Gold site gives 'taste' of ancestor's life

Hilary Rowlands and her husband Chris (right), guided by historian Lloyd Carpenter (centre),  ...
Hilary Rowlands and her husband Chris (right), guided by historian Lloyd Carpenter (centre), inspect one of the quartz mine shafts at Welshtown, where her great-grandfather worked.
Hilary and Chris Rowlands  in front of a miner's cottage  at Welshtown. Her great-grandfather...
Hilary and Chris Rowlands in front of a miner's cottage at Welshtown. Her great-grandfather lived in the town for two or three years, 150 years ago - "and maybe this was his home, who knows?" she said. Photos by Lynda Van Kempen.

The discovery of a battered old letter written by her great-grandfather 150 years ago started Englishwoman Hilary Rowlands on a journey which ended with her retracing his footsteps at Welshtown this week. ODT Alexandra bureau chief Lynda van Kempen reports.

Englishwoman Hilary Rowlands this week toured the remains of the mining village at Bendigo - between Cromwell and Tarras - where her great-grandfather, Charles Lawson, lived and worked as a miner and said the experience was "amazing".

Seeing the site nearby where he died in 1884 moved Mrs Rowlands to tears and was the highlight of her first trip to New Zealand.

"Standing in this place 150 years after he was here and seeing the place he lived, and the houses he might have lived in, and the mine where he worked ... it's given me a taste of his life. This has been amazing."

"From his letters home I know he was happy and loved it here and, although it was a tragedy he died here, we know had things gone differently he dreamed of bringing his family out here to join him.

"I think he'd have been pleased to think that his great-granddaughter has visited this place," Mrs Rowlands said.

She and her husband Chris, who accompanied her on her trip, live in the village of Broadway in Worcestershire.

"This all started when I found a letter after my mum died, in one of her old handbags; a really battered old letter that said Bendigo, New Zealand.

"It was so battered it was hard to read but I knew someone in our family had come out to New Zealand. I started to research my family tree and it all followed on from there ... "

She wrote to the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust, and was eventually put in contact with gold rush historian Lloyd Carpenter, of the University of Canterbury.

Mr Carpenter's PhD thesis examines how the Central Otago gold rush 150 years ago shaped this country's culture, society and literature.

Corresponding with Mr Carpenter filled in some of the "gaps" in Mrs Rowlands' family history.

In return, letters Mr Lawson wrote to his family while he was Welshtown "painted a picture" and had provided valuable information for historians, Mr Carpenter said.

"In one letter, he talks about how the homes here had vegetable and flower gardens, how the residents kept fowls and goats for milk.

That kind of information is incredibly important for how we as historians view the landscape.

To know the people here had gardens and goats for milk changes this for us, from a heritage landscape into a community."

The information breathed life into the village's history, he said: "You no longer think someone lived in that house; you think maybe it was Charles Lawson that lived in that house."

Mrs Rowlands was grateful for all the help from Mr Carpenter, who guided the couple around Bendigo and Cromwell this week.

They said Mr Lawson was a Norwegian sailor who changed his name from Karl Larsen to Charles Lawson to get around a "stigma" about foreigners in England and gain work there.

He married Bertha O'Gorman, who died of consumption not long after giving birth to their second daughter, also called Bertha, which was Mrs Rowlands' grandmother's name.

"They hit hard times after his wife died and the children were sent to other family members to look after. My granny used to talk about being an orphan," Mrs Rowlands said.

Mr Lawson was offered work in New Zealand in the quartz mines at Bendigo.

He obviously loved Central Otago and wrote in letters to his family about the contrast between his new home and "dirty old Liverpool".

"I think this place would remind him somewhat of his home in Norway," Mrs Rowlands said.

He progressed quickly through the ranks at the mine during the two or three years he was there, and finished as a leading hand.

In his letters, Mr Lawson talked of the mine shaft being 450 feet (137m) below the surface and climbing the ladder taking "all the wind you have and more" after a hard day at work.

A photograph of him and excerpts from one of his letters to family feature on an interpretation panel at the historic reserve at Welshtown, beside one of the mining shafts where he worked.

"That was a surprise, but a pleasant one, " Mrs Rowlands said.

"I guess you forget that, as well as being a letter, it's actually a historic document."

Mr Carpenter was also able to provide information about Mr Lawson's death in 1884, compliments of a report in the Cromwell Argus newspaper. As well as working in the mines, Mr Lawson had been doing extra work at O'Donnell's Store in the nearby Bendigo gully.

He had been working at the store, helping to hoist the carcass of a cow when the hoist got stuck.

"He climbed up to free it, and fell and died, " Mr Carpenter said.

It was ironic such an accident had claimed Mr Lawson's life, when his main source of income was as a quartz miner - a difficult and dangerous job.

Later in the trip, Mrs Rowlands laid flowers at a memorial at the Cromwell cemetery, which included her great-grandfather's name among the others listed.

He is buried in the cemetery but his grave is unmarked.

- lynda.van.kempen@odt.co.nz

 

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