John Gerken, a Nineteenth Century German Fund Raising for the Hall Started Soon After

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.

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