Family History Month 2020

The Kusabs family of Rotorua

August is known as Family History Month so this year I thought, why not select a family that had deep and wide connections in Rotorua. I'd noted the Kusab building on the corner of Arawa and Tutanakei Street, and of course the beautiful big house at the top of Fenton Street, once the Landmark Restaurant, that had connections to the Kusabs family. Then there are the street names, Kusabs, Edmund, Nairn, etc. So I began searching and looking to see what I could uncover about this family. And isn't that the way it is with even your own family research - certain things jump out at you, and then it draws you on. My apologies to the present day Kusabs family members for any mistakes and gaps, and thanks to Andrew Kusabs who filled in some of my gaps and provided interesting snippets of the family. So, let's begin our journey back in the 1800s. 

I'm starting with Henry and Emily Kusabs. Born in the 1830's, Henry Edmund Kusabs was from Eastern Prussia. Part of the German Navy, Henry traveled to China where he left the navy and sometime in 1858 came to New Zealand. Naturalised in 1863, for some years he was involved in coastal shipping. Henry settled in Ohaupo where he milked 50 cows and established sawmills where he processed local trees and sold the timber. He was involved in local body matters, business, education and the Anglican Church. 

Article supplied by Andrew Kusabs

His wife, Emily Prentice came to New Zealand with Bishop Selwyn. Whether to be governess to his children, or to teach at the school he established, I'm not sure. They met at the Cathedral, fell in love and eventually married. When she and Henry moved to Ohaupo, she taught her sons and other local children in her home. Eventually a school was built and she was appointed the head teacher.

Photo from Winds of change: a history of the European settlement of 
 Ohaupo by Valerie Millington for the Ohaupo School 125th Jubilee Committee

All the books I checked talked about the three sons they had, George Arthur, Andrew Ernest and Charles Edmund.  However, in the Historic Birth, Death and marriage records, I discovered the birth of a fourth son, born between Andrew and Charles, Michael Herbert. He died of tetanus aged 7. Then I discovered a fifth son, Frederick William, who died as a three year old.

Waikato Times 18 January 2014

Sons Andrew Ernest and Charles Edmund leased land in Mamaku where they had a saw-milling business. However, by 1901 the company had been sold with the tramway being sold in 1905. A timber yard was established in Hinemoa Street for genuine dry land timber. Henry and Emily followed their sons to Rotorua in about 1905.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, 13 November 1895, p 3
Papers Past

George Arthur, an accountant, married Phoebe Emmeline Hardwick had 3 daughters, and eventually moved to Auckland. One of his daughters, Lillian, married an American serviceman and moved to the States. When she died another daughter, Phyllis, went to the States and brought the children back to New Zealand where she raised them.

Andrew Ernest, timber merchant, married Lucy Ngamihi Dansey, daughter of Roger Delamere Dansey, who was the postmaster during the Tarawera eruption, 1886. When they married in 1898 Andrew presented Lucy with Moeranga Villa in Pukaki Street as a wedding dowry.  This building was added on to overtime, passing out of the family and eventually becoming the Regent Hotel.

Regent Hotel (original Kusabs house) north east corner Rangiuru/Pukaki streets, circa 1940,
Photographer unknown, Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa (CP-2729) 

Unfortunately Lucy died in 1906. leaving two young boys, Roger and William (Billy). Andrew later remarried, Louisa Lillian Phipps who managed the tea rooms in the Government Gardens, and they had another son, Samuel. It was Andrew who built the Kusabs building on the corner of Tutanekai and Arawa Street. Andrew also owned a launch business, the Rotorua Oil Launch Company. 

Kusabs Building on corner of Tutanekai and Arawa Streets

Photo of launch on Lake Rotorua early 1900's, supplied by Andrew Kusabs

Charles Kusabs married Cora Amelia Penn, and they had one son. After Cora died, Charles married a widow, Mrs Dorothea Nairn (where Nairn Street comes from). Charles moved into the car business. He ran tours, taking tourists around the Hot Lakes district and also owned a garage. His son Arthur was one of his drivers and eventually took over the business. Charles was also responsible for building the beautiful house at the top of Fenton Street. His love of golf drove him to be involved in the establishment of the Golf Course, where he was practicing on the day he died. 

Charles Kusabs, wife Cora and son Prentice in car outside their house, south east
corner Fenton and Meade streets, circa 1906, photographer unknown, Rotoura
Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa (CP-2729)

During 1918 Prentice Arthur trained as a pilot but he did not go overseas. He expanded the car tourism business to include buses running from Rotorua to Opotiki.  Arthur, went on to become the Mayor of Rotorua during the war years, 1942-43.

Arthur Kusabs and mates. Arthur sitting on left side of plane
Photograph supplied by Andrew Kusabs

Rotorua Borough Council, 1946, Panora Studio (Moore & Thompson), 
Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa(OP-6426)

Thank you for reading this brief blog about an early Rotorua family. I hope you'll come into the library, and visit the 2nd floor where we have a display on the Kusabs family, including a family tree which I know is incomplete. However, family stories are always growing, often waiting for another member to provide a link.  We also hope you will be able to attend some of our Family History Events during the month of August.

With thanks to Papers Past, Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa, Peggy Allen, Bryon Somervel and the Don Stafford Collection. Many thanks to Andrew and Hazel Kusabs for sharing some family stories and photographs with me. 

Written by Trish

Business in Rotorua : Timber Mills

Early Timber Mills c.1888-1915.

Book Review : Tall trees & tramways / by Bryon Somervell c2011.

Mr Somervell, local Rotorua resident until his death in 2013, wrote this book about the early mills of Mamaku, Rotoiti, Ngatira, Oropi, Te Whaiti, Urewera, Maungapohatu, Pukareao and Reporoa-Rerewhakaaitu, and the tram-ways built to transport the timber to sale yards.

Most of these mills are no longer in business, but in their heyday when native trees were plentiful, the owners employed many men in various jobs.  The earliest mill belonged to the Steele brothers who were able to purchase leases, from the government railways owners, of bush land in what is known as Mamaku, in 1888. The brothers continued in business until 1954, owning some land also in Tutanekai Street which bordered Amohia & Eruera Streets, of Rotorua where they sold the timber, built an Assembly Hall and a stately home.   Other early pioneers in this industry were the Kusabs brothers, A.W. Roe & Co., Arahiwi Timber Co., and a number of smaller mills.   The author has researched widely and in depth to bring us this fascinating look at Rotorua history and the founding industry that continues to this day.   Illustrated throughout with photographs and maps.

Steele's Assembly Hall, Tutanekai Street. Original photograph owned by Rotorua Museum

Rotorua Then & Now

Rotorua Business from Yesteryear

In Rotorua the first businesses were the Hotels and Guest Houses and of course the Comet Store on Lake Road.  From humble beginnings with some 44 Europeans and 3,294 Maori in c.1874 (Census Tables from "The Founding Years in Rotorua by Don Stafford. p.422-423.) 

Rotorua became a tourist mecca of Royalty and the Nobility which local Maori were quick to welcome. Then came the Tarawera Eruption in 1886 which slowed the tide of tourists, but only temporarily as recorded in Don Stafford's 'The Founding Years of Rotorua' ---- "Three years later, after the Tarawera Eruption, the industry was still strong enough for the Tauranga people to oppose the Cambridge-Oxford route to Rotorua... thus bypassing the Tauranga to Rotorua route" 

By 1894 when the Railway arrived in Rotorua the tourist traffic was back to normal and from here on the town grew, and grew... !

Timber mills were a very popular money making venture. The first mill's were in the centre of town! The Steele's mill was on the corner of Tutanekai and Eruera Streets and went all the way back to Amohia Street. 

Excerpt from the Cyclopedia of NZ via NZETC online : 

"STEELE BROTHERS (Duncan William Steele, George Steele, Walter Steele, and Alfred Steele), Sawmillers and Building Contractors.

This business was established in 1888. The premises, erected on Government leasehold sections, include a drying shed capable of storing 200,000 feet of timber, shop, workshop, an eight roomed residence, and a large hall—the Rotorua Assembly Hall—the largest and best outside of any large city in New Zealand".

Published by Braynart Group as part of Rotorua’s Centennial Celebrations. Photographs for the calendar were supplied by the Rotorua Museum.

Excerpt from "The Founding Years in Rotorua" by Don Stafford.

Kusabs Brothers 

Owners of the Mountain Rimu Co. Mill at Mamaku was a successful business from the late 1880s.

  

"In July 1895 the Kusabs Brothers opened a timber yard on the north side of Amohau Street, between Fenton and Hinemaru Streets... the block owned by the Kusabs Brothers at Mamaku consisted of 2000 acres of heavily timbered land, the major species being Rimu, Totara, Hinau, Tawa and Tanekaha." 

Jump forward a few years :),  here are some of the ones Library staff who were brought up in Rotorua remember. 

Photograph by Alison Leigh

Add your memories to our interactive site Kete Rotorua