OBITUARY

Patea Mail, 9 May 1941, Page 2

OBITUARY

MRS. ELLA PEARCE At Selwyu Street, Wanganui, there died last week a pioneer in the person of Mrs. Ella Pearce. In the late sixties she came with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Hawken from New Plymouth, where she 'was born, to live at Ivakaramea, their farm being on the Lower Ball Road. It was virgin country and she has said she used to walk on top of the fern which covered the place, as it was so thick and very high. She and her sister are said to be the first girls to ride on their ponies on the new road opened via Stratford through to New Plymouth, where their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Bayloy, lived. Previously they had to travel along the beach and ford the rivers. Mrs. Pearce married the late Mr. Gilbert Pearce and lived with her husband near Manaia, then at Wanganui and later at Waitotara, retiring to live in Wanganui some years ago. At the time of the Centennial celebrations she was visiting her sister, Mrs. Leslie Hamilton, at Manutahi, and was very interested in the account of the landing enacted, as their mother had arrived when a year old by the ship Amelia Thompson. Many freinds all over New Zealand will regret to hear of her passing. She was a charming sweet natured woman, and is survived by a family of two sons, Mr. F. K. Pearce, of Upper Waitotara and Mr. Alan Pearce, of Putarurn, and two daughters, Mrs. Tvo Carr, of Dunedin, and Mrs. Alan Marshall, of Marfon, eight grandsons and two granddaughters.