Amongst the other pioneers who settled in the district around the same time were a couple of Danish young men, Johan Peter Hende (b.1843 and known as Peter) and Jens Hende (b.1847). They had left Schleswig Holstein, in the southern part of Denmark, when they were teenagers in 1862, and migrated to Australia where they prospected for gold. Peter soon left to work as a sailor, on ships plying between Australia and New Zealand, whilst Jens had stayed on the goldfields in Victoria. The lure of the New Zealand gold rush and the establishment of Hokitika and other important ports on the West Coast soon attracted them and they arrived sometime in 1871 to fossick for gold among the black sands of Westland. Soon after their arrival, Caroline Hyjort (b.1850) joined Peter from Copenhagen were and they were married in Ross on 26 November 1872.
Peter and Jens took over the ferry across the Wanganui river at the end of 1872, and ran it successfully, until the brothers had a huge blazing row in 1878, and barely spoke to each other for the next 22 years until Jens' death in 1900 after an accident when a horse fell on him crushing his chest and liver.
Then Jens went back to working the black sands, and often called in to see William Green at his abode at Green's Beach for a meal or a yarn. Jens often admired a photo on William's mantleshelf, which was a picture of his niece, Mary Anne Josephine Bath maker (born in 1849 in London) and always known as Josephine. William wrote to his niece and invited her out to New Zealand. She set sail on the Kaikoura on the 14th March 1884 and joined her uncle William where she kept house for him. She and Jens were soon attracted to each other, and having courted Josephine for a few months Jens asked for her hand in marriage, which took place in Ross in 1884. Jens' sister Annie Christine (b.1841) had also emigrated and married Jan Peterson. They lived close by, and Annie Christine (known as Christine) served as the local midwife for the families in the area. These families were Fergusons and Hendes and they had many children between them
Peter and Jens took over the ferry across the Wanganui river at the end of 1872, and ran it successfully, until the brothers had a huge blazing row in 1878, and barely spoke to each other for the next 22 years until Jens' death in 1900 after an accident when a horse fell on him crushing his chest and liver.
Then Jens went back to working the black sands, and often called in to see William Green at his abode at Green's Beach for a meal or a yarn. Jens often admired a photo on William's mantleshelf, which was a picture of his niece, Mary Anne Josephine Bath maker (born in 1849 in London) and always known as Josephine. William wrote to his niece and invited her out to New Zealand. She set sail on the Kaikoura on the 14th March 1884 and joined her uncle William where she kept house for him. She and Jens were soon attracted to each other, and having courted Josephine for a few months Jens asked for her hand in marriage, which took place in Ross in 1884. Jens' sister Annie Christine (b.1841) had also emigrated and married Jan Peterson. They lived close by, and Annie Christine (known as Christine) served as the local midwife for the families in the area. These families were Fergusons and Hendes and they had many children between them
William Henry Green was born in England in September 1838, fought in the Maori Wars for three years, and settled eventually in Westland in 1872. He built a sturdy wooden cottage near the beach, between the Waitaha river and the Waikaikai creek, and this became a boarding-house, stables and a chaff shed. There was lodging for travellers, stabling and feed for horses. He mined for gold in the black sands, had cows for milking, and churned his own butter which he sold to local storekeepers. A friendly and good-hearted man, he helped many of the other settlers in the area and was well-respected as a tradesman…he had been a ship's carpenter before fighting in the North Island.
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