DIAMOND WEDDING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1063, 29 August 1930, Page 13

DIAMOND WEDDING

DARGAVILLE COUPLE CELEBRATE MR. AND MRS. W. McDOWELL From Our Own Correspo)ident DARGAVILLE, Wednesday. The diamond wedding of Mr. and Mrs. William McDowell was celebrated at the residence of their son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. F. Carr, Dargaville. last evening. A family dinner was held, at which a lew old friends —fellow pioneers—were also present. Mr. and Mrs. McDowell were 01 mai W congratulations. Mr. McDowell was born at Bangor, County Down, Ireland, in the year 1547. At the age of 16 he went to Belfast and was employed in the famous shipbuilding yards of Uarland and Wolff on Queen’s Island. On August 26, ISiO, Mr. McDowell was married to Miss Martha Hunter, of Bangor, at the Hope Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast, by the Rev. Mr. Mervin. Mr. and Mrs. McDowell arrived in New Zealand in the full-rigged ship Oxford on September 4, 1874. They resided at Warkworth for a while, and in 187 G Mr. McDowell packed his swag and walked to Aratapu, in the Northern Wairoa district, and was employed for two and a-half years at the sawmill there. Thence followed a term of four and a-half years at the Te Ivopuru mill. Subsequently, in the year ISS3, he returned to Auckland and spent several years as an engine driver upon the reclamation work which raised above sea level the area upon which the Auckland railway station stands at present. Later, Mr. McDowell was engaged in a like capacity on the Calliope Dock reclamation. Returning to the Northern Wairoa on January 11, 1888, he brought with him, in his charge, the first locomotive to work on the Kaihu line. The engine, which was to the order of the Kaihu Valley Railway Company, was landed at Dargaville, and Mr. McDowell was the first locomotive driver to operate on the Ivaihu Valley line. The line became a unit of the Government railway system in 1893, and Mr. McDowell continued as an engine driver until 1914, when he retired upon superannuation, after 27 years of service on the section. Mrs. McDowell celebrated her eightieth birthday on Christmas Day last. Both of the old people are remarkably keen and active for their ages, although Mr. McDowell is now afflicted with blindness. Of their family of eleven children, seven remain alive, and there are 26 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. Members of Mr. and Mrs. McDowell’s family living are: —Mesdames Alex McCullough, of Auckland; F. Lineham, of Auckland: F. Carr, of Dargaville: J. Bastable. of warkworth; William Tristram, of Taihape: Messrs. William McDowell, who Js in the South Island: and Percy McDowell, of Warkworth. A daughter, Mrs. J. W. Baton, died recently at Whangarei.