Card Creek signage. Photo taken by G. Jonker
THE CARD BROTHERS
WILLIAM
CARD
1830 – 1911
ROBERT CARD
1835 – 1909
JOHN
CARD
1840 – 1892
Card Creek. Photo taken by G. Jonker
1889 Marsden Water Races (Adshead, R. Valley of Little Towns. 1988).
So, who were the Card brothers?
The Card brothers arrived on the coast around 1864.
They were born in Westbury, Wiltshire, England to John Card and Harriet Atkins, three of six children
William and John left London on 18 October 1849 via Plymouth, England on the ship “Agincourt” and arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 1 February 1850.
William & John’s occupations were recorded as Agricultural Labourers.
John Card and his wife Harriet together with their children Hannah, Emma, and Robert, joined them later, arriving in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 25th October 1853 on the ship Neptune.
These facts were found through ancestry.com.
Courtesy of History House Marsden Mr A Bruhn Butcher
John Card travelled to Otago, New Zealand, in 1861.
Sometime after that was joined by his adventurous brothers, William, and Robert, on the big quest for gold.
From Otago they travelled, like other prospectors, up the West Coast to the diggings that had begun in Arahua, perhaps following the waterways that bought them to the area of New River where Marsden is now sited.
The brothers’ foresight and wisdom regarding the hit and miss nature of gold mining led them to open a store in this isolated area, before the gold mining developed into a rush around the New River.
John was now a butcher to service their new enterprise.
Their foresight panned out.
As their business grew, and mining claims spread up the river.
They expanded with a second store 8 miles up the river.
They cut and developed tracks to make access possible by horse.
For transporting goods they travelled back and forth via boat on the new river.
In those days it was a river deep enough to allow heavy laden boats down it. (Adshead, Rona. Valley of Little Towns, 1988).
Dredge at Nemona near Marsden. Courtesy of History house
Guests outside the Marsden Hotel. Photograph courtesy of History House, Greymouth.
Map of the land for the main part of the town ship of Marsden. Photograph courtesy of History House, Greymouth.
Robert was first to get married.
He Married Isabella Thompson in 1868 and they ran the first hotel the brothers established in Italian Gully. They eventually moved to Reefton.
Robert had a serious fall off a horse near Black Point, leaving him badly injured and eventually resulting in his death.
He died in Reefton, West Coast in 1892.
The second Hotel the Card brothers built was run by John and his new wife.
John married Hannah Oshea in 1870. John Card was community minded, supporting local sport and the local racing jockey club.
His industrious business was ever expanding.
Unfortunately, the mining business was dwindling, and Marsden was becoming a less used junction point.
John Card enjoyed 12 illustrious years.
They provided stabling for horses, accommodation, groceries and household goods and were the first in the area to develop vegetable crops.
They amazed the Greymouth Argus with their successful vegetable plot growing potatoes and cabbages including one humungous cabbage weighing 21.5 pounds. (Adshead, Rona. Valley of Little Towns, 1988).
The last big business purchase was the investment in a coach to take people from Greenstone to Kumara.
Four months later in 1878 John was declared bankrupt.
John and Hannah moved into Greymouth to manage the Cosmopolitan Hotel and eventually left the coast to manage a hotel in Wellington, thereafter, settling in Featherston, Wairarapa where he died in 1909 aged 75.
Hannah, his wife died two years later aged 72
William Card made the news on one occasion for his over zealous socialising.
A report in the Grey River Argus describes William Card skylarking on a roof and falling off, breaking his leg.
William married a widow in 1887, Margaret King, when he was 57.
They ran a boarding house in Greymouth.
When she died, he moved up to Featherston and lived out the rest of his days near his brother John.
William died in Featherston in 1911 aged 81.
In West Coast Pioneer terms, they built themselves an empire.
In Kiwi terms they had a ‘can do,’ attitude.
Horse drawn seed drill. Photograph taken by Gayle Jonker.