Samuel Samson Climo

Samuel was born at New Plymouth, New Zealand on 31 March 1854. After growing to manhood in the Marlborough Sounds, he migrated with the Climo family to Ormond, in Poverty Bay, in 1876.

Sam appears to have had a great sense of fun and love of mischief as well as considerable initiative. One well-remembered story told by his brother Robert's family, concerns a night escapade with the Ormond constable's cow, which Sam had turned out of its enclosure onto the road. After much searching, the constable traced both the cow and the culprit and had Sam up before the magistrate who imposed a sentence of two week's gaol; it was here that Sam's initiative came to the fore. He suddenly developed a strained back! He could neither dig nor use a shovel, likewise he could not chop wood or scrub out his cell, so he sewed sacks until the end of the first week and then was unexpectedly released - to the obvious relief of all parties!

Another episode concerned a Mr Cooper who, as early as 1874, had started a coach service between Ormond and Gisborne at a fare of 2/6. After some years of struggling with bad roads, and the Poverty Bay mud, Cooper seized the chance of an exchange when he met Sam Climo who had a dray with a team of draught horses. One flood and to quote: "Sam did not last long as a coach proprietor." Coming out of town he reached a spot a few chains north of the Makaraka store where the coach stuck so fast in the mud that the horses were unable to move it - they could not move themselves! Sam got a man to bring a team of bullocks into the paddock, they let down the fences and hauled out the horses one by one but it was impossible to move the coach, so it was left in the mud until winter was over. To add insult to injury, poor Sam was taken to court and fined 28/- on a charge of 'obstructing the thoroughfare'. But good friends came to the rescue and paid the fine for him.

Brighter days lay ahead for good-humoured Sam; a new-comer to Ormond, in the person of Miss Johanna Gallagher, from Tullogh, County Clare in Ireland. She had arrived to take up domestic duties in the town, met Sam, who fell in love and in due course, they married at the Gisborne Registry Office on 06 January 1879 - not long before the mill was closed and the Climo family dispersed.

Eventually Sam took his bride back to Havelock and the Pelorus, and this was to be the scene of their life and labours until the end of Sam's days. Here were also born their eight children: Mary Jane (1879), Samuel (1881), James Patrick (1882), Anne Emily (1884), Alena Elizabeth Clare (1886), Roger Jesper (1888), John William Francis (1890) and Margaret Amelia (1892). You can detect a feeling of homesickness for old Ireland in the names Johanna chose for some of her children, with Sam honouring his father's second wife by calling his youngest, Amelia.

The children were baptised by ministers of diverse denominations according to whoever arrived on on his pastoral visit and though Johanna could neither read or write she saw to it that the children went regularly to school. Only a proud mother would have kept William's Pass Certificate through to Standard 3 at Manaroa and on to the dizzy heights of Standard 5 at the Grove School in 1903 under the tutelage of the highly regarding Miss Laura Beauchamp.

Following the closure of the sawmills in the early 1900's, Sam tried his luck for a time on the Mahikipawa Goldfields but years before he had had the misfortune to get caught in a log-roll and crushed a leg which was amputated below the knee.[3] Nothing daunted Sam and he had proceeded to whittle and fit himself with a 'peg leg' which he wore sailor fashion and which became an implement of mirth and wonder in the community, Sam being both agile and versatile with it's uses. Sam and Johanna loved dancing which they continued to do, especially the square dances of the turn of the century, though a grandson recalls the smooth beauty of a waltz which Johanna danced on her 80th birthday. Both Sam and Johanna were declared characters and are remembered with affection and admiration by their family today.

Their final venture was in farming at Moutapu Bay where their sons had a change of occupation - dairying. Many such farms on the recently cleared flats that fringed the Sound were set up and in turn called for a cream collection service supplied at first by a steam launch, the forerunner of the services which was a feature of life on the Pelorus for many years.

Samuel died in Blenheim on 19 November 1914 but Johanna lived to reach 93 years of age, before passing away on 25 September 1946. They are buried together in the Havelock Cemetery.

• Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 959, 25 November 1879, Page 3 IMPOUNDED AT ORMOND— By S. Climo, for trespass, on Nov. 22. One Draught Roan Gelding, white star on forehead, off hind foot white, branded like a key off shoulder. Will be sold at the Pound Yard, on Monday, December 8, 1879, unless redeemed. J. MAYNARD, Poundkeeper.
• 1893. Waimea Sounds, Samuel CLIMO, Kaituna Valley, Labourer, Residential, Electoral Roll
• NZSG Cemetery Fiche, Record Type M/I, Year of Death 1914, CLIMO Samuel Samson, Age 63, Havelock N02.12 Samuel Samson Climo, died 13 Nov 1914, aged 63, also wife Johanna Climo d 25 Sep 1946 aged 93; BR Samuel Climo 1913
• Probate. Samuel CLIMO, Kaiuma, Havelock, farmer, dod 19 November 1914, will, Blenheim Court, filed 11 dec 1914, ADBY W5411 798

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Climo-141