Wednesday 27 March 2013

Harrington Bros Sawmill

We recently had a family history request about the Palmers of Waikouro. Jesse Palmer had been an engine driver at local sawmills. One afternoon, we piled into Peter Gutsell's truck and went on a hikoi around the area searching for the Ferdunlaw School, where Jesse's kids went to school, and the Harrington Bros sawmill where he worked. We found the school situated on private property but not Harrington's mill. If anyone knows where it was, please let us know.

With a little sleuthing in PapersPast, Google Maps and a book on sawmills, we were able to piece together this information. See this Google Map for a work in progress on Sawmills in the Longwoods.

What we learned is that Harrington Bros, like most sawmills moved around a bit as they chopped down various forest areas. These cleared areas were then sold for settlement, and the farming region that epitomises Western Southland expanded.

In 1899, Harrington Bros sold their Fairfax sawmill to McPherson and Co who had a neighbouring sawmill according to the Otago Witness.

Then in 1904, the Otago Witness reported, "Mr James Harper, near Otautau, has sold his 600-acre farm to Harrington Bros, sawmillers at a very satisfactory price." We think this is the mill at Waikouro.

A major fire happened in 1908, destroying the wooden tramlines and threatening the mill itself. A few months later, Harrington Bros sold their sawmill to the Southland Timber Company who had a mill adjacent to theirs.

In 1909, Harrington Bros bought Timpany Bros sawmill in Fairfax. We don't know where this mill was located either.
 
In 1920, "Harrington Bros, Otautau, applied for a new sawmill area, 255 acres and reserve 1345 acres, over sections 9, 10, 11, 14a, Blocks IV, VII, Aparima Hundred, and C.L. Block XV, Waiau S.D., under section 41 of the regulations. - Recommended for approval," according to the Otautau Standard, 9 Mar 1920.
 
So a simple family history question opens up more questions about the history of our area. If you have any information on sawmills, please come by and have a chat or drop us a line.
 
We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

New Shelves

As promised, here is a peek at the first set of shelves we've put together. It was easy to assemble and still needs to be fastened to the wall but the fun will be putting things away and basically reorganising the collection.

Thank you to the Southland Regional Heritage Committee for funding these shelves and for Dexion for supplying them.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Shelving

Our latest behind the scenes project is that we're going to get new shelving for our storage room. We got a generous grant from the Southland Regional Heritage Committee for steel shelving. We've ordered it from Dexion and are anxiously awaiting its arrival. Our current shelves are wooden and not very deep. They were from the time when the courtroom was used as the public library before the library moved to the SDC office. So the old shelves were really meant for books and are only about that wide. But we've got bigger objects to store and so these shelves are being replaced.

We've removed everything from those shelves and have some of it on display in the first room as you walk into the museum. There are old tools, work boots, household goods like clothing irons and roller skates. Have a gander if you are interested.

Will post pics as we get them.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Friday 1 March 2013

Join the Team

Has it been a month already? Summers are busy; so much to do and so little time. In light of this, we are openly inviting people to come and join the team. One of the most pressing jobs we have is to have people open the museum. If you have 2 free hours and would like to meet and greet visitors on a Wednesday or Sunday from 2pm-4pm, please do drop us a line.

If people aren't your thing, perhaps you'd like to do some cataloging or family research.

Make this the year that you got involved with the museum. See what we're up to and help make it a better place.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!