Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1905, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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Mr. William Heckler , sometime of Hawksbury, runholder, was born at Hay Park, near Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, in 1830, and came to New Zealand by the ship “Rajah,” in 1853, having been very nearly wrecked off the Tasmanian coast. He settled in Hawksbury, and found employment with Mr. John Jones, in that enterprising pioneer's dairying department. Mr. Heckler was afterwards placed in charge of the same employer's celebrated property “Cherry Farm.” where he remained for six years and six months. He then bought some land for himself, and became a cattle and stock dealer. His property increased to 2000 acres in extent, and was then laid down in grass. When the Road Board was in existence, Mr. Heckler was one of its most active members. He was one of the promoters of the Palmerston and Waihemo Agricultural Society, and was for some time its president, and at the time of Governor Sir James Ferguson's visit to the Taieri show he was judge of Shorthorn cattle at that exhibition. Mr. Heckler was married in 1855, at Port Chalmers, to Miss Susan Robbins, who had come out to Tasmania in 1853, with Mr. William Randall. He had a family of seven sons and two daughters. The eldest, James Francis Heckler, J.P., resides at Mangawahoe; the second, William Martin Heckler, is a farmer, near Balclutha; the third, H. T. Heckler, joined the fourth New Zealand Contingent in the Boer war, as trooper-and rose to the rank of captain, being one of the few who gained their stripes in the field, and was recommended for the D.S.O. decoration. The remaining sons (Albert, Arthur, Percy and Sidney), live at Waikouaiti, Arthur being a member of the Hawksbury Borough Council. The eldest daughter is mistress of Naseby High School, and the youngest lives with her mother at Waikouaiti. Mr. Wm. Heckler died on the 2nd of April, 1901, aged seventy-one years, and was buried in St. John's churchyard, on Good Friday, the 6th of April. The funeral was one of the largest ever seen in the district.