Among the earliest documented European women to establish a home in South Canterbury
c.1835–1890
Early settlement
Farming
The Levels and Timaru
Anglican community
If you stand beside Timaru’s Landing Services Building, you may notice a plaque on the east wall marking the site of Rhodes Cottage. One of its earliest occupants was Elizabeth Wood, later Rhodes and Perry.
Elizabeth was about nineteen when she married pastoralist George Rhodes at Lyttelton on 31 May 1854. Soon afterwards, George brought her south to his base near Timaru’s exposed landing place. They lived briefly in the small shoreline cottage before moving inland to The Levels.
Their first home at The Levels was a simple two-roomed building with timber slab walls, a clay floor and a roof thatched with tussock or raupō. One room was a bedroom. The other served as kitchen, dining room and sitting room. A raised platform provided sleeping space for household help, reminding us that Elizabeth was not the only person whose labour sustained the home.
The surviving records tell us much more about the Rhodes family’s sheep run than about Elizabeth’s daily life. We do not know exactly how work was divided between Elizabeth, family members and household workers. However, pastoral stations could not function through land and livestock alone. Food had to be prepared, children cared for, clothing washed, supplies managed and visitors received.
Elizabeth’s 1890 obituary remembered the hospitality offered at The Levels, including treats for local schoolchildren. It also recorded her involvement in the social work of the Church of England and her reputation for generous hospitality. These details offer rare evidence of what she personally contributed to community life.
Elizabeth has sometimes been described as the second European woman to enter South Canterbury, after Margaret Hornbrook of Seadown. Even the contemporary newspaper qualified this with the words “we believe”. It should not be treated as a proven ranking. Kāti Huirapa women had lived in and travelled through this landscape for generations, and other European women may be missing from the surviving records.
What can be said securely is that Elizabeth was among the earliest documented European women to establish a household in colonial South Canterbury.
George (1817–1864) arrived in Port Cooper (Lyttelton) in December 1843. With his borther purchased 75,000 acres between Opihi and the Pareora Rivers. The first 126 acres of ‘The Levels’ is now known as the Central Business Centre of Timaru. George, aged 47, died from typhoid fever (a chill) after working 3 days in a sheep dip, up to his waist at Purau. Buried at Lyttelton’s Anglican Cemetery, Christchurch in a crypt and is one of the largest graves in the cemetery. The is covered by a slab of stone brought up from The Levels, the place he felt most at home. William, Robert and George – had been well settled in Canterbury before the first four ships arrived. After his death the family funded the completion of the Christchurch Cathedral – the spire becoming known as the Rhodes Spire – and they paid for ten of the Cathedral bells in George’s honour.
In 1864. Elizabeth and her children later lived at Linwood House, on or near the present Timaru District Council complex. In 1867 she married Timaru barrister Arthur Perry at St Mary’s Church. They later lived at Beverley Estate where Henry LeCren had once lived. The Garden became famous in the dominion a credit to their gardner Mr Knowles. The Beverley became a home for war veterans, then demolished for the RSA for many years, then demolished and subdivided for housing.
Elizabeth died in Timaru on 10 July 1890 and was buried in Timaru Cemetery. The Timaru District Council cemetery search lists her son is interred beside her Row 7, plot 468. George William Wood Rhodes, was four when he died 1859. History books record that the Deal Boatmen were the first recorded burial at the Timaru cemetery in October 1860. It would be interesting to confirm if George may actually have been burried earlier.
Her story connects several familiar places: the Landing Services Building, The Levels, Linwood, Beverley, St Mary’s and the cemetery. It also asks us to look beyond the names of landowners and businesses.
A house may survive in photographs, plans or plaques. The repeated work that made it a home is much easier to lose.
Existing WuHoo stories
More than just a hut: Timaru’s first European house, 1851 Rhodes Cottage
Timaru’s Early Port: A History Hunt on the Open Beach and Early Rhodestead
Where is Ann, the mother of Timaru’s first European baby?
Discovering Timaru Cemetery Stories and the Timaru Trails App
Sources
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, “Rhodes, George”
Supports Elizabeth and George’s marriage, their move to Timaru and The Levels, and George’s death.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1r6/rhodes-george/print
Timaru Herald, 11 July 1890, “Town & Country”
Supports Elizabeth’s death, early residence, the qualified claim that she was the district’s second European woman, the school treats, Anglican social work and hospitality.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18900711.2.9
Timaru Civic Trust, “The Levels Homestead”
Supports the physical description of the early house and the sleeping platform for household help.
https://www.timarucivictrust.co.nz/blog/the-levels-homestead
Intentions to Marry, Timaru district, 1867
Supports Elizabeth’s age, widowhood, Timaru residence and intended marriage to Arthur Perry.
https://itm.howison.co.nz/year/1867/district/timaru
Timaru District Council cemetery record
Supports Elizabeth’s death and burial dates and her cemetery location.
https://www.timaru.govt.nz/community/community-and-culture/cemeteries/cemetery-search?BurialId=29736