The Hardy Girls

Florence Helena, Alice and Ada

In this part of the Hardy Family History we look at each of the daughters of Charles and Alice Hardy- namely Florence born 7th January 1876, Alice born 15th April 1878, Ada born 27th June 1880 and Helena born 1st January 1882 .

The above photos are from a family album that unfortunately does not provide a date for each photo. We can see that these photos were both taken by the Gregory Studio with Florence's photo taken at the studio on the corner of Queen and Wellesley Streets and the other photo taken at Ponsonby Rd. George Gregory is reported to have had a studio on Ponsonby Rd in 1886 and 1890 to 1891. He moved to Queen St in 1892 and was at the corner of Queen and Wellesley Sts in 1897, later moving to 269 Queen St.

I am not very good at guessing ages but if we assume a date of 1892 for the photo of Florence then she would be aged 16. If we assume a date of 1890 for the Ponsonby Rd photo we have ages of 12 for Alice, 10 for Ada and 8 for Helena.

The Hardy girls were all born at Dairy Flat. They all had their early schooling at the Dairy Flat School until the opening of the Horse Shoe Bush School in 1890.

Prior to the establishment of the Horse Shoe Bush school the children living in that area had a long trek to get from home to their school. A description of the district at this time states that the children either walked or travelled on horseback. There were several small streams to cross. The bridges were only a foot or two above water and had no hand rails. It only needed and hour or two of rain and these bridges were under water. When heavy rain fell it was a matter of dismissing the Horse Shoe Bush children to allow them to get home before the streams were impassable.

Charles and Alice provided a building on their property in the Horse Shoe Bush so that their children and others in the area would not have to continue to endure the difficult journey to Dairy Flat school. This school was opened in July 1890. An account written by Thomas Hammond who was employed to teach at both schools gives us a good insight into the initial Horse Shoe Bush school building. Thomas describes it as follows;

" ...Mr Hardy offered the use of a wooden building to be used as a school and this was the first school in the district. It was a one roomed building about 14 feet long and 12 feet wide built of split palings with a paling roof and had been used as a room for storing gum. It had a couple of smaller windows in one side that had to be kept open with pieces of wood. It held two rows of desks and could accommodate about 24 children. On a summer day black bugs (Maori Bugs) would drop from the paling roof to floor and when crushed make a rather offensive smell. There was no playground the ground nearby had many kauri stumps still standing where the trees had been felled years before. This was the building in which I taught for 3 years and at the end of 1893 the Education Board had a new school built ..."

The new school built in 1893 referred to by Thomas Hammond was built on land donated for that purpose by Charles and Alice Hardy. The building of this school followed much lobbying of the Education Board by Charles and Alice Hardy. Charles wrote numerous letters putting forward why the Education Board should take up the offer of suitable land from him and Alice. It is clear he became very frustrated with the delays. The area of land was sub-divided from the other land owned by Charles (he had a total land holding of approximately 200 acres) and a formal gift of the land was recorded under a deed dated 16th December 1892.

The document below records this gift of land.

Below is a photo of the new school building. This was taken following the building's removal from Horse Shoe Bush to Waitoki some years later.

In May 1893 there is finally an indication in a letter written by Alice that the school building has been completed. She writes in her letter to the school committee..

Would it be consential for the committee to remove the School furniture from my building next week, as the new School is now built. My Son intends starting as a Saddler in the building and he is now wanting to put his leather and tools in it.

Yours Respectfully

Alice Hardy

Her son referred to above by Alice is Frederick. He had set up his saddlery in Helensville by 1896 (evidenced by the electoral roll for that year) and then moved to Eltham in 1897.

The Hardy girls are included in the list of pupils taught by Thomas Hammond. He refers to Helena as "Nelly" Hardy. The ages of the four girls at the time of the opening of the school were Florence 14, Alice 12, Ada 10 and Helena ("Nellie") 8. The Hardy boys had all left school by 1890.

The other initial pupils included 8 Kelly children. These are likely to be children of Maurice Kelly from whom Charles purchased a significant portion of his land in the Horse Shoe Bush. Maurice Kelly and Charles along with other owners of the adjoining land worked together in the process of logging the trees in the Horse Shoe bush area.

Florence Frances Hardy ("Floss")

In this blog I will cover what we currently know about Florence. The other girls will follow in future blogs.

The above photo of Florence has been copied from the larger Hardy family photo we have estimated as being taken in the early 1900s. This photo includes George Hardy who moved to Australia after his son Frank was born in Cambridge in February 1905. His daughter Marjory was born in Petersham in NSW Australia in July 1907. As Florence was travelling overseas during the period from around April 1901 to April 1906 the family photo probably dates from around 1900/1901. This means it shows Florence aged about 25.

Florence made her career as a teacher. She never married and from what we have been able to find out about her life she seems to have been a very independent woman throughout her lifetime.

In an interview conducted in 1970 with Edna Pilkington ( a daughter of Charles Lingham Hardy) by her son Syd there is a comment about Florence (referred to by Edna as "Floss") and her relationship with Edmund Spencer. It seems that Floss had met Edmund and at some stage brought him home to meet her family. According to Edna, after meeting Ada Hardy, Edmund took a strong liking for her and in due course in May of 1912 Edmund and Ada married. According to Edna this resulted in significant ill-feeling between Floss and Ada. It is not clear exactly in what period of time this situation occurred. In her interview Edna refers to "Floss" as being "a music teacher and a school teacher".

There are records that show Florence's progress in obtaining her teaching qualifications starting from as early as 1897. My research of the approach taken to training teachers in this time indicates that often young women were assigned to schools as "pupil teachers" under a type of apprenticeship programme. A teachers training school opened in Auckland in 1881 but was closed in 1887 during a period of economic depression. A new training college was not established until February 1906 when the Wellesley Street School was designated as a normal school and training college.

So far we have not found a record of Florence teaching in any particular school in the period from the publication of her first examination pass in 1897 until 1906 following her return from overseas. Her first teaching appointment appears to be at Ruapuke (near Raglan) in July 1906. This is only about a month after returning from her overseas trip. It may be that she had roles as a pupil teacher prior to her trip overseas.

In the period up to 1898 the Hardy family were living at Horse Shoe Bush. It appears they made a move to Hellensville during 1898. A comment in the Observer newspaper of 11 June 1898 refers to Charles Hardy of Hellensville and the 1900 Electoral Roll records Charles and his daughter Alice Maud Hardy as living in Hellensville. It is reasonable to assume his wife Alice was also living there but had just not enrolled to vote.

Charles purchased the land at Mount Albert on 7th June 1899. The house in Mount Albert (referred to as Montana) was built during the period prior to July 1900 as from that date Charles is signing off his letters to the editor with an address of Mount Albert. There is no specific evidence that Florence is living at home at this stage. She could have been living away from home as part of her teacher training.

Florence's Overseas Trip

The research notes recorded by Dulcie McClure include reference to Florence undertaking a trip overseas in the period 1903 to 1906 for the purpose of studying the educational system in the USA. It is stated that she took a university course and then became principal of a Grammar School in California.

Evidence supporting the overseas trip has been found in newspaper reports recording the great San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 and the New Zealanders in that area at this time. Florence is mentioned in an Auckland Star report of 23 April 1906 as being in Clarksburg as a teacher. Her return to New Zealand on the ship Sonoma is reported in the New Zealand Herald of 26 June 1906 as follows;

Among the passengers by the Sonoma from San Fransisco on Saturday was Miss Florence Hardy, daughter of Mr Hardy of Mount Albert. Miss Hardy has been on an extended visit to England and the United States. During the last three years she has been studying the educational system of America, and in addition to going through a university course has been principal of a grammar grade school in California.

Based on the above information I was able to make contact with an archivist for the county of Yolo seeking any records they might have of Florence's time at Clarksburg. As a result I was sent a copy of a certificate issued to Florence by the County Board of Education in Yolo dated October 28 1905. This certificate entitled Florence to teach in any grammar or primary school in the County. Also provided were some copies of Teacher's Reports completed by Florence to record her teaching hours at the Public School in Merritt.

Some interesting facts from the above report are:

-There were 32 seats for pupils in the school room of which 24 were occupied by 11 boys and 13 girls.

-Florence taught on average for about 20 days per month.

-Florence showed her address as being Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand.

From the certificate entitling Florence to teach in Yolo County we also can see that she had been teaching at Colusa County prior to Yolo. The certificate for Yolo states on its reverse side that it was issued based on an existing certificate held by Florence that was issued by Colusa County. The small county of Colusa is north of Sacramento.

Having established that Florence was teaching firstly in the Colusa County (period unknown) and then in the Yolo County during late 1905 and early 1906 the question arises of where she spent her time undertaking her university study prior to these dates. A clue lies in the passenger list we have found in respect of her trip from London to New York.

A copy of the list appears below. My apologies that it is hard to view. It reveals that Florence Hardy was a passenger on the SS New England that sailed from Liverpool on 14 August 1902 bound for the port of Boston, New York.

Of great interest is that her last place of residence is listed as Ely. Her final destination in the US is recorded but is very hard to read. The best guess I have is that it is Salt Lake City, Utah. This destination is also recorded for several other passengers. I think it is possible that Florence was perhaps following in the footsteps of her father. He may have provided her with useful contacts from within the Mormon church.

The extract below is a bit easier to read.

Having found that Florence left England in August 1902 the next question is when did she leave New Zealand to start her overseas trip? The answer appears to be that she departed Auckland on the ship Elingamite for Sydney Australia on 20 April 1901 - refer passenger list below.

To date I have not found any listings showing when Florence travelled from Australia to London. It seems unlikely that Florence would have spent a lot of time in Australia. If she went on to London directly from the trip to Sydney she may have had as long as 12 months in England before her travel to New York.

What is happening in the Hardy family in England at the time of Florence's visit?

In December of 1900 Robert Hardy (Charles's brother) died. At that point the ownership and management of his chemist and water bottling business in Salisbury passed to his daughter Susan and her brother George. Susan was single and living in the family home in Salisbury with her mother Emily.

In Ely John Hardy (brother of Charles and Robert) was running the family tanning and wool business which he had taken over from their father George Hardy.

My assumption is that Florence would have been interested in visiting both Ely and Salisbury. Remember Charles worked with Robert for a time before moving to New Zealand and he had also trained as a chemist. Florence may also have wanted to meet her cousins, especially Lavinia and Lillian Hardy (Robert's daughters) who shared her interest in teaching. Lavinia ("Nina") was a teacher of geography at Salisbury Training College and the first woman to be a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Lilian ("Lileen") was a pioneer of nursery schools in Scotland who developed educational theories that are still regarded as best practice.

On reaching the US Florence is likely to have taken a cross continent train from New York to San Francisco. We do not know where she then went. She was teaching at the Merritt Grammar school in late 1905 and it looks like this continued until her return to New Zealand following the San Francisco earthquake in April 1906. Assuming she arrived in New York by the end of September 1902 (the average time for steam ship trips across the Atlantic from England to the US was around 6 weeks) Florence had spent around 3 years in the US prior to taking up that teaching position. She is said to have intended to undertake a university course.

Our research indicates that there were several universities or colleges in the state of California offering courses for teacher training. An example is San Jose University. Within this university there is a Teaching School referred to as the San Jose State Normal School. Student teachers learned their teaching skills whilst teaching at the State Normal School.

A researcher from San Jose University kindly provided me with a link to a historic collection of the student produced publication called The Normal Pennant. This provides an interesting insight into the life of the student teachers. Below are some examples.

It is possible that Florence attended San Jose University in order to gain her qualifications to teach in the US. The other university that I believe is a possibility is Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah. This university is connected to the Mormon church. However the proximity between San Jose and Colusa and Yolo Counties where Florence ultimately was employed as a teacher leads me to believe that San Jose is the more likely answer. Research into this is currently continuing.

Florence Returns to New Zealand

As mentioned above we have newspaper reports that Florence returned to New Zealand in June 1906 onboard the Sonoma ship from San Francisco. In July 1906 the NZ herald reports that Florence F Hardy had been appointed as a teacher at Ruapeke School. This school was opened in 1877 and was situated some 27 kms from Raglan.

In the NZ Herald of 5 September 1907 it is announced that Florence F Hardy is appointed to a sole charge position at Elstow School.

The Elstow School is situated in Te Aroha on Bowler Rd. It was established in 1901 with an initial role of 21 pupils. It was merged with the Waihou School in 2001 due to the low declining roles of schools in this area. The Waihou school was closed and its pupils sent to Elstow.

The photograph below appears on a website account of Elstow school.

There is an interesting insight into how Florence may have travelled to and from Elstow in a newspaper report of 23 December 1907. This records that Florence was a passenger on the steam ship Ngatiawa which sailed from Tairua, Whangamata and Mercury Bay arriving in Auckland on 21 December. This was no doubt a much more pleasant journey than attempting to get to Auckland by road in 1907. It looks like she went home for Christmas.

In December of 1912 there is an announcement in the Auckland Star of school appointments which records that Florence Hardy has now been appointed to the Taotaoroa No 1 School at Karapiro. It appears that Florence taught at Taotaoroa for the period from 1912 until around 1920. This is an assumption made from Electoral Rolls that record her with an address during this time of Karapiro.

Her sister Nellie (Helena) had also taught at this school for a period around 1909 prior to her marriage. It seems likely that she met her future husband Edward Death during her time at Karapiro as a list of children at the school in the early 1900s includes numerous members of a local farming family named Death. There was both a No 1 and No 2 Taotaoroa schools. They catered for children in the Cambridge and Karapiro areas. The schools were in due course merged into one and although quite small for many years they dramatically increased in size when the Karapiro hydro scheme was developed.

From 1920 onwards the records of Florence's address are confusing, possibly because there was more than one Florence F Hardy in New Zealand. If we work backwards it is clear that in the period 1946 until her death on 4th January 1950 Florence lived at 9 Totara Ave Pukekohe. At this point Florence will have been retired as she turned age 65 in 1941.

There is a teacher exam record indicating she may have lived in Pukekohe as early as 1936. An electoral roll of 1935 has a Florence Hardy in Rotorua and another has her in Wellington South in 1928. In an obituary published in the Herald 12th January 1950 it is said that she taught in South Africa and was head infant mistress at Northland School in Wellington until she retired. The comment about teaching in Wellington may be correct given the electoral roll record mentioned above. The reference to teaching in South Africa is not supported by any other evidence.

We know that on 7th March 1935 Florence inherited through Charles' Will the property at 34 Mount Albert Rd (the section on which Charles built a second house). Florence kept this property until 10 July 1942 when she sold it to Mabel Arblaster.

The terms of Charles and Alice Hardy's Wills give an insight into what Charles and Alice considered to be fair treatment of their children- I assume reflecting what they saw as their needs.

Florence who never married and was probably living in rented housing during her career as a teacher was left a house under Charles' Will which only passed to her on the death of Alice. This ensured Alice also had a house to live in and would be well off financially from the proceeds of the sale of the other land owned by Charles.

Charles also left specific sums of money to his children as follows:

- Charles 600 pounds;

-George 100 pounds;

-Ada 500 pounds;

-Helena 100 pounds.

The above only became payable following the death of Alice. In addition any "residue" of his estate would be distributable in equal shares to all his children.

Charles had in 1912 some two years prior to his death, gifted a property on the corner of Kitenui and Lloyd Avenue to Ada just prior to her marriage to Edmund Spencer.

Under Alice's Will Florence inherited all of the household furniture and personal effects apart from Alice's table silver which went to Alice, the dinner service which went to Ada and the Stuttgart piano which was left jointly to Dorothy and Dulcie who were Helena's daughters.

Alice also left a range of specific amounts to her children and grandchildren. In addition she owned another house at Paice Avenue (near Balmoral) which she left to her daughter Alice.

It is thought that Florence's mother Alice had moved from the old house "Montana" to the newer house called Kirtland at some stage after Charle's death in 1914 and lived there until her death in 1934. The reports of the very tragic death of Nelly (Helena) indicate that she died at number 34 Mount Albert Rd in 1924. This was under the old numbering system and refers to Montana i.e. the house at what is now 30 Mount Albert Rd.

Why do the Hardy houses have names?

This is related to Charles Hardy's involvement in the Mormon Church. The names Montana and Kirtland are the names of two historic Mormon Temples in the United States.

According to my notes of a conversation with the current owners of what is now 36 Mount Albert Rd (which is not a Hardy house) there is a recollection by the prior owner of the houses at both 36 and 34 Mount Albert Rd of a "Miss Hardy" ( namely Florence) proposing alterations to 34 Mount Albert Rd in around 1935.

In summary it is possible that Florence used the proceeds of her inheritance to purchase a house of her own in Pukekohe to then live out her retirement in this small rural community of the type in which she had taught for so many years. She might also have returned to Mount Albert to look after her mother in her latter years and perhaps occupied 34 Mount Albert Rd until her move to Pukekohe.

We are currently left with some significant gaps in our knowledge of Florence's life. It would be good to know where and who she visited in England during her trip there in 1901/02. In respect of her trip to the US we would like to know where she went for her"university studies". The period from around 1920 to 1935 currently represents a gap in our knowledge of the schools in which Florence was teaching or how else she was earning a living ( did she teach music? ) and exactly where she was living prior to her retirement.