Number 43 April 2017

President: Dr Rupert Tipples 3295 634 Secretary: Lincoln and Districts Kirsty Brown 3252 237 Editors for this edition: Historical Society Dr Rupert Tipples 3295 634

GREENPARK MEMORIAL HALL

This brief history of the Greenpark Memorial Hall was compiled from my carting shingle from Pearson’s Pit on the corner of Springs father’s diaries (Ellesmere John Stalker), and newspaper reports of the day e.g. and Collins Roads. On 1st August the building must have been from the Christchurch Press and the Ellesmere Guardian. completed as Working Bees were being held to get ready for the opening on 7 August 1922, with refreshments, and a concert and It would appear that the decision to erect a Memorial to the dance in the evening. soldiers of the First World War was taken before 24th June 1919, as on that day my grandfather and the Greenpark Hall On 29 August the first Bachelors’ ball was held Committee marked out the site for the new Hall, which John The monument was unveiled on 23 August 1922. There was a Stalker gave for that purpose. Press report of the event. The extension on the south west side of the Hall was added in the early 1950s to provide storage for those long forms which we used to sit on and an enlarged room for larger events. Further maintenance to the complex was completed including invalid access ramps etc., and an upgrade of the kitchen at a cost of approximately $70,000, not long before the earthquakes.

John P. Stalker.

Editorial

This issue commemorates two of the founder members and stalwarts of Lincoln & District Historical Society: Neville Moar Greenpark soldiers, a war memorial and Malcolm Gordon. Neville is remembered through his final biographical study of John Gerken, a nineteenth century German Fund raising for the Hall started soon after. immigrant, which I discussed with him shortly before his death in The first mention of fund raising in my father’s diaries is on June 2016. Alison Barwick has produced an obituary of Malcolm 20 May 1921. Over the next two years all sorts of events such Gordon, especially for this issue. Neville Moar’s article about John as concerts and dances with vocalists; clay pigeon shoots in Gerken, as with his other writings on German migrants (e.g. Issue Hubbard’s paddock; card parties; and dances were held. 38, March 2014) was frustrated by a reluctance on the part of A start to the building was made on 20 March 1922, when my the family to engage with him, so he was only able to use public grandfather mowed red clover on the Hall site, and cut a gateway sources. Consequently Neville’s assiduously researched article from the road into this area. On 25 March 1922 Messrs. John lacks the more human touch. When we talked about his articles Stalker, Thomas, Yarr and Bennett, with three horses per dray we speculated on why this might be so. A residual anti-German carted two loads of shingle from Coe’s Ford in the day. In the feeling resulting from two world wars was a possible cause. Jane following days shingle and other building materials were carted Tolerton (Listener, 20 April 2016) reported such attitudes in with drays from Greenpark Railway Station to the site. recalling war stories of World War I. However, such a partial view of history should be discouraged and a more positive view of the On 28 March builders, Paynter and Hamilton, started the stories of our forefathers be encouraged whatever their ethnicity. building. The contract for the Hall was for £1,423-10sh. At the Such negative attitudes should be put aside. The wars were 100 start of construction £1,100 were in hand. The main hall was and 70 years ago. Further, Britain, the colonial mother country, 67 feet long and 30 feet wide. The kitchen was 12 feet by 30 for whom New Zealanders went to fight, has had a German royal feet. There was also what was called a Boiler House behind the family since 1714, and Prussia and other German states have kitchen, the boiler being a copper for heating the hot water. I can been allies as often as enemies e.g. against France’s Louis XIV and just remember that. There were no toilets attached to the Hall. Napoleon. So let us put aside former prejudices and rejoice in our There were ‘long drops’ at the back of the section. differences and the histories of our ancestors. Margaret Hannan’s paper ‘Fanny FitzGerald’ was delivered at our recent field trip to During the early part of April drays were carting bricks, timber The Springs/Chudleigh on 19 March 2017. and other building materials required. It all came to the station by train and then was carted by dray to the site. References for all articles are available from the Editor. On 27 April 1922 the foundation stone was laid by Sir Heaton Rhodes, as Member of Parliament and Minister of Defence. Early in May sand and timber were still being shifted from the Rupert Tipples. railway station. Also, drays with three horses on each, were There was also a small hut on the upper slopes of the farm in which Frederich Fiecken and his family lived when he worked as a John Gerken woodsman for John shortly after arriving from London in 1866.

This short account of John Gerken’s life in the Tai Tapu district is one of In addition to his farming interests John played his part in the a series discussing those German migrants who settled in the Tai Tapu, wider community. For a time he was a member of the Tai Tapu Greenpark and Lincoln districts between about 1855 and 1880 and who school committee and of the Little River Road Board, but his contributed to the development of those areas in various ways. It is based on greatest interest was in the welfare of fellow German colonists. He information available in the public record in newspapers, the Christchurch not only provided new migrants with work as he did for Heinrich library, Archives New Zealand, Births Deaths and Marriages at Department Fiecken, but he helped others into their first purchase of land. of Internal Affairs and the Canterbury Museum. Attempts were also made This attitude led him to suggest at a meeting of the Deutches to contact local descendants of the individuals concerned, but these were Verein (German Association) in 1871 that it was time a Lutheran often unsuccessful, or when contacts were made the plea might have been that church in Christchurch was established to meet the spiritual needs they had no knowledge of their background. The information presented is as of German colonists. A year later the decision to proceed was accurate as current knowledge allows, but may easily be altered if more data taken and he was elected to a committee to further the project. comes to light. An early decision was to buy land for a church at the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets (now the site of Christchurch Art John Gerken was born in Hanover, northern Germany, in about Gallery). The deed of sale included a comprehensive statement 1822 and died at his Tai Tapu farm on 13 June 1882 aged 61. as to governance of the church, to be known as the “German He married Catherine Mary Elizabeth Evers and with her Protestant Church”, and since it was written in legal English was moved to London where he worked for some time before sailing probably not well understood by those whose first language was for Lyttelton on the “Cashmere” in about August 1855. They German; the congregation included adherents of the Evangelical arrived in Lyttelton on 24 October 1855 with three children, John Reformed Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The 6, Maria 3 and infant Anna Maria. Three more children were church was important to John – he spoke with emotion at the born in New Zealand; they were Frederick William, Catherine laying of the foundation stone in November 1872, he was one Elizabeth and Emily Bertha. of the first vestrymen, was a trustee of the property and donated Details of John’s working life in the first few years after arrival money towards the cost of the church bells cast in the Fatherland. are unclear, but he probably began by felling trees for timber and However, it was not long before doctrinal differences split the firewood. Certainly in October 1862 he offered firewood for sale congregation and despite efforts by John, other founding members from the Hoon Hay yards and later, in May 1865, sold firewood and the clergy, support fell away, the mortgage fell into arrears from his house opposite Shakespeare’s accommodation house and finally in 1881 the mortgagor put the property up for auction. (Ellesmere Arms Hotel) on Lower Lincoln Road (Old Tai Tapu It was sold to a solicitor bidding on behalf of an unnamed client Road) doubtless sourced from land he acquired during the early (John Gerken) who then asked those who wanted the church to 1860s which formed part of his Hanover Valley farm on Drain survive to subscribe towards its cost.6 The property did eventually (now Cossars Road) and Gerkens Roads1. However, he was always revert to the congregation, but by then John was no longer willing to supplement his income in other ways. In November involved with the running of the church and his life was to end the 1862 he sought compensation, in land, from the Provincial following year. Government, for work done on Burkes Bush Road and a month later he informed the Provincial Secretary that he was willing to Although it is said that he encouraged some Germans to migrate repair Hoon Hay Road in exchange for land equivalent in value to to New Zealand and that he helped them settle on arrival, it is the cost of his labour estimated to be £3002. Burkes Bush Road difficult to find any account of this in the public record. Certainly was never formed, but an old map shows it leaving Tai Tapu Road several, e.g. the Fieckens, came to New Zealand via London as the (Old Tai Tapu Road) at about Early Valley Road to rise directly Gerken family did and they may have met there and we know that towards Cass Peak before descending to meet an extended Holmes John sold land to migrant Germans when he no longer needed it.7 Road. Besides providing for his wife and children, he was generous to his sons-in-law in his will. Thus F.H. Ridder and Johann Heinzmann John began to acquire land soon after his arrival. In 1858 he were given the right to cut and remove timber from a 20 acre bought two ¼ acre sections in Christchurch and sold them five block on his farm (RS666) for twelve years after his death with the years later, but his first purchase of rural land was in 1859 when instruction that they were to do as little damage as possible to the he bought 26 acres in Halswell next to St. Mary’s church which he land and Johann Lindemann (Gustav Adolph) was bequeathed 27 sold within the year. During the 1860s he bought, mainly by way acres of RS3487 on the western side of Drain (Cossars) Road.8 of Crown grant, eleven rural sections on land fronting Cossars This unassuming man who landed at Lyttelton in 1855 with little and Gerkens Roads and on which he began to develop the farm to his name, died a man of substance leaving an estate valued at he named Hanover Valley. During this time he bought several £8052.10.0, in today’s money about one million dollars. John died other rural sections most of which he quit within two years of at Tai Tapu on 13 June 1882. purchase but one of about 11 acres just below Coopers Knob was retained to form part of his deceased estate. In 1871 he bought Neville Moar two further sections to increase the size of Hanover Valley farm to the 743 acres recorded in probate documents.4

There is uncertainty about his farming operation. In 1868 he advertised that 355 acres of his farm was available on lease for a Fanny FitzGerald period of seven years and that the leasee could work wooded areas on the property for a good return. Twenty years later Sam Griffith In Canterbury the first four ships’ Pilgrim Fathers acquired announced that his lease of John Gerken’s farm had expired and the status of legend. Why, asked one of Fanny’s friends, is ‘… that his stock, farm machinery and household furniture was to be nothing said about the Pilgrim Mothers?’ Yet they bore the same sold by auction.5 For a number of years then, it seems that the discomforts, hardships and privations, and in addition had to property was worked as two farms. Probate documents record that put up with the Pilgrim Fathers.’ I shall endeavour to rectify this when John died the property carried two six roomed houses, a to some degree. My main sources are Fitz by Jenifer Roberts, a four roomed house and two cottages, all with the usual outhouses professional historical writer and a great-great- granddaughter of such as dairy and stables so Hanover Valley farm must have been the FitzGeralds, and Edmund Bohan’s Blest Madman. a busy place. and was unable to disembark until three days later. Fitz’s priority was to be the first Pilgrim to set foot on Canterbury soil; a goal he achieved by literally leap-frogging over Dr Barker, who had the same ambition.

During the first two weeks Fanny was introduced to colonial life in the home of Charlotte and John Godley. There was no stove so meals were cooked over an open fire, and the constant intrusion of dust meant rooms had to be swept every few hours. Remember, Fanny had been raised in urban luxury. Servants had dealt with every aspect of domestic life. However, Charlotte Godley, who had been a lady of fashion in London, demonstrated ‘gaiety of spirit’ while ‘roughing it’, so Fanny had an inspiring example to follow. For Mrs Godley, however, the adventure lasted only two years; for Fanny nearly 50. Within that fortnight Fitz had purchased a mud cabin high above Lyttelton, which, according Wedding daguerreotypes (1850) of James and Fanny FitzGerald to one friend, was ‘perfectly inaccessible except by a crane.’ Days later they carried their possessions up the hill to what a delighted Frances Erskine Draper (Fanny) was born into a wealthy English Fanny said was ‘the most prettily situated house here and quite out merchant family in the free port of Odessa, Russia in March of the dust.’ This woman knew how to accentuate the positive. 1832. When she was ten they settled in London. Her father was a regular visitor to the British Museum and when Fitz began In preparation for colonial life the FitzGeralds had studied the work in the antiquities department their shared interest led to New Zealand Handbook, which advised on necessary skills and acquaintance with the Draper family. equipment. In addition to ‘luxuries’ such as water colours and Fanny was tiny; less than five feet tall and her betrothal ring just paper, woodcarving tools, their personal library, and some fine fits over Roberts’s little finger nail. A vivacious and intelligent clothes plus Fanny’s riding habit, they came with suitable clothing, child with a beautiful singing voice, she spoke and sang in 5 stout boots, utilitarian furniture, a Sussex grate which burned both languages, accompanying herself at the piano. She took her wood and coal, agricultural tools plus the springs and wheels for music seriously. a dogcart, fruit tree saplings, a milch cow, reference books and maps, cookery books, sewing materials, large quantities of soap Despite a 14 year age difference, she and Fitz shared a sense of and several cases of Jones’s patent flour which ‘makes excellent fun. They spent hours together, playing jokes, telling stories, bread without yeast or any time-consuming preparation’. She making music. He told her about the Irish potato famine, and his knitted a curtain during the voyage, to keep out draughts in a ideas for colonisation. He talked of art and ancient history; he Canterbury winter. Two days after moving into the cabin Fitz taught her musical theory; and would soon congratulate himself had the stove up and Fanny was baking ‘the best bread in town’. on ‘having in some measure helped to educate her mind’. He His physical energy matched his mental energy. He was already watched her develop into a thinking woman of 17. She was building an indoor kitchen and went on to build a sod cottage with also a ‘pretty, witty, fascinating little creature.’ (Years later, their shingle roof; a walled garden of 1.5 acres which contained fruit daughter Amy wrote that when she first left home she thought trees and potatoes; and a road up the hill. Fitz didn’t lack energy, people were stupid, then realised that they were normal but she but he did lack focus. Their precious cow died on her second day had been greatly blessed to have lived in a home full of fun and ashore; as he had forgotten the advice about poisonous ‘toot’ she the discussion of ideas.) roamed free overnight. Fanny adapted amazingly well to her new life, but she needed music to be part of it. She started a ‘glee club’ Three months after Fanny turned 18, Fitz, now Emigration Agent in Lyttelton. Its first recital and grand ball was held a mere seven for the Canterbury Association, asked her to marry him and weeks after the Charlotte Jane’s arrival. to embark on a life in Canterbury. Fanny worshipped her tall, handsome suitor and was happy to accept his proposal. However, Fanny and Fitz were comfortably settled, and she was pregnant. she was still a minor, unable to marry without her father’s consent. Mercurial James now developed a new obsession: sheep farming George Draper was incandescent with rage. He railed against was the route to prosperity! In 1852 he took up Run 134 in Fitz for having no money and proposing to take Fanny where partnership with two recent immigrants; within 2 years he had there was ‘no bed for her to lie in, no roof to cover her head.’ The bought them out and purchased Run 18. The Springs Station rift between former friends was never repaired. Fanny, however, was entirely his. January 1853 saw the FitzGeralds on the move. stood her ground and her father begrudgingly gave his consent Bullock drays carried their luggage; Fitz drove the dogcart - (his in-laws had had some reservations about him). The wedding presumably with 11 month old Amy as companion - while Fanny, was held on 22 August 1850. George Draper forbade his family in her riding habit, rode side-saddle on Midge, the pony her from attending and ordered the wearing of mourning dress in the husband bought for her personal transportation - the only luxury house, as if for a funeral. Only six guests attended; Mr Draper left she had for many years. Again, Fitz worked as one possessed as soon as he had given his daughter away. to turn the existing ‘barracks’ into a suitable home. In letters to friends he remarked that ‘both I and my wife are far happier The couple had experienced so much emotional turmoil before than at Lyttelton. My wife and child are quite well, Fanny indeed the wedding that it would be reasonable to expect that the much better than at Lyttelton which seemed to disagree with her remainder of this happiest of days would be spent in happy more and more.’ One of Fanny’s letters confirms that she was tranquility. However, Fitz was so pre-occupied with details of happy and Amy thriving. To another friend Fitz wrote: “I am their imminent departure for Canterbury that he wandered out blest with one of the rarest companions God ever gave a man for of the church and didn’t appear at their new lodgings until a a wife. A settler’s wife must not bear or put up with difficulties few hours later. (A friend escorted Fanny home.) Thus, Fanny and deprivations. To be perfect she must be blind to them or was introduced to the capricious behaviour with which she was enjoy them. My wife has no servant nor, anywhere to lodge one if to become very familiar. Fitz always had so much going on in she had. Fanny has to be her own servant and nurse her child and his head that thinking of others seldom occurred to him. The even makes all its clothes.’ Unfortunately, this became the norm Charlotte Jane sailed 12 days after the wedding, and arrived in for Fanny - and she had another 12 children. Lyttelton almost four months later. Fanny was confined to bed Life was busy and demanding. Despite some bouts of rheumatism with a migraine - an affliction which dogged her throughout life - Fitz’s spirits were high during their early months at the station. He declared himself happy to have escaped offices and office life. an irony after all those years of financial struggle. However, Canterbury was due to elect a superintendent in July, Contemporary sources agree that everyone who met Fanny loved and he declared his candidacy; he was desperate to prove himself. her, even those who felt her sharp tongue at times. The Press Fanny understood this, but wrote: ‘I fear that James will be chosen obituary praised her honesty, her concern for others, her influence Superintendent. I would so much rather he were a cow-keeper.’ for good in the political arena, her musical accomplishment, and James was elected for a four year term, and a month later he also the devotion she engendered in those whose lives she touched. became MP for Lyttelton in the general assembly, which met in The passing of pioneer women was rarely marked in such fulsome Auckland, the national capital at the time. obituaries, but Fanny deserved it. So much for station life. Election expenses, travel, accommodation, and living expenses for a fitting lifestyle soon Margaret Hannan exceeded Fitz’s income and money had to be borrowed. Fanny’s delightful life was turned topsy-turvy. The next several years were spent in Christchurch, Auckland, London and, eventually, Obituary Wellington, to oversee his health and to meet the demands of his various positions. Malcolm Gordon 4 June 1935 – 25 February 2017

In his obsession with politics Fitz was oblivious to other matters. He failed to notice that overwork and stress resulted in Fanny suffering constant headaches. She soon loathed politics because of how it affected her family - and she had a low opinion of politicians in general. Where-ever they lived, Fanny had to accept total responsibility for the household and be hostess to all James’s political visitors, while also coping with a hypochondriacal husband whose mood swings suggest bi-polarism, but 19th century medicine knew nothing of this condition.The summer of 1853-54 was spent at the Springs. Fanny was delighted; she began planting a garden. Never again, however, was this their main place of residence. In October 1862, after nearly 10 years since moving there, the Springs was sold and the FitzGerald connection severed. It was 12 years before Fanny again had a home she loved: Clyde Cliff in Wellington, where they spent the rest of their lives. Malcolm Gordon on a working bee at Pioneer Cottage Unusually for the times, all 13 FitzGerald children survived infancy. Fitz boasted that, other than Amy, they had never taken a drop of medicine in their lives. The lucky family, however, was to Small, cream and brown, Liffey Cottage stands at the north end become the afflicted family. In the space of 10 years five of their of “old” Lincoln, forming with its neighbour, the Union Church, children and a daughter-in-law died - the killers being pneumonia, a picture of past times. However, the little cottage was not diphtheria, meningitis, TB and kidney disease. In all these cases always there and would have been demolished had it not been Fanny acted as nurse. She went without sleep for days, sometimes for Malcolm’s far-sightedness, tenacity and keen sense of the weeks, on end; unsurprisingly she was often exhausted and unwell value of local history. In 1975 he set up the Liffey Cottage Action herself. It was not the custom of the day for women or children to Committee. With a dedicated band of helpers, Malcolm worked attend funerals, so Fanny stayed at home with her daughters and tirelessly, drumming up support for the two-pronged project: the younger sons, with the curtains closed. Less than a month after renovating of the sadly dilapidated cottage and having it moved to four year old Mabel’s death from meningitis, Fitz was required a new site. Besides giving up many hours of leisure time, (he was to travel to Australia, where he spent almost four months. Fanny a busy dentist), Malcolm also sacrificed a great deal of family time was left to grieve alone, and, of course, to manage the family and in order to see the project through to completion. On 25 February, household. 1977, Liffey Cottage was moved, free of charge, from Market Square to its new site in James Street. Music sustained Fanny. Where-ever she lived she sang and played piano for the enjoyment of herself and others. She staged The Liffey Cottage Action Committee did not die, but was fund-raising concerts and other musical events. In 1867 she amalgamated with the Pioneer and Early Settlers Association to organised her own public farewell to Christchurch, a concert in form the Lincoln Historical Society. Malcolm progressed through aid of the Female Refuge, at which she was a soloist. Later in life, the ranks: committee member, vice president and then president charitable causes occupied much of her time, particularly those in 2002, a position he held for four years. catering for the needs of women and girls. Key amongst these was the Alexandra Home for Friendless Women, the Levin Home Probably Malcolm’s most tangible achievement during that time for Orphaned Girls, the Female Servants Home and the Girls’ was the establishment, in the Pioneer Hall, of a gallery of historical Friendly Society. She did not, however, support the campaign for photographs, selected from the Historical Society’s extensive women’s franchise. collection. Assisted by a committee member, Malcolm pursued this project with his usual energy, commitment and attention Fanny’s life as a Pilgrim Mother was far from easy, and she had to detail. Expert help was called upon, notably that of a curator plenty to put up with with Fitz. However, their mutual devotion from the Christchurch Art Gallery who gave advice regarding cannot be questioned. She understood James and accepted him photograph selection and framing. The final result, after many as he was. She was the one constant in his life, and Bohan asserts months of work, was very well received and much enjoyed by that the credit for his achievements was largely due to the equally visitors. In 2005 Malcolm was made a life member of the society gifted Fanny’s strength of character. Fitz’s will is a testament to (by now the Lincoln and Districts Historical Society). This was a how he regarded his wife: she was his sole benefactor, executor fitting recognition of his thirty years of devotion to fostering an and guardian of his children - almost unheard of in 1896. Fanny awareness of local history and doing something about it. It could soldiered on, but she never got over his death. She died in 1900, be said that Liffey Cottage is his memorial. aged 68. By this time, all debts had been repaid and Clyde Cliff was mortgage free, with some of the land sold. Fanny’s estate was Farewell, Malcolm, Haere ra valued at what would be more than $NZ 1,000,000 today. Such Alison Barwick