My Grandfather, Ebenezer Gurchen Gibson, was born in
Grovetown and worked as a brickmaker in the Tua Marina
area.  In 1913 he took his wife and family to the Maruia
Valley where he had taken up land for a dairy farm.  At
that time it was an isolated area and, so in 1916 Mum went
to live on another farm so that she could go to school.

Grandad had been in the Murchison Hospital for a month and he was
dressed and awaiting discharge when the earthquake struck. He was
evacuated with my mother and some of his sons to Nelson and then he
went to Blenheim for a short while.  In addition to losing his wife and
son, his house had been destroyed and the 80 acres of flat land for
grazing was virtually wiped out of existence. 

He made arrangements to take over another nearby farm
and returned to take up farming again.  Later on he married
his housekeeper Sophia Mary Dora Davey (nee Boldt)