Three generations of the family gathered in the town recently to celebrate their link to the historic English oak tree in Centennial Ave. It was planted by James Colin Walker in memory of his father, Thomas, who died in a dredging accident in 1907.
A plaque outlining those details was placed on the oak, which is listed in the Central Otago district plan as a protected tree.
James Walker's children - Colin Walker, of Wellington, and Fiona Lundy, of Wanaka, were on hand, as were several cousins - Peter Walker, of Christchurch, who was James' nephew and Peter's sons, Jeremy, of Invercargill, Warwick, of Wellington, and Steve, of Auckland, together with Jeremy's son Reuben, also of Invercargill.
"I thought it was a good idea to do something to mark why the tree was planted," Peter Walker said.
He had three or four trips to the town to research the family background and received much help from the staff at the Central Stories complex and also from local historian Joan Stevens.
James had collected an acorn while on a school trip to the Queens Gardens in Dunedin and planted it in the garden at his Centennial Ave home, Ms Lundy said.
One of the old cottages on the current site was the original family home. James' father, Thomas, emigrated to this country from Scotland in 1879, she said.
The death of Thomas on September 26, 1907, was reported in several newspapers and was front-page news.
The Otago Witness October 2 issue said a telegram had been received from Alexandra stating a man named Thomas Walker, 38 years of age, was accidentally drowned when leaving the "Enterprise" dredge on September 26.
His body was "dredged up by the Manuherikia's dredge this afternoon, the body coming up in the buckets", the Otago Witness correspondent reported.
Thomas was survived by his wife and four children - Peter, Mary, James and George. The eldest child, Peter, was the only one at school at the time and the other three were all pre-schoolers.
James, who planted the tree, became a bank manager and part of his role involved hand-signing banknotes for the Bank of Otago. He married Margaret Nicholson of Ettrick and the couple retired to Waikanae in the 1960s.
The family members who placed the plaque on the oak tree said the specimen was a "spectacular" legacy.
They all took seedlings of the tree or acorns from it to plant at home and said they all continued to retain strong links with Central Otago.
