Our first Treasurer - Henry Seegers Palmerson

 

Henry Seegers Palmerson

Born about 1844.  Bremen, Germany - 19 August, 1888.  Palmerston North.

Henry Seegers Palmerson came to New Zealand in about 1864.   He moved to Palmerston North and went into business on his own account as land agent, surveyor, and dealer.   He was elected to the Palmerston North Borough Council, and Horowhenua County Council.

He became a surveyor with the Wellington Provincial Government in the Manawatu during the 1860’s and 70’s, being responsible for the survey of the Rangitikei Manawatu block which includes Awahuri township which he subdivided for its Maori owners, and they honoured him by naming one of the streets after him. Unfortunately it is now signposted incorrectly as ‘Palmerston Street’ instead of ‘Palmerson Street’.

A Foundation Officer and Treasurer of the Manawatu Kilwinning Lodge 1883, H.S. Palmerson is noted as being a member of the first Town Board which held its first meeting on April 15th, 1876.   He was also on the building committee for the erection of the first Anglican Church.

He died, by his own hand, on the 19 August, 1888. 

A description of a case involving Henry's father-in-law, it's affect on him and the Palmerson's subsequent life, can be found  here:  

https://www.facebook.com/RandomSnippetsofHistoryManawatuandBeyond/posts/the-next-one-two-more-to-go-over-the-next-couple-of-days/926156946206649/

An excerpt reads:

"The aforementioned son in-law, surveyor Henry Seegers Palmerson was married to Alexander McDonald’s daughter Annie.  He seems to have been a rather fragile man – partly based on the effect McDonald’s sentencing apparently had on him.
Then on 1 September 1876, Henry and Annie had a baby boy who they also named Henry Seegers Palmerson. Tragically, the Manawatu Times of 2 October 1878 (p. 2) was to record: 
“Another sad and fatal accident is to be added to the [similar] one which we chronicled in our last issue, by which Mr H. S. Palmerson has lost a splendid little boy, two years of age. 
“Mrs Palmerson and the children were on a visit to her father's residence at Raikopu [at Awahuri], and the little fellow was straying about the grounds on Saturday, when he tumbled into a duck-pond [other sources say a well], without being observed. 
“Dr. Johnston was hastily summoned from Palmerston, but notwithstanding every effort was made to restore animation, it was of no avail. The little fellow was an exceptionally fine child, and the greatest sympathy is felt for Mr and Mrs Palmerson on their sad bereavement. 
“Dr. Rockstrow held an inquest on Monday, when a verdict of accidental death was recorded.  The funeral took place yesterday, and was followed by a large number of persons, anxious to testify their sympathy and respect on the melancholy occasion.”
Then on 19 August 1888 - to compound the situation - Palmerson (by then 44) committed suicide in Palmerston North.  He was survived by his widow and three children. 

In 1891, Annie Palmerson married surveyor George Latta Rodoway Scott, and it is under the surname Scott that she appears in her father’s obituary that appeared in the previous post in this little series.  She died in 1921, leaving one surviving son and a daughter.  The couple’s other son, Corporal Harry Stanley Palmerson (27), had died of illness in Cairo, Egypt, on 12 July 1915, following service at Gallipoli."

 

 

Sources: 

• The MANAWATU KILWINNING LODGE No. 47.  'The EVOLUTION and the MEMORIES.  125th Jubilee 1883 - 2008' by V.W.Bro. John Livingstone, P.G.Lec., Chaplain and Bro. David Fountain, M.M.
• https://www.facebook.com/ScandinavianClubManawatu
• https://manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/item/e6e56b59-a1c6-4c4b-a736-567003d607a9
• Palmerston North - A Centennial History, G.C. Petersen. pp 98, 113