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| Places in New Zealand and South America where James Stewart Jnr a Railway Engineer |
James
Stewart AKA Jim died on 26 January 1893
of snake bite near Quebrada de la Leija,
Colombia South America. Thus ended the life of this promising young
railway engineer. Probate records in NZ Archives and on Family Search enable
one to piece together the story of this incident. Letters from various
officials, court ,brother, father, and his will , give an extensive story and
records of the incident - all available digitally on Family Search from NZ
Archives.
 |
| "New
Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with
images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2XL-C637
: 12 November 2017), James Stewart, 1893; citing Auckland, , record number
1476, Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office; FamilySearch digital
folder 100968197. |
James
Stewart Jnr was said to have been born in Mount Street ,Auckland, New
Zealand on 11 August 1863 to James and
Mary Stewart. What could be said to be James Jnr's first introduction to
engineering and surveying. For his father James , a Scottish born engineer and surveyor of four years in the " new country " advertised offices above Brown & Campbell & Co premises
in Shortland Street, Auckland. James Jnr would be familiar with those premises
in later years when following his father s engineering footsteps. The second half of the 1800's was the era of railways and steam technology
or New Zealand and across the Pacific Ocean in South America and the Tasman sea in Australia.
Rapid
promotion by the latter part of 1890 saw him working as a District Engineer for
Messrs. Perry, Cutbill, De Lungo & Co., on the construction of the Paraguay
Central Railway. Perry, Cutbill, De Lungo & Co carried out large railway
contracts in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentine Republic, and South Africa, including
among the latter the Pietermaritzburg to Ladysmith Railway. Cutbill and De
Lungo were also partners in another giant
construction company involved
with railways and civil
engineering contracts -Thomas Brassey and Co.
 |
Looking east from Queen Street to the south side of
Shortland St showing City Market, Steers Hotel, Q.C.E. Hotel, premises of
Alfred Gregory Bartlett and David Nathan, B Rittenberg and Company, men
standing around the corner, a horse drawn carriage and gas lamps 1865 ?
|
One of
eight siblings ( including four sisters -
Christina, Lizzie, Mary and Annie,
mentioned in James Jnr's will) ,James grew up in Auckland. Education was
at the Auckland College and Grammar
School along with brother John. James Jnr is recorded as having begun schooling
there in 1875 and completing schooling
in 1881. Mr. Farquhar McRae was
headmaster back then and the school was in
the old Albert Barracks buildings and grounds Princes Street. Opened in 1868 it had moved from the old Immigration Barracks in Howe Street
1871 because of growing pupil numbers. The Stewart family provided several founding pupils of Auckland College and Grammar School.
 | ||
| Looking south from the corner of Princes Street and O'Rorke Street
towards the Old Immigration Barracks, formerly part of the Albert
Barracks buildings, used by Auckland Grammar School between May 1869 and
June 1871, then becoming the police barracks until replaced by the
Auckland Central Police Station in 1900. Replaced by the University
Maths and Physics building after 1967. courtesy
|
On to
1881 and it was the beginning of James Jnr's engineering career. He was
articled for four years to his father
James Stewart. James Stewart senior, by this year, had also
retired from the Public Works
Department after nine years as District
Engineer. Stewart senior established an Engineering practice with
Ashley Hunter forming what was the well-known firm of Stewart and Hunter.
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New
Zealand Herald 8 December 1882
Page 1
|
Others regarded as highly skilled engineers, also joined Stewart and Hunter to
work on various engineering works -
Gerald Butler Beere, Henry AKA
Harry Roche, Samuel Harding. James
Stewart Junior was to complete his engineering training with these
engineers followed by three further years as resident engineer to
the firm of Stewart and Hunter.
Two major
engineering projects for Stewart and Hunter during these years were the
Waiorongomai AKA Piako County tramway
and the Thames Valley Rotorua Railway. The Waiorongomai AKA Piako County tramway was
begun not long after the discovery of gold . The Piako County Council decided
to fund the construction of a tramway to bring the quartz down to the mining
batteries. In 1882 the works were begun with an initial survey of a route which
was down steep slopes, spurs and
inclines.
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| New Zealand Herald 16 March 1883 Page 1 |
By early 1883 James Stewart Junior's father passed completing construction of the
tramway, over to Henry AKA Harry Adams. This
due to Stewart senior's other commitments including the Thames Valley
Rotorua Railway. It is known that the
Waiorongomai AKA Piako County tramway was where James Stewart Junior began first
engineering work under his father's supervision.
Thames
Valley and Rotorua railway was surveyed
and constructed in two sections -
Section I Morrinsville to Lichfield and Section II Lichfield to Rotorua.
James Stewart Jnr. was placed on the Section II section working with Engineer
Henry AKA Harry Roche surveying the Section II route - of a very steep
gradient. At the time of the Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886 James Stewart
jnr was
camped with Roche and other workers in a survey camp near Ohinemutu -
Puna Atua Hoe. They were awoken by the noise and next day were among the first
rescue parties that went to Te Wairoa.
Later Henry Roche was to write an eye- witness account of the
eruption. The Te Aroha News writing on
James Stewart jnr
In South
America recorded:-
" Writing over to his" people, here Mr
Stewart speaks of some of the country through which his line went as being very
wild, as standing on end, and compares it to some of the rugged land on the
Rotorua survey. He mentions a frightful thunderstorm that burst over his camp
one night. The whole camp was overset,
the tents blown down, while the rain came down in torrents. The brilliant
flashing of the lightning, accompanied by the roar of the thunder, he could
liken to nothing bother than the eruption of Tarawera, which he witnessed. Bar
this, he had never seen anything like it in New Zealand. "
Te
Aroha News 15 June 1889 Page 6
The
railway line was opened to Lichfield on the 21st June, eleven days after the
destruction of the Tarawera eruption in 1886 however was not to be completed
until 1894. By then James had journeyed to South America November 1888 aboard a
steamer to Rio de Janiero.
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| Map South America https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/383298618262238545/ |
Not long after arriving he gained survey work on the Central Uruguay Railway
extensions on the construction of a railway from Paso do los Toros northward to
the Brazilian frontier.
engineering contracts -Thomas Brassey and Co.
 |
| David Angus |
Also
involved in the supervision of construction of South America Railways was
David Angus Minst., married to Mary a
sister of James Stewart jnrs.
sister-in-law, Jessie Stewart. Initially Angus was working on the Victoria and
Natividade Railway in Brazil, the on to Argentina. Afterward, Angus travelled to
Paraguay where he worked on the railway lines from Asunción to Villa Rica until
1891, when a severe economic crisis shut down his prospects in South
America.
In 1892
Stewart was placed in charge of the
construction of the Ferro Carril del Norte, a new line between Bogota and
Cipaquira in the United States of Colombia.
 |
|
Méndez, Joaquín (15 July 1906). "Ferrocarril de
Guatemala y Guerra contra El
Salvadorhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LaLocomotora_15_Jul_1906_Ferrocarril_Norte_Guate.jpeg
|
It was during 1892 - 24h May- that Stewart was
elected an Associate Member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, based in London. Following in the footsteps of Stewart and Hunter partners - his father
James Stewart ( elected 1868) and Ashley
Hunter ( elected 1883 ). New Zealand's first professional engineering body in New
Zealand - the Institute of Local Government Engineers of New Zealand, was
formed in 1912. It merged in 1914 ,with the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers ( formed 1913)
Ashley Hunter was to become president of the New Zealand Society of Civil
Engineers in 1922–23. James Stewart jnr
did not progress his engineering career further for fate intervened at the
beginning of 1893. He
had resigned the post in charge of the construction of the Ferro Carril del
Norte in September of 1892. This step to undertake the survey of the Ocana
Railway for the Railway and Works Company, Limited.
Before
the conclusion of that survey he was bitten by a snake, from the effects of
which he died, on the 26th of January, 1893, near Quebrada de la Lejia in
the República de Colombia. For railway
construction personnel of South America
in the 1800's, mountainous terrain,
thick forested areas along with dangers of snakes and insects such as malaria
causing mosquito's led to many occupational deaths.
In a
letter from James' brother John Anderson
Stewart , written to their father from London 12 May 1993, wrote:
 |
| Excerpt of letter from probate records" New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2XL-C637 : 12 November 2017), James Stewart, 1893; citing Auckland, , record number 1476, Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office; FamilySearch digital folder 100968197. |
Also in
the same letter John wrote that James was unaware that he had been elected an
Associate Engineer as did not live to see the notice.
However, at least it was recorded by the
witnesses who were with him, where the grave was. In probate documents is a
translated copy of declarations from the
witnesses present taken at La Gloria
courthouse 30 January 1893 by the then
Court Judge Roberto Hurtado. The three witnesses being Augustin Arvalaez, Pablo Vanegas and Callisto
Castilla.
For
many of those railway construction
personnel, it was often not known where they had been buried.
Probate
records show that the syndicate he worked for felt he had brilliant prospects
in Colombia and was said to be general favorite of many in Bogota. Amazing, for James first language was English
and not the Spanish of the country he travelled to and worked in. Perhaps he may have stayed in South America
or perhaps had fate not intervened he may have returned at some point to
Auckland, New Zealand. However for his sisters, including Annie, the story of
James Stewart Jnr was passed down to
other family members - a part of our past New Zealand History in railway
construction and engineering.
Footnote:
My
grandmother, Annie, was youngest sister of James Jnr.
Reference
Source:
- "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2XL-C637 : 12 November 2017), James Stewart, 1893; citing Auckland, , record number 1476, Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office; FamilySearch digital folder 100968197.
- New Zealand, Archives New...Probate Records, 1843-1998 James Stewart Probate 1893 Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Railway Worker BBAE A48
- Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Volume 117 Issue 1894, 1894, pp. 395-396 PART 3 Author unknown, OBITUARY. JAMES STEWART, 1863-1893 https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/10.1680/imotp.1894.19971 accessed 20/03/2018
- Roche, Harry, 1856-1949. Roche, Henry, 1856-1949 : Volcanic eruption at Tarawera and Rotomahana as seen from the Puna-atua-hoe Railway survey camp about two miles from Ohinemutu. Ref: qMS-1714. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23059688
- New Zealander 13 August 1863 Page 2
- New Zealander 7 August 1863 Page 4
- Auckland Star 8 April 1875 Page 2
- New Zealand Herald 8 December 1882 Page 1
- New Zealand Herald 16 March 1883 Page 1
- New Zealand Herald 25 February 1885 Page 3
- Te Aroha News 15 June 1889 Page 6
