It’s 1919. In the coastal saw-milling town of Owaka in the rugged Catlins area of Southland in New Zealand, 14 year old Daniel Richards Weir sits in the kitchen of his home. He thinks about his father, Daniel, who has recently passed away after falling victim to the global ‘flu epidemic now sweeping the country.
What type of man was he? … what made him the man he was? … what does it mean about the man I might become? …
Daniel’s mind wanders as he contemplates his family’s path up to this point … back to last century …
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The early 1800’s – Edinburgh is a turbulent place. Poet Robert Burns visits, the city gets a daily fresh water supply and the Bank of Scotland builds its head office. The White Hart Inn hosts a visit by William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Commissioners oversee the city’s policing, cleaning and lighting. The Nelson Monument is erected, Royal Edinburgh Hospital opens and the first issue of ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper hits the busy streets. Princes Street is lit by gas instead of oil lamps and five coaches a day run the 12 hour, 40 mile (64 km) journey between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Established on a bedrock of sandstone, Edinburgh has long been dominated by several quarries, with their output used on Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh University. Today hundreds of workers produce cartloads of sandstone daily for the construction of Edinburgh’s ambitious “New Town”. The massive project leads to a surge in demand for sandstone and people flock to Edinburgh to get work. Suburbs grow quickly along the River Leith and several parishes boom, including St Cuthbert’s on the edge of town.
In 1820, Cochrane and Sarah Weir with their 3 year old daughter Elizabeth arrive from Ireland. Cochrane is a quarry labourer, so he finds work quickly. They settle at Water of Leith in St Cuthbert’s. As a quarryman, Cochrane’s work is hard – the physical labour is one thing, but he constantly breathes the damaging sandstone powder and sulphur. In fact, a doctor recommends that the “Craigleith quarrymen” grow beards and moustaches to act as respirators. In 1821, as Edinburgh’s population reaches 140,000, Cochrane and Sarah’s son Daniel is born, followed by James later the same year.
King George IV visits in 1822 – he delights the city when he wears a kilt. Daniel’s brother Hugh is born in 1824 then the “Great Fire” devastates much of Edinburgh, so Britain’s first municipal fire brigade is established in the city. Between 1825 and 1829, Daniel has sisters Mary, Nancy and Agnes, then another brother Robert. At the end of the decade, in honour of the royal visit, the George IV Bridge is constructed. Prisoner William Hare gives incriminating evidence against his partner William Burke, who is hanged for Edinburgh’s “West Port Murders”. In these heinous crimes, corpses of 16 victims are sold to Dr Robert Knox who dissects them during his anatomy lectures. By 1831, Edinburgh’s population reaches 160,000 and an outbreak of cholera hits the city.
In 1833, after such huge development, Edinburgh goes bankrupt. Daniel has another brother, Joseph, and to escape the unpleasant city centre, Cochrane and Sarah relocate the family a mile away to the village of Bells Mills. Andrew is born here and Daniel, now a teenager, becomes a labourer. He meets Catherine Graham from nearby Hawthorn Bank and in December 1840 they marry at St Cuthbert’s Church. In May 1841, when Daniel and Catherine are both 20, their son Cochrane is born.
The Edinburgh to Glasgow railway opens in 1842 and after 5 years on the throne, young Queen Victoria makes her first visit to Scotland. In 1843, Daniel and Catherine welcome their second son, John, and in 1844 the Sir Walter Scott Monument is built. By 1847, Edinburgh is overcrowded – the “Old Town” is mostly slums and many live in poverty. The leader of the Church of Scotland, Thomas Chalmers, dies and half of Edinburgh’s population attends his funeral.
In the Highlands, income from kelp and cattle declines so the landlords evict most of the farmers to create grazing land for sheep. The luckless farmers must find food and jobs elsewhere. Life for the Lowlanders is tough too – poor wages, dismal housing and high unemployment means many seek better living standards. Emigration starts to look like a very attractive option.
Captain William Cargill and Reverend Thomas Burns start the ‘Free Church of Scotland’ and want to create a ‘New Edinburgh’. They choose Otago in New Zealand as the ideal site and in 1847 two ships are the first to set sail for Otago. The “John Wickliffe” and the “Philip Laing” carry 350 Scottish farmers, labourers, doctors, merchants and craftsmen towards a new life on the other side of the world.
In April 1848, the ships arrive in Port Chalmers. Women and children stay aboard while the men put up beach shelters and a jetty. They beach the cargo and weatherproof it with tarpaulins. Although it’s autumn, the Dunedin weather is kind to the settlers – one labourer notes: “If I had been in Scotland, I would’ve been dead. I lived several nights in the bush, but found no ill effects from it.” When the shelters are erected, the people start to establish their new town.
As the new colony takes its first steps, 27 year old Daniel and Catherine Weir and their two young sons depart Gravesend on the third ship “Blundell”. They leave everything – home, family and the familiar – and spend six months at sea in the small leaky wooden ship. It’s dangerous and living conditions are rough. Catherine’s experience is even more so – still several weeks from land she gives birth to their third son, James. The “Blundell” arrives in Port Chalmers in September 1848.
Daniel and Catherine, with 6 year old Cochrane, 1 year old John and 2 month old James set up house in Andersons Bay, a pretty bushland spot with scrub and flax growing right to the water’s edge. All around the Peninsula, birds are plentiful so kaka, pigeon, quail, woodhen and tui are hunted – they’re very good to eat.
Daniel works as a labourer in Dunedin and earns 4 shillings a day. He is keen to establish his family and after four years he buys five acres of bushland a quarter-mile from Andersons Bay. He names his property “Oceanview” and builds a fern-tree house. He clears some of the land and grows wheat and potatoes. He continues to work as a labourer around the town to earn some wages.
As soon as can he buys ten more acres at £3 per acre. The property is much admired – locals say it occupies “one of the pleasantest sites in a pleasant neighbourhood”. The boys’ brother William is born, then Daniel Junior in April 1852, followed by Robert in 1853. Life is settled and happy for the farming Weir family. When the kakas and parakeets get too numerous and eat too much of the grain, fruit and turnips planted, the boys entertain themselves by hunting them with a flax loop or stick slingshot. Their prowess with the stone missiles is highly regarded. They dive for shellfish from the rocks and fish for eels in the lagoon too.
In the new settlement of Dunedin, surveyor Charles Kettle plans an ‘Edinburgh of the South’ with beautiful views and a dramatic harbour. He creates an ‘Octagon’ at Moray Place and forms George and Princes Streets, named after the two main thoroughfares in Edinburgh. The population expands and Andersons Bay School is established in 1851.
In April 1856, 36 year old Alison Handyside Muir Bower boards the “Strathmore”in London with her daughter Christina. Recently widowed, Alison hopes for a new life in New Zealand. In Andersons Bay, the Road Board is formed to build the roads surveyed by Charles Kettle. Daniel buys more land – first a parcel of ten acres, then when he can afford it, another fifteen acres. His land now totals thirty acres – as much as he is allowed to own freehold.
But then Daniel Snr’s life is shattered when his Catherine suddenly dies – she is 35. After only eight years in New Zealand, the tragedy leaves him lost, with a farm to run and six young sons to raise. 14 year old Cochrane joins his father at work on the family farm.
A month later, the “Strathmore” brings Alison and Christina Bower into Port Chalmers. Alison meets Daniel Snr and the following April they marry. Daniel Snr enfolds young Christina into the family and as an upstanding citizen he registers for Jury duty. He describes his occupation as an “Agriculturalist”. As soon as they are able, Daniel Jnr and Robert start work alongside their father and Cochrane on the farm.
The settlement is slow to grow. But Daniel continues to expand his property. He leases 24 acres and starts to breed, rear and buy cattle. Soon his farm holdings include milking cows, horses and pigs. In the rich soil he grows oats, potatoes, turnips, carrots and English grasses. He successfully sells all his crops, fresh butter and milk in Dunedin.
After 10 years, Dunedin remains a village of 2,000 mainly Scottish settlers. Alison and Daniel Snr do what they can to shore up the population and by 1860 Joseph, Alexander and Charles have arrived, giving them nine sons.
In early 1861, after gold deposits are found elsewhere in New Zealand, the Otago Provincial Council decides to encourage more people to the area to prospect for gold. Unsure whether Otago has any large deposits, they offer a reward of £1,000 to the first person to locate one. Gold is discovered at Tuapeka, south of Dunedin so the rush for more begins. Prospectors flood to the area and many people come to find business opportunities. Dunedin establishes manufacturing and importing industries to keep up with the growing demand for food, equipment and supplies. Within a year, Otago is transformed. Every week local businesses send food and supplies to thousands of prospectors at the goldfields. Daniel Snr spends nine weeks on the diggings at Gabriel’s Gully selling his produce, which makes him a handsome profit. The gold deposit is rich – twice a month armed and mounted men on the “Gold Escort” bring thousands of ounces of gold from the prospectors back to Dunedin to be kept in secure holdings in the bank.
In 1862, gold is discovered near the Clutha River at Dunstan, in the mountains 200 miles (300 km) away. Within days, two tent cities spring up on the riverbanks and Cochrane, now 18, leaves the Weir farm to head for the goldfields. After two weeks journey by horse-drawn dray he arrives and sets up his diggings. He has great success and plans a marvellous new life – then a massive flood of the Clutha carries away everything he has – his belongings, his savings and his dreams. With only horses to his name, he travels for seven weeks over the Southern Alps to goldfields on the West Coast. He partners with another prospector and they set up a successful storekeeping and packing business.
Back in Port Chalmers, “Lady Egidia” arrives from London. She’s the largest wooden vessel yet to enter the port and her stylish lines are admired as she approaches up the channel. Aboard are Robert Cowan, his wife Jane and their six children – son William and daughters Mary, Jane, Hannah, Marion and baby Janet. The Cowans settle in Andersons Bay and Robert finds labouring and road work. The Andersons Bay Presbyterian Church is built in 1863 and the town now has a bakery, butcher, blacksmith, draper, the Andersons Bay Hotel and a boot repair business.
By 1866, Dunedin’s population reaches 15,000 and in Andersons Bay, Daniel Snr and Alison have sons Andrew, David and Edward. Robert Cowan purchases a farm at Sandymount in the Otago Peninsula hills. A prominent landform 2 miles (5km) south of Portobello, Sandymount rises to 1,000 feet (300 metres) above the Pacific Ocean and features some of largest high cliffs and chasms in New Zealand. It’s a successful settlement, ideal for dairy farming as the ocean breeze keeps the pasture green and lush. The area’s flax scutching mill prepares harvested flax for spinning and the quarry extracts limestone from the ground for transport to Dunedin in cement, mortar and lime-wash. It has a creamery, a school (educating several Cowan children), a post office, volunteer hall and a Presbyterian Church. The residents have a regular coach service to Dunedin.
Cochrane returns from his successful years on the West Coast and establishes his own farm at Sandymount. In late 1867 he marries 24 year old Alison Archibald, a housemaid from St Cuthbert’s in Edinburgh. Cochrane clears and cultivates eighty acres of his bushland and builds “a handsome residence and set of farm buildings in brick” for himself and Alison. He names the farm “Glenweir”.
By 1868, in Andersons Bay, Alison and Daniel Snr’s family of Christina and twelve sons celebrate the arrival of their second daughter Alison Barbara – but her life is short and she dies after 4 months.
In 1871, Daniel Jnr’s brother Robert turns 19 and leaves his father’s farm. He buys his own seventy acre block at Sandymount and establishes a dairy farm. Between 1874 and 1876 the railway to Andersons Bay, the “Peninsula and Ocean Beach Railway”, is established.
Three years later, Daniel Jnr is 21 and a farm labourer at Sandymount. He meets 18 year old Hannah Cowan and they marry at the Cowan family’s home. The couple settle here and the following year, their son Robert is born then Daniel III arrives in October 1876.
In 1878, the ‘Great Flood’ of the Clutha kills several people across Otago. Thousands of animals drown or starve to death, the new Balclutha Bridge “falls to pieces like a box of matches” and Inch Clutha Island is almost totally submerged. Floodwaters gouge a new outlet to the sea at Port Molyneux, leaving it half a mile (1 km) inland. Flood repairs cost Otago over £100,000. The following year, 37 men are killed at Kaitangata Coal Mine when a worker carries a candle into a disused mineshaft and undetectable but lethal methane fire damp explodes.
Horse trams become popular public transport so the Andersons Bay railway line closes. By 1883 Daniel and Hannah have David, Walter, Hugh and Jane. Daniel Jnr’s brother James marries Katherine (Kate) Delaney from Ireland and his brother William marries Janet King from Balclutha. To support its growing population, Dunedin invests in public works. Otago Museum, the University, Otago Boys’ High School, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, St Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Knox Presbyterian and Trinity Methodist Churches are all built by 1884. Daniel III attends Sandymount School with several of his siblings and he is awarded the Standard III Prize.
Now 44 years old, Cochrane is a well-known local figure – he’s on the Roads Board, the School Committee and the Peninsula Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) Association. Daniel Jnr’s heart goes out to his brother when Cochrane’s life is struck a sudden blow – Alison, his wife of 18 years, dies suddenly. She is only 41. He continues his community work but Alison’s death leaves a gap in his life and the following year he marries 20 year old Allison Wilson McKay from Sandymount. They look forward to raising a family together.
Robert, now a successful dairy farmer at Sandymount, meets and marries Hannah’s younger sister, Marion Cowan. He becomes a member of the Sandymount School Committee, joins the Portobello Rifle Club and with Cochrane, is a founding member of the Peninsula A&P Association.
Towards the end of 1889, Daniel Jnr visits Dunedin and gets involved in a scuffle. Along with two other men he is charged with drunkenness. This is a common occurrence for the policemen of Dunedin when farmers come into town for some rest and recreation. After the inlet is dredged and the bridge is raised, the steamer ferry ‘Pioneer’ starts a regular service from Dunedin to the old Andersons Bay railway station. But the tides of the inlet regularly cause the ferry to wedge on the mudflats and passengers are late to work too often, so the business soon folds.
By 1892, Daniel Jnr and Hannah purchase their own farm at Tahatika, about 6 miles (11km) up the Owaka Valley. They are roundly congratulated by many in the district upon having secured a ‘really first class farm’. They establish their home, then welcome sons Cowan and John Roland and daughters Mary Geary and Catherine Graham – their tenth child. Catherine dies within 12 months. The children attend Tahatika School, where they are taught by Miss Flamank.
In 1893 Ethel Benjamin enrols at Law School – Otago becomes the first University in Australasia to permit women to take a law degree.
In Andersons Bay in January 1894, the family’s patriarch Daniel Weir Snr dies after a short illness. Many people from around the district attend his funeral and he is followed to his grave by 11 of his sons, several grandsons, old shipmates and many early residents. After his burial at Andersons Bay Cemetery the Otago Witness notes he is “one of the area’s old identities – an original settler who arrived in the district and never moved from it. The community has lost an honest, upright man.” He is 73.
The following year, several sections of land in the Catlins and Woodland districts go on the market for the first time. Timber mills have cleared the area of trees with the lumber sent to Dunedin and Christchurch for houses – the land is ready for farming. The Dunedin Crown Land Office holds a formal ballot and Daniel Jnr’s brother David successfully purchases a section at the cash price of 15 shillings per acre.
In July 1897, Ethel Benjamin graduates with her LLB, Robert Weir becomes Chairman of the Peninsula A&P Association and Andrew Weir marries Sarah Elizabeth Duckmanton.
In 1903, Daniel Jnr is elected onto the Owaka Valley School Committee where the youngest of his ten children attend classes. By 1904, several of his brothers are well established too – Robert is a dairy farmer, Andrew is a successful Ayrshire cattle breeder, Edward is a Government Surveyor Engineer in Taranaki and Cochrane is one of the most important farmers on the Otago Peninsula. “Glenweir” is one of the area’s largest farms, covering more than 220 acres. Cochrane and Alison raise thirteen children; Daniel and Hannah have ten; William and Janet have five; Robert and Marion have four; Andrew and Sarah have three; James and Kate have a son.
In December, 1904, Robert and Jane Cowan celebrate their Diamond Wedding anniversary then in 1905 Andersons Bay Hotel is dismantled and relocated to make way for a new tram line. Daniel III, now 29 and a farmer in Crookston, meets and marries Ellen Elizabeth Kynaston. Known as “Nellie”, she’s the daughter of Englishman John Kynaston, a Rabbiter from Lancashire who now lives in Merrivale, Southland. In 1906, Daniel III and Nellie live in the Nokomai Valley where their first son, Daniel Richards, is born.
In Andersons Bay in January 1907, Daniel III’s grandmother, Alison Weir, dies – she is 87. She is laid to rest alongside her husband of 37 years, Daniel Snr. Eight months later, Daniel Jnr dies suddenly at Tahatika – he is only 55. Grief-stricken, Hannah posts a heartfelt notice in the Clutha Leader:
“Not dead to us – we love him dear; Not lost, but gone before;
He lives with us in memory still, and will for evermore.”
Although several of Daniel Jnr and Hannah’s children are now adults, the younger ones are still dependent – John Roland is only 13. The family’s notice at the death of their father echoes their mother’s deep words:
“So gentle and kind – how we miss his dear face; We know that on earth we can ne’er fill his place;
Though asleep in the Saviour, where grief is unknown, In sorrow and tears are his loved ones at home.”
The following year, Daniel III and Nellie’s second son John Ronald is born, but he dies after only 12 days. In 1909, Bessie (named Elizabeth Ellen after her mother) is born, then in late 1911 sister Minnie Hannah arrives. Tragically, Nellie takes ill during the birth and she dies within weeks.
Daniel III gazes forlornly at his children – 5 year old Daniel Richards, Bessie just 2 and tiny Minnie only 2 months are now left without their mother. He considers his options – his mother Hannah still grieves disconsolately for his father, she lives a few miles away in Tahatika but must see to her own young teenagers. Daniel III moves with his children to where he will find work – in Toiro, 20 miles from Owaka towards the Southland border. Farming continues to be a strength amongst the Weir family and they are delighted when in 1911, Daniel III’s brother Hugh wins “Best dray horse – Entire” in the Owaka Annual Show.
In 1914, Daniel III marries 22 year old Henrietta Agnes Berland in Balclutha and they move back to Owaka. In May 1915, young Daniel Richards and Bessie enrol at Owaka School then in November the same year their brother Edward Henry is born. Several of their Ayreshire cattle win prizes for James and Cochrane at the 1915 Otago Peninsula A&P Show and Daniel III takes up the popular pastime of pipe smoking. He is constantly seen with his lit pipe in hand and at home his tobacco cloud hangs in the air daily.
As a British dominion, New Zealand gets involved in the Great War in Europe. Although Daniel III is passed the age of enlistment, his younger brothers Cowan and John (both recently moved to start farming in the Rangitikei) and his cousins – James’ son Walter and Cochrane’s son William (both in Otago), sign up and head off to military service in Europe. Cowan, William and John join the General Forces while Walter enters the Rifle Brigade. At the end of their service, Cowan and John return to Rangitikei, Walter gets a severe leg wound and returns to Otago. William’s luck is not so good. In January 1917, he’s on active service in France when he receives a severe gunshot wound. He dies the same day. He is buried in Estaires Cemetery in France. Cochrane and Alison, at the Otago Peninsula Soldiers’ Memorial, read his name with desperate grief and deep pride. He is one of 51 men from the area to have fallen in the Great War. William is only 25. Five months later his father, Cochrane, dies – he is 76.
In 1918, the highly contagious Spanish Influenza arrives in New Zealand with troops who return from the WWI battlefields. The ‘flu spreads quickly around the country and Otago doesn’t escape. Daniel III must support his family, so he continues to work and risks exposure to others already infected. He is struck down and becomes very ill. By April 1918, too sick for Henrietta to care for him at home, Daniel III is moved to Balclutha Hospital, where he dies soon after. Only 41 years old, he is laid to rest in Owaka Cemetery.
Fourth in the line of Daniel Weirs, Daniel Richards at 14 years old considers his life and the three generations of Daniel Weirs who have gone before him. Each, through their courageous, stoic and determined lives has contributed to the character and personality of this young man who now faces his own future without them.
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- Born 1821 and died 1894 – Daniel Weir Senior is my great x3 grandfather
- Born 1852 and died 1907 – Daniel Weir Junior is my great x2 grandfather
- Born 1876 and died 1919 – Daniel Weir III is my great grandfather
- Born 1906 and died 1986 – Daniel Richards is my grandfather.
Post scripts
- In July 1926, Daniel III’s mother, Hannah, dies in Seaward Downs, Southland – she is 70.
- The following year, Hannah’s sister Marion dies – she is 69.
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Photo sources:
- Edinburgh (Naysmith):http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Edinburgh%201840&qs=n&form=QBIRMH&pq=edinburgh%201840&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=FFF47F77D5A24DE2D896403DCF2BA3338063BA38&selectedIndex=14
- Phillip Laing: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzbound/images/philiplaing.jpg
- Princes Street: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/etexts/Cyc04Cycl/Cyc04Cycl0065a(h280).jpg
- Owaka Dairy (1887): http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=owaka+valley&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=owaka+valley&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=3782BEE53658D116B5361DE27CCF2BC3B9101DE3&selectedIndex=16
- Owaka School 1910: http://f1.ehive.com/3021/1/19lf6gf_jn6_l.jpg
Pearls - Everyone has a story 
