Thomas Jenkins was born in 1879 near Bristol and emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1891.
They settled at Green Island and, on a fine January day in 1895, Thomas and his brother Arthur went to explore the waterfalls up Leith Valley. They walked up to the first waterfall on Nicols Creek and climbed up the cliff to the side of the falls. Nearly at the top, Thomas slipped and fell. Arthur tried to grab his leg as he fell past but could keep hold. Thomas dropped 30 feet, striking the rocks as he did and coming to rest, head down, in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
Arthur rushed down to his brother and saw that he was badly injured. Leaving two other tourists to look after Thomas, he ran up the path to the nearest house - the Finnerty's place perched on the hillside close to the falls. Elizabeth Finnerty helped him make a stretcher to carry Thomas - still breathing but unconscious and badly battered - down the track to Leith Valley Road. Thomas was dead when they got there. Death was due to fracture of the skull and associated damage to the brain.
The Jenkins grave in the Green Island Cemetery has no headstone. Perhaps that is because Thomas' father James was a bootmaker and didn't have the money. I could put up a photo of the grass over the graves - instead, here's a link to photos of all the local waterfalls that I know of. There are a few.
how sad... sadder no headstone, I found a grave at Greytown, and ordered and paid for a small marker for his grave, he was James Cox, he kept a Diary, well worth reading his diary as well..he came from England to explore NEW ZEALAND found work around Carterton and Greytown, towards end of his life he lived at Carter Home, home for old men in Moreton Road.. Carterton.. Miles Fairburn wrote a book about him..
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