Harriett Humphrey

Biography supplied by Julia True, Oroua Women’s Club, Feilding

In 1940 at the celebration of New Zealand’s Centennial in Feilding, Harriett Humphrey (nee Chown) was the oldest living pioneer settler and honoured to cut the Centennial cake and to place the foundation stone for the cricket pavilion at Kowhai Park. She died the following year in 1941 at aged 93 years.

Harriett was born and educated in London in 1847. She married in 1866 at St Pancreas Church, Euston Road, London. She taught her husband to read and write.

With her husband and four children, she travelled to Wellington on the Euterpe, arriving in 1874. They were part of a group of settlers who established Feilding in the bush-clad Manchester Block. The first church services in Feilding were held in their home in Manchester Street.

After travelling so far, Harriett never left the district in her lifetime. As well as raising 11 children (2 who deceased in childhood) on their farm at Makino, she worked outside with her husband at the end of a cross-cut saw, carrying slabs until her shoulders bled. Such was the life of a Pākehā settler. As an active community participant, Harriett signed the 1891 suffrage petition and the successful 1893 petition.

Harriett was an adept chess player, known to let her husband win the last game of an evening so he went to bed happy.

Source: John and Harriett Humphrey and Descendents, book prepared for family reunion, Civic Centre Feilding 25-26 May, 1985. Excerpts from Feilding Star.