Zenobia Lean

GEDCOM Note

!SOURCE:Family tree compiled by Dulcie Viles,Shannon,N.Z Death/Marriage/Birth Certificate of daughter Florence May Information from Lean Family reunion Red Dot Folder.Pg 23.Letter Dannevirke County Council IGI Marriage.7515003 65 IGI FC C0220710639 Electoral Roll.1925.Waipawa Cemetery and Burial Records Norsewood Pioneer Trails of Hawkes Bay.By Miriam MacGregor.Pg 18-22

On 1925 Waipawa Electoral Roll her name is down as Zenota

MARRIAGE:Aged 18

RESIDENCE:According to 1861 census lived in Ruan Lanihorne 1893 Waipawa,#1896,Makotuku,Household duties 1925 Waipawa.Makotuku.Widow

DEATH:Block 2 Sections 496 & 498 B/R Sec 496: LEAN Z Makotuku,64 yrs,widow,died Aug 1927 buried Aug 1927 by Rev Whibley Sec 498: LEAN James,Makotuku,63 yrs,labourer,died 7.7.1916 buried 9.7.1916 by Rev McKay H/S In loving memory of James LEAN died 7th July 1916 aged 63 yrs;also his wife Zenobia died 12 August 1927 aged 69 yrs.R.I.P Internal Plot No: 17991 Last: Lean First: Zenobia Cemetery: Ormondville Last Address: , Makotuku Section: Main Age: 64 DOB: Block: 2 Person Classification: Adult Section/Plot Number: 496 Occupation: Grave: Marital Status: Widow/Widower Religion: Row Alpha:

Date of Death: 12/08/1927 Number of Burials: 1 Date of Funeral/Burial: Time of Funeral/Burial: Burial Warrant Number: Funeral Director: Interment Type: Funeral Officiator: Rev Whibley Depth:

Comments: Headstone 264 - In loving memory of JAMES LEAN died 7th July 1916 aged 63 years also his wife ZENOBIA died 12th August 1927 aged 69 years R I P.

FromPioneer Trails; Today the green pastures stretching along the road between the coastal stations and Dannevirke make it difficult to imagine the rough, hilly bush tracks; nor is it easy to visualise the standing giants of the Seventy Mile Bushbetween Dannevirke and Norsewood. At Norsewood the school opened a month after the Dannevirke School and the Headmaster generously gave a holiday every time there was a funeral, christening, wedding or bush fire. He also found it necessary to learn to speak Norwegian before he could even begin to teach his pupils to speak English. At both schools progress was hampered by the frequent necessity to keep children at home to help on the land. At that time education in New Zealand was neither free nor compulsory. It was 1878 before the Act that made it so was passed and before that parents had to pay as much as one shilling per week for each child. This was a terrible drain on the rescources of the earl Sacdinavian settlers. Norsewood became a double township, the upper section being situated on a rise and the lower section nestling in the hollow. By 1875 there were Germans, Austrians, Swedes and Poles who had arrived to join the Danes and Norwegians in the Seventy Mile Bush. They spred out between Dannevirke and Norsewood to form such settlements as Matamau, Umutaoroa, Makotuku, Ormondville, Kopua, and Ngamoko. The nationalities clung together and the early roads became known as the German Line, the Danish Line and the Swedish Line etc. By the end of 1877 the railway from Napier had reached Kopua and it's opening to that point was celebrated by an excursion day held on Friday 25 January, 1878. More than 1,000 people went in twenty-four carriages, those boarding the train at Hastings paying 5/- return. In 1888 a disastrous bush fire swept a large portion of the Norsewood District. It originated west of the settlement in some of the fires lit to clear stumps and heaps of rotting wood from th epaddocks, and stretched from the Ruahine Ranges almost to Ormondville. A gale arose, sending the sparks flying as the fire roared and homes, churchrs, stores and public buildings were rapidly desrtoyed. Animals perished while men, womenand children, almost suffocated by the smoke, became fugitives hurrying along the bush tracks. They now owned little more than the clothes they wore, although many had buried treasures in the garden, or placed articles down the well. As the fire leapt from tree to tree the terrors of those homeless people were increased by the deafining crescendo of a heavy thunder-storm which vibrated above their heads, and by the vivid lightining which flashed continuosly. Pastor Ries, the Lutheran minister, made many trips in his buggy to convey woomen and children to a place of safety. One woman on being lifted out of the buggy, gave birth to a premature baby, but the little one died. At last the heavens opened and the rain fell in torrents, pelting with extreme violence from the cloudbursts above and thus saving further destruction by the fire. When the smoke lifted, the people, drenched, hungry, and miserable, returned to rebuild their homes. They found that the fire had cleared their land of it's remaining trees and stumps and the ash had fertilised the land. The time to begin farming had arrived. In 1891 a dairy company ws formed and began production and so began a new era for the Scandinavian settlers. The Lutheran Parsonage that was built by Pastor Ries after the 1888 fire became the Norsewood Pioneer Museum. During the time of main highway deviation it was shifted from it's site on the east side if the old main road just south of Norsewood and taken to a County section next to the Post Office in North Norsewood. There weremany fires to be fought during the days of bush clearing and in 1908 a large blaze destroyed many buildings in the Ngamoko district.