'The Miner'

Mary was born in Ireland and was the daughter Patrick and Bridget Ryan.  She married James Power when she was 17.  She was at Victorian gold-rushes by 1852 and it is presumed that this is where her husband died because she was in business on her account by the time she came to New Zealand.  Mary came to Otago when the Gabriels Gully rush broke out and later had the Royal Exchange Hotel in Dunedin.  As soon as the West Coast rush broke out she went to Hokitika where she built a hotel made of 'bungies' [ponga fern trunks].  Within a year she had built a much more substantial building which she named the Dunedin Hotel.  She ran this hotel until about 1874 when she sold it and moved to Wellington. 

In Wellington Mary owned the Star Hotel, the Albert Hotel and latterly Tattersall's Hotel in Cambridge Terrace, Wellington where she died in December 1886.

Mary was survived by five of her children; her eldest daughter Catherine (who married Miles Manser in Hokitika in 1866), Mary (who married Frank Bailey), William (who was in Kimberley, Western Australia in 1886) and another daughter and son.

CAN YOU ADD ANYTHING TO THIS STORY?

• We would love to hear from any descendants of Mary Power.
• Can you tell us anything else about Mary Power and her family?
• Do any photographs of Mary Power survive?

If you can answer any of these questions are have any more information that you think might be useful please contact our Researcher on curator@shantytown.co.nz or (03) 762 6634.  We'd love to hear about it!

Mary Power's Dunedin Hotel, Revell Street, Hokitika, late 1860s.  West Coast Historical Museum.