Happy Holidays - remembering this day 100 years ago...

 To see more about the above, visit: https://museumhack.com/10-best-museum-holiday-events-2018/

*******

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2019, from the trustees and volunteers at Otautau Museum & Heritage Trust, with happiness, peace and blessings for this season and beyond.

We are opening as usual over the holidays for you to view the current exhibitions - currently "100 Years of WW1 Commemoration" and "Celebrating the Women of Otautau & Districts", every Sunday afternoon from 2-4pm or as below. And from January 2019, we will have a Family History and Research assistant at the Museum to help you with any inquiries about your family or other town and district research, on the first Sunday of the month, the first date for this being Sunday 6th January. So please come in and see us.

REMEMBERING THIS DAY 100 YEARS AGO: WESTERN STAR, 20 DECEMBER 1918

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You're always welcome at our place on Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request on other days, just contact us on Email: collections.otautaumuseum@gmail.com  Cell: 027-211-4675 or Ph: 03-225-8991

James Family Reunion

Today, the James Family held their reunion in Otautau, stopping first in Aparima where the early pioneers settled.

Aparima Church. Source: The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection—Cyclopedia of New Zealand 

They visited the old Aparima School, now Southern Naturally, and the Methodist Church which is now a derelict building.

Aparima c.1920, the school, the store & post office, and the church on the far right.

With over a hundred descendants in the group, they split into two when they got to Otautau to visit both cemeteries, the museum and to have lunch at the Otautau Hotel.

Vic Keen showing a school photo from 1940 to James' descendants.

We didn't have a lot in our collection on the James Family or Aparima so we borrowed some of the School Jubilee photos that were hanging in the Aparima Hall. In addition, we had Mrs Grace Brass' painting of the Fairview estate, seen in the background of the above photo. The home was originally owned by the James Family. Mrs Brass painted it in 1974. As a bonus, I got to meet Mrs Brass' daughter who was also part of the group.

Many thanks to Graeme Clent for organising the reunion and including us in their itinerary. It was a pleasure having these folks at the museum.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Research Enquiries

We've had two family history research enquiries lately.

Corkhill Maternity Home
We had an email requesting the date that Louisa Corkhill's maternity home on Elles Road burned down. We've explored a few avenues but not have come up with a specific date yet. If you know, please contact us, and we'll forward the information.

George A. & Rebecca Wohlman (or Wohlmann)
George owned the Railway Hotel for a little while then went into farming. George died in 1899, and Rebecca in 1925. They are buried in the old Otautau cemetery. If you know of this family, please get in touch by emailing the Museum.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Family Enquiries

Yesterday, we were visited by the granddaughter, great-granddaughter and great-grandson of Dan & Johanna Lynch. Originally from County Kerry, Ireland, Dan & Johanna arrived in Auckland on the ship, Hydaspes, in 1873. They spent a little time in Gisborne but spent all of their years in Otautau.

Dan was one of the early blacksmiths of the town. His shop on Main Street was approximately where the St John and Simple Systems buildings are now. The picture above shows Dan standing next to a white horse at his former blacksmith shop which had been taken over by Sheedy in 1913.

Dan also ran the mail service from Otautau to Scotts Gap with a horse and buggy. He was known for his reliability regardless of the weather. The white horse is the last to have been used for the mail run.

Dan died in 1919, age 80; Johanna in 1931. They had seven sons, who at various times played on the Otautau Football team.

It's always wonderful to meet the descendants of early settlers, and this visit was no exception.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Research Enquiries

Can you help us with these family history enquiries?

Thomas & Julianna Price
A descendent of the Price's asked which hotels they owned. We were able to find out that they owned the Otautau Hotel in 1875. Thomas died in 1879 but Julianna owned the Crown Hotel in 1884. She also owned the Wairio Hotel around that period. While Thomas had planned to build a hotel on the Otautau-Riverton railway line, his son was listed as the owner of the Fairfax Hotel before it burned down in 1881.

So this leaves us with the question as to who built the Otautau Railway Hotel. Alistair McLachlan of the Wallace Early Settler Association in Riverton says it was a man named Smith. Do you know more about that?

George & Christina Kelly
Our next enquiry was from a woman wanting to know about a house owned by George & Christina Kelly who used to live on Clitheroe Street. George became the Wallace County Clerk in 1916. He was then called to serve in World War I. He became ill and didn't finish training and was given his clerk job back.

The house in question is not a typical Otautau house. I've asked around and have heard it might've been in Winton, Invercargil or Gore. But no one thinks it was in Otautau. Have you seen this house? If so, where is it? Or, if you know anything about the Kelly's and their time in Otautau, please let us know.

John & Jessie Johnston
Our next enquiry was for John Smith Johnston and his wife Jessie Isabella (nee Walsh or Welsh). John came over from Scotland and died in 1920, age 79. They lived in the Yellow Bluff area along the Aparima River. After John died, Isabella seems to have moved to MacAndrew Street.

Three of their boys served in World War I, and one of them, Peter, died at Passchendale in 1917. He's listed on the Otautau War Memorial.

If you know anything of interest to these family history researchers, please contact us so that we can pass the information along.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Research Enquiries

This week people we received two new research enquiries. We were of no help to one and some help to another.
The Winton A&P Show
A book is going to be written about the Winton A&P Show in the near future so people are gathering information now. Winton is out of the museum's district so we had nothing significant for the researchers. But we know that many local farmers would've shown their stock at the Winton A&P and may have a lot of stories to share. The Wallace A&P stopped running several years ago, but the Winton A&P keeps going.

The Densems
Rev. George and Mrs Alice Densem lived in Otautau roughly between 1937 and 1942. They lived in the Methodist Manse on Lieman Street. We verified to their grandson that one of his old photos was this manse and provided a transcription from the Otautau Standard for an anniversary service that was given in 1938. In addition, I photographed the manse and Methodist Church building as they are today and passed them on to him.

If you have further information on these enquiries, please contact us, and we will put you in contact with these folks. Thanks!

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

August Update

Women's Probus

This has been an eventful month at the museum. On the 19th, we hosted a presentation and morning tea for the Winton Women's Probus Group. Their bus stopped at the hotel, and they took a stroll through the town, checking out shops and gifts stores on their way to the museum. One by one they came into the big meeting room which we had prepared for the event. We wanted to feature some of the things in our collection that don't normally get put on display so we had a few women's dresses from the 1920s, petticoats and pantaloons along with some very fine lace collars. We also had our large scrapbooks from the Women's Division of Federated Farmers Otautau Branch on display, as well as part of the Pipe Major's uniform from our Otautau & District Pipe Band collection.

Graham Barkman welcomed our guests, and I gave a brief presentation on how we care and store our clothing and photographs. Afterward we had morning tea and lots of conversation. It was great fun and left us museum people buzzing. We hope to see these women back here again soon.


Family History

The very same morning that the Women's Probus were here, we had a gentleman here from Australia researching his family history. His great, great-grandfather, James Mackintosh, was one of the early pioneers and landowners of the Gladfield estate and surrounds. He actually had far more information than we had so we encouraged him to email us a copy when he had time. But, as our current display is of the Bayswater Gladfield area, I think he enjoyed looking at pictures and studying the maps.

We continue to get 2-3 inquries a month of people looking for information on their Otautau & District ancestors. This is a growing field for us, and we are seeking volunteers to help us do the research. If you like digging through the past and helping others make ancestral links, please contact us.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Visitors are a Treasure

We've had some great visitors this week - both are relatives of very early residents, in fact two of Otautau's best known women writers: Winifred Gonley Davin, and Margaret Elizabeth McKay who wrote Customers and Green Men. These early families, the Gonleys and the Mathesons, represent the Irish and Scottish roots of Otautau.

The visitor from Ireland wanted to find out more about the Gonleys who were here about the turn of the century. Dominic Gonley was the nephew of Michael Gonley who owned a hairdressers and stationer shop on Main Street, about where the fish and chip shop is. Rather tragically, though, Dominic ended up enlisting for WWI and was killed in 1917. Michael and Winifred Gonley's daughter, Winifred, became a writer and married Dan Davin. That's a whole story in and of itself!

Our visitor ended up telling us more about the Gonley family history than we could tell her, but the good thing is she allowed me to record her. It's a fascinating story that includes a bit of Irish history, bare-knuckle boxing, and settling in Otautau. With our visitor's permission, I will make a transcript for our biography file and make the audio available at the museum if anyone wants to listen to it.

Our second visitor is a granddaughter of Ewan Matheson who was a storekeeper on Main Street, about where the CRT store is. I gave her a quick tour of the Holt Park exhibition which is our current display. One of her early jobs was to clean the courthouse so I showed her around the building, and she had a few stories to tell. It was a pleasure to hear her stories of living in Otautau in the 1940s and '50s.

This is certainly one of the best perks of volunteering for the museum, getting to meet people who have something to share about the town. If you have something to share do contact us.

Your comments are always welcome!