Annie Coughlan

Telegrams and flowers from friends and relatives were sent to Mrs. Annie Coughlan, when her 90th Birthday was celebrated last Saturday 28/8/1961.

Born on August 28, 1871, the second daughter and the fifth child of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.

Mrs. Coughlan emigrated to New Zealand with her family arriving at the Port of Bluff when she was three years, after a long voyage in the sailing ship, the William Davis. The family settled at Seaward Bush where Mr. Rogers was employed at the local sawmill. Later, they moved to Otautau, and Mrs. Coughlan became one of the first pupils at the Otautau school. Her father worked for Captain Ellis at Merrivale and she remembers the emus on the station and also when the first sparrows were liberated in the district.

When she left school, Mrs. Coughlan worked for a tailor and in 1891 married Joseph Hyrum Coughlan also originally from England. Mr. and Mrs. Coughlan and their family with the Erskine family were the first settlers to take over bush farms at Papatotara.

She remembers when the first deer were liberated in the district, and recalled the days when a visit to Invercargill meant crossing the Waiau on horseback and, then a ride to Orepuki, the railway terminus. The nearest doctor was at Riverton , a long trek in those days. Groceries were not delivered so Mrs. Coughlan made bread for the family using a camp oven and black pine bark for firing. Mr. Coughlan also rented a block of land from the Government which he cleared and planted.

This eventually became the Tuatapere Domain.

After the First World War, the family moved to Tuatapere, where they ran a tobacconist store.