Dannevirke: Grave restorations labour of love

Michael Gray, of Wellington, has been working to restore the grave and headstones of his great-great-grandparents and two of their children at Dannevirke's Settlers Cemetery. Photo / Christine McKay

Michael Gray of Wellington, has been working on a labour of love at the Dannevirke Settlers Cemetery, restoring an important slice of our district's history.

"My great, great, great grandparents and two of their children are buried here, and in 1981, I visited this cemetery with my daughter and discovered the grave was broken. Then, as time went on the damage became worse, helped by the destructive roots of a row of lawsoniana trees growing alongside," Mr Gray told the Dannevirke News.

"My great, great great grandfather, Alexander Smith worked as a stockman at Oringi on the Gaisford Estate I believe and had married Margaret Reid. They had 13 children and were ordinary working people."

Mr Gray said finding his great, great great grandmother's headstone face down in the leaves was soul-destroying.

"It was a mess as the tree roots had caused the tombstones to tip," he said. "I went ahead and wrote a letter to the Tararua District Council and said if they got rid of the lawsonians, I would restore the headstones."

Mr Gray had plenty of support for his move to have the trees removed, including from Richard Nanso, the retired director of Parks and Reserves in Wellington, who told the district council that graves were precious. The headstones have been at Mr Gray's Haywards home in Wellington for six years and were restored by Neville Glover, a monumental mason there for 50 years.

"Having these at home has caused some trouble, especially with them lying around on the driveway," he said. "I was delighted when Tararua District mayor Roly Ellis rang me and said the council had allocated funds for the trees to be removed.

"At the time I thought do I give the council hell or do I just get stuck in and do it? The council have responded very well to any help I've needed.There's a metre and a half of ready mix concrete and steel in this now, but maybe another generation will come along and finish off the work here."

Back last week for his final work on his family graves, Mr Gray said his wife's jaw dropped when he said he was coming back again.

"It looks like I'll have to come back again because six years ago I made an offer to the council that I'd put in a cornerstone here at the cemetery," he said.

Colin Veale, the Tararua District Council's community assets and property manager, said after consultation with an arborist, it was decided the trees were past their best and the decision was made to remove them all.

Mr Gray has a list of 30 people behind the scenes who have helped him in his work to restore the historic graves and in return he's helped restore another headstone nearby.

Community board member, Tim Delaney said it was really heartening to see Mr Gray spending time cleaning up his ancestor's grave site.

"It's good to see people taking pride in their heritage," he said.

The Smith burial plot in Dannevirke's Settlers Cemetery records the death of two of the couple's children, George who died October 23, 1887, aged 24 and his brother Alexander James who died in 1892, aged 26. Their mother, Margaret Reid Smith died on November 29, 1905, aged 65 and their father Alexander on September 22, 1914, aged 74.