Johnson, Isaac

Isaac Johnson was born on 29 April 1906, the sixth of eight children. His father William Wilson Johnson (1868-1949) hailed from Taranaki but his mother Christina Johnson (nee McNeil) (1872-1935) immigrated to Aotearoa from Scotland and married William in Inglewood.

Isaac, or Ike as everybody called him, attended Okau Primary School, travelling to and from home on horseback. He was known for his singing voice and is said to have been a very good yodeller. 

Ike married Millicent Ivy Kendrick, known as Ivy (1910-1984) in 1931 and they had a daughter named Joy. The couple lived in Ahitītī and were very involved in the life of their small community: Joy attended Ahitītī Primary School, Ike played rugby for the local team and competed in pig shooting and wood chopping events, while Ivy did church work for the Uruti parochial district and played for the Ahititi Kiwi Basketball (netball) Club.

Ike worked as a carrier, transporting butter, cream, calves, pigs and wool around the Tongaporutu area, before enlisting in 1942 and serving as a Private in the Infantry Brigade of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He saw action in the Pacific but appears to have been most proud of managing to chop a 12” (30cm) block in just 21 seconds at an Army wood-chopping competition in New Caledonia in 1943.

A dance was held at Tongaporutu in June 1944 to celebrate the 12^th anniversary of the Ahititi-Okau-Tongaporutu branch of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union and, as Ivy had been a member since 1940, she and Ike attended the party. Ike was presented with a gift that night on behalf of the people of the district, to congratulate him on his safe return from service overseas. He was later awarded the War Medal 1939-1945 and the New Zealand Service War Medal.

Ike and Ivy moved to New Plymouth after Ike retired from the carrying business, but he continued working for another decade, in the New Plymouth Railway Goods Shed and for the City Council, doing kerbing and contracting work. Ike died of lung cancer at the age of 79 on 28 October 1985. He was cremated and has a memorial plaque in Te Hēnui Cemetery.