Alice Ann Vincent

  General Notes:

Alice must have been only three or four when the family's shift to Thames occurred. Unfortunately nothing is known of her life and schooling, which must have taken place in Thames.
She was around fifteen when she moved to the Northern Wairoa.

Alice must have had a great con-stitution as she had fourteen children. The first was born when she was only eighteen and the last when she was forty. Alice Ann breast fed all these children till well over the age of two and one child tells of how he remembers Alice feeding the youngest and then the next two youngest lining up to have a turn.
She was also a great cook and cake decorator, supp-lying not only her family but also most of the surrounding district with birthday and wedding cakes, and she passed this skill on to her daughters. ⁵

  Death Notes:

Obituary - Northern Advocate, 18 April 1945
Mrs A. A. Montgomery
Dargaville, This day
The death occurred of Mrs Ann Alice Montgomery at Arapohue.She was born in Auckland in 1864 and came to the Mititai district in 1879, residing there until her death. She was married to the late Mr Thomas Montgomery in 1881 and reared a family of ten sons and four daughters. Mrs Montgomery was an ardent worker for the Anglican church and took a keen interest in the Northern Wairoa's Agricultural and Pastoral Association. She is survived by five sons and four daughters.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Living, 1864 to 1868, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

• Living, 1868 to 1879, Thames, Coromandel, Waikato, New Zealand.

• Living, From 1879, Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand.

Alice married Thomas Montgomery, son of Thomas Montgomery and Margaret Martha Rutherford, on 9 Mar 1881 in , Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand.¹ (Thomas Montgomery was born on 15 May 1845 in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, died on 27 Jan 1921 in Mititai, Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand ⁶ and was buried in Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand ⁷.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Land: Bloomfield Farm, 1893, Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand. Thomas and Alice Ann purchased their land at Arapohue in 1893.
The farm remained in the Montgomery family until Richard died in 1974 and the farm was sold to him nephew, Mervyn Hilliam, who sold the farm in 2005 and it passed out of the family.

  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.