![]() ![]() That he went to fetch her away, and that instead of getting the child the defendant had hit him on the nose and made it bleed, and had also hit him a second time on the brow.’’ In 1869, Graham attempted, in vain, to retrieve his daughter but a melee ensued that led to a court case in which Graham ‘‘made a rambling statement as to his being the father of a girl who was living with her grandfather at Maungatua. The marriage later floundered, and Graham’s wife and child moved to live with her father. A daughter, Catherine, was born to John and Margaret the following year. In the same year he married Margaret Marchbank, a daughter of James Marchbank, who had arrived in 1857 and farmed at West Taieri. In 1858, he won a tender from the Otago Provincial Council to carry out the same service for £150 (about $18,000) a year. In 1856, he offered to deliver the mail and newspapers to Balclutha and return once a week to those who subscribed. ![]() His long career of constantly writing to the papers, and sometimes apologising to those he had criticised, was under way. The coarse language in his next letter prevented its publication but he announced ‘‘a copy of my letter will be found at the Royal Hotel, when any who may choose to read it can do so’’. He mentioned that ‘‘half a dozen or more different parties gave several bottles of brandy, Hollands, and whisky, to the workmen, which I can assure you was gratefully received’’. John, usually called Jock, found work building a bridge, subscribed to by residents, over the Water of Leith in 1853 and was soon writing to the Otago Witness to correct their report on the project. John Graham was born in 1831 in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, and arrived in Dunedin in February 1852 on Columbus with his sisters Catherine and Mary, Mary’s husband, James Hunter, and baby Catherine. IMAGE: HOCKEN COLLECTIONSRed Coat's goldfields map was drawn up by one of Otago's greatest eccentrics, John (Jock) Graham, and remains one of the more fascinating relics of our gold-rush history, writes Jim Sullivan. Jock Graham in old age, with crutches and cats, drawn by Fred Rayner in 1893.
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