Ōrawia - District Settlers, Laurie Family; Unknown; c1910; CWA.007.520.4 on eHive
Ōrawia settler Jim Laurie & wife Olive (née Moffat) at their first cottage:
James Nelson (Jim) Laurie, was a well-known figure around the Tihaka area in his youth, and later in Clifden-Ōrawia district, where he had purchased a traction engine. This can be seen on entry CWA.007.20
We are not entirely sure where this particular cottage was situated. It seems that Jim moved around quite a bit for work, and that he had contracts with his brothers around the Western District. It is probable that Olive went with him if there was married accommodation, or she may have stayed at this cottage while Jim went away to do his work. One of the jobs Jim had was sawmilling and another was road making and these were spread across the Waiau and some even further afield.
Some of the older folks may still remember Jim. He started life outside Ōrawia in 1880, when the family were living down at Tihaka, where he started his education. After the family moved into the local area later on but while Jim was still a youngster, as his schooling was completed at Colac Bay, he was said to have helped to cut and deliver railway sleepers for the railway line between Waihoaka and Tūātapere, as a young man, as did others in the district, including Jim's wife's brother.
Then in 1909, Jim married local girl Olive Catherine Moffat, she was the daughter of Henry Moffat who had built four large flour-mills around the lower half of the Mainland, the one at Ōtautau being his last. They raised their only child, a son Harry, at Ōrawia, many of the locals will still remember him as well, as he ended up running a carrying business at Ōtautau. There will be other entries on Harry himself later, as well as other Laurie family members, some of these are already complete.
First off, Jim set the engine up as a chaff-cutting plant which he would travel around the district using as a farming contractor, and later he used the same engine to set up the first commercial operations at the Clifden Limeworks. But this all led to him getting into a bit of trouble, with the local Wallace County Council, details are in the engine entry.
Jim also had nasty accident while sharpening knives at the Clifden Limeworks, which left terrible scarring on his face, which can be seen in a few photographs the family have of him from afterwards. There is more on this terrible event in the entry on the Clifden Limeworks.
After Jim started working the Clifden Lime commercially, in the year after this, with three other locals and himself, the Clifden Lime Company was formed. More can be read about the company history in entry CWA.001.50 As time went on, Jim worked at the Monowai Digger’s Hill sawmill as foreman, which was providing timber for operations at the power station. He then went back to the Limeworks.
Later, Jim sold his farm, which the family say was gifted to him by his brother-in-law during WW1 (he had run a sawmill here in conjunction with his Limeworks operations), and ‘retired to Ōtautau, he spent the last of his years still working hard, as the Holt Park caretaker. He passed in 1959 whereas his wife Olive lived until 1971.
Jim's community spirit across the district saw him involved in many volunteer activities. Jim was president of the Western Star Football Club, vice-president of the Western District Rugby Sub-Union and also member delegate, plus a 25 year long supporter of the Ōrawia school, being part of the committee for many years. His love of horses and physical activities was represented in his membership and officer holding in both the Ōtautau and Clifden Racing Clubs, along with the Birchwood Hunt as well as the Ōtautau Athletic Society.
NOTE: I am indebted to the Laurie family descendants, who have so generously and willingly shared their fascinating family history with us.
More information about both the Laurie family and the Clifden Limeworks itself will be added shortly. In the meantime, please do share your memories and stories of the family and this long-standing local business. You can do this by adding a comment, at the bottom of this page under the images and information. Also, if you have any photos to share of either, can you please let us know, by using the contact details on this archive front page, or also leave a comment. Thank you.
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