Liz Cowan
When Ōtorohanga Museum director Liz Cowan read the final resting places of two early settlers were unrecorded she thought otherwise.
The start of a farm in the King Country
Exley Roberts’ accidental drowning in about a metre of water on Waitomo Valley Road in October 1907, featured in King Country News columnist’s Meghan Hawkes’ Tales from the Passed on August 21. Nine months later William Cass Stephenson had suffocated after a fit on the same farm, Hawkes wrote.
See: Sad end for settlers
“Where Exley, who came to New Zealand to make a home for his young family, and William, who was on the verge of a new life here, were buried is unrecorded,” Hawkes concluded.
But when Cowan read the piece Roberts and Stephenson’s names seemed familiar.
George Thomas Wilkinson gravestone
“When I read that their burial place was unknown, I checked our old map and found them buried side by side,” Cowan said.
“Exley Roberts in Plot #103 and William Cass Stephenson in Plot # 102.”
Both settlers graves are unmarked, between Royston James Pigott and John Young’s, graves adding an extra layer of poignancy for Cowan.
“It’s the row staring with the large obelisk for George Thomas Wilkinson,” Cowan said.
“We found the map amongst a large selection of old plans and maps. It’s very fragile and we’ve had it digitised and printed to protect the original.”
Ōtorohanga Museum, run by the town’s historical society, is working with Ōtorohanga District Council to move the historic Rewarewa Schoolhouse onto its site from Barber Road 21kim away.
The century old schoolhouse is thought ideal for workshops like Māori weaving, art and tai chi.
Liz Cowan
