Thomas Montgomery ¹

  General Notes:

He spent his early days in New Zealand on the goldfields of both the North and South Islands. He was at some time in charge of a section of the rail-way between Christchurch and Dunedin and as a pioneer of the Northern Wairoa, spent more than forty years in the district.

  Birth Notes:

Thomas emigrated to NZ on the ship 'Dauntless" arriving on 15 May 1865

  Death Notes:

Age:78-79

  Noted events in his life were:

• Immigration: on the "Dauntless", 1864, New Zealand. ² with his brother Robert

• Occupation: Farmer: Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, NZ. The farm was named 'Bloomfield'.

Thomas married Alice Ann Vincent, daughter of Robert Vincent and Fanny Millis, on 9 Mar 1881 in Northern Wairoa, Northland, NZL. (Alice Ann Vincent was born on 16 Jan 1864 in Auckland, New Zealand,³ died on 13 Apr 1945 in Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, NZ ³ and was buried in Apr 1945 in Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, NZ.)

  Marriage Notes:

Alice Ann and Thomas were married from the home of Alice's parents and the witnesses were Thomas and Maude Bapett. The minister was F. Thomas Baker.
They purchased a farm at Arapohue and this land is still owned by their descendants today.
A letter dated 1893 mentions that Robert Vincent snr. was away from home for six months while helping to build a six room house and a sixty foot cowshed with the help of Thomas Montgomery.

All the family were keen sports-persons and took an active part in the A & P shows in the area.

At the turn of the century, a bush-working was established to mill the kauri, kahikatea and matai from his Thomas's property at Arapohue to the river at Mititai. This is where William gained his experience as a kauri bushman. The logs were winched and dragged by bullocks to be loaded off the skids on to the tramline which had been built to take the timber down to the river at Mititai. A locomotive was used to haul the timber to the river where it was rafted across to the mills at Te Kopuru and Aratapu.
A small pocket of bush was owned by Miss Karmody of Auckland, next to Thomas Montgomery's property, and on her death the bush was sold to the Kauri Timber Company and the land to Thomas Montgomery. The smaller trees were left and this land was never cleared by the Montgomery family for farming. The small kauri trees thrived in this small reserve, and many years later the Montgomery family donated this land to the district of Northern Wairoa as a native bush public reserve.

Both Alice Ann and Thomas were buried at the Arapohue Cemetery when they died.