Joseph Hardie 1845 - 1919

Joseph Hardie, was born on 8 April 1845, the seventh child and fourth - and youngest - son of David Hardie and Christian Black.

Joseph grew up at Marklemains. He was 11 when his father died. He finished his educaton at Coldstream Academy at the age of 17, where he recieved the prize for "Dux of Highest Geography and for excellence in Mapping" upon leaving the academy. The prize was dated 30 Jul 1862. (Picture left is Joseph aged 17)

Not long after completing his education, he inherited from the trust set up by his father David upon his death. He and his brother James both recieved 1,000 sterling and were told to 'make their way in the world'. Joseph and James first travelled to London, where they posed for photographs and then boarded the vessel Nimrod in Gravesend London on December 23, 1862 to emigrated to New Zealand.

He arrived in Auckland in early 1863. His initial plan was to take up land being offered in Waikato, but stories of the Maori Wars abound, and he decided it would be safer to take up a more traditional employment while he made a more educated decision about where to farm.

During this period Joseph learned to sail, and bought a scow, that he used to sail between Onehunga Helensville and other regions in the Kaipara district.

In 1866, Joseph applied for a grant of 40 acres under the Government land grant scheme. 

On 14 July 1887 Joseph married again, this time to Matilda Allaway (nee Whitehouse), the widowed daughter of his associated Abel Whitehouse and Matilda Craddock. Again, this was a marriage of convenience arranged by the Whitehouses and the ceremony was celebrated at the Whitehouse homestead at Ararua, with his daughter Annie as bridesmaids.

Not long after they married, Matilda's brother Alfred lost his wife and Joseph and Matilda took in three of his children and raised them.

Joseph was a quite religious man, and during these early years of settlement - before his first wife died - he and other gentlemen of the area began reading the bible together, including to concept of a simple communion on the day of the week. In later years an Itinerant preacher from the Christian movement known as the "Plymouth Brethren" stopped in the settlement and upon finding that the Hardie's and the Whitehouses practices were closely aligned to those practiced by the Brethren, he convinced them to join the religion and set up a congregtion

From that time onwards, the family were officially 'Brethren' and remained separated from the rest of the community. In April 1893 Joseph bought an acre of land on the Matakohe side of the river, where a Brethren place of worship was built.

Between 1893 and 1895 Joseph continued to acquire land on the Paparoa side of the river.