Old Ground Section

There were people living, and moving through Gisborne from mid-1830’s. These were tough, hard times. Travel by horseback and bullock dray. People died from accident and illness. Where were they buried? This is The Old Ground, the original burial area of the Cemetery, long before records began and many are not documented at all.

There are a total of sixty four entries from June 1856 to October 1860 when official numbering starts. Of that sixty four, six identify a location of “in the trees” and the other fifty eight provide no location.

Numbering of graves started on 15th October 1860, however this was still not accurate, with the first entry, being of an unknown man, about 33 to 40 years old who drowned. That’s his story. No name, no grave, no location, He’s here within the Old Ground, but where?

In fact of the first 500 listed, 385 don’t give a location. There are listings of “buried free”, “buried Strangers Section”, “buried in Common Ground”. There are nearly 700 names with no location listed, with at least half being children and infants.

There is another mystery lost over time. Legend and folklore suggests there is a specified place within the cemetery where only babies and infants were buried. No-one knows where it is, or if it really does exist. It is possible, and in years to come, further excavations may find it. Until then the mystery continues. Some names we know of, or believe are buried in the OLD GROUND:

Henry Webb was murdered in The Black Forest. Gisborne Police attended the incident, it’s reasonable that he’s buried here.

Alex Miller. In 1847 at Macedon House -it was a public house, A Pub and the bar was full. Alex and his mate Bill Kelly had a long drinking session. Eventually Bill Kelly was refused service, so he picked up a dog chain and swung it at the barman. Unfortunately as he swung it back it hit his mate Alex Miller on the temple, killing him instantly. We know he’s here, but where?

Macedon House. Image supplied by the Gisborne & Mount Macedon Districts Historical Society. 

Joseph Douglas – or old Joe the butcher as the town knew him. In1861, old Joe, 51years of age suffered a heart attack and couldn’t be revived. A week later in the local paper it was suggested that Joe’s body in his coffin lay on the ground outside the Cemetery fence overnight. Not so, said Mr Warren the Sexton. He said after the autopsy, the coffin did not arrive until after 9pm. He didn’t think it was coming and hadn’t finished the grave, so the coffin lay alongside the grave, not outside the fence. Joe was duly buried at 8.30am next day and Mr Warren said the appropriate prayers. The paper apologized, but advised, in the language of the day that the Cemetery should have a “dead house”, so 160yrs ago a shed was erected for use as a mortuary until an actual mortuary was constructed in Brantome Street roughly behind St Brigid’s School. It was later moved, and until recently was a flat just inside the gates of the Vicarage.

Tom Barr drowned in the great flood of 31st January 1860, when much of the town as under water. Tom had gone to check his horses, he and George Watts were swept away, their bodies missing for weeks. Tom Barr was not buried until 5 weeks after the flood.

What happened to Julia Mahoney, when she died on the floor of the Telegraph Hotel? Her husband was arrested “on suspicion”, but later was released after the autopsy showed “a previous beating he had given her was not the cause of her death”. The Verdict was “SUNSTROKE” in Gisborne, on a day in September.

Thomas and Elizabeth Gordon were well known. They built Macedon House and were involved in many Gisborne business ventures. When Thomas died, Gisborne did not have a properly constituted Cemetery. He was buried in the grounds of Macedon House. Twelve years later his remains were exhumed and reburied in the Gisborne Cemetery. Poor Tom after all that work, no-one recorded the location of his grave. He’s here, somewhere.

Macedon House. Image supplied by the Gisborne & Mount Macedon Districts Historical Society. 

These named and hundreds of others including the Leedon brothers whose burials prompted Rev. Cummins letter. They are all here, but where?