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One Man’s Goldfield: the story of the Horseshoe Bend Diggings, William Rigney and Somebody’s Darling

Times, and that an inquest was held in respect of the body found at Horseshoe Bend
suggests that such events did not pass without official notice, even in those times.

The lack of a clear identification due to the state of decomposition resulted in a
conclusion of person, name unknown. It is unfortunate that the last two pages of the
original inquest report, which would have listed the names of the jury, have become
detached from the bulk of the report and are lost.

No death certificate was issued for Alms. It was the practice of the time to only issue
a death certificate where a body had been identified without doubt. This was no doubt
a very practical procedure in a country with a sparse and highly mobile population.

The details of this inquest match with Rigney’s own statements regarding where and
when the body now referred to as “somebody’s darling” was found.

It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that “Somebody’s Darling” is the person
referred to in the Inquest, and that that person was Charles Alms, Butcher, of Mutton
Town near Alexandra.

The grave and headstone

The residents of Horseshoe Bend would presumably have wasted no time to bury the
body after the inquest, considering that Alms had been dead for over six weeks.
There is no evidence in the inquest report that Alms had any relations in New Zealand,
and this is supported by the absence of any Alms' from the trade and post office
directories of the time. It is likely that the burial site was chosen for having a
reasonable depth of soil, being away from the settled areas, and being in an area
which was unlikely to be mined. There is no record of the burial itself or who was
responsible for this.

Link to site of Lonely graves in Google maps

Mr Parry, in whose hotel the inquest was conducted, continued to live at Horseshoe
Bend for some time after Rigney's arrival. Rigney's knowledge of where the body was
found indicates suggests that he had discussed the grave with people who had been
at the Bend when the body was found.

Rigney records that "there was nothing done to mark the grave until a man named
James Ord [Orr] who, I think, died long since on the Coast, and myself put a fence of
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rough manuka poles around it." [link to original record in Papers Past] Orr did not
die on the Coast as Rigney believed. He taught at the Teviot School in 1870, and
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outlived Rigney, to attend the School's 60th Jubilee in 1928.

The famous headstone was erected by Rigney in 1865. He recorded this as follows:
"Just then [after the fence was erected] I had to go to Tapanui for mining timbers and I
got a board of black pine. This I shaped something like a headstone, painted it white
and with a tomahawk and a four inch nail I cut, or rather sunk into the timber the
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words: Somebody's Darling Lies Buried Here."

56 Rigney, W. Letter to the Tuapeka Times. Tuapeka Times. 19.1.1901, Sourced from Papers Past; National Library of New Zealand
57 Webster, A.H.H "Teviot Tapestry. A History of the Roxburgh- Millers Flat District" Otago Centennial Publications. 1948
58 Rigney, W. Letter to the Tuapeka Times. Tuapeka Times. 19.1.1901, Sourced from Papers Past; National Library of New Zealand

© Jeff Robertson 34