Matthew Guinan (1850?-1923), man of enterprise

While at Andersons Bay Cemetery, looking for something else and with a little time on my hands, I was casually walking the lines of gravestones when Matthew Guinan caught my eye.  Specifically, his being a masseur from Kelso.

Kelso is a small town in South Otago - or it was until it suffered one flood too many from the nearby Pomahaka River and was abandoned after 1980.  There's not much left there now - the small dairy factory, the petrol station building with painted lines marking flood peaks, the goods shed from the local branch railway, a memorial to the town.

Matthew Guinan was born in 1853 and was a farrier at Kelso when he began to advertise his abilities as a massage therapist.

He married Miss Bessie Kitto in 1883 at Moa Flat, a nearby farming locality.  

We are making social progress in the matter of weddings. I had the pleasure of attending the celebration of Mr Matthew Guinan's marriage to Miss Bessie Kitto at Moa Flat last Friday; the Rev. Mr Law (Wesleyan minister) tied the knot. There was a large number of friends present, and everyone passed a most pleasant evening.   -Tuapeka Times, 4/7/1883.

Shortly after his marriage he was at Ettrick in Otago and begging to "inform the public that, having leased Mr Brazil's commodious Smithy, he is now prepared to execute all kinds of jobbing work in first class style at moderate rates."  He  also declared: "Horse and cattle medicines prepared."  As well as the smithy, he shared a gold claim with the Kitto family.

The Ettrick smithy seems not to have prospered and Matthew filed for bankruptcy in June, 1889.  His case was discharged in November of 1891.  The next year he was in Kelso and advertising:

MATTHEW GUINAN, 

FARRIER, KELSO.

GUINAN'S HORSE BLISTER. 

Guinan's Embrocation for Sprains, Bad Shoulders, Removing Enlargements and All Swellings incidental to Horses and Cattle. 

Guinan's Splint Ointment. 

Guinan's Lotion for Wounds, Cuts, Sore Shoulders, Girth Galls, Flushes from Saddles, etc., etc. Guinan's Complete Cure for Scour and Lungworm in Sheep. 

All ON SALE by 

C. FRASER FALCONER, KELSO. 

In 1901, Matthew had hit on a winner - maybe.  He patented "an improved dredge grubber and tumbler shaft" - one of the many inventions stimulated by the incredible profits being taken from South Island rivers by gold dredges.  He is also described at that time as a farmer so seems to have diversified from the farrier's trade.

His son, Edward, went off to the Great War in October, 1914, with the Otago Infantry Regiment and was wounded at Gallipoli the next year.  He took a shrapnel ball to the face and was discharged from the army so it must have been a bad wound.  He was discharged as unfit for service in February, 1916.

Around 1918, Matthew moved to Dunedin and practiced there.  People with otherwise incurable problems came from around the world for his massage treatment.  He died, aged 70, in 1923.  His business was carried on by A M Guinan - presumably Alfred, one of his five sons.

 A. M. G U I N A N, REGISTERED MASSEUR. 

494 GEORGE STREET, (Successor to late M. Guinan.) Treats with Success Neuritis, Sciatica, Lumbago, Rheumatism, Stiff and Painful Joints, etc., by Massage Manipulation.

-Otago Daily Times, 5/5/1928.

A M Guinan continued his father's business until his death in 1947.

From "Kismet for Kelso" by May Brownlie, 1992.