Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

Levin Chronicle 22 Mar 1951

Late Mrs Prouse's 91 Years: Saga of Pioneer Life

Many years ago a woman rode into Wellington from Whiteman's Valley and made straight for a chemist's shop. "I want a flesh needle," she told the man behind the counter. "But what for?" she was asked. "Well, I have just sewn up a man's hand with a darning needle and I'm not going to do it again."

That was the calibre of Mrs Christina Prouse, who was later to become one of the most loved and best known personalities in the Horowhenua district. She died in Levin on Saturday at the age of 91.

Mrs Prouse left that chemist's shop with a full kit of medical supplies and the provision of a flesh needle was only one of the startling requests she was to make at that shop.

The late Mrs Prouse had an amazing capacity for work and took the responsibility of men in her stride. She had no time for idle chatter when there was work to be done. She could be blunt of speech yet understanding, gentle and ever ready with her renowned wit, and this deep sense of humour she retained until her last hours.

The workers in her husband's mill at Weraroa and neighbours far and wide looked to her instantly in time of trouble or sickness, and when she walked into their homes in response to a call for assistance they were content to sit back and leave everything to "Granny Prouse".

"Just Another Babe"

"Please come at once, Mummy's dying," cried a little boy who arrived barefooted one day at her door. Together they rode back through bush and mud. Hours later she was asked what had transpired. "Oh, I just brought another babe into the world," she replied. A competent midwife she brought many babes into the world and not a few well-known Levin
and district personalities owe their existence today to the skill and efficiency of Mrs Prouse.

Those were the days of bush surgery when staves off a nail barrel served as splints for broken arms and legs and when a train was flagged to a standstill while injured persons were transferred from bush areas to the Wellington Hospital. Mrs Prouse was not a registered nurse. Like others in her day, she accepted as her duty the task of caring for the sick and needy in her district.

She had a fine knowledge of disinfectants and drugs and could name the plant from which the latter originated. Her love of flowers, and particularly native flora, gave impetus to her constant battle to prevent the stretch of native bush around their Weraroa homestead from falling under the axe of her husband's mill hands. Native bush was common in these parts and nothing was thought of feeding Rata and Matai into the furnaces of locomotives.

Many of the larger trees around the homestead fell victim to storms when the cutting our of surrounding timbers left them exposed, but today Levin owes much to Mrs Prouse for the retention of this small oasis of native growth.

"Here's The Toe, Ma'am."

One sidelight of "Granny's" early first aid experiences was one morning when two bushmen arrived at the door supporting an injured comrade. He had sliced a toe off with an axe. Dipping a hand into his pocket he produced a grubby handkerchief which he unwrapped carefully.

"Here's the toe, ma'am," he said in broken English, for he was a foreigner, with a look that fully anticipated the miraculous replacement of the severed member.

Mrs Prouse, formerly Miss Christina McIlvride, was born on February 1, 1860, at Wainuiomata and educated at the school there. Twice a week for seven years she mounted her horse and carried the mail a distance of nine miles to Lower Hutt. She commenced this arduous task at the age of 12 years and maintained the service until she was 19, the year
of her marriage, which took place in her home - the Post Office at Wainuiomata - on May 22, 1879.

Her husband, the late Richard Prouse was sawmilling in Whiteman's Valley and it was there that they set up their home and brought four daughters into the world - Grace (now deceased), Jessie, Gertrude and Mabel. In 1891 they moved to Levin, three children being later born here - Eunice (now deceased), Allan and Phyllis.

The journey to Levin was partly by road - if it could be called such - and partly by rail, the horse and buggy being transferred to the train run by the Manawatu Railway Company. Eventually she arrived at the home she was to occupy to her death. A two-storey wooden structure it was one of the first houses in Weraroa.

Her Prowess was Legendary

As there was no doctor nearer than Foxton, Mrs Prouse took upon herself the task of doctor-nurse and her prowess became legendary. Both she and her husband were foundation members of the Methodist Church. The late Mrs Prouse and Mrs James Prouse laid the foundation stone of the present Methodist Church and she held various offices
during a period of some 55 years until her death. Until a few years ago she was responsible for the floral work in the church.

Her other interests included the St John Ambulance Brigade, Levin Horticultural Society, of which she was a foundation member, and she was a member and patron of the Levin Native Flora Club. She was a matron of the soldiers' hospital in Weraroa in 1915 and during the influenza epidemic of 1918 was second in charge of the temporary hospital at the Levin School.

Mrs Prouse enjoyed her life to the full and looked forward to her birthdays with as much enthusiasm as in her youth. "It may be grand to be 19, but it can be just as grand to be 90," she confided to a "Chronicle" reporter who interviewed her on her attainment of that age last year. She owned one of the few old spinning wheels in the country and loved to spin for various causes.

Many who might have seen her around her property in the early days, or tending her garden, might not have recognised in her the manufacturer of neatly spun garments. Clothes did not mean much to her. The first articles which came to hand would do "Granny" for her daily chores whether it be her husband's coat, hat or trousers. Once years ago, she
was walking down the track to the gate when she was accosted by a young man, who, in rather an embarrassed state of mind, was paying his first call at the house. Seeking directions, and misled by her appearance, he addressed her blithely as "Sonny".

With her death in Levin last week, the Prouse family have lost a fine mother, and the district a remarkable and most worthy pioneer and citizen.