Update: Ole Jensen 10yo alone in NZ 1872 - Became William Hastie
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In reply to:
Ole Jensen 10yo alone in NZ 1872 -What happened to him?
Bjarne Bender Mortensen 8/03/07
Børre Jensen was born 1830 he became carpenter in Kristiansand in south Norway. After his wife, Andrea Tomine Olsdatter, born 1828, died he decided to immigrate to New Zealand. He had four daughters and a son; Ole Jonas Børresen, or Ole Jensen as he was later was called in the "Palmerston" passengers list. He lived three daughters in Oslo or Kristiansand and brought only his 10 year old son. Father and son went to Hamburg in Germany to go on board the ship "Palmerston" on July 28 1872 for the long and dangerous voyage to New Zealand.
After one month on sea on August 25 1872, rumour was circulating among the passengers that Børre Jensen had been stealing a bottle of poison from another passenger and used it to poison himself to death. But that was not true; the rumour was stared by the crew to hide the real circumstances that cost him his life. One of the stewards on board was doing the weekly fumigation of the passenger’s quarters on the lower deck. All passengers were ordered to leave there quarters and go to the main deck for the time of fumigation. The Stewards was responsible to be assure that everybody had left the lower deck before he started the steaming or rather smoking and even assure that all hatches and ventilators was closed to keep the fumes inside the lower deck. The steward brought down some buckets of “Stockholm tar” (a wood preservative) and placed them on a creating and lighted the contents to boil for about an hour. But the steward had overlooked to control the beds in the passenger’s quarters to make certain that all the people were out, and this time they were not, Børre Jensen was still in his bed sleeping. Afterwards when the people went back to there quarters, he was discovered dead in his bed, with no doubt a matter of suffocation from the poison gas.
Some ugly rumour soon passes amongst the passengers relating to the death of the poor Børre Jensen, which gave the German captain Peter Kölln some concerns; he didn’t want to have an investigation of the circumstances of the death, when the ship arrived to New Zealand. He understood that an investigation would be a very serious matter for both him and the steward. Therefore he told the passengers that it was his intention to adopt Børre Jensen’s son Ole and bring him up himself as he had no children. That promise gave satisfaction to ad least some of the passengers, not knowing the devious side of the captain’s promise. The Captain didn’t keep his promise. When the ship arriving at Port Chalmers, New Zealand December 6 1872. Ole Jensen was kept on board the ship until the last day before departure, then he was given the name William Hastie instead of his own and was told that he had to travel along with some person’s to the Oamaru district. The man who adopted him was the preacher Hastie, who lived about 15 miles from Dunedin in Hampden. Some of the passenger’s believed Ole Jensen’s name was changed so he could not be traced. But the Hastie-family of Scottish heritage took him in as a son.
Apparently some articles appeared in a Dunedin newspaper during the late 1800's about William's Norwegian sisters who was trying to trace their brother. William travel back to Norway as an adult after that he travelled on to Minnesota and Iowa where he studied at Drake University; it was a private university affiliaed with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and located in the city of Des Moines, Iowa. William returned to New Zealand in the early 1900 and preached there for 15 to 20 years, when he 1902 became a minister back in his adopted family's church the Christian Church in Dunedin. William was member of the Dunedin City Council 1916 and he married Aletha Andrus daughter of Richard and Phebe Reynolds Andrus, Richard was the son of Philo Andrus.
Ole Jensen/William Hastie´s Norwegian siblings was:
Ottilie Andrea Børresd born in Kristiansand abt.1856. (abt. 16yo 1872)
Ane Ingertha Børresd born in Kristiansand abt.1858. (abt. 14yo 1872)
Jensine Karoline Børresd born in Kristiansand abt. 1861 – Must be Ole Jonas Børresen Jensen´s twin sister.
Børrea Børresd born in Kristiansand abt.1864. (abt. 7yo 1872)
Maybe one of the sisters has died before 1872 as Christen Christensen mention 3 children in Norway.
I have no further information about his daughters in Norway.
//Bjarne
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Re: Update: Ole Jensen 10yo alone in NZ 1872 - Became William Hastie
Ronald Andreassend 10/13/11