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Francis Quinton Burwell

Francis "Frank" was born in 1906. He was the 5th child of Albert Burwell and Gertrude Minchin. He grew up on his parents farm at Kaimata in Inglewood, Taranaki and attended Kaimata School, later attending New Plymouth Boys' High School where he boarded. When he was only 12 his mother passed away after contracting the Spanish Flu, caught while nursing the soldiers returning from the 1st World War. Inglewood was badly hit, at one stage the bodies were lined up in caskets on the street as the undertakers were unable to cope. Frank himself also caught the Flu, but managed to survive, atho' he did sustain damage to his lungs. A couple of years after his mother died, his father remarried, to his mother's sister Louisa Minchin. By all accounts Frank and his siblings were not happy with this arrangement, which they had known nothing about until their father turned up with his new bride, and they made life difficult for Louisa. One by one, as they were old enough, the siblings left home, Dennis to the South Island, Carrie and Gertrude got married and Frank was sent to boarding school. When he left school he got a job at the cheese factory at Waitara not far from New Plymouth, he bought himself a motorbike which enabled him to travel easily between Waitara and New Plymouth. One of Frank's friends also had a motorbike, and one day they met on the road head-on and Frank ended up in the ditch, unconscious. Thinking he was dead, the other man ran to a farm for help. Frank ended up in New Plymouth hospital where he was unconscious for a week. His only injuries were a broken finger which the Doctor set. When Frank went back later showing the Doctor his finger was crooked; he proceeded to break it again without an anaesthetic and re-set it. His brother-in-law Ernie Perrott was working on a farm at Parawera in the Waikato owned by Woodward and McGinty and when they needed an extra hand, Frank decided to take it. The farm was leased by Joseph Williams and his family. They had a daughter, Eunice Jean Williams whom Frank courted. They were married on 4 July 1928. After their marriage they went to work on another farm owned by Woodward and McGinty at Arohena, where they stayed for two years. In 1929 their first child Heather was born. When Heather was 18 months old she took a tumble down some concrete steps fracturing her skull, as a result she was brain damaged and never progressed past the maturity level of a 7 year old. Frank was keen to purchase his own farm. There were two blocks of land at Puketurua in the Waikato offered for sale by the Barnetts who owned huge areas of land in the district. Frank's father Bert duly inspected the properties and gave them the Ok. Frank and Eunice purchased the block nearest the Puketurua school, and Frank's brother Dennis purchased the farm next door. The farm consisted of 400 acres with about 30 acres in grass, the rest in teatree. There was a 3 bedroom "house" on the property with no doors or windows, so these had to be put in before Frank, Eunice and Heather could move in. Rabbits were a massive problem; new crops and new grass was just mown down by a grey mass of rabbits. Carrots were fed to the rabbits to get them used to them, then they were laced with Strychnine poison. Cartloads of dead rabbits were then collected and buried in old Maori cooking pits. At first a few cows were milked by hand, while more land was cleared by hand and put into grass. The milk was separated with the cream going to the local dairy factory and the skim milk being fed to the pigs. Frank and Eunice had 5 more children; Murray, Irene, Beverley, Francis and Christine. The farm barely made enough to live on let alone extra for development so Frank got a job working on the Arapuni dam to supplement the income from the farm. At the crack of dawn he had to hitch up his team of horses and head for the dam, getting back late at night. Cows were milked on the farm for many years as it was all cleared, later he sold the cows and went into sheep. Frank was very involved in the local community, being on the School Board, the Hall Committee, County Council and also on the local Reserve Force during the 2nd World War. Because of his lung problems, he was not able to actively serve. Frank and Eunice built a lovely new home on their farm in 1958. One of the builders, Peter Groom, married their youngest daughter Christine. One by one, apart from Heather, the children got married and left home. Frank continued farming sheep on his farm. On 4 December 1963 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace. Frank became unwell in September 1964 and he passed away having suffered a heart attack on September 7, 1964 at the age of 58. He is buried in Putaruru Cemetery

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