The dead tell tales

As Mother’s Day approaches, it is timely to think of the many women whose service as mothers has been extraordinary. One such was Jane Maisey of Matamata. She had 13 children with her husband, Robert Job Maisey, and helped manage the family’s large farms at Turangao-moana and Gordon. During World War I, she was president of the Matamata branch of the Red Cross, sewing garments for men serving overseas and organising aid parcels.

Jane Cumming and Job Maisey met and married in Victoria, Australia, in 1882 and came to New Zealand later the same year. Job worked for a while in various Coromandel gold mines. On the 1893 and 1896 electoral rolls, Jane is listed as living at Waiorongomai, occupation ‘‘domestic duties’’. And her time would definitely be taken up with domestic duties as during that time, Jane was caring for the first nine of their children as well as making butter and cheese, caring for a vegetable garden, cooking, cleaning and washing. Job took some of her products back to the mines after visits home to sell to other miners.

In 1898, the couple settled down to a farming life on land at Gordon. By that time, the older children were in their teens and no doubt helped with chores. Jane applied for Matamata Settlement ballot land in 1904 and was granted land at Turanga-o-moana, but for a while the family home remained at Gordon while some of the older