By Roselyn Fauth
Meet James Craigie: The man, the wife, and the children behind the name... “Practical Birdstuffer.”
Page 3 Advertisements Column 4. Timaru Herald, Volume XV, Issue 640, 15 July 1871, Page 3. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18710715.2.20.4
Practical Birdstuffer... it's note really a advert you come across these days... but in 1876 that was a notice placed in the Timaru Herald by James Cragie. We all start somewhere... and this is one of the earliest starts I could find about James.
The reason he was on my radar is because I have been learning about the streets in the Timaru Girls High neighbourhood. and of course, Cragie Ave is very close to the schools eastern boundary. I know a fair bit about Cragie, mostly as a past mayor of Timaru and his civic improvements and generosity, who supported the mechanics institute, found funds for our public library, gifted clock chimes, a Robbie Burns statue, and the foundations of the Aigantighe Art Gallery's art collection via the South Canterbury Arts Society. Like many history blogs though, it is pretty easy to learn about the men, and you will see by this blog, there is a big story about the man of the house James.
However, if you hunt... there is a big story about the women of the family too. so here is my blog, to learn about the Cragie's, and their ripples of impact on the town we know today, as the city of Timaru...
It is not the sort of advertisement you expect to find when you begin looking into one of Timaru’s best-known public names... But there it was in the Timaru Herald in 1871. It is one of the earliest notices I could find for James Craigie. But just as I thought my blog was off to a great start finding this notice... I also found out that there are two James Craigies. A Senior and a Junior... James Cragie junior was born in 7 September 1851. So if the notice is for James junior, he would have been around 19-20 at the time this advert was placed. If it were James Senior,, who was born in 1812, he would have been around 58 years of age. He was is described as a farm labourer and carpenter, and was married to Agnes Cragie (nee McFarlane who was born about 1813 in Forfarshire, Scotland. I can find a little more about who James senior was, by looking up the suffrage signing register of his wife. This register is a gold mine for hunting womens history and finding breadcrumbs to follow...
"She married James Craigie, a farm labourer and carpenter, on 29 July 1833 in Perth. They had 8 children before they sailed for Canterbury in 1867 on the Glenmark accompanied by their three youngest children and two grandchildren – four of their older children had arrived in New Zealand before them. When Agnes signed the suffrage petition she was living at their farm 'The Meadows' near Timaru. She died there on 8 July 1893 and James died at their son’s home in Timaru in 1904 – they are buried together in the Timaru Cemetery."
I also found a source on Wikepedia that say's James junior moved to Timaru in 1873, and our bird stuffer advert is 1871. Hmmm... not the best place to start a blog, usually I like to hit the ground running with solid facts. But I decided to leave this in, because this is the reality of history hunting... We have to start somewhere. It also shows why history hunting can take ages... because you need to make sure you get it right, dead ends and all.
That tiny advertisement Senior or Junior is a reminder that before James Craigie became a mayor, MP, donor, and local legend, he was a working man building a life through skill, enterprise, and whatever work came his way.
James Craigie was born in 1851 in Perthshire, Scotland, more specifically Coupar Angus in later summaries. He was the son of James Craigie Senior and Agnes Craigie, née McFarlane.
He came to New Zealand with his parents in 1867. Later accounts say he spent time in Dunedin after completing an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator, before establishing himself in Timaru.
According to Wikepedia, James moved to Timaru in 1873, and it is here that he established his name through trade. Newspaper notices show him linked to T. W. Fyfe, then carrying on business under the name Fyfe & Craigie, and then appearing in formal partnership as house and carriage painters, glaziers, plumbers, and decorators. Fyfe and Craigie advertised paperhangings, decorative goods, and even a Grand Art Union of imported pictures. They were working in the practical world of paint and glass, and also the visual world of colour, display, and taste.
By 1876, newspaper reports on the opening of Trinity Church, Timaru noted that the painting by Mr Craigie had been carried out in a most satisfactory manner.
That detail matters, as it gives us some context to the early James. Who he was before he became associated with civic beauty, he was already helping shape the look and feel of Timaru through his own hands and trade. He was also listed many times in the newspaper in the shipping news. No doubt facing challenges of importing goods to sell from all over the world and having to work out the logistics of sea trade and its challenges at the time. I have learned about a few of Timaru's characters who were doing the same at the same time, and read about their frustrations of our harbour. At the time ships anchored off the coast and small surfboats transported people and things between the ships and the shore. It was slow, and challenging. And from the 1860s locals could see that for the town and region to grow, the harbour had to be improved. No doubt James was hearing these conversations and at times would have worked out what he thought was important to help support the growth and prosperity of the area.
However he wasn't in the thick of politics yet, when Catherine (Kate) Orr daughter of Alexander Orr of County Donegal married James in 28 September 1875.
Kate herself had emigrated to Canterbury in 1873 on the Edwin Fox. She was an immigrant woman building a life in a new place, just as James was.
This is where the Craigie story becomes more than a public life. It becomes a household, in both joy and grief.
Kate’s suffrage biography says they had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. Their seven surviving children were one son and six daughters.
A birth notice from 1877 points to the arrival of James Alexander Craigie.
A death notice records that he died on 14 June 1878, aged eleven months.
Even families later remembered for public success knew the private ache of losing a child.
I would love to learn more about who Kate was. A person who was more than the wife of a notable man.
What I can find out for now, is she was part of one of the most important democratic moments in New Zealand history. When the petition reached Timaru, Mrs Kate Craigie signed it from Bank Street.
I wonder what James thought about Kate signing the petition? Was it discussed at home? Did the public man and the woman in his household see political change in the same way? Or did Kate simply know her own mind? We may never know for certain. But her signature is there.
James moved from trade into public life. I wonder what the catalyst was. Perhaps his years of running his business opened his eyes to how things could be done better, and where he could see Timaru's needed to put its energy. James Craigie’s public life became substantial. The official summary you shared records these positions:
Chairman of the Kingsdown School Committee for 11 years
Member of the South Canterbury Hospital Board for 8 years
Chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board from 1906 to 1910
Timaru Borough Councillor from 1901
Mayor of Timaru Borough from 1902 to 1913
Member of Parliament from 1908 to 1922
Member of the Legislative Council from 1922 to 1929
That is a facinating public record. A man who knew buildings, interiors, materials, customers, and presentation later became a man interested in schools, harbour development, health, public culture, and civic improvement.
His gifts still shape Timaru
James Craigie is remembered for generosity. The official summary lists these donations and gifts:
the Robert Burns statue in the Botanic Gardens
the oak trees of Craigie Avenue
the town clock chimes, donated in 1913, first hung in the Chief Post Office and later moved to the Municipal Buildings
He was a big supporter of the public library project and wrote to Carnegie to apply for funding for the library as part of Carnegie's mammoth investment into global public libraries. James was also a founding member of the South Canterbury Arts Society, whose gifts helped form part of the early nucleus of what became the Aigantighe Art Gallery collection.
The family home and final years
As James’s success grew, later summaries say he purchased a large farm in Kingsdown, about five kilometres south of Timaru, where he built Craigielea. James died on 17 August 1935. Kate lived on until 7 December 1944, dying at her home Craigielea, Kingsdown. They are buried together in Timaru Cemetery.
A man born in Scotland, a woman born in Ireland, a life built in Timaru, children raised, a child buried, a public career carried, and then rest together in the town where their name still lingers in the landscape.
What I like most about James Craigie’s story is that it begins so humbly.
Not with a speech... statue or an election.
James story begins with work.
Was he the practical birdstuffer? Maybe it was his father. What did he learn from him, and how did their Scottish ancestory and culture shape the man James was.
He evolved his career as a painter, decorator, businessman.
A husband, father. A family who knew both joy and grief.
A man whose wife signed the suffrage petition.
A man who was in the thick of politics to move our town and region forward.
He built his life, and Kate built hers alongside him. And together, they left more than a famous surname.
They left a family story worth following.
Page 2 Advertisements Column 5. Timaru Herald, Volume XX, Issue 1010, 16 February 1874, Page 2. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18740216.2.10.5
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Timaru Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 1060, 15 June 1874, Page 3
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18740615.2.8