BDM: Birth 1888/1809

KA Jones file: Copy of baptism

Rolleston School 1893-1930
No:76. Admitted: 27/3/1895. Ellen Brickland. Parnt: H. Brickland, Rolleston. Birthdate: 1Apr1889? Last School: Little River. Left: 2/5/1900
Next: Christchurch
No:161. Admitted:1900? Ellen Brickland. Parent: H. Brickland, Rolleston. Birthdate: 1Apr1889? Last School: Rolleston. Left:11/11/1901. Next School: Mangaweka

From "77 Years Among the Kowhais - Early Dasy at Tiriraukawa"
Page 76:
My mother, Nellie Brickland, arrived in Hunterville with her mother and seven brothers and sisters from Rolleston in November 1899? (I think this should be 1901 - see school records above) After staying the night at Mrs Dempsey's boarding house the family travelled up the Waterford Road in a buggy owned by Ellis and Valder. By then they ran a regular service from Hunterville to the Tin Shed at the Te Kuma Junction. There they were met by Harry Brickland with a horse. Mrs Brickland the rode the horse and carried as much baggage as she could manage; while the rest of the family set off walking to theri new home at the top of Ngauinga road, a distance of approximately nine miles. At first the children were very excited and interested to see many pidgeons and kakas in the bush, but were a weary group by the time they reached their destination. The family lived in tents and a slab whare until a house was built. All cooking was done in camp ovens and they made their beds from saplings, dry fern and brush

NZSG Probates:
NCNEILL, Nellie Edith, Taihape/Palmerston North, widow
Probate No: 368/73, Filed date: 8Nov1973, Will, National Archives, Wellington

From Obituary 1973
A link with the early history of Titiraukawa was broken last Sunday by the death in the Taihape hospital of Mrs Nellie Edith McNeill, aftger a long illness. Aged 84 years, she was the last of Tiriraukawa's early pioneers.....
The Brickland family of 6 daughters and 4 sons moved from Rolleston, South Island to the Taihape district in 1899? The railhead came only as far a Mangaonoho in those days and the Bricklands with all their belongings walked up the Watershed Road to the Tiriraukawa district to settle on the bush clad farm that had been purchased by Mrs McNeill's father, who cleared a small patch of land and built a slab whare which was the Brickland family home until a permanent house was erected.

After completing her schooling at the Tiriraukawa School, Mrs McNeill helped her sisters on the Brickland farm and assisted in the milking of the house cows. Her father worked on the railway in those days, helping to complete the Main trunk line.

The Brickland girls milked the cows by hand and then carried the cream on horseback to the creamery at Mataroa - a distance of eight miles
Mrs McNeil was married in 1910 and settled at Mangone Junction on the farm now owned by her son Leonard. Mr & Mrs McNeill moved to Fielding when Len married and after Mr McNeill's death his wife settled in Palmerston North
She returned to Taihape 2 years ago and was a patient in the Taihape hospital for over a year before she died.

In 1973 Had 28 grandchildren & 24 Gt grandchildren