Papatotara Early Farm Properties - Ward Family, Thomas and Catherine

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Papatotara Early Farm Properties - Ward Family, Thomas and Catherine: Rosalie Bennett née Ward, has donated these photo's and information on her grandparents, Thomas & Catherine Ward who had 8 sons, 7 of them are in the photo here. They had one more son after this, his name was Frank. Rosalie says, they lived in Papatotara and Tūātapere and her granddad was a Manager at Kilkelly's sawmill, they lived in a Kilkellys house at Papatotara. Her father was Eric, who is also shown in the family photo above. IMAGES: Photo 1 - Back Row, L-R: sons Thomas 1906 & Eric 1907 with Cecil 1909 Front Row, L-R: sons Ray 1911, Mum (Catherine) with baby Dallas 1921, Bert (Albert) 1916 & Dad (Thomas) with Bill (William) 1914 Born after this photo was taken, was baby Frank (Francis) 1923 Photo 2 - Thomas & Catherine's headstone at Tūātapere Cemetary SOME FAMILY HISTORY: Further to the above, Rosalie has sent in the following history on the family: (Tom WARD family of Papatotara – as recounted below by Bert, a grandson) “[Thomas snr.] he was a great man with the traction engines, with his sons he was contracting all the farmers crops. I can remember my father [Tom jnr.] saying it was very heavy and dusty work filling bags with chaff, going along narrow roads with their big machines. My Grandfather also had a farm at Papatotara, out from Tuatapere. My brothers and myself went to Papatotara School. A man by the name of Jack Baker bought Grandad’s farm in later years. He lived with his daughter Alice in Kennington later, they were farmers. Grandad used to come and stay with my Dad now and then at Tuatapere, where my father was manager of a big timber mill for Kilkelly Bros. Grandad was very keen on gardening. I remember Grandad thought he would enlarge Dad’s garden. There was a lot of very high dry fern around where the married houses were, anyway, Grandad decided to have a burn off, anyway it got away on him and by the time the fire hoses were got out, three houses burned down. It was not Grandad’s day. He always kept very good health." In Allan Templeton’s ‘Southwest Sawmills’ book, it has the following information on the Ward’s at Papatotara; “During the locy days a fire got away and burnt about 50 acres of bush, fortunately, not of very good quality. It has since been known as Kilkelly’s Clearing… Later, a rail tractor was brought in to use as a safety measure against fire, and it worked on a Maori block that is now part of Bill Caulfield’s farm. Over a time the mill’s six houses and two or three huts were occupied by several of the following workers: Phil Kilkelly, Gus Morton, Jim Jacobson, Charlie Donaldson, George Cook, Mick Dowling and his son Bob, Mathew and George White, Dave Rogers, Bill Barnett, Fred Fluerty, Jim Spain, Tom Boyle and his son Ray, Jim Johnson and his sons Mac and Phil and his daughter Violet (a box factory worker), Dan Ogilvy, Snow Egerton, a Mr Cahil, Bert Ackers the sawyer, Jim Stuck the head yardman, Tom Ward the manger and his son Eric, and Tommy Laurie a lorry driver. The mill also had a smith and smithy. The plant closed down for several years and Ned Cockburn, a relation of Kilkelly’s stayed as caretaker until it re-opened in 1942, after Kilkelly’s Otahu mill was burnt down. In its second life, the Terrace Road Mill cur only pinus for boxes. Logs were carted from as far as Spar Bush on a Rio Speedwagon driven by Micky Maloney, Tommy Laurie was also a lorry driver, while Jack King, a local carrier, carted the box timber to rail.” Above info from Rosalie Bennett. The Southwest Sawmill’s extract - and whole book on the district is available to view at CWArchive Heritage Hub. Just to make things confusing, Thomas (Tom) jnr., shown here with his family, also had a father Thomas (Tom) snr., who had married Margaret. They had at least 7 children, between the years of 1880 and 1889. Thomas James whose family is shown here, was their second child, and he was born in 1881. Then Thomas jnr. also had a son called Thomas, born in 1906, and he is shown here as well, being the eldest of this families children. It is of note that these parents of John James WARD, John & Margaret, were buried at Aparima Riverton Cemetery. Margaret was to die very young, at only 36 or 38, depending on if you believe cemetery records or her grave. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of the WARD family of Papatotara during the years, please do share this with us in the comments section. You can do this by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per the archive front page. Note: these entries are compiled with information provided by donors with the records, from locally reported news, from national and occasionally international reports in publications, from personal records made by the people themselves - such as their electoral enrollments, wills, war records etc., also from government and council held records such as births, deaths and marriages or cemetery information, and lastly, from community memories, such as those passed on by friends, family and contemporaries. It is not always possible to verify memories from others, so please let us know if you believe we have any incorrect information. If you believe that any public or personal record information quoted is wrong, if you can provide proof of any alternative fact to us in a document showing evidence of the correct details, that would be very helpful to us. Thank you.