John Head Genealogy Research:Information about Frederick Harvey
Frederick Harvey (b. 9 Sep 1900, d. 5 Sep 1989)
Notes for Frederick Harvey:Fred Harvey sailed from England in Dec 1923 on the "Suffolk" with his brother Frank. They landed in Wellington in 1924. He decided to visit his Uncle Joe in Opotiki before taking up a teaching post at an Art School in Dunedin. He never left Opotiki except for holidays and work. He became a signwriter, painter and decorator throughout the Bay of Plenty specialising in gold leaf lettering. Later he resumed painting pictures and his self portrait now hangs in the Opotiki. He founded the Opotiki Art Society. These notes were supplied by his daughter Marion Astley and Marion says, "My toys were paint charts, odds and ends of wallpaper and photographic tints. Such joy for a 5 year old stirring paint with a stick." He did all the road signs before the advent of the Automobile Association as well as the signs for the trees for the Hukitai Domain.
He owned two acres at "Woodlands" and ran 6 cows, 6 pigs, a horse, fowls and two dogs. Marion had a pet lamb called Barbara. Sometimes Marion's father was away painting all the week and her mother, Dorothy Grace (nee Pope), ran the house, bottling the fruit, cooking, gardening and sewing. Marion says, "Mum had the nicest singing voice I have ever heard. She had been trained in Opotiki by Prof Anderson. She played the piano and later on the harmonica. She and a friend played for the Senior Citizens and one Christmas she played on the back of a truck parading through the main street."
When Marion was eight years old her father became ill from over exposure to paint. The family were forced to move from Woodlands to Tirohanga which is now a popular beach resort. Their200 acres went up one side of the hill and down the other side. On top of the ridge were Maori dugouts full of pipi shells. The highest point on their farm was 945 ft high. The house had no electricity and Marion remembers that after dinner the bread went into the coal range oven and when that was baked, in the winter,bricks were put in the oven, later to be wrapped in towels, to serve as bed warmers.
The family moved to 51 Church Street Opotiki in Dec 1959.
More About Frederick Harvey and Dorothy (Dot) Grace Pope:
Marriage: 30 Sep 1931
Children of Frederick Harvey and Dorothy (Dot) Grace Pope are: