Family History 3.05

Goodwin Story

An Old Document Continued

In 1925 a member of the Goodwin family copied this family history document again and added another paragraph:

"Robert Goodwin born 1837, died 1908.

Robert Goodwin came to Auckland new Zealand 1883. He married Fanny Smith at Kettering 1864. They had three daughters. One died, two are in New Zealand.

The eldest Julia married Fred Gaze draper, the younger daughter [Kitty] married George Henry Crocombe painter.

The eldest daughter had two children, Doris and Noel.

The other daughter three children, Leonie, Dolph and Frank.

Robert Smith 4th was born as aforesaid Aug 7 1805 and married in 1822 Sarah, daughter of Joseph Matlock. They had three children: Robert Smith the 5th born May 28th 1839 and two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah."

Before Robert and fanny left Kettering, their church leaders gave them a letter of "commendation" to give to any church they wished to join here. It reads:

 

"Kettering 26th Dec 1882

 

We heartily commend to the brotherly love of any church with whom he may desire to commune our friend Mr Robert Goodwin, who joined us in 1870, and has maintained amongst us unto this day a consistent Christian profession. We regret to lose both him and his family, and earnestly pray that the Divine blessing may rest upon them in their new home, and that they may find a sphere of comfort and spiritual usefulness.

 

Signed on behalf of the church-

 

H Beresford Robinson, Pastor

William Meadows Snr

William Stafford Jenkinson

John Bryan

Charles Pollard

David F Gotch

 

Deacons"

Beresford Robinson, their beloved Pastor, continued to write to the family for several years after they had settled in Auckland.

Here are some extracts from his letters:

 

"Fuller House

Kettering

31 Dec 1883

 

My dear little friend

 

Your kind little letter was very welcome, you may well suppose. I had thought so much of you on your voyage , and prayed that God would safely land you and continue to prosper you...."

 

(to be continued)

 

Family History 2.49

Bigelow Story

William's Family

 

I remember Jack as a gentle man, and a good teacher.

 

We did not have a lot to do with him or his family as I was growing up, because they lived a long way away, for most of the time teaching in Whakatane.

 

Previously, they had lived at Lepperton, near New Plymouth. When I met Margaret's parents for the first time, I discovered that Ruby had grown up in Lepperton and attended the school there. As we talked we discovered that Jack had been Ruby's teacher.

 

Not only that, but Ruby and her younger sister Betty had been friends and playmates of Jack's daughters, Margaret (later Cowie) and Beth (later Struther). Margaret and Beth's mother, our Auntie Josie, had grown up in Paeroa and Jack had met her while teaching there.

 

During the early twenties, while Jack was working as a pupil-teacher in New Plymouth, the Labour Party was being established in the more remote parts of the country, and the activist in Taranaki was Walter Nash, later Finance Minister and Prime Minister in successive Labour governments. Walter wanted Jack to enter politics more fully, but Jack declined.

 

After Whakatane, Jack was appointed Head of Ruawai District High School in Northland. At the end of my last year at Auckland Grammar he invited me to spend the study week before the Scholarship Exams with them, away from the busyness of Auckland (and the temptations to neglect my swat I guess). So I had a happy week in Ruawai studying during the daytime while Jack and Josie were working at school, and then being shown around their part of the world in the late afternoons.

 

Several of our Dreadon and Bigelow relatives had had farms in that part of the country, so it was interesting to be introduced to some connexions I didn't already know about.

 

Jack finished his working life as Head of Whangarei Primary School, and retired in Whangarei, where I visited them several times. 

 

***

 

Mary, of course, became my mother, so we know her a lot better. She needs several posts to herself!

 

***

 

Win was also an unknown quantity in my early childhood. I have written about the family holiday in Ashburton during the war just before Barbara was born; apart from that we knew about the Bird family, but had little contact with them.

 

Until Uncle Doug died of a heart attack. There was no widow's benefit in those days, and Win had four children to care for: Don and Derry, whose mother had been Doug's first wife, and Jenny, who was the daughter of his second wife. And Barbara, who was a babe in arms virtually.

 

With help from my parents, Win moved back home to Auckland and settled in Mt Albert. We spent lots of holidays with our new-found cousins and got to know them much better while growing from 10 to 20 years of age. Eventually I was honoured to be Don's Best Man when he married Fran.

 

***

 

Meantime, William had developed arthritis in one knee. In those days there were no joint replacement procedures; the only treatment was to fuse the bones. William had the operation and came to stay with us at Mt Albert while he recuperated.

 

I remember watching him pricking out little seedlings to put in the garden while he was with us. He misjudged how much he could cope with standing up, because he suddenly said "Crikey Crowbars!" and fell flat on his back with a resounding "Crack!" I ran to Mum, who came rushing out and helped Grandad back on to a chair. He always walked with a limp from then on; he had used a walking-stick for some years before his operation.

 

He grew old gracefully, often visiting us for Sunday dinner after church. He would come by bus to Papatoetoe and chat happily to Dad, holding forth about the sins of the First Labour Government (this was during the last years of World War II).

 

Eventually he died in 1951, when I was seventeen, and I can still vaguely remember his funeral, packed to the rafters, with people standing out side the little church as well, at Shackleton Road.

Family History 2.48

Bigelow Story

William back in Auckland

By 1917, Fanny's mother had died, so Joshua Robinson, her father, built a house for himself and Fanny and William and their children at 17 Banks Street, Mt Eden. The house has been demolished and replaced, but I well remember it from numerous visits when I was a boy. By that time Fanny too had died.

When it was built, the house was on the growing edge of development in the Auckland suburbs, with the tram line along Mt Eden Road being progressively extended, first to the Mt Eden shopping centre, then to Balmoral Road, where Banks Street is, and then to three Kings. William had a two minute walk to the tram stop on his way to work each morning.

In 1913, during the time of the Government's fight with the "Red-Fed" strike, William enrolled as a special constable, one of "Massey's Cossacks". He was, as we have seen, a life-long supporter of the Liberal Party, which morphed into National in 1936. His interest in politics was probably the most important legacy he gave me.

William in 1941

Back in Auckland, the family got involved in the Grange Road Baptist Church, which was the liveliest around at that time. Later, as the suburbs expanded southwards, he moved his attention to Shackleton Road Church, which is where I occasionally went with him. And when Mary married Noel in 1932 and they moved to Mt Albert, they joined the Sandringham Church, another branch of Grange Road.

William became the Treasurer of the Auckland Baptist Association (it was called Auxiliary in those days), a position which he held for 25 years. He also joined the Mt Eden Bowling Club, between the Mt Eden shops and the Training College buildings, There I went with him on several occasions as a small boy to watch him and his friends playing.

He was also Treasurer of the club for 25 years, until he finally left in protest when the club decided to open a bar. William was a life-long teetotaller and supporter of the Temperance movement, which is why he supported the Liberal Party.

Family History 2.47

Bigelow History

 

William and Fanny, my Grandparents

 

William was born in 1876, the eldest son of John Smith Bigelow and Mary Ann (nee Brown).

 

He grew up in an atmosphere of shipbuilding, entertaining visiting ships' crews, and the community associated with the Ponsonby Baptist Church. His family were keen on sports of all kinds, but were best known for their enthusiastic support of the West End Rowing Club.

 

After his education (Ponsonby School), William joined the staff of Sargood, Son and Ewen, an importing firm, as office boy. When I was a child he was still working for them, and Mum and I used to call to see him whenever we went to town.

 

He was by this stage the Chief Accountant, and we would call at the old building in Victoria Street, where in an open-plan office, with a raised platform in the centre, Grandpa would sit with his huge ledgers and other account books, surrounded by rows of clerks, all busy writing in similar large account-books. All accounts were kept by hand, in copper-plate handwriting. Grandpa had won prizes for handwriting when younger.

 

In 1902, he was promoted to the office of the firm in New Plymouth, which was then on the corner of Currie and Courtenay Streets, where the Newspaper office is now. (When I started working in New Plymouth I met a man in his nineties who had worked for Sargoods, and he told me he could well remember Bill Bigelow working in the office.)

 

A year or so before moving to New Plymouth, William had married Felicia Ann Tremain Robinson (see later posts for the Robinson story), who was sometimes known as Fanny.

 

In New Plymouth, they built a house at a new subdivision called Soleville, after the developer, David Sole, in a street called David Street. All the neighbouring houses have been replaced by the Taranaki Hospice buildings, as the Hospital was later developed nearby.

 

When  this house was removed, it was taken to a new site in Mountain Road (State Highway 3A), nearly opposite to Manutahi Road, which connects the village of Lepperton to the main highway. It still sits on that site, looking as good as new!

 

Their first child, John, was born later that year. In 1905, they had a daughter, Felicia Mary, and a few years later a second daughter, Winifred Amy.

 

William was fully involved in the life of the town. His name is still visible on the Honours Board of the West End Bowling Club as one of the original committee. He would have had to walk around ten minutes from his home to the club grounds in Cutfield Road.

 

If you search the newspapers of that era you will find his name occurring as a member of Rugby and Soccer teams, playing in tennis tournaments, and in lists of citizens supporting the election of the mayor.

 

He and his family regularly visited their folks in Auckland: the passenger lists of the steamer for Onehunga details their journeys up and down the coast.

 

In 1912, with Jack and Mary already attending a branch of West End School, at the time the largest school in Taranaki, William was transferred on promotion again, back to the Auckland office.

 

 

More sketches

In the last post about sketching, I told you about the workshop at Puke Ariki for New Plymouth people who wanted to work on their sketching together, led by Brian Gnyp. In a few minutes that afternoon, I did this, among others:

 

 

It shows the view of central New Plymouth from the steps of the museum.

 

Another day, from a photo of 2008, Plymouth from the Hoe, looking westward towards the hills of Cornwall, Mt St Aubyn to be exact:

 

 

 

Sometimes I have practised faces, using Kirk's very economical technique. Here is Sonny Bill Williams from an action shot in the paper:

 

 

One day I was delivering election publicity in Fitzroy, and paused to sketch the school gates in Barriball Street, at the centre of what was Henry Barriball's farm in the 1840s. Henry was Margaret's great-great-grandfather:

 

 

And finally an update on the hotel building site round the corner. Yesterday afternoon just at knock-off time:

 

 

 

 

 

Religious Journey Again

Part III

 

In 1993 John Hodder, who had been suffering from lung cancer for some months, died, leaving many of us shocked and numb. Tom Woods’s reaction was to do what he had to do, which was to step in and re-arrange the congregational set-up at Frankleigh Park so that he could service it without John. (I also agreed to assist the Polytech, where John had been a tutor, to fill his timetable for the rest of the year). We still regard John Hodder as one of the best friends we have had. 

 

Margaret and I were sad and concerned at the changes being made and at the same time were discussing with Nigel and Beryl Hayton, and one or two others, the possibility of starting a “liberal theology” home group. The elders at St Andrews did not want us to do this within the church structure. 

So when we shifted to Oakura we stopped attending church regularly. Instead we started our home Group with the Haytons, and pretty soon with Alison Tulloch and her daughter-in-law, Jackie Lambert, Russell and Pauline Rigby, and Ian and Phyl Tennent. The membership of the group has changed over the years, but Nigel and Beryl, and Phyl, still meet with us as do Mary and Barry Boekman from Inglewood. 

This Group, which has more or less aligned itself with the Sea of Faith position, has been a real support to us, and to other members. 

Over the nearly 50 years since 1965, I have moved to a completely materialistic position. I do not now, myself, place any credence in any of the supernatural ways of talking about the world. We all live by myths: stories of how the world works. My experience does not lend any support to stories which do not include evolution, or the importance of human ideals and efforts in improving the way the world operates. 

We became members of the Sea of Faith, and have attended several conferences. I was elected to the Steering Committee around 2000, and Chair from 2002 to 2004. We had a major part in the planning and operation of the Conference in 2003 in Inglewood. 

The Sea of Faith newsletters and conferences, and the books we were able to read, mainly those by Geering and Spong, have helped the two of us to think through our issues of doubt and myth, ideals and ethics. We have constantly supported each other in this journey, discussing our reading and thinking every few days at some stages, and sharing ideas with our home group when we met. We especially enjoy the practice of inclusiveness - accepting and appreciating the 'journeys' of other people whatever their background and spirituality.

Nowadays we have come through that process and the group is less regular in its meetings, but keeps closely in touch, and celebrates together when there is an occasion, and supports together when needs must. When we need help, the group members are our first port of call outside our family. 

Someone, a member of Sea of Faith too, asked me the other day whether we still call ourselves Christian. I hesitated, and then replied that we regard ourselves as Christian, and Muslim, and Hindu and Buddhist, and I should have added atheist as well.

Religious Journey Continued

 Part II

St Andrew's, New Plymouth

So Margaret began looking for another church, and went to St Andrews Presbyterian to a morning service. She was impressed by the sermon preached by Rev Tom Woods, and by the friendly and sensible welcome remarks she was given by one of the elders, Nigel Hayton. 

In particular, she liked Tom Woods’s summary of Christianity: what did Jesus say? “Follow me”. And so she joined St Andrews and before long was elected a pastoral elder and was visiting several parishioners regularly. Not being prepared to stay home when Margaret and Matthew were going to church, I accompanied them, though did not become a member of the church. 

I did pick up my old organ-playing hobby, however, and managed to get time to practise both at St Andrews and at the Anglican St Marys, both interesting instruments. So I became one of the reserve organists for services and other occasions, like funerals or weddings, at St Andrews. I also made myself available to assist the organ-tuners when they visited, which was an interesting side-line. 

A good deal of what went on I ignored, or translated in my head into my more humanistic and materialistic version of life. I concentrated on the music, and supporting Margaret and the children in whatever they were involved in. Around 1985, Margaret became the secretary to the minister, a part-time job where she worked in the church office in the mornings. 

A couple of years after that, Tom Woods took a trip to America and came back with a grand new idea for a youth activity. Margaret and I agreed to help launch this as a pilot scheme for Intermediate-age children at St Andrews. On Friday evenings we would all meet in the Church hall, with about forty children and several adult volunteers helping. We would play games for a while and then serve the children dinner, provided by a roster of church households. 

After dinner there were small group bible lessons, and then a craft programme, followed by a closing session about 9 pm. This programme became very popular for a whole year, but was so time-consuming I felt unable to continue the second year; Margaret however continued to co-ordinate it for another year, while I had moved to the Taranaki Base Hospital to work there. This youth programme really needed a 20- hour per week youth worker to keep it going, so a full-time Youth Minister was employed.

Around this time volunteers were needed to help at the branch congregation at Frankleigh Park, so we decided to move our effort up there. 

The congregation was small, around forty people, and it was advertised as a Community Church. The leader was Dr Ron Hamer, retired Elder Care Specialist, who became a good friend. Margaret was asked to start a Sunday School, and I took a turn at the organ, a small electronic model. 

Soon after our shift, a new  part-time Assistant Minister was appointed; Rev John Hodder, who was already a Prison Chaplain and Polytech Tutor. His main responsibility was looking after the Frankleigh Park congregation, taking the services, and supporting the parishioners in that area. John became a good friend. He was less conservative in practice than Tom, but theologically less liberal. Not that that worried him or us.  We were able to work together easily, trying to make the congregation a source of support for a variety of people in the locality. 

In 1988 the 125^th anniversary of St Andrews was celebrated; I contributed the words for several hymns and an anthem, with music provided by Ron Smith and Lionel Hall.