been entirely smooth. In December 1879, Mary Ann was charged with having committed a breach of the vagrancy act by living with “aboriginal natives” (presumably Maoris). According to the newspaper report of the case, the police prosecutor said he believed “no evil results have taken place by prisoner’s staying with the natives. She was only staying with a woman who had enticed her away to go to Opotiki to do some washing. I have no wish to prosecute the case if her husband will take her back. From enquiries I have made, she is a thoroughly well-conducted woman, and this is her first offence” John Snr. McCauley, having been called as a witness, said, “I believe the woman is not right in her head. She gave away one of her children to the natives before she came down here. She had not been living with me for a fortnight before she came. There were some outlandish parties in the bush, and I think they were too much for her. I knew she was down here, and I knew where she was for the fortnight before”. John Snr. agreed to take his wife back and the case was withdrawn. Mary Ann died on 17 June 1885 in Auckland and John Snr. died at his daughter Eliza's house in Te Puke on 13 June, 1900.

Two of John Snr.’s sons, William and George, also found themselves in trouble with the law. In the New Zealand Herald of 3 April, 1897, there is a report that “George and William McCauley were charged with stealing 48 tea-pots worth about £7”. In the edition of 19 June 1897, there is a further report that "George McCauley, who pleaded guilty to having stolen 48 tea-pots, was brought up for sentence. His Honour said he would treat accused as a first offender (the only other charge against him being one of drunkenness) and admit him for probation". William was sentenced to two years in jail for a second stealing offence and died in Katikati in an accident involving a horse in 1908. He is buried in the same grave in Katikati as his brother and sister-in-law, John Jnr. and Eliza Jane McCauley, together with Sydney John McCauley, the infant grandson of John Jnr. and Eliza Jane.

Various books have been written about the Katikati settlement, including three that I possess, entitled: "My Simple Life in New Zealand" by Adela Stewart, James Vesey’s sister-in-law; "An Ulster Plantation" by Arthur J. Gray; and "Tales of old Katikati" by Elsie G. Lockington.

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John Jnr. McCauley and his Family

John Jnr., a farmer, and Eliza Jane McCauley eventually had ten children, of whom the sixth was my grandfather, George Thomas McCauley who was born in Katikati on 19 September 1884; John Jnr. and Eliza Jane lived in Katikati until their deaths on 28 May 1910 and 25 March 1915 respectively. John Jnr. died as the result of an accident in Athenree Gorge, north of Katikati, when the horse and cart he was driving in the early evening left the road, at a point where a land-slip had occurred, and fell into the Waihi river. Although the accident was seen by another traveller, rescue was not possible in the falling darkness and John Jnr’s body was later recovered from the river. At the subsequent inquest, the coroner added the following rider to his verdict of accidental death, “It appears to us to be scandalous that some provision was not made to protect the public, by erecting railings in the most dangerous places. If such had been done, we are of the opinion that the accident would never have happened. Too much stress could not be laid upon the negligence of the Tauranga County Council, seeing how long a time had elapsed since the flood last March which caused the damage”. Eliza Jane McCauley was reputably a strong and rather formidable woman with cold blue eyes, severe features and severely dragged back hair. Following the birth of one of her younger children, she apparently did the washing on the same day as the birth, milked the cow and then prepared dinner for her husband before his return from work to see his new offspring.Two interesting articles from the Bay of Plenty Times, covering a family marriage and the death of John Jnr. McCauley, are reproduced in Appendices 1 and 2 at the end of this document.

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The Ford and Gadd Families

George Thomas McCauley married my grandmother, Sarah Ann (Pat) Ford, in Kaponga, Taranaki, on 4 August 1908; she was born in 1878 in Opawa, Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand. Sarah Ann was the third of the eight children of Henry James Ford, born in St. Giles, London, England, on 1 October 1851, and Emily Ann Ford (formerly Gadd), born in Bedminster, Bristol, England on 13 August 1853. At the time of the 1861 census, Henry James Ford (aged 9) was living at 14 James Street, adjacent to Covent Garden, London, with his father, James Ford, a General Dealer, his mother Ann and three brothers, Christopher (aged 14), Alexander (aged 6) and Archer (aged 1). Henry James Ford sailed to New Zealand at the age of sixteen, reputedly in a ship named London but more likely as a paid, steerage passenger in the Light Brigade that left London on 19 May 1868 and arrived in Lyttleton on 26 August 1868. Henry subsequently lost touch with his family, although it is understood that he may have had as many as eight brothers and a sister, and that several of his brothers may have emigrated to America. It is of interest to note that his daughter, Sarah Ann (Pat), seriously believed her father was the uncle of Henry Ford, the car man, apparently because of their uncanny facial likeness, and was in the process of composing a letter to Henry just before her death. From the information I have obtained on the background of Henry Ford, the car man, it is clear that this supposition was incorrect.

Henry James Ford and Emily Ann Gadd were married in Opawa on 20 August, 1873. Emily Ann’s parents, Elijah Gadd (christened 8 August 1830), a stonemason, and Sarah Ann Gadd (formerly Cox—born 1830) left the UK in 1854. The Gadd family first sailed to Australia on the ship General Hewitt that left Southampton on 25 August 1854 and arrived in Moreton Bay (near Brisbane) on 16 December 1854. On arrival, the ship was held at the bar of the Brisbane River for a week because of bad weather. Sadly, Sarah Ann died towards the end of the voyage, on 2 December 1854, following the birth of her second child, Samuel, who also died soon afterwards, in Brisbane, on 26 January 1855 at the age of 9 weeks. Samuel Gadd is recorded as the first entry for 1855 in the burial register for St. John's Cathedral in Brisbane (although incorrectly named as Elijah Gadd). Elijah Gadd and his daughter, Emily Ann, subsequently sailed on to New Zealand but exactly when is not known. Elijah then returned for a few years to Australia in the late 1850s, remarrying in Melbourne in March 1859, his second wife, Sarah Ann Hawgood, having the same Christian names as his first wife. Elijah and his second wife had at least 5 children, one of whom, Sarah Jane, died in infancy in Melbourne on 23 May 1862 at the age of 14 months. Elijah then returned with his family to New Zealand, leaving Melbourne for Port Chalmers on 21 June 1862 in the ship SS Gothenburg. It is interesting that Henry Ford is recorded as one of the sponsors (godparents) of two of Elijah’s children, Alfred Samuel and Eliza Hester. Elijah was widowed for the second time when Sarah Ann herself died in Christchurch on 12 January 1871, also at the young age of 31. Elijah’s two wives and two young children, Samuel and Sarah Jane, are all commemorated or buried in the same plot at Barbadoes Street cemetery in Christchurch, New Zealand where the headstone is still to be seen. It seems that Elijah Gadd and most of the children of his second marriage eventually returned permanently to Australia where Elijah died of cancer at Newtown on 26 October 1888 and is buried at Rookwood in Sydney. It is also interesting to note that two of Elijah Gadd's sisters, Sarah and Hester, themselves emigrated from the UK to New Zealand with their husbands and families, arriving respectively in the ships Waikato on 3 October 1875 and the Dunedin on 3 July 1874.

The interesting life of Elijah Gadd in New Zealand is quite well documented. As one of the early settlers in Christchurch, he set up brickmaking and quarrying businesses in the Heathcote Valley/Hillsborough area, built the first town hall in Christchurch and provided stone for the second, bigger town hall. He was also the joint owner of the Heathcote Hotel, built a separate accommodation house for local workers and became a market gardener, winning various prizes for his produce. He is mentioned in Gordon Ogilvie’s 1976 book, "The Port Hills of Christchurch", which also includes relevant photographs. Excerpts on Elijah Gadd from this book and from G. R. Macdonald’s "Dictionary of Canterbury Biographies" are reproduced in Appendices 3 and 4 at the end of this document.

Henry James and Emily Ann Ford lived in the Hillsborough/ Opawa area of Christchurch and, in 1892/3, Henry is recorded in the local business directory as a storekeeper in Hill’s Road, Opawa. In 1895 the Ford family moved to Eltham in the North Island of New Zealand where they acquired land by the ballot system and set up a farm and saw-milling business. Having built a wooden cottage (or whare) to house his family, and cleared the land of bush, Henry noted that the clay in the hillside behind the whare was similar to that in Opawa and very suitable for brickmaking. He therefore began construction on a pug mill and other buildings and set up a brickmaking business that quickly thrived, there being no local competition at that time. Also the bricks were of good quality and intentionally made smaller than other bricks brought in from elsewhere so that customers had to return to Henry when their supplies ran out. Both Henry James and his son of the same name are recorded as brickmakers in the 1907 local business directory. Sadly, Emily Ann then took ill and died on 2 November 1907 in a New Plymouth private hospital. With the death of his wife, and his family grown up and moving away, Henry James decided in 1908 to sell the farm and brickworks and retire to Te Kuiti where he died on 2 April 1915. Both he and Emily Ann are buried in the Eltham cemetery. Roma Rebecca Jenkins has written up the story of Henry James Ford and his brickmaking business in her booklet "Bricks! Bricks! Forever Bricks" and I am most grateful to her for most of the above information.

Henry James Ford's daughter, my grandmother Sarah Ann Ford, and her sister, Eva Emily, opened the "Oriental Tea Rooms" in Eltham in 1904 and, two years later, took over a two storey building "Westford House" that they converted to a Boarding House and Dining Rooms. Reportedly staunch members of the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, they offered an alternative to the pub and provided meals and lodgings for the many men who worked in the area, one of whom was Sarah's husband-to-be, George Thomas McCauley.

My grandmother, who was apparently an accomplished seamstress and musician, playing the harp and mouth-organ, was long dead when I was born. I did, however, meet her two sisters, Elizabeth Ann and Eva Emily, on occasions during their latter years. My wife Liz and I also met up with her youngest brother, Frederick Thomas Ford, and his wife Tottie as recently as 1975 when we visited New Zealand soon after the birth of our elder son. Another of Sarah Ann’s brothers, William Alexander Ford, died of wounds at Mametz, on 25 September 1916, during the battle of the Somme in the first world war. He was a private in the First Battalion, Auckland Regiment, and is buried at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, plot 7, row F, grave 5. Frederick Thomas Ford also fought and was wounded on the Somme. Elizabeth Ann Ford married twice; her first husband was William Faull, whom she married in 1893 and who died in 1898, and they had two daughters and two sons, William Thomas and Henry James, both of whom were killed in the first world war. Henry James Faull was killed on 26 September 1916 during the battle of the Somme and is buried at the A. I. F. cemetery in Flers. William Thomas Faull died on 17 October 1917 near Ypres and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial to the missing. The second husband of Elizabeth Ann Faull (nee Ford) was Edward Burr Foreman, a hairdresser, whom she married in 1902, and with whom she had five children. After Edward Burr Foreman's death in 1918, Elizabeth Ann and her family moved first to Kaponga and then to Dannevirke in the North Island of New Zealand where Elizabeth Ann lived to the ripe old age of 91, dying in 1965.

George Thomas McCauley and his Family

My mother Hazel Emily McCauley, born in Taumaranui on 28 September, 1910, was the eldest of the four children of George Thomas and Sarah Ann (Pat) McCauley. My mother often recalled the daily journey she was required to make to school in Taumaranui, aged 8 or 9, accompanied by her brother, John Glen McCauley. They first rode alone on horseback to a river where the horse was tethered for the day until their return. They then rowed themselves across the river and walked the remaining appreciable distance to their school.

The McCauley family subsequently moved to Katikati and Hazel Emily was registered at Katikati No. 2 School on 14 February 1921. The relatively early death of her mother, Sarah Ann, in Tauranga Hospital, on 20 August 1925, believed to have been from blood poisoning following a bowel blockage, was a traumatic event in Hazel's life; she claimed to have had a premonition that her mother had died when no-one else thought she was seriously ill, and was counselled on the need to look after her siblings by her mother just prior to her death.

George Thomas McCauley, my grandfather, was a larger than life character who worked as an axeman in the New Zealand bush. He was a well-known sportsman, representing King Country at rugby and appearing at many chopping and sawing championships throughout the North Island for nearly thirty years. He had many successes over the years but perhaps his main achievement was in winning the two-foot world championship chop at the Axeman's Carnival at Eltham on 26/27 December 1911. George stood only 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed only 14 stone but was regarded as “one of those solidly built fellows who are deceptive until one sees them stripped”. It was said “he was one of the strongest, if not the strongest of the bushmen who chopped in the shade of Mount Egmont”. He was also remembered by his contemporary bushmen for carrying a sack of potatoes some miles into camp over rough country, across the Patea river. To give some idea of the strength required to perform this feat it is only necessary to add that twelve sacks of potatoes weigh a ton. A newspaper article written just prior to the Katikati centenary celebrations claimed that “in his heyday, George McCauley was considered the best all-round athlete in New Zealand” Like his father, George Thomas McCauley died in tragic circumstances. He had set up a saw-mill in Inglewood and lived alone in a wooden hut (or whare) he had built. During the night of 19 October 1938, his hut caught fire and George was burnt to death; the exact circumstances are not clear but it seems most likely he fell asleep while smoking in bed. Following a trip to New Zealand in 2000, I made contact with a man called Trevor Orr who, as a 16 year old lad, lived with his parents over the road from George’s saw-mill, knew him quite well and gave evidence as one of the witnesses at the inquest into George’s death. I exchanged letters and e-mail messages with Trevor and was looking forward to meeting him during my next trip to New Zealand but, sadly, he died in May 2003.

Following their mother’s death, my mother, Hazel Emily, her brother John Glen and young sisters, Olive Rae and Quita Margerett Eva, were ultimately brought up in New Plymouth by their uncle and aunt, Harry and Margaret Isabella Ladner (formerly McCauley), who was John Jnr.’s fifth child. Margaret Isabella, like her mother Eliza Jane, was also a strong but kindly woman whom I well remember, having stayed with her on many occasions. As befits her upbringing in an “Orange” family, she was a devout Anglican, who walked the two miles to church every Sunday without fail, even at the age of 80. She and her husband, Harry Ladner, a carpenter and joiner who built his own house, aimed to be self-sufficient, keeping chickens that were partly fed with waste meat bones crushed in a home-made “bone-crusher”, and growing their own vegetables and fruit, from which they made delicious jams and other preserves. They even had a supply of their own soap, made from fat carefully stored during the grim days of the 1930s depression. They lived frugally, refusing to have a refrigerator, washing machine, car or telephone and cut up old newspapers for use as toilet paper. Personal hygiene was not a high priority as they bathed only weekly! They walked everywhere, never using public transport, and Margaret knitted pullovers and socks for her relatives and stored away most gifts given to her, never to be used, like the carpet sweeper that was considered much too superior for domestic use. My mother once received a pair of stockings from her as a birthday present and was most amused to find a second card inside with the message “To dear Aunt, with love from Rae”!! Margaret and Harry Ladner could, however, be much more generous to others than to themselves; we grandchildren of George Thomas McCauley were regarded with particular favour, especially as we treated them like grandparents, and they were very generous to us with their monetary and other gifts.

Hazel Emily always prided herself on her spelling and arithmetical ability and, on leaving school, joined the accountancy firm of Duff and Wynyard in New Plymouth. A keen member of the Taranaki Alpine Club, she climbed Mt. Egmont nine times. In around 1935, Hazel was appointed to the staff of the Reserve Bank in Wellington. There she met a pharmacist at Boots the Chemists, my father Eric Robert Anderson, whom she married in New Plymouth on 22 January 1938. In May 1941, Hazel and her husband moved to Wanganui where Eric succeeded his father as Managing Director of the Wanganui Furniture Manufacturing Company Limited. Hazel was active there in the Mothers Union of All Saints Anglican Church and as secretary of the Wanganui East School parent/teacher association. She also enjoyed tennis and was an accomplished pianist, often improvising with what Eric called a “dirty left”, and a lover of romantic music, poetry and English literature. When Eric was struck down with rheumatoid arthritis in 1965, Hazel nurtured and cared for him until his death on 5 September 1967. In January 1969, Hazel had a happy second marriage to Keith Armstrong Atkinson (1907- 1988), whom she had first met many years previously, possibly on a cruise to Milford Sound.

Hazel Emily took a great pride and interest in her Irish and, more specifically, McCauley background. As befits her Irish ancestry, she was extremely superstitious and paid regular visits to a local fortune-teller who accurately predicted how her children would meet their future marriage partners. She was a diligent correspondent and prolific letter-writer all her life and kept in close touch with many of her McCauley relatives and others whom she had met during her lifetime.

My uncle and godfather, John Glen McCauley, travelled to England in the late 1930s and married Joan Dorothy Harvey, another New Zealander, on 16 July 1938. Following the outbreak of the second world war, John Glen joined the Royal Air Force, and on 18 March 1942 was granted a commission for the emergency as an Acting Pilot Officer in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch of the Volunteer Reserve; he was subsequently promoted to Pilot Officer and Flying Officer. On 19 December 1942, he was a passenger on a Hanley Page Harrow flying from its base in Portreath, Cornwall, to Gibraltar. The plane never arrived at its destination and was either shot down or suffered a mechanical failure or some other mishap. The bodies of four of the eleven passengers and crew aboard were washed ashore in France, and buried there, but the body of John Glen McCauley was one of those never found. Three successive generations of McCauley men, John Jnr., George Thomas and now John Glen, had therefore died in tragic circumstances. I have a silver medal, the New Zealand Memorial Cross, sanctioned by George VI in 1947 and awarded by the New Zealand government to commemorate the country’s servicemen killed in the second world war; the medal is inscribed with John McCauley's name and was either given directly to my mother (as John's eldest sister) or passed to her by John’s widow, Joan Dorothy, who remarried before the end of the war.

My aunt Quita Margerett Eva McCauley married Trevor Crone and had seven children. She died in 1967, of cancer, at the early age of 44. Her elder sister, Olive Rae, my godmother, married Noel Wright and had three children, of whom the youngest, Patricia Wright, is a well-known New Zealand opera singer. Olive Rae died in 2000.

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Appendix 1: Marriage at Katikati (Article from Bay of Plenty Times, 4 November 1889)

Katikati has always been known as a settlement where the pleasures of matrimony are rightly understood, and to the fullest enjoyed. On Monday, 28th October, one of the happiest and most successful weddings that has ever taken place here came off with great éclat. The bridegroom was Mr. William Macgregor Simpson and the bride Miss Jane McCaw(u)ley, eldest daughter of Mr. John McCauley, jr. The ceremony, which was performed by the Rev. W. Katterns, was solemnised in the parlour of Fairview Cottage, the residence of the bride’s parents. The bride, who was given away by her father, was robed in a becoming dress of cream figured silk with lace and ribbon to match; ornaments—a gold brooch, the gift of the bridegroom, and a pearl necklace. Miss Rea acted as bridesmaid, and wore a most effective costume of cream sateen with ruby ribbons. Mr. A W. Fisher attended the bridegroom as best man. Instead of the usual exhortation at the end of the marriage service Mr. Katterns addressed a few stirring words of loving advice to the newly married couple. After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. McCauley entertained a numerous party of friends to a most sumptuous repast, the tables literally groaning with good things, and the wines being nectar fit for the gods. The wedding cake, a noble specimen of confectionery, reflected great credit on Mr. Maxwell of Tauranga. The health of the happy pair was eloquently proposed by Mr. Katterns, and briefly responded to by the bridegroom. The health of the parents, Rev. W. Katterns, and the bridesmaid were duly proposed and received with musical honours. The presents, which were numerous and handsome, were tastefully exhibited in the parlour, amongst which we noticed---Mrs. McCauley, china tea service; Mrs. Stewart Rea, a large meat dish, (may she always have plenty on it); Mr. and Mrs. McClung, half a dozen very superior knives and forks; Mrs. Middlebrook, Dunmore china fruit dishes; Mrs. Mulgrew, sen., breakfast cruet; Mr. and Mrs. Jinkinson, butter cooler; Miss Rea, pretty slipper vases; Mr. George Hyde, cut glass sugar bowl and china cheese dish; Mr. A. W. Fisher, white fan with love birds painted on it; Rev. W. Katterns, bottle of choice wine and handsome bouquet of flowers. Fairview Cottage was appropriately decorated with ferns and flowers, speaking volumes for the taste of the bride, who personally superintended the decorations. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson left in a carriage and pair at 6.30 for their home at Greenton amidst a shower of rice and slippers. Those who had the privilege of being present on this auspicious occasion will ever remember with pleasure the true Colonial hospitality shown by Mr. and Mrs. McCauley, who, whilst they have lost a daughter, have gained a son who won the regard of those who saw him pass through the most joyful ordeal of his life. The bride’s travelling dress was of navy blue cashmere, with cardinal trimming of the same material.
AGITATOR.
Katikati, October 28th, 1889

Appendix 2: The Late Mr. McCauley (From our Katikati Correspondent)
(Article from Bay of Plenty Times, 8 June 1910)

It is needless to state that the tragic death of John McCaula(e)y, resulting from the flood damages on the Waihi main road, has caused a feeling a feeling of depression and gloom in the settlement. He was at the Road Board opening ceremony on Friday night, and I came across him on Saturday morning at about 4.30 a.m., when he told me he would be starting for Waihi on his usual weekly visit. I had a warm grip of his honest hand, but little did I think that within a few hours he would be called away to his long home.

The funeral took place on Wednesday and was one of the largest it has been my lot to witness at Katikati. I counted over 35 vehicles at one turn of the road. Rev. Katterns performed the funeral rites of the Church of England. Many wreaths were laid over the grave and among them one composed of white shells laced upon a wood formation, sent by Mr. and Mrs. Stern, of Martray, which amongst the floral wreaths was unique in appearance, but will remain as a long-standing memento of regard and esteem.

Tragic accidents of this kind do not often occur at Katikati, but John’s brother William was killed a few years ago by a young horse bolting. He was thrown out of the dray, the wheel passing over his neck causing instantaneous death. I am informed that poor John McCauley was driving the same horse when he met with the accident.

Rev. Turnbull and Mr. Charles Dunne proceeded on Sunday morning to break the news to his widow, who was frantic with grief. She did not expect his return as he had promised her to stop at Waihi with his son and daughter, who are both comfortably settled there.

The deceased was a strictly sober man. On his return from Waihi he was following Mr. Hopkin (who was driving a wagonette and pair of horses), holding the lamp in one hand, the reins in the other, which is presumed to have been the cause of the sad accident.

Though not a member of the No. 1 settlement he followed it to Katikati, accompanied by his wife, his father, step-mother, and a large family of brothers and sisters, hailing from Clogher, County Tyrone. He joined the No. 2 party, and though he did not secure a good section of land, yet by his performance, industry and frugality, aided in every way by an ideal farmer’s wife, he prospered at Katikati, having grassed all his land and erected an up-to-date residence and offices, and shortly before his death purchased a valuable property in the neighbourhood of the Hereuhikahia river, upon which he intended to erect a new homestead.

He leaves a widow, five sons and four daughters, all of whom, with the exception of two unmarried girls residing at home, are well provided for in homes of their own.

Appendix 3: Elijah Gadd: Excerpts from “The Port Hills of Christchurch” by Gordon Ogilvie

Chapter Thirteen, Hillsborough, ps.110 and 111

Bricks were very good business in early Christchurch, where there was a chronic shortage of building materials. The earliest Hillsborough brickworks was established by Elijah Gadd, who was working a quarry in Heathcote Valley in the 1850s. It was he who built Christchurch’s first (wooden) town hall in 1857 and supplied stone for the walls of the second town hall completed in 1864. At Hillsborough he had a large orchard and garden and was winning prizes for his garden produce in the late 1860s. Some of his pear, crabapple, quince, plum and walnut trees still survive on the hillside and must be close to a century old. The bricks which he was making until 1880 may still be found on properties round about.

His works were acquired and greatly expanded by the Wigram brothers, whose Hillsborough brick business was acquired by Thomas Horsley in 1905 and named the Christchurch Brick Company.

When William Tasman Scott took on the Horsley land (in 1920) there were still kilns and chimneys standing with the remnants of Gadd's horse-operated pug mill, an eight metre bricklined well, and several sheds. The Scotts lived in a cottage built by Gadd on the spur midway between Avoca and Rocky Point and occupied for a while by William Wilkes

The Hillsborough shopping center on the corner of Port Hills Road and Curries Road (originally Gadds Road) occupies the site of a gaunt stone and brick building erected by Elijah Gadd in early times with the hope that he might obtain a licence for it and do good business slaking the thirsts of the nearby brick and quarry workers. He did not get his licence as the authorities thought workmen might get drunk and fall off the cliff faces, and the place served as a home until the early 1950s, when it was demolished.

Chapter Ten, Heathcote Valley, p.92

An accommodation house was built for workmen constructing the reservoir (completed in 1877) and this building became the new Heathcote Hotel with Elijah Gadd and Joseph Marsden joint owners. In 1938, when Mrs. Jane Round was proprietor, its name was changed to the Valley Inn. It continues to flourish, much modified, as the Valley Inn Tavern

Appendix 4: Elijah Gadd: from G.R. Macdonald Dictionary of Canterbury Biographies

Gadd, Elijah had a quarry at the foot of the Hills in the Heathcote Valley, June ’63. He was prepared to supply materials, stone, foundations, etc. at 30/- a yard. At a meeting of the County Freehold Land Society he recommended the Soc to wait until they had accumulated enough money to buy 800 ac. which was a good area in which to start a township. Wm Wilson had just recommended 400 ac. He stood for the Heathcote Rd. Bd. in Jan ’67 but failed to get in; and he failed again to get in Jan ’71.

He won prizes for vegetables at the Horticulture Show of Dec. ’68 and again next year. He was elected to the Hillsborough Sch. Comm. Oct. ’73. He was one of the tenderers for the Ashley-Amberley railway contract, E.G. Wright got the contract; he was very hard to beat in this sort of work.

Gadd built the first Ch. Ch. Town Hall-of wood- in 1857. The Supreme Court used to sit there. E. G. Wakefield’s portrait hung there for years before it was moved to the Museum.

Gadd had a large garden near Neighbour’s brickyards at Heathcote. It was a very dry summer and a fire started at the kiln and got into his garden. He said in evidence that he lost over 2000 trees.

Marr. (1) Sarah Ann, d. 2.12.54, in Barbadoes St cem. His 2nd. Wife Sarah Ann d. 12.1.71 ag. 31
Dau. Emily Ann marr. 20.8.73 at Opawa Henry James Ford of Hillsborough.
L.T. (Lyttleton Times) 17.6.63: 26.1.64: 30.5.66: 3.1.67: 17.12 68: 7.1.71: 14.10.73: 28.12.72: 23.8.73: ChCh C.C. Bur. Rec.

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