Sarah Jane Woods : Short Biography

Sarah, of Scottish-Irish stock, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland in 1860. Her parents Jane (nee Gordon) and James Woods had met in Ireland when Jane accompanied her father, a Scottish wool trader, on a business trip. It was here she met James. They married and had three children, two boys and a girl. Tragedy struck the family when an epidemic (possibly Tyhpoid) took the life of her father. After her mother died in October 1874, Irish relatives decided for Sarah Woods to be sent to an Aunt in New Zealand. After arrangements were made, Sarah was put on the ship Eastern Monarch, arriving in Lyttleton, New Zealand on the 22nd July 1874. A most traumatic experience for this young girl who had lost her parents by death, parted from her brothers and the land she knew, as well as being rejected by her maternal grandparents. Compounding all this, at journey's end, she was to discover that there was no one waiting to meet her. 

Sarah was befriended and was taken to live with a minister of religion, Mr Entrician, his wife and family. She lived with this loving, caring family until she met her future husband, Robert Henry Stretch.

She met Robert Stretch and married in 1878 at the Waiau Registry Office, Canterbury. They had 14 children together and lived in the Kaikoura, Marlborough district. While they lived in the Canterbury district, Robert worked as a farmer. In 1905 they moved to Te Haroto, Hawkes Bay where Robert was a Station Hand on a farm and in 1911 they moved to Kairanga, Rangitkei, Manawatu , worked as a farmer. Onto Masterton in 1914 and between this year and 1928 they were farming in Te Kuiti, Waikato, until Robert died in 1919 and is buried in the Hamilton Cemetery.  During these years Sarah went to live with her son Arthur Albert Stretch who was also faming in Te Kuiti. Sadly Arthur died of Turburculosis on the 21 Mary 1946, age 65 and Sarah died on the 30 July 1946, age 86. She is buried with her hsuband Robert.