Johnny and Polly Melody and their Children.

By Paul Melody

John Patrick and Mary Ellen, or 'Johnny and Polly' as they called each other, had 8 children.

• William John (Bill) 18888-1959
• Eileen 1889- 1980
• Mary Violet (Madie)? - 1974
• Francis Martin (Frank)1896- 1971
• Edwin (Teddy) died as a child, named after his maternal grandfather from Australia.
  
• Anthony Eric 1899- 1974
  
• Mary Magdalene (Penny)1901-1969
• Murial Veronica (Bubs)1906-1994

Their first child was born later in 1887 while the couple lived at Patea. He was baptized William John Melody, Later known as Bill or Will.

Wanganui Move: By 1900 the family had moved to Wanganui where Mary Ellen brought a middle-sized farm in Brunswick Road at Aramoho, including a block which was overlooked by high hills. Some years later the block on the easternside of Brunswick Road, was purchased by Kempthorne Prosser Ltd, who built a large fertiliser manufacturing plant on the front section. The manure works was popular with district farmers for many years.

Accident: Meanwhile .JP and Mary Ellen had settled on an 8-acre block on the opposite side of the road where they developed a small farmlet. JP continued in the freezing industry, working as a butcher for the Imlay Company. Unfortunately in 1913 he was the victim of an accident at the Imlay works which ended his working days. A meat hook suspended from an overhead track fell from a considerable height inside the works and struck JP on the top of his head. He suffered concussion which laid him off work for some time, and he was affected by health problems ever after. Until then he had been an active man who provided well for his family, but the accident ruined this part of his life. He was only 50 at the time and lived for another 29 years.

The generous freezing company paid him 65 pounds ($130) in compensation.

Income Loss: To meet the loss of income which resulted from JP's accident Johnny and Polly had to bring up their family on the proceeds from a small herd of less than 10 dairy cows. Both of them milked the cows by hand, and the boys in the family delivered milk from house to house each morning before going to school. Son Eric recalled in later years that he took his turn at carrying the buckets of milk in the streets around the Brunswick Road farm and ladled it with scoops into billies and tins placed at customers' gates. He claimed that the heavy buckets stretched his arms so that they were longer than the average.

Plentiful Produce: They sold plumbs, quinces, apples, black and rd currants, cape gooseberries and vegetables, all harvested from the prolific gardens expertly cultivated by John Patrick.

Milk. butter, cream, and eggs from a well stocked fowl run sold well to the neighbours who came regular to buy from a tiny cold store in the back garden.

Well Educated: In spite of the tight conditions brought about by a low income, the growing family of Melody young'uns were well educated, and progressed well in later life. All attended the Aramoho primary school.

Will became a school teacher , teaching at Wanganui Technical College before reaching headmaster status at Hutt Valley High School, Thorndon School and Finally Karori School.

Bill married a South African girl, Myrtle Anderson, who rose rapidly through the tennis ranks and became New Zealnd woman's champion in the mid 1920s. She and Bill played at the Wimbledon Championships following this win, but without major success.

Eily became a country postmistress at Hokoia in the Taranaki district. Incidentally, her postal knowledge trapped her small nephew, Paul, in a serious juvenile crime one day. Paul spent several month each year for four years staying with his grandparents, Johnny and Polly, during which he attended St Anthony's Convent school at Aramoho. Just before Guy Fawkes Day one year he was persuade by a schoolmate, Laurie Coxon, to draw money out of his Post Office savings account for a splurge on fireworks, which they both gleefully exploded underneath the Aramoho Bridge. Very spectacular!

Not long afterward Aunt Eily as she was known paid a visit to the old family homestead to stay with her parents. She spotted Paul's Post Office savings book tucked away in a cupboard. Naturally interested in the savings record of her nephew, she opened the book to find that the large sum of 25 shillings ($2.50) had been drawn out, without explanation. The explosion from the grandparents which followed was worse the an the fireworks display!

That was the first time I learnt that old saying: ”Your sins will always find you out!”

Frank (he and Bill both served in the NZ Armed Forces in WW1) was a successful traveller Levin and Co's Wanganui branch. He brought the Whangaehu Hotel which had been operated in the 18808 by the family's distant relative, Owen McKirttrick and where his own mother had worked as a young girl. He also brought a grocery store at Raurimu.

Frank: The soldier on the extreme left is Frank Melody in preparing to go to WW1. His oldest brother went also and fortunately both returned.

At the Aramoho School Eric, aged 12, won a scholarship which took him to Wanganui Collegiate School for two years. He spent years on the clerical side of Livestock businesses at Wanganui, Hawera and New Plymouth. Then he took over managing a small general store at Raurimu , not far from National Park for his brother Frank. This prompted him to take over a similar store on his own account located at Erua, a small timber village not far from Ohakune, in which he was helped by wife Gwen and son Barry.

JP and Mary Ellen left their Aramoho farm in the late 1930s. Johnny lived with Eric's family at New Plymouth for a time, and Polly spent many years with daughter Bubby, who travelled from town to town with her small children and their father, Bill Coleman, who was also a school headmaster. Eventually the Colemans settled at Auckland, where this wonderfully hospitable family continued to look after Mary Ellen until her death in 1958 at the age of 96.

Bubs: Murial Veronica or Bubs married William Coleman in 1931. The Bridesmaid was her sister Penny and the flower-girl was probably Pat Hood. This is one of many marriages between Colemans and Melodys. Bubs's mother was a Coleman from Australia and there are Coleman connections in the American branch of the family as well.

Johnny had died much earlier, in 1942, aged 79.

Looking back on the lives of our grandparents, we can see that they were indomitable in the face of the considerable hardship caused by JP's illness. Much of the burden fell on Polly, who not only cooked and tended for a large family, but also helped with the daily milking (twice a day, by hand) and was always around to help with the hay harvest each season.
When Paul first stayed with then she was 72 and still handling many farm chores. He remembers that between the ages of 7 and 11 years he helped with the easy part of haymaking by trampling down the hay as it was forked up onto the hay stack. The person using the hay fork was his 74-year old grandmother, who kept the loads going: from ground level.

Mary Ellen Near the end of her life aged around 93.

Poetess: Mary was a small but determined lady with high moral ideals. She was also quietly humorous, and I can remember her home-made poem:

In the shade of the old apple tree
A bulldog came right up to me.
He gave me a punch
Where I'd just had some lunch
'Neath that old, old apple tree.

On top of her normal day's hard work Mary Ellen wrote numerous letters to her family around New Zealand. And she even wrote regularly to me when I was at boarding school at Silverstream - all in a wonderfully neat hand, in a friendly, chatty style which was always interesting.

Grandpa John Patrick played a quieter part in family affairs, but will always be remembered as a kindly man with a cheery word for his grandchildren who often visited the Aramoho farm with their parents.

JP concentrated on the big gardens around the house section, which were always in neat and tidy shape. When he stayed with Eric's family in New Plymouth near the end of his life he soon whipped their gardens into high production.