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

Laidlaw, John

Laidlaw, John , Farmer, “March-mont,” Woodlands. Mr Laidlaw was born in 1833, in the parish of East Kilbryde, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he was brought up as a carpenter and builder. He arrived at Port Chalmers by the ship “Bruce,” in 1860, and carried his kit of tools to Balclutha, then known as the Molyneux, whence he proceeded to Southland. Mr Laidlaw settled in Invercargill, where he worked at his trade as a builder for ten years, and in 1870, removed to Woodlands, where he was employed in building the meat preserving works, a church, school, hotel, and other buildings. He then rented, at £60 per annum, sixty-five acres of land, on which he erected his homestead, and of which he subsequently bought the freehold. He afterwards purchased an additional 235 acres, and this part of his property has latterly been farmed by one of his sons and a daughter. In the early days, Mr Laidlaw served on the Woodlands school committee. He was for some time connected with the Long Bush sawmill, the first mill worked in the district, and subsequently had an interest in a mill at Seaward Bush. He was married, on the 31st of December, 1858, to a daughter of the late Mr James Strang, of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and has three sons and four daughters.