Cemetery tours in Dannevirke and Woodville uncover the past

The last Settlers Cemetery Walk was held on March 10 and attracted plenty of interest. Photo/Scotty Bond

Well-known local names and some not so well-known will be the focus of Sunday's Dannevirke Settlers Cemetery Walk organised by the Friends of the Cemetery.

The first Settlers Cemetery walk was held on May 26, 2008 when a hardy team and guests with umbrellas at the ready carried out their walk and cut the cake.

In the intervening years tours have covered a variety of people and outlined their contribution to Dannevirke or acknowledged some of the sadness which illness, accidents, and tragedy brought.

On Sunday, for the first time, concrete bases and plaques which will be used as a lasting memory to those who are interred at the cemetery but for whom time has taken a toll on their original headstones, will be uncovered.

The Friends of the Cemetery extend special thanks to Prenters Ready-mix Concrete and Dannevirke Mitre 10 for their donation of goods and services towards the concrete bases.

They also acknowledged William E Jones, stonemasons of Palmerston North, who are providing the granite plaques at a reasonable cost.

With family members who are purchasing plaques themselves to acknowledge their ancestors, the Friends of the Cemetery are able to extend the number of memorials they can provide.

For more information regarding these make contact with the Friends of the Cemetery on Sunday.

On Sunday's walk, A'Bear, a name dating back to the 1600s in England, is acknowledged in the cemetery.

How did this family make its mark?

Hermansen and Walker are names long known in the town but where did they come from?

Mary Slade and her son Alexander, and Peter Anderson will be acknowledged on Sunday by their families and Caroline Wright will also share the limelight.

Join the Friends of the Cemetery at 2pm on Sunday at the Dannevirke Settlers Cemetery, Dagmar St.

For more information contact Sharyn Burling on 06 374 7381.

A Woodville Cemetery tour is also planned for Sunday, starting at 2.30pm, organised by Friends of the Cemetery under Woodville Art and History (Museum).

It will feature the story of John Meacheam who died on April 30, 1891, aged 42, at his home on Napier Rd, just north of what was the Papatawa railway station.

John arrived in Wellington on the Berar in January 1875 with his wife Rosa, 26.

Passenger records show John was 28, and a farm labourer from Buckinghamshire.

They travelled up the coast to Foxton in a small boat but travelled from there to the site of Palmerston North on a horse drawn train.

They stayed in Summerhays Cottages which had been built for immigrants.

John was given the job of ploughing up what is now known as Broadway to plant wheat.

He was allocated a bush section on the Manchester Block, near Feilding, but the bush daunted him so he went through the gorge to Woodville and chose a 40-acre section at Papatawa (then called Victoria) as it had only manuka on the hills which was easier to cut down.

His son Bill was born in Palmerston North on December 10, 1876 and brought through the gorge on a horse in his mother's arms.

John had a job of carting totara from the Ormond Estate and went out bush felling with George Hutching.

John caught pneumonia when working in the bush and died.

Others graves visited will be Cradoc Davies, a tailor, who had built the two-storey building now used as a café in Woodville's Vogel St, and RT Clarke who was secretary of the Woodville Bacon Company from 1901 to 1905. He was also very involved in the community before his death.