JANE PATERSON OR DUNLOP (continued)
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Oamaru and thereabouts.
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The impression left by the two obituaries is that Jane and Gavin could have spent very little time in
Port Chalmers after landing there, and must have moved on almost immediately. Clearly they were
in Dunedin on 15 September 1860, when Jane gave birth to their second child, son Alexander.
Perhaps Alexander's birth was the only reason for their being in Dunedin, or perhaps
Gavin did work there briefly before taking up his appointment with James Hassell of Cave Valley.
Jame Hassel of Cave Valley, Whitestone, was a sheep farmer. (Cave Valley is only a few miles inland from Oamaru. Whitestone, it is understood, was so called because of the white limestone found there. The limestone made excellent building material, and many of the buildings in Oamaru were built using it. Apparently, at one time Oamaru was known as the 'White City by the Sea' because of the extensive use made of the white limestone for building.) The 1860 sheep returns for Oamaru (provided by W. H. S. Roberts in, The History of Oamaru and North Otago, New Zealand: From 1853 to the End of 1889. [1890]) show that James Hassell then had 4500 sheep. In 1861 that number was down, for some un-stated reason, to 2100; in 1867 he had 3000; and in 1869 he again had 3000. Hassell appears to have taken an active part in local agricutltural affairs, and was on the committee of the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association in 1866. |
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Jane and Gavin named their first child George after, it is assumed, his paternal
granfather, their second Alexander after, presumably, his maternal grandfather, and they
named their third, Gavin, after, it would seem, his father. Gavin was born in Oamaru,
on 2 February 1862. Why, one might ask, if Gavin senior was working with James Hassell
at Cave Valley, was Gavin born in Oamaru, and not in Cave Valley? In fact, although
James Hassell was a sheep farmer at Cave Valley, he was also, in 1860, the owner of a store
Tyne Street, Oamaru, and in 1866, a flourmill in Rother Street, Oamaru. It is clear
that James Hassell was as firmly established as a flour miller and trader in Oamaru, as he
was as a sheep farmer in Cave Valley. He was also, it might be noted, the President
of the Mechanics Institute in 1866, and the first person to build a windmill in Oamaru.
In other words, although James Hassell of Cave Valley employed Gavin Paterson to
work for him as a labourer, it was in Oamaru, and not at Cave Valley.
The couple's fourth child, and first daughter, Elizabeth B Paterson (it is not known what the B stands for) was born in Totara on 18 April 1863. If the obituary of 1917 is correct, then Gavin was still working with James Hassell when she was born. Totara, and Taipo, where Jane gave birth to her fifth child, John, on 15 October 1864, adjoin each other, and are a few miles south of Oamaru. They are, as far as this writer can make out, quite in the wrong direction for James Hassell's property in Cave Valley. But they are in the precise area where Gavin Paterson, according to oral tradition, worked for Teschemaker as a shepherd. It is thought possible that perhaps the obituary was not quite correct when it stated that Gavin Paterson worked for Hassell for six years. Perhaps he was already working for Teschemaker in 1863. It is known that there were two Teschemakers who were sheep farmers in 1862: William Henry, and Charles D. They were brothers, and farmed together for a time before Charles left for Nelson in the far north of South Island. In fact, William Henry together with his partner, Edwin F Rich had, in 1854, driven a large flock of sheep overland from Nelson to Totara, where they finally settled and built their home station. The distance covered was some 300 miles, and was an arduous undertaking. It is not known exactly when Charles D Teschemaker returned to Nelson, but it is assumed that Gavin Paterson worked for William Henry Teschemaker. From the sheep returns provided by W. H. S. Roberts it can be seen that in 1860 W. H. Teschemaker had 6000 sheep; in 1861 he had 8500, and in 1867 he had 14500. Like James Hassel, William Teschemaker took an active interest in the local agricultural society, and was a committee member of the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association in 1866. Jane gave birth to her sixth child and fifth son, Thomas William Pateson, on 23 April 1866, in Totara, and it is assumed that Gavin Paterson was then working for Teschemaker as a shepherd. |
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