ROBYN PARKES
Ellen Edith Trower was born in April 1856 in Wakefield. Her mother, Mary Ann Cole, a widow, arrived in New Zealand in 1842 on board the Lord Auckland with her two sons William and Thomas.
In 1844 she married Thomas Noel Trower who had also arrived in Nelson in 1842. In mid-1855, Thomas advertised that he had taken over the Wakefield Arms at Lower Wakefield and offered accommodation and good stabling. Two years later Hooper and Dodson were advertising the Inn, consisting of a large house with stabling, garden and 25 acres of land for let, and in October it was taken over by Thomas Dulling. Thomas and Mary Ann both died in 1868.
At the age of 18, in 1873 Ellen married Joseph Gibbs in St Johns Church, Wakefield. The Gibbs family came to New Zealand in 1842 on board the Bolton.
For a few years the family lived in Nelson before shifting to Brightwater where they took up Southdown Farm, of 630 acres at Wakefield. Joseph was born in 1853 being the eighth child of Isaac and Mary Ann. Following Ellen and Joseph’s marriage the couple moved to Longford, near Murchison, carving out a life from virgin bush along the banks of the Buller River. Life was tough with the isolation, non-existent bridges, and only bridle tracks for roads with most travel completed by packhorse.
The couple had 17 children with the first seven being born in Wakefield and then taken back to Longford via Tophouse by packhorse which took around three days.
In the 1880’s they returned to Southdown Farm and Joseph took over the control of its management. It was here that another 10 children were born. Sadly, they lost three babies, Charles, Noel and Julia in 1885, 1890 and 1899 respectively. Joseph remained working on the farm for some 30 years but as he got older the farm passed onto his sons and he and Ellen moved into Wakefield village.
He played a vital part in the establishment of the Wakefield Library, giving the land for the site on the main road. At Easter in 1915, Joseph and some of his sons went to the Rainbow area via Tophouse for a deerstalking trip. While there he died suddenly and was brought back to Wakefield for burial at St Johns, Wakefield.
The large family would certainly have rallied around Ellen as she grieved for her husband but sadly, she faced the deaths of two more of her children within three years of Joseph’s death. Denis Conrad died in 1918 at France and John Isaac died in 1917 at Belgium, both due to World War One.
Ellen continued to live in Church Valley, a short distance from the Wakefield village, and in May 1936 she celebrated her 80th birthday with friends and over 70 descendants. Ellen lived for another four years, passing away in December 1940, and was buried beside Joseph.
