From: Wayne
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hello Jan,
Some 14 years ago I came to Waipawa to celebrate the opening of the Rotary refurbishment. There was a lady at “ The Pines “ who asserted she was an Anglican nun. Just after that event I went to Masterton and met up with a member of the Todd family but he would not allow me to take any documentation with me. I have since misplaced what I had. We have come across a couple in Tauranga who are well into genealogy and they are willing to assist us. I met a person by the name of Pamela Travis at the Settlers Museum, she was absolutely phenomenal. I also met Margaret Gray and she put me onto her book – “ A History of Waipawa.” There is a lot on the Bibby family in that book. There is a mistake in the book, it does not mention my grandmother as a daughter of Dr Todd. Mums sister had the name “ Ida “ in her name, my second name is Todd ( wonder where from?)
My association with Dr Todd is that he is my great grandfather. My late mum was the daughter of Olive Gwendolyn Todd, a daughter of Dr and Mrs. Todd ( with two “ d” s.) My grandmother would not say much about her family for reasons unbeknown. I have an excellent photo of Dr and Mrs. Todd with my late Uncle Cecil ( Mum’s eldest brother )and my mum. It was taken at “ The Pines “. I have read your articles on the net and I can remember Mum speaking of the families mentioned, but in those days children were to be seen but not heard. But this Todd guy in Masterton had heaps of information about the families you detail.
I cannot remember where he lived I know it was on a rural road not far from Masterton, I think his wife’s name was Margaret. He told me that the documentation would be going to a daughter. If we could find this guy and have another go at the heaps of information he had, I am sure some gaps will be filled in. If you know of anything please do not hesitate to contact me. I wish you well in your search and if I come up with anything I will let you know.
Best regards
Wayne Todd McNeil
Son of Kathleen Sarita Burleigh
Daughter of Olive Gwendolyn Burleigh ( nee Todd ) Mums sister was Ida Annie Gwendolyn – all names tie in.
Daughter of Dr Alexander and Annie Todd
From: Jan
To: Wayne
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Wayne,
It was great to get your email – I haven’t had much on the Todds or the Pines surface for a while.
Its great to meet(through email) an actual decendant of the infamous Dr Todd as most contacts I have had are from people who have lived in ‘The Pines’ subsiquent to them. Although I did have Mrs Dr Todd’s sisters family contact me last year. (Kate Arrow).
In both February and March as part of Waipawa’s 150th celebrations, we had a couple of historic walks up Rose Street and obviously we started in Dr Todds house “The Pines” which is Waipawa’s oldest house. You probably would have enjoyed it as we were guided around by Margaret Gray – who is a fountain of knowledge, and we walked through the house and up the back of the section to look at the dove cote (reconstruction by Rotary back in 1990 to the original Dr Todd plans) and the old orchard etc…. We visited several other older houses up Rose Street (including mine) and went in to the old church yard in Church Street where all the old names of the town including my Great Great Grandparents, and Dr Todd, Mrs Todd and Ida are buried.
I would love to see your photo of your family at the Pines (or maybe if I’m cheeky enough get a copy of it). There are not too many photos around of them.
I recently had someone contact me through the website and she send me an old autograph book which has the Pines family autographs in – and I must say that Dr Todd’s handwriting does not fit in with the sterotypical view of Doctors handwriting. It is a beautiful flowing script.
If you like I could scan them and send them to you. I’m sending you a copy of the photo I have which was actually a christmas card from Mrs Todd (with two d’s) to my Great Grandmother. You might already have it – but if you haven’t I hope you like it.
It sounds really interesting this man from Masterton. I would love to track him down and find out more.
Anyway, I just looked at the time and realised that I better get off to school. I know its the last week of school for the year – but you can’t have the teacher being late can you?
Take Care
🙂 Jan
From: Wayne
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi there Jan
Thanks for the courtesy of your reply. Yes we do have that photo. My sister is clever at scanning and all that, so I will give her the photo and she will send it to you. Our cousin in Tauranga has asked me to send some information to them and they will help trace the Todd family tree. They are wonderful people. But they are away for a while so there will a delay, but we may trace the great grandson in Masterton. Have a wonderful Festive Season. We have teachers in our family and you sure deserve a break
Regards, Wayne
From: Wayne
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Happy New Year Jan
Enclosed is a photo of Dr Todd and Mrs. Dr Todd taken on the lawn at the Pines in 1914. The young boy is Cecil Sandford Burleigh, the eldest son of Grandmother Olive Gwendolyn Burleigh nee Todd. The little girl is my mother – Kathleen Sarita McNeil nee Burleigh.
We are scouring through some other photos we have.
The person in Masterton we are looking for is the off spring of William Alexander Henry Todd. Hope 2011 is a great one for you – Cheers Wayne
From: Jan
To: Wayne
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Wayne,
Thanks so much for the photo. I don’t think I’ve seen such a good one of the Todds – even down at the Museum – and its lovely to see a gentler side of Dr Todd when in most photos I’ve seen he’s looked so austere (Like most photos of that era.)
I haven’t had a lot of time for researching anything recently – with Christmas and all. And now I have my nearly one year old granddaughter staying (without her parents) for a week or so – and on top of that I’m popping down to Nelly Jull Park to watch/record the progress of the building of our last Waipawa 150th project – the Band Rotunda. And I have to organise the opening of the rotunda/family concert sometime Feb…. And…. then I’m also on the organising committee for family reunion on the 30th Jan here in Waipawa. So things are REALLY busy! I’m really enjoying it – but I’m looking forward to when life quietens down again too.
(photo –
I have this photo of a tapestry my great grandmother did of the Pines around 1900. You’ve probably seen it on my website. Mrs Todd and Mary Glover Bibby were very good friends. They were both heavily involved in the Temperance movement and were the first two women to vote in Waipawa when women got the vote. The Bibby children spent quite a lot of time playing down at the Pines, and Grandad’s album (which is now at the Alexander Turnbull Library) have quite a few photos of him and his brothers and sister playing in the paddocks at the Pines and making huts etc with the Todd children.
Its a pity I don’t have some copies of those – but from experience I find that going through Grandad’s countless albums and documents down there you can spend days and days and days looking at stuff and still not get through everything.
Anyway here’s that photo of the tapestry of the Pines.
Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year
🙂 Jan
From: Wayne
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hello Jan,
Thanks for the photo I have sent it onto Gai my sister who is compiling everything. Today we spent most of the day with two 3rd cousins from the McNeil side whom we have never met, one coming from Spain. It was a brilliant experience.
Jan can you access anything on the Arrow family, if so can you put me onto it, if not please do not worry.
This year we will target the Todd family more so the one in Masterton because I can recall he had newspaper cuttings concerning all and sundry from Waipawa.
I agree with you, Great Grandfather did look a bit of a hangman ( literally) My grandmother the Todd daughter was a firm old girl – no elbows of table, children to be seen and not heard type, but mischief me !!!!! used to play up to her and I turned out to be her favourite – just fed her up on Krispie biscuits ( her favourite ) Thanks for the lead to the Alexander Turnbull library, a cousin of our visits there at least twice a year, she is a wonderful person and will help out anytime. You take it easy and have a wonderful year.
Cheers Wayne
From: Gai
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Jan
Came across your page the other day whilst browsing just to see where Waipawa actually is. I am definitely linked to the Pines
As my great grandfather is Dr Todd. My grandmother was Olive Todd who married Hercules Sanford Burleigh and my mother is Kathleen Sarita McNeil (nee Burleigh). I have a photo of Dr and Mrs Todd with my mother and uncle Cecil when they were very young.
My brother and I are just starting to look for information from our Mother’s side as we now have a lot of information from my father’s mother’s side which is McGregor. You seem to have a lot of information and later this year Wayne and I hope to come down to Waipawa. I had a sampler sewn by Elizabeth Arrow when she was 12 and it was handed down to me by my mother and I have now given it to my eldest daughter who lives in Australia. The sewing was absolutely amazing for such a young age. Hand made buttons and beautiful lattice work along with the alphabet etc.
I do hope that at some stage when you are not too busy that you will contact me.
Kind regards
Gai Cassidy (nee McNeil)
From: Jan
To: Gai and Wayne
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Wayne and Gai,
It was great getting your emails. Sorry it took a few days to answer but life has been a bit mad recently – with school,a course in Napier, and sculpting a headstone for someone – and on top of all that trying to help my youngest son get ready for going to South Korea for a year.
But finally I have time to sit down and answer you.
I have on file, email addresses of the Arrow descendants who have contacted me in the past. I will forward this email on to them and hopefully they can help you. It is really great being able to bring together people with a common ancestor and I hope it will be helpful to you.
A couple of weeks ago Dr Todd and family headstone was removed from the old St Peters church yard around the road from where I live. But please don’t think this is some random act of vandalism! Apparently the Historic Places has taken it on as a project and they are having the headstone restored. I don’t know how long it is going to take but I’m looking forward to seeing wht it looks like when it comes back. The churchyard still has a few of the well known pioneer families of Waipawa in it – but possibly only the ones who had more money than others – because they were made in stone so have lasted the passing of time. Many other headstones were made of wood and have sadly rotted away.
The sampler sounds amazing Gai. Mum had one which was sewn by her great great grandmother – which I loved for years and years on my parents wall. It was so beautiful it was hard to believe that a 7 year old could do such intricate work – I certainly couldn’t at that age ( or possibly even now!). I was a bit sad when Mum gave it to my older sister – but then I suppose Mum being the eldest girl in her family and its a family tradition. (Pity I’m not the eldest). But then I feel I am lucky because I live next door to mum and see her every day. She is a great source for Waipawa history having been born here, and her father was also born here (in fact in the house I now live in), her grandfather(my great grandfather) was also born here (2nd baby to be born in Waipawa). So in a way the stories and photos and things she has shared with me make up for not having a sampler.
My other sister got the tapestry that my great grandmother did of the Pines back around 1900 – which I sent a photo of to Wayne a few months back. The Pines is looking beautiful at the moment. The gardens are lovingly cared for and the house is being loved again too by 2 South African immigrants who now call it home. It was lucky that it didn’t get pulled back in the 70’s – because apparently back then it nearly did.
And Dr Todd’s dove cote has been rebuilt according to the orginal plans and there are pigeons living in it – reminding us a little of the legacy of Dr Todd.
Anyway – I will forward your email on and hopefully one of the Arrow descendants will email you back.
If you’re ever down at Waipawa please feel free to come and visit.
🙂 Jan
From: Jan
To: Brian, Brenda and Naomi
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Brian, Brenda and Naomi,
I hope you’re well.
I had this email the other day and thought you might be able to help.
☺ Jan
From: Brian
To: Jan
Subject: Dr Todd/The Pines
Hi Jan,
currently in India until 5 May when I will contact Wayne & Gai.
Regards Brian Arrow