Selina McCarty

Biography contributed by Joyce Hislop (great-great neice)

Selina Harriett ATKINS was born in Lower Hutt on 31 Dec 1858 the third daughter of William Eli and Martha (nee Dew) Atkins. The Atkins family lived in Ohariu Valley where in Selina’s obituary it says 'she could well remember the stirring days of the Hau Hau risings and the trying times experienced by the settlers'. The family moved to the Port of Foxton in the late 1860s where Selina’s father along with David Millar undertook the arduous task of transporting goods up the Manawatu River by canoe to the bush settlement that was then Palmerston.  

Selina married George McCarty in Foxton on 24 June 1875 and she moved to Palmerston North with George who was a contractor, and he laid some of the earliest streets in the district.

They had five children Hugh George (1876-1952), John William (1877-1917), Elizabeth Martha (1879-1947), William (1881-1961), and Alexander (1882-1882).

In 1914 George retired and he and Selina moved to Plimmerton. The couple were to celebrate their Golden Wedding at Selina’s sister Mrs L Grammer’s home in Ashhurst in 1925 but unfortunately due to Selina’s health she was confined to her bed and couldn’t attend. Because of Selina’s continuing ill health they moved back to Palmerston North in 1928. Selina died at her residence there the following year on 17 May aged 71 years.

George moved back to Plimmerton where his daughter and her husband William Read lived and he died there on 22 July 1932 aged 79 years. Selina and George are buried in the Terrace End Cemetery, Palmerston North.

Sources

BDM’s

Papers Past

Electoral Rolls

Family Records

NB: Mary J Lane also on page 311 is Selina’s younger sister