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

"We soon reached what my fellow traveller named the Horseshoe Bend and there also
another interesting reminiscence cropped up, for on a hill he pointed out a little grass
mound and a wooden slab on which was the epitaph "Somebodies darling lies buried
here." My companion could not tell me the circumstances, but the simple memorial
itself told me that a human hand had found the remains and the inscription plainly
showed the dictates of the heart of the man who probably had a "darling' lying
somewhere unknown [1889].... About a month ago [June 1897] I retraced the road my
companion and I travelled as in the foregoing ramble. Long before I came to the little
hill at Horseshoe Bend I remembered the wooden slab painted white "Somebodies
darling lies buried here", but instead of standing at the head of the little grass mound, I
saw it split in two, one part of it lying on the ground and the other propped up on an
iron standard in a fence, and that a good few yards away from the grassy mound. "
Itinerant attempted to raise some local interest in restoring the site, "As to the
Horseshoe Bend - "Somebodies darling lies buried here" - perhaps some of your
readers may be able to "show the place where he lay". I enclose you 4s in stamps
and would suggest that you receive subscriptions, handing the same over, say, to the
Rev Mr Telford, who would doubtless see to the required renovation of the resting
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place of those who have fallen asleep in unknown circumstances."

The headstone continued to deteriorate until attention to its state again became a
matter of community interest and pride. This story appears in the Tuapeka Times in
1901, "On his way down country recently, Mr A Mills, our local Stock Inspector,
noticed [the decayed state of the headstone and took the opportunity of mentioning it
to a number of persons and suggesting that something of a more permanent form
should be put up to mark the location of the grave.

A similar story appeared in the Otago Witness in 1902. This story makes it clear that it
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was not William Rigney who found or buried the body [link to original record in
Papers Past] :

“THE STORY OF THE NAMELESS GRAVE" At HORSESHOE BEND, MOLYNEUX
RIVER.

For over 30 years a simple wooden slab bearing the inscription, "Somebody's darling lies
buried here," has been the only thing to indicate the burial place of one of the many
unfortunate pioneers of the Otago goldfields, who met a violent death during the gold
rush. The remains of the man over which this quaint epitaph was placed were found in
the Molyneux River in the year 1865, not far from" the place of burial, the face was too
much disfigured for identification, and at the inquest" which was held the simple verdict
"Found drowned" was returned. The man was young, and, it seems, must have been a
stranger to the district probably some young fellow who had come out to the colony full
of bright hopes, leaving perhaps behind him at Home loving hearts who waited years for
his return, and never knew nor can ever know his fate. The miners of the locality, among
whom at the time there was immense excitement over the rich finds of gold, did not for a
moment forget that it was a duty to give the remains a decent burial, and in the most
suitable spot they could find, high above any possibility of flood, they put the poor
disfigured body in its last resting place, and marked the place with stones. Some years

60 Itinerant. Letter to the Mount Benger Mail. Mount Benger Mail. 16.7.1897
61 Otago Witness , Issue 2512, 7 May 1902, Page 73, Sourced from Papers Past; National Library of New Zealand.

© Jeff Robertson 36