Mr & Mrs Ford
William Florington Ford was born in 1823 in Durham, England. He was a schoolmaster. He taught initially in Salford and then later in Manchester. He married Jane Benson in 1850 and they had six children. In the 1880s the family all emigrated. William and Jane came with five of their children (Martha, Nicholson, Sara and Arthur) to New Zealand. Their other son George went to America.
The family lived in the Wairarapa and William was the second assistant master of Masterton School. He was appointed master of Wadestown School in 1885 and the family moved to Grant Road. He asked for his salary to be calculated based on attendance. When attendance increased, he sought a salary increase.
In 1892 he organised for pupils to plant trees at the school. Each child was to consider the tree their own property and a promise was made that it would be well looked after.
William resigned as head teacher in 1901. The residents of Wadestown presented him with a purse of sovereigns as a mark of their esteem. He had been a teacher for more than 60 years.
Jane died in July 1900 at the age of 74. William died on 2nd August 1905 at Wellington Hospital. He was 84 years old.
This plot provided several buckets of leaf mold to use in our gardening project.
Plot: *Ch Eng/B/86
