Old Lyell Cemetery, Lyell, West Coast

Date: 1870
Location: Old Lyell Cemetery, Lyell, Buller District, West Coast

Location
The Old Lyell Cemetery is located on the Upper Buller Gorge Road, Lyell, Buller District, West Coast 7895 New Zealand Coordinates: -41.79685, 172.05281. It was opened in 1870 and closed in 1900.

Old Lyell Cemtery Sign

Lyell Township
Gold was the sole reason for the existence of Lyell Township which grew in an irregular way along the base of the steep hillside. Located high up in the Lyell mountain range, Lyell town was ninety-nine miles from the city of Nelson, from Westport thirty-eight miles from Westport and twelve miles from Inangahua Junction. In early 1871 Lyell Township was very small with only two stores and bush taverns. Discoveries of quartz and a safe ferry-boat at the Lyell-Buller Junction attracted increasing numbers. By April there were about a dozen houses and more stores and hotels. Late in 1872 a visitor reported that no-one in Lyell was in a hurry. The people in houses and tents were awakened at one morning at 5.0 am by the roar of a coming storm. The wind carrying trees and branches swept away every tent in seconds. A measure of the importance of Lyell which reflected the success of mines up the creek, was the telegraph link made with Reefton 14 March 1874. Late the same year Lyell became part of the Buller District instead of Inangahua District and 5 February 1875 the Lyell was handed to Warden Giles in Westport to even out the duties of the two remaining wardens in the Nelson South West goldfield.

The Old Lyell Cemetery
There was an ongoing feud between Italian and Irish miners and at times the Lyell was a place of disrepute and attracted rogues because of the hard and risky work of gold mining there, the harsh environment, a cosmopolitan population, an antipathy toward the law and the general feeling of impermanence, did not foster respectability or the putting down of firm roots. The little town of Lyell disappeared when gold mining ceased. The graves in the Old Lyell Cemetery on a steep hillside are separated from each other by regenerated beech trees.

There are two Lyell Cemeteries. The original cemetery is a 10 minute walk up a well kept path through forest where there are between 30 and 40 people were buried from 1880 to 1900. The rugged terrain including rock and the hillside finally proved too much to dig, the old cemetery was closed for interments and the New Lyell Cemetery was established down on the flat a kilometre or so away.

Burials
Find-A- Grave has records for 11 burials in the Old Lyell Cemetery and Billllion Graves has 6 records.

Old Lyell Cemetery Graves

Illness

'William Morris of Newton Flat died from consumption 19 February 1885, leaving a widow and young family.
^[1]

Mine Accident

Timothy Davis , born in about 1831, was killed accidentally in a gold mine in Lyell 30 August 1891. age 60 years.

Italian

Giuseppe “Joseph” Butoni, born in1833 in Italy died in1880 (aged 46–47) at Lyell and was buried in the Lyell Old Cemetery, Lyell, Buller District, West Coast, New Zealand.

Pieto Bartolomeos “Peter” Gramatica was born in1837. He was the husband of Irish born Mary (Gibbins) Grammatica. He died in the Westport Hospital 9 December 1881 (44). It was said that he died from a broken heart after his daughters was accidentally drowned. Peter left his farm and dairy to his son, Frank who died in 1882. The farm was then leased to Mr John Reid.
^[2]

Irish

Accident

Mary Gibbins Gramatica was born in Ireland in1850. She married Italian Pieto Bartolomeos “Peter” Gramatica in 1867. She was implicated in the murder of Dennis Quinlivan by John Davidson which occurred in her house in 1883. Her husband had died in 1881 and had left his farm and dairy at Lyell to his son who died two years later. Mary earned a living for herself and her only surviving child, a daughter, by taking in washing. Mary was injured when a horse drawn dray ran over her and she died in the Westport Hospital from internal injuries 24 Jan 1896 (aged 46). A book has been written about Mary, "The Laundress of Lyell".
^[3]

A sign near Lyell, reflecting folklore rather that fact, states:

A small farm over the river from here supplied the townspeople with milk and vegetables. Access across the river was provided by a shallow wooden box supported by a cable. One day the farmer's two daughters were returning from school and when being pulled across the river in the box the rope broke plunging them both into the river where they both drowned...... this tragedy led to further tragedies: the father died of a broken heart, the mother was the cause of a murder in the town and she herself was killed by a horse and cart on the Lyell Bridge after she had been drinking.

However, the 'Westport Times' reported in January 1879, that 30 December 1878, Ada Gramatica (14), who was returing from school in Nelson, and a man, Giovanni Tuena (50 were crossing the Buller River on the wire rope one mile below the Lyell when the cage in the centre of the rope parted and they were plunged into the river. The bodies had not been recovered. ^[4] There was still one daughter living with Mary after her husband died.
^[5]

Pioneer Settler

Mary Elizabeth Smith, born 12 May 1847 in Gainsborough, West Lindsey District, Lincolnshire, England, wife of Alfred Smith, died 12 Jan 1878 (aged 30).

Epitaph

She has come to her rest, to her home most Divine

where in beauty she is blest so I must not repine

but Oh! as the nearest I cannot forget her

and Oh! as the dearest I long shall regret her.

Mary Elizabeth Smith.

Murder

Dennis Quinlan (Quinlivan) born in 1844 Tipperary, County Tipperary, Ireland was a United Victory mine employee who was murdered 9 Jan 1883 (aged 38–39). He was last seen alive on January 28, 1883. His body was found February 3, by a Patrick Carroll who noticed his horse kept shying away from a particular area only 100 metres from the house of a Mrs Mary Gramatica, widow, where he had been murdered.^[6] Another miner, John Davidson eventually confessed, saying he had been planning to marry Mary. Mary, who had been detained, was released. ^[7] Davidson was given a life sentence for manslaughter while Gramatica was acquitted, but not before being told off by the judge for her immoral lifestyle.

Davidson went to the Nelson Gaol on March 15, 1883 and became a cook. In July Davidson was told he was to be moved to Wellington. He didn’t want to go. On July 28 the Inspector of the prison, Robert Shallcrass, was woken by screaming. Davidson had a gun and had already stabbed warden Samuel Adams to death. He shot himself.
^{[8] [9]}

Links

• Find - A - Grave [3]
• Billion Graves [4]
• Buller District Council [5]

Sources

1. ↑ 1885 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume V, Issue 210, 21 February 1885, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 13 March 2024)
2. ↑ 1883 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Grey River Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 4533, 3 March 1883, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 14 March 2024)
3. ↑ The Laundress of Lyell [1]
4. ↑ 1879 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Westport Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1625, 3 January 1879, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 14 March 2024)
5. ↑ 1883 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Grey River Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 4533, 3 March 1883, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 14 March 2024)
6. ↑ 1883 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3313, 9 February 1883, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 13 March 2024)
7. ↑ 1883 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 3903, 20 February 1883, Page 3
   Papers Past Article (accessed 13 March 2024)
8. ↑ 1883 Newspaper: "Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand"
   Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1322, 28 July 1883, Page 2
   Papers Past Article (accessed 13 March 2024)
9. ↑ Genealogy Investigations [2]