Wilson Street (Hāwera)

Wilson Street in Hāwera was named after an entrepreneurial businessman from Hāwera’s early years.

John Edward Wilson was born in Liverpool in 1859. He was educated in Birmingham and then trained in the upholstery trade. In 1879 he travelled to New Zealand arriving in Lyttleton and then moved to the newly established town of Hāwera where he bought a local cabinet making business on High Street, The People’s Furniture Warehouse.

Not long after he took over the business, regular advertisements appear in local papers advertising the company’s services, which included bespoke furniture, upholstery and the importing of a vast array of items, from lino to oilcloth to pianos. From the 1890s onwards it seems he diversified further into the undertaking business, both facilitating funerals and providing coffins and other “undertaker’s requisites” like tombstones and railings.

In 1896 he created beautiful pieces of furniture for the new courthouse that was being built to replace the old one that burned down in the “Great Fire’ of 1895. This courthouse still stands today.

His standing in the community must have been enough by 1881 for the new street of Wilson Street (which had previously been known as Bamford’s Paddock) to be named after him. While it was formed in 1881, complaints about the state of the road and the amount of mud on the corner of Wilson and High Streets continued for years afterwards.

John married Susan Martha Clarke in 1885 in Hāwera and had three daughters and a son. Tragedy struck in 1894 when his young wife died leaving him with four very young children. However, he remained very connected to his community, being a member of the Hāwera Fire Brigade, the Chamber of Commerce, the Forrester’s Lodge the Caledonian Society and the Hāwera Volunteer Corps.

When he died is unclear, although his business was sold in 1909 to another upholsterer from Whanganui. Some of John Wilson’s four children remained in the district, including his son of the same name, who became farmer in the Manaia area.